Maruti to deal in pre-owned cars from other firms
Thiruvananthapuram: Indian automobile major Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) plans to deal in 'pre-owned' cars from other manufacturers at its True Value outlets, a business newspaper has reported. MUL may start buying other makes of second-hand cars from next month. G C Dwivedi, general manager (new business), MUL, said the company might launch this service on 1 September. "We are actually running a pilot of this project in Bangalore at the moment."

While the company will buy cars produced by other car manufacturers, it will not sell them under the True Value label, he said. "This will not be possible as there are several technical problems including those related to the availability of spare parts. Instead, the company will auction these cars. This is the practice we follow for all our own 'pre-owned' vehicles that are too old to be sold at the True Value outlets."
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HFCL on revamp route to boost efficiency
New Delhi: Himachal Futuristic Communications, in a letter to the Bombay Stock Exchange, has said that it will get into a business restructuring exercise for improving efficiency at all levels of the organisation. It will thus enable it to make optimum use of resources and refocus its attention on business segments or its core competence like equipment manufacturing, turnkey services and R&D.

This exercise will essentially include financial restructuring aimed at bringing its overall capital employed in line with core operating business of the company so that the growth achieved in its core operating business is clearly reflected in various return ratios and ultimately results in enhancement of shareholders' value.
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British Gas seeks to retain 50% stake in JV subsidiary
Mumbai: British Gas Plc (BG) wants to retain its 50-per cent holding in its Indian joint venture gas distribution subsidiary, Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL). The other JV partners are Gas Authority of India Ltd and the Maharashtra government.

BG was earlier planning to bring down its holding in MGL to 35 per cent by the end of this year through a public issue. But now the company has informed the Foreign Investment Promotion Board that it wants to retain its holding till December 2005.
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IOC, Tata Motors join hands
Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation and Tata Motors have signed a memorandum of cooperation for setting up joint marketing services. The tie-up will allow Tata Motors to set up service stations for its commercial vehicles (Tata Authorised Service Stations) in select IOC outlets.

Auto spare parts of Tata Motors will be sold at IOC outlets. IOC in turn will be able to set up its retail outlets at select Tata Motor dealerships. Tata Motors will also participate in Indian Oil's Fleet Card programme.
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BPCL mulls Rs 1,500-crore investment for exploration
Mumbai: BPCL is planning to invest about Rs 1,500 crore in exploration and production of oil and gas over the next five years. The company also plans to enter the natural gas business, according to Sarthak Behuria, chairman and managing director.

He says BPCL is interested in participating in exploration and buying stakes in developing and producing oil fields for ensuring reasonable supply security. Post-deregulation, the company has aggressive growth plans in the retail sector.
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Voltas eyes 20% growth
Mumbai: Voltas foresees a 20-per cent growth this fiscal in the domestic market for air-conditioners. Voltas, a Tata group company was once a market leader in air-conditioners. "We are battling in unitary products. But that is the face of Voltas. The company is known for room air-conditioners and if we crumble, the multinationals will be all over us," Ishaat Hussain, chairman, said.
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Royal Dutch/Shell to enter chemicals business
Mumbai: Royal Dutch/Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil and petrochemicals major, is planning to get into the chemicals business in India. The company will construct a bitumen plant, and has applied to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to set up a wholly owned subsidiary.

Vikram Singh Mehta, the chairman of the Shell group of companies in India, said: "Shell has applied for a FIPB approval to set up bitumen company. We will be investing several million dollars to produce specialised bitumen for the Indian market which is huge."
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FWT services form Reliance
Ahmedabad: Reliance Infocomm is planning to launch fixed wireless phone (FWP) services next week. It had launched its fixed wireless terminal (FWT) services in 10 cities last month. Though company officials did not divulge the subscriber base for FWT, industry sources were quoted as saying that the response has been above expectation of the company because of cheap Internet services being offered through this service in all ten circles. A new subscriber has to wait for at least three days before getting an FWT connection here.
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