Elgi, US firm in tie-up for air-compressors
Coimbatore: Elgi Equipments Ltd (EEL), an air-compressor major based here, has entered into a alliance with a US-based Fortune 500 company for supplying air-compressors. The deal is expected to bring Rs 15 crore annually to the Coimbatore company. EEL is also negotiating with another US manufacturer, which is looking for outsourcing opportunities in India to supply compressors.

While EEL is not thinking of offering any equity stake to foreign companies, it is open to the idea of buying units both within and outside India, says Dr Jairam Varadaraj, managing director, EEL. He said export markets have been one of the thrust areas of his company and it was after considerable search world over, including in Italy and China, that the US-based company had zeroed in on EEL.
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TVS Motor's new plant for three-, four-wheelers
Mysore: TVS Motor Company says it has plans to set up a new Rs 500-crore plant in Nanjangud near Mysore to manufacture three-wheeler autorickshaws and four-wheeler utility vehicles. TVS Motor Company managing director Venu Srinivasan says the company plans to set up the new plant within 18 months. "We have already received clearance for setting up the plant." The company will acquire around 500 acres for setting up the plant.

Srinivasan says the company expects to achieve a turnover of around Rs 2,000 crore from the new plant in Nanjangud. "Around 6,000 jobs will be created directly and indirectly with the setting up of this plant. The company expects to invest Rs 500 crore towards this project in four phases. Around Rs 140 crore more will be invested in the second phase of its existing plant in Nanjangud." It already has invested around Rs 150 crore in second phase of the existing plant.
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Singareni employees offered 10% of profit
Hyderabad: Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), which has recorded its highest ever profit of Rs 417 crore for 2002-03, plans to to reward its employees with 10 per cent of the profits. During the year, SCCL managed to extricate itself from ending up as a BIFR case. It achieved its highest coal production and profitability, with output touching 33.24 million tonnes.

Profit-sharing with workers based on performance continues to be an important part of SCCL's corporate philosophy. The company has announced that 10 per cent of the profit will be paid as a special incentive to workers over and above all other normal benefits and incentives. The Singareni management has also agreed to provide a special incentive of Rs 45.87 crore this year. In 1999-00, the company provided an incentive of Rs 30.75 crore to the employees, which was followed by Rs 8.60 crore in 2000-01 and Rs 29.09 crore in 2001-02.
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Matrix Labs to focus on generic drugs
Hyderabad: Matrix Laboratories Ltd (MLL), the Rs 417-crore active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) leader based here, which emerged stronger out of merger of Ranbaxy-owned Vorin Labs and the Chennai-based Shriram group promoted Medicorp Technologies with itself, has decided not to piggy back ride on the success recorded by its anti-depressant molecule, Citalopram, during the last fiscal. The company plans to focus on the manufacture of non-infringing generic APIs for the international market and thereby dilute the risk of over dependency on single product success.

The success of Citalopram enabled the company to strengthen its skills in non-infringing and patentable processes in more therapeutic segments. Citalopram, which currently has an international demand growth of 30 per cent per year, has contributed an income of Rs 207.75 crore, working out to around 50 per cent of the turnover of Matrix during last fiscal.
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Samsung grant to two NGOs for social schemes
New Delhi: Korean consumer durables and electronics major Samsung has announced a grant of $6,00,000 to 15 organisations in eight countries from the Asia-Pacific region, including two NGOs from India. The amount will be used for educating underprivileged youth and bridging the digital divide between the rich and the poor.

The Indian organisations selected for this award are the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) and Development Alternatives, which will together receive $1,30,000 of the total corpus for developmental activities. Development Alternatives, a Delhi-based NGO, will utilise this money to launch the 'Hope Incubator Project', which in turn will create and implement a fund designed to help young, first-time entrepreneurs successfully run their own businesses, called `TARAkendra'.
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Kalyani Steels board approves merger with KFIL
Mumbai: The board of directors of Kalyani Steels Ltd (KSL) has approved the merger of Kalyani Ferrous Industries Ltd (KFIL) with KSL. The amalgamation entails issue and allotment of two fully-paid equity shares of Rs 10 each of KSL for every nine fully-paid equity shares of Rs 10 each of KFIL, to the shareholders of KFIL. This is subject to required approvals being obtained.

Says C G Patankar, executive director, KSL: "KSL will achieve a complete chain of vertical integration as the hot metal produced by KFIL is the basic input for manufacturing carbon and alloy steel, which contributes roughly 60-70 per cent of the manufacturing cost of KSL products. The merged company will benefit from synergies, economies and consolidation of management." The merger will help KSL generate power in its captive plant by utilising the hot gases of KFIL's blast furnaces. KSL is setting up a 7.5 MW captive power plant for which necessary approvals have been obtained.
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AV Birla group divests Indo-Gulf stake to single entity
Mumbai: The AV Birla group's equity stake in Indo-Gulf Fertilizers Ltd (IGFL), held separately through three of its manufacturing companies, has been divested to a single entity. TGS Investments & Trade Pvt Ltd, which bought 29.72 per cent equity holding via open market operations, is an AV Birla company and the move is to consolidate equity holding, the Group's spokesperson said.

On 24 June, TGS Investments had informed that it was making a voluntary offer to IGFL's shareholders for acquiring up to 90,18,561 equity shares, representing 20 per cent of the company's voting share capital at a price of Rs 75 per share. That statement mentioned Hindalco Industries Ltd, Indian Rayon & Industries Ltd and Grasim Industries Ltd as " persons acting in concert". The offer, which opened on 31 July 2003, closes on 29 August.
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BPL group plans components business merger
Bangalore: The BPL group has decided to merge its components businesses and induct a strategic partner for scaling up operations. This is part of the group's strategy to drive growth through integrating backwards in consumer durables manufacturing. With this, BPL expects to generate Rs 1,500 crore from components business in the next three years. In 2001-02, it contributed about Rs 815 crore to the group's turnover.

The move should see the group consolidating the operations of as many as five entities, which include both listed and privately held companies. They include BPL Engineering Ltd, BPL Display Devices Ltd, Electronics Research Ltd, automation division and the printed circuit board division, which are part of the flagship company, BPL Ltd. The consolidation exercise might happen in phases and could involve a court process in the wake of a merger between listed and closely held companies. Ajit Nambiar, chairman and managing director of BPL Ltd, said the move would harness significant investments made into manufacturing over the years.
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Flakt gets Rs 17-crore order from Delhi Metro
Kolkata: Flakt India has got a Rs 17.6-crore order for the tunnel ventilation system of the underground metro corridor of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The job includes design, supply and commissioning of the tunnel ventilation fans, track exhaust fans for the underground stations at Delhi Main, Chawri Bazar, New Delhi, Connaught Place, Patel Chowk and the Central Secretariat. Flakt India, now part of the Flakt Woods group of England, recently entered into an agreement with Zenith Engineering and Trading Sdn Bhd of Malaysia and Samho Gunyong Co Ltd of South Korea.

In getting this order, company sources saw a link between the restoration of the Flakt brand and divestment of the industrial brand business (of Flakt India Ltd) by ABB. Flakt India had lost its legal entity after its merger with ABB in the late eighties. ABB sold Flakt to Global Air Movement SARL. This company bought over the Woods group in England after which Flakt India came to be known as Flakt Woods group.
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BPCL to venture into city gas sales
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is planning to enter the city gas sales business through ventures similar to Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL), its joint venture with Gail India and the Delhi Government. Sarthak Behuria, chairman and managing director, BPCL, said the company plans to enter retail sales of gas in other Indian cities. "We want to be in the full (natural gas) supply chain. IGL-like ventures will be our vehicle for expansion in other cities."

About the company's bid for buying stake in the soon-to-be-divested Sri Lankan oil company Ceylon Petroleum, S Radhakrishnan, director (marketing), said the process is expected to be completed by the end of this financial year. BPCL plans to extend its product reach to the northern markets by extending its Mumbai-Manmad-Indore pipeline up to Delhi. The laying of the 14-inch, 358-km Manmad-Indore stretch will be completed by April 2004 and is expected to cost Rs 336.07 crore. The company also plans to increase the capacity of the 2.5 million tonne pipeline by another million tonnes, he said.
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