HLL's ice cream division achieves a turnaround
New Delhi: Kwality Wall's, the ice cream division of Hindustan Lever (HLL), has turned around in January-June, 2003 by recording a profit of Rs 9.74 crore compared with a loss of Rs 2.86 crore in the first six months of 2002. The company had registered a loss of about Rs 9 crore in the first six months of 2001 as well.

"The turnaround has been made possible by rationalisation of portfolio, identification of power brands and focusing on the top six metros in the country," J H Mehta, executive director (ice creams), told newspersons. He added that the ice cream division contributed 2 per cent to HLL's topline in this period.

The company had restructured its ice cream business over the last two years. From about 40 manufacturing units in 1995, the company has only six manufacturing facilities for ice-creams today. Also, new products are being launched to plug all the price points to attract maximum customers.
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Electrolux not to exit Eureka Forbes
Mumbai: Construction baron Pallonji Mistry has called off his bid to take complete control of consumer appliances company Eureka Forbes, a subsidiary of engineering and textiles company Forbes Gokak. This follows Swedish white goods giant AB Electrolux deciding to remain invested in the company.

Electrolux holds a 40 per cent stake in the joint venture, Eureka Forbes.

Mistry came to control Forbes Gokak when the Tatas decided to sell the company in 2001 as part of the group's recasting plan. In the process, he inherited various diversified subsidiaries — from a shipping agency to textiles, from engineering to consumer appliances — that were controlled by Forbes Gokak.

Globally, Electrolux has exited the direct marketing business. The Indian business was not part of the worldwide deal because, under the shareholders' agreement, Forbes Gokak had the first right of refusal if Electrolux planned to sell its stake.

Last year, the board of Forbes Gokak approved the acquisition of Electrolux's stake in Eureka Forbes for Rs 31.77 crore. The Swedish giant had shown a positive response to the proposal. However, the matter made no headway because of the issue of the transfer of brand rights.

Eureka Forbes, which is a market leader in water purifiers and vacuum cleaners. Electrolux also owns the brands used by the company, namely, Aquaguard, EuroClean and EuroAir.
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Thomson to buy out partner from arm
New Delhi: Consumer electronics major Thomson is buying out its Indian partner Obul Reddy from its manufacturing arm Thomson Multimedia India Pvt Ltd, which manufactures colour televisions as well as audio systems.

Reddy has a 10.89 per cent stake in the Indian company through Obul Reddy Investments Pvt Ltd.

Company sources said that Thomson's holding was being raised through a preferential allotment only because the company required funds, but the local partner had decided not to pump in fresh equity.

Reddy, originally the promoter of local company Dyanora, had entered into a 51:49 joint venture with Thomson in 1995, with Thomson holding a majority stake. However, his shareholding has been gradually falling over the years.
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HPCL opens data rooms for bidders
Mumbai: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), the refining and marketing oil major on the government's privatisation list, has thrown open its data rooms in Mumbai and Delhi from 28 August 2003.

The corporation has informed Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that the due diligence exercise of visits to the data room by the bidders, in relation to the proposed disinvestment of HPCL shares by government of India has commenced from 28 August 2003.

As per the due diligence schedule, each bidder will be given 12 days for the process after which price bids would be called for.

The government currently holds 51.01 per cent equity capital of HPCL and intends to disinvest a 34.01 per cent shareholding in the corporation with management control and five per cent to employees. Post-disinvestment, government holding will come down to 12 per cent.

Several domestic as well as international oil majors have evinced interest in the privatisation of this corporation. These include Reliance Industries, British Petroleum, Kuwait Petroleum, Petronas of Malaysia, the Shell-Saudi Aramco combine and Essar Oil.
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ONGC's retail rollout slows down
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)'s petro-product retail rollout is likely to slow down due to difficulties in procuring land, limited licences as well as delays in environment-related and other regulatory clearances.

Company sources said that clearances for setting up pumps, in certain cases, have been found to take as many as three years. Hence, it is unlikely that the rollout will be a smooth affair. More importantly, the oil and gas major has a limited licence. It can set up only 600 retail outlets in the four southern states, as well as in Maharastra and Gujarat, but will find it difficult to break into the high-traffic urban locales and north India.

As ONGC was not allowed to bid for Hindustan Petroleum (HP), it lost an opportunity of taking control of HP's existing city-based retail outlets.

The company now plans to focus on the highway segment, especially throughout the Golden Quadrilateral.
But this too will take a little more time than expected since the construction of the Golden Quadrilateral project, whose traffic the corporation wants to tap, is still underway. The project may take another two-three years to complete.
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Reliance offers cheaper global SMS
Mumbai: Reliance Infocomm has launched an international short messaging service (SMS) at 40 per cent lower than that offered by GSM operators.

Reliance's wireless in local loop (WLL) limited mobility subscribers and fixed wireless subscribers can send, receive and forward simple text messages for Rs 2 per message to all networks in the US and Canada. GSM operators currently charge Rs 5 per international SMS.

This service will be available in addition to the currently available SMS facility for local destinations on Reliance IndiaMobile and Reliance subscribers are not required to register separately for the international SMS. Even its WLL (M) subscriber can also avail of this service without registering for an ISD connection.

Ever since its inception SMS has shown exponential growth. In Mumbai alone, everyday about 10 lakh SMS are sent and received.

According to statistics, 80 per cent of the SMS are generated and terminated in the intra-city network, 15-17 per cent are send nationally and 2-3 per cent are international SMS.
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