Reliance plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore in Gujarat
Ahmedabad: Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said the Reliance group will invest between Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore over the next three years in Gujarat. The group is also planning to bring gas from the East Coast to generate cheap power in Gujarat. He said: "We began from Gujarat, learnt from here and keep coming back again and again. The investments in Gujarat began in the Naroda textile plant, later moved to Hazira and then to Jamnagar. Till date, the Reliance group might have invested in excess of Rs 50,000 crore in the state and fresh investments to the tune of Rs 8,000-10,000 crore is being planned over the next three years in Gujarat. Reliance will also be bringing gas from Godavari to Karnavati."

Ambani said he was overcome with mixed feelings as his father, the late Dhirubhai Ambani, would have loved to be present at such a grand occasion in his state of origin. "Reliance is a Gujarat company, and Indian company and also a global company. This was how Dhirubhai had conceived it and it was how Reliance was growing."
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Zodiac to allot 38,313 shares to Mayfair
Mumbai: Zodiac Clothing Company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the company's board of directors has approved the allotment of 38,313 equity shares of Rs 10 each on 27 September 2003 to the shareholders of Mayfair Ltd.

This is in accordance with the Scheme of Amalgamation sanctioned by the Bombay High Court through its 26 June order.
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Ma Foi starts operations in Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam: Ma Foi Managements Consultants, a major HR services provider in India, has started operations in Visakhapatnam. K Pandia Rajan, managing director, said major IT, pharma and auto majors are eyeing Vizag as a preferred destination and Ma Foi will play its role in providing them with HR support. "Vizag has got a quality talent pool, good educational institutions and the right kind of political atmosphere."

Rajan said the company, launched in Chennai during 1992, has made rapid strides and it has offices at 21 locations in the country and three overseas subsidiaries in London, Dubai and Singapore. Last year, it had posted a revenue of Rs 48.40 crore. The Vizag office will be headed by Mahesh Sundaresan. It was inaugurated by Malcolm Wagget of HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Pvt Ltd.
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Vizag steel plant employees to get ex gratia
Visakhapatnam: The steel plant authorities in Visakhapatnam have agreed to pay Rs 5,000 ex gratia to all employees before Dussera this year apart from performance-based incentives in future. This was disclosed by M Rajasekhar, general secretary, Visakha Steel Employees' Congress, the recognised union affiliated to the INTUC. He said agreements have been signed between the management and the workers' union for the purpose.

He said the union will strive to secure for the workers the wage arrears as early as possible and to fulfil the other promises made in the manifesto. Rajasekhar said the workers have stretched themselves to the limit to turn the plant around, which at one point of time was on the verge of being referred to the BIFR, and therefore they should be duly rewarded.
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Petronet to sell LNG from January
New Delhi: Petronet LNG will sell LNG from January next at a consumer price of around $3.6 per million British thermal units (mBtu). The price is at par with that charged by private sector natural gas producers in India, especially in Gujarat. The price is linked to a fixed crude price of $20 per barrel and is subject to review after a minimum stipulated period, industry sources were quoted as saying.

The price formula was finalised on 25 September, when options were put forth to the Petronet board by RasGas of Qatar, the gas supplier. Consumers have signed a contract with PLL to purchase the gas. GAIL will sell 60 per cent of the 5-million-tonne LNG, with IOC selling 30 per cent and BPCL taking the remaining 10 per cent. The first LNG project in the country, Petronet was conceived around six years ago.
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Reliance Energy proposes tariff hike of 5.8%
Mumbai: Reliance Energy, has proposed a tariff hike of 5.8 per cent to Rs 4.17 per unit from Rs 3.94 per unit, a one-time surcharge of 42 paise for the next 12 months and a per unit additional charge of 59 paise. This is expected to meet the shortfall in its annual revenue requirement (ARR) of Rs 145 crore for 2003-04.

REL, in its ARR plea filed before the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), ahead of TPC filing its ARR for 2003-04 by 1 October, has made these proposals. REL has said that it will not resort to tariff increase if TPC reduces its bulk supply tariff (BST), which has increased to Rs 3.37 per unit (excluding standby charges) in 2002-03 from Rs 2.40 per unit in 1999-00, reports said.
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Mahindra Sona to grow by acquisition route: Mahindra
New Delhi: Mahindra & Mahindra and the Sona group are eyeing acquisitions to grow the business of their Rs 70-crore joint venture company, Mahindra Sona Ltd (MSL). Another option being considered by the promoters is a merger of the company into M&M's automotive components business. The target is to make MSL a Rs 200-crore company at the end of the acquisition process.

"The rationale behind these plans is an initial public offering at the end of the merger or absorption process," M&M vice chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra told a financial daily. Sona group chairman and managing director Surinder Kapur said: "We have been examining a lot of options and are eyeing acquisitions within the country. Our end aim is to list the company — it is now profitable and has grown more than three times over since it was started."
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