Vedanta of Sterlite group to be listed on London bourse
Mumbai: The Vedanta Resources, owned by the Agarwal Group of Sterlite Industries, on Thursday announced its plans to raise $700 million through an initial public offer and to list on the London Stock Exchange. The offer is to part finance the group's $2-billion investment programme in the aluminium, copper and zinc segments over the next three years.

The company plans to uncork its roadshows in the next few days and expects to be listed on the London Stock Exchange by mid-December. After the listing, the floating stock of the company would be around 25 per cent of the paid-up capital.

The investment programme envisages expansion of the Sterlite-controlled Balco aluminium smelter, Orissa alumina refinery and Hindustan Zinc Ltd.Vedanta Resources, following the listing, will hold 55.2 per cent of Sterlite Industries and 80 per cent of Madras Aluminium. Sterlite owns 51 per cent of Balco and 46 per cent of Hindustan Zinc.

"The listing on the London exchange provides a unique opportunity (for global investors) to invest in India's strong economic growth. We expect Vedanta to be considered for inclusion in the FTSE UK index series," Anil Agarwal, CEO of the company, said at a video-conference from London on Thursday.

On the expansion programme of the company, Agarwal said in the copper business, the expansion plans, which are expected to be wrapped up by December 2003, included expanding the capacity of the Tuticorin smelter from 1.8 lakh tones per annum (tpa) to 3 lakh tpa of copper anode and commissioning of a 1.27-lakh tpa copper refinery in Tuticorin.

In the aluminium segment, the company plans to invest in two Greenfield projects a 2.5-lakh tpa aluminium smelter at the Korba complex and a one-million tpa alumina refinery in Orissa. The refinery is expected to enable the group to supply alumina to the new smelter at Korba, as also to access the export markets.

In the zinc segment, the company's principal expansion plans for Hindustan Zinc include expanding the capacity of its Rampura Agucha mine from 2 million tpa to 3.3 million tpa, Rajpura Dariba and Zawar mines to 1 million tpa and 1.25 million tpa, respectively, and construction of a new zinc smelter at Chanderiya to increase zinc production capacity by 1.7 lakh tonnes.

In response to a question, Agarwal said Vedanta group was looking at prospects for acquiring copper mines in Zambia. He pointed out that Zambia had the best copper mines and we have been selected as the preferred group. "As and when we get an opportunity we will look at further acquisitions," he said.
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SEZs exempted from ESI, EPF payments
New Delhi: The government has extended a major sop to units in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) by exempting them from payment of statutory dues like contribution to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) for a period of five years.

"We have taken a decision to exempt units in SEZs from payment of statutory dues for a five-year period covering ESI and EPF obligations," the union labour minister, Sahib Singh Verma, said at an employee relations conference organised by the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) here on Thursday.

The notification was issued on Wednesday and the first State that could enjoy the concessions is Gujarat, where the Positra SEZ promoted by Sea King Infrastructure Ltd is coming up.

The units in the SEZ would be eligible for the exemptions, provided they implement their own schemes without compromising on the social security of the workers, Verma said.
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MTV forms alliance with Music World
Mumbai: Music retail chain Music World and music channel MTV Networks India have formed a partnership under which Music World will be the preferred partner for MTV's consumer interactive promotion activities. This would include MTV VJs visiting Music World stores, and the stores being featured in MTV programming. Select Music World outlets will also carry MTV signage, and specially branded sections will be reserved for promoting MTV events, shows and product launches. Also, MTV will be shown on TV sets in Music World outlets.

"This tie-up is another step in providing a more enriching entertainment experience to our young customers," said S.K. Chowdhury, general manager, Music World. This is essentially a marketing relationship that seeks to leverage individual strengths, and is the first such national-level relationship for the chain, he added. It does not entail any investments by Music World at this point.

A part of the RPG Group's retail arm which includes Foodworld, Health & Glow and Giant, Music World has 150 outlets across the country, and stocks over 70,000 titles in the genres of Hindi and regional film music, classical, ghazal, indi pop, remixed, and international pop and rock. An estimated five-lakh customers walk into Music World outlets every month.

MTV Networks, which targets young Indians aged 15 - 34 years, plays 70 per cent Indian music, and claims a reach of over 23.5 million homes in India.
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Tata Motors sales up 39% in October
Mumbai: Tata Motors on Thursday reported a 39 per cent rise in total vehicle sales, including export, to 26,862 units in october 2003, as against the previous corresponding 19,306 units.
Sales for the April-October period grew by 43.6 per cent to 1,65,384 units (1,15,182 units for the year-ago period).

Commercial vehicle sales in October increased by 30 per cent to 12,862 units. Total commercial vehicle sales in the domestic market was up 40.8 per cent at 77,035 units (54,698 units) including a 36 per cent growth in M&HCV sales to 50,975 units (37,460 units) and a 51.2 per cent rise in LCV sales to 26,060 units (17,238 units).

According to the company's official statement, its passenger car business unit reported a 37.6 per cent rise in domestic sales for October to 12,263 units with a 43 per cent increase in total sale for the fiscal so far, to 79,238 units.

Indica sales touched 7,200 units for the just-ended month (7,192 in October 2002) and 47,103 units (42,270 units) for the first seven months of the fiscal. Sales of the Indigo amounted to 2,285 units with total sales for the fiscal at 15,551 units.

With utility vehicles sales grew by 61.6 per cent at 2,778 units in October, its total so far this fiscal stands at 16,633 units. A growth of 25.7 per cent. The company's exports for October was 1,737 units (506 units), the statement said.
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Reliance in pact to restart BRPL unit
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday entered an agreement to restart Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd's polyester staple fibre unit. According to strategic alliance signed here on Thursday, Reliance will operate BRPL's 34,200-tonne PSF capacity and 45,000 tonne per annum of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), used as feedstock for PSF production, and also market the entire output.

The alliance will help BRPL to turnaround its petrochemical business, which has been closed for the last two years. BRPL will also get access to the technological and manufacturing skills developed by RIL over 20 years of polyester operations.
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Pact in MUL to bring down wage hike rate
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) on Thursday entered into a new wage settlement with its employees that would bring down the rate of annual salary hikes by nearly two-thirds.

Under the new pact signed with the employees' union as the country's largest carmaker seeks to cut its wage bill, the annual wage growth for Maruti employees in the next five years will be 3.5 per cent, as compared to nine per cent, which has been in effect from 1996. The new wage settlement, announced by MUL in a statement here, comes into effect from November 1, 2003.

Maruti, which has been aggressively cutting labour costs to boost its profitability, said the new wage settlement would help it align its "normally high wage bill" closer with the market and simplify the wage structure.

"A unique feature of this settlement is that dearness allowance has been de-linked from changes in the consumer price index and basic pay. Rather, a fixed increase in DA has been built into the new settlement," Maruti said in the statement. By severing the link between the consumer price index and employee compensation, the new settlement brings the wage structure in tune with market competitiveness, Maruti said.

Further, other allowances have also been de-linked from changes in the basic pay and DA. Instead, they have been merged to form a consolidated "perquisite basket", thereby simplifying the wage structure. Maruti Udyog, which had about 4,590 employees at the end of the last fiscal, said the one-time increase owing to the new wage pact is 5.9 per cent, as compared to 27.18 per cent as per the previous agreement. The new settlement provides for a one-time lump sum payment of Rs 40,000 to each employee.
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ICI India transfers 51 pc stake to Australian co
New Delhi: ICI India on Thursday said that the company has received the consideration of Rs 66.64 crore and transferred its 51 per cent holding in Indian Explosives Ltd to Orica Investments Pty Ltd of Australia.
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Kerala HC notice to Govt on Cadbury issue
Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the state government, state health service director, and Cadbury India Pvt Ltd on a writ petition seeking a direction for banning all the products of Cadbury in the state in the light of detection of worms in some dairy milk chocolates sold in the State.

The Bench, comprising the Chief Justice J.L. Gupta, and Justice K. Padmanabhan Nair, issued notice when the petition filed by Joe Winston of Thiruvananthapuram came up before it. According to him, the 35 bars of diary milk chocolates bought by him were found infested with insects when their wrappers were removed. In fact, the State Health Service Director had banned the sale of June 2003 batch of dairy milk chocolates following reports of sale of worm infested chocolates. Though the sale of June batch were banned, worms were found in the August batch as well.

The petitioner pointed out that the chocolates had contained worms because of the use of substandard raw material or poor sanitary conditions of the company's plant or godowns. The detection of worm clearly indicated that the products were decomposed and decayed and unfit for human consumption.

The petition sought a direction to the state government and the Health Director to conduct a thorough examination of all the products of Cadbury thorough an agency. Besides, initiation of criminal proceedings against the company under the provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC) had also been sought.
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Indo Rama hikes product prices
New Delhi: Indo Rama Synthetics has increased the basic price of 130/34 partially-oriented yarn (POY) from Rs 70 per kg to Rs 71.25. A statement issued by the company also said that the basic price of polyester staple fibre (PSF) has been increased to Rs 61.25 per kg from Rs 58.50. The price of 150 draw texturised yarn has been upped to Rs 69.75 (Rs 68.25) per kg. These price revisions are effective from November 1. IRSL has also introduced a scheme of quantity discounts in POY and PSF ranging from Re 0.25 to Re 0.75 per kg on individual mill lifting.
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Indian Hotels chalks out refurbishment plan
Mumbai: Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), in a bid to cash in on the growth in the business hotel segment, has chalked out a three-year refurbishment plan for its leading business hotels.

Declining to give financial details of the phased refurbishment plan, Jyoti Narang, chief operating officer - Business Hotels, IHCL, said this move was based on a research agency's findings on what a business traveller was looking for during his stay. Today, 60 per cent of the corporate traveller are Indians and 40 per cent foreigners.

"We looked at product concepts from the emerging needs of the business traveller,'' said Ms Narang. There were four levels of needs - basic needs, standard ego needs, needs to combat loneliness and the need to distress. Most hotels are obliged to meet the first two levels of needs. "What came as a surprise to us was the executive travellers' need for de-stressing,'' she said.

"At the basic level we decided to do two things - give him what he doesn't get at home and over deliver at the basic need level,'' she said. This resulted in a `bold' decision for Taj's business hotels to do away with the bathtub and introduce instead dual showerheads and an individual steam unit, thereby meeting the executive traveller's need for de-stressing. In the room area, a mobile work desk is being introduced with a Herman Miller ergonomical chair, each costing $600.

At the entertainment level, each room will have a plasma television with DVD, MP3 and CD player.
The first phase of this is being rolled out at Taj Residency, Bangalore, to be followed by Taj President, Mumbai. Indian Hotels has a total of 23 business hotels, 18 in India, two in Colombo, one each in Yemen, Dubai and Lusaka.

The refurbishment extends to every aspect of the business hotel, including food and beverages and other comforts within the room. However, these changes may wary as an exception, according to Ms Narang. Taj Connemara is one such example. "Since it is a colonial structure, we have implemented changes that do not clash with its design,'' she said.

Within the business hotels, the banqueting is also being spruced up on three areas - lighting, sound and basic technology. "The conference market has exploded and over the next couple of years India is going to be an important venue for conferences,'' said Narang.

The lighting will be of three types - normal, computerised with 12,000 shades and individual lights. This is to cater to all banquet needs - conferences, weddings and parties.
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