M&M charts global strategy
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has charted a strategy for its entry into some of the bigger global markets. M&M's target list includes South Africa, Russia, South and Central America, West Asia, Southeast Asia and CIS countries. The company has begun to tread the foreign markets in a small way by exporting completely built units (CBU) of the Scorpio and the Bolero to the neighbouring countries and a few African states, reports suggest.

The tractor and utility vehicles maker is also in various stages ranging from exploration to final discussion in different markets. M&M will use the CBU import route or assemble from completely knocked down (CKD) kits, depending on what is most suitable in different markets. M&M is expecting to put its plan into action over the next six-12 months. It is also scouting for local partners to assemble operations and is open to marketing or technological joint ventures.
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Suzuki finds MUL's R&D unit as Asia hub
Bangalore: Japanese auto major Suzuki is set to convert Maruti Udyog Ltd's research and development (R&D) facility as its Asia hub by 2007 for the design and development of new compact cars, a top official of the firm was quoted as saying. India's leading car manufacturer will make substantial investments to upgrade its research and development centre at Gurgaon in Haryana for executing design and development projects for Suzuki. This includes localisation, modernisation and greater use of composite technologies in upcoming models.

The company will be hiring more software engineers and technocrats to handle Suzuki's R&D projects. Investment will be more in terms of manpower than in infrastructure, which is already in place. MUL general manager Arvind Saxena said the parent company has decided to shift its new projects from Japan to India and other Asian countries to leverage local talent and capitalise on the lower cost advantage.
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Satyam employees exercise stock options
Hyderabad: Over 3,000 employees of Satyam Computer exercised their stock options in the current fiscal, converting into a whopping 8,31,019 shares. A majority of the employees started exercising their options since July 2003, may be because they sensed a boom in the markets, news reports say. There were only 2,800 shares exercised by the employees in the whole of last fiscal, citing the bearish market as prime reason.

In the past six months, Satyam had granted around 1 million stock options to nearly 3,000 employees. "The response to ESOPs has been lukewarm earlier since majority of the options were under water because the exercise price was greater than the market price. With the recent market upswing, the options given earlier are once again getting attractive and now there is good activity," according to VSP Gupta, vice-president. The employees have exercised their options at a minimum price of Rs 171 and maximum price of Rs 272 per share in the current fiscal. About 226 employees have exercised more than 1,000 options granted to them.
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Cipla gets reprieve in NPPA wrangle
Mumbai: Drug major Cipla, which had received notices from the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority and the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers to pay Rs 76.75 crore for alleged overpricing of some drugs, informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it has not paid up the amount in view of the interim orders obtained by the company from the Karnataka and Allahabad high courts. The company also said that it has obtained legal opinion that it is not liable to make any payment of the said amounts at this stage in view of the orders.

The amount, being 50 per cent on account of alleged overcharging in respect of three drugs (Salbutamol, Theophylline, Ciprofloxacin and Norfloxacin) for the period from July 2000 till July 2003, was demanded to be paid on or before 26 December. The company had challenged the inclusion of these three drugs within the ambit of price control. In a notice to the stock exchange, Cipla said the petition filed by the company had been decided in favour of the company by the Bombay High Court, which held that the said drugs were outside the ambit of price control.
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Reliance Infocomm to open 350 new stores
Mumbai: Reliance Infocomm is expected to open 350 Reliance WebWorld outlets by 28 December, taking the total number of stores to 600. Sarup Chowdhary, CEO, Reliance Webstore, said: "These stores are part of the total 777 stores planned by the company to connect small towns and villages in the country." At present, 250 Reliance WebWorlds are spread across 110 towns.

Reliance Infocomm, for the first time in the world, used broadband multi-point-to-point video chat and video conference at 768 kbps speed links to connect 11 cities across the country today. The cities connected are Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Lucknow. Chowdhary said the company has adopted franchisee route for setting up the WebWorld stores on a 1,000 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft area. It had earlier planned to set up the same as a company owned outlets. The investments in each Reliance WebWorld stores is expected anywhere between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
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IOC to invest Rs 1,100 crore in Tamil Nadu
Chennai: Indian Oil Corporation will invest about Rs 1,100 crore in Tamil Nadu, between now and the end of next year, according to its director (marketing), N G Kannan. The investments will be in several areas, including the 526-km-long Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai pipeline for transporting petrol, diesel and kerosene. The project is estimated to cost Rs 382 crore.

A terminal at Tiruchi and the expansion of the storage facility at Sankari will together cost about Rs 50 crore. The other two major chunks of investments will be on creating facilities for importing and storing LPG at the Ennore port and putting up 350 more petrol bunks in the state. These two activities are estimated to cost Rs 150 crore and Rs 170 crore, respectively.
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Amorettos to tap global markets
Mumbai: The New Delhi-based fruit juice chain, Amorettos, is planning to go international by expanding to destinations such as Dubai and Singapore. The company is also planning to augment its presence nationally and expand its product portfolio to include packaged energy drinks, apparel, food and fitness equipment. The entire plan will be executed over the next three years. But the international operations could begin in a year.

Jayant Kochar, managing director, Amorettos, said: "We are looking at becoming a fitness-oriented retail brand in the next few years. Setting up gyms is also on the cards. But the investment for the diversification into retail cannot be ascertained at this moment. We are in talks with some people in Dubai to set up some outlets there as well. At the moment we are weighing the option of a joint venture or some alliance for setting up a chain in the UAE." The company is focusing on markets in Asia such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Middle East.
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