Keltec's titanium gas bottles production begins
Thiruvananthapuram: The state-owned Kerala Hitech Industries Ltd (Keltec), a company specialising in the manufacture of strategic and critical components for the aerospace industry, has started production of titanium gas bottles used in satellites, launch vehicles and missiles. Johnson Peter, managing director, Keltec, says it is the only company in the country that has the capability for manufacturing flight quality air bottles right from the raw material to the qualification stage. Helium or air-filled titanium gas bottles are required by Indian Space Research Organisation and Defence Research and Development Organisation for their launch vehicles, satellites and missiles. These are used for storing light high-pressure gases for propellant pressurisation and control system energisation.

The company started developing titanium alloy gas bottles in 1996 with the active participation of scientists from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. The various stages of production, which were done at different work centres, included hot forming of hemispheres, precise contour machining, electron beam welding and pressure testing. The companies and agencies involved in the process were Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels in Hyderabad, Keltec and the Liquid Propulsion and Systems Centre. Keltec has now successfully integrated the various stages under one roof, Mr Johnson Peter said.
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Mecon is consultant for VSP coke oven facility
Kolkata: Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has appointed the Ranchi-based MECON Ltd as consultant for the installation of Rs 300 crore coke oven battery (No. 4). According to a MECON source, the major facilities envisaged for the complex include a seven metre tall coke oven battery with 67 ovens, one coke dry-cooling plant with four chamber boiler module, two new conveyors to connect "CDPC-4 with CSP-2", additional facilities of by-product plant and pollution control measures.

MECON's scope of service includes design & engineering consultancy, commissioning, performance guarantee test and post commissioning services. The project is to be completed in a tight-time schedule of 36 months.
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Kinetic ups bike sales target
New Delhi: Boosted by the positive response to its recently launched Velocity motorcycle, Kinetic Engineering has revised upwards its annual motorcycles sales target to 1,50,000 units. The company will also be increasing the production of the 115 cc Velocity to 10,000 units per month by March.

According to a release issued by the company, sales of the Velocity have crossed 15,000 units in a short period of 70 days. Velocity had marked Kinetic's entry into the executive bikes segment - the largest category of two-wheelers in the country, accounting for over 60 per cent of the bike market.
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Citigroup Global fined Rs 2 crore
Mumbai: THE Securities and Exchange Board of India has imposed a fine of Rs 2 crore, one of the stiffest penalties ever, on Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Pvt Ltd for not disclosing on time, details of participatory notes issued by it.

G N Bajpai, chairman, SEBI, said the fine was imposed on the foreign institutional investor in the second week of December after a process of adjudication. Asked whether the regulator was moving towards a US-like system of settling offences through negotiated deals, Bajpai said: "In the US, the regulator and offender sit across the table and negotiate the settlement amount. Ours is a judicial process with contentions of both sides duly argued by lawyers. It is not a deal."
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M&M targets TN tour operators
Chennai: Mahindra & Mahindra has launched two variants of the Bolero utility vehicle in Tamil Nadu. The company sees good scope for the variants, the XL and the XLS, in the contract carriage or the tour operator segment as they have more seats than the other Bolero models, according to company officials. It hopes to sell about 12,000 units of the two variants in a full year in the country.

It will come out with a separate television commercial highlighting the seating capacity and the value-for-money proposition for tour operators, Nalin Mehta, general manager (marketing), M&M, said. The Bolero XL costs Rs 4.74 lakh ex-showroom in Chennai and the Bolero XLS Rs 4.91 lakh. The variants are available with seven, nine or 10 seats. Malay Saha, deputy general manager (automotive sector), M&M, said the company hopes to sell 600 Boleros in Tamil Nadu in 2003-04, against the 300 it sold last year. The company's market share in the utility vehicle segment had increased from 25 per cent to 44 per cent in the State, and in the first nine months of this financial year it had gone up to 51 per cent.
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CLC group acquires RPG stake in Spentex
Mumbai: THE Delhi-based CLC Group, which is engaged in manufacturing and exporting of yarn and fabric, has clinched a deal for acquisition of 48.87 per cent stake in Spentex Industries Ltd that was held by the RPG Enterprises. With this acquisition, the CLC Group will have management control over Spentex, which produces about 29,000 spindles of high-quality cotton yarn with an annual turnover of Rs 43 crore.

RPG Group's decision to exit from Spentex, a 100 per cent export-oriented unit, was part of its programme to divest its businesses that do not fall into its core sector and, instead, consolidate its core strengths. Only last month, RPG had sold its cellular business in Chennai. CLC, promoted by Mr Mukund Chowdhury and his associates, has acquired 1.08-crore fully paid up equity shares of Rs 10 each, representing 48.87 per cent of the total paid up equity share capital of Spentex.
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Balaji Telefilms promoters offload 4.85% stake
Mumbai: Balaji Telefilms Ltd has informed the National Stock Exchange that the promoters of the company, Kapoors, have sold 25,00,000 shares of the company constituting 4.85 per cent of the total equity share capital. The promoters holding now stands at 52.95 per cent.

As per the details of the sale, Mr Jeetendra Kapoor, Chairman of the company, sold 5,00,000 shares or 0.97 per cent of the total equity and Mr Tusshar Kapoor, Chairman's son and Bollywood actor, sold 20,00,000 shares or 3.88 per cent of the total equity.
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SC clears Tata Housing project in Goa
Mumbai: The Supreme Court has permitted Tata Housing Development Company to go ahead with its premium housing project `Villa Paradiso' in Goa, which had been stayed earlier by the Mumbai High Court on the grounds that it was built on forest land. The project, which commenced in 1996 was challenged before the Goa bench of the Mumbai High Court through a public interest litigation by Goa Foundation, a non-governmental organisation. The high court had quashed the project, said a news release from Tata Housing.

The company said it had returned the monies paid by investors in Villa Paradiso along with the interest. The company also appealed before the Supreme Court against the high court order. At the time of issuance of notices, the apex court had ordered status quo, said the Tata Housing statement. On an appeal by Tata Housing, the Supreme Court has now ruled that the report made by the Sawant Committee, which was constituted by the Goa Government, on the categorisation of forestland cannot be accepted as the criteria for being a forestland were not applicable to Tata Housing's plot.
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Reliance to take over Nocil division
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has said that it had agreed to take over the ailing petrochemicals and plastics division of erstwhile rival National Organic Chemicals Industries Ltd (Nocil) through its business associate, Sunbright Cement Agencies Pvt Ltd. With this acquisition, Reliance, which already holds 70 per cent of India's petrochemicals business through its 12.8-million-tonne petrochemicals capacity, will take on another 65,000 tpa of ethylene, 35,000 tpa of propylene, 17,000 tpa of Benzene and 10,000 tpa of Butadene capacity. Around 45 per cent of Reliance's revenues come from the petrochemicals business.

According to a senior Nocil official, completing the takeover process will take around four to six months. "Reliance had expressed interest (in buying the business) last year. But things did not work out. We have been negotiating over the last couple of months before reaching this agreement," the official said. The price RIL would pay was still being worked out, he said. The Arvind Mafatlal group-promoted Nocil has been in financial and labour trouble for the past few years. The company shut down on April 16, 2002, after a string of failed restructuring proposals.
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IL&FS picks up stake in Datamatics
Mumbai: IL&FS through IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd (IIML) has acquired a minority stake in Datamatics Technologies Ltd (DTL), the city-based third party business process outsourcing company promoted by Dr Lalit Kanodia. The amount raised from IL&FS Investment Managers will be used to fund overseas acquisitions.

According to an official release, IL&FS has invested in Datamatics
Technologies owing to its emergence as a large third-party pure play BPO in the country after its (DTL's) acquisition of CorPay Solutions Inc in an all-cash deal. The US-based CorPay is a $13-million company specialising in finance and accounting BPO services. The acquisition was funded through internal accruals, the statement said. The statement, quoting to Mr Shahzaad Dalal, Vice-Chairman, IIML, said Datamatics Technologies had good growth potential as it was at the forefront of the BPO wave. Its order pipeline along with DTL's domain expertise and clientele would ensure shareholder wealth creation.
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Tata Indica to cost more
Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd has announced that it has implemented a price hike on the Indica with immediate effect. ``Prices have been increased by an average of 1.9 per cent at the showroom level. The price rise had become inevitable due to the continuous rise in input costs through 2002 and 2003 which could not be absorbed fully any further by the company and have had to be partially passed on to the market with this increase,'' a company statement said.
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