Idea acquires Escotel for Rs 350 crore
New Delhi: Idea Cellular bought out Escorts Ltd's mobile business, Escotel Mobile Ltd and Escorts Telecom Ltd, for around Rs 300-350 crore in an all cash deal. The transaction includes six telecom circles and more than 825,000 subscribers, which will catapult Idea Cellular's subscriber base to over 3 million across 11 circles from 2.24 million in five circles now.

While this will still keep Idea Cellular at the fifth spot in the mobile telecom market in terms of subscribers, the acquisition will allow the company to join the likes of Bharti Tele-Ventures, Essar-Hutchison, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Reliance Infocomm, which have a national footprint with operations in over 10 circles.
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Bajaj's new logo: Excitement
New Delhi: 'Hamara Bajaj' will now be history. After more than three decades, Bajaj Auto on Thursday unveiled its new corporate logo. The new brand essence has been defined as 'Excitement'. The makeover of the logo, new graphics and brandline have followed internal restructuring in the company that has been going on since 2000-01. The company hoped to increase sales by 100 per cent and profitability by 10 per cent as part of the restructuring programme 'mission control', says a report.

"We hope to double our sales to three million units by 2006-07. We have managed to reach half-way till date," Rajiv Bajaj, joint managing director, Bajaj Auto, said at a press conference on the sidelines of Auto Expo. After TVS's launch of Centra, Bajaj too has come up with a 100km/litre bike, 'Super 100' motorcycle and a 110cc powerful and fuel efficient automatic scooter with the advanced 'DTSi Technology' and a CVI (automatic transmission).
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Tata Motors plans Rs 500-crore cap investment
New Delhi: Tata Motors Ltd is planning to make fresh capital investment of around Rs 400-500 crore over next four to five years to strengthen its presence in the passenger cars and commercial vehicles (CVs) market. The automotive major has already invested around Rs 2,000 crore in passenger car business alone since it kicked off the Indica car project in 1997-98. Informed sources maintain that the capex size is significant considering enormous productivity and operational efficiencies that the company has achieved across its sourcing and manufacturing chain, reports suggest.

Currently, passengers cars account for around 40 per cent of turnover while the remaining comes from CVs. The company had posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 300 crore on a turnover of around Rs 10,800 crore in fiscal 2002-03.
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Marina to be launched at Auto Expo in New Delhi
New Delhi: Tata executives say the company is still negotiating the acquisition cost for Daewoo Trucks in South Korea. A Tata official said: "Daewoo trucks make high-end heavy trucks with an annual capacity of 20,000 units. In Indian rupee terms, they are priced around Rs 40-Rs 50 lakh per unit. The plant is operating at around 30 per cent of the capacity."

He added: "We hope to conclude negotiations in next couple of months." Earlier, during the unveiling of Indigo Marina (to be priced below Rs six lakh) and New Indica V2 (price unchanged), Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Motors, shared the company's global aspirations.
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Honda City gets CNBC 'Car of the Year Award '
New Delhi: The CNBC Autocar Awards 2004 car of year award has been won by the new Honda City. The sports utility vehicle (SUV) of the year was bagged by the Ford Endeavour, while the Bajaj Wind won the first ever best bike award. Maruti Udyog won the award for manufacturer of the year for its overall performance in 2003.

For the first time ever, the auto ancillary Industry was acknowledged at the CNBC Autocar Auto Awards, where Bharat Forge, MICO and the Anand Group were recognized for their performance in product development and manufacturing of auto components. This year, CNBC-TV18 introduced the 'Viewer Choice Award', which was won by the GM Chevrolet Optra. The value for money car award was also taken by the Optra. The Mercedes Benz SL500 won the most technologically advanced car award and the best design and styling award. Tata Safari EXi won an award for more improved car of the year, while the best driver's car award went to Chevrolet Forrester.
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