Pentamedia to launch Media City in Chennai
Chennai: Pentamedia Graphics plans to start Media City in Kelambakkam in Chennai that will offer a range of services to the film industry, its chairman, V Chandrasekharan, was quoted as saying. He said the company may have to spend about Rs 5 crore in adding some equipment to build the media city. The company already has a CD-Rom plant; it intends to put up a DVD unit. Also, some equipment needs to be added to create digital recording and dubbing of movies.

Pentamedia Graphics announced to the bourses that it intends to hire its infrastructure for various media-related activities. The company has a substantial 2D/3D animated film production and special effects infrastructure and expertise that it intends to hire. For example, a digital Charminar was created in the company's studio for the recent Telugu blockbuster, Okkadu.
Back to News Review index page  

Nava Bharat to expand chrome capacity
Hyderabad: In order to meet the growing demand from the domestic steel industry, Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys will further expand its ferro chrome production capacity. The company's board at its meeting held recently has approved a scheme of de-bottlenecking-cum-expansion of its ferro chrome facility located in Orissa, the director (finance) G R K Prasad was quoted as saying.

Prasad says the expansion to be taken up at a cost of around Rs 10 crore will increase the production capacity to 75,000 tonnes per annum from the existing level of 50,000 tonnes. The capacity expansion would be ready during the next financial year. The city-based Rs 427-crore ferro alloys major is seriously contemplating various strategies for capacity expansion and cost reduction on a continuous basis to meet the increased competition due to capacity addition and the continued mismatch of input costs in the Indian ferro alloys industry.
Back to News Review index page  

Madras Motor Sports Club pays dues to Indian Bank
Chennai: Madras Motor Sports Club has taken advantage of the Reserve Bank of India-sponsored one-time settlement scheme and has paid Indian Bank Rs 4.36 crore against its dues of Rs 16 crore to the bank, says a report. This was made possible with the active participation of two of the finest companies," a press release said. JK Tyres gave Rs 1 crore and TVS Motor Company contributed Rs 3.36 crore.

The club had borrowed from banks for its Rs 25-crore project for building an international race cum test track for cars and two-wheelers. The project was inaugurated in 1989. "Due to the huge recession in the previous years, the interest and principal repayments could not be met," the release says. In December 2002, the Indian Bank had seized the properties of the Club under the powers given under the Securitisation Ordinance (the Act had not come into force then).
Back to News Review index page  

Tata Industries raises Rs 248 crore via rights issue
Mumbai: Tata Industries, the holding company of the new economy businesses of the Rs 52,000-crore Tata group, last week raised Rs 248 crore through a rights issue, says a report. The money raised through the rights issue has been used to redeem five-year exchangeable premium bonds (EPBs) floated by Tata Industries in January 1999. The EPBs were redeemed on January 29.

The exercise has resulted in a reduction in the cost of debt for Tata Industries and a rise in its equity base. The latest figures are not available. As on March 31, 2002, the company had an equity base of Rs 446.49 crore and a debt, inclusive of non-convertible debentures, of Rs 1,145.68 crore. Its reserves and surplus in March 2002 were to the tune of Rs 231.72 crore. The Rs 200 crore EPBs carried a redemption yield of 15.1 per cent. The redemption amount, inclusive of the redemption yield, was Rs 404 crore.
Back to News Review index page  

Gujarat Ambuja plans to buy back $80-million debt
Mumbai: Gujarat Ambuja Cements, India's fourth largest cement maker, is planning to exercise its call option for buying back around $80 million of its outstanding foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs). The company will repay bond-holders if they do not convert the loan into equity shares.

Gujarat Ambuja has the choice to exercise the call option after January 31, at a conversion price of Rs 222 a share. So far, about 20 per cent of the $99 million FCCBs have been converted into equity. Analysts expect the actual outgo for the company to be much less, as the conversion price is lower than the ruling stock price. The company will be issuing a call notice of a duration of 40 days to the bond-holders to convert their bonds into equity shares.
Back to News Review index page  

Century Textiles plans to delay shipping exit
Mumbai: Century Textiles & Industries, the BK Birla flagship, has decided to retain a token presence in shipping business owing to the record freight rates that are prevailing now. The company, which had earlier decided to exit the business, has now decided against selling its last ship MV Aditya Gautam, a 1994-built handymax bulk carrier of 43,815 dwt, for the time being. The earlier plan was to sell the ship in current fiscal.

A senior executive with Century Textiles & Industries was quoted as saying: "The company now wants to take advantage of the favorable market conditions prevailing at present. We want to continue operations for sometime and earn attractive revenues." The shipping business accounts for a fraction of the company's Rs 2,207.33 crore turnover. A few years back, Century Textiles decided to exit shipping business as it was identified as a non -core area. In pre-liberalised India, a number of companies had got into shipping for two reasons.
Back to News Review index page  

Reliance Info to raise Rs 5,000-crore domestic debt
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm has approached domestic banks and financial institutions to raise around Rs 5,000 crore debt with a tenure of eight years for financing its expansion and roll-out plan. Executives in banks and financial institutions told a business newspaper that the company was offering to avail of the credit facility at an interest rate of around 4-5 per cent. They added that banks were in the process of forming a consortium for lending to Reliance Infocomm.

The company did not respond to a questionnaire from the newspaper. When contacted, a Reliance Infocomm spokesperson was quoted as saying: "As a policy, the company does not comment on speculative reports." Company sources, however, said certain proposals had been made to lenders which were under discussion. They, however, refused to divulge details.
Back to News Review index page