Foreign currency bonds: IHCL raises $150 million
Mumbai: Senior officials of Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) have said that the company has successfully raised $150 million via a foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) issue, at rates argued to be a recent best in Asia. The corpus created will help IHCL respond quickly to growth opportunities here and abroad. The company, which averages Rs 60-70 crore per annum on domestic modernisation expenditure, has been trying to expand internationally through the acquisition route. Two bids in the latter regard were reported earlier to have failed.

Tuesday's offering, composed of a main issue of $135 million and a green-shoe option of $15 million, was oversubscribed more than 20 times, total response pegged at roughly $3 billion. ``It is a vote of confidence for brand India,'' Raymond N. Bickson, managing director, IHCL, said. ``The bonds are convertible into either ordinary shares or GDSs of the company, at the option of the bondholders, at a conversion price of approximately Rs 502 per share which is at a 19 per cent premium to the company's closing share price of Rs 421 on Tuesday on the BSE."
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Bio-Rad Labs unveils new diagnostic kit for diabetes
New Delhi: Bio-Rad Laboratories (India) Pvt Ltd has launched D10, the next generation system for diabetes monitoring and thalassaemia screening in the country. D-10 has been especially designed for low and middle-sized laboratories and offers superior performance in a compact package.

The system is one of its kind as it is one of the smallest, cost-effective, automated high-performance liquid chromatography platform available today and can be used by hospitals, pathology labs and speciality diagnostic centres for routine clinical diagnosis of thalassaemia and diabetes monitoring. Besides this, the company is a manufacturer and distributor of life science research products and clinical diagnostics based in Hercules, California.
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Aurobindo Pharma allots warrants to promoters
Hyderabad: Following the consent of shareholders at the extraordinary general meeting in November last, the board of directors of Aurobindo Pharma Ltd (APL), the city-based pharmaceutical major, at the meeting held on Wednesday, has allotted convertible share warrants to promoters.

The company informed the stock exchanges that the board has allotted 25 lakh warrants to the promoter, P V Ramaprasad Reddy, at Rs 375 per warrant on payment of Rs 140 per warrant up-front. The balance amount of Rs 235 per warrant would be payable at the time of conversion of these warrants into equity shares of Rs 5 each of the company within the stipulated time as per the SEBI guidelines.
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PSL gets pipeline deal in Bangladesh
Mumbai: PSL Ltd has informed the BSE that the company has recently been awarded with an order for supply of API grade X60 pipes for a gas transmission pipeline to be laid in Bangladesh.

The value of this contract is around $3.20 million (approximately Rs 14.5 crore).
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Honda cars January sales up 90% to 2,781 units
New Delhi: Honda Siel Cars India Ltd, maker of City and Accord luxury cars, today said its sales in January rose 90 per cent to 2,781 units as compared to 1,460 cars sold a year ago. While the City model sold 2,380 units in January, sales of Accord stood at 226 units. The CR-V utility vehicle sold 175 units in the month, Honda Siel said in a statement here.

Cumulative sales of the company during April-January period were 15,821 units, up from 11,018 units it sold in the same period a year ago.
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Hyundai January sales up 66% to 17,035 units
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India on Wednesday said tat its sales increased by 66 per cent in January 2004 driven by higher demand for its small car, Santro Xing, and the mid-size model, Accent. The company sold 17,035 units during the month compared to 10,235 in January 2003.

While domestic sales grew by 25 per cent to 12,608 units, exports stood at 4,427 units, a company release said. Domestic sales of the Santro reached an all-time high of 10,041 units in January, a growth of 19 per cent over January 2003. Sales of the Accent climbed 59 per cent to 2,404 units while that of luxury sedan, Sonata, and sports utility vehicle, Terracan, stood at 101 and 62 units respectively.
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Tata Motors January sales up 32%
Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd on Wednesday reported a 32 per cent rise in total sales for January 2004, including exports, to 31,840 units. In commercial vehicles, the company sold 14,494 units in the domestic market for the just ended month, 36.9 per cent higher than the previous corresponding 10,590 units. LCV sales grew by 42.7 per cent to 4,807 units (3,368 units in year ago period), while M&HCV sales gained 34.1 per cent to touch 9,687 units (7,222 units).

Domestic sale of passenger vehicles at 14,698 units was at its highest ever for a month, growing by 17.2 per cent. Sales of the Tata Indigo rose by 40.2 per cent to 3,009 units. "The new Tata Indica launched at the Auto Expo on January 15, has been received positively by the market and was able to register sales of 8,075 units in the remaining part of the month," an official statement said. Sale of UVs for the month increased by 38.5 per cent to 3,614 units. Tata Motors' cumulative sales over April '03 - January '04 was up 45.4 per cent, to 2,48,742 units (1,71,138 units). During the period commercial vehicle sales grew by 43.5 per cent to 1,19,169 units (83,026 units).
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Ashok Leyland to raise $100 million via bonds/GDRs
New Delhi: Ashok Leyland, India's second-largest commercial vehicle maker, is planning to raise $100 million through the sale of bonds or shares. "The decision on whether to go for foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) or global depository receipts (GDRs) to raise $100 million will be taken at the meeting on February 28. The money raised can partly be utilised for repaying the Rs 260 crore debt in the next two years and for capacity expansion as well," R Seshasayee, managing director, Ashok Leyland.

Seshasayee termed the nod given by the board of the company to the stock split as an "investor friendly move". The company proposes to subdivide the equity shares from the present face value of Rs 10 each into 10 shares of Re 1 each. This proposal too will come up for approval of the shareholders on the extra-ordinary general meeting to be held on February 28. Ashok Leyland has aggressive plans to increase its capacity over the next year and is also focusing on exports in the defence segment.
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Century Plyboards to open laminates unit
Kolkata: Century Plyboards (I) Ltd is in the process of setting up a paper-based high-pressure decorative laminates manufacturing unit at an estimated cost of Rs 26 crore. The proposed unit with an installed capacity of 2 lakh tonnes of laminate sheet per month will be set up adjacent to the company's existing unit at Joka, close to the city.

The company, reports suggest, is understood to have tied-up financial arrangements with State Bank of India for Rs 13.5 crore and Oriental Bank of Commerce for Rs 4 crore, while promoters' contribution will be Rs 8.75 crore. According to Century Plyboards source, the promoters' contribution will be funded by way of rights issue of 19,51,152 shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 30 per share aggregating to about Rs 7.8 crore in the ratio of two shares for every five equity shares held. The balance of Rs 95 lakh will be funded from internal accruals.
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Reliance raises $250 million from overseas loans
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd has raised $250 million (approximately Rs 1,131.25 crore) through an international syndicated loan in order to pay off its high cost debt, as part of its programme to optimise its cost of capital. The tenor of the loan is for five years and the company will pay 90 basis points over the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR), according to banking sources.

The six-month Libor rate for dollar loans is around 1.20 per cent, according to dealers. The arrangers of the loan include, ANZ Grindlays, Bank of America, Credit Lyonnais, DBS, HSBC, Mizuho, etc. "This record pricing has surpassed the price RIL itself obtained in 1995-96 when it had first accessed the syndicated loan market which had split ratings," a dealer was quoted as saying. RIL's deal is the first after the liberalisation of ECB guidelines and the Moody's upgrade of India's investment grade, dealers said.
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