Dr Reddy's to go for audited results
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd has decided to announce and publish the audited annual results of the company instead of unaudited results this time.
Pursuant to clause 41 of the listing agreement, the company has intimated the stock exchanges that the date of board meeting for consideration of audited financial results would be communicated separately.
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Ocimum Bio unveils new tool
Hyderabad: Ocimum Biosolutions, a life sciences contract R & D company, has launched a new product, "iRNAwiz", which helps in analysing biological sequence data. The new tool will help scientists to speed up their research in biotechnology, according to a company press release.
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ICRA ties up with CRAB in Bangladesh
Kolkata: ICRA Ltd has entered into a technical tie-up with the newly formed Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh (CRAB).
Announcing the tie-up, ICRA said that the agreement would enable the Indian agency to assist CRAB in drafting rating methodologies and advisory/information services products.
CRAB, has been set up last year by leading professionals from Bangladesh's corporate and financial sectors as well as institutions like Investment Corporation of Bangladesh. It intends to emerge as a major provider of rating and related services. ICRA said that the latest agreement would enable it to push its overseas plans further. The agency, has so far helped two rating outfits in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, and is in similar talks with players in three more countries. Two of them are in Asia, while the third is a European agency.
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Piaggio to launch new products
Visakhapatnam: Piaggio's three-wheeler - Ape - has sold more than 1.5 lakh vehicles so far since 1999, with the company handing over the 1,54,000th vehicle to a customer. Piaggio had a market share of 57 per cent in the cargo three-wheeler segment in the country.

Piaggio was developing a range of new products - three-wheelers and four-wheelers - which would be launched during the current year. The new vehicles would be useful for selling coffee and tea and for disposal of bio-medical waste. The company had built up a network of 300 sales and service centres across the country. The vehicles were competitively priced in the range of Rs 1,09,000 to Rs 1,21,000.
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BPL Mobile to invest Rs 1,000 crore
Coimbatore: BPL Mobile, which operates in four cellular circles in the country, plans to invest about Rs 1,000 crore during the current fiscal to ramp up capacity. The company, which has around 1.9 million subscribers, expects to nearly double its subscriber base by the end of current fiscal and to achieve break even by the end of 2004-05. While a large chunk of the planned investment would be made in the April-June quarter, the rest would be made in the second quarter.
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Amrit Foods launches Ultra Heat Treated milk
Mumbai: Amrit Foods, a division of Amrit Banaspati Company Ltd (ABCL) has launched zero-bacteria `Gagan' U.H.T. (ultra-heat treated) milk in Tetra Pak packages in Mumbai. The `Gagan' U.H.T. milk is available in Tetra Brik Aseptic packs of 1-litre priced at Rs 25 and will be available in Maharashtra.

According to the company, U.H.T. milk is premium quality milk that has been specially processed and packaged so that it can be transported and stored without refrigeration. The U.H.T. processed milk retains its natural taste and has a shelf life of over four months. The company has used Direct Steam Infusion System (DSIS) to complement the UHT process. ABCL is a multi-unit, multi-product company having sales turnover of Rs 400 crore. The Group's annual turnover is in excess of Rs 700 crore.
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Chinese luxury buses launched
Chennai: The Chandigarh-based JCBL Ltd has launched "JCBL Integral Coach KL 6113" buses priced at Rs 48 lakh. The entire kit, except tyres, of the bus is imported from King Long, China, and assembled at JCBL's plant in Chandigarh. The company aims to sell about 150 vehicles of KL 6113 models during the year ending March 2005. According to the company, the fuel efficiency of KL 6113 was 4.6 km per litre compared to 3.52 in Volvo. The KL 6113 comes with a Cummins diesel engine made in UK and a Holland Neway (US) air suspension system. The bus also has a chemical wash toilet.

A large manufacturer of buses and utility vehicles such as ambulance, JCBL has about 40 per cent share in the organised sector of luxury bus bodybuilding. The company's plant at Chandigarh manufactures 1,800 buses and 5,000 cargo carriers annually. King Long has a turnover of about Rs 2,000 crore. With four production bases in China, King Long manufacturers 16,000 vehicles annually.
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ONGC Videsh picks up Shell's stake in Angola
New Delhi: ONGC Videsh Ltd has announced that it has reached an agreement with the Royal Dutch/Shell group to buy a 50 per cent stake in an offshore oil field in Angola for $600 million. It expects to complete the stake purchase from Shell Development Angola BV by mid 2004, the company has said in a press statement.

The completion of the transaction is subject to approvals by government of Angola and pre-emption rights of BP Plc, which operates the block, and Sonangol SA, the statement said.
The Indian company is buying out Shell's entire stake in Block 18, a deepwater exploration block, along with the Greater Plutonio development.
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NEG Micon launches 1.65 MW wind turbine
Chennai: NEG Micon (India) Private Ltd has introduced a 1.65 MW wind turbine, which it says is the most powerful wind turbine in the Indian market. According to NEG Micon, turbines of smaller capacities dominate the Indian wind turbine market, but the market will gradually shift to larger capacity turbines, like the 1.65 MW as they are ideal for low and medium wind speed regimes found in the country.

The 1.65 MW turbine could operate in wind speeds ranging from 2.5 meter per second to 16 meter per second. The 1.65 MW turbine would cost about Rs 9.3 crore. The 1.65 MW turbine was being imported from NEG Micon in Denmark, the parent company of NEG Micon (India), with the blades, being manufactured by a Bangalore-based supplier of NEG Micon (India) from September.
During 2004-05, NEG Micon (India) hopes to sell turbines totalling 300 MW. The turnover during the year was expected to be Rs 1,000 crore.
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