Bharti, VSNL to share STD network
New Delhi: The Bharti group has entered into a Rs500-crore deal with the Tata- controlled VSNL for sharing its national long-distance (STD) network with
the latter. This is a first accord of its kind between two top telecom service providers in the country to optimise capacities in the NLD segment.

As part of the 15-year agreement, VSNL will have the right to primarily use 1,00,000 'dark fibre' km or 23,000 route km of Bharti's NLD network, which is less than 20 per cent of the NLD capacity currently available with Bharti.

VSNL is poised to start STD operations across the country and share of infrastructure with Bharti would help it save huge investments in building infrastructure.
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BPCL incurs Rs 1300 LPG loss
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) says it has incurred a loss of Rs 1,300 crore in 2003-04 on account of its LPG operations. It says this is despite getting government subsidy and it would be difficult to sustain such a huge loss for a long time.

The organisation is getting a subsidy of Rs22 per cylinder, which it says is not adequate. The company has had to incur loss of Rs94 per cylinder which was very difficult to sustain for a long period according to BPCL executive director (LPG) R K Singh.

BPCL, along with other PSUs, have submitted a representation to the government seeking to increase the price of LPG though the government was yet to respond to it according to the company.
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GAIL says Tatas HPL exit after debt recast
Kolkata: Gas Authority of India says Tata companies' stake in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) can be sold only after the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) is completed. GAIL has shown interest in buying out Tata's share. The company said GAIL's investment in HPL and Tata's exit from the company would not take place at the same time.

At present, the Tata Group holds 14 per cent stake in HPL, while The Chatterjee Group (TCG) and the government of West Bengal.
Hold the rest.

GAIL has demanded two berths on the board and representation on key committees like audit, purchase and business development and does not plan to be a sleeping partner in the company.

If GAIL manages to buy the Tata stake, which will fall below 9 per cent on enhanced equity base, GAIL will have close to 26 per cent stake in HPL.
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Ranbaxy investing $100 mn to expand capacity
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories is investing $100 million (over
Rs 440 crore) to expand its production capacity India and abroad.
According to Brian W Tempest, joint managing director and CEO-designate of Ranbaxy, the company will invest over $100 million over the next one year in enhancing its raw material (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and formulations capacities to meet the volume growth it has been witnessing over the past few years.

Although the company has been constantly investing in research and development, investment for capacity building is coming after a gap of at least 3-4 years. While a major part of the investment would be spent in expanding manufacturing facilities in India, the company plans to ramp up plant capacities in the US
and Brazil also. The investment would be carried out during the current year.

Apart from this, Ranbaxy is also enhancing its spend in research and development activities from 6 per cent to over 7 per cent on incremental sales in 2004. Pfizer looks at co-promoting more brands

After achieving a fair amount of success in co-promoting anti-depressant drug Daxid with pharma company Sanofi, Pfizer now plans to enter into similar tie-up with other Indian and global pharma companies. The company has set up a team to identify and analyse its brands to be co-promoted with other companies.
Co-promotion means that two companies promote the same
brand, while co-marketing means that the respective companies promote the same products under two different brands.

Under co promotion a company which holds ownership of a brand is able to market it among doctors, while a co-promoting company builds a learning curve at the cost of the other company's product, industry sources explained.
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HLL effects changes in confectionery business
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever is effecting changes in its distribution network and pricing strategy to push up volumes in its confectionery business.
Under the confectionery business launched 3 years ago HLL's umbrella brand Max has sales of just about Rs 50 crore and marketshare under 5 per cent while the organised confectionery industry (excluding chocolates) is estimated at Rs 1,200 crore.
HLL is puttng in place a fresh sales force for confectionery and is appointing exclusive distributors for its confectionery business.

HLL has also revised the pricing of the brand from the earlier aggressive entry-level pricing at 25-50 paise, 50 paise and Rs2. Max candy is being sourced through third-party manufacturing deals in Gujarat and Bhopal.
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Cola majors report rising sales
New Delhi: Sales of colas Pepsi and Coke are again on the upswing signaling an end to the misfortunes of the two companies following pesticides controversy last year.

The company has reported 15-20 sales growth in the first quarter of the year was in the high teens, say company executives.

Coca-Cola Co has said that "recovery that commenced in the fourth quarter of last year continued in the first quarter with double digit volume growth and significant share gains resulting from continued focus on single serve package sizes at affordable prices."

For Pepsi India the first quarter growth was over 15 Per cent. In addition the weakening dollar against several Asian currencies has added to the company's bottomline.
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Sun Pharma gets FDA nod to sell anti-depression drug
Mumbai: Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Inc., the US subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries has got the US Food & Drug Administration's approval to make and sell mirtazapine anti-depressant tablets in the US.

Caraco got the approval for 7.5 milligram, 15 mg, 30 mg and 45 mg dosage forms of mirtazapine, said the FDA.
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MICO Q1 profit doubles
Mumbai: Motor Industries Co Ltd (MICO) has posted a net profit of Rs 112.37 crore for the first quarter ended March 31, 2004 against a net profit of Rs 52.29 crore declared during the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter has increased to Rs 577.31 crore from Rs 447.13 crore shown in the
year-ago period.
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Santro prices to be hiked
Bangalore: Hyundai Motor India plans to increase the prices of its small car Santro next month due to rising input costs by an appreciating rupee. The company has already increased the price of theAccent model because of the rupee appreciation.
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Samsung pact with AirTel, Idea for bundling handsets
New Delhi: Samsung has tied up with AirTel for bundling of handsets in all of the latter's circles for its two models. The ompany has also tied up with Idea Cellular in select circles on all models said company officials.

Samsung has recently launched four new models of mobile phones including one with in-built camera and integrated flash and plans to launch 25 new models later this year. At present Samsung has a total of 11 phone models here.
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AMD plans design centre in Bangalore
Washington: Advanced Micro Devices Inc is planning to set up a design centre in Bangalore and hire 120 engineers by the end of 2005.

The company however assured its US employees that there would be no job losses of US citizens and said that it was offloading some of the workload here. The company runs design and engineering centres in Sunnyvale (California), Austin (Texas) and Dresden (Germany).
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Bharti net profit up
New Delhi: The Bharti Group has announced a net profit of Rs 619 crore during 2003-04 as against a loss of Rs 134 crore in the previous fiscal. The company said that its service arm, Bharti
Televentures, had turned around and had registered a growth of 64 per cent at Rs 5002 crore in 2003-04 compared to Rs 3050 crore in 2002-03.

Bharti, which offers mobile services under the brand name AirTel, is present across the whole country and is one of the largest integrated telecom players offering a variety of services including basic, cellular, domestic long distance (STD) and international long distance (ISD).
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Siemens' 2Q net up 17 per cent.
Mumbai: Siemens India has said that its 2003-04 second-quarter profit has risen by 17 per cent. Net income for the three months ended March 31 rose to Rs 420 million from Rs 359.7 million a year ago. Total income rose 21 per cent to Rs 4.98 billion, the
company said in a statement to the stock exchange. The company will pay a mid-year dividend of 4 rupees a share.
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Reliance looks for Rs 9000 crore debt for power project
New Delhi: Reliance Energy has made a presentation to
a consortium of financial institutions seeking a debt
of Rs 9,000 crore for its proposed 3,500 MW power
plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. The company envisages
an investment of over Rs 10,000 crore over the
project.

The project has a 90 per cent debt and 10 per cent
equity component against the industry norm of 70:30
debt-equity ratio. Reliance has already started spadework on the 3500 MW
gas-based power plant at Dadri and had earlier
announced that first phase of 1200 MW would be
completed within 24 months from starting.
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Motorola soon to be at second slot in mobile market
New Delhi: India has emerged as one of the top three markets for telecom company Motorola in the Asia Pacific region, according to the company.

China is its top market in the region followed by Japan after which comes India.

The company claims it is moving closer to number two position in the mobile handset market in India and is already in that position in a certain segment of mobile handsets.

On the telecom infrastructure side the company claims to be on par with Ericcson.
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