AV Birla group overseas focus growing
Mumbai: Aditya Birla group is focusing on its overseas operations aggressively. The group is planning to acquire more copper mines overseas, increase the group's existing overseas carbon black production capacities in Egypt and China, consolidate the group's cement business, acquire business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and exit non-core businesses like telecom in due course.

The group is waiting for the new government's decision on divestment of Nalco and National Fertilisers Ltd, and plans to change its strategy if the new central government decides not to privatise them. Industry sources said that the group may exit the telecom venture and was just waiting for the right price for its stake in Idea Cellular. The Birla group owns a 33 per cent stake in Idea, while the other two partners,the Tatas and AT&T, own 33 per cent each.

The group is also scripting an expansion strategy for its aluminium business. Apart from this the group has big BPO company acquisition plans and is looking at growing its BPO business, Transworks, through acquisitions. Transworks at present has 1,600 seats and its monthly revenue rate is about Rs 8 crore.
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Daewoo JV plans to enter CTV market
New Delhi: Anchor Daewoo Industries, the Indian JV between South Korea 's Daewoo Electronics Company and Anchor Electronics is revising plans for the Indian consumer electronics and durables market. The company will launch CTVs, washing machines, DVDs and Acs in the domestic market and will price its products competitively.

The company infusing fresh investments to expand product portfolio in India in addition to the Rs 250 crore invested earlier for setting up a manufacturing unit in Ranjangaon, Pune. The unit is engaged in manufacturing refrigerators and microwaves. Market sources say the new round of call for around Rs 100 crore capital investment.
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Haier to set up R&D Centre in India
Kolkata: Haier Appliances India, the Indian subsidiary of China based consumer electronics major Haier is planning to set up a R&D center to cater to the domestic market. The company feels that there is a need to come out with India-centric products in order to create a niche for itself in the highly competitive consumer home appliances market in India. The location of the R&D center is likely to be in Northern India. The Haier Group, with a turnover of $9.2 billion in 2003-04, has 18 R&D centres across the world.
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Punjab Tractors' sales grow by 6 percent
Chandigarh: With improved product-mix and reduction in interest charges Punjab Tractors Ltd (PTL) has been able to achieve a growth of about 6 per cent in sales in 2003-04 against the previous year despite incurring additional costs from major increases in steel prices since October 2003. Sales in 2003-04 rose to 25,607 tractors as compared to 24,200 units sold during 2002-03.

Despite the increase in sales, the company's net profit has declined marginally in the last fiscal to Rs 42.02 crore as against Rs 43.12 crore in 2002-03. Net profit (after tax) at Rs 42 crore, however, translates to an earning of Rs 6.9 per share, almost the same as in the previous year. The company has achieved a net revenue of Rs 603 crore in 2003-04 up 9.5 percent from 2002-03's net revenue of Rs 551 crore. The board of directors in their meeting held in New Delhi have recommended a dividend of Rs 4.50 per share against 2002-03's Rs 3 per share.
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MRPL declares 551cr net for quarter ended March '04
Mumbai: Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals (MRPL) has recorded a net profit of Rs 551 crore in the quarter ended March 31 mainly on the basis of a one-time credit for deferred tax amounting to Rs 705.5 crore. This is against a loss of Rs 80 crore declared for the corresponding period in '03.

MRPL's net sales in the period grew 77 percent to Rs 3,635 crore, up from Rs 2,049.6 crore in the quarter ended March 31 in '03. Other income grew to Rs 438.7 crore from Rs 22 crore in the same quarter, last year. During '03-04, MRPL recorded a net profit of Rs 459 crore against a net loss of Rs 412 crore in '02-03. The company's stock went up by 3% to close at Rs 50 on the BSE on Tuesday.
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Coca-Cola to extend India plan in South Asia
New Delhi: Buoyed by the success of its affordability strategy in India, Coca-Cola is exporting this strategy to other Asian countries like China, Indonesia, The Philippines and Thailand. The company will soon introduce its products at lower points in these markets as for instance in China, the company has come out with a pack for one yuan equivalent to Rs 5 pack here.

Coca-Cola's India affordability strategy hinged on the company introducing smaller packs at low price points to cater to the mass market. This strategy led to sales picking up dramatically in 2002 with the introduction of the Rs 5 packs. The company bagged the Woodruff award (named after Robert W Woodruff, one of Coca-Cola's most influential and long-serving chairman who led the company for over 50 years) for outperforming the dozen-odd emerging markets of Coca-Cola worldwide in terms of volume growth as well as profitability during the year.

According to Sanjiv Gupta CEO, Coca Cola India, the Indian arm of Coca-Cola has become the creative hub for other countries like rural China, Indonesia and The Philippines. McKann Ericsson is now making television advertisements for the Indonesian market using the affordability theme. The region, known as the two billion cluster in Coke-speak, is switching to the successful Indian high volume, low margin model to increase penetration. The affordability strategy, according to Gupta, has not only improved the company's penetration in the country but has also resulted in a better utilisation of its production capacities - up from 67 per cent in 2001 to 86 per cent at present.
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Air-India`s no frills airline to be launched by March next year
New Delhi: The much-touted low frills airline from Air-India is expected to be launched by March 2005. The proposed airline will be a fully owned subsidiary of Air-India and will have New Delhi as its headquarters with operations and services hub in Kochi.

According to the proposal put forward by the board the new airline will have a fleet of Boeing 737 800s and Airbus 340s, with six aircraft to be inducted in the first phase of operations. The low cost carrier will fly not only to the Gulf but also to Southeast Asia, while cutting down on frills. The airline will also start operations from all international airports of the country.

According to sources, the airline plans to connect Dubai Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Kuwait, Doha, Bahrain, Alain and Salalah and other cities where there is a high concentration of Indians.

The low cost carrier to be called Air-India Charters Ltd, will function as a full-fledged airline with its own chief executive officer and support staff. The plan advocates a Rs 10 crore equity base with the remaining Rs 85 crore to be raised through loans to meet the start-up costs. According to officials, the low cost airline plans to cut cost in terms of manpower and other flying expenses.
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