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MERC
directs Tata Power to refund Rs322 cr to Reliance Energy
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory
Commission (MERC) said that Reliance Energy does not need
to bear in equal proportion with Tata Power, the standby
charges payable to the MSEB every month. The MERC has
directed Tata Power to refund REL Rs322 crore and pay
Rs58 crore towards unpaid standby charges to the MSEB
for the six-year period FY 99 -04. Tata Power said it
would contest the order in the Mumbai High Court.
REL issued a statement claiming it would have to receive
a total refund of Rs373 crore from TPC towards excess
payments of standby charges. MERC has laid down that TPC
and REL share 77 / 79 per cent of the standby charges
while REL to share 21 / 23 per cent of the amount payable
to the MSEB. Tata Power said in its release that the Government
of Maharashtra, High Court of Mumbai and the Supreme Court
had earlier agreed that standby capacity be shared 50:50
between TPC and REL. The CEA had recommended that standby
charges should be in the ratio of 77 per cent to TPC and
23 per cent to REL.
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Singapore,
Malaysian firms to buy AT&T's stake in Idea Cell
Singapore: Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT)
together with Telekom Malaysia are acquiring the 33.3
per cent stake held by AT&T Wireless in Idea Cellular,
the equal joint venture between AT&T and the Tata
and AV Birla groups.
An industry source is said to have put the cost of the
buyout at more than $220 million (around Rs1,000 crore),
"making it the largest acquisition so far in India's
consolidating wireless industry.
Idea Cellular is the fifth largest wireless access provider
in the country. After its recent acquisition of Escotel,
it has 3.8 million subscribers in 11 telecom circles of
the country.
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HLL's
adds more power brands; increases focus on direct selling
Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is including five new brands
in the "power brand" category. As a result of
the company will now have 35 power brands up from 30 earlier.
In 2001 HLL devised its power brand strategy according
to which it would invest funds and provide marketing and
advertising support to only 30 of its total of 110 brands.
This was done to to streamline operations and focus on
core areas. The company has decided to include its direct
selling business HLL Network and herbal brand Ayush.
The remaining three additions are yet to be revealed by
the company. In addition, the company has identified six
existing power brands to be called mega brand since each
of these generated annual sales of over $100 million last
year. These are Wheel, Brooke Bond, Lux, Rin, Lifebuoy
and Fair & Lovely. The company's focus on its direct
selling network is evident from the fact that it has decided
to use its direct-selling arm HLL Network to for launching
its range of ready-to-eat foods under the 'Indus Valley'
brand.
The products under the Indus Valley brand include mutton
and chicken biryani, mushroom and vegetable pulao and
jeera rice in packs of 170 grams. HLL entered the direct-selling
market in 1999 through 'Aviance' and launched HLL Network
last year and has expanded the network by over three times
with about 2.5 lakh marketing personnel. HLL's focus on
the direct-selling segment comes at a time when the company
is faced with stiff competition in the FMCG segment and
its net sales have declined to Rs2,353.34 crore in Q1
of 2004, as against Rs2,370.93 crore for the corresponding
period last year while the export during the period fell
to Rs311.24 crore (Rs315.62 crore in Q1 of 2003).
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IOC
goes in for aggressive sales strategy
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is going
in for an aggressive marketing plan to face the competition
posed by private companies in the petro-retailing sector.
According to company officials IOC will soon launch branded
petrol stations and change the visual identity of the
stations. IOC's petrol stations will soon sport `orange
and blue' colours from the current rainbow colours. The
new colour scheme is aimed at giving IOC pumps a distinct
visual identity.
By September end this year, IOC will launch 1,000 `Extra
Branded' retail outlets whose fuel quality, quantity and
services would be certified by renowned international
agencies. IOC hopes to take its total retail outlet strength
beyond 10,000 by the year-end from the current 9,155.
The company has engaged the services of two advertising
agencies to create a separate branding strategy for retailing
oil and LPG. The merger of IBP with IOC will give additional
impetus to take on competition.
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Amul
leads in ice-cream battle
Ahmedabad:
Gujarat Cooperative Milk and Marketing Federation's
brand Amul has emerged as the largest selling ice cream
brand in the organised sector while Kwality Walls market
share is declining.,
While
Amul's sales have been growing steadily over the past
five years and stood at to over Rs 160 crore in 2003 up
from Rs 51 crore in 1998. Kwality Walls' sales declined
during the same period and stood at Rs 125 crore during
2003, down from Rs 155 crore in 1998. Amul is targeting
to become a Rs 1,000-crore ice cream brand by 2010 and
to consolidate its position will add 5,000 more outlets.
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Shantha
Bio expects to grow by 100 percent this year.
Hyderabad:
Shantha Biotechnics expects to grow by over 100 per
cent in the current fiscal aided by orders worth Rs 26
crore from Unicef and government orders from Iran and
Egypt in the next couple of months. The company expects
to achieve a turnover of around Rs75 crore during the
current financial year, as compared to Rs34 crore in 2003-04.
The
company also has major plans for its US operations. It
plans to tap the US market in 2005 with its Hepatitis-B
vaccine 'Shanvac B' and AlphaFeto Protein test kit in
2005. A very important test during pregnancy, AlphaFeto
Protein test checks for the possibility of Spina bifida,
a condition in which there is a problem in the normal
development of the spine and brain (neural tube). Using
the AlphaFeto-protein test along with two other enzymes/hormones
tests will also helps find whether babies are affected
with Down's Syndrome.
Officials
said the company's products would be cheaper than those
available in the US and help the company gain a strong
foothold in the US. The
company also expects its joint venture partner Biocon
to launch human insulin in the latter-half of the current
financial year. Shantha has developed the product and
provided the know-how to Biocon. The insulin market is
said to be around Rs 300 crore in the country.
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Essar
Steel to invest Rs 700 cr for capacity expansion
New
Delhi: Essar Steel Ltd is planning to hike its production
capacity of hot rolled coils by 29.5 per cent to 2.5 million
tonne this financial year and will invest upto Rs600-700
crore for the expansion. The company also plans to increase
its sponge iron capacity by 30 per cent to three million
tonne and expects to start captive mining of iron ore
in Chhattisgarh and Orissa this year.
The expansion, would, however, be subject to approval
from the financial institutions as part of a restructuring
exercise. The company was awaiting a nod from the financial
institutions before undertaking the expansion.
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Jubilant
Organosys acquires European drug cos
New Delhi: The Delhi based Jubilant Organosys has
brought an 80 per cent stake in two Belgium-based pharmaceutical
companies, Pharmaceutical Services Incorporated NV and
PSI Supply NV, for euro 13.5 million (Rs75 crore). According
to Jubilant it will make the acquisition through a newly
formed Belgium-based wholly owned subsidiary, Jubilant
Pharma. Company officials said the acquisition will give
Jubilant it a presence across the pharmaceuticals value
chain from manufacturing of APIs to sale of final formulations
and will enhance the strength of Jubilant's life sciences
business in the high opportunity European market.
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Himalaya
expects to grow 30 percent
Hyderabad: With the Himalaya Drug Company's Rs165-crore
expansion project expected to be completed by 2005 end
the company feels the improved capacities will lead to
improved growth in business volumes of 25-30 per cent
against the average 8-10 per cent recorded by the Indian
pharmaceutical industry.
The company feels that there is immense potential in the
fast-moving healthcare goods (FMHG) sector, with a current
size of around 5 per cent of Rs19,000-crore healthcare
industry. With the increasing shift towards prevention
than cure in the healthcare segment and a preference for
herbal healthcare on the part of consumers the company
expects more than 50 per cent growth in its consumer health
division in the next couple of years. It also saw similar
growth in its International business and personal care
divisions during this period.
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Boeing
foresees huge demand from Indian carriers
New Delhi: Boeing Commercial Airplanes
foresees attractive long-term prospects for the aviation
sector in the South West Asian region and feels that there
will huge demand by Indian carriers for over the next
20 years. The corporation says Indian will need as many
as 317 carriers worth about $25 billion in the period.
According
to its projections the South West Asian region will see
a long-term growth of 8.7 per cent with four per cent
in other parts of the world. 65 per cent of the requirement
would be for single aisle aircraft, another 29 per cent
for twin-aisle planes and the remaining for smaller types
according to the company.
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Cola
sales zoom, water sales lag
New
Delhi: Soft drink companies seeing sales of colas
zoom by more than 35 percent across the country irrespective
of region.
It also seems that the rural and price initiatives taken
by the cola companies are bearing fruit and rural Indian
are gulping as much cola as their urban counterparts.
Packaged water sales on other hand are slowing at a slower
pace of 20 percent.
In recent times both the cola companies have been reducing
focus on their packaged water brands. Coca-Cola India
has cut down on trade discounts and increasing prices
to Rs 12/lt for its Kinley brand and has also pulled out
all television commercial including the boond boond mein
vishwas spot. Pepsi also never reduced the prices of its
one-litre Aquafina bottles from Rs12 ever since it came
to the market as it found the Rs 10 price point unviable.
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Maruti,
Hero Honda shining, Bajaj and TVS down
New Delhi: Hero Honda and Maruti Udyog have declared
good sales figures in May 2004. Maruti Udyog sold 44,212
units in May, including exports of 6,171 units which is
up from 39,186 units sold last May and an improvement
over the 39,838 units (including export of 2,910 units)
sold in April, though much lower than the March high of
52,700 units (including export of 8,282 units). Maruti's
May performance is better than it looks because the month
under review saw a demand pile-up after the transport
strike and vendor problems faced by the company in April.
Hero Honda also turned in impressive figures and sold
2,12,177 units in May 2004 - the highest ever in a single
month by any company, up 30 percent over the 1,63,582
units it clocked in the same month last year.
Bajaj
auto however, reported an 8.8 per cent dip in two-wheeler
sales this May at 1,01,022 units, compared to 1,10,726
units sold in the year-ago month. The company recorded
a 7.8 per cent drop in two- and three-wheeler sales at
1,17,200 units for May, compared to 1,27,156 units in
the year-ago period. In bikes too Bajaj remained flat,
selling 87,663 units this May, compared to 87,217 units
last year. Three-wheeler sales dipped 1.5 percent at 16,178
units in May, compared to 16,430 units last year, though
exports were up nearly 43 percent at 16,804 units, against
11,770 in May last year.
TVS, the third biggest player in the bike fray, had a
bad month as its motorcycles sales were down by a third.
TVS Motor's total two-wheeler sales in May '04 were down
by 15.9% at 80,895 units, compared to 96,203 units in
the same period last year. The total motorcycle sales
in May '04 stood at 43,180 units, compared to 63,973 units
in the same period last year. TVS' scooterette sales grew
21 percent at 17,321 units, against 14,334 units last
year. TVS' moped sales, at 20,394 units in May '04, were
up 14 percent over last May's 17,896 units.
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