Shrenuj to pay 25 per cent
Mumbai: Shrenuj & Company Ltd has announced 25 per cent dividend for the financial year 2003-04, up from 22 per cent last year. The company achieved a sales turnover of Rs 409.74 crore, recording an increase of 39.40 per cent growth over last year. The profit before depreciation, interest and tax also rose to Rs 31.08 crore from Rs 22.29 crore last year. The company is expanding its manufacturing facilities with two diamond manufacturing units and one export oriented jewellery unit at SEEPZ.
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Pragati Offset bags four golds
Hyderabad: Pragati Offset Pvt Ltd, the Hyderabad-based Rs 50-crore printing solutions provider, has bagged four gold awards and one bronze in the recently concluded `SAPPI Asian printer of the year competition' held at Singapore. The South African Pulp and Paper Industries (SAPPI) is the largest producer of coated (art) paper in the world. Headquartered in South Africa, it has mills in Europe, the US and Africa.

It started the printing competitions in Africa 25 years ago and extended them to various continents subsequently. Pragati Offset said that the Asian awards were started by SAPPI in 2001 and Pragati has the distinction of being `Asian printer of the year' since inception. The gold winners from this round would move onward to the International `Printer of the year competition' that would be held in October in Cape Town, South Africa.
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P&O Travel India Ltd. is now a GE Shipping subsidiary
Mumbai: Great Eastern Shipping, the country's largest fleet owner in the private sector, has announced the acquisition of 13.52 lakh equity shares of P&O Travel India Ltd (POTIL), an unlisted company. These shares represent 38.64 per cent of the paid-up share capital of the travel company.

This acquisition was facilitated by the decision of P&O Cruises BV of the Netherlands, which used to hold 60 per cent stake in company, to dilute its entire stake. With this acquisition, GE Shipping, which used to have 25 per cent stake in POTIL, will now have 63.64 per cent stake in the company, thus making the latter one of its own subsidiaries.
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Vedanta targets $6 billion turnover
Chennai: Vedanta Resources plc, the London-headquartered metals and mining group with operations in India, plans to achieve a turnover of $5-6 billion from $2 billion now, in the next two to three years. The group plans to invest $2.1 billion in its operations in India in the next year or two. For this, it has raised $1 billion through an initial public offering recently. The balance will come from a mix of internal accruals and debt.

Vedanta Resources is active in copper, aluminium and zinc and has a capacity of 200,000 tonnes a year in each of these metals. It operates two copper mines in Australia and recently signed an agreement with the government in Zambia to take over and run the largest copper mine and smelter in that country. The companies owned by Vedanta in India include Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd, Madras Aluminium Company Ltd, India Foils Ltd, Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd and Hindustan Zinc Ltd.
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Premier Explosives to pay out 12 per cent
Hyderabad: Premier Explosives Ltd (PEL), engaged in the production of explosives and mushrooms, has posted a turnover of Rs 49.54 crore, other income of Rs 2.68 crore and a net profit of Rs 2.03 crore during 2003-04. The company's board has recommended a dividend of 12 per cent for the year. PEL, which has five explosives and accessories manufacturing divisions, proposes to sell one of its loss making divisions located at Godavarikhani in Andhra Pradesh, to improve its overall profitability.
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Lucent to support Tata Tele network expansion in AP
Hyderabad: Lucent Technologies has announced that it has been awarded a contract worth $30 million to support the CDMA network expansion of Tata Teleservices in Andhra Pradesh. As per the arrangement, the company will provide equipment, software and services to increase the coverage and capacity of Tata's network in this market. Further, Lucent will supply Tata Teleservices with its Flexent base stations that support 3G CDMA2000 1X service as well as upgrades for its mobile switching centres. This contract builds on Lucent's relationship with Tata Teleservices on its CDMA network since 1997.
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Pepsico to launch new nectars soon
New Delhi: Pepsico has announced the launch of a new juice variant - mango nectar - and said this will be followed by leechi and guava nectars soon. Two years back, the company had tried to launch leechi and guava as juice drinks under the Slice brand but withdrew these products due to insufficient volumes. Besides, the company also said it has made India an export hub for mango juice due to extensive backward integration programmes with farmers and has begun exporting mango juice to the Middle East markets to begin with. The company is now working on extensive backward linkages for other fruits including a citrus project in Punjab and pineapple sourcing from Kerala.
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Tommy Hilfiger watches launched by Titan
New Delhi: Titan Industries has announced the launch of the Tommy Hilfiger watch collection in India. Titan has entered into an exclusive sub-licensing arrangement with GVM International Ltd, a member of the Murjani Group, for the marketing and distribution of Tommy Hilfiger watches in India. The Tommy Hilfiger watch collection, comprising over 50 styles, is priced between Rs 3,995 and Rs 8,995 and these watches are available at World of Titan Showrooms, Tommy Hilfiger flagship stores, Shoppers' Stop and other select premium watch outlets across the country.
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TVS rolls out Victor GLX
New Delhi: Two wheeler manufacturer, TVS Motor Company, is targeting a 15 per cent growth in sales this fiscal. The company, which launched the TVS Victor GLX 125 here on Friday, is also planning to replace its two-stroke motorcycle 'Max' with a four-stroke entry-level motorcycle within six months. The new `Victor GLX' 125, which is being targeted at the executive segment, will see brand ambassador Sachin Tendulkar doing promotion in a new advertisement featuring Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar and Australians Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee.

The bike is priced at Rs 42,886 (ex-showroom Delhi) and would be competing with bikes such as LML's Freedom and Hero Honda's Passion. The new bike will be available in dual colours of yellow-black, black-silver, green-silver and blue-silver and its disc brake version will be available for Rs 45,886 (ex-showroom Delhi).
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