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Lancers
now carry a 3-year warranty
Hyderabad: Hindustan Motors has announced a three-year
and 50,000 km extended warranty offer for its Lancer cars.
The three-year warranty offer is aimed at building customer
loyalty. According to the company, on an average a mid-size
premium car buyer spends about Rs 36,000 over three years
on maintaining his car. With the Lancer Freedom initiative,
the company enables its customers to enjoy the product
offering while saving on these costs. The company said
that the Lancer is amongst the latest offered anywhere
in the world and unlike other counterparts, they have
still maintained the indigenisation level at about 67
per cent.
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Tata
Motors launches a range of vehicles for S Africa
Mumbai: Tata Motors and Tata Africa has unveiled
a range of passenger cars, utility vehicles, pick-ups,
trucks and buses for the South African market. While the
pick-ups, light trucks and buses would be available for
sale in South Africa immediately, the other products would
be launched in the coming months. A network, for after-market
parts and service, supports the vehicle range. Tata Africa,
having a presence of over 30 years in the region, has
announced a joint venture with the Imperial Group for
distributing and marketing the pick-ups.
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UTVs
Screwvala consolidates holding
Mumbai: UTV's promoter and largest shareholder,
Ronnie Screwvala has announced that he had completed a
buyback of shares from News Corp (Star) and CDPQ, a pension
fund from Canada, to take his shareholding to 54 per cent
ahead of a possible IPO. UTV Software Communications Ltd,
the IPO candidate, is slated to file its draft prospectus
with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
over the next three weeks.
News Corp held a 15 per cent stake (4.54 million shares)
in UTV Software Communications. Screwvala, however, declined
from giving financial details of the deal.
The proposed IPO will comprise fresh equity as well as
dilution of existing equity. The size of the issue is
expected to be 12 million shares of Rs 5 per share, of
which 6 million will be fresh issue and the remaining
being sold by CDPQ. Apart from Screwvala, who holds 54
per cent stake, 20 per cent is held by CDPQ and 25 per
cent is widely held by investors including IDC Fund and
Mitsui Corporation.
UTV has three principal businesses: television, movie
and broadcasting. The television business includes content
production (both fiction and non-fiction), animation and
airtime sales. The movie business straddles production
and distribution. The broadcasting business, vested with
associate company United Home Entertainment, primarily
manages the children's general entertainment channel,
Hungama. Currently, television contributes 40 per cent
of UTV's revenues.
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Vishakhapatnam
Steel to go for capacity expansion
Chennai: Visakhapatam Steel Plant (Rashtriya Ispat
Nigam Ltd) plans a Rs 3,000-crore expansion of its capacity
to five million tonnes (m.t.) by 2008, from the present
3.5 m.t. According to the company, besides Rs 2,400 crore
from the company's internal accruals, the BOT (build,
operate and transfer) operator would fund the remaining
Rs 600 crore. The company would further expand its plant
capacity to 10 m.t. by 2018 at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore.
This would be funded entirely from internal accruals.
It is also looking for technology partners in Italy, Austria
or Germany.
VSP supplies products to a number of Indian companies,
including Wheels India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Telco.
Around 10-12 per cent of the company's products are exported,
mainly to the US. Mr Panda said VSP was referred to the
Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction three
years ago, but became a zero debt company in October 2003.
The Government had converted Rs 3,330-crore loan component
and Rs 791-crore interest component into equity and preference
shares.
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Heritage
Foods turnover and net profit up
Hyderabad: Heritage Foods (India) Ltd has posted
a turnover of Rs 234.49 crore, other income of Rs 1.34
crores and a net profit of Rs 17.62 crores during 2003-04.
This is higher compared to the revenue of Rs 192.82 crore
and a profit of Rs 14.91 crore registered during the previous
year. The company's board has recommended a dividend of
Rs 2.75 per share of Rs 10 each for the year under consideration.
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KnowledgeWorks
opens second BPO unit
Chennai: KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd, a joint venture
between Datamatics Technologies and Cadmus Communications
Corporation, on Monday announced that it is setting up
a second BPO facility here. With a capacity of seating
600 people in three shifts, the centre will provide services
to publishers of scientific, technical, medical and educational
material. The services would include copy-editing and
composition. The centre currently has strength of 50 and
will scale up to 150 in the next two years.
Cadmus holds 80 per cent stake in the year-old joint venture
while DTL holds the rest.
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VSNL
International to be Singapore based
Mumbai: VSNL International Business Group will
manage its global business through VSNL Singapore Pte
Ltd, which will be headquartered in Singapore. The announcement
reinforces VSNL's efforts to extend its operations beyond
India with the establishment of the VSNL International
Business Group in April, VSNL has informed the stock exchanges.
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Fortune
Informatics product for Kuwait bank
Hyderabad: Fortune Informatics Ltd, the Hyderabad-based
software products company, has announced the company has
deployed deployment of its k-Click ReportSuite, an electronic
document management solution at the Commercial Bank of
Kuwait. National Software Testing Laboratory (NSTL), Philadelphia,
has certified the company product.
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Astron BPO
to double strength in a year
Chennai: Astron BPO Ltd, a UK-based business process
outsourcing service provider, will double its employee
strength in India to about 1,400 in a year. The company
intends to spend about $2 million (about Rs 9 crore) in
the next six months in India. The company has invested
about $6 million (about Rs 27 crore) in its new BPO facility
in Chennai. The center can house over 2,000 seats.
According to Astron BPO it has delivery centres in Chennai,
Thiruvananthapuram and Colombo employing about 1,300 professionals.
While Chennai will be the centre of excellence for Astron
BPO in Asia, the other two centres will provide back-up
support. The $64-million Astron BPO, part of the £246
million Astron Group, provides services such as data management,
business transcription, insurance claims processing, finance
and accounting to companies in the UK, Continental Europe,
Australia and North America. Its clients include Zurich
Insurance, British Airways, Vodafone, Orange and Bank
of Ireland.
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Gaitonde
shoes no longer from exclusive showrooms
Chennai: A new range of Gaitonde shoes that are
to be unveiled next month would be sold only through multi-brand
outlets. The company has undergone significant changes
in the recent past. Its exclusive showrooms have been
shut.
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