GE Shipping adds PSV to fleet
Mumbai: Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd has inducted its fourth Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) named Malaviya 20 in its fleet. "Capable of catering to deep water oil fields, the vessel was built at the Brattvaag yard in Norway Currently there are only four PSVs operating under Indian flag and GE shipping is the proud owner of all of them,'' the company said.

With improving prospects of exploration and production activities, and to meet the changing requirements of clients induction of the said vessel will offer wider opportunities to the company, it said.
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Vedanta to buy controlling stake in Zambian copper mine
Mumbai: Vedanta Resources Plc, the London Stock Exchange-listed holding company of the Sterlite Group, has announced its plans to acquire a 51 per cent controlling stake in Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia, for a total cash consideration of $48.2 million.

Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) is currently 58 per cent owned by ZCI, a company with its primary listing on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, and 42 per cent owned by ZCCM Investments Holdings, a company listed on the Lusaka Stock Exchange in Zambia. ZCCM is 87.6 per cent owned by the Government of the Republic of Zambia and 12.4 per cent by public shareholders.

On completion of the transaction, Vedanta will subscribe for $25 million of new ordinary shares, representing 51 per cent of the enlarged issued share capital of KCM. Following this issue, ZCI's shareholding in KCM will be diluted to 28.4 per cent and ZCCM's shareholding will be diluted to 20.6 per cent.

Vedanta has agreed to pay $23.2 million to ZCI, made up of an initial payment of $2.3 million with the remaining $20.9 million payable in equal instalments over four years from 31 December 2005. Vedanta will obtain operating, management and board control of KCM and will appoint the CEO and Chairman. KCM's assets consist of three mines, a leaching plant and a smelter, which together form the major undertaking in the Zambian copper belt in North West Zambia.

The Konkola mine is an underground operation with reserves of 21 million tonne (mt) at 3.4 per cent copper. Nchanga has both an open pit and underground mine with reserves of 28 mt at 1.7 per cent copper and 18 mt at 2.7 per cent copper respectively. The leaching plant at Nchanga has a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum. The Nkana smelter and refinery have a capacity of 180,000 tpa.
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USFDA nod for Neuland facility
Hyderabad: Neuland Laboratories Ltd (NLL), the city-based pharmaceutical company, has informed the stock exchanges that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) authorities have approved the company's entire manufacturing facility located at nearby Bonthapally. The company said it received a letter from USFDA dated August 10.
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Case filed against Morepen Labs
New Delhi: The Registrar of Companies, Jalandhar, is prosecuting Dr. Morepen Laboratories for defying the Company Law Board's (CLB) order regarding non-payment to depositors. The case has been filed under Companies Act, 1956, the Minister of Company Affairs, Prem Chand Gupta, informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

According to the Minister, the company had defaulted in refunding matured deposits to investors along with interest to depositors. The company had filed an application under Section 58A(9) of the Companies Act, 1956 before the CLB detailing as to how it was to refund the deposits to the concerned persons. The CLB had ordered the company to make repayments of deposits as per the approved schedule.

However, it failed to comply with the same. For non-compliance with the CLB order a case was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate at Solan in Himachal Pradesh, the Minister added. The Government has launched prosecutions against 109 vanishing companies and their directors. This follows efforts made by the task forces set up for the purpose.

The Minister informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that prosecutions have also been initiated against 103 companies and their directors for non-filing of statutory returns under the relevant sections of the Company Act, 1956.

These task forces are being headed by the four Regional Directors of the Ministry. Its other members are the representatives of Regional Offices of SEBI, relevant stock exchanges and the concerned Registrars of Companies, said the Minister.
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Ford targets sales of 27,000 Ikons for the year
Kolkata: Ford India Pvt Ltd has targeted sales of 27,000 units of the Ford Ikon in the domestic market in 2004. Last year, the company sold 18,500 Ikon variants in India. Besides, in the calendar year 2003, Ford India exported 24,000 units of the Ikon in CKD (completely knocked down) form to South Africa, Mexico and Brazil. The export target for 2004 has been pegged at the same level as in 2003.

In view of the increasing demand for Ford Ikon variants, a second shift has been made operational at the company's manufacturing facility at Maraimalai Nagar near Chennai. An additional 700 people have been hired on this score as well.

The new Ikon line-up is aimed at small car users who would wish to upgrade to mid-sized cars with customised financing. At the lower end, the Ford Ikon LXI has been priced at Rs.4.56 lakh, ex-showroom Kolkata. The Flair has been priced at Rs.4.87 lakh while the petrol and diesel variants of the Ford Ikon EXI has been priced at Rs.5.58 lakh and Rs.6.19 lakh, respectively. The petrol version of the Ford ZXI would be available at Rs.6.08 lakh, ex-showroom Kolkata, while the diesel variant was priced at Rs.6.70 lakh. The company had sold 1,300 units of the sports utility vehicle (SUV) Ford Endeavour since it was launched in December last year.
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New line up of PowerEdge servers from Dell
New Delhi: Dell has announced a new line up of PowerEdge servers aimed at improving performance and capacity for core business and high performance applications. "The dual processor PowerEdge 1800, 1850, 2800, 2850 servers and OpenManage 4 Systems management software are foundations of Dell's vision for scalable enterprise, providing customer with powerful building blocks for consolidation, databases, enterprise applications and high performance computing," a Dell release said here.
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