DHL picks up 68 percent stake in Blue Dart
Mumbai: DHL will buy 51 per cent stake in Mumbai-based Blue Dart constituting 1.23 crore shares from the three promoters - Clyde Cooper, Tushar Jani and Khusro Dubash for Rs423 crore and 17 per cent stake from Schroder Capital (40.29 lakh shares) for Rs141 crore.

DHL will make the mandatory open offer for 20 per cent (47.40 lakh shares) to public shareholders, calling for an investment of Rs166 crore. The offer is at a 9.37 per cent premium to closing price on BSE on Monday.

Blue Dart shares ended higher by 5.59 per cent (Rs16.9) to Rs320.25 on the BSE. Blue Dart's management will manage the firm on a standalone basis after the transaction, Jamison said.

At Rs350 per share, Blue Dart, with an annual revenue of Rs355 crore, attains a valuation of Rs910 crore. The company's paid-up capital is Rs23.72 crore.

On Monday, Blue Dart hit a 52-week high of Rs331 before closing at Rs320.25. It had opened at Rs324.

In line with statutory requirements, DHL will make the 20 per cent mandatory open offer to the public shareholders on November 11 at Rs350 per share in cash, subject to the terms and conditions set out in the offer document, thus taking up the total investment by DHL to Rs730 crore.

DHL and Blue Dart will continue using their own brand names after the acquisition of the Mumbai-based firm. DHL Worldwide is the third largest express and logistics company globally.
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GE sells 60 per cent of GECIS for $500 mn in India's biggest BPO deal
New Delhi: General Electric (GE) has finally found a buyer for its captive BPO operations in India. The company is offloading 60 per cent of its stake in the captive back-office operations, GE Capital International Services (Gecis), for $500 million to General Atlantic Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners.

Gecis is valued at $800 million. Both General Atlantic Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners will be equal partners in the company and GE will remain the largest shareholder.

Pramod Bhasin will continue as the president and chief executive officer of Gecis.

Gecis has 17,000 people on its rolls world-wide with 13,000 stationed in India. The company is projected to post a turnover of $420 million in 2004 and $513 million in 2005.
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Infosys may soon have majority foreign holding
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies is all set to go global in the true sense. Infosys Technologies Board of director's approval to the sponsored Secondary ADS offering is likely to take the company to a stage where foreign entities will have a majority stake in the company.

As on September 30, 2004, the total foreign shareholding including ADR holdings is 49.21 per cent. It is likely now to cross the majority 51 per cent after the sponsored Secondary ADS offering comes to a close.

Sources said that the total increase in the US stock float will be about 6 per cent as a result of this 16 million ADSs infusion. Even if the FII participation is to the extent of 2-3 per cent, the actual foreign holding in the company may be 51 per cent or more.

Today, of the total 267.8 million shares, about 131.7 (49.21 per cent) million shares constitute foreign holding. Of this 131.7 million, nearly 21.2 million shares are in the form of ADS.

The current Indian shareholding, including those of promoters, is 50.8 per cent. Following the offer, if 16 million shares are tendered and accepted, the Indian shareholding will reduced to 120.06 million shares.
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K Sera Sera plans to raise Rs 100 cr
Mumbai: K Sera Sera Productions, a listed company, plans to raise roughly Rs100 crore from the markets over the next five years. The company has appointed management consultants Ernst & Young to raise funds from the domestic market.

The company is planning to enter the international markets with its distinctive style of filmmaking which it feels will do well globally.

According to a company official, K Sera Sera's films provide films for niche audiences in urban markets. The company's planned foray into the international market will not be based on the emergent crossover genre of film-making, but would be a product for the global market.

K Sera Sera is also de-risking its film business by entering the market for television software and content for gaming, besides long-term production deals with satellite broadcasters (it has one with Sahara) that recover a bulk of film production cost through television rights.

Recently, the company entered into a licence agreement with VSNL to offer content from its films (titles like Ek Hasina Thi, Darna Mana Hai, Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Ab Tak Chappan, Gayab, Bhoot, Road, Vaastu Shastra and Naach) in electronic format.

K Sera Sera is aiming to have 50:50 mix of income from television, film distribution, broadband and wireless content.

From a turnover of Rs24 crore in 2003-04, K Sera Sera is expected to turn in revenues of Rs 60 crore this fiscal.
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Orchid Chem looks at $1-b turnover
Hyderabad: The Chennai-based Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals has planned out a detailed marketing strategy and is aiming to achieve a turnover of $1 billion by 2009-10 from the current size of $160 million.

The company expects its new marketing strategy of aggressively expanding product portfolio and tapping regulated markets to enable it triple business volume in the next three years and then double it further in the next two years.

The new marketing strategy, based on recommendations by consultants McKinsey, is targeted at reversing the revenue generation levels from regulated markets. While the initial growth is expected to come from cephalosporins, the revenue drivers thereafter would include entry into diverse therapeutic groups, greater spread in the US, European Union and Japanese markets, and accelerated drug discovery initiatives.

Against a current contribution of around 20 per cent from the regulated markets, the company is targeting nearly 80 per cent revenues from the regulated markets in the next 3-5 years.

The company has identified 15 key antibiotic formulation products that will drive the company's entry and growth in the US generics market. Among these, several high-margin products are going off patent between 2005 and 2008. Of this, eight products are injectible antibiotics and seven, oral cephalosporins. The retail market for these products in US market is estimated at $3 billion.
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Birla to focus on RMC plants
Kolkata: The Aditya Birla group is setting up 30 ready-mix-concrete (RMC) cement plants at several locations across the country in the next two years.

The only dilemma of the company is over which of its two cement companies - Grasim or UltraTech CemCo Ltd - would install and run these RMCs.

The final decision would be taken after studying the existing synergies between the two companies.

At present, the Aditya Birla group owns eight RMCs, all owned by Grasim. The RMC business of the L&T Cement renamed UltraTech, was not sold off to the Birlas and has remained with L&T.

The RMC plants of Grasim are located in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon and Noida. The capacity of a proposed RMC plant in Kolkata of 6,000-7,000 cubic metres per month would cost around Rs 8-10 crore.

Meanwhile, the board of UltraTech has cleared a capital expenditure programme of Rs 200 crore aimed at de-bottlenecking the plants, which in return would increase the total capacity by 2.5 million tonnes (mt) per annum.

At present, the Aditya Birla group's total cement capacity is 31 mt per annum, of which 17 mt per annum is from the UltraTech units. This capital expenditure programme would be spread over two years.
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HDFC-Barclays JV to double staff to 10,000
Mumbai: Intelenet Global Services, the 50:50 BPO joint venture between HDFC and Barclays Bank Plc plans to more than double its headcount, to around 10,000 employees, by January 2006.

The company plans to be listed on the stock exchanges in the next 2-3 years.

Intelenet currently employs 4,700 people and services 18 clients, including 6 banks, financial institutions and insurance companies.

The British bank has entered into an agreement with its trade unions, which entail redeployment and training of staff rendered surplus to get over the opposition to outsourcing.
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Petronet India up for sale
Mumbai: The end of Petronet India, the joint venture between the public sector oil companies, is near. The company will be either sold or wound up by the end of the current financial year.

Petronet India chairman AM Uplenchwar said that the board has mandated ICICI Securities to identify buyers for the joint venture (JV) and also do the evaluation. He added that the advisor would also suggest on how to dismantle the venture if there are no buyers.
Uplenchwar added that Petronet pipelines are not going to be viable unless the throughput volumes are large. Most of the pipelines conceived by Petronet are not yielding good returns.

Hence, the company is exploring the possibility of selling off individual pipelines or the company as a whole.

Uplenchwar said that the buyer could pay the stakeholding companies in the ratio of their equity. Petronet India does not have any debt he said.

The PSUs - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) - have 16.5 per cent equity each in the company, while IBP has a two per cent stake.
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Govt makes serious bid to tackle coal shortage
Mumbai: The central governmenthas allotted captive coal mine block to the state-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in north Karanpura, Jharkhand, to tackle mounting coal shortages.

The power ministry has asked the NTPC to shortly give a detailed strategy so that coal production can be started within the next four years.

NTPC would be able to produce from 20 to 25 million tonne of coal annually from the allotted captive mine block.

Sources said the power ministry has asked NTPC to float an expression of interest for a joint venture partner for the proposed exploitation of captive coal mine.
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HPCL to shut ailing retail fuel outlets
Mumbai: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) is setting up of 700 plus outlets during the current year to tackle mounting coal shortages, and will shut down those retail outlets, which are not performing well.

Company officials also said the company would relocate some outlets to new locations since obstructions such as flyovers have come up, affecting sales.

The company had about 3,300 outlets till last year and has been aggressively pushing its high end Club HP brand with the total number of outlets under it being 1,280 as on March 2004.
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