Tatas eye overseas sales of $5 b in 2004-05
New Delhi: The Tata group is targeting overseas sales of $5 billion this fiscal through a strategy that will encompass a mix of acquisitions, joint ventures and exports. The group had recorded sales of $3 billion last year.

"We are looking at greenfield projects, acquisitions as well as alliances to achieve the $5-billion international sales figure this year, but we will be selective about geographies. We expect overseas sales to increase to $10 billion in the next few years," Alan Rosling, Executive Director, Tata Sons, said on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit.

"All major Tata Group companies would have to engage with the issue of being a global player. Some may decide to go global, while others may decide to concentrate on the domestic market, depending on the industry in which they operate.

The four companies currently driving the group's overseas sales are Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Indian Hotels.
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Tatas to increase stake in companies
Mumbai: Tata Sons' Chairman Ratan Tata has said that he plans to increase his hold in the Tata empire.

He said he plans to increase the company's stake in the 80 Tata companies from the current average of 26 per cent to 50 per cent.
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RIL was briefed on Reliance Energy plans in October
Mumbai: Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) has said that it had made detailed presentations on its growth strategy and plans to the board of Reliance Industries, including the Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Mukesh Ambani, on October 20.

The day-long meeting was intended to keep the board of RIL - which owns a little over half of Reliance Energy - fully abreast of the growth strategy and future plans of the energy company, an REL release said here on Tuesday.

"The REL board treated its RIL counterpart to a series of detailed presentations, covering the entire gamut of issues facing the power sector in the country: from opportunities in generation, transmission, distribution and trading to the deployment of funds by REL. The RIL board was also given extensive briefing about REL's distribution businesses in Mumbai, Delhi and Orissa as well as the status of the upcoming power project at Dhirubhai Ambani Energy City in Uttar Pradesh," the release said.

This release is by way of countering the impression that has been created that neither the RILs board nor its Chairman were taken into confidence when these investment plans were announced. In February this year, REL said it planned to invest in a 3,740-MW power project to be built at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.
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Essar Oil board to discuss debt restructuring
Mumbai: Essar Oil Ltd has informed the stock exchanges that its board of directors will meet on December 13, to consider a revised debt-restructuring package approved by lenders.

The corporate debt restructuring team, led by ICICI Bank, which reappraised the project, had last year approved the package under which the revised cost of the refinery had been assessed at Rs9,863 crore. A final letter of approval - called the master letter of approval in banking terms - has now been adopted by the lenders, an institutional source said.

Since many of the lenders have already reached the prudential exposure limit, they may require the RBI approval to lend more funds.
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Hindustan Diamond to pick up stake in De Beers India
Mumbai: Hindustan Diamond Company (HDC) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with De Beers India to pick up a 26 per cent stake in the latter by investing $3.75 million. HDC is a 50:50 joint venture between the Government of India and De Beers, set up in 1978.

The official signing of the MoU took place at De Beers' corporate headquarters at Johannesburg, South Africa on December 6.
De Beers India's exploration investment in India to date has been approximately Rs45 crore with planned expenditure in 2005 budgeted at Rs35 crore.
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Kazakhstan contract for PSL
New Delhi: PSL Ltd has bagged the order to design and set up a steel pipe mill in Kazakhstan, according to a company release. The order, valued at $9 million, is for designing, engineering, supplying, erecting and commissioning of a plant with an annual capacity of 75,000 tonnes.

The mill, to be owned and operated by Nefte Gastruba JSC, is promoted by Ispat Karnet, an outfit of the L.N. Mittal group, and is scheduled to be completed by January 2006.
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Ranbaxy goes for a German buyout
New Delhi: After acquiring the French company RPG (Aventis), Ranbaxy Laboratories is in talks to buy out a company in Germany. The company is expected to see a 15-20 per cent increase in turnover in 2004 compared with Rs3,743.78 crore registered in 2003. This is mainly on account of a growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The US business contributes close to 50 per cent of Ranbaxy's topline, while Europe contributes about 20 per cent. The Indian market accounts for 18-20 per cent of its business.
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Bhilai Steel: Rs. 5,000 crore investment for expansion-modernisation
Kolkata: As part of the total corporate investment plan of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) will be investing Rs5,000 crore during 2005-06.

With this investment, the company will set up its third steel melting shop, go for total continuous casting, build a compact strip mill and also a bar and rod mill.

SAIL's corporate investment plan states that BSP would be investing approximately Rs9,000 crore to increase hot metal producing capacity from the present level of five million tonnes per annum to seven million tonnes per annum by 2012. Once the total investment is made, BSP would be producing steel only through the continuous casting route. The share of semi-finished products would also come down to 6 per cent from the existing level of 26-27 per cent.

MECON has been appointed as a consultant and the report would be ready within the two to three months. Like SAIL's overall investment strategy, here too funds would be generated from internal accruals.

With the completion of the expansion-cum-modernisation programme, BSP's product mix would change from 74 per cent long and 26 per cent flat to 53 per cent long and 47 per cent flat.
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i-flex to set up facility in Moscow
Bangalore: Banking product and solutions company i-flex Solutions plans to set up a development centre in Moscow in another 18 months. i-flex had last week announced that it had set up an office in Moscow. It also said that i-flex plans to use the region as a base for talented software development resources.

It recently sold its flagship product, Flexcube to International Moscow Bank. The Moscow office will be developed as a hub to service all the 12 CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries. i-flex is currently negotiating with three more banks for deploying its products.

According to the company, there are more than 250 banks that are potentially gearing up to replace their core banking technologies. i-flex had also sold its earlier banking solution, Microbanker in the early nineties to Russian banks.
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Flexcube available on Linux platform
Mumbai: i-Flex Solutions have announced the availability of their flagship product suite, Flexcube, on Linux.

According to the company this further expands the platform independence of the Flexcube suite, and enables financial institutions to reduce IT costs without compromising on performance.

i-flex plans to accelerate its Linux-based deployments to meet the increasing customer demand for such industry-standard solutions, said a news release from the company.
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Veritas to invest $50 m in India
New Delhi: Veritas Software has said that it would add 50 people per month to its India operations, while its proposed expenditure for next year would be pegged at over $50 million.
The company currently has 1,000 professionals in India, and bulk of the employees are involved in research and development work at its Pune centre.

The company also has customer care staff in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
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Polaris to enter biometrics
Chennai: Polaris Software Lab Ltd has entered biometrics authentication in banking software. Biometrics authentication is based on optical fingerprint sensing technology, and Polaris will use it in its identity and access management product called Intellect ARMOR. The new solutions is currently being showcased at the India Banking Summit in Mumbai.

Biometrics is essentially identification of a user by measuring their unique human characteristics like fingerprint and iris patterns. In banking, biometrics facilitates a secure environment for transactions, while retaining ease of use of systems. The Polaris solution will rely on technology that will identify valid users based on their pre-recorded fingerprints, much akin to signatures or passwords that are currently used in most systems, the release said.

The main advantage of the biometric data is that it cannot be stolen or lost, unlike other credentials such as passwords that are assigned to people.
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Dell plans campus in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Dell Inc, the $47.3 billion IT products and services major, has announced plans to establish a Dell campus that would be developed in a 6.6-acre site in Hitec City near here. The company did not disclose its investment plans for this centre. The campus, to be completed by October 2005, will enable Dell to move its entire customer contact centre operations from its current leased premises.

Hyderabad is home for Dell's second customer contact centre in India, with the first one at Bangalore opened in May 2001. In November, the company announced a third centre in Chandigarh, slated for March 2005 launch.

The Hyderabad centre, opened in March 2003, offers multiple services to various Dell business segments covering sales, customer care, technical support, e-mail support and shared services. The company could add more functions depending on its business requirements.
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Jet Airways and Hertz to provide new services for frequent flyers
Mumbai: Jet Airways and Hertz have signed an agreement to offer the domestic airline's Jet Privilege (JP) members (frequent flyers) Hertz's Rent A Car service at eight locations within India and globally, at over 7,200 locations.

Effective from March 1, 2005, JP members availing themselves of Hertz's Rent A Car offer in India, will earn 100 JP miles on every Rs1,000 spent, 125 JP miles in Asia, and 250 JP miles for the rest of the world for every car rental activity they undertake.

Apart from the mileage accruals, JP Platinum members will be entitled to 25 per cent discount for self-driven and chauffeur-driven vehicles, while JP Gold and Silver members will get 20 and 15 per cent.
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Trent Ltd. to expand operations
Pune: Trent Ltd, is set to expand its operations and will add at least two stores to the existing 16 in 2005-06. The company will also expand its hypermarket business and will take it to Bangalore and Mumbai.

Trent Ltd recently forayed into mass market retailing with Star India Bazaar, which sells household items, grocery, food and beverages, health and beauty products and electronic items targeted at the budget buyer through discounted prices.

The company is all set to launch two more Westside stores by February in Mumbai and Delhi. It also plans to open a store in Vadodara in the next fiscal.
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