Usha Martin likely to augment capacity
Kolkata: Usha Martin Ltd is likely to acquire a wire and wire rope manufacturing company within the next eighteen months to augment the capacity of its wire and wire rope products division to 2,10,000-2,20,000 tonnes per annum from 140,000 tpa at present.

The company said it had entered into an agreement with JCT Ltd for acquiring the latter's steel wire and wire ropes division located at Hoshiarpur, Punjab, for a consideration of Rs21 crore. Capital expenditure to take the production of steel wires and wire rope products to 1,80,000-1,90,000 tpa was already in place.

Augmenting production further to 2,10,000-2,20,000 tpa was being considered through the acquisition route. This was likely to be made in the US or Europe, the major consumption points for steel wires and wire ropes.

Th ecom-pany said that when its steel wire and wire rope production reaches 220,00 tpa, wire ropes alone will account for 90,000 tpa, which will make it the largest wire rope manufacturing company in the world, ahead of current world leader Kiswire of South Korea.

The company's optical fibre and jelly-filled cables plant at Silvassa was operating at 100 per cent capacity utilisation and was expected to generate revenue of around Rs140 crore this year. With the demand for specialised steel from automobile companies and auto-ancillaries, Usha Martin was augmenting capacity at its Jamshedpur plant in a phased manner.

During the third quarter ended December 31, 2004, Usha Martin registered a total income of Rs303.68 crore, up from Rs205.64 crore recorded in the corresponding period of 2003. The net profit was Rs9.02 crore, up from Rs2.93 crore in October-December 2003.
Back to News Review index page  

Sathavahana Ispat's met coke project work commences
Hyderabad: Sathavahana Ispat Ltd has informed the stock exchanges that the work on the project for the manufacture of 3-lakh tonne per annum of metallurgical coke with co-generation of power of 30MW in Karnataka, as a greenfield project, has commenced.

According to the company, the term debt required for the appraised project cost of Rs173.76-crore was tied up and the first disbursement has been availed of.
Back to News Review index page  

Neyvelli Lignite to raise funds from REC
Chennai: Neyveli Lignite Corporation has entered into an MoU with the Rural Electrification Corporation for raising funds up to Rs2,500 crore.

This is in addition to similar arrangements with the Power Finance Corporation (Rs2,500 crore), State Bank of India (Rs1,000 crore) and the Indian Bank (Rs400 crore). The company is also in discussion with other banks, it has said.

The REC loan carries an interest rate of 7.25 per cent with the agreed tenor being seven years.

NLC needs these funds for its many power projects. Some of them are: the 3,960 MW Hirma project, the 500 MW Mine-II expansion project and the 500 MW Rajasthan project.
Back to News Review index page  
CMC centre assessed at Level 5
New Delhi: CMC Ltd has announced that its Hyderabad centre and southern region Systems Integration Business Units have been assessed at Level 5 of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

The company also said that with the embracement of Tata's TBEM and SEI's CMMI, CMC has embarked on a journey to benchmark itself against the best in the industry.
Back to News Review index page  

NetD opens fourth centre at Hyderabad
Hyderabad: NetDevices Inc, a US-based technology start-up with development centres in Sunnyville (US), Bangalore and Sydney, has announced the launch of its fourth centre at Hyderabad, and plans to roll out its first range of products during this quarter.

The company has said that the Hyderabad centre would be a critical component of NetD's global expansion strategy and comes at a time when the company is in the process of finalising the launch of its first of series of products that help solve networking solutions.
Back to News Review index page  
Vallarpadam ICTT agreement to be signed on Feb 7
Kochi: The concession and licence agreement for developing a three-million-TEU capacity international container transhipment terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam in Kochi Port will be signed between the Dubai Ports International (DPI), and the Cochin Port Trust, in Thiruvananthapuram on February 7.

DPI, the investment arm of the state-owned Dubai Ports Authority, had emerged the successful bidder for developing and operating the project on BOT basis for 30 years by quoting the highest revenue share of 33.30 per cent to the Port Trust.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had earlier this month approved the revised draft licence agreement for the Rs2,118-crore project. The ICTT will be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle, India Gateway Terminal Private Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of DPI to start with.

Subsequently, DPI plans to rope in other shareholders into the SPV by diluting its stake. However, DPI is stipulated to retain a minimum of 51 per cent equity in the terminal operating company. DPI has already decided to induct a local entity, Chakiat Agencies Private Ltd, which will hold a small stake in the SPV.

As per the plans, the Government will first hand over the existing Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal (RGCT) at the port to DPI for handling container cargo. And, within four years of starting operations at RGCT, DPI will have to construct and shift operations to the ICTT, irrespective of the traffic volumes.

Though DPI will transfer RGCT back to the Port Trust after it commences operations its ICTT, the Government has undertaken not to set up a competing facility for some more time to provide comfort to the investor.

DPI will have complete monopoly over container cargo handling at the Kochi Port until it handles 2.5 million TEUs at the ICTT. "DPI will have full right to handle containers at the port till traffic volumes touch 2.5 million TEUs. Till such time, the Port Trust cannot set up a parallel, competing facility," Ministry officials have said.

The CCEA has also given an in-principle approval to provide rail/road connectivity and deepening of the port channel to accommodate large main line vessels of up to 8,000 TEUs at the container terminal at a total estimated cost of Rs843 crore.
Back to News Review index page  

Corporate results
Air India November losses at Rs. 36.35 crore
New Delhi: Air India's has recorded a net loss of Rs36.35 crore (provisional) during November 2004. The state-owned international airline had registered a net loss of Rs38.08 crore (provisional) during October last year.

For the eight-month period April-November 2004, Air India suffered a cumulative loss of Rs111.58 crore compared to a profit of Rs6.75 crore during the corresponding period of 2003-04.
It had posted a net profit of Rs1.65 crore during November 2003.

While the airline reported a net loss during November last year, it has seen an increase in the number of passengers carried. During November 2004, Air India carried 3,50,531 passengers compared to 3,02,460 passengers during the same period the previous year. The total number of passengers carried by the airline during the first eight months of 2004-05 stood was 28,75,458 compared to 23,98,471 passengers during the same period the previous year. During October last year, Air India carried 3,43,928 passengers compared to 3,00,472 passengers during October 2003.

For the year ended 2003-04, Air India reported a net profit of Rs92.33 crore, against Rs133.86 crore during the previous year.

Fortune Info Q3 net up
Hyderabad: Fortune Informatics Ltd has recorded a turnover of Rs1.17 crore with a net profit of Rs11 lakh for the third quarter ended December 31, 2004 as against total income of Rs97 lakh and a net profit of Rs4 lakh for the corresponding quarter last year.

MRO-Tek Q3 net up at Rs5.6 crore
Bangalore: MRO-Tek Ltd, a major provider of product-based solutions, earned a net profit of Rs5.6 crore for the quarter ended December 2004 on total revenues of Rs27.59 crore as against a net profit of Rs2.77 crore on revenues of Rs26.17 crore in the previous corresponding period.

The total revenue for the nine-month period ending December 2004 was Rs88.75 crore (Rs76.30 crore).
The company had initiated steps to buy back its own shares, but it had deferred the plan pending clearance from the Securities Exchange Board of India, it has said.
Back to News Review index page