Saudi Aramco and HPCL to make cross investments in refineries
New Delhi: The Saudi Arabian oil company, Saudi Aramco, is likely to pick up a stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd's (HPCL) Visakhapatanam refinery as part of a cross investment plan where HPCL will get equity in Aramco's upcoming refinery at Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast.

In a teleconference from Dammam in Saudi Arabia, the Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, told presspersons here that India has offered stakes in HPCL's refinery in Visakhapatnam, and the proposed Paradip refinery of Indian Oil Corporation. Aiyar also said that HPCL has been offered a stake in Saudi Aramco's proposed 20 million tonne a year project at Yanbu.

"We have reached an in-principle agreement for HPCL taking stake in the (20 million tonnes) Yanbu refinery that is planned for export of petroleum products to the West and Saudi Arabia's investment in Vishakapatnam refinery that will be oriented for export to the East," the Minister stated.

When asked about the extent of equity stake to be offered to Saudi Aramco, the Minister said that it would be decided by the respective companies. The Minister also said that Indian officials would stay behind to negotiate the deal. The Minister also said that Saudi Arabia had given assurances that there would be no changes to India's long-term agreements on Saudi supplies.

He added that India expects its crude purchases from Saudi Arabia to double to 50 m.t. a year in twenty years. The Minister also said that Saudi Arabia has invited OVL and GAIL to bid for gas blocks that they are putting on offer by year-end.
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M&M sells its stake in Ford
Mumbai: In a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) said that it had sold its 15.88 per cent stake in Ford India Pvt Ltd.

"Both the companies today operate in a much different business environments and the time has arrived for both of them to manage their goals independently", the company said.

This association did not have any operational or competitive restrictions on either company. Thus, this divestment is a simple change in portfolios, it said.

"Since the company embarked on concentrating its resources on development and production of Scorpio, it viewed its stake in Ford as a portfolio investment," it added.
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Kochi Refineries and BPCL sign MoU
Kochi: Kochi Refineries Ltd (KRL) has signed an MoU with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, which envisages a crude oil throughput of 7.5 million tonnes and a turnover of Rs12,862 crore for 2005-06. KRL also expects to generate a gross margin of Rs723 crore, and has pegged gross profit for the year at Rs598 crore.

Other parameters of the MoU are normal bitumen sales of 1,28,000 tonnes and special grade bitumen sale of 32,000 tonnes.

Construction of a detention pond of 1,20,000 metric cube for rainwater harvesting and implementation of single buoy mooring facilities are the other features which figure in the MoU.

The quality assurance targets include certification audit for ISO 17025 and quality assurance benchmarking of product correlation scheme. KRL has been constantly achieving excellent rating ever since the first MoU was signed by the company and the Government and later with BPCL, a press release issued here has said.
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Tata Elxsi launches centre at Chennai
Chennai: Tata Elxsi Ltd has announced the launch of its Chennai centre, which will house 100 people initially, with the strength being scaled up to 500 subsequently. The company's total manpower strength is currently around 1,700.

The centre will work on wireless communication technologies that form a part of its design and development services division. The company has centres in Bangalore, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.

Commenting on the issue of the reported proposals to merge the company with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the flagship IT entity of the Tata Group, officials said that at the company level, there was no such move.
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Ranbaxy to appeal injunction against Quinapril sales
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has announced that the US District Court for the District of New Jersey hearing the preliminary injunction motion brought by Pfizer against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. (Teva) and Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. (RPI) enjoined Teva and RPI from selling RPI's quinapril tablets (5, 10, 20, and 40 mg).

Pfizer had asserted that RPI's quinapril tablets, which have been marketed through an exclusivity relinquishment arrangement with Teva, were infringing US Patent No. 4,743,450 literally and under the doctrine of equivalents.

Ranbaxy officials stated that while Teva and RPI will comply with the preliminary injunction they also will immediately file with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit an appeal to have the injunction lifted and a motion to expedite the appeal. They further stated that RPI was confident that it will, on appeal, be able to make a compelling argument in support of its non-infringement position.
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Strides Arcolab in tie up with US firm
New Delhi: Strides Arcolab has entered into an agreement with a US hospital company to develop, license and manufacture four specialised injectable products for sale in the US market.

The size of the contract is estimated to be $90 million at the lower end and $160 million at the upper end, including milestone payments, the company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The agreement with the unnamed US company is for an initial period of five years, and is renewable for additional periods of time on mutual agreement, it said.
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Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines in non-poaching pact
Mumbai: Air Deccan, India's first low-cost airline, and Kingfisher Airlines have signed an agreement to ensure that the two airlines do not poach each other's pilots.

Captain G.R. Gopinath, Managing Director, Air Deccan, said, that they will give their Airbus to Kingfisher for training their pilots. The companies will also help each other with spare parts and inventories, he added. Air Deccan is planning to hit the market with an initial public offering to raise $300-$400 million in the next 12 to 18 months. The airline will use the money to increase its fleet to 60 by 2010, said Captain Gopinath.

The airline now has 106 routes and hopes to introduce 100 new routes every year. It has tied up with HPCL to sell tickets at HPCL outlets. The airline has tied up with ICICI Bank to launch the `ICICI Bank Air Deccan Gold Card,' a loyalty card programme. Based on the ICICI Bank Gold credit card platform, the programme offers several privileges to customers, including free ticket vouchers, reward points, free tickets through a lucky draw and equal monthly installment schemes for booking air tickets.
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Escorts acquires Polish company
New Delhi: Escorts Ltd has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Escorts Agri Machinery Inc, US, has acquired 100 per cent equity in a Polish company, Farmtrac Tractors Europe Sp.zo.o (FTES).

The acquisition comes in the wake of a major export order worth $8.56 million that Escorts AMG won recently from the Ghanaian Government for Escorts Tractors and other farm mechanisation equipment.

The acquisition will enable Escorts to expand its European base, by increasing the reach of its Farmtrac range of tractors, with a deeper penetration into the extremely competitive Western European markets and fast growing African, Asian and Latin American markets.

The company will benefit from the opportunities offered by the emergence of Poland as a manufacturing and marketing hub for the delivery of tractors to Western and Central Europe after it became a part of the European Union in May 2004. This move will enable Escorts to target countries such as Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France, the UK and Italy more effectively.

FTES already has a distribution network of 56 dealers in Poland and 10 distributors across key EU and Central European markets such as Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, etc.

In June 2000, Escorts had initially taken up 49 per cent stake in FTES, which was subsequently enhanced to 64 per cent in May 2003. FTES, which was earlier known as Pol-Mot Escorts Sp.zo.o., is a Polish limited liability company with share capital of approximately $2 million.
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JW Marriott Hotel to open in Bangalore by 2007
Bangalore: Marriot International has chosen Bangalore as the location for its second property, scheduled to open in early 2007.

The Garden City has earned the distinction of being the first city in the South while only the second in the country to bag the luxury brand hotel from Marriott after Mumbai. The 250-room JW Marriott Hotel property will be operated by the US hospitality major under a management agreement with the Mumbai-based Gstaad Hotels Pvt Ltd.

Marriott International Inc is a hospitality company with over 2,600 lodging properties in the US and 65 other countries. In fiscal year 2004, Marriott International reported sales from continuing operations of $10 billion.

The JW Marriott Hotel Bangalore will be part of a 14-acre UB City, being developed in the heart of the city as the new headquarters for United Breweries (UB) Group. With a one million-square-foot space, UB City will house prime office and retail space. The hotel will be situated on a three-acre site, closer to airport and swanky shopping centres, golf courses and the race course.

The Marriott International hotel portfolio in India consists of the 358-room JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai, the 153-room Goa Marriott Resort, the 220-room New Delhi Marriott Hotel, the 286-room Renaissance Mumbai Hotel & Conference Centre, and the 179-unit Lakeside Chalet Marriott Executive Apartments.
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NMDC and Steel ministry MoU raise targets
Hyderabad: The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Union Ministry of Steel, laying down targets for the year 2005-06.

While the target for finished iron ore has been fixed at 210 lakh tonnes, up by 13.10 lakh tonnes from last year, the sale of iron ore would be at 231 lakh tonnes, an increase of over 11 lakh tonnes. For diamonds, the new figure would be 78,000 carats, higher by 2,100 carats, a press release said here.
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Cell operators complain against 'predatory' pricing by Reliance
New Delhi: Cellular operators have lodged a complaint with the telecom regulator against the unlimited talktime tariffs offered by Reliance Infocomm. They have said that these tariffs were predatory in nature.

Cellular operators have told the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that the Reliance offer was in violation of a tariff order that barred operators from indulging in differential tariffs.

In a letter written to the TRAI, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said, "It is submitted that these tariffs are predatory as the same tariff and rates are not transparently available to the other access providers who are its competitors.

We believe that by offering such tariffs, Reliance is squeezing the margins of it competitors as it has lowered its retail tariffs of competitive services in the downstream market whilst not extending this facility to its competitors for wholesale prices (carriage charges) in the upstream market."

COAI pointed out that TRAI in its tariff order had said that any differential tariff assuming the nature of vertical price squeeze will not be permitted.

The tariff package in question is the New Unlimited Talk-time tariff plans from Reliance Infocomm, which offer unlimited talktime to other Reliance phones anywhere across the country.
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