Tata Chem. may revise bid for Egyptian Fertiliser
Mumbai: The Tata Chemicals Ltd's $450 million open offer for the Egyptian Fertiliser Company (EFC), made through wholly owned subsidiary Homefield International Pvt Ltd. has been bettered by a counter bid by a West Asia company leaving the company time till Tuesday to revise and better its original offer, senior officials from the company have said.

Last Wednesday, Tata Chemicals (TCL) had disclosed its $450-million (Rs2,000 crore) bid to acquire control of EFC, a manufacturer of urea and ammonia.

If successful, the bid will add 650,000 tonnes of urea and 400,000 tonnes of ammonia to TCL's portfolio, besides giving the Indian manufacturer a toehold in the gas-rich region.

While TCL's offer was at $305, the counter offer has come in at $350 per share. With 1.475 million EFC shares at stake, the second offer now stands valued at $516.25 million.

TCL will use the entire $150 million from its FCCB issue, backed by internal accruals and bridge loans (already arranged), to fund its bid; the bridge loans are likely to be converted later into a bond issue, company officials said.
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Salem steel mulling Rs.1,136 crore modernisation plan
Kolkata: Steel Authority of India Ltd has worked out an Rs1,136-crore modernisation plan for its Salem steel plant as part of the company's corporate plan 2011-12.

While one part of the plan focuses on backward integration with a steel melting shop, the forward integration would happen with a cold-rolling mill and an analysing and pickling unit. Once the modernisation project is completed, Salem steel plant's annual capacity would increase from 1.80 lakh tonnes to 3.70 lakh tonnes.

In the current financial year, Salem Steel is trying to broadbase its raw material source. The plant has already started importing steel slabs from Taiwan, South Africa and South America. It is also looking at a Chinese source.

Salem Steel would also get steel slabs from Alloy Steel Plant, another speciality steel plant of SAIL, once its AOD (argon oxygen decarburisation) unit is commissioned. It is likely to be ready in 2006.

In 2004-05, Salem Steel exported 67,000 tonnes of stainless steel. Its domestic sales were approximately 27,000 tonnes. The unit's turnover was in the range of Rs1,000 crore. In the current financial year, the turnover is targeted at Rs1,450-1,500 crore.

The plant's net profit increased from Rs1.94 crore in 2003-04 to Rs3.48 crore in 2004-05.
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GE Capital's BPO facility to come up in Kolkata
Kolkata: GE Capital International Services (GECIS) has unveiled its plans for Kolkata, which envisages the generation of employment for over 1,500 professionals here, over the next two years.

The company will be setting up a business process outsourcing facility at the Salt Lake Electronics Complex here with an investment of between Rs30 crore and Rs50 crore. The Kolkata facility, would be its fifth in the country after Gurgaon, Jaipur, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The facility would be operational by the second quarter of the 2006 calendar year.

In the next two years, the Kolkata facility would account for 8-10 per cent of GECIS' total turnover.

In the year ending December 31, 2007, Gecis has targeted a turnover of $750 million.
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Nokia to manufacturing Base Station Controllers at Chennai
Chennai: Nokia has announced that it would establish a high-end Base Station Controller manufacturing unit in Chennai.

Earlier, in April, the Finnish telecom firm had announced its plans to set up a mobile device production facility in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, at a cost of Rs650 crore.

The production of the Base Station Controller equipment will begin simultaneously with the terminal production during the first half of 2006. The Base Station Controller handles allocation of radio channels and receives measurements from mobile phones,With this, Nokia becomes the only telecom vendor in India to manufacture both network infrastructure and terminals in the country, the release said.
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Corporate Results: BHEL, Tata Chemicals, NHPC, ZEN Technologies
BHEL to pay 80 per cent final
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that its board of directors has recommended a final dividend of 80 per cent on paid-up share capital of the company.

This includes the 35 per cent interim dividend already paid for 2004-2005.

Tata Chemicals reports sharp rise in Q4 profit
Mumbai: TCL has reported a 274.80-per cent increase in Q4 PAT to Rs111.13 crore (Rs29.65 crore for the year-ago period) on net sales/income from operations of Rs719.56 crore (Rs565.16 crore) in its FY05 results.

The sharp rise in PAT was attributed in part to restatement of deferred tax liability as a consequence of reduced tax rate.

For 2004-05, its PAT was up 54.42 per cent to Rs340.55 crore (Rs220.53 crore) on net sales/income from operations of Rs3,008.14 crore (Rs2,544.15 crore).

The board has recommended a dividend of Rs6.50 per share entailing an outgo of Rs158.09 crore including dividend tax.

NHPC profits up 10 per cent at Rs.684 crore
New Delhi: The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd (NHPC) has announced a net profit of Rs684.58 crore for fiscal 2004-05, an improvement of around 10 per cent compared with Rs621.38 crore last fiscal.

The company also plans to invest around Rs68,000 crore to raise its generation capacity to 15,000 MW by 2012.

During the last financial year, the corporation registered a sales turnover of Rs1,668.27 crore, up 18 per cent compared with Rs1,414.43 crore in 2003-04. It has recommended a dividend of Rs140 crore, out of which Rs60 crore has already been paid to the Government, officials said.

The corporation has also been able to save around Rs250 crore in interest outgo by realigning long-term credit with Life Insurance Corporation of India at lower interest rates.

During the year, the corporation has also bagged new consultancy assignments worth Rs52.42 crore against the target of Rs11 crore.
NHPC's subsidiary - Narmada Hydel Development Corporation - has posted a net profit of Rs33.80 crore on a sales turnover of Rs177.48 crore.

Zen Tech Q4 net at Rs3.5 crore
Hyderabad: Zen Technologies Ltd, the Hyderabad-based software services and products company, has recorded total income of Rs9.69 crore with a net profit of Rs3.49 crore for the quarter ended March 31, as against a total income of Rs5.29 crore and a net profit of Rs2.98 crore for the corresponding quarter last year.

For the fiscal ended March 31, the company's total income was Rs19.41 crore with a net profit of Rs6.42 crore as against a total income of Rs12.35 crore and a net profit of Rs6.10 crore for the pervious fiscal.

The company board has declared a dividend of 15 per cent.
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