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Williamson Tea buy out: Khaitan's to be world's largest bulk producers
New Delhi: The Khaitans have bought a big stake in Williamson Magor Tea, which has 17 tea gardens in Assam, at Rs170 per share, making the total deal worth Rs169 crore.

The Khaitans have lately been restructuring their businesses through their two flagship companies, McLeod Russel and Eveready. While McLeod Russel owns and manages tea gardens, Eveready has also stepped into branded tea besides batteries.

McLeod Russel will be the holding company for Williamson Tea, and will relist in the Indian markets in two to three weeks.

"The agreed purchase price of 70 per cent of indirect shareholding of Williamson Tea imputes a value of Rs 170 per share, including a fee for non-compete arrangement in the Indian tea industry of about Rs 30 per share in terms of SEBI," said Deepak Khaitan, VC, McLeod Russel.

"Consequently, McLeod Russel and associate companies propose to launch an open offer to acquire upto 20 per cent fully paid up equity share capital of Williamson Tea," he added.

The new deal will make the Khaitan group the world's biggest integrated bulk tea company, producing 62 million kg of tea every year.
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L&T bags $19 mn Oman Cement order
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro Ltd has announced that it has received an order valued at $19 million from Oman Cement Company for a cement grinding plant at Rusayl, Oman.

The order for the one-million-tonne a year capacity plant will be executed by the company on a turnkey basis with the commissioning expected in a year. The new unit will boost capacity at Oman Cement's existing 1.2 mt capacity cement plant.

"The company won the order against stiff competition from international bidders. It is already executing a 1.2 mt a year capacity cement plant in Bangladesh. The new order from Oman will enhance its engineering and construction business in the field of cement projects in West Asia,'' the company said in a news release.

The company's Oman based subsidiary will carry out onshore construction and erection.
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Foundation laid for new Maruti car plant
New Delhi: The foundation stone for Maruti Udyog Ltd's new Rs1,524-crore car plant was laid at Manesar, Haryana, today by the State Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The plant, which will initially have a capacity of 1,00,000 cars per annum, with the scope to scale it up to 2.5 lakh units, is part of a larger investment plan finalised by Maruti and Suzuki for the medium term, a MUL release said.
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Air India links up Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore
Mumbai: With the induction of three more leased Airbus A310 aircraft, Air-India will now link Seoul and introduce non-stop flights from Delhi to Kuala Lampur and from Mumbai to Singapore and Kuala Lampur next month.

There will be three non-stop services each from Mumbai and Delhi to Kuala Lampur and four services between Mumbai and Singapore, A-I Chairman and Managing Director V Thulasidas told reporters.

One Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur service will operate via Delhi and Hong Kong four times a week while three other services would operate up to Hong Kong, he said.

AI Express, the budget airline, is presently operating flights mostly out of Kerala to the Gulf. The airline is to convert two A310s into freighters and cargo services are to begin from 2007, he said. Officials said that the low cost airline, whose load factor is as high as 95 per cent, is expecting four aircraft between January and April next year.
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Maruti hikes prices on its Swift variants
New Delhi: Maruti has announced that the prices on the three new variants of its new launch, the Swift, will be upped by Rs8000 to Rs10,000 and more.

The new prices are effective 9th June, and so the old prices will apply to all the bookings made before that. Maruti also said that it already has 18,000 bookings since the car's launch. The car's demand also means that deliveries will be delayed.
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Amara Raja are exclusive battery suppliers for Maruti's Swift
Chennai: Amara Raja Batteries Ltd has said that it will be an exclusive supplier of batteries to the recently-launched Maruti Swift and will supply the premium range of Amaron Zero Maintenance long-lasting batteries, according to a company press release.

All three variants of the Swift — LXi, VXi and Zxi — will run on Amaron batteries.

Amara Raja officials said that the process of validation of the battery for the Swift by both Maruti Udyog and Suzuki Motor Company, Maruti's majority shareholder, had been on for almost a year.

Becoming an exclusive supplier for Swift meant that Amara Raja would now have access to the nearly 5,000-strong service network of Maruti, which would give a major boost to the company's aftermarket operations. With this deal, Amara Raja was confident that it would cross the 100,000 unit sales to Maruti alone.

On the company's performance in 2004-05, the company is expected to cross the Rs200-crore sales mark in 2004-05. The company's expansion at its Tirupati plant, which would increase the company's capacity from 1.5 million units to 2.4 million units a year, was likely to be completed by December-end.
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India Today group launches Scientific American India
New Delhi: The India Today Group has launched the Indian edition of Scientific American, the world's oldest science and technology magazine, published since 1845.

Titled Scientific American India, the journal will bring to its readers insightful analysis of the emerging trends in the fields of science and technology and their relevance to the daily lives of people.

Speaking at the launch, Aroon Purie, Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group, said: "India has one of the largest pools of scientific talent in the world yet there really has never been a magazine of international repute devoted to science and technology and published from India. By bringing out Scientific American India, we hope to fill this void."
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BHEL to integrate CAM techniques
Hyderabad: BHEL plans to integrate computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) techniques with critical functions of product design and quality control in a move towards enhancing production capability.

The company has also decided to augment its manufacturing capacity in major power products to 10,000 MW per year with an investment of Rs800-1,000 crore in capital equipment, including modern CNC machines and upgrading of manufacturing technologies with the induction of high-productive multi-tasking machines, according to a release from the BHEL Corporate R&D centre.

BHEL officials said that the adoption of contemporary technologies such as CAM are inevitable for consolidating the company's predominant position in cutting edge technologies and for meeting the challenges of intensely competitive environments.
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Ashok Leyland vehicle sales up 19 per cent in May
Chennai: Ashok Leyland Ltd has sold 4,655 vehicles in May 2005, a 19 per cent growth over the 3,905 vehicles it sold in May 2004. Domestic sales accounted for 4,332 units (3,597) while the company exported 323 units (308).

According to a company press release, total vehicle production at 5,351 units was up 41.3 per cent over the 3,786 units in May 2004.

Ashok Leyland sold 678 medium duty passenger vehicles in the domestic market (656) and exported 150 units (82). It sold 3,627 MDV goods vehicles in the domestic market (2,915) and exported 171 units (218). The company's light commercial goods vehicles sales in May 2005 amounted to 27 (26) and exports two (eight).

In April-May 2005, the company sold 8,077 vehicles against 7,238 in the same period last year, an 11.6 per cent growth.
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Corporate Results: Berger, WNS Global
Berger to pay 35 pc final
Kolkata: The board of directors of Berger Paints India Ltd, at a meeting on Saturday, has recommended a final dividend of 35 per cent for the year ended March 31, 2005. Together with an interim dividend of 35 per cent, the total dividend thus comes to 70 per for 2004-05.

The sales for the year increased by 21 per cent to Rs983 crore (Rs814 crore) and net profit by 25 per cent to Rs55 crore (Rs44 crore).

WNS Global revenues up 60 per cent
Mumbai: BPO firm WNS Global Services has reported a revenue of $165 million for the financial year 2004-05, an increase of 60 per cent based on US GAAP guidelines, according to a company release.

WNS has offshore delivery centres in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Gurgaon Ipswich (UK) and Colombo as well as business development and program management offices at New York, Fort Lauderale (US) and London. It has clients in the travel, insurance, healthcare, and knowledge services sectors.

"We will continue to expand and invest in our key lines of business to bring depth in the BPO business. With a strong pipeline of clients WNS is well placed to grow at 40 per cent in the 2005-06 financial year," said Zubin Dubash, Group CFO, WNS Global Services.
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