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Videocon plans merger of two group companies
Mumbai: Videocon is planning to merge two of its group companies, Videocon Industries and Videocon International on the basis of advice given by the Development Bank of Singapore and ICICI.

As a result of the merger the combined market capitalisation of the two firms would come to around Rs9,600 crore. Videocon International markets consumer durables/electronics while Videocon Industries has interests in the oil/energy sector.

The France-based Thomson SA had recently acquired 14 per cent stake each in Videocon Industries and Videocon International for a sum of Rs1,280 crore.
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M&M mulls listing three companies
Mumbai: The Mahindra & Mahindra group is planning to list three group companies-Mahindra British Telecom, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and Mahindra Automotive Steels.

According to Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra the Mahindra group wants its flagship in every sector to be listed.

The Mahindra group has over 20 companies operating in six sectors-automotive, farm equipment, auto component, trade and financial services, information technology and infrastructure.

Mahindra & Mahindra (the flagship company of the group which is into automotive and farm equipment) and Mahindra Gesco (the group's leading infrastructure company) are listed entities.

The timing of the IPOs would depend capital requirement of the company concerned and the condition of the stock market.
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Computer sales stagnant: MAIT
New Delhi: According to a MAIT study, computer sales in India have clocked 3.63 million units in 2004-05, compared to 3.03 million units sold in the previous year, falling short of the annual target of 4 million units.

The desktop market notched 3.63 million units in 2004-05 registering a growth of 20 per cent over the last fiscal.

MAIT says the lower-than-expected performance in FY05 is owing to the lull in sales witnessed in the January-March quarter following confusion just before the Union Budget and the implementation of Value-Added Tax (VAT) regime.

According to MAIT, PC sales are expected to cross 4.25 million units in 2005-06, reflecting a growth of 17 per cent. However, the industry remains upbeat that the growth in 2005-06 would be in the region of 25-30 per cent.

The growth rate in the PC market is witnessing a declining trend. From a high of 37 per cent in 2002-03, the growth rate slipped to 32 per cent in 2003-04, 20 per cent in 2004-05 and an estimated 17 per cent in 2005-06.

PC sales in top four cities grew by 8 per cent accounting for 38 per cent of the total market. Sales of PCs in smaller towns grew 34 per cent, accounting for 51 per cent of total market.
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BPL`s revamp plan hits a new block
Bangalore: BPL Ltd has run up against one more hurdle in getting clearance for its Rs1,400-crore restructuring package.

The company, which recently received clearance from a majority of banks and financial institutions, has been asked to seek details from people who are against the corporate debt restructuring. Senior officials of BPL say this would open up a number of requests from vendors who were supplying to BPL when it was functioning in proper shape before it got into the vicious circle of debt.

The company says it's vendors would be in an uneasy position over BPL's efforts to move its entire colour TV manufacturing assets and businesses to the proposed new 50:50 joint venture with Sanyo as they would have to face a relatively empty BPL Limited as television was the main business.

BPL Limited has reported a loss of Rs268.3 crore for the 18-month ended March 31, 2005 from October 1, 2003.
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Ranbaxy, JB Chem to market Doktor Mom brand in Romania
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has entered into a deal with JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (JBCPL), India to market the latter's herbal brand, Doktor Mom, in the Romanian market.

The Doktor Mom range includes syrup, lozenges and cold and cough rub. According to the deal Ranbaxy will market these products in Romania while JBCPL will continue to manufacture them and will also provide promotional input for the brand.

Doktor Mom is a popular brand in the cough and cold relief segment in Russia, Ukraine and CIS countries. This is the first time JBCPL has out-licensed this brand.

Romania is a growing market for Ranbaxy in Europe with sales of $6.4 million in 2004, achieving a growth of 127 per cent. Some of the key Ranbaxy brands in this market include Zanocin (Ofloxacin, an antibiotic), Simvor (Simvastatin for lowering cholesterol), and Serlift (Sertraline, an anti-depressant).
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PepsiCo workers' strike continues at bottling plant in Uttaranchal
New Delhi: Workers are continuing their strike at PepsiCo India's bottling plant in Bajpur, Uttaranchal, which has an installed capacity of one lakh cases of soft drink per day. 87 permanent employees at this plant have been on strike since June 8, protesting the sudden transfer of seven colleagues.

The employees alleged that the management began transferring employees after they decided to form a union.

The company says the transfers are part of their appointment letter and is also part of the certified standing orders applicable to all workers. Transfer of workmen from one plant to any of the 16 plants has been prevalent and is decided on the basis of business requirements.
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Agro Dutch to invest Rs.100 cr for expansion
Mumbai: Agro Dutch Industries is investing Rs100 crore towards capacity expansion according to a notice sent to the BSE.

The expansion to be completed within 12 months will be funded through the company's internal accruals.

The company is also tying up with DEG Germany, which will invest €5 million for the expansion and modernisation of the unit.

The company is setting up a an IQF (individually quick freezing) plant as part of its expansion plan as it wants to diversify its product range to frozen mushrooms.
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Jindal Steel to raise capacity of Orissa plant
Bhubaneswar: Jindal Steel and Power is enhancing the capacity of its proposed plant in Orissa to 6mt. Last year in the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government to set up a 2-million tonnes per annum steel mill in the state.

With the company's decision to enhance the capacity of the plant, the investment in the project will increase from Rs4,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore, The plant will be set up in two phases.

The first phase of 3-mt capacity will be commissioned by 2008 while the second phase will be over by 2011.
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Indian Oil plans organisational restructuring
Kolkata: Indianoil is planning to go in for a complete organisational revamp to consolidate its business activities. The company is exiting from four out of nine joint ventures with the aim to present a lean, thin and stronger balance sheet in 2005-06.

IOC will merge four subsidiaries — IBP (100 per cent), Indian Oil Blending (100 per cent), Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals (74.46 per cent) and Chennai Petroleum Corporation (51.88) — with itself. While the merger of IBP has moved to an advanced stage, the cabinet committee has approved the proposal on IOBL and IOC board has decided in favour of BORL merger. For merger of CPCL, the company is yet to get consent from the National Iranian Oil Company.

IOC entered into as many as nine JVs mostly in the 1990s. These are, Avi-Oil India Ltd, Indian Oiltanking Ltd (IOTL), Lubrizol India Private Ltd (LIPL), IndianOil Petronas Private Ltd (IPPL), Petronet LNG Ltd, Petronet India Ltd (PIL), Petronet VK Ltd (PVKL), IndianOil Panipat Power Consortium Ltd (IPCPL) and Petronet CI Ltd (PCIL).

Of these, Avi-Oil, IOTL, LIPL, IPPL and PLL will be retained. The last one, Petronet LNG, is the largest of the lot with a turnover of Rs1,945 crore and is developing LNG import and regassification facilities at Dahej and Kochi. The 12.5 per cent joint venture with BPCL, GAIL, ONGC and others is set to gain with the country's increasing thrust on using imported LNG.

The subsidiaries and joint ventures reflected total revenue of Rs23,586 crore and total assets of Rs9,227 crore in 2003-04. IOC's share in assets of JVs was quoted as Rs203 crore in 2003-04.
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Aurobindo Pharma plans to raise funds from global markets
Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharma (APL) plans to raise $60 million (Rs264 crore) from the global markets.

Recently the company received four US Food and Drug Administration approvals for its generic anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), which are expected to open up huge global business opportunities.

The funds from the proposed issue would be utilised for new projects, the modernisation and expansion of existing plants, overseas direct investment in joint ventures or wholly-owned subsidiaries, acquisitions and other purposes, including repaying of existing loans.

The company proposes to list the foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) on one or more foreign stock exchanges and convert them into equity shares at a conversion price to be decided between the company and overseas investors.
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Siemens gets order to build power plant in India
Mumbai: Munich-based Siemens AG has won an order worth €400 million ($475 million) to build a power plant in India.

Siemens won the order from Torrent Group, which has units in health care, energy and financial services in India.
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IOC, HPCL, BPCL likely to post losses
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp are likely to post their first-ever loss in the first quarter (April-June) of the current year, as domestic fuel prices have not kept pace with rising international prices.

IOC's net profit in the April-June quarter depends on the extent to which other public sector oil firms share the burden of selling petroleum. If upstream companies do not share losses on petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene, IOC will post a net loss of Rs1,800 crore in the first quarter.

The ministry of petroleum is in consultations with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India Ltd (OIL), Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) and other private companies over sharing the burden of der-recoveries.

According to estimates, under-recoveries for oil marketing companies in the first quarter would be close to Rs10,000 crore and as IOC has the larger share of the market, it might lose around Rs4,900 crore in the first quarter.
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Electrolux to put in Rs500 cr into Videocon
Mumbai: AB Electrolux, the ailing Swedish white goods company, plans to put in funds to around Rs500 crore into Indian consumer durables major, Videocon Industries. The latter is taking over the manufacturing facilities of its Indian subsidiary, Electrolux India.

Videocon will use the Rs500 crore cash to retire the Indian subsidiary's debts and will be given compensation to the tune of Rs160 crore for tax incentives that may not accrue to Videocon following the sale of the Electrolux plant in Boutibori, Pune. It's not clear if the Rs160 crore is part of the Rs500 crore.

Videocon is expected to get the Kelvinator brand on a 25-year lease with no royalty payment, while the Electrolux brand will be given on a five-year lease where some royalty will be paid. The deal also involves Videocon becoming a major original equipment (OE) supplier for Electrolux's global requirements.

Electrolux is focusing on India as a low-cost manufacturing base for its global requirements.
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Infy Q1 results expected on July 12
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies first quarter results are expected on July 12.

After the results, Nandan M Nilekani, CEO, president and managing director, S. Gopalakrishnan, COO and deputy managing director, and T V Mohandas Pai, CFO, and other members of senior management would comment on the company's performance, according to an Infosys release.
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