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VSNL to acquire Teleglobe for US$239mn
Mumbai: India's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) has agreed to acquire Teleglobe International in a deal valued at US$239 million. The acquisition would significantly expand VSNL's ownership interests in undersea cable networks and provide it with more than 200 direct and bilateral agreements with leading voice carriers, many of which are the incumbent carriers within their countries or large international wireless service providers.

Teleglobe, which was once the international carrier for Bell Canada, currently has ownership in 100 worldwide cable and satellite networks. Following a split from Bell Canada Enterprises in 2002 and a subsequent bankruptcy, Teleglobe was relaunched in June 2003 as a provider of international voice, wireless roaming, data and Internet services. Teleglobe later acquired ITXC, one of the largest providers of international VoIP wholesale services with direct relationships with carriers in more than 175 countries. Teleglobe is currently headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda with a large operating center in Montreal. The company claims more than 1,400 wholesale customers and expects to carry over 13 billion minutes of voice traffic globally this year.

VSNL, which is part of India's $17 billion Tata Group, has a strong pan-India domestic long distance network. It is also a leading player in the corporate data market in India, offering frame relay, ATM and MPLS based IP-VPN services. VSNL also has a rapidly growing retail presence under the Tata Indicom brand through its products like high-speed broadband, dial-up Internet, net telephony and calling cards.

Earlier this month, VSNL completed its acquisition of the Tyco Global Network (TGN), a state-of-the-art undersea cable network that spans 60,000 km (37,280 miles) and the continents of North America, Europe and Asia. With the acquisition of TGN, VSNL is now one of the world's largest providers of submarine cable bandwidth. VSNL acquired the network for $130 million (not including the assumption of certain liabilities). In addition to the submarine cables, the Tyco acquisition gave VSNL 30 Points of Presence in 12 countries in North America, Europe and Asia. VSNL also has business operations in Sri Lanka and Nepal and is soon entering South Africa.
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New car from Ford to premiere in India
New Delhi: Defining India as a priority market for the company, David Friedman, managing director and president, Ford India, announced that the world premiere for the company's next vehicle is slated for India.

Though the company did not divulge details on the segment of the vehicle or its likely price, the new vehicle is expected to fill the gap between the Ford Ikon and the Ford Mondeo. As per market speculation the vehicle is expected to be positioned alongside Hyundai's Elantra.

Friedman said the new model would introduce next generation TDCi technology and be available with both petrol and diesel engines. It would come with the Ford Duratec and Duratorq engine. The Duratorq engine employs Turbo Diesel Common-rail Injection Technology (TDCi).

Sources said the petrol version is likely to be powered by a 1.6-litre engine that would be manufactured locally, with the diesel engine being imported.

The managing director and president (designate), Arvind Mathew, slated to take over the company's reins from August 1, said the new model is being developed by Ford's global engineering and design team, with support from a specialised team of Indian engineers and would have 75 per cent localisation. ``It was developed keeping the Indian conditions in mind and has been undergoing homologation test since February,'' he said.

Ford India, established in 1995, is a subsidiary of global major Ford Motor Company with its manufacturing facility in Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai. The company's models include the Ford Ikon, the Ford Fusion, the Ford Endeavour and the Ford Mondeo.
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NELP V: ONGC bags eight oil and gas blocks
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India's largest oil producer, bagged eight out of the 18 oil and gas blocks awarded under NELP V, while the country's largest private sector firm Reliance Industries bagged five.

Twenty blocks - twelve on land, two shallow water and six deepwater, were auctioned under New Exploration Licensing Policy 'Round V,' but the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has awarded only eighteen, referring the bids for the remaining two blocks to the law ministry, according an official release.

A minimum investment of Rs1,653 crore has been committed in the Phase-I of the exploration programme in the eighteen blocks awarded. All three phases of exploration and production would see an investment of Rs3,771 crore.

While, Oil India-Hindustan Petroleum Corp combine won one onland block in Assam (AA-ONN-2003/3), while the consortium of Gujarat State Petroleum Corp-GAIL India-Jubilant Capital-Geo Global Resources got the Cambay basin onland block of CB-ONN-2003/2.

The Rajasthan block went to Phoenix Overseas-Birckbeck Investment, while GeoGlobal and Niko were left with one block each (DS-ONN-2003/1 and CY-ONN-2003/1 respectively).

ONGC won only two blocks - Andaman sea block of AN-DWN-2003/1 and Cambay basin shallow water block CB-OSN-2003/1 - on its own and the remaining in partnership with ENI of Italay and Cairn Energy of UK.

Reliance Indstries on its own, bagged two Kerala-Konkan deep sea blocks and one Cambay basin on land block - CB-ONN-2003/1. It partnered with Hardy Exploration and Production of UK to win the Krishna Godavari deep sea block of KG-DWN-2003/1 and teamed up with Niko Resources of Canada to bag Mahananda Basin block MN-DWN-2003/1.

ONGC has won both the Andaman basin deepwater blocks - one on its own and the other in partnership with ENI of Italy and GAIL (India) Ltd.

Reliance got the Ganga Valley and Cambay on land block. ONGC with Cairn bagged the Vindhya Valley and Krisha-Godavari basin on land block, while it got one Rajasthan block with ENI and Cairn. The other Rajasthan block went to Phoenix and Birckbeck Investment.
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BHEL bags US$100mn Indonesian contract
New Delhi: State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has won a $100-million contract for setting up a 120 MW eco-friendly co-generation power plant in Indonesia, outbidding intense competition from Chinese firms.

The seaside plant will be set up for the captive use of PT Merak Energi group of Indonesia to produce power and steam for use in the process industry, which requires reliable, stable and quality energy supply, BHEL officials said.

PT Merak Energi, which is part of a reputed industrial group, will work closely with the Indian public sector undertaking to take over and operate the plant on completion, the officials added.

BHEL entered the Indonesian market in 2002 to build a 22 MW co-generation power plant. The grid-connected plant went on stream in 2004 and supplies power and steam mainly for in-house consumption of PT Indo Bharat Rayon.
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AMIS sets up design centre at Bangalore
Bangalore: The mixed-signal player, AMI Semiconductor (AMIS) has announced the opening of an offshore design centre at Bangalore for ASIC and ASSP silicon solutions targeting automotive, medical and industrial applications.

The centre was established in partnership with Indian product design specialist Tata Elxsi Ltd. and will be based at the Tata Elxsi premises in Bangalore.

"Choosing to create a new design facility in India gives us access to a large pool of talented resources that can support our growing worldwide design and development requirements," said Tony Denayer, senior VP of product development for AMIS, in a statement. "Setting up long-term partnerships is part of the AMIS approach to reaching our growth objectives, and TATA ELXSI is a strong partner with solid expertise in silicon design and verification."

The design centre will be staffed by Tata Elxsi engineers working under the leadership of Erik Nilson Comparini. Comparini has been with AMIS for 14 years. Before moving to Bangalore, he was the manager of the AMIS Munich Design Centre.

AMIS did not give financial details of the expansion.
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Tata Chemicals launches 'Tata Kisan Sansar' in WB and Jharkhand
New Delhi: Tata Chemicals Ltd on Monday has announced the launch of 'Tata Kisan Sansar' in West Bengal and Jharkhand, a programme aimed at offering end-to-end agri solutions to farmers.

The key benefits provided by TKS include easy access to the market and facilitation of long term, low interest credit by becoming a part of self-help group called Kisan Sahyog Pariwars (KSP).

Under the programme, farmers are provided with the entire package of quality seeds, fertilisers, technology, technical and marketing expertise, soil testing and training.

The programme is already underway in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and has been hugely successful in providing solutions to farmers of the region, company officials said.

There are over 450 outlets in these three states and the company had made an investment of Rs25 crore in these.

The company's over 175 highly skilled agronomists would provide the best agro-practises to the farmers in the five states.
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Tata's Hispano subsidiary to supply 800 buses to Morocco
Mumbai: Hispano Maghreb, the fully owned subsidiary of Hispano Carrocera in which Tata Motors has a 21 per cent stake, has bagged a contract to supply 800 urban buses to Casablanca's urban transport operator, M'Dina Bus.

The first batch of 200 Hispano's 'Habit' buses, built on Iveco and Scania chassis, would be delivered in 2006 to Casablanca in Morocco and similar numbers for the next three years, Tata Motors has said in a release.

Hispano Carrocera CEO Gerardo M Gica said, "This deal establishes a great starting point for our growth plans after tying-up with Tata Motors of India. Europe, North Africa and Middle East are key markets in our strategic plan, and creating a manufacturing facility in Morocco will help us meet these challenges."

Ravi Kant, Hispano Carrocera chairman and Tata Motors executive director (commercial vehicle business unit), said, "This development reinforces our confidence in Hispano's competency and capability to supply world class buses in Europe and outside. We expect to open new markets in North Africa and Middle East."
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UGS and Tata Consultancy Services deliver Teamcenter-FDA Accelerator
Plano, Texas/New York: UGS Corp., a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have announced the availability of Teamcenter- FDA Accelerator solution for the medical devices industry.

This solution, built on the Teamcenter open PLM foundation enables TCS to bring its vertical solution capability to market on the industry leading PLM platform.

Teamcenter - FDA Accelerator allows customers to manage digital product information across the lifecycle in accordance with FDA regulatory requirements and provides improved reliability and enhanced product quality at reduced costs and at the same time fulfilling FDA requirements for new product introduction.

The FDAs Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) - 21 CFR Part 820 calls for process and organization control to ensure authenticity, integrity and confidentiality on all product records from design, manufacture, testing, packing, storage, installation, service to retirement of medical devices. 21 CFR Part 11 provides rules for acceptance of electronic records and signatures. Teamcenter - FDA Accelerator provides reliable quality assurance environment as per FDA requirement of 21 CFR Part 11 and Part 820, to create, manage, control, track and distribute all electronic product records associated with lifecycle of product.

Teamcenter leads the PLM industry with digital product development, engineering process management and product knowledge management solutions that deliver fast time-to-value.
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Tata Coffee to spread business activities
Mumbai: Tata Coffee may foray into tourism by leasing out its bunglows located at its headquarters and estates at Coorg in Karnataka. The company is seeking approval from its shareholders to commence the business of tourism, at the ensuing annual general meeting of the company on August 4.

Apart from tourism, the company is also seeking approval for starting business in fishing, cultivation of flower, canning, manufacturing soap among others.

Tata Coffee is the largest integrated coffee company in Asia with 18 estates spread over an area of about 19,816 acres in three plantation districts of Karnataka including Coorg.

Further, its bid for six estates of Tata Tea has been accepted for Rs55 crore.
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Idea Cellular provides e-mail service on handsets
Pune: Idea Cellular Ltd has announced the launch of two specially designed e-mail solutions — one for the business user and the other for the individual customer.

With this, an Idea customer can access e-mail with a range of GPRS -enabled (general packet radio service) handsets of their choice across all major towns in the country, Idea Cellular Ltd officials said here. The solutions are available in two need-based editions — a push-based mail service and a pull-based mail service. A push-based mail service provides GPRS connectivity for users using a range of the Symbian and windows-enabled mobile devices.

The pull-based service is for corporate users with any GPRS-enabled mobile device. Both these services are available for a monthly subscription fee and carry GPRS usage charges.

All the widely used Web-based email services such as Hotmail, Yahoo!, Rediffmail and ISP-based accounts such as SifyMail can also be accessed. The company has tied up with Starhub, a Singapore-based telecom service company for roaming services in Singapore. With this facility, a user can access his mail while in Singapore.
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Corporate results: Maruti, Tata Tea, UltraTech, Eveready, Reliance Capital, Cipla, MTNL, Helios & Matheson, TVS-Electronics, VisualSoft , India Cements

Maruti net up 33% on Swift

Huge demand for its new compact car Swift, coupled with stringent cost-cutting initiatives, helped India's largest car maker Maruti Udyog Ltd beat market expectations and drive through the first quarter this fiscal with a 32.5% jump in profit.

With Swift allowing the company to tide over falling sales of other vehicles and higher raw materials prices Maruti has posted a net profit of Rs226.46 crore during the quarter, up from Rs170.92 crore a year earlier. Its net sales rose more than 3% to Rs2,612.94 crore even as unit sales in the first quarter fell 1.4% to 121,866 units. Analysts feel the continued cost-cutting initiatives and strong demand for new offerings will help the firm end the fiscal with a net profit in excess of Rs1,000 crore.

Its profit before tax for the quarter stood at Rs335.59 crore, a growth of 25.6% year-on-year.

Tata Tea net up 91 per cent
Tata Tea Limited has achieved an after tax profit of Rs42.81 crore in the quarter ended June 30, up 91 per cent from the figure for the same quarter last year.

The profit growth came on the back of an 8 per cent increase in income from operations, which has been clocked at Rs223.22 crore.

Though the company has exited from most of its south India plantations, its branded tea sales grew 16 per cent pushing up the overall income.

Profit before tax for the reporting quarter registered a 31 per cent jump at Rs36.73 crore.

For the April-June period, the company has reported an exceptional income of Rs10.72 crore on account of transfer of certain estates in south India, along side an investment income of Rs5.92 crore.

UltraTech reports 434 per cent rise in profit
UltraTech Cement Ltd, an AV Birla group company, today reported a 434 per cent rise in net profits for the quarter ended June 30. Net profits shot up to Rs60.02 crore for the period from Rs11.23 crore in the same period last year.

Net sales of the company increased to Rs815.03 crore from Rs679.71 crore last year.

During the period, the company produced 3.16 million tonnes (mt) of clinker and 3.44 mt of cement compared with 3.23 mt clinker and 3.07 mt cement produced in the corresponding period last year.

Eveready turns around with net at Rs.6.29 crore
Eveready Industries Limited has posted a net profit of Rs6.29 crore for the quarter ended June 30 compared with a loss of Rs4.43 crore recorded during the corresponding period last year.

The net sales of the company for the quarter was Rs188.29 crore, an increase of 8 per cent from Rs173.59 crore achieved during the same period in the previous year.

The profit before tax of the company stood at Rs11.13 crore against a loss of Rs5.06 crore in the year-before period.

Reliance Capital Q1 net profit up 40.71 per cent
Reliance Capital Ltd has reported 40.71 per cent rise in net profit to Rs29.62 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs21.05 crore for the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Total income however, decreased 15.26 per cent to Rs65.59 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs75.60 crore in the year-ago period, Reliance Capital informed BSE.

Cipla Q1 net up at Rs.111.40 crore
Pharmaceutical major, Cipla Ltd has posted a 40.55 per cent rise in net profit at Rs111.40 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 compared with Rs79.26 crore for the corresponding quarter in 2004-05.

Total income has increased 23.07 per cent to Rs671.17 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs545.35 crore in the year-ago period, Cipla informed BSE.

The board of directors has recommended payment of dividend of Rs3.50 per equity share for the financial year 2004-2005, amounting to Rs104.95 crore, it said. The company also posted a net profit of Rs409.61 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 compared with Rs316.33 crore in previous year. Total income has increased to Rs2336.49 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 from Rs1958.59 crore in 2003-04.

MTNL Q1 net down at Rs.172.48 crore
State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Monday reported a 26 per cent year-on-year decline in net profit for the quarter ending June 30, 2005 to Rs172.48 crore. The income from services also showed a decline of 9.2 per cent to Rs1,392.71 crore during the quarter, the company said in a statement.

MTNL reported an increase of 100.19 per cent in revenues from mobile services to Rs101.9 crore. It has doubled its subscriber base in Mumbai and New Delhi to 14 per cent to 11.13 lakh from 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2004-05.

Helios & Matheson posts higher net, turnover
Helios & Matheson, the Chennai-based software firm, has reported a net profit of Rs7.91 crore on revenues of Rs49.67 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 compared to a net profit of Rs2.92 crore on revenues of Rs24.71 crore for the corresponding quarter last year.

Software services and administrative expenses for quarter was Rs37.58 crore (Rs18.86 crore).

The board has recommended 15 per cent (Rs1.50 per share) dividend. It has also recommended a bonus issue in the ratio of one share for every one share held. The bonus shares will be issued after obtaining shareholders' approval at the annual general meeting to be held on September 28, says a company press release.

In its guidance for the fiscal, the company hopes to report a net profit in the range of Rs35.1 crore to Rs35.5 crore, and income in the range of Rs220.02 crore to Rs220.82 crore, says the release.

TVS-Electronics Q1 net down
TVS-Electronics, the Chennai-based computer peripheral manufacturer, has reported a net loss of Rs79 lakh on revenues of Rs52.09 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 compared to net profit of Rs1.47 crore on revenues of Rs70.42 crore for corresponding previous period.

Total expenditure for the quarter was Rs51.12 crore (Rs65.39 crore), while interest amounted to Rs1.29 crore (Rs1.86 crore) and depreciation and amortisation to Rs1.81 crore (Rs1.57 crore).

VisualSoft net dips
Meanwhile, VisualSoft recorded a total income of Rs52.05 crore and a net profit of Rs5.98 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 2005 as opposed to a total income of Rs46.21 crore and a net profit of Rs7.90 crore for the corresponding quarter last year.

For the fiscal 2005, the company recorded total income of Rs192.87 crore and net profit of Rs28.33 crore.

In a statement, the company said its software business reflected a growth of 16.95 per cent over the corresponding period last year and 1.95 per cent sequentially.

During the year, the company plans to consolidate its business process outsourcing operations.

India Cements posts Rs.5.21 crore net
India Cements Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs5.21 crore on sales of Rs452 crore for the April-June 2005 period compared to a loss of Rs18.10 crore on sales of Rs312.14 crore for the corresponding period last year.

The company attributed the improved performance to buoyancy in cement demand because of which average realisation for a tonne of cement has gone up by Rs67 to Rs 2,448 in the quarter under review compared to the previous corresponding quarter.

According to a company release, clinker production during the quarter grew by 14.4 per cent to 14.56 lakh tonnes, while cement production increased by 44 per cent to 17.38 lakh tonnes.

With higher market share for cement affording higher margin, the company reduced clinker export and sales to 1.35 lakh tonnes (2.06 lakh tonnes).
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