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Tata brand may be valued at US$6bn
Mumbai: The latest round of brand-valuation exercise of the Tata group, being conducted by Interbrand, an independent agency, using data available in public domain, may well peg the value of the Tata brand at US$6bn. This would mark a six fold rise over the past eight years, from US$1 billion in 1997 to US$6 billion now.

According to Tata Sons executive director R Gopalakrishnan, while the 1997 exercise, had taken only five companies into consideration the company's total number of brands had now grown to seventeen. He said that the group expects the valuation to be a minimum US$6 billion. He said that the actual valuation might well be much more.

Gopalakrishnan said the objective of the exercise was to assess the current valuation of all Tata brands and the strength of the group's products. According to him the group undertakes such an exercise every five years

The process will involve all brands across group companies-from Tata and Taj to Tetley, Indica and Indigo. The brands will be assessed on parameters like integrity, quality, nation-building abilities and dynamism. The process is expected to be completed shortly.
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Tata Tea looking at a billion dollar acquisition in the Americas
Kolkata: Post its Tetley acquisition Tata Tea is on the prowl again with an intention to acquire brands and mid-sized firms in the Americas. According to company officials Tata Tea is set to sew up a global acquisition costing up to $1bn, dwarfing its £271 million acquisition of Tetley in early 2000.

Elaborating on the company's plans, RK Krishna Kumar, vice-chairman of Tata Tea, said the company had put in place a two-forked acquisition strategy.

On the one hand, it was planning to take over a company along with its brand in North or South America. On the other, it was preparing to acquire mid-sized companies in the US and Latin America, Krishna Kumar said. The acquisitions can happen over the next six months.

Speaking on the sidelines of Tata Tea's annual general meeting here today, Krishna Kumar said that the brand and product acquisition may be larger than the Tetley buyout as the opportunities were bigger now, as also the company's ambitions.

Ratan N Tata, chairman, Tata Tea, said the acquisition would be in the beverage space and that, flavoured tea and herbal tea were possibilities. Tata Tea and Tetley will make the acquisition together.

Commenting on the financing options for the acquisition, Krishna Kumar said, there were many options available and raising foreign exchange had become very easy. Raising resources in the domestic market would not be a problem either. Responding to queries raised by shareholders, Tata said, cash available with the company would be used for acquisition and the company would build a war chest.

The company today sought shareholders' approval for raising the investment limit by Rs500 crore.

The Tetley acquisition, which was the biggest-ever cross-border acquisition by an Indian company at that point in time, was also the first leveraged buyout by any Indian company. The acquisition of Tetley made Tata Tea the second biggest tea company in the world after Unilever.

Tata also said that some of the group companies were establishing a deep presence in the South African market. He said that Tatas had been selected as the second network operator for telecom across South Africa, while Tata Steel had decided to set up a ferro-chrome plant there. The group was also selling cars and trucks in that country, he said.
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BSNL slashes broadband rates by half
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has slashed broadband charges for its DataOne services by 50 per cent.

DataOne home plan users with 256 kbps connections will now have to pay Rs250 per month instead of Rs500 per month. However, the download/upload limit will be 400 mega bits per second (mbps) instead of 1giga bit per second (gbps).

BSNL has also introduced a new DataOne business plan with an entry-level tariff of Rs700 for a 256 kbps connection, which is lower than the existing Rs1200 plan for business users. The plan offers a free upload/download limit of 2 gbps.

The new tariff is an Independence Day offer from BSNL and will be applicable from midnight of August 15.

There will be no security deposit for the Home 250 and Home 500 plans. BSNL has also waived all installation charges till September 30. The company will offer all DataOne home plan users (excluding the Home 250 plan) unlimited night downloading facilities from 8 pm to 8 am.

Billing of DataOne will be on a monthly basis after usage from now. One-time modem charges have been reduced from the current Rs2000 to Rs1200 for type-I modems.

BSNL will soon introduce new wi-fi services to provide high-speed Internet access at convenient public locations across the country called hot spots. Installation of hot spots is already under way at various cities. Hot spots can be at airports, railway stations and universities.
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NTPC capital outlay pegged at Rs.8,550 crore
Mumbai: NTPC's capital outlay for the current fiscal has been pegged at Rs8,550 crore, to be funded on a debt equity ratio of 70:30. The company plans to borrow Rs4,500 crore from the domestic market, for which it has already tied up with banks and financial institutions.

Two loan agreements for Rs500 crore and Rs200 crore have already been signed with IDBI Bank and Corporation Bank respectively to part-finance capacity addition programmes. According to NTPC officials the outfit is also proposing external borrowings through issue of bonds in the international market in the region of about US$300 million, about Rs1,300 crore.

The company has also negotiated a soft loan of 15,916 million yen with Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) for its proposed North Karanpura Project. It is also negotiating an untied loan with the same institution for US$130 million for part-funding its Gandhar Stage II project.

NTPC is also negotiating with Swedich Credit for $45 million for a power transformer package for its Sipat II project.
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Philips India re-christened as Philips Electronics India Ltd
Bangalore: Philips India has announced the completion of the merger of Philips Medical Systems India Private Limited and Philips Software Center Private Limited with Philips India Limited to form Philips Electronics India Limited.

The merger and change of name takes effect post consents and approvals from the shareholders and the High Courts at Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore as per an official release from the company.

The release said that the change of name to Philips Electronics India Limited will enable the company to present a unified face of the brand to all stakeholders. According to the company business operations will not change as a consequence of the merger and name change. It said that the aim was to simplify and rationalize Philips' operations in India, through a single legal entity.
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M&M launches Champion Alfa, a half-ton payload carrier
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) on Tuesday has forayed into the 0.5 tonne-payload segment in three-wheelers with the launch of its Champion Alfa model.

The Champion will be priced at Rs1.12 lakh, ex-showroom, Hyderabad.

The company already has a 42 per cent market share in the 0.75-tonne payload segment, where main competition is from Bajaj Tempo's Minidor. The diesel engine Alfa will compete with Piaggio's APE and Bajaj Auto's GC1000.

At a press conference, an M&M official said that goods carriers had constituted 36 per cent of the 2.55-lakh units sold in the 0.5-tonne segment of the three-wheeler market. Cargo model sales had moved up from 37,000 units in 2003 to 93,059 units in 2005.

M&M will be producing the Alfa at its Zaheerabad plant.
It will be rolled out across the South and Maharashtra by October and be available nationwide by year-end.
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Tatas' Rs1 lakh car headed for a 2007-08 launch
Kolkata: The ambitious Rs1 lakh car by Tata Motors may be headed for a 2007 and 2008 launch even as the company said factors like inflation and cost of steel may make it difficult to maintain the price line.

"Tata Motors would go into tooling for the car, which would be launched in 2007-08," Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata said on Tuesday.

Asked whether the company would be able to keep to the price announced, Tata said that hopefully, the car would be launched at the same price.

He, however, said that it could be difficult to hold the price in many ways like inflation at that time, value of the rupee, and cost of steel and other factors.

Asked to comment on scepticism by other manufacturers, particularly relating to safety features of the Rs1 lakh car, Tata retorted, "they were also sceptical about Indica".
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L&T secures Rs.467 crore contracts in the Gulf
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro Ltd and its Oman-based subsidiary are consolidating their presence in the Gulf and have secured five contracts cumulatively valued at Rs467 crore for water supply projects, high-rise buildings and luxury condominiums.

L&T has called it a major breakthrough in the highly competitive water sector in the Gulf. Larsen & Toubro (Oman) LLC has secured two contracts valued at Rs195 crore from the Ministry of Housing, Electricity and Water of the Sultanate of Oman.

L&T will provide a water supply distribution system to Saham and Khaburah, around 200 km from Muscat. The project is to be completed within 12 months and involves the laying of a 693-km pipeline network.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company's construction division has won three orders in the urban infrastructure sector, accounting to Rs272 crore.

Two contracts valued at Rs117 crore involve the construction of two 39-storied commercial and office buildings in Dubai, for Han World Enterprises Inc and Technobuild Space Ltd. The complexes will be built at Jumeirah Lakes in the Nakheel area of Dubai within 20 months.

The third contract, valued at Rs155 crore ( 130 million UAE Dirhams), has been secured from Trident International Holdings, Hong Kong, for the construction of two towers of 35-storied and 25-storied luxury condominiums and associated structures at Marsa, Dubai Marina.

L&T is already executing the Waterfront Tower at Dubai for Trident International Holdings.
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Ashok Leyland July sales up 11.5 per cent
Chennai: Ashok Leyland has reported a 11.5 per cent jump in its sales in July, compared with the same month last year.

The company sold 4,283 vehicles, against 3,839 in July 2004. Cumulative sales for the period April-July 2005 was 17,603 vehicles, 18 per cent higher than in the same period last year, according to a press release from the company.
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Hughes slashes satellite bandwidth prices by 40 per cent
New Delhi: In a bid to make bandwidth on satellite more competitive, Hughes has lowered its satellite bandwidth prices by 40 per cent.

The company has introduced five new high-speed service plans targeted at the enterprise and SMB market.

Through these new service plans, it hopes to give organisations the flexibility to select a plan that meets their business requirement as they scale up the enterprise applications or number of users.

Priced between Rs2,000 and Rs10,000 for speeds from 256 Kbps to one Mbps, these plans will be operational from August 20, and is aimed at the banking, insurance, and e-governance sectors.

Supported by next-generation broadband satellite routers in the country, each tariff plan will have the ability to support multiple simultaneous users.

Hughes is the second largest bandwidth service provider after HCL Comnet. Tata and Bharti are the other players in the segment.
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