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Tata
Motors and Fiat sign wide ranging MoU
Mumbai: Indian automobile major Tata Motors and
Italy's Fiat on Thursday announced the signing of a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) to analyse the feasibility of co-operation
across markets in the area of passenger cars, that will
encompass development, manufacturing, sourcing and distribution
of products, aggregates and components.
According
to a statement, a joint team will now be set up to determine
the feasibility of te endeavour, both in the short and
long term. If found feasible, the two companies will enter
into definitive agreements in the coming months, the statement
said.
The
MoU is a landmark as it will be the first instance of
an Indian automobile company joining hands with a foreign
peer in global markets.
Ratan
Tata, chairman of the Tata group, said, "We are delighted
to be in dialogue with the Fiat group on the range of
possibilities between the two corporations. Fiat is a
globally respected corporation, with a long-standing presence
in automobiles. Both companies will benefit from this
alliance in terms of possible joint product development,
shared platforms and aggregates."
"The
understanding we have reached with the Tata group represents
another step in our strategy of looking for specific partnerships
in the auto sector," Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said.
Fiat,
currently staging a comeback from the worst crisis in
its history, plans to return to profit by '07 from a record
loss in '02. It has recently entered into an alliance
with Ford Motor to develop two small vehicles for the
European market. Fiat also has a JV with PSA Peugeot Citroen
to make vans.
Fiat
has a plant in Kurla, with an installed capacity of 60,000
cars a year and another plant in Ranjangaon (75,000 unit
capacity), also in Maharashtra. Fiat India's new head,
Paulo Castagna said the company will look at introducing
new models after restoring consumer confidence and improving
its dealer and service networks.
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UB
group consolidates liquor business under United Spirits
Mumbai: The United Breweries (UB) group has announced
the consolidation of its spirits business into a single
entity. The new company will now be called UB Spirits.
The new entity will have combined sales of about Rs3,000
crore and a portfolio of about 130 brands, including Bagpiper,
which is the country's largest-selling whisky.
Vijay
Mallya, the UB group chairman, said on Thursday that the
group has proposed to combine all its spirits companies,
including Shaw Wallace Distilleries (the makers of Royal
Challenge), Herbertsons (makers of Bagpiper whisky), Triumph
Distillers (makers of Gilbey's Green Label) and McDowell
& Co (makers of McDowell No 1 whisky) under a single
entity.
The
merger of Shaw Wallace & Co, the holding company which
owns the brands, and other associate companies, will be
taken up later after resolving the disputed tax liabilities
of SWC, he added.
Under
the proposed merger scheme, the shareholders of Herbertsons
will get two fully paid-up shares of McDowell for every
three shares of Rs 10 each of Herbertsons. The share swap
ratio for Triumph is 83 fully paid-up equity shares for
four shares in Triumph. And for Baramati Grape, the ratio
is 31 shares for every 21 shares of Rs 100 each held in
Baramati Grape Industries.
For
United Distillers India (UDIL), the ratio is three fully
paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each for every 100 equity
shares of Rs 10 each held in UDIL. For Shaw Wallace Distilleries,
the ratio is seven fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 10
each for every 20 equity shares of Rs 10 each held in
Shaw Wallace Distillers.
All
these companies will be merged into McDowell, which will
be re-christened United Spirits eventually. The board
of McDowell, which met on Thursday, has approved the merger
proposal and swap ratio. The McDowell board has also cleared
the proposal for demerger of the investment business into
McDowell India Spirits (MISL). The shareholders of the
company will be issued one fully paid-up equity share
of MISL of Rs10 each for every five equity shares of Rs
10 each held by them in the company.
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Oil
India's Numaligarh-Siliguri product pipeline plan cleared
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs,
chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has cleared
state-owned Oil India Limited's plan to construct a 660-km
product pipeline from Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery
to Siliguri in West Bengal at a cost of Rs469 crore.
A
Govt. spokesman said that the pipeline will ensure efficient
and uninterrupted evacuation of Numaligarh Refinery's
Ltd surplus products to Siliguri.
The
savings in freight and enhanced capacity utilization are
expected to substantially improve the profitability of
the Numaligarh Refinery.
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Hindustan
Oil strikes oil in Gujarat
Chennai: Hindustan Oil Exploration Company has
struck oil in the Pramoda oil field in Gujarat. "The
hydrocarbon produced is light crude," the company
has said in a release to the stock exchange.
The
oil field is located in block CB-ON/7 in the onshore sector
of the Cambay basin, near Palej town, about 52 km from
Vadodara. HOEC is the operator of the Block with 35 per
cent participating interest. Other partners are GSPC (35
per cent) and ONGC with 30 per cent.
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DUBAL,
L&T to set up Rs.15,000 crore alumina refinery in
Orissa
Bhubaneswar:
Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) and Dubai Aluminium
Company Ltd (DUBAL) of the United Arab Emirates have announced
that they will jointly set up a 3-million-tonnes-per-annum
capacity alumina refinery in the Rayagada district of
Orissa.
The
Rs15,000-crore integrated project will comprise of an
alumina refinery, smelter, bauxite mining and development
of associated infrastructure and a township and related
utilities.
The
details of the project were discussed at a high level
meeting between the Orissa chief minister, Naveen Patnaik,
and the chairman-cum-managing director of L&T, A.M.
Naik here on Thursday. The vice-chairman of DUBAL, Ahmed
Humaid Al Tayer, also attended the meeting.
Naik
and Tayer said that a joint venture company named Raykal
Aluminium Company Ltd has already been registered in Bhubaneswar
to implement the project. While DUBAL will have an equity
of 74 per cent inte project, L&T will own the remaining
26 per cent. The first phase of the 1.5-million tonnes
alumina stream is expected to be commissioned in 2010.
The
second phase of doubling the alumina refinery's capacity
to 3 million tonnes has been envisaged along with the
construction of an aluminium smelter utilising DUBAL's
own technology and expertise. Work on the second stream
will start in 2008.
Tayer
said that DUBAL's involvement in the alumina refinery
project will be the largest foreign direct investment
in India from the West Asia.
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Kudremukh
to invest Rs1,500 crore in expansion activities
Bangalore:
The public sector Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd has
laid out plans to invest Rs1,500 crore in fresh projects
as well as in the upgradation of existing mines in the
Bellary-Hospet belt in Karnataka and Orissa.
The
investment includes an investment of Rs300 crore in the
upgradation of its pelletisation plant in Mangalore and
port handling infrastructure.
In
Orissa, the company proposes to set up a 50:50 joint venture
with the Steel Authority of India. The project involves
expanding the production of ore from three mines - Barsua,
Kalta and Taldi.
In Karnataka, the company is awaiting clearance from the
State Government for a greenfield mining project, which
will involve an investment of Rs500 crore.
Meanwhile
the PSU has paid a dividend of Rs128.77 crore to the Government
for financial year 2004-05. It had paid an interim dividend
of Rs 31.41 crore in December 2004.
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Windows
XP starter edition to be available in nine Indian languages
New
Delhi: As part of the govt.'s collaborative initiatives
with Microsoft Corporation, the Communications and Information
Technology minister Dayanidhi Maran has announced that
the starter edition of Windows XP will soon be available
in nine Indian languages. The initiatives will also include
a "security co-operation program" to increase
cyber security in the country.
"Various steps announced today address issues like
IT literacy, taking high-quality and interactive IT education
to schools in India, availability of local language computing
solutions and e-governance," said Maran.
These measures were announced at the company's headquarters
in Richmond, USA.
Under the e-governance project, Microsoft will adopt 100
schools in six states to provide an interactive learning
environment. Microsoft will also offer a special package,
in collaboration with different companies, to deliver
broadband and PC at affordable EMIs in order to support
India's broadband strategy.
These packages will be in partnership with companies like
Bharat Sanchar Nagar Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam
Limited, HCL Corporation and the State Bank of India.
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Russia's
National Depository Centre opts for TCS clearing and settlement
platform
Moscow:
India's Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has won a multi-million
dollar contract to supply and implement a securities clearing
and settlement platform for Russia's National Depository
Centre (NDC).
TCS
says it will customise and implement its eClearSettle
package at NDC, which provides clearing and settlement
for a range of global securities across different market
segments including equity, fixed income and derivatives.
Nikolay
Egorov, general director of Moscow-based NDC, says: "TCS
has a proven state of the art solution in eClearSettle
which will help NDC offer more value-added services to
our customers and create a liquid securities market in
Russia."
TCS
says the NDC deal is its first in the Russian market.
The vendor's eClearSettle settlement platform is also
used by the Kuwait Clearing Company, the Philippines Depository
and Trust Company, the Dubai International Financial Exchange
and the National Securities Depository in India.
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Dhamra
Port project work to achieve financial closure by December
Bhubaneswar:
Tata Steel and L & T's jointly promoted Dhamra
Port project in Orissa, will go for financial closure
by December this year. The two companies have indicated
that work proper on the project is scheduled to start
around of middle of January.
Tata Steel and L & T had formed a 50:50 joint venture
in October 2004 for setting up a greenfield port at Dhamra
in Bhadrak district on the eastern coast.
The project, to be executed in two phases, will initially
have a capacity of 12 to 15 million tonne per annum for
bulk cargo such as coking coal, coal and iron ore. The
first phase is estimated to cost about Rs2000 crore out
of which, of which the equity portion will be Rs330 crore.
The port is to be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities
for mechanised loading and unloading systems, capable
of handling modern high capacity cape size vessels. The
handling capacity will be increased to 25 million tonne
per annum in the second phase. Additionally, the development
of a clean cargo berth to handle finished steel and intermediaries
is also proposed.
"The master plan of the port envisages building of
13 berths over a period of 10 years, which will take the
total port capacity to 80 million tonne and make it one
of the largest ports in this part of the world" B
Muthuraman, Tata Steel managing director, said on Thursday.
The first phase will see the development of a 700 mtr
quay line, to handle very large bulk carriers with a capacity
of 1,80,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt). Muthuraman said
that finding cargo for the port will not be a problem
as bulk of the import of coking coal and export of steel
by Tata Steel's existing facility at Jamshedpur will be
routed through Dhamra.
Besides, it will also function as a captive port for the
proposed six million tonne Tata's steel venture at Kalinga
Nagar in the Jajpur district of Orissa. Muthuraman said,
the state government has already handed over 700 acre
of land at the port area for construction and land acquisition
process for the 65 km railway corridor linking the port,
with the broad gauge line at Bhadrak is proceeding at
a fast pace.
On the protests by green leaders that the port will hamper
the nesting of Olive Ridley turtles on the Orissa coast,
Muthuraman said, necessary steps will be taken to safeguard
the environment and protect the nesting turtles.
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VSNL
slashes broadband tariffs
Mumbai:
Internet gateway and service provider Videsh Sanchar Nigam
Ltd (VSNL) has slashed broadband installation tariffs
in the country, in an effort to make it accessible to
customers. The company has also announced a special offer
for Mumbai, where the company has majority of its high-validity
users.
The Tata group owned company has slashed the prices of
both its DSL USB/Ethernet and DSL/Router Ethernet in Mumbai
to Rs1,500 from Rs2,000 and Rs3,000, respectively.
The company, which offers services under Tata Indicom
brand, is also offering every buyer validity packs of
three months and above, a Rs 500 off on installation charges.
The company has cut prices of DSL/Router services in Delhi,
Bangalore and Chennai to Rs1,000 from Rs3,000, while that
of DSL USB/Ethernet were maintained at Rs 1,000, VSNL
said in a release here today.
For the rest of India, the prices were maintained at Rs2,000
for the DSL USB/Ethernet connectivity mode, while that
in the DSL Router/Ethernet mode were slashed to Rs2,000
from Rs3,000.
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