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Tata Consultancy enters UK life and pension industry
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) is entering the life insurance and pension market in the UK through a separate fully owned subsidiary. Based at Peterborough, this new business will begin by taking over the business of the UK-based Pearl Group Ltd.

TCS has been in discussions with the closed fund group Pearl for over a year and it has now finally entered into a 12-year contract valued at over 480 million pounds ($847 million).

The new company will specialise in BPO for life and pension businesses starting with Pearl Group's closed books portfolio. It will also focus on offering similar services to other life companies, presenting it with an opportunity for significant future growth as business process outsourcing (BPO) is rolled out across the life assurance industry.

TCS said that as per the initial discussion with Pearl, it has been decided that the new TCS subsidiary company will employ about 950 of Pearl Group's existing 1,100 staff with about 150 staying back with Pearl.

Commenting on this strategic initiative, S Ramadorai, CEO and managing director of TCS said, ''this deal validates our strategy of pioneering the next generation of business process outsourcing opportunities.
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Reliance's Hazira unit bags US award
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) Hazira manufacturing division, has won the 2005 ASTD BEST Award from the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), a Virginia, US-based association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals.

BEST awards, which made its debut in 2003, recognise organisations that achieve wide success through creating, supporting and championing learning opportunities for results and a learning culture.

Reliance is the first petrochemicals company from India and Asia to have won this award and second worldwide after Dow Chemicals, which won award in 2004.
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Hyundai targets export earnings of Rs.2,700 crore for the fiscal
Chennai: Hyundai Motor India Ltd expects to export 95,000 cars in the year against 70,000 last year, according to company officials. With about Rs1,325 crore in export earnings in the first six months of this year, the company is confident of ending the year with an export income of Rs2,700 crore, up from Rs1,700 crore last year.

The Hyundai Motor India's president, B.V.R. Subbu, pointed out that the company started exports in December 1999 when it sent 20 cars to Nepal and reached the 1,00,000th mark in October 2004. Within a year, it crossed the 2,00,000th mark.

The company would also start shipping the Atos Prime to the UK in November. It exports cars to about 60 countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, West Asia and Asia.

Of the 1,35,165 cars exported from India in 2004, Hyundai Motor India accounted for 85,000, he said and added that a majority of the company's exports were going to "the most discerning markets" of Europe and Latin America, including the Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement) area of Mexico. This was the best possible comment on the manufacturing standards of the company and its vendors, he asserted.

With exports growing - Hyundai Motor India hopes that it will be able to export two lakh cars a year once its expanded capacity is on stream - the company is confident of fulfilling its obligations under the Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme (under which imports of machinery are allowed with an export obligation of a specified value within an eight-year period) well ahead of schedule.

He said the company would launch a sedan - Verna - in the second or third quarter of next year. This would be slotted between the Accent and the Elantra, and probably be priced in the Rs7 lakh to Rs9 lakh range.
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Bannari Amman Spinning to spend Rs.290 crore for expansion
Chennai: Coimbatore-based Bannari Amman Spinning Mills (BASM), has begun a massive Rs290 crore expansion programme, besides planning an entry into the processing and garmenting business.

The company will fund its expansion through a rupee term loan of Rs175 crore from UTI bank and the balance by a public issue, which will open on October 19. The price band had been fixed between Rs115 and Rs135.

The company, which is part of the Rs1,200 crore Bannari Amman Group, is proposing to add 75,600 spindles to its present capacity of 29,232 spindles, to reach 1.04 lakh spindles, to produce 45 tonnes of medium and high count yarn per day. The weaving facility would be expanded from the present 28 looms to 88 looms to produce 10,000 metres of woven fabric a day, consuming 35 tonnes of yarn a day.
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Strike at Grasim's Karnataka plant
Mumbai: Workers at Grasim Industries' Harihar plant in Karnataka struck work on Monday, Grasim informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

According to the company, manufacturing activities at the above plant have come to a stand still. The Aditya Birla group company is seeking the intervention of the State government and the labour department as per the due process of law, it said.

The turnover of Grasilene division, Harihar constitutes about 15 per cent of the pulp and fibre business and 4.75 per cent of total turnover of the company.
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Indiabulls to take the NTC mill land issue to the Supreme Court
Mumbai: Indiabulls Financial Services real estate arm Indiabulls Properties, plans to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order of setting aside the sale of land owned by National Textile Corporation (NTC) mills in Mumbai.

The Bombay High Court yesterday in its order regarding the lawsuit filed by Bombay Environmental Action Group pertaining to the development of NTC mill lands ruled that one-third of the area should go to the State for low-cost housing, one-third for developing open public space and the remaining one-third for commercial activities by mill owners.
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Sri Jayalakshmi Spinning to expand operations
Mumbai: Sri Jayalakshmi Spinning Mills plans to invest Rs40 crore for expansion and forward integration of its existing spinning mill.

The expansion plan will be implemented in two phases, the first phase of around Rs 34 crore, comprises of forward integration by putting up knitting, processing and garmenting facility near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, the spinning company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In the second phase, provision has been made for setting up a captive power plant at a cost of Rs 6 crore, it said.
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BHEL get Rs.68 crore contract from PowerGrid
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals has obtained a turnkey contract worth Rs68 crore from PowerGrid Corporation for setting up a 400 KV switching substation in Uttar Pradesh.

According to BHEL the project aimed at improving power supply to Uttar Pradesh, is to be completed in 20 months.

The project involves setting up of a new 400 KV switching substation at Balia and the extension of 400 KV Mau substation of UP Power Corporation Ltd associated with Kahalgaon Stage-II, Phase -I transmission system.

BHEL will be involved in the design, engineering, manufacture, testing, supply, erection and commissioning of 400 KV circuit breakers, 400 KV instrument transformers, control and relay panels, disc insulators, it said. The equipment will be manufactured and supplied by the company's plants at Bhopal, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
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LG Electronics targets US$6.7bn Indian sales in 2010
Seoul: LG Electronics Inc. is targeting to achieve US$6.7bn annual sales in India in 2010, the company said at an investors' meeting.

The target represents about 29 per cent sales growth each year by 2010, according to LG, which is also the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker.
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Mallya wants stake in Air Sahara
New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines promoted by Vijay Mallya wants to acquire a stake in Air Sahara and is willing to pay US$100mn for this.

However, it is not yet clear as to the stake Mallya wants to acquire in Air Sahara.

For Kingfisher Airlines, according to Mallya, an equity stake in Air Sahara will help in synchronising the operations of an established carrier, with strong connections in certain key sectors.

Ernst & Young, appointed by Air Sahara to find a strategic partner, has put the carrier's enterprise value between US$750mn and US$1bn.
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Barclays breaks off from TCS
Mumbai: The British Barclays Bank is set to terminate a £6 million (about Rs50 crore) annual outsourcing contract with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) but will triple its quantum of offshoring to India.

The bank, trying to consolidate all its outsourcing deals to one company, is planning to offer existing and future contracts in India to Intelenet Global Services - a 50:50 joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Barclays.

Barclays' three-year contract with TCS is slated to expire on March 31, 2006. About 700 people have been working on the financial services project.
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Max Telecom, Hutchison Essar part ways
New Delhi: Max Telecom Ventures, a subsidiary of Max India, has sold its entire 3.16 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar Telecom to Essar Teleholdings at a sale price of Rs 607 per share.

Max India will get about Rs 400 crore from the total sale proceeds as it holds 60.8 per cent stake in Max Telecom Ventures with the remaining 39.2 being held by IL&FS Trust Company.

Hutchison Essar has over 12 million mobile users across India.
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Enaleni to sue Lupin for marketing pact violation
Mumbai: South Africa's Enaleni Pharmaceuticals, the country's largest generic drug company, is planning to sue Lupin for terminating a marketing right unilaterally in violation of an existing agreement.

Specpharm and Westbury. companies recently acquired by Enaleni, had a four-year agreement, which was signed in June 2002, to distribute Lupin's anti-TB drugs in South Africa and other African markets.

However, Lupin last month announced that it has tied up with Aspen Pharmacare, another South African company, giving Aspen the distribution rights in South Africa and the surrounding markets.

Enaleni Pharma, is now all set to defend in court their right to distribute Lupin's products in South Africa and other agreed markets.
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Cipla to talk to Roche on avian-flu drug
Mumbai: As bird-flu spreads to more countries, Mumbai-based Cipla has said it plans to talk to Roche regarding its anti-flu drug Tamiflu.

Roche is under considerable pressure on supplies, as governments in different countries stockpiled the drug in the event of a pandemic.

Cipla said it would talk to Roche Holding AG to make a generic version of Tamiflu. He said the onus would be on Roche regarding what sort of a licence it would issue.

This development comes on the heels of Roche saying that it was willing to give Cipla a production licence for Tamiflu.

Ten tables of Tamiflu sell at US$60 in the US, at £30 in England.
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Tata Power net dips to Rs.125 crore
Mumbai: Tata Power Company today posted an 11.43 per cent decline in net profit at Rs125.67 crore in the July-September quarter of the current financial year compared with Rs141.89 crore in the corresponding period of the last year.

Total revenue grew 13 per cent to Rs1061.57 crore from Rs940.39 crore. Operating profit during the period also went up by 9 per cent at Rs240.32 crore against Rs219.88 crore last year. Sales volume during the quarter showed increase by 10 per cent at 3341 million units, while units sold in the Mumbai licence area increased by 12 per cent. The realisation were flat at Rs 295 per unit.

During this quarter, the company paid an interest of Rs43 crore against Rs48.7 crore in the same period last year. The company recorded a depreciation of Rs68.15 crore against Rs75.12 crore in the same period last year.

During this period the company started operations at the 120 mw Jojobera plant and signed a pact with the Jharkhand government on 3,000 mw power projects. It also inked a JV with Damodar Valley Corporation for 1,000 MW mega power project.

In the April-June, 2005 the company had reported a net profit of Rs118.40 crore.

However, the figures for last year included an extraordinary one-time income of Rs 51.35 crores from profit on sale of long-term investments.
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