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Himalya Intl. gets US$2.5mn order from US retail chain
Mumbai: Himalya International on Friday said it had received an order worth US$2.5mn from a US-based retail chain for its specialty potatoes. The company has been marketing the specialty potatoes over the last five years and major orders are flowing in this year, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company has also launched this product along with the scooped version in the food service segment of the market.
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Kingfisher Airlines on spending spree
Bnagalore: UB Group chairman and liquor baron Vijay Mallya-chairman of Kingfisher Airlines---has placed firm orders for five Airbus A380s, the European superjumbo, at the Paris air show this year for his fledgling Kingfisher Airlines. This is despite the fact that no Indian airport is equipped to receive the craft.

There are reports that Kingfisher Airlines positioned between a budget airline and a full-service carrier-may acquire at least 50 planes for an estimated $2.1 billion at the Dubai air show, to be held next week.

Mallya's past purchases of Airbus aircraft could mean that it would lean toward the European aircraft maker.
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MphasiS starts BPO operations in Ahmedabad
Mumbai: MphasiS BFL on Friday said it had commenced BPO operations at its new facility in Ahmedabad. The company says its Ahmedabad facility will be dedicated to customer service delivery for its domestic business.

The 18,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility in Ahmedabad, would start by employing 350 people and subsequently increase the number to 3,000 employees, the company informed the BSE.

This is the sixth location in the country from where the company will provide its BPO services. It already has its presence in Bangalore, Mangalore, Noida, Pune and in Tijuana, Mexico.
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Honda Siel launches City ZX in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Honda Siel Cars India launched its new City VTEC range in Hyderabad and has received bookings for over 2,000 ZX sedans since its launch earlier this year.

The City ZX range includes four variants, including one with automatic transmission, that feature advanced combustion system of the 1.5-litre intelligent dual and sequential ignition (I-DSI) which embodies a VTEC (variable, valve timing and lift electronic control) engine.

The company expects to sell about 17,000 new cars by the end of this year. Together with the earlier version, the total sales of City would be about 37,000 cars.

The new range is priced between Rs6.88 lakh and Rs8.13 lakh ex-showroom Hyderabad.
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JSPL to use coal gasification tech at Orissa steel plant
New Delhi: Aiming to reduce dependence on imported coal and gas for meeting fuel requirements, Jindal Steel & Power on Friday signed a contract with Sasol-Lurgi Technology Company of South Africa and Lurgi AG of Germany for a coal gasification facility at its six million tonne steel plant in Orissa. The plant is being executed with an investment of Rs14,000 crore.

The technology involves conversion of non-coking coal into synthesis gas, a substitute for natural gas said Naveen Jindal JSPL vice-chairman and managing director.

Jindal said, the technology would employ state-of-the-art sixth bed dry bottom type gasifier suitable for the high ash content Indian coal, and said this is the first time any company in the country is using such a technology.

The technology would produce 3,20,000 normal cubic meters per hour of synthesis gas, adequate for two million tonnes of direct reduced iron and would meet all the fuel requirements. The cost of steel produced with the help of this technology would be 10 per cent less than what is currently being produced, he said.
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BPL to shut down Noida factory operations
Mumbai: BPL has decided to shut down its operations in Noida as it proposes to transfer its colour television business to a joint venture company with Sanyo.

Consumer durables major BPL and Japanese consumer electronics giant Sanyo Electric Company forged a joint venture last year. The closure is subject to necessary clearances, BPL informed the exchanges.
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HP upbeat about printer segment
New Delhi: Hewlett Packard (HP) is planning to launch new printers in the Indian market. The company is looking at a 25 per cent year-on-year growth for its printer business next year.

The company has a 70-90 per cent share of the Indian printer market and currently sells 30,000 printers a year.

HP has launched two printers HP Phtosmart 8238 and HP Phtosmart 3108 All-in-One based on its scalable printing technology.

The printers are priced at Rs12,999 and Rs14,9999 plus tax respectively.
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Branson looks at telecom foray in India
New Delhi: Attracted by the scorching pace of growth of the Indian telecom industry, British magnate Sir Richard Branson is looking at a foray into the Indian telecom market.

Sir Richard already runs a mobile phone business, Virgin Mobile, spread over three countries, UK, Australia and USA.

Sir Richard said he planned to have talks with Indian telecom companies during his current India visit. He refused to give further details about his telecom plans and his prospective business partners.

Looking at the Indian aviation sector, Sir Richard said he is keen to set up a greenfield airline in India, if the government permits him to do so. His airline, Virgin Atlantic, currently connects India and UK with direct flights from Mumbai and Delhi. He also expressed interest in participating in the ongoing airport privatisation and modernisation projects.
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Capgemini looks at acquisitions in India
Barcelona: Capgemini, the French IT services provider is interested in acquiring Indian companies that will help it achieve aggressive growth targets in the offshore outsourcing market.

Capgemini, which is Europe's largest computer consultant organisation says it will need 14,000 information technology (IT) staff in low-cost countries to serve its customers by the end of 2008, up from the current 3,500. It also feels that most of those will be in India.

The company is looking at Indian IT companies having revenues of between 100 and 200 million euros per annum with double-digit EBIT (operating profit margin). It feels such companies with a valuation of 12 to 18 months of revenues, would be affordable. It is willing to spend up to a maximum of 300 million euros in taking over an Indian company.
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Reliance to restart gasoline unit Nov. 26
Mumbai: Reliance Industries plans to restart operations at its Jamnagar refinery after its gasoline-making unit comes on stream on Nov. 26. Company sources said there would be no more extensions for the unit and it would be commissioned as per the latest schedule.

Reliance had shut the 180,000-barrels-per-day gasoline or fluidised catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) on Oct 3 for a 49-day maintenance period but had later extended it by five days.

However, other units of the company's 660,000-bpd Jamnagar refinery such as the 330,000-bpd crude distillation unit, a coker and aromatic division have been made successfully operational from Nov. 10, ahead of schedule, the source said.

The maintenance shut down of Reliance's unit led to a grave shortage of LPG in the country as state-run firms buy about 2.5 million tonnes of LPG from Reliance every year.
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ONGC bids for US$1bn oil field in Nigeria
Singapore: India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. is putting in its bid for a stake in a Nigerian offshore field with an estimated value of US$1bn sources said.

The stake, in the yet to be developed Akpo oil and gas field, was put up for sale earlier this year by Nigerian firm South Atlantic Petroleum controlled by former Nigerian Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma, sources said.

The ONGC bid is another overseas push by the state-run Indian energy giant after it got beaten by China's state oil giants in the takeovers of the US$4.2bn Canadian company PetroKazakhstan and the US$1.4bn oil assets in Ecuador sold by North American producer EnCana

The Akpo field, discovered in 2000, is located 200 kilometres (120 miles) offshore in water depths ranging from 1,100 to 1,700 metres. There are estimates that Akpo has condensate reserves of over 600 million barrels and commercial natural gas reserves of 2.5 trillion cubic feet.
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Ranbaxy to introduce fifteen new products in US market
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories is planning to launch 15 products in the US market in each of the next two years, the firm said in a presentation to analysts.

The seven products that have "first-to-file" marketing status, which will give it exclusive marketing rights for a few months, include cholesterol drugs Pravastatin 80 mg and Simvastatin 80 mg, and Modafinil to treat excessive sleepiness. Pravastatin is expected to be launched in April, while Simvastatin and Modafinil could hit the market by June, provided on-going litigation is favourable, the company said.

The company, which has seen its financial performance slide over the past two quarters due to sharp price erosion in profits due to litigation costs, expects sales growth of 18 per cent in 2006 compared with a forecast for low-single digits for 2005.

It also forecast operating margin of more than 16 per cent for 2006, against 8 per cent expected by analysts for 2005.

Ranbaxy is awaiting marketing approvals for 47 products in the United States. Of these 32 include challenges to patents held by innovator companies and Ranbaxy says it could have "first-to-file" status for 19 of them.

Ranbaxy's shares were up yesterday by 0.8 per cent at Rs403 in the afternoon in a firm Mumbai market.
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