Tata Chem picks up Brunner Mond for Rs.508 crore
Mumbai: Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) has said that it has acquired a 63.5 per cent controlling stake in the UK-based Brunner Mond Group (BM), at a cost of Rs508 crore.

With the signing of agreements for the purpose with Wayland Investments Ltd and Barclays Bank, both selling shareholders of BM, TCL now becomes one of the leading producers of soda ash in the world.

BM manufactures soda ash and sodium bicarbonate, and has manufacturing facilities in the UK, the Netherlands and Kenya. With the deal TCL will also be taking on board over 1,000 employees across Africa and Europe.

The total soda ash production capacity of the combined entity will now be close to three million tonnes per annum, TCL's statement said.

"The combined entity of Brunner Mond and Tata Chemicals will now propel us further to greater strengths in technology, customer relationships and cost leadership. Furthermore, it will consolidate our position as a leading manufacturer of soda ash in the world," Prasad Menon, Managing Director, TCL, said.
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Airtel offers a lifetime offer
New Delhi: Airtel has trumped Tata Teleservices with an offer for free incoming calls for life for its prepaid users. The offer comes with a single recharge of Rs999.

After Tata Teleservices came out with its "Non-Stop Mobile" package for prepaid users, which offered incoming calls for two years on a single recharge of Rs1, 999 nearly all telecom players jumped into the fray. Now Bharti Televentures new offer has taken the war to another level.

Airtel's offer means that a pre-paid user can continue to receive incoming calls for life after a single recharge, as against the current system of restricted validity, based on the recharge package.

Tata Teleservices's Non Stop Mobile scheme notched up over a million subscriptions in just 45 days and also saw the company increase its market share in the mobile space to 4.5 per cent in November from a small 1.5 per cent a year ago. Airtel's scheme also offers the user full talk time on every future recharge of any denomination. Bharti has also thrown the scheme open to all its existing pre-paid subscribers.

Last month Idea Cellular and MTNL too came out with similar packages.

Idea Cellular introduced the 'I-Power pre-paid vouchers' under two schemes, with one package offering a 3 year validity and a talk time of Rs150 for Rs2,999, and the other offering a 2-year validity and a talk time of Rs100 for Rs1,199.

MTNL followed suit and launched three new pre-paid cards, offering three-year, two-year and one-year validity with limited talk-time.
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Ranbaxy patent litigation settled with Cephalon
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has settled its patent litigation with the US-based Cephalon Inc by agreeing not to launch the generic version of the sleep-disorder drug, Provigil (modafinil), until 2011.

This however goes with the condition that if any other company that is fighting a patent litigation for Provigil wins, Ranbaxy would be able to enter the market early.

Cephalon's suit is pending against Mylan Laboratories Inc and Barr Laboratories Inc as the latter two want to begin selling a version of the drug after the main compound patent expires in 2007. Cephalon has entered into a similar agreement with Teva Pharmaceuticals.

According to the settlement, Cephalon will grant Ranbaxy a non-exclusive royalty-bearing right to market and sell a generic version of Provigil in the US. Ranbaxy's licence will become effective in October 2011. But, if the drug is approved for paediatric use, the entry could be delayed by another six months to April 2012.

Provigil accounted for US$364.5mn, or 44 per cent of Cephalon's sales in the first nine months of the year.
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Zee Sports scores well on Test debut
New Delhi: Zee Sports has managed to attract a good number of viewers for the second test match played between India and Sri Lanka in Delhi in cable-connected homes.

TAM India's data that covers persons above four years of age in cable and satellite homes across the country, says DD National received 1.8 television rating points (TRPs) while Zee Sports recorded 1.13 TRPs.

Prasar Bharati officials said that the test match delivered over six TRPs across all homes in SEC A, B, and C towns and persons above the age of 15 years. (Usually, it takes almost a fortnight for the research agency to put out the viewership data.)

Zee Network, said it was able to get on board advertisers who did not traditionally advertise on cricket. These include Canon, Nokia, and Reckitt Benckiser, to name just a few. The company says it also allowed the advertisers to innovate as for instance Nokia advertised its N Series range for mobiles on the channel.

Apart from regular commercials, Zee Sports offered the brand a pop-up with picture-in-picture. The 15-second pop up appeared 24 times a day.

Similarly, Coca-Cola too advertised at a time when its advertising activity is low. `Jiyo Sir Utha Ke' appeared as a pop-up when batsmen scored 50 or 100 or during any other landmark. Other brands that were present during the series include BSNL, Indian Oil, Idea, Paras Pharmaceuticals, and Airtel.
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KK Birla not to shift sugar plants from Bihar
New Delhi: The K K Birla group has postponed shifting its three sugar plants in Bihar to Uttar Pradesh.

The company said the government has rejected the proposal to shift the plants to UP. Further, we have got assurance from the new government for better prospects in Bihar itself and it is now even considering some revival packages.

Government sources said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar met union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to seek the government's help on revival of the private sector sugar mills in the state to help resurrect the industry in the state.

The state government has also finalised five to seven locations for new sugar plants in the state, which will also include power cogeneration units feeding the grid after internal consumption.
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Sasken loses case against 3G.com
Bangalore: Sasken Communication Technologies based in Bangalore has lost the arbitration in its dispute with US-based 3G.com. The company has conveyed to the Mumbai stock exchange that the arbitrator has awarded damages of US$1,156,729.80 in favour of 3G.com.

The dispute was in regard to a protocol stack, which was to be implemented by Sasken under a licensing and support contract with 3G.com.

Sasken entered into a contract for the product in 2001. The contract went into arbitration in 2003.

The company says 3G.com was its single customer and it didn't sell the product to any other customer. The product in question is a single mode UMPS stack.

Sasken said it would appeal against the judgement.
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ONGC to pay Rs.25 interim dividend
New Delhi: The Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has declared an interim dividend of 250 per cent (Rs25 per share) for 2005-06, which is 50 per cent higher, compared to the interim dividend of last fiscal (2004-05).

The interim dividend translates into a pay-out of Rs3,564.82 crore (against a paid-up capital of Rs1,425.93 crore). This interim dividend amount includes the Government of India share (74.13 per cent) of Rs2,642.60 crore.

In addition, ONGC will be paying a dividend tax on the above, which works out to be Rs500 crore, the company said. The board has also decided to pay the dividend after the record date of December 28, without waiting for the mandatory 30 days period.

ONGC had declared an interim dividend of 200 per cent and a total dividend of 400 per cent amounting to Rs 5,704 crore for 2004-05. As the largest stakeholder the Government emerges as the biggest beneficiary of the dividend payment.

The institutional investors hold 10.90 per cent and others 14.97 per cent.

The net profit (PAT) for the half-year was Rs7,457 crore as against Rs5,692 crore for the corresponding period the previous year.
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Aurobindo gets USFDA approval for Stavudine
Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharma has said that the USFDA has granted tentative approval for Stavudine oral solution of one mg.

The company said that this product will now be available for consideration for purchase under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Stavudine is active against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. This is used in combination with other agents for treatment of HIV-1 infection, a company statement said.

Aurobindo now has nine products under PEPFAR.
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Ford to hike prices by 2.5 per cent from mid-Jan
Chennai: Ford India plans to hike prices across models from the middle of January 2006. This price hike has been necessitated by continuous increase in input costs and logistics, said Arvind Mathew, managing director and president, Ford India, said in a press release.

The company said the price increase will be in the range of 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent that works out to an increase of Rs10,000 to Rs18,750, for the models.

However, Ford India will deliver cars at the existing prices for those booked before the actual date the revised prices come into effect.
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Hetero Drugs secures Roche sub-licence for Tamiflu
Hyderabad: Roche has granted the Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs Ltd, a sub-license for the production and marketing of Oseltamivir (generic Tamiflu). Under the licensing agreement, signed on December 21, Roche has authorised Hetero to manufacture and market both the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and finished product of Oseltamivir for supply in India, least developed countries and developing countries.

Hetero says it has committed to delivery of one million capsules of Oseltamivir to the Indian Government by January 15, 2006 and expects to fulfill orders for least developed and developing countries from January 2006.

It is said that this is the first instance in which a sub-licence has been granted since the introduction of India's new patent legislation agreed in 2005. This complies with international patent laws.
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ONGC proposes to double Assam production
Kolkata: ONGC plans to double production from Assam to 2.4 million tonne in three years. The company has drawn up an Rs800-crore investment plan for this. Production from this region has been a little over one million tonne during the last few years and is expected to drop to around 1.2 million tonnes, well below the targeted level. Among the reasons cited are a 100-hour strike and a drop in off-take by refineries in July.

ONGC sources confirmed that the company's operations in the State are now highly non-remunerative. Assam contributes merely five per cent of ONGC's turnover at the expense of employing approximately 20 per cent of the manpower.
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Nike is Indian cricket team's official kit sponsor
Mumbai: US-based Nike will sponsor the Indian cricket team's kit, having made a successful bid for Rs196.66 crore. The others in the fray were Adidas and Reebok, who bid Rs127.5 crore and Rs119.48 crore respectively.

The new contract is for a period of five years beginning January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2010, and will be carried through to the next World Cup in 2007.

Winning the official kit sponsorship entitles Nike to get branding on the non-leading arm of the player's outfit. Nike will also be the official licensee for apparel merchandise for the BCCI. They will also be entitled to retail merchandise at branded outlets and BCCI corners, a press release said.
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NIIT gets Dataquest award
New Delhi: NIIT has been conferred the `Top Training Company Award for 2004-05' by IT industry magazine, Dataquest.

The findings of the annual survey of the IT industry, conducted by Dataquest, reported that NIIT increased its market share further and maintained its leadership position in the Indian IT education market.
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Xenitis Group plans foray into satellite TV
Kolkata: The Xenitis Group, makers of the Amar PC range of personal computers, has forayed into the Rs100-crore satellite television. Early next year, group company SST Media will launch Kolkata TV, a 24-hour information and entertainment channel in Bengali.

The company said it would offer viewers the "ultimate TV content in terms of news, current affairs and infotainment." A total of Rs100 crore would be invested in the channel within a 12-month period. The project would be funded by the promoters and a consortium of banks even as break-even was expected within 11 months from the date of launch of the channel.
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Xerox' market share in copier-based MFP rises
New Delhi: Xerox said research firm IDC has pegged the company's market share for copier-based Multifunction Product (MFP) segment at 28.10 per cent (2745 units) in the third quarter of 2005 from 26.05 per cent (2335 units) in Q3 2004.

It also said Xerox increased its market share in the laser printer segment from 1.6 per cent (1054 units) in Q3 2004 to 4.5 per cent (3830 units) in Q3 2005.
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