Pepsi to focus on premium brands
New Delhi: PepsiCo India has decided to abandon the Indian rural markets and instead focus on urban markets and provide its customers with an array of options, including premium products to achieve volume and turnover growth.

PepsiCo India has been following Coca Cola India's strategy in cutting prices to a level as low as Rs5 for a 200 ml bottle in order to increase penetration and volumes in small towns and villages.

Pepsi, which raised its prices by 18-19 per cent in 2005, says its turnover increased by 12-13 per cent this year. Encouraged by its performance, the company plans to look to push products in the premium categories.

The company is now planning to focus on premium products like Gatorade and Red Bull as it feels that these product categories can become an Rs100-200 crore business as juice has already become.
Back to News Review index page  

Actis acquires stake in Sandhar for US$23mn
Mumbai: Actis, the UK-based private equity investor, has invested US$23mn (approximately Rs104 crore) in the Gurgaon-based Sandhar group, including its flagship company Sandhar Locking Devices, which manufactures components of both two- and four-wheeler manufacturers.

Jayant Davar, managing director, Sandhar group, said the investment of Actis would be utilised to finance expansion plans. He said Actis would have a minority stake, although he did not reveal the exact size.

According to him, the group is close to acquiring a domestic locking devices company very soon. Sources said the domestic acquisition would be followed by a foreign acquisition as well.
Back to News Review index page  

Promoters offload 1.43 per cent in Biocon for Rs70 crore
Bangalore: Glentec International, a Mauritius investment company owned 99 per cent by John Shaw and 1 per cent by Prof Ravi Mazumdar, has sold 1.43 per cent stake in Biocon through an open market block deal on December 28 fetching around Rs70 crore based on an average of Rs500 per share.

Glentec International was previously known as Rosemonts Investments. The company is also engaged in consultancy in finance and biotechnology areas. John Shaw is the husband of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw chairman and managing director of Biocon.

As of September 30, the company owned 24.20 per cent in Biocon. Now after selling 14,32,403 shares aggregating to 1.43 per cent of the total paid up capital it stands at 22,767,597 shares aggregating to 22.77 per cent.
Back to News Review index page  

VSNL plans global managed services
Mumbai: Videsh Sanchar Nigam, the Internet and telephony major, plans to provide India-centric managed services to international customers, as it tries to leverage the global presence and network of its recently acquired companies.

VSNL will use the network and infrastructure of its subsidiaries, Tyco Global Network (TGN) and Teleglobe, which were acquired in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Teleglobe has presence in over 240 regions across the world and TGN has a 60,000 km optical fibre network spread across three continents.

The company is looking at delivery of managed services from its delivery centre in Chennai and applications to be hosted initially from Singapore, London and New York. VSNL has already deployed a large team of IT and application specialists, who would be working closely with other Tata group companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and CMC.

The international managed services operations would be conducted through VSNL International, which has a global presence with operations in US.
Back to News Review index page  

Braithwaite's revamp package approved
New Delhi: The Government has approved the financial restructuring of the loss-making PSU, Braithwaite and Company (BCL), based on the recommendations of the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises and Committee of Secretaries. This includes waiving off interest and Rs4 crore margin money to help the PSU turnaround and become net worth positive.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs gave its nod to provide Rs4 crore margin money in the form of a grant to help Kolkata-based BCL, a subsidiary of Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam, to help it raise working capital from the market.

It also agreed to waive the interest of Rs43.61 crore on the Government loan till March 2005.

The finance minister, P Chidambaram said no interest would be levied beyond the cut-off date of March 31, 2005.
Back to News Review index page  

RIL gets 'Excellence in Water Management' award
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) has won the 'National Award for Excellence in Water Management' for 2005 instituted by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). The company's Jamnagar complex, the world's largest refinery, has been declared an ''Excellent Water Efficient Unit'' by CII, according to a release from Reliance.

Five desalination units with a total production of 2,600 cubic metres per hour have made it a 100 per cent desalination based refinery, it said. About 27 top water intensive companies from India were short-listed for the award.
Back to News Review index page  

RIL to sport new logo
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) controlled by Mukesh Ambani is refurbishing its corporate identity, which includes giving a makeover to its thirty-year logo. The logo is being standardised for all RIL companies.

While the existing gold and black colours have been retained, the font bearing "Reliance Industries Limited" has been changed to make it look more contemporary. Also, the logo will sport the company tagline "Growth is life" for the first time. This change in the logo has been buttressed by a communications campaign, which has been already kicked off.

The process of changing over to this new identity is likely to last for another six months. A Reliance Industries spokesperson refused to comment about the possibility of a new corporate identity, but confirmed that a few changes have been made to the logo.
Back to News Review index page  

RIL selects Ahmedabad for retail mart debut
Ahmedabad: Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has chosen Ahmedabad to kick off its retailing debut in a little over a year. To house its retail operations Reliance has acquired part of the closed Advance Mill and a sprawling bungalow on the posh CG Road, and would be the first to take off in early 2007, ahead of similar projects to be taken up nationally, sources said.

Investments close to Rs1,000 crore have been lined up over five years to open around 35 big and small malls in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar.
Back to News Review index page  

Videocon to relaunch Kelvinator
New Delhi: The Videocon Group, which acquired the brand rights for Kelvinator from AB Electrolux early this year, plans to relaunch the Kelvinator brand next month as a full-fledged home appliance brand with presence in all major product categories.

In its new avataar, Kelvinator brand would be associated with a whole range of home appliance products including airconditioners, microwave ovens and washing machines apart from the traditional refrigerators. The target is to make it a Rs300-crore brand in the first year of relaunch.

The Kelvinator brand has been brought under the operations of Sansui. Sansui, which is a part of a wholly-owned group subsidiary, Kitchen Appliances, has two divisions- Kenstar and Sansui.
Back to News Review index page  

Saneron joins up with LifeCell for stem cell research
Chennai: Bio- pharmaceutical stem cell research and therapy pioneer Saneron CCEL, has announced the launch of its Indian operations in a tie-up with the Chennai-based LifeCell.

The domestic arm, Saneron India, will be based in Chennai, and the company is planning to establish specialised stem cell centres in major cities throughout India.

Prasad Mangipudi, vice president, marketing of LifeCell, said that the company plans to establish 24 centres by the end of next year. LifeCell has collection centres in nine cities in the country. He said LifeCell has committed an investment layout of Rs40-50 crore over the next two to three years on stem cell banking, research and therapy.
Back to News Review index page  

Dr Reddy's gets tentative nod for antidepressant
Mumbai: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories has received tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its antidepressant drug sertraline hydrochloride, a generic version of Pfizer Inc.'s Zoloft, the company has said.
Back to News Review index page  

RCF plans new ammonia plant
Mumbai: State owned Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) plans to invest Rs2,000 crore (US$443mn) in a new ammonia plant, the company's managing director U.S. Jha said.

He said, "We have sent a proposal to the government to put up a new 1 million tonnes ammonia plant at Thal in Maharashtra." He said the project would take three years to complete.
Back to News Review index page