ONGC may supply gas to Torrent Power's Surat plant
Ahmedabad: Torrent Power Generation (TPGL), the 1,100-MW gas-based plant scheduled to come up at Surat in Gujarat is close to firming up supply of 1.5 million metric standard cubic metre per day (mmscmd) natural gas from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

The gas will be supplied from the Panna-Mukta-Tapti (PMT) joint venture to the Hazira terminal.

ONGC sources said the prices would be pegged between US$4.5 and US$4.9 per million metric British thermal unit (mmbtu).

TPGL, promoted by the Torrent Group, will come on stream in three phases in 2007, and will replace Torrent Group's existing procurements from the Gujarat Electricity Board.

Torrent Group sources said TPGL would need a total of 4.5 mmscmd of gas for running the 1,100-MW power plant. The company is also discussing possibilities of a supply arrangement with Shell. The company had previously invited bids for fuel supply and received responses from six interested parties.
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Indoco Remedies to enter US markets with ophthalmic drugs
Kolkata: Indoco Remedies will shortly enter the US market with its ophthalmic products. The company is in the process of acquiring five generic product licences through its overseas subsidiary Indoco UK. The licences are for drugs in the segment of cardiovascular and anti-diabetic generics.

Industry sources say the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) will grant approval for the company's opthalmics plant after an inspection. The company filed an abbreviated new drug application for ophthalmic solutions with the US authority last year.

The company also aims to enter the new generics markets in Germany, Moldova and Turkmenistan. Indoco Remdies currently exports generics to 35 countries including the UK, East European countries, Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. In future, Indoco UK would take care of marketing Indoco Remedies products in UK and East European nations.

In its bid to further boost its exports, the company is also in the process of acquiring approval from Medicine Control Council of South Africa for its two plants in Goa. One plant is dedicated towards ophthalmic solutions and the other one is for ointment and tablets.
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Bosch to supply locally made CRDi engines to Indian automakers
Bangalore: Suzuki will soon start buying locally made common rail diesel injection (CRDi) systems from Mico Bosch.

Mico-Bosch will supply locally made pumps and injectors and will import sensors and rails from Germany. The complete system will be assembled in India and sold to Suzuki, which will start rolling out diesel engines from its plant near Delhi from 2007.

Mahindra & Mahindra's SUV Scorpio, which has been fitted with imported Bosch CRDi systems will have domestically produced parts from 2007 while Ashok Leyland will also source CRDi systems from Bosch for its trucks.

As per its projections, MICO-Bosch expects its first year sales for common rail diesel systems to be about 40,000 and the payback period to be between five and six years.
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Gangotri Tex to raise stake through preferential offer
Coimbatore: Gangotri Textiles (GTL) of Coimbatore will allot 16 lakh convertible share warrants to its promoters through a preferential offer, valued at Rs8 crore, to increase its equity stake in the company. This will also meet the condition stipulated by lending institutions part-financing the expansion plans of the company that the promoters should bring in fresh equity capital.

Each warrant would entitle allotment of one equity share (Rs5 face value) at a premium of Rs45 each and the equity shares would be allotted to the share warrant holders within a period of 18 months from the date of issue.

The equity capital of the company at present is Rs9.60 crore.

The company is embarking upon a major expansion programme and is availing itself of loan facilities to the extent of about Rs273 crore. (The expansion plan is expected to cost about Rs350 crore.). One of the conditions for the project/loan sanction was that the promoters should bring in by way of equity capital Rs8 crore which the promoters have accepted.

The face value of the share warrant is Rs50 each. While 10 per cent of it is payable on allotment, the balance is payable within a maximum period of 18 months and on receipt of the balance payment, the shares due on conversion would be allotted. Each share warrant will be converted into one equity share of Rs5 each at a premium of Rs45 per share.

At present the promoter group - Manoj Kumar Tibrewal, managing director, GTL, and his family members — hold 74,66,787 shares constituting 38.89 per cent of the equity capital of the company.

Post-conversion of the share warrants, their holding would increase to 90,66,787 shares constituting 46.58 per cent of equity.
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Nahar Industrial to expand capacity
New Delhi: Nahar Industrial Enterprises (NIEL), engaged in manufacturing textile including yarn, processed fabric and readymade garments, plans to invest Rs800 crore over the next two years to expand capacity at its two units in Bhiwadi and Lalru (Punjab).

The expansion plan is to be implemented in two phases of Rs400 crore each. The first phase will be completed by March 2006 and the second phase by March 2008.

Under the expansion programme, the company plans to increase the capacities of its yarn and processed fabrics units in a phased manner besides setting up three new power plants of total 45 MW capacity, taking the total power generation capacity to 53 MW from the current 8 MW.

The power plants would be for captive use only.

The company also plans to increase the number of its exclusive retail outlets of "Cotton County" to 300 by the end of March 2008 from 58 at present.
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Apollo Hospitals ties up with Saudi group
New Delhi: The Apollo Hospitals Group has announced a tie-up with the Al Hokair Group of Saudi Arabia to set up three hospitals and 20 clinics across that country over the next three years.

The investment of around US$100mn will be borne by the Saudi group, while Apollo will provide the technical know-how and run the units. All the units will be named under the Apollo brand. The Apollo Group will charge a one-time project-commissioning fee of around US$4mn for all the hospitals and clinics, and around three per cent of the revenues for running them. The agreement is for a seven-year period and can be renewed on the completion of the term.

Company officials said Apollo Hospitals will be closely involved in the operations by providing support in marketing and will monitor the performance of these facilities to ensure that the highest levels of clinical and service qualities are maintained.

Initially, 70-80 per cent of the doctors, technicians and nursing staff would be sourced by Apollo from India while the rest would be Saudi locals. Over a period of five to six years, the ratio will be reversed, company officials said.
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RINL to get back to profitability
Vishakhapatnam: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam has wiped out accumulated losses. The government has also approved the expansion plans of the company according to Y. Sivasagara Rao, CMD of the company.

Rao said the expansion, at a cost of more than Rs8,000 crore, would be completed in three years. He said there would be no problem on the raw material front, as a coking coal block in the Dhanbad district of Bihar had been reserved for the plant.
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