Holcim acquires 14.8 pc in Guj Ambuja - makes open offer
Mumbai: Swiss cement company Holcim has acquired 14.8 per cent stake in Gujarat Ambuja Cements (GACL) from its founder-promoters, the Sekhsarias and the Neotias, for Rs2,100 crore (over US$470mn) at Rs105 a share.

Holcim, through its subsidiary Holderind Investments, has also entered into an agreement with the promoters to make an open offer to shareholders for up to 20 per cent stake in the company, at Rs90 per share that works out to US$546mn.

Thus altogether, Holcim will acquire close to 35 per cent stake in Gujarat Ambuja for almost US$1bn. This acquisition of 20 crore equity shares from the promoters at Rs105 a share includes a "non-compete fee" of Rs15 per share to ensure that the sellers do not pursue the same activity later. The promoters continue to hold nine per cent stake in GACL.

At a valuation of around US$200 a tonne of capacity, the Holcim-GACL deal tops all earlier domestic cement buyouts and equals the most expensive worldwide in valuation.

After the open offer, Holcim will nominate three directors on the board of GACL. Non-executive directors Vinod Kumar Neotia and Harshvardhan Neotia, as well as wholetime director Pulkit Sekhsaria have resigned as directors. Narotam Sekhsaria, founder-promoter and managing director, has been appointed non-executive vice-chairman.

Holcim is expected to introduce its systems and technology to GACL, in particular its technologies for the use of alternative sources of energy.
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L&T consortium receives order from NHPC
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro, in association with Patel Engineering, has received an order worth Rs439.07 crore from National Hydroelectric Power Corporation for execution of 520 MW Parbati Hydro Electric Project Stage (III) in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh.

The consortium will complete the entire project, which includes river diversion, rockfill dam, intake, desilting chambers, 5.8 km long head race tunnel and other associated works within 56 months, L&T said in a release on Monday.
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Sonalika group plans Rs1.5-lakh car
New Delhi: The Sonalika group has jumped into the race for developing a people's car. The company says it will roll out the car with a price tag of Rs1.5 lakh in two years.

The company's subsidiary International Cars and Motors Ltd (ICML) launched a multi-utility vehicle (MUV) Rhino early this month using technology from Britain's MG Rover.
Sonalika group chairman L D Mittal said, "It is a dream project for me and now our concentration is on the development of this small car."

Without sharing details, he said the company, which is already making three-wheelers, can develop the car on the same platform.
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Kanoria Chem. plans expansion, issue FCCBs
Renukoot: Leading manufacturer of chemical intermediates, Kanoria Chemicals and Industries, is planning a Rs150 crore second phase capacity expansion for its caustic soda production and will be issuing foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) worth US$20mn to partly fund it.

The company, which has already undergone a first phase of capacity expansion to set up a membrane cell technology based chlor-alkali plant with an investment of Rs93 crore, would touch a capacity of 90,000 tonnes a year in another three months time. Its existing capacity is 50,000 tonnes a year.

The company is looking at raising debt and internal accruals to fund the second phase of expansion.

The company would be adding another new membrane cell technology based chlor-alkali unit at the same facility at Renukoot. Officials said the company was aiming to become one of the top five players in the caustic soda segment with the completion of its proposed capacity expansion.

Apart from the caustic soda the company was also expanding its chlorine derivative products to add to the revenue stream.

The company is also working on including its Lindane pesticide product to be a part of the malaria control programme. Its actual production is down to 200 tonnes a year from 1000 tonnes a year due to environmental concerns despite its use as termite proofing in plywood industries.
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Matrix Lab to raise US$200mn via GDRs, FCCBs
Mumbai: Matrix Laboratories is planning to raise US$200mn by way of global depository receipts (GDRs), foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) or shares on preferential basis.

The amount raised shall be utilised for the repayment of its term loan and also to meet its future growth requirements, the company said.
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Aviva plans to increase staff at call centres in India
Mumbai: Britain's insurance group Aviva plans to increase its staff in the call centres here from the current 7,000 to 9,000 in the next three years, according to a senior executive of the company.

The company says it is very pleased with the quality of services it has been able to deliver from India to its UK customers in the life, health care and insurance services. The company said the quality of services from India is very high particularly in the eyes of customers.

Aviva Life Insurance, the world's oldest insurance Group with a history dating back to 1696, also recently announced an increase in its capital base in India by Rs139 crore, taking the total paid-up capital to Rs459 crores. As per government regulations Aviva holds a 26 per cent stake and Dabur 74 per cent.

Worldwide Aviva has 30 million customers and 291 billion pounds assets under management.
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Suzlon US unit subsidiary bags new order
Mumbai: Suzlon Energy's US subsidiary Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation has bagged turbine supply order from US-based Edison Mission Group for the supply of wind turbines with a total capacity of 157.50 megawatts, to be delivered in 2006-07, it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

With this the company has, as on date, an order book position of Rs4,232 crore comprising of Rs1,613 crore of domestic orders and Rs2,619 crore of export orders, it said.
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OVL signs pact with ExxonMobil
New Delhi: ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp, plans to acquire US energy firm ExxonMobil's 30 per cent stake in an oilfield in Brazil for about US$1.4-billion.

Royal Dutch/Shell operates the field with 35 per cent stake in the Campos Basin oilfield while Brazil's state-owned Petrobras has the remaining 35 per cent stake.
OVL would pay US$330mn for acquiring the full equity of Exxon's Brzailian subsidary and the remaining US$490mn would be towards OVL's share of development cost.
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Hindalco Q3 net falls 14 per cent
Mumbai: India's top aluminium and copper producer, Hindalco Industries, has posted a 14 per cent decline in net profit in the quarter ended December 31, 2005. The fall in profits was due to a blast at its copper smelter that slashed output.

Hindalco said October-December net profit fell to Rs300 crore from Rs347 crore in 2004. Net sales rose 14 per cent to Rs2,837 crore from a year ago.

Shares in Hindalco, valued at US$420 crore, rose four per cent between October and December, underperforming the benchmark stock index which gained nearly 9 per cent.
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ONGC net declines 11 per cent
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corp has reported an 11 per cent decline in net profit at Rs3,887.76 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, mainly due to the Rs2,843 crore it paid out for subsiding LPG and kerosene.

The company's turnover increased 3.7 per cent to Rs13,038 crore in October-December 2005, a company press release said here.

ONGC had posted a net profit of Rs3,493 crore in October-December 2004 after a Rs1,332 crore payout on fuel subsidies.

Government has barred fuel retailing firms from raising prices in line with increases in crude oil costs. The subsidy burden for the company in the first nine months of current fiscal was Rs8,550 crore (around 19 per cent of the sales revenue), as compared to Rs3,114 crore in the corresponding period last year.
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Steel co.'s want import duties raised
New Delhi: As part of its pre-budget recommendations the Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) an apex body of steel producers comprising Essar Steel, Jindal Steel and Ispat Steel have asked finance minister P Chidambaram to raise the import duty from the current five per cent to 15 per cent.

They have also sought reduction in excise duty for construction industry to 8 per cent.

According to official figures net import of steel between April-December 2005, has crossed 3.5 million tonne, or about ten per cent of the total domestic annual production in India, By the close of three quarters in the current financial year, steel imports were more than the entire imports of 2.5 million tonne during the whole of the year 2004-05.

The ISA says imports from the CIS countries have gone up by as much as 120 per cent in 2005, which could wreak havoc on the domestic steel utilities.

The ISA is of the considered opinion that rising imports from Ukraine and Russia and soaring domestic production in China are good reasons for domestic players in India to worry about the continued pressure on the price of finished steel.
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HM to increase Pajero production
Ludhiana: Hindustan Motors has decided to treble the production of Mitsubishi Pajero from 40 vehicles per month to 120 vehicles per month in next fiscal said Hindustan Motors managing director R Santhanam.

However, he refused to divulge the details of investment to be put in for enhancing the production.

Initially, the company will jack up the Pajero SUV's production to 80 vehicles per month in March-April and thereafter, it will be increased to 120 vehicles per month in July-August, he said during the launch of Lancer Cedia.
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TVS Motors to focus on economy segment
Coimbatore: TVS Motors plans to focus on the economy motorcycle segment and is aiming to capture 50 per cent market share in the segment in the coming fiscal. The company launched Star City in September last, the company at present has 27 per cent market share and by the tremendous response for its products, including earlier Star variants, the share would touch 50 per cent in the economy segment (priced below Rs.35,000).

Saying that the company has sold about 1.80 lakh Star City bikes since its launch, he said the production capacity would be enhanced from the present 55,000 per month to meet the demand.

The company says the economy segment is growing at more than 40 per cent per annum for the last two years and is expected to sustain the growth for another three to four years.
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Maruti plans big investments in Haryana
Chandigarh: Maruti Udyog (MUL) is investing around Rs6,000 crore in Haryana as part of its expansion plans in the coming 2-3 years.

MUL managing director Jagdish Khattar said the expansion plans include setting up a diesel car unit and an assembly plant at Gurgaon, expected to cost about Rs3,200 crore. He said the construction work was already on since June last year and the two units were expected to go into production by December-end.

Early this month MUL has announced an investment of about Rs2,700 crore for new model launches, research and development and upgradation.

Khattar said that MUL has already manufactured 55 lakh cars over last two decades at its existing plants at Gurgaon.
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Tata-Star signs pact with NDS group for DTH
New Delhi: Tata Sky, the DTH venture of Tatas and Star TV has tied up with NDS Group plc, provider of technology solutions for digital pay TV, for launch of its services by the middle of this year.

The company said, "Tata Sky has chosen NDS end-to-end solutions for the launch of the company's direct-to-home (DTH) television service in India in mid-2006. It added that many leading DTH operators such as BSkyB (UK), Foxtel (Australia) and Sky Italia (I taly) have also deployed NDS solutions.

The companies said that NDS systems would play a key role in the end-to-end system architecture and launching the nationwide digital service of Tata Sky.
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BAG Films mulls launching news, entertainment channels
New Delhi: Leading production house BAG Films is looking at the possibility of launching two channels -- news and entertainment - with an investment of about Rs1,300 crore.

BAG Films recorded net income of Rs34.8 crore in the nine months ending December 31, 2005, a growth of 58 per cent. The study is expected to take ''about 3-6 months'' for completion following which it will take any firm decision on the matter .

According to the company the investments for setting up a full-fledged news channel could be about Rs300 crore, that for an entertainment channel could go up to as much as Rs1,000 crore. The company may also rope in a strategic investor to fund the growth.
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GE Shipping Q3 net dips 35 pc
Mumbai: Great Eastern Shipping Company has reported a 35.57 per cent dip in net profit at Rs185.21 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 as compared to Rs287.50 crore for the same quarter in 2004-05.

Total income, however, increased 11.90 per cent to Rs708.60 crore for the same quarter in current fiscal from Rs633.24 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The board of directors has declared an interim dividend of Rs2.50 per share to the shareholders of the company.
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ITC Paperboards focuses on sweetmeat packaging market
Kolkata: The country's largest paperboard maker, ITC paper and paperboard division is focusing on the Rs100 crore value-added sweetmeat packaging market in the country.

West Bengal is the company's key focus region for its ECE foodgrade packaging paperboards," said ITC GM (market development) Niraj Shrivastava.

Of the total Rs100 crore sweetmeat packaging market, West Bengal accounted for almost half of the national market. In volume terms this sector consumed about 40,000 tonne per annum.

The company has launched cholorine free packaging boards in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Srivastava said ITC was looking at 30 per cent market share in the domestic market by 2006-07.

ITC beside food was also trying to push its environment friendly packaging product to pharma, textile and FMCG sectors.
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