Reliance companies in gas pact
Mumbai: Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources have entered into a gas supply agreement. According to the agreement, Reliance Natural Resources can buy gas up to 28 mmscmd (million standard cubic meters per day) from Reliance Industries. The terms and conditions for supplying the gas are similar to those of Reliance's agreement with NTPC for supply of 12 mmscmd of gas.

Reliance Industries insiders said with the arrangements in place, both Patalgana and Dadri projects would be competitive.

Reliance Natural Resources is to be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange next month and will be a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises (ADAE) group.

The agreement between the two companies sets the basis for determining quantities of gas to be made available by Reliance Industries to Reliance Natural Resources, its pricing and terms and conditions.
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Suzlon enters Australian market
Pune: Wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon has entered the Australian market with a contract to commission a wind farm consisting of 45 units of the S88 - 2.1 MW by Suzlon Energy Australia Pty Ltd (SEA) of Melbourne, a subsidiary of Suzlon Energy A/S of Aarhus, Denmark.

Suzlon received a notice to proceed under its contract with AGL (Australian Gas Light Company) for a 95-MW wind turbine capacity to be installed in rural South Australia. The wind farm will be commissioned during 2007.

Located at Hallett (220 km north of Adelaide), this would be the largest wind farm in Australia.

AGL, a top 40 listed company on the Australian stock exchange is headquartered in Sydney, and is a major retailer of natural gas and electricity for approximately three million customers throughout every State and territory in Australia.
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Monnet Ispat to raise US$60mn through FCCBs
New Delhi: Monnet Ispat plans to raise US$60mn by way of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) that will be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

The FCCBs, having a maturity period of five years, are convertible at a price of Rs317.20 per share, at a premium of 24.09 per cent.

The bonds entail a green shoe option of US$15mn and carry a zero coupon rate with a yield to maturity set at 7.6 per cent.
JP Morgan is acting as the lead manager and sole book runner for this offering, a company.
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L&T to acquire Spectrum Infotech completely
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has acquired 100 per cent equity of Spectrum Infotech, a Bangalore-based defence electronics and aerospace R&D company.

L&T is strengthening its leadership position in the area of defence electronics and avionics. The acquisition will be managed under L&T's newly launched strategic electronics centre in Bangalore, focusing on defence electronics, avionics, and aerospace solutions.

Spectrum Infotech focuses on technology and product development in embedded computation, control and signal processing, for both hardware and software. It is currently engaged in design and development of prototype sub-systems and units.

The company's client base includes defence research & development laboratories and defence public sector units including Aeronautical Development Agency, Combat Vehicles R&D Establishment, Instrument Research & Development Establishment, Research Centre Imarat, Naval Science & Technological Laboratory, Defence Bio-Engineering and Electro Medical Laboratory, Bharat Electronics Ltd and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
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Apollo Hospitals plans to set up hospital in Mumbai
Mumbai: Apollo Hospitals is planning to aggressively explore opportunities for two tertiary-care hospitals in Mumbai city, at an estimated Rs400 crore, said Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Apollo Hospitals' founder-chairman, during his recent visit to the city.

The group is actively scouting for real-estate options and is committed to get at least one tertiary-care hospital operational by next year. The plans are for a 200 or 300-bed multi-speciality hospital that can be set up within 18 months.

Apollo Hospitals group has a presence across the country and overseas but has not yet entered Mumbai mainly due to problems of real estate in the city.

The expansion is likely to be funded by finance companies for the healthcare sector. Apollo has recently raised about Rs305 crore through its GDR issue.
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L&T plans to enter power sector
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is planning a foray into power generation. The company initially plans to generate hydel power and has made bids for three small hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis.

The company plans to run the plant, post-construction. From next year the company plans to bid for more such projects. Initially, L&T will start with smaller projects of up to 250 megawatt (mw) and would consider any project that offers a 20-22 per cent return on equity.

As part of the 11th plan, the government has targeted 51,000 mw of power from hydroelectric projects, with a majority of the projects slated for the upper riperian states of the north-eastern region.

The construction major is also said to be in talks with Patel Engineering to form a joint venture to bid for small hydropower projects in various states.
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Satyam launches automotive centre for excellence
Chennai: Satyam Computer Services has set up an Automotive Centre for Excellence (ACE) to offer automotive industry specific solutions in Detroit, US.

The company is also said to be looking at setting up three more such centres in Germany, Japan and in India (Chennai) over the next year or so at an investment of US$2mn, which will go into creating infrastructure, equipment and other expenses for these four centres.

Apart from this the company is also expected to spend about US$5-7mn year-on-year as an ongoing investment for these centres, initially.

The company's center in Detroit will be built over 6000 sq ft area in central Detroit, a US$600bn business opportunity hub. The ACE will initially house about 50 consultants and offer not just off-shoring solutions but also other portfolio of services like systems integration, design and development, consulting services by leveraging its onsite-offshore delivery model.

Automotive practice presently accounts for 12 per cent of Satyam's revenue. The company sees this share going up in the near future due to the centre for excellence initiative and emerging opportunities from European and Japanese companies.

With over 2,500 professionals in the automotive vertical, Satyam provides IT solutions to seven top global automotive OEMs and four of global top 10 automotive suppliers.
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Airlines rush to set up MROs
Mumbai: Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet and Air Deccan are all talking to foreign companies specialising in maintenance overhaul and repair operations (MRO). Apart from this domestic MRO companies are also looking for strategic alliances for upgrading their facilities.

Airlines are keen on setting up MRO facilities since a typical D-Check (heavy maintenance of aircraft) results in 45 days of loss of service for a Boeing 737 aircraft.

With domestic airlines set to acquire over 450 aircraft within five years MRO has assumed extreme importance. The average cost of a full-fledged MRO is in the range of US$100-150mn.

Jet Airways is in talks with a German company Lufthansa Technik AG as well as three other companies for setting up of a full-fledged MRO in the country. However, nothing has been finalised yet said senior government officials.

Kingfisher Airlines is also scouting for a strategic partner for setting up an MRO.

SpiceJet is planning to set up an MRO in Kolkata. Though the company is in discussions with a global major, the low-cost carrier is planning to go it alone for establishing the facility said company sources. Other airlines, including Air Deccan, are also on the lookout for suitable MRO partners.
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Sakthi Sugars to expand operations with US$50mn investment
Chennai: Sakthi Sugar is planning to raise US$50mn (about Rs230 crore) to fund its expansion plans. Of the total capital Rs150 crore would be spent to set up two co-generation plants and the remaining would be spent to set up a new sugar mill.

The company plans to raise the capital through foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs)/ partly convertible debentures (PCDs)/ optionally convertible debentures (OCDs)/ fully convertible debentures (FCDs)/ debentures attached with warrants whether secured or unsecured/ global depository receipts (GDRs)/ American depository receipts (ADRs) or equity shares. The capital is expected to have a 20 per cent green shoe option for international investors.

The company said that the board of directors would take a final decision after the general body meeting of the company to be held on February 28, 2006.

The company is planning to set up two co-generation plants; one with a capacity of 35 mw at its sugar unit at Padamathur in Sivaganga and another unit with a capacity of 25 mw at Sakthinagar in Erode. The plants will utilise additional cane capacity. He said that a new sugar mill with a capacity to crush 3000 TCD would be set up at a location yet to be decided.

At present, Sakthi Sugars has three plants, one each at Sakthinagar, Sivaganga and Dhenkanal in Orissa.
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Toyota to increase sourcing from India
New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) plans to increase the outsourcing of components from India for its Japanese parent Toyota Motor Corporation. The company's vice-chairman Vikram Kirloskar said India could possibly become a prototype testing ground for Toyota cars developed for the international markets.

He said at present such testing is done in Indonesia and Thailand. The company aims to turn India into a testing ground within the next five years.

Kirloskar also said outsourcing of gearboxes from India for Toyota's global operations was on a high note, and the Indian company is hopeful of increasing the volumes of this particular assembly and later looking at widening the range of products that can be oursourced from India.

The Indian unit of the company will ship out an estimated 1,40,000 units of gearboxes.
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