GMR submits Rs.500-cr bank guarantee for airport deal
New Delhi: The GMR group, selected to modernise the Delhi airport has submitted a Rs500-crore bank guarantee to the Government affirming its commitment to go ahead with the modernisation and restructuring programme of Delhi airport.

The GMR group has formed a consortium along with Fraport - operators of Frankfurt and Malaysia airport. The GVK group, the other successful bidder, chosen to develop Mumbai airport, will submit the bank guarantee within the next few days. The GVK group has tied up with the South African airports for upgrading Mumbai airport.
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Phillips Carbon suffers loss in two straight quarters: shelves plan for power project
Kolkata: Phillips Carbon Black, an RPG Group company, has suffered net losses for two straight quarters, and has decided to hold back its plans for setting up a 30 MW power plant.

Phillips Carbon Black, India's biggest carbon black manufacturer and the ninth largest in the world, registered a net loss of Rs4 crore and Rs12.6 crore in the second and third quarter of 2005-06 respectively. Company sources said the company suffered losses due to high fuel prices that make up about 60-65 per cent of the total raw material cost.

The company is expected to put up a power plant at Durgapur in West Bengal, adjacent to Phillips Carbon Black's existing plant. The cost of setting this unit was pegged at Rs110-120 crore.
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Ginni Filaments forays into FMCG segment
New Delhi: In a move towards forward integration, textile company Ginni Filaments, is foraying into the FMCG segment with the launch of personal hygiene and beauty care products for children and women. The company is setting up a plant in Gujarat to manufacture non-woven spunlace at an investment of about Rs131 crore. While a large part of the output from the facility would be exported, the balance would be used to manufacture converted products mainly cleansing cloth and facial wipes to be sold in the domestic market.

The company's research has shown that the marker for converted products such as baby wipes, cleansing cloths and medical aids like gauges and swabs is large while the market for personal care products is worth Rs15,000 crore and is expected to double in the next three years.

The wipes made from non-woven spunlace fabric would be a first of its kind in India.

While its primary focus would be on retailing the wipes and cloths in the local department stores, the company also plans to get into institutional sales targeting airlines and railways.
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Gokaldas sales rise 53 percent post removal of quotas
Bangalore: Sales of readymade apparels company Gokaldas Exports have increased by 53 per cent to Rs214 crore for the third quarter of 2005-06.

The company said that as quota restrictions have been removed volumes sales in the third quarter of the fiscal were comparatively higher than that in the same quarter in 2004-05. It said export sales for the third quarter was Rs211 crore and domestic sales were Rs3 crore.

Gokaldas Exports' sales to the US were 70 per cent of the total sales while it was 25 per cent to the EU and the rest to other countries. A company official said that as Gokaldas Exports became a listed company in 2005, net profit figures for the third quarter of 2004-05 were not available.

The statement said the company expects to achieve the targeted growth of 15-20 per cent because of a strong order position.

The company is in the process of acquiring 10 acres of industrial land at Hyderabad to set up a garment plant.
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ADAG sends legal notices to Mukesh group co.'s
Mumbai: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has served legal notices on the Mukesh Ambani group-promoted companies, warning of criminal proceedings against all of those involved in the process of trying to get 'demutualised' shares converted to physical shares.

ADAG said that it had been given 'irrevocable' powers of attorney (PoAs) to enable transfer of shares of four new companies and if the other side had succeeded in its attempts, the PoAs would have become useless.
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Ranbaxy in JV with S. African firm
Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories has signed a joint venture agreement with South African Community Investment Holdings (CIH) to market and sell its range of anti-retroviral (ARV) products in African markets.

The joint venture envisages the setting up of a new company, Sonke Pharmaceuticals (Pty), wherein Ranbaxy will hold 70 per cent equity and CIH will hold the rest, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday.

A statement from Ranbaxy said "This arrangement will allow us to serve the afflicted patients in the African market by providing them with quality ARV medicines at affordable prices."

The JV company would market the products under the trademark 'Sonke' in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, it said.

The product delivery mechanism to the patients would be through government tenders, retail pharmacists, HIV/AIDS disease management companies, medical aids, non-governmental organisations and independent community treatment organizations
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Satyam, Bharti Tele to set up projects in Kolkata
Kolkata: Satyam Computers and telecom giant Bharti Tele-Ventures are planning to set up shop in the city of Kolkota, amid an expansion binge by existing players like IBM, TCS, Cognizant and others.

Satyam would open a development centre here while Bharti Tele-Ventures has planned to set up a regional telecom hub for eastern and north-eastern cellular operations in the city, West Bengal IT Secretary G D Gautama said.

Meanwhile, a number of existing players in the IT and ITES sectors like IBM, TCS, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cognizant and Computer Associates, are multiplying their capacity at the centres located here.
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Alstom gets export order worth US$28.6mn from Oman
Mumbai: Alstom Projects India has bagged an export order worth US$28.6mn from Oman for the supply of heat recovery steam generators.

The order entails design, engineering, manufacturing for four natural circulation heat recovery steam generators and all associated ancillary equipment to be installed at Sohar Aluminum Company LLC power plant, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The supplies are to be completed by mid 2007, the company said.
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Tata AutoComp, GS Yuasa form joint venture
Mumbai: Tata AutoComp Systems (TACO) has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with GS Yuasa International, Asia's largest automotive battery manufacturer. The joint venture Tata AutoComp GY Batteries will have a manufacturing facility near Pune and will make hi-tech automotive batteries for OEMs and the retail market in India.

The company plans to start operations with the entire range of four-wheeler automotive batteries and will also set up a national level sales, service and distribution network according to an official statement.

The total investment planned for the project is around Rs90 crore of which Rs42.5 crore is the equity component to be split evenly between the two partners while the remaining amount would be met through debt.
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Vimta Labs to raise Rs.125-cr
Mumbai: Vimta Labs, which provides multi-disciplinary contract research and testing services, plans to raise Rs125 crore from the domestic or international markets and split the equity shares of the company in a 1:5 ratio.

The shareholders at the EGM have approved the raising of Rs125 crore from private, domestic or international investors through issue of equity shares or any other instruments or securities including GDR and warrant convertible into equity shares, and the splitting of one equity share of the company of the face value of Rs10 into five equity shares of Rs2 each.
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Praj gets contract to set up distillery for Shri Renuka Sugars
Mumbai: Praj Industries, involved in the distillery, brewery business, has bagged a Rs18 crore contract for setting up a green-field distillery in from Shri Renuka Sugars.

The contract entails setting up of a 120,000 litres per day green-field distillery in Maharashtra. As a part of the contract, the distillery will produce fuel ethanol and the company will also set up facilities for fermentation, integrated distillation, evaporation as well as the fuel ethanol plant.
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GEECL in pact with IBM Global Services
New Delhi: The Great Eastern Energy Corporation, engaged in exploring, developing, distributing and marketing the coal bed methane in India, has entered into an agreement with IBM Global Services to implement mySAP business suite - SAP R/3, to enable it to handle expanding operational requirements.

The implementation would enable the company to integrate its projects, corporate and operation management into one central enterprise resource-planning (ERP) platform, the company said. Apart from this it would also ensure that the organisation efficiently coordinates such core business processes such as financial, supply chain management and business intelligence.
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Mastek signs strategic partnership deal with Euriware
Mumbai: Mastek has tied up with Euriware to create a software development centre for the company. The agreement would strengthen Euriware's system integration capabilities and strategic offerings including industrial performance, product lifecycle and data management as well as the maintenance of business-critical systems, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"Mastek's capabilities are complimentary to Euriware's strategic strengths. We both anticipate a very fruitful partnership that will enhance the delivery of quality business solutions," Head of Mastek's European operations, Krishna Gopinath said.
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MTNL-STPI to form JV
Mumbai: Public sector telecom company Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has signed a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Hyderabad-based Software Technology Parks of India, an autonomous society under the central government's department of information technology, to set up and maintain an Internet data centre.

MTNL said that along with the maintenance of Internet data centre, the joint venture would also facilitate other related activities.
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Phoenix Software to set up 'green' IT park in Kolkata
Kolkata: Phoenix Software will set up India's first LEED-certified green IT infrastructure project in Kolkata. The IT park, 'Technopolis', would be the first leadership, energy, environment and design (LEED) certified project in the country, developed as per the guidelines of the US Green Building Council.

Company officials said the project, to have 4,25,000 sq ft of workspace, would come up at Salt Lake by June 2006. The Technopolis would also be the first IT park project in the country to earn carbon credit under the Kyoto Protocol as a Clean Development Mechanism project.

The project is designed to reduce the energy bills by over 30 per cent compared to conventional IT parks, thus enabling energy savings amounting to 87.50 lakh units of power per annum.

Consequently, total carbon emission would be reduced by 7,500 tonnes per annum and the total potential savings through energy bills, water management as also carbon trading could be around Rs50 crore over the next 10 years.
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Reliance Info ordered to pay Rs.40-cr to BSNL
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm has been ordered to pay Rs40 crore to state owned BSNL towards the levy on fixed wireless phone service as the same has been declared equivalent to limited mobile service by the telecom tribunal TDSAT.

BSNL had raised a demand of Rs160 crore on Reliance Infocomm, of which the private operator had already paid Rs10 crore.

Last month the TDSAT had passed a judgment stating fixed wireless phone services offered by Reliance Infocomm equivalent to a limited mobile service and, therefore, liable to pay relevant charges such as access deficit charge. Reliance Infocomm in the Supreme Court challenged the same.
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RIL leaves gas pricing to government
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) controlled by Mukesh Ambani, has defended the pricing of proposed gas supplies to the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) saying the government had the final say as it holds 70 percent production share.

An RIL official said the gas price has to be negotiated on commercially viable terms as the government holds 70 percent share under the production sharing contract (PSC) for the (Krishna-Godavari) block.

The company said given the global volatility, there would have to be a variable price for gas supplies with periodic review. It said no final price had been fixed for gas supplies to either ADAG or the National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC).
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MTNL calls for global tender
New Delhi: Telecom PSU MTNL has asked for a Rs750 crore global open tender for rolling out two million more lines on its mobile network and Third Generation Mobile services (3G) on a turnkey basis for Delhi.

The global open tender has been called for in two phases of one million each. In phase I, there will be 7.5 lakh lines for the existing 2G services and 2.5 lakh lines for 3G services depending on spectrum availability.

In phase II, there would be five lakh each of 2G and 3G lines. MTNL's present tender comes at a time when BSNL is still working out modalities for its mega 45 million GSM/3G tender valued at US$4.5bn.

The scope of the tender includes planning, engineering, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the entire 2G network of GSM latest version and 3G network of Release 4 WCDMA technology and higher version as well as planning, engineering, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of other associated network like IN, SMSC, MMS, value added services among others.
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