RIL transfers control of four demerged companies to Anil Ambani
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) has announced that it has handed over control of the four demerged companies to Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group following the reconstitution of the boards of the four companies - Reliance Natural Resources, Reliance Communication Ventures, Reliance Energy Ventures and Reliance Capital Ventures - after a board meeting held in RIL headquarters here late in the evening.

Anil Ambani is now the chairman of all the four companies.

The two RIL nominees, Sandeep Tandon and L.V. Merchant, resigned from the boards of these companies immediately after the board meeting.

The listing of these companies can be processed once the certified true copy of the final information memoranda, duly approved by the board, is submitted and the provision of Clause 49 of the listing agreement is complied with, the release said.
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Google opens sales, marketing offices in Delhi, Mumbai
New Delhi: The world's largest search engine firm Google Inc has set-up sales and marketing offices in Delhi and Mumbai.

These operations complement existing centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad and are designed to enable Google to develop business opportunities, provide locally relevant products and services, and deliver advertising services to its users, advertisers and partners throughout India, said company officials.

The Google India team would forge relationships with businesses, partners and agencies throughout the region and enable them to take advantage of this growth in e-Commerce. Advertisers on Google in India currently include Citibank, Monster India, Bharatmatrimony.com, MakeMyTrip, SpiceJet, Kingfisher Airlines, ICICI Bank, Shaadi.com, Ebay India, and Birla Sunlife.

Commenting on the new offices, Ms Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, vice-president, Asia-Pacific and Latin America Operations, Google Inc, said, "The market in India is changing rapidly. More people are coming online as the infrastructure for growth quickly expands."
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L&T gets Rs.144-cr order in West Asia
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has received an order worth Rs144 crore from the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) for the construction of 85 km-long 220 kV transmission lines. Mott MacDonald is the consultant for the project, which is expected to be completed in 24 months starting January, according to a press release from L&T.

The work would be executed by L&T's Engineering Construction & Contracts Division and the towers for the project will be designed in-house by the Engineering Design and Research Centre team of ECC. These will be sourced from the L&T's Transmission Line Towers manufacturing facilities in Pondicherry and Pithampur.
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Companies likely to adopt new accounting norms from April
New Delhi: Companies are likely to be adopt a new and revised set of accounting standards (AS) from accounting periods beginning from April 1. These standards, which have been recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS), would have the statutory backing of the Companies Act as soon as the Union Government notifies them.

Till now corporates adhered to the AS of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in view of the deemed statutory support given to such standards by the Companies Act, after its amendments in 1999. The changes will take place as the Government has decided to accept in toto the recommendations of the NACAS, which submitted its report to the minister for company affairs, here on Tuesday.

After reviewing all the AS issued by the ICAI till date, the NACAS has finalised and submitted its recommendations to the Government.

So far, 28 accounting standards (AS 1 to 7 and AS 9 to 29) have been recommended by NACAS. The AS-8 has been withdrawn as its contents have been subsumed in AS-26, which deals with intangible assets.
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IOC expected to finalise merchant bankers for sale of ONGC, GAIL stake
New Delhi: The Indian Oil Corporation will soon appoint merchant bankers for the sale of part of its shareholding in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and GAIL (India).

IOC is weighing the option of appointing separate advisors for the transactions in ONGC and GAIL, a company executive said. Almost 13 merchant bankers had made presentations, of which four have been shortlisted sources said.

Indications are that for the sale of up to 20 per cent of its stake in ONGC, Indian Oil has invited bids from Kotak Mahindra, Citi Financials and JM Morgan. In addition to these three merchant bankers, the SBI Caps-CLSA combine has also been asked to submit price bids for up to 50 per cent sale of its stake in GAIL.

Indian Oil holds 13.7 crore-equity shares or 9.61 per cent stake in ONGC and 4.08 crore-equity shares or 4.83 per cent in GAIL. The board of the company on December 28 had approved sale of up to 20 per cent of its stake in ONGC and up to 50 per cent in GAIL this fiscal. This was subject to approval of the competent authorities — the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.
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Shell to set up technology centre in Bangalore
Bangalore: Royal Dutch Shell is setting up its latest technology centre in Bangalore by the second half of 2006. Currently, Shell has major research and development facilities in Houston, Rijswijk and Amsterdam.

The Bangalore centre will deliver high-end technical studies, projects and services for Shell across the globe, as well as supporting interests in India.

The services will include upstream exploration and production activities as well as downstream refinery and chemical operations. Shell Technology India will also provide access to cutting-edge Indian talent, he said.

Sources said the company has already started hiring for the Bangalore centre and has recruited some 61 people till date. The company plans to scale up the headcount to 150 by mid-2006 and eventually to 1,000 in three years with an additional support staff of around 300.

According to the release from the company Royal Dutch Shell is the world's third largest integrated oil company by market cap. It has made the largest foreign direct investment in India among all integrated oil companies (around US$1bn) and is the only global major to have a retail licence in India.
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Siemens to acquire 50 pc stake in Flender
Kolkata: Siemens is planning to acquire 50 per cent of the equity stake in Flender from Babcock Borsing India. Flender AG, a company acquired globally by Siemens AG in August 2005, holds the remaining 50 per cent of the equity stake in Flender.

Flender, with a manufacturing facility in Kharagpur, West Bengal, manufactures industrial gear boxes and accessories.
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Sona Koyo plans to invest Rs.400-cr to increase capacity
New Delhi: Sona Koyo Steering Systems plans to invest Rs400 crore to expand capacity over the next few years, to almost treble its turnover to Rs1,000 crore by 2010. The company sources said the investments will go towards Sona Koyo's current capacity expansion plans in its various facilities and new locations.

The company is eyeing a turnover of Rs350 crore this fiscal, and would firm up a funding plan for the proposed investments in the next three months, which could include dilution of equity.

The promoters, who hold about 26 per cent stake in the company through family and associates, are not averse to diluting equity. As part of the expansion, the company plans to have capacity of three million pieces of manual steering gears, 5,00,000 units of hydraulic power steering systems, and 2,50,000 units of electronic power steering (EPS), apart from doubling the capacity of steering columns from one million parts.
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Renuka Sugars' standalone refining facility to come up at Haldia
Kolkata: Shree Renuka Sugars is planning to set up a stand-alone sugar refining facility at Haldia in West Bengal, a non-sugar growing region. The refinery would have a capacity of 2,000 tonnes a day and will be set up at a cost of Rs250 crore.

Land has already been allotted and the plant is scheduled for commissioning in March 2007. The project would be funded through equity and internal accruals.

Senior officials said the company would bring raw sugar from its factories in Karnataka for refining at the Haldia plant. During the non-sugar season, the company would import whites from Brazil, Africa and Australia. The proposed factory, whose foundation stone would be laid down on February 18, would cater to the demands of eastern India and the neighbouring countries.

The refinery would have a co-generation power plant of 25-MW capacity, of which 10 MW would be consumed in-house and the rest would be sold to the West Bengal State Electricity Board.
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Volvo to expand luxury bus market share
Kolkata: Volvo India has begun plying its Volvo B7R intercity luxury bus on the Kolkata-Puri route. The company hopes to garner a majority share of the Indian market for luxury buses on a sustainable basis in the years ahead.

In terms of percentage growth in the luxury buses segment, Volvo India hopes to grow at 30-35 per cent annually, against the industry growth of around 15 per cent per annum.

Volvo India has set up its commercial vehicles manufacturing facility in Bangalore and since setting up shop a few years ago, the company has invested around Rs300 crore in India.

Volvo luxury buses are operational in over 80 countries globally.

According to company officials at Volvo India over 1,000 of its luxury buses are operational across the country. On the Mumbai-Pune route alone, over 100 such buses are plying. Among the company's customers are several state road transport corporations.
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Ashok Leyland records 20 per cent jump in sales in Jan
Chennai: Ashok Leyland has reported a 20 per cent jump in domestic sales of its vehicles last month with sales of 5,618 units compared to 4,655 in January 2005, according to a press release from the company.

Total sales were up by 6 per cent at 5,787 (5,461) and total production was 4,773 (5,244). Sales of medium duty vehicles (MDV) in the domestic market were 5,594 (4,632).

Sales of passenger MDV in the domestic market were 1,049 (1,160), export sales 75 (168) and production was 1,240 (1,306). Goods MDV sales in the domestic market were 4,545 (3,472), exports 94 (636) and production was 3,486 (3,922).
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ONGC identifies oil fields for re-development
Kolkata: ONGC has spotted 21 locations in the oil fields on the West coast for re-development. After re-development, the recovery rate of these locations is expected to increase from the existing 26-28 per cent to 40 per cent.

Sources said that almost fifty per cent of the wells identified for re-redevelopment are located in the dying oil field of Gandhar. Other oil fields, where selective re-development would be carried out, are Ankleswar, Sisodra, Kosamba and Dabka.

Incidentally, Ankleswar was the first field brought into production by ONGC.

Most of the five oilfields are located in Gujarat, producing a little over 6 million tonnes of oil. The company also targets 6 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) natural gas.

The company is now targeting to add another 1.5 mmscmd capacity in the State.
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Dr. Reddy's to hike borrowing, investment limits
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories is planning to increase the limit of both borrowings and investments. This comes soon after rumors that the company has offered euro 450 million (about Rs2,500 crore) for acquiring a German generic drugs major.

Dr Reddy's Labs has informed the stock exchanges that it proposes to seek the approval of its shareholders through postal ballot for a resolution to give authority to the board for borrowings and investments in excess of the limits prescribed under Section 293 and 372A of the Companies Act, 1956.

According to the media reports, if it materialises, the acquisition of Betapharm Arzneimittel GmbH of Germany by Dr Reddy's Labs would be the biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian pharmaceutical company.

Reports said that other Indian pharmaceuticals majors such as Ranbaxy, Wockhardt and Nicholas Piramal have also submitted bids to acquire Betapharm.
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SkodaAuto to make India hub for south-east Asia
Mumbai: SkodaAuto India, is planning to turn its Indian operations into an export hub for south-east Asia. The company is targeting exports of 100-200 cars by 2008.

The company plans to export to markets in south-east Asia including Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. It is logistically advantageous for the company to export cars from India rather than exporting CBUs (completely built units) from Europe to these countries said a SkodaAuto India senior official.

The company is currently appointing dealers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to export its cars assembled in the country to Bangladesh.

SkodaAuto India has a capacity to manufacture 30,000 cars every year. On the domestic front, it is aiming to increase its dealership to 51 by the end of this year from the current 41.

The company sold 13,500 sedans in 2006 — good growth over 9,000 in 2005.
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