Raymond signs joint venture agreement with Belgian company
Mumbai: Raymond has entered into a joint venture agreement with Belgian company UCO NV (UCO) to merge their denim businesses for creating a global denim company. The proposed joint venture company will own the denim businesses of both companies, each of 40 million metres capacity and the equity will be held equally by the company and UCO in 50:50 ratio the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The JV will create a transcontinental entity with manufacturing facilities across three continents and a global marketing network, it said. The proposed JV will have a combined capacity of 80 million metres of high-end denim, colour denim or flats and a strong manufacturing presence across three continents the US, Europe and Asia.
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Radha Madhav to set up project in Uttaranchal; to invest Rs.75 crore
Mumbai: Radha Madhav Corporation has decided to set up a project in Uttaranchal and invest Rs75 crore for manufacturing pharmaceutical grade polyvinylchloride (PVC) sheets.

The project would be financed by the issue of foreign currency convertible bonds and warrants to select group or persons including promoters, at price determined as per SEBI guidelines.

The company's borrowing limit will be raised to Rs200 crore and the authorised share capital would be raised from Rs20 crore to Rs27.5 crore.
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MRPL's refinery upgrade to involve an investment of Rs.12,800-cr
Mumbai: Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) will invest Rs12,800 crore in its integrated refinery upgradation project and is seeking its parent company, ONGC's approval for this. With the implementation of this project, the new refinery configuration will allow processing of higher proportion of low cost sour and heavy crudes leading to better margin.

The refinery project, on commissioning, will significantly enhance value addition in the refinery product slate. The yield would improve by about 11 per cent, to 83 per cent on crude. Production of new high value products like propylene, paraxylene and Euro-III / Euro IV compliant gasolene and diesel is envisaged through this project.

Estimated production of propylene and paraxylene from the upgraded refinery complex will be 3,00,000 tpa and 9,00,000 tpa respectively.
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BPCL scouts for partners for Bina refinery
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) on Wednesday said it is looking for partners for its upcoming Bina refinery project in Madhya Pradesh.

"The groundwork for Bina refinery is going on. We are talking to different parties for partnering the programme," BPCL chairman and managing director, Ashok Sinha said here. BPCL took up the Bina refinery project in Madhya Pradesh through its subsidiary Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd.

The six-million-tonne refinery is estimated to cost around Rs9,100 crore. Meanwhile, the company is also looking for on-shore blocks in the Middle East. Different consortium, where BPCL is a party, would bid for the blocks, he said.
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ONGC to rent Aban Loyd rig for Rs.400-cr
Mumbai: The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) will hire a drilling rig from Aban Loyd Chiles for its oil and gas exploration efforts.

Aban Loyd Chiles Offshore Ltd on Wednesday said that ONGC had decided to hire one of its rigs for a period of three years and would pay Rs400 crore for it.

The company had received a letter of intent from ONGC for the rig Aban II and the operations under this order would commence after completing the existing contract by October or November 2006, Aban Loyd informed the stock exchanges. If needed, dry-docking and upgradation will be carried out before commencement.
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Satyam receives ISO 27001 certification
Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services has received ISO 27001, the new ISMS standard, after the BS 7799 certification by BVQI for its global facilities in the UK.

The certificate is the latest recognised industry standard for benchmarking Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) BS 7799 certification, a company release said here on Wednesday.

With this, Satyam joins a select list of global IT companies that have been assessed at ISO 27001, it added.
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Nokia to launch five new GSM handsets in India
Kuala Lumpur: Global telecom company Nokia plans to launch five GSM handsets in the country within next four months. The handsets 6131, 6070, 6233, 6103 and 6125 would be positioned at the higher end of the fastest growing social segment in India. The handsets are likely to be priced at US$100 upwards, exclusive of local taxes.

The models are designed, keeping in view the middle class behavioural pattern of being keen to change handsets but reluctantly.
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BSNL opposes varying charges for on-net calls
New Delhi: BSNL has opposed differential tariffs on on-network calls citing reasons of customer discomfort. Cellular operators including some of the CDMA service providers have supported continuation of differential on-network call tariffs while state-run MTNL wants the regulator to fix a ceiling under which such charges could be continued.

Differential on-network call charges should not be permitted due to customer comforts, simplicity in tariff and easy understanding for customers, BSNL said.
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Himalaya gets first cheese order from US
Mumbai: Himalaya International has received its first cheese order worth US$3mn from Castle Gourmet Cheese Company of Pennsylvania, USA.

The company said the order, would be monitored by American collaborators and will be executed by November 2006.

"The company has entered into a marketing arrangement with Artiginale Italiano for the entire annual produce, which shall be marketed primarily in North America," the release added.
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Resil Chem, Dow Corning in pact for product development
Bangalore: Resil Chemicals and Dow Corning Corporation have entered into a pact for development and research of products for the textile industry. The focus of this collaboration will be product innovation and growth.

The jointly developed product will be marketed under the Resil brand name, with the tag 'Powered by Dow Corning.'

The first product off the block from this collaboration will be Resil Innocelle YL, followed by a Dow Corning product, Resil Inncelle KS. Resil Innocelle YL is a silicone yarn lubricant that gives durable softness and tensile strength.
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Sical to invest Rs.350-cr in container train operations
Chennai: South India Corporation (Agencies) has investment plans of Rs350 crore in container train operations. "The investment will go towards developing container train operations connecting the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Nhava Sheva, near Mumbai, to the company's existing inland container deport at Noida, near Delhi, and towards developing similar operations on three other strategic routes in India the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Major expenditure will include creating facilities with railway sidings at the inland locations, and investments in container rolling stock and handling equipment, the notification said.

Sical notified the Stock Exchange said it would deposit the earnest money amount of Rs 50 crore shortly. Sources said that once the earnest money is deposited, grant of licence to operate is automatic.
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Reliance Petro secures largest ever borrowing deal of US$1.5bn
Mumbai: Reliance Petroleum, subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has concluded a US$1.5bn borrowing deal to part-finance its US$6bn export-oriented refinery project at Jamnagar.

The US$1.5bn syndicated loan facility is the single largest limited recourse financing mandated in the Asian markets in recent years, excluding China and the fourth largest single mandate in Asia in the last five years, said a company release here on Wednesday.

RPL had recently mandated 14 leading international and domestic banks - ABN Amro Bank N.V, Bank of America N.A., Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Citigroup Global Markets Singapore Pte Ltd, DBS Bank Ltd, DZ BANK, ICICI Bank, Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, Standard Chartered Bank, State Bank of India, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd - to arrange this US$1.5bn syndicated loan.

The facility will be used to finance the setting up of a new refinery having an installed capacity of approximately 27 million tonnes (5,80,000 bpd) and a 0.9-mt polypropylene complex.

On a standalone basis, the new refinery is expected to be the sixth largest at any single location in the world and together with RIL's existing 33 mt per annum refinery at Jamnagar, this will be the largest concentration of refinery assets at a single location globally.

The new refinery, with a Nelson Complexity Index of 14.5, is one of the most complex refineries globally. High complexity enables the refinery to process a wide variety of crude with a flexible output. The total cost of the project is expected to be US$6bn, making it by far the single largest single petrochemical/refinery project investment ever in Asia.
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Reliance starts food outlets at fuel outlets on highways - in pact with Flying J
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) has opened over 100 company-owned fast food joints along various stretches of the 5,846-km Golden Quadrilateral and north-south/east-west corridor, where it has over 1,000 fuel pumps up and running.

Reliance has signed up a technical services agreement with US-based Flying J, a highway hospitality service provider to the transportation sector.

Reliance is said to be pushing this model of value-added retailing in a bid to corner what it believes will be the next sector after railway and air travel to hit the growth trajectory - road travel. According to a source, the company is betting big that this segment will play catch-up with the US expressways and the German autobahns, given the increasing focus on road infrastructure in the country.

The company will open A1 Plazas that will offer simple hygienic food at affordable rates. Reliance has set up over 120 automobile service centres (R-Care) to go with the A1 Plazas.
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