MUL to introduce Swift in diesel version
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog (MUL) is planning to fit its mid size best seller Swift with a diesel engine. The company's diesel engine manufacturing plant will start production by the end of this year.
Swift has sold about 48,000 since its launch in May last year and due to the fact that it is a mid size car it can be fitted with a diesel engine unlike small cars like Wagon R and Alto.

The diesel segment constituting 20 per cent of the country's passenger car sales is dominated by Tata Motors, with MUL not having any share. The company says it will also export surplus diesel engines to Suzuki Motor Corp's operations in Hungary, China and Indonesia. The diesel engine facility coming up in Haryana will be the only diesel plant of Suzuki — which owns majority equity in Maruti — in the world.

The plant, being set up at an investment of Rs1,747 crore, will eventually have a capacity of 300,000 diesel engines a year. MUL's diesel engines will have the latest technology and will be compliant with Euro IV emission norms.
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Satyam to open technology center in Kolkata
Kolkata: Satyam has laid the foundation stone of a technology centre at Salt Lake Electronics Complex. The company plans to employ about 2,000 IT professionals here. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, chief minister of West Bengal, said that the new centre will be important from the view of servicing Satyam's global customers.

Satyam Computer Services is expecting revenues to increase from IT enabled services (ITES) in the near future due to its upcoming initiatives.

B. Rama Raju, managing director, speaking to newspersons said the company would need a huge number of knowledge workers to spur its expansion, a sizeable number of whom will be employed on the exports front as well.

Satyam, which clocked 36 per cent increase in income from software services last year, hopes to speed up its own growth plans this fiscal, Raju added. A number of other corporate groups — Wipro and Reliance included — have recently sought to step up their presence in the State.

Facilities at Salt Lake currently engage roughly 40,000 professionals. A couple of other IT hubs have been proposed in West Bengal.
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JSW Steel hikes price
Mumbai: JSW Steel has hiked prices of galvanized steel by Rs1,500-2,000 per tonne from March 1, 2006. In addition JSW will also revise the thickness ladder of thinner gauges, which would increase the prices of thinner gauge (0.12mm - 0.40mm) by
Rs750 per tonne.

"The rising zinc price, the logistics cost and spiralling international prices have necessitated this price revision," JSW said in a news release.

On Thursday, Uttam Galva Steel raised prices of galvanized steel by Rs2,500 a tonne with immediate effect.
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Glenmark to commence trials of diabetes drug on humans
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has completed its first phase of its prospective diabetes drug trials. The drug molecule will enter the second phase of targeted human trials to commence in South Africa.

Glenmark's wholly — owned subsidiary Glenmark Pharmaceuticals SA said its lead DPP-IV inhibitor candidate for diabetes (GRC 8200) had successfully completed its Phase I study. The objective of the Phase I study was to assess the safety and bio-availability of GRC 8200 in humans and was conducted using single and multiple oral doses on 88 healthy volunteers. The study was filed with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK and was conducted by clinical research organisation Parexel UK.
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Madhucon Projects allots GDRs
Hyderabad: Madhucon Projects' (MPL) board of directors at its meeting held on Tuesday has approved and allotted 97,65,670 GDRs (Global Depository Receipts) representing 97,65,670 equity shares of Rs2 each.

The shares were allotted to depository participant `Detusche Bank Trust Company Americas' and the Jumbo Share Certificate issued to their custodian ICICI Bank, the company said.
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Electrosteel Castings likely to issue FCCBs in April
Kolkata: The issue of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) by Electrosteel Castings Ltd (ECL) is expected sometime in April this year. The issue is aimed at raising $75 million (approximately Rs332 crore) to fund its expansion plans.

The company has set the April date for the FCCB issue because of the end of the GDR lock-in period of six months. ECL successfully raised $40 million in September 2005 through issue of 45,71,428 GDRs, including a greenshoe option of $5 million.
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Amtek Auto to bring 2 group companies under fold
New Delhi: The Amtek group, an auto components manufacturer, is consolidating its operations and plans to bring in all group companies under itself.

Amtek Auto will soon acquire 100 per cent stake in group company, Amtek Siccardi, and 96 per cent stake in Benda Amtek. The stake will be acquired from the promoters of the Amtek group.

Amtek Auto currently holds 14-15 per cent stake in Benda Amtek; four per cent is held by the Japan-based Benda and the rest by the promoters of the Amtek group. Benda Amtek and Amtek Siccardi have combined revenues of Rs350 crore, which will be added to Amtek Auto's consolidated sales in the fiscal ending June 2006.

This is expected to boost Amtek Auto's revenues to Rs3,000 crore in the current year.

Amtek Auto registered a turnover of Rs1,800 crore last year. The current year's revenues will also be boosted by Amtek's acquisition of the Germany-based Zelter GmbH, which has revenues of about Rs600 crore.

Amtek has appointed Ernst & Young as advisors for the restructuring at the group.
The Amtek group has acquired about seven companies over the last four years. Zelter is the latest acquisition.
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Rain Calcining to make acquisitions abroad
Hyderabad: Rain Calcining (RCL) has floated a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for routing its overseas investments. The company is also close to acquiring an American calcining giant, the Hyderabad-based Rs357-crore company.

While RCL is Asia's largest CPC producer with a capacity of 4.8-lakh tonnes per annum, the American giant has over four times production capacity. Should the deal materialise RCL would emerge as one of the largest calcining players in the world.

The American company on which RCL is eyeing is the New York-based Great Lakes Corbon, with four plants located in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Argentina with an aggregate annual capacity of 2.3 million tonnes. Rain Calcining was rumoured to have obtained a line of credit of around $150 million from ICICI and IDBI for the acquisition.
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Gateway Distriparks to set up new facilities: to invest Rs200 crore
Mumbai: Gateway Distriparks (GDL) which has received an in-principle approval from the Indian Railways to move container trains, will invest Rs200 crore initially to set up the required facilities.

GDL is the sixth private company to get the Railways' approval for moving container trains. Fourteen companies, including Container Corporation of India, Central Warehousing Corporation and the JM Baxi Group, have submitted applications, seeking entry into this sector. GDL had submitted application in the Rs50-crore category for a nation-wide permit. The company will initially move containers between its existing rail-linked ICD at Garhi Harsaru, Gurgaon and the ports at Mumbai, Pipavav and Mundra.

The company proposed to buy 10 trains of 45 wagons each at a cost of Rs120 crore. Each train has a carrying capacity of 90 TEUs, leading to a combined carrying capacity of 900 TEUs.

The company also plans to add new rail — linked inland container depots as part of its programme to consolidate its presence in the rail container segment, either by setting up new ones or tying up with existing depots. The company has earmarked Rs150-200 crore, to be implemented in a phased manner. The company had raised $85 million through its maiden GDR offer in December last and would comfortably fund its plans.

The country's container traffic is estimated at 4.4 million TEUs at present, of which about 30-35 per cent is moved by rail.
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Hetero launches indigenous bird flu drug
Hyderabad: The Rs1000 crore city based pharma company Hetero Drugs (HDL), has unveiled the country's first indigenously produced bird flu drug, Oseltamivir, in 75mg capsules.

Hetero is producing the generic copies of Tamiflu, a patented drug from the Swiss drug maker Roche. The drug is said to be effective in treating the worst symptoms of avian flu in human beings. This is the first sub-license granted to an Indian pharma company by a multinational drug major under the new patents regime, according to the HDL chairman and managing director, Dr B. Parthasarathy Reddy.

Hetero's launch of bird flu drug comes close on the heels of the country reporting its first outbreak of bird flu last week. However, the health officials are still awaiting test reports to see if the deadly virus infected any humans, he said.

Hetero Drugs, which had already supplied 5-lakh pills to the Government for combating the pandemic, has delivered another consignment of 2-lakh capsules on Wednesday.
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Aurobindo's Lisinopril gets USFDA approval
Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharma has announced that the US Food Drug Administration (USFDA) has approved its Lisinopril tablets 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 mg.

According to a company press release, Aurobindo said Lisinopril is an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor used for controlling blood pressure, treating heart failure and preventing kidney damage in people with hypertension or diabetes. It also benefits patients, who have had heart attacks.

According to the company, the market opportunity for the current approval is around $600 million. The product is manufactured at FDA approved multi purpose plant situated at Bachupally (Unit-III) in the city outskirts.

The company said this cardio vascular system segment, generally referred as `prils', has a turnover of over $3.5 billion in the US market alone and is a key component of the company product portfolio. The Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma has a comprehensive portfolio of over 10 prils in its pipeline and is vertically integrated, the release said.
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