Biocon buys Nobex for $5 million
Bangalore: Biotechnology major Biocon has won the bid for acquiring all the assets of US-based Nobex Corporation for US$5mn and certain back-end royalties. Nobex specialises in a proprietary drug delivery system to enable oral delivery of peptide drugs. Nobex had filed for bankruptcy last year.

"The acquisition provides us with a valuable intellectual property (IP) platform. It also gives us full ownership of our on-going oral insulin and oral B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) programmes," said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon.

"It also provides us access to additional innovative technologies and new therapeutic paradigms. We have acquired an IP estate of nearly 300 patents and patent applications focused on oral peptide therapeutics in the metabolic and cardiovascular segment," she added.

Biocon and Nobex had earlier entered into an alliance for the global co-development and commercialisation of oral insulin and oral BNP. Nobex's core competence is its proprietary medicinal chemistry which constitutes a powerful and well-protected IP estate. This core competence has very broad potential applications that run well beyond the present scope of the company's business strategy - oral delivery of therapeutic peptides.
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L&T and Saudi Kanoo group in JV for electrical systems project
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro and Saudi Arabia's well-known house of Kanoo have entered into a joint venture for what has been described as a high-end electrical systems project.

Larsen & Toubro International FZE signed a joint venture agreement with Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo to offer "intelligent architecture for the control and distribution of power". This entails manufacture, marketing and sales of switchboards and related systems solutions and allied products. L&T will hold majority stake in the new company, and will also be in management and operational control.

"Saudi Arabia has given huge thrust on development and improvement in infrastructure for making the economy driven by not only oil but also many other industrial projects and petrochemicals. These business prospects offer a large potential for L&T's switchboards business among GCC countries," said A.M. Naik, chairman and managing director, L&T.
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Banswara Syntex and French co CMT in tie-up
Mumbai: Banswara Syntex Ltd (BSL) has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Carreman Michel Thierry (CMT), France, to set up a textile unit in Rajasthan at a cost of Rs 36.75 crore.

The company, to be named Carreman Fabrics India Ltd, would produce and export lycra-based designer fabrics. The initial capacity would be 40 lakh metres of fabric a year. CMT, with manufacturing facilities in France and Romania and a 150 million euro turnover, currently exports 40 per cent of its textiles to the US.

CMT would provide technical and marketing support. Sourcing of yarn, as also dyeing and processing of the fabric would be done at the BSL facility. R.L. Toshniwal, CMD, BSL, said 60 looms would be set up initially, which would eventually be increased to 180 looms.
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Thomas Cook may go in for three acquisitions overseas
Mumbai: Thomas Cook India, whose ownership recently changed hands to Dubai Financial, has said that the company is considering three overseas acquisitions, and India would be the hub for all future acquisitions. Officials however refused to comment on the timeline, ticket size, or the war chest for the acquisition.

Thomas Cook India has over Rs150 crores in reserves, and hence leveraging the balance sheet is not going to be a problem for the company.

Thomas Cook India is in travel (in-bound, out-bound, charter handling, cargo) and travel-related financial services (forex and insurance) business.

It is the largest in-bound charter handling company with a 20% market share, number two out-bound leisure travel company with a market share of 25%, and has a 20% share in organised business travel.

In January this year, Dubai Financial acquired 60% of Thomas Cook AG stake and subsequently made the mandatory 20% open offer, which resulted in its stake going up to 68%. State Bank of India and Unit Trust of India collectively hold about 10.5% in the company.
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Sanyo to expand presence in India
Mumbai: Japanese consumer electronics major, Sanyo Electric Company Ltd, has announced plans to increase its presence in India, by bringing its commercial and industrial equipment business to the country. The company had launched its consumer products in the Indian market last year.

"We have big plans for India and after building a firm foundation using our initial investment we hope to make it a pillar of our growth in the future," Toshimasa Iue, President, Sanyo, said.

Iue met the prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and also had a meeting with Ajit G. Nambiar, chairman and managing director, BPL Ltd. The company sees overwhelming potential for its environment and energy-related products in India.

Goldman Sachs along with two other investment banks have invested $3 billion in Sanyo. Of this $73 million will be invested in Sanyo BPL Private Ltd, the joint venture between Sanyo and BPL. The company has set a turnover target of Rs2,000 crore to be achieved in the next three years.

In the future, Sanyo is eyeing a 50 per cent share in the global hybrid electric vehicle battery market.
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Nortel and Bharti in 5-year services deal
New Delhi: Bharti Tele-Ventures has signed a five-year managed services agreement with Nortel to host contact centre services for more than 19.7 million Airtel subscribers.
As part of the agreement, Nortel will create a Network Operations Centre (NOC) in New Delhi and provide network design, integration, support and maintenance services for Bharti's contact centre architecture.

A 24x7 voice portal based on Nortel's interactive voice response (IVR) solution will be the cornerstone of Bharti's new contact centre operation. Once the project is implemented, Airtel users can dial a single number from anywhere in India, to be able to speak in English, Hindi, or four other regional languages to complete routine transactions and subscribe to new services while the system interacts with them in a natural, conversational manner.

Nortel has also designed the architecture for future interactive video response capability.
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Oracle to consolidate I-T dept.'s national database
New Delhi: The Income-Tax department has said that Oracle Corporation would consolidate the department's existing regional databases into a single national database, a move that would enable mass processing of returns, speedier issuance of refunds, and electronic-filing of returns on a wider scale.

"The Income-Tax Department has chosen Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware as the platform to develop a single national database, to increase efficiencies and improve citizen services. In two phases, Oracle will consolidate the existing 36 regional databases into a single national database. All 745 Income-Tax offices in 510 cities will be linked to this single national database," V.S. Mathur, director general (systems) department of I-T said at a conference here.

The e-delivery of Taxpayer Services Project is an initiative of the Ministry of Finance and is one of the largest e-governance projects undertaken by the Government.
The project is expected to be operational by December 2006.
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Singapore Air cuts fares to Australasia
Kolkata: As a promotional offer Singapore Airlines has reduced fares from the city to the Australasian region by as much as 20 per cent. Fares for Australian destinations such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide have been reduced to Rs32,000 per ticket (excluding taxes) from Rs33,330.

The airline is trying to promote Bali as a new holiday destination. Consequently, the fare to Bali has been reduced to Rs20,000 from Rs25,000. Airfares for Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong have been reduced too. The offer covers Japan and Korea as well.

The offer will be open from April 1 to August 31. The airline has clarified that those who booked their tickets during this period, even for travel after August 31, would be entitled to the reduced fares.
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