L&T to enter shipbuilding
Mumbai: Engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has forayed into shipbuilding. The company has received a key contract for construction of four ships valued at over Rs440 crore from Netherland-based Zadeko Ship Management CV. The company will build the vessels at a new shipyard that will form part of the company's engineering complex at Hazira, Surat. The shipbuilding is scheduled to commence in July, 2006.

A M Naik, L&T's chairman and managing director, said shipbuilding would significantly expand the company's high technology manufacturing capabilities and represented another major step in meeting L&T's strategic growth objectives.

He said the new venture would be aligned with the national priority for extending India's shipbuilding capabilities and enhancing the country's share of the global shipbuilding market.

Zadeko, the Rotterdam-based shipping company, caters to special purpose cargo movements. Its management had expressed the desire to continue the company's association with L&T for its future vessel acquisition programme across a series of vessels. Production of the ships is scheduled to commence in July this year. L&T will adopt modular construction and seamless work flow techniques at its shipyard to meet the stringent delivery schedules.

The vessels will have a deadweight capacity of 8,250 tonnes and can carry 830 TEUs of containerised cargo. L&T's shipyard at Hazira will focus on construction of commercial vessels and warships for the Navy, as well as the Coast Guard.
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RIL wants to be on par with PSUs over pricing of petro products
New Delhi: Now private oil companies are saying the same things that state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) have been talking about over the sale of petroleum products at a controlled price despite the surge in international crude prices.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has asked for compensation from the Government for under-recovery suffered on the sale of motor spirit (MS) and high-speed diesel (HSD) at a controlled price.

RIL has asked the petroleum ministry to treat it on par with public-sector OMCs. The company has told the ministry that it had incurred under-recovery of Rs1,187 crore in 2005-06 on the two products. While the under-recovery on MS was Rs103 crore, on HSD it stood at Rs1,084 crore for the fiscal.
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Murugappa group cos look overseas funds
Chennai: Three Murugappa group companies are looking at accessing the overseas market for debt funds to fund their recently announced Rs880 crore capex plans for 2006-07. Carborundum Universal has obtained its board's approval for a $20-million ECB (external commercial borrowing), but EID Parry and Coromandel Fertilisers are yet to firm up plans. But group officials say that they are likely to go in for ECB route for funds.

EID Parry has recently announced a joint venture with Cargill for setting up a sugar refinery in Andhra Pradesh and needs funds for the venture. Coromandel Fertiliser's plans for raising funds from abroad are related to developments in the fertilisers business. Company officials said investment is required in "process changes, de-bottlenecking and balancing investment in unlocking latent capacity in the fertiliser units of Coromandel Fertilisers and Godavari Fertilisers."
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Shivalik Global to buy Shyam Tex
New Delhi: Fabric and apparel maker Shivalik Global has said its board has approved the acquisition of Shyam Tex International for Rs25.69 crore. The acquisition would be done through a mix of cash and stock, the company said in a statement.
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Aksh Optifibre to merge with broadband arm
Kolkata: Aksh Optifibre and Aksh Broadband have decided to merge in a 2:7 ratio. This means that for every two shares of Aksh Broadband held by existing shareholders, seven shares of Aksh Optifibre would be allotted.

According to Dr Kailash Choudhuri, managing director of Aksh Optifbre, the amalgamation would help the company in strengthening its balance sheet. Subsequently Askh Optifibre would participate in all the proposed boardband projects with the different State Governments.

For the year ended March 31, 2006, Aksh Optifibre registered a turnover and net sales of Rs113.17 crore and Rs14.83 crore, respectively while Aksh Broadband's turnover and net profit for 2005-06 was Rs109 crore and Rs18 crore, respectively.
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Leela Group plans five new hotels across country
Mumbai: The Leela Group of Hotels will set up five new hotels across the country at an estimated investment of Rs1,200 crore. Four new hotels Leela hotels will come up in Udaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune while the fifth a five-star hotel will come up in Gurgaon. The Leela Group has signed an agreement with Ambience Infrastructure Ltd to manage the hotel.

Capt. C.P. Krishnan Nair, chairman of the Leela Group, said with the five new properties, 1,500 rooms would be added, thus increasing its total inventory to over 2,500 rooms by 2010. This includes expansion of its Bangalore hotel by 144 rooms.

All the properties, except for the Leela Goa, will continue to have a tie-up with the European chain, Kempinski Hotels.

Leela Hotels has registered a net profit of Rs100.81 crore for 2005-06, representing a growth of 119 per cent compared to the Rs46.04 crore registered the previous year. In the last fiscal, the company's revenue was Rs343.69 crore, representing a growth of 27 per cent compared to the previous fiscal.
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Glenmark signs marketing agreement with US company
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has signed a supply and marketing agreement with Lehigh Valley Technologies Inc (LVT) to make and market two liquid generic pharmaceutical products in the US.

The agreement would be executed through Glenmark's wholly-owned subsidiary, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc (GPI-USA), and the deal covers products in the pain segment with a cumulative market size of about $46 million. LVT will manufacture and supply the products to GPI, which will market them under the Glenmark label. Glenmark expects to launch these products over a three-month period starting August. It would pay an initial milestone to LVT in order to get exclusive marketing rights, the company said.

The products would be sold across retail and hospital segments and the profits on net sales in the US market will be shared equally between the two parties, the company added.

Glenmark expects approvals for additional two-to-four ANDAs (Abbreviated New Drug Applications) filed by it and expects to close the financial year 2007 with at least 16-18 generics in the US market. The company has filed a total of 17 ANDAs till date from its US FDA approved facility at Goa. The company's strategy combines acquisitions and in-licensing of products to build its portfolio in the US.
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IOC to award petrochemical contract this month
Kolkata: Indian Oil plans to award the contracts for the major unit of the proposed naphtha cracker-cum-polymer project at Panipat in this month. The core project, divided in two packages, has received only two bids. The total bid value for the petrochemicals project is approximately Rs11,900 crore. IOC had previously estimated the project cost at Rs6,300 crore.

The scheduled date of commissioning is postponed by at least 14 months to March-April, 2009 as main bidders asked for a minimum of 35 months for project completion.

Informed sources said the board of directors of the company at its last meeting held on April 28, has allowed IOC to award the contracts at a higher cost than the initial estimates. The project will have capacity to manufacture eight lakh tonnes per anum (tpa) of ethylene; 5.75 lakh tpa of propylene; 3.5 lakh tpa linear low density poly ethylene (LLDPE); 3 lakh tonnes of high density poly-ethylene (HDPE); 2 x 3,00,000 tonnes of poly propylene (PP) and 2.5 lakh tonnes of mono-ethylene glycol (MEG).
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KSL & Ind announces bonus issue
Mumbai: KSL and Industries has announced a bonus issue in the ratio of one share for every five shares held. The net profit of the company for the fourth quarter has declined by 12.75 per cent to Rs6.84 crore as against Rs7.84 crore in the corresponding previous year.

Total sales of the company went up to Rs101.15 crore, an increase of 143.73 per cent (Rs41.5 crore). The company said that the drop in Q4 profits were due to high rate of interest and depreciation.

Net profit for the whole year rose to Rs31.92 crore, up by 199 per cent (Rs10.67 crore). Net sales have increased by 127 per cent to Rs348.90 crore as against Rs153.62 crore in the last fiscal. The company's board has recommended a dividend of 10 per cent.

The company recently entered the real estate and infrastructure business and is in the process of developing a housing project in Nagpur at a capital outlay of Rs450 crore. This project is being implemented through its subsidiary, Reward Real Estate Company.
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BPL identifies new growth areas
Bangalore: The BPL group has identified eight growth areas. These include consumer electronics & telecom with focus on wireless, energy communications, enterprise communications, healthcare, tooling & precision plastics, components, power generation and technology services.

These areas represent attractive market segments and are based on the erstwhile strengths of the BPL Group, which include brand channels, service, customers and other market facing strengths.

In the mobile handset manufacturing segment BPL is exploring options of tying up with a foreign partner who wants to set up a facility in the country or wants to market his products in the country.

The company also plans to revive businesses such as alkaline battery manufacture, plastics tooling & moulding, healthcare business and PROFX. The revival is planned through partnerships and international tie-ups. In the case of batteries, it is now focussing on exports to European markets instead of Asian markets as in the past.
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Bajaj Auto sales rise 29 pc in April
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto has reported a 29 per cent increase in its two and three-wheeler sales for April. The company has reported sales of 2,12,123 vehicles during April against 1,65,045 units in April last year.

Exports: Overseas sales during the month stood highest ever at 31,715 units, a 67 per cent growth from the year-ago period.

Motorcycles sales grew by 37 per cent to 1,88,518 units (1,37,858 units). Total two-wheeler sales grew by 29 per cent. The company said its motorcycle sales continued to outgrow industry, which grew at 21 per cent.

Sales of three-wheeler units moved up by 21 per cent to 21,159 units (17,453 units).

The company said there has been good response from dealers and customers for its new motorcycle Platina due to be launched this month.

Shares of Bajaj Auto moved up by 3.33 per cent to Rs3112.90 on BSE.
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TVS Motor motorcycles sales rise
Chennai: TVS Motor Company sold 80,862 motorcycles in April 2006 against 52,825 units in the same month last year. However sales last month were 3.6 per cent lower than in the previous month when it sold 83,896 motorcycles.

The company said its recently-launched TVS Apache has "met with an encouraging response in all the markets it has been launched''.

Sales of all two-wheelers stood at 1,24,917 units in April compared to 92,400 units in the corresponding period last year.
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Skoda Auto sales up 54 per cent in April
Mumbai: SkodaAuto India sold 984 units in April 2006 against 639 units sold in April last year an increase of 54 per cent. The figure includes 69 units of the premium model Skoda Superb. Skoda Auto India had recently announced the launch of the Skoda Octavia Classic 1.9 TDi - it latest offering. The Skoda Octavia Classic is a limited edition offer of the Octavia line-up.
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Mangalam Cement in Rs.74.5-cr capex plan
Kolkata: B K Birla group company Mangalam Cement (MCL) is planning to invest Rs74.5 crore for enhancing the grinding capacity and clinker capacity at its Kota plant in Rajasthan.

The company plans to dip into its internal accruals and borrowings for the funds. Following the investment, the grinding capacity of MCL would go up by 500,000 tonne and the clinker capacity would also go up by 2.25 lakh tonne.

Officials said the unit will have a combined grinding capacity of 1.6 million tonne after the expansion. This is mainly for the replacement of the old and obsolete equipment and machinery which is expected to result in enhancing the capacity," the official said.

The company has also got approval from the board for industrial and financial reconstruction (BIFR).
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Huawei to set up manufacturing unit in India: to invest $100 mn
New Delhi: Chinese telecom equipment company Huawei Technologies plans to invest a total of $100 million in its R&D centre in Bangalore and for setting up a manufacturing facility in India shortly.

Of the total investment the company will allocate $ 60 million for a manufacturing plant in India for which it has applied for approval to make telecom equipment and $ 40 million on expanding the Bangalore R&D centre. The company's Bangalore R&D centre, which is the second largest centre outside Shenzen, currently has 1,200 profressionals and will touch 2,000 by the end of 2007. The centre is working on next generation networks, broadband, optical and 3G equipment and is expected to focus on customisation of equipment.
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Force Motors in tie up with Neoman Group, Germany
Indore: Force Motors, earlier known as Bajaj Tempo, is tying up with the Neoman Bus Group, of Germany to invest 300 million euro ($ 369 million) for setting up bus and truck manufacturing facilities in Madhya Pradesh.

Abhay Firodia, chairman and MD, Force Motors and Wolfgang Fahrnberger, chairman of the board of Neoman Bus Group, recently signed an agreement for setting up a JV to manufacture the chassis, complete buses and coaches during the Indo-German Business Summit held in Hanover recently. The companies will spend 200 million euro on the truck facility, 100 million euro will be invested in the bus unit. Force Motors and Neoman will have an equity participation of 70:30 in both the ventures.

The JV intends to offer complete range of trucking solutions, from long-haul trucks to tippers, tractor-trailers, multi-axle vehicles and special purpose vehicles like concrete mixing platforms and tankers. These vehicles will be manufactured at the new facility set up at the Pithampur plant of Force Motors. The vehicles will comply with Euro-III and Bharat Stage III emission norms and will have a built-in capability to be upgraded to Euro-IV norms company sources said.
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