Orchid to raise Rs.900-cr
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals plans to raise about Rs900 crore ($200 million) either from the international or the domestic market. The company plans to use the funds to repay debt, meet capital expenditure of projects for manufacturing new niche antibiotics and expansion of non-biotic production for regulated markets, and for working capital. Orchid Chemicals had earlier obtained its shareholders' approval to raise $190 million through an issue of foreign currency convertible bonds and global depository receipts, against which it raised $82.6 million.

It could have raised the balance $107.4 million against the existing resolutions.

However, the company's board decided to raise $200 million through fresh issue of global depository receipts, foreign currency convertible bonds or any other form of security in the international and domestic markets.
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Siemens buys 50 per cent stake in Flender
Mumbai: Siemens has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Flender for Rs67.8 crore. The latter is a significant player in the industrial gearbox segment with revenues of around Rs85.7 crore for the year ended September 2005.

With this Flender becomes a Siemens company, along with its manufacturing unit located at Kharagpur, West Bengal.

Siemens acquired the 50 per cent stake in Flender from Babcock Borsig.
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Surya Roshni to set up CFL manufacturing plant
New Delhi: Lighting company Surya Roshni plans to set up a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) manufacturing plant with an investment of around Rs25 crore. The facility would come up at the company's existing bulb and tube-light manufacturing facility at Malanpur (Madhya Pradesh). The total production capacity of the unit would be about 20-lakh CFLs per month. Company sources said initially the facility would produce about two-lakh CFLs per month and add one lakh every month until the total output target of 20-lakh CFLs is reached they said.

The company's two manufacturing units at Malanpur and Kashipur (Uttaranchal) have a combined capacity to produce 142-lakh ordinary bulbs and 46-lakh tube-lights per month.

According to estimates, the total CFL market in the country stands at about one crore units per month, with a growth rate of 30-40 per cent per annum. The ordinary bulb market comprises around four crore units per month, with a growth rate of 8-10 per cent.
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Sintex to acquire 74 pc stake in Zeppelin in phases
Mumbai: Sintex Industries plans to acquire 74 per cent stake in the Indian arm of Germany-based Zeppelin Mobile Systeme GmbH in phases.

Earlier the company signed a share purchase agreement with Zeppelin Mobile System India (ZMI), its German parent for acquiring the stake. ZMI is engaged in the business of designing and commissioning of shelters.

It also designs sophisticated polyurethane foam based shelters and structures for the telecom sector, mobile hospitals, refrigerated bodies and other multi-purpose shelters.
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Cubex Tubings raises Rs.11.18-cr through pref issue
Mumbai: Cubex Tubings has raised Rs11.18 crore through the preferential issue of 23.3 lakh equity shares and warrants to fund capacity expansion and working capital requirements.

The company issued 8.25 lakh equity shares and 8.80-lakh convertible warrants to strategic investors and 6.25 lakh warrants to promoters at a price of Rs48 per share, Cubex informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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Reliance Natural to buy gas from RIL
New Delhi: Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) plans to buy natural gas from Reliance Industries (RIL) at a rate discovered through international competitive bidding.

"The arrangement between RIL and RNRL for sale and purchase of gas was made at the same time as the award of the gas supply contract by the government-owned company NTPC to RIL. Accordingly, the price of gas under the Gas Supply Agreement between RIL and RNRL is the same as the price for gas supply by RIL to NTPC," RNRL said in a statement here.

RIL will supply 28 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from its Bay of Bengal fields to RNRL for the Dadri power project in Uttar Pradesh for $2.34 per million British thermal unit (mBtu). Added to this, would be $0.12 per mBtu marketing cost and another $0.72 per mBtu cost of transporting it from Kakinada to Dadri. The delivered price, without taxes, comes to $3.18 per mBtu.

The contract price is the same as the price bid by RIL in an international competitive bidding process for supply of gas to NTPC Ltd for the proposed expansion of its Kawas and Gandhar power plants, RNRL said.
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McNally Bharat eyes fresh FCCB issue
Kolkata: McNally Bharat Engineering Company is considering raising $5-$15 million from overseas markets. The company's board of directors would meet on May 9, to consider issue of FCCBs.

The board would also consider issue of convertible warrants to the promoters and employees, in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) guidelines.

The company is planning to increase its authorised share capital and hence is looking at alteration of memorandum and articles of association. The company says it has a strong order book position. Starting April, orders were to the tune of Rs650 crore. The FCCB issue is aimed at facilitating the execution of orders.
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Vignette, Virtusa in strategic tie-up
Hyderabad: Software companies Vignette and Virtusa have announced a strategic partnership to leverage the Vignette Centre of Excellence.

Virtusa is a provider of software development and IT services. Vignette develops a comprehensive suite of enterprise content management solutions that help organisations transform their content from a liability to an asset. The Vignette Centre of Excellence at Virtusa started in 2000 as a small quality assurance team and has since evolved into a significant ecosystem fully integrated with Vignette's global engineering workforce, processes and systems.

The centre for product management, product engineering and professional services implementation is currently in operation at Virtusa's Hyderabad Technology Centre.
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Raymond net profit at Rs.136.03-cr
Mumbai: Raymond has posted a net profit of Rs136.03 crore for (FY06) against Rs90.60 crore for FY05. The total income (net of excise) increased to Rs1793.21 crore for FY06 from Rs1506.99 crore in FY05. Net profit for Q4FY06 was Rs34.81 crore as compared to Rs44.43 crore for Q4 FY05. Total income (net of excise) increased to Rs400.22 crore for Q4FY06 from Rs333.31 crore in Q4FY05.The board has recommended a dividend of 50 per cent for FY06, the release said.
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HPGC to purchase power from NTPC
Chandigarh: The Haryana Power Generation Corporation has signed power purchase agreements with the National Thermal Power Corporation for purchasing power from its existing projects and from those to be set up. The agreements for 210 MW Unchahar Stage-III in Uttar Pradesh and 150 MW Kahalgaon Stage-II in eastern region have been signed, an official spokesman said here today.

Haryana is likely to get 10 MW out of the 210 MW project, which would start power generation from September this year. Similarly, in the Kahalgaon project, scheduled to start generation from March 2007, the state's share may be 42 MW.

Earlier, power purchase agreements have been signed for coal-fired generating stations of 1980 MW capacity each at Barh in Patna district of Bihar and North Karanpura near Tandwa town in Hazaribagh and Chatra district of Jharkhand. The state would get 68 MW power from each project, the spokesman said.
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Tata Motors tops TNS survey
New Delhi: Tata Motors has topped the 2006 TNS customer satisfaction survey in the medium and heavy truck category. In the first ever TNS Truck Track customer satisfaction study the company has been accorded highest index of 90 in the Tractor-Trailer category, according to the company. In the two axle 18 ton medium truck category it has been rated 81 while in 25 ton multi-axle vehicle segment it got 82.
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Prithvi Information increases FII limit
Mumbai: Prithvi Information Solutions has hiked the Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) limit to 49 per cent in the company. The company's shares were trading at Rs 412, down 1.58 per cent at the BSE.
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Singapore Airlines launches 'Sweet Deals' fares
Amritsar: Singapore Airlines is offering 'Sweet Deals' promotional fares under which a trip to Singapore and back will cost as little as Rs11,500.

Apart from this fare, which is applicable on the Amritsar-Singapore sector, the airlines is also offering attractive return economy fares to passengers bound to Kuala Lumpur/Penang (Rs12,000), Bangkok (Rs14,800) and Bali (Rs18,500).

The fares do not include taxes and surcharges and bookings need to be made May 6-20 and is good for travel May 12-31.
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Grandsons contest Bhai Mohan`s will
New Delhi: The founder of Ranbaxy Laboratories, Bhai Mohan Singh's grandsons, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, and his second son, Bhai Manjit Singh are contesting his will.

The brothers and their uncle have separately written to the four executors of the will not to proceed with it.

Bhai Mohan Singh, who passed away on March 27 this year at the age of 89, bequeathed a large part of his assets to his youngest son and Max India chairman Analjit Singh, leaving a little cash for Malvinder and Shivinder (Rs500,000 each, and Rs1,000,000 for their mother) and nothing for Bhai Manjit Singh.

Malvinder, the managing director of Ranbaxy, and his brother Shivinder, the chief executive officer of Fortis Healthcare, do not accept the will as valid. Their father, former Ranbaxy chairman Parvinder Singh, who died of cancer seven years ago, was Bhai Mohan Singh's eldest son.

Separately, in a communication to the executors through the law firm Airi & Associates, Bhai Manjit Singh has said the will has not been validly executed.
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Bharti to donate Rs.200 crore for village schools
Rakesh, Sunil and Rajan Mittal of Bharti Airtel have pledged to donate Rs200 crore from their personal wealth to set up primary schools in villages across the country. The brothers are targeting a few hundred schools in co-operation with village panchayats.
The schools are likely to called either "Bharti Vdyalayas" or "Bharti Pathshalas".

The initiative, to be carried out through the Bharti Foundation, will provide mid-day meals and lay special emphasis on the girl child. Bharti's partners and suppliers like Warburg Pincus and IBM have also pledged $1 million each to the foundation.

"We are planning to open a few hundred schools within the next 18-20 months. These are likely to be 2-3 room schools, which will include facilities such as a computer and a library. Each centre will be able to house between 75 and100 students and will have provisions for mid-day meals for all children," Mittal said.

Each school will entail a capital expenditure of Rs10-15 lakh and an annual operational cost of Rs5-7 lakh. The foundation also plans to set up training facilities for teachers across the country to ensure quality education.
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