Tata Coffee to buy US coffee company
Bangalore: Tata Coffee Ltd is acquiring the US based Eight O'Clock Coffee (EOC) Company from a private equity firm, Gryphon Investors, for Rs1,015 crore or $220 million. Tata Coffee which is majority owned by Tata Tea would fund the acquisition through a combination of equity and non-recourse debt. Non-recourse implies that the entire borrowing is on a stand-alone basis. The advisor for the acquisition was J.P. Morgan.

The acquisition cost is more than the net worth of Tata Coffee as on March 2006. As on March FY '06, Tata Coffee's paid-up equity was Rs12.47 crore and the net worth was Rs186 crore.

EOC is the third largest coffee brand in the US by volume behind Folgers and Maxwell House. The company is headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey. EOC had net sales of $109 million (Rs505 crore) and an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $27 million (Rs125 crore) in 2005-06. The acquisition gives Tata Coffee an entry into the $21-billion US coffee market and will transform it from a regional player to a significant global player.
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ADAG gets Bombay HC nod for merger plans
Mumbai: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has received the Bombay High Court's approval for the scheme of amalgamation of Reliance Energy Ventures with Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital Ventures with Reliance Capital. During the one-hour special trading session on Sunday, Reliance Energy shares closed at Rs463.95 on the BSE, down 1.10 per cent from Friday. Reliance Energy Ventures shares ended flat at Rs37.90.

Reliance Capital's shares gained 1.18 per cent to close at Rs522.20, while Reliance Capital Ventures shares closed at Rs25.50, up 0.99 per cent from Friday.
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Pratibha Ind gets Rs200-cr water project
Mumbai: Pratibha Industries has secured a Rs200-crore Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) Water Project that involves providing, laying and commissioning of drinking water from Kalamboli to Digha in Navi Mumbai. The project, slated to be completed in the next 12 months, involves feeder mains and allied construction work, and is expected to solve the water shortage in Navi Mumbai officials said.

During the one-hour special trading session on Sunday, shares of Pratibha Industries closed at Rs209.40, up by 0.60 per cent from Friday's close of Rs208.15.
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Thapar Group to focus on high growth businesses
New Delhi: The Thapar Group - promoters of Ballarpur Industries (BILT) - is focusing on high growth businesses such as retail and BPO. It is looking to expand these businesses and is also understood to be studying the feasibility of foraying into the insurance business. Last year, the Group entered into a 70:30 joint venture with US-based healthcare service provider Option Care Inc, to enter the BPO business with 175 seats.

Salient Business Solutions, (Thapar Group's BPO firm) has 75 seats at present which will be scaled up to 400 seats by 2007. The company would also focus on the higher margin data processing business rather than voice processing.

The company plans to expand into other services such as finance and accounting and HR-led services and horizontal services such as vendor management, procurement, sales management and data warehousing solutions.

Salient might also further strengthen its operations by making an acquisition. The Thapar Group, similarly, is looking to expand Ballarpur's retail business. It is planning to ramp up operations of the retail business, which currently gives revenues of Rs 50 crore. The company is now enhancing its product portfolio by adding more stationery items such as writing instruments, file covers and photographic paper among others. It is also looking to add other high-end products to its existing portfolio that consists of 125 stock-keeping units currently (including the Matrix range of products). BILT expects to double its revenue from the retail business, under which it sells notebooks, notepads, copier paper and other products, to Rs100 crore by June next year.
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M&M to set up greenfield facility with Rs2,000 crore investment
New Delhi: Mahindra & Mahindra is setting up a greenfield facility with an investment of up to Rs2,000 crore. The company is looking for a location to set up the new facility which is likely to be used for manufacturing a new multi-utility vehicle, Ingenio that M&M would launch in 2008.

The company has spoken to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu governments for the new facility and is said have shortlisted two more states for the new plant and is looking to strike the best possible deal.

The company is believed to have bargained for a variety of concessions from Tamil Nadu, which also houses the plants of automakers like Ford, Hyundai, Ashok Leyland and BMWs upcoming plant.
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Bharti to spend $100mn on agri-biz foray
New Delhi: The Sunil Mittal promoted telecom company Bharti Airtel is planning to spend $ 100 million (Rs 450 crore) in the horticulture sector over the next five years as part of its agri-business foray.

The investment would involve acquiring farm land, setting up an R&D base and other basic infrastructural facilties like cold storage for developing the base for a sizeable horticulture business, Mittal said. The group now owns 5,000 acres of land in Punjab where it already has undertaken plantation of horticultural crops for export purposes.

The company plans to acquire 1,00,000 acres of agricultural land in the next 5 years for this business.

The government has announced various initiatives for the horticulture sector and the private sector could take advantage of it.
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Inox to acquire Calcutta Cinema
Kolkata: Inox Leisure has entered into a deal with Kolkata based Calcutta Cinema Pvt Ltd (CCPL) that runs the "89 Cinemas" chain of multiplexes in eastern India.

"The merger will help Inox build its foothold in the region," said INOX Leisure director Deepak Asher.

CCPL operates a four-screen multiplex at Swabhumi Complex in the city and plans to start a three-screen multiplex in Durgapur, about 170 km from here.

It has entered into tie-ups for building and operating six more multiplexes in West Bengal and Assam.

INOX has a nationwide presence with 11 operational multiplexes and a total of 41 screens in 10 cities - Mumbai, Pune, Vadodara, Goa, Jaipur, Kolkata, Bangalore, Indore, Darjeeling and Kota.
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India at fourth spot in global 100 infotech list
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Satyam, and Wipro are mentioned in the annual BusinessWeek list of top 100 infotech/telecom companies. US has 45 infotech companies among the top 100 while Taiwan has 13 and Japan 9. There is no company from mainland China. Mexico's America Movil, holds on to its number one position this year also and the number two, Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision, ranked second last year stays put. Bharti Airtel is the only Indian company in the top 10, ahead of international giants like Motorola (11th), Google (13th), Microsoft (37th) and Hewlett-Packard (44th).

The factors that BusinessWeek focused on to rate the companies included return on equity, revenue growth, shareholder return, and total revenues. The study describes Bharti Airtel as the largest cell phone player in India and says it created a trend when it outsourced its network management to Nokia and Ericsson. TCS has been described as India's top tech player and the magazine says its focus this year will be on expanding deeper into Latin America and China.

For Infosys, BW said the company is expanding its employee base beyond India and hiring from top US and European schools.

While the US has the maximum number of companies in the top 100 list, it has only one in the top 10 - Apple Computers, occupying the fourth slot. India too has one company in the top 10 — Bharti Airtel. Only one of the five Hong Kong companies on the list is in the top 10 — China Mobile in eighth place. Japan, likewise, has nine in the list of 100 successful companies, but only one in the top 10 — Softbank. Taiwan is the only country with more than one company in the top 10.
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