RIL announces Rs25,000-cr retail foray
Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has unveiled an ambitious Rs25,000 crore retail initiative that would have operations in 1,500 towns and cities across India and offer a variety of products and services, ranging from food and grocery to health and education.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders at the company's 32nd AGM said, "Organised retail was the next big idea," and said the company envisioned kicking off a "retail revolution" across the country involving farmers, small shopkeepers, consumers and the youth.

He also said that Reliance will develop opportunities in agriculture and food processing to support the retail business which is likely to employ one million people.

He said Reliance Retail Ltd in which RIL has a 100 per cent stake would spearhead this revolution. According to him Reliance Retail would entail an equity investment of Rs10,000 crore which would gradually be scaled up to Rs25,000 crore.

Sharing the company's progress during the past year, Ambani said the demerger of Reliance unlocked tremendous value for the shareholders to the tune of Rs46,000 crore. This was unmatched in the history of corporate India, he said.

Ambani also mentioned Reliance's partnership with Chevron and said it would not only help the company optimise crude supply but also result in collaboration in other areas of energy sector.
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Heidelberg likely to acquire 30 per cent stake in Mysore Cement
Mumbai: The $8.3-bn German company Heidelberg Cement of Germany is likely to acquire a majority stake in Mysore Cement, an SK Birla group company.

The move would also imply a likely exit from cement business for the Rs3,000-crore Kolkata-based SK Birla group, which also has interests in textiles, telecommunications and defence electronics.

The sharply growing Indian cement industry — second only to China — has attracted many foreign cement majors, which see great demand for the commodity as the country gears up to build more houses and develop roads and ports.

The SK Birla family holds 24.1 per cent stake in Mysore Cement, while private corporate bodies own 19.8 per cent stake.

HeidelbergCement is one of the world's leading cement makers and had entered the Indian cement industry early this year through a joint venture with the Indorama group, which has a 2m tonne clinker plant in Maharashtra.
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Birla Corp Q4 net up 76 pc
Mumbai: Birla Corporation's net profit for the January-March quarter rose by 76.03 per cent at Rs67.14 crore, as compared to Rs38.14 crore in the year-ago period. The total income (net of excise) of the company grew 12.68 per cent to Rs396.91 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2006 from Rs352.23 crore in the corresponding quarter 2004-05, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The board of directors recommended a dividend of (22.50 per cent) Rs2.25 on shares of Rs10 each, it added.
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Natco Pharma starts commercial production at Dehradun unit
Mumbai: Natco Pharma has commenced commercial production at its Dehradun plant. The company informed the BSE that the finished dosage pharmaceutical formulations unit would achieve a capacity level of 300 million tablets per annum and the project is being implemented in stages.

Plans are also underway for establishing a parenteral division at Dehradun, it added.
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RIL discovers oil in K-G basin
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has announced a new crude oil discovery in the Krishna Godavari basin off the Andhra Pradesh coast. RIL Chairman, Mr Mukesh Ambani told shareholders in the company's annual general meeting, "We recently had a discovery in MA1 well in the deep water D6 Block in the K-G basin. More than the size, this discovery signifies a large geological play that could result in future discoveries," he said.

The well could open a significant new play and have a material impact on the future exploration potential of the block. RIL also made discoveries in two wells in the KG-III-6 shallow water block. The pipeline project will be implemented through Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL). Ambani said RIL will have control over the pipeline but without any obligation to invest in the equity of RGTIL.
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HDFC, HIREF to acquire 25 pc stake in L&T-UIL
Mumbai: India's leading housing finance company Housing Development Finance Corporation and HDFC India Real Estate Fund (HIREF) are acquiring a 25 per cent stake in L&T Urban Infrastructure (L&T-UIL).

L&T's subsidiary, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects and L&T Urban Infrastructure have signed agreements with HDFC and HIREF, an HDFC Property Fund scheme, to raise Rs 95 crore by way of equity and quasi-equity placement.

HDFC would hold a 14.9 per cent stake and HIREF 10.1 per cent equity in L&T-UIL, a subsidiary of L&T Infrastructure Development Projects.

HDFC Property Fund is a venture capital fund, which is managed by HDFC Venture Capital Ltd, a subsidiary of HDFC.

The post-issue equity valuation of L&T-UIL would stand at Rs380 crore on a fully diluted basis.
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Reliance Comm to invest $60m in S. Arabia
Dubai: Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications will invest $60 million in Saudi Arabia to connect the Kingdom and other Gulf states with 53 countries around the globe on its fibre optic network and provide value-added services to its users.

FlAG Telecom, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, under its Falcon project has made the investment to set up submarine fibre optic cable landing stations in Alkhobar and Jeddah for facilitating access to international bandwidth.

More investments are expected to follow as both sides explore the possibility of diversifying their relations through strategic alliance.

The Falcon project will connect the Gulf countries, including the Kingdom to India from the east, Egypt from the west as also with the rest of the world. The entire project would be completed before October this year. The two landing stations would be constructed one in Alkhobar, already operational and the other in Jeddah, which will be completed next month.
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TransWorks to buy Canadian call centre company Minacs Worldwide
Toronto: Aditya Birla group company TransWorks Information Services plans to acquire Canadian call centre firm Minacs Worldwide Inc, a deal with a total enterprise value of about $200 million.

Transworks is offering $5.50 per Minacs share in cash and Minacs' board of directors is urging shareholders to accept the offer, which is expected to expire in August. The Toronto-based firm, whose founder Elaine Minacs recently died of cancer, has agreed to be acquired by a subsidiary of TransWorks.
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Wipro to continue on the acquisitions trail
Bangalore: Indian software major Wipro is pursuing its strategy of acquisitions more aggressively in future along with other initiatives. Azim Premji in a letter to shareholders published in the company's 2005-06 annual report said, "Our experience with acquisitions so far has been quite satisfactory. This has given us the confidence to pursue this strategy more aggressively in future." Similarly, he said, the company would pursue strategic initiatives identified in its "Strategic Plan" to deliver strong growth in future in all its businesses.

Speaking of the ''enviable track record'' of Wipro, Premji said over a six-decade period, its revenues has grown by a compounded annual growth rate of 21 per cent, net income by 31 per cent and market capitalisation by 25 per cent.
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Qualcomm may discuss royalty with Maran
New Delhi: Qualcomm's visiting CEO Paul Jacob is likely to meet the Indian Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran and the two are likely to discuss the issue of high royalty paid by the Indian CDMA service providers to the US based technology firm Qualcomm at seven per cent among other things.

In China, the royalty fee is just two per cent. It is expected that the Government may tell Jacob that parity with the neighbouring country is a must, with India emerging as the fastest growing wireless market in the world. It would make sense f or any technology provider to be here, they said.

India is adding about 4-5 million customers a month but most of them are on GSM technology, they said.

Sources said since the Government wants multiple technology platform for telecom services, it would like to act as a facilitator in removing the perceived hindrances in rolling out alternate technology based services so that the country does not move towards a single technology based mobile service such as Korea.
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TCS stays at top in IT software and services exports
New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has retained its top ranking among the top 20 IT software and service exporters in India, a survey by Nasscom said. Infosys and Wipro were at second and third position in the list respectively.

"India's services exports grew by over 33 per cent in FY'06 to clock revenues of $17.3 billion, led by a strong demand and increased traction for traditional services like ADM, new services like EAI and package implementation," Nasscom President, Kiran Karnik said.

The list did not include companies, such as Cognizant, Accenture, IBM and HP, which are US listed companies but have significant offshore operations in India.

Companies including Kanbay, Syntel and Intelligroup - all with an India-centric global delivery model but unable to provide India specific revenue details - were excluded from this list.
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Praj Ind gets two orders worth $20m each
Mumbai: Praj Industries has received contracts for supply of technology and machinery for two plants being set up for Cilion Group in California, US. Cilion also selected the company's technology for additional two plants for which machinery orders are yet to be released.

The first lot of two plants with a capacity of over 600,000 litres per day each (55 million gallons per annum-mgpa), based on corn are scheduled to go on stream by mid-2007. Total capacity planned by Cilion is 440 mgpa in 2008.

The company's technology was selected based on its vast and varied experience in ethanol industry and on the strength of its highly qualified personnel. The project will utilise technology, which is contemporary and cost-effective.
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Dolphin Offshore to acquire Procyon
Mumbai: Provider of integrated services to the offshore oil and gas industry Dolphin Offshore Enterprises is acquiring shipping company Procyon Offshore Services for Rs13.5 crore. The board approved the proposal to acquire the entire shareholding of Procyon from its promoters subject to completion of further formalities. Procyon's main business activity is ship owning and it has a fleet of seven tugs and one utility vessel.

The acquisition would enable Dolphin Offshore to increase the level of its offshore activities and also reduce the charter hire rate charges it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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Good Technology launches mobile messaging for IBM
Hyderabad: Good Technology, Inc, an enterprise computing software and service provider, on Tuesday has launched 'Good mobile messaging' for IBM Lotus Domino. According to a company release here, the combined power of IBM and Good Technology offers Lotus notes users true enterprise-class mobile collaboration and computing capability.

It also has other features such as wireless access on the new Motorola Q, the Cingular 8125 pocket PC; and the Palm Treo family, including the new Treo 700w and Treo 700p smart-phones, the Nokia E61 and other Windows mobile devices. The facility will be available in July through authorised wireless carriers, value-added resellers, and directly through the company, the release added.
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