Indian promoters increase stake in Ucal Fuel
Chennai: The Indian promoters of Ucal Fuel have bought 2.68 per cent stake in Ucal Fuel through the open market hiking their total stake in the company to 26 per cent. Foreign promoter, Mikuni of Japan, also holds 26 per cent stake in the company.

A senior official of Ucal Fuel said that the promoters raised their stake only because they were allowed to hold the same stakes as the foreign collaborators under the joint venture agreement.

In another development, two mutual funds — Franklin India Prima Fund and HDFC Long Term Equity Fund — have picked up 5.87 per cent and 5 per cent stakes in Ucal Fuel each.
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Coca-Cola says its products upto EU standards
Bangalore: The Coca-Cola Company says the results of independent laboratory tests show that the company's soft drinks in India meet the purity criteria set by the European Union for pesticides in bottled water.

Rick Frazier, vice-president of technical stewardship, Coca-Cola Company, said, "There is no issue with the quality and purity of our products." Samples of Coca-Cola, Thumps-Up, Sprite, Fanta and Limca were claimed to have been tested by the Central Science Laboratories in the UK. The release added that the test results confirmed that there are no safety problems with pesticide residues in the soft drinks made by The Coca-Cola Company in India. The release said the results from 2006 tests showed less than 0.1 part per billion of any pesticide. Testing is ongoing with additional results expected this coming week, it added.
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Aircel may get DoT approval to enter Delhi
New Delhi: Chennai-based cellular operator, Aircel, may enter the lucrative Delhi circle as the Department of Telecom likely to clear its application for a Delhi licence.

Aircel will be the seventh operator to foray into the Delhi circle, which has more than six million cellular subscribers. All the national operators including Bharti Airtel, Hutch, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices have already rolled out their services in the national capital. Aircel has applied for eleven more licences to create an all India telecom presence.

Aircel is owned by Malaysian telecom major Maxis Communications Berhad. Though Aircel will compete against Airtel and Hucth, which have been offering cellular services in Delhi for more than 10 years have a well entrenched brand following, with more than a million subscribers. Aircel will, however, have the advantage of deploying the latest technology and may also leapfrog into the third generation services once the policy on 3G gets clearer.
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Zensar inaugurates global delivery centre in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Pune-based Zensar Technologies has launched its global delivery platform in Hyderabad to support academic institutions in the city and across 25 towns in the state.

The company proposes to offer technology collaborations to 100 engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh, and is currently in talks with the representatives of the state government in this regard.
Ganesh Natarajan, chairman and managing director of Zensar said, the company plans to set up technology development centres (TDC) in participating academic institutions linked to its technology hub created in Hyderabad. "Students from each TDC will be linked to Zensar experts and be able to access Zensar's technology innovations," he added.
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ONGC gas may not resume for four days
New Delhi: ONGC's gas processing unit may not resume operations for four more days even though the water level is receding fast in Surat city the part of Hazira belt still has flood water left.

Sources said, "Even if ONGC manages to resume supply in another two to three days it would be running unit on minimum capacity and will not be able to reach at its full capacity of 40 mmscmd of gas before a week time."

The Hazira gas unit in Gujarat was shut early on Tuesday after floodwater entered a key gas plant. ONGC has capped gas wells at the offshore platforms of its Bassein field, and the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields, after the flooding.

Among the power companies NTPC with six of its power projects including Kawas power station near Surat and Jhanore power station near Bharuch in South Gujarat has scaled down its production for gas based power projects.

On the other hand other gas distribution and transmission companies operating in the state managed to continue gas supply to their customers even during the flood time.

ONGC is suffering a daily loss of Rs15 crore ($3.23 million) due to the shutdown of its Hazira gas complex, the firm's chairman R.S. Sharma said.
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NTPC to sign MoU with CIL, SCCL this month
New Delhi: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is preparing to get into coal mining and will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Singareni Coillieries Limited (SCCL) by the end of this month to start mining operations.

Later NTPC may even plan to set up a power plant close to the pithead, senior officials said.

NTPC chairman and managing director S Shankarlingam said the two mines which have been given to NTPC are the identified mines and would take about three years to start coal production.

NTPC is in the final stages of talks with Coal India Ltd to form a 50:50 joint venture for developing Brahmini (Jharkhand) and Chichro Patsimal (Orissa) coal blocks.

The company has planned to spend about Rs550 crore as initial investment for developing eight coal blocks with a view to begin production from 2008.

The state-run generating company would also shortly select a mine developer-cum-operator for its first coal block at Pakhri Barwadih in Jharkhand.

The company is targeting a total production capacity of 50 million tonnes per year by 2017 as part of efforts to mitigate fuel shortages at its generation plants.

The public sector firm, which requires about 100 million tonnes of coal every year, has mandated the State Trading Corporation to import five million tonnes of coal in 2006-07.
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RIL's Super Bazaar plan hits hurdle
New Delhi: RIL's plans to takeoevr the state-owned Super Bazar has hit a hurdle. The New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has petitioned the Supreme Court seeking to reclaim the building and develop it before giving out parts of it to an interested bidder.

The Super Bazar retail store located in Connaught Place, prime property in the city, commands a Rs1,200-1,500 crore price. RIL was the highest bidder offering Rs288 crore for reviving the retail chain, way above the next bid by Indian Labour Co-operative Society and Indian Potash who has put in a bid of Rs70 crore.

RIL which had planned to replicate its Sahakari Bhandar chain model in the capital as well may either have to look for another alternative or begin by taking over some floors. The company's strategy of taking over the Sahakari Bhandar chain in Mumbai and starting its retail business has paid off in the past few months and the bid for Super Bazar was based on a similar game plan.

Citing prevalent market rates, NDMC has said that adjoining (non-air-conditioned) buildings is around Rs70-80 per sq feet. NDMC plans to take about 24 months to construct the building after taking over possession.
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Chinese co, ONGC Videsh acquire stake in Omimex
Beijing: ONGC Videsh (OVL) and China's oil company, Sinopec, have jointly bought a 50 per cent stake in Omimex de Columbia, according to reports in the Chinese media.

The three firms are said to have agreed on the $800 million deal on Friday with the two buyers each taking a 25 per cent stake. ONGC Videsh is the overseas arm of state-run Indian giant Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC). Sinopec Group is the parent company of Sinopec Corp.
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Indian pharma market growth at 12.9 per cent in June
New Delhi: According to the latest ORG-IMSS data, the Indian pharmaceutical market grew 12.9 per cent in June 2006 on a month on month basis.

Ranbaxy Laboratories and Cipla led the market growing by 13.7 per cent and 16.6 per cent respectively. Glaxosmithkline (GSK), Nicholas Piramal and Zydus Cadilla registered growth of 1.4 per cent, 9 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively. Ranbaxy has overtaken GSK in market and now figures at the top. However, there is a stiff fight for market share amongst the top five companies. Ranbaxy had 5.13 per cent of market share in June while GSK came a close second with 5.12 per cent.

Cipla occupies the third slot with 5.05 per cent of the market, followed by Nicholas Piramal with 4.26 per cent and Zydus Cadilla with 3.44 per cent in the fourth and fifth places respectively.

In terms of number of brands in the top 300 list, GSK leads with 24 of its products making the grade, while Ranbaxy has 19 followed by Cipla with 18.
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