Tatas buy 30 pc stake in US beverage co
Mumbai: The Tata group that includes Tata Sons and Tata Tea plans to invest $677 million (Rs3,150 crore) to buy a 30 per cent stake in US-based Energy Brands Inc (EBI).

The investment is among the largest by any Indian corporate and the largest ever by the group. The Tata group will acquire the stake from TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity company.
EBI makes the Glaceau range of wellness beverages, including vitaminwater, smartwater and fruitwater.

Of the $677 million amount, Tata Tea will invest $192 million and Tata Sons $58 million, in the form of equity in Tata Tea GB (owners of Tetley) through which the transaction is being made. The rest of the money will be raised by way of debt by Tata Tea GB.

The Tata group said it acquired EBI for its growth potential. The latter is expected to report revenues of $350 million this fiscal, a 100 per cent growth and going by the performance of its peers, it is expected to grow 100 per cent in the next fiscal too to report revenues of $700 million.

And though the stake to be acquired is only 30 per cent, the company has entered into special terms. The chairman of the company will initially be nominated by the Tata group and two directors from the group will attend all meetings of the company.

EBI is a privately held company with 60-per cent stake being owned by Darius Bikoff, founder-promoter of the company, along with associates, employees and distributors. Ten per cent stake is owned by several private equity investors.
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TRAI not for giving 3G to all telecom cos
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) may grant 3G licenses to only some of the existing mobile operators and may undertake a selection process to determine the operators who would be allowed to offer the services.

TRAI has indicated to the operators that the demand of 3G spectrum was more than the supply therefore every operator may not be accommodated. TRAI has also said that there will be an entry fee for 3G services.

While seven operators may be interested to offer 3G services, there is only 25 MHz radio frequency available in the 2.1-Ghz band. As per international norms, each operator should get at least 5 MHz of spectrum for 3G services, which means that to accommodate everyone the Government will have to find 35 MHz.

In response to this, the Cellular Operator's Association of India (COAI) said TRAI should wait till adequate spectrum is vacated by the Defence services to accommodate all the existing players. The COAI also said if a selection process has to be adopted the price of spectrum should be such as to defray the total cost of refarming divided by the number of players. This would work out to about Rs200 crore for 5 MHz of the all-India spectrum per operator.

COAI also said if at the higher price the demand remained more than the supply, then a beauty-contest approach may be adopted, with pre-determined weightages being transparently applied to parameters such as tariff for service, investments to be made and infrastructure sharing.
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Essar Shipping & Logistics raises $200 m from overseas
Mumbai: Essar Shipping and Logistics (ESLL), which has a majority stake (about 77 pc stake) of Essar Shipping Ltd, has raised $ 200 million from the overseas banking markets. The fund will be utilised to part-finance its $300-million ship acquisition programme.

This 10-year facility was fully underwritten by De Nationale Investerings Bank NV at a pricing of LIBOR plus 120 basis points. A consortium of international banks, including Den Norske Bank of Norway, Nordea Bank, Deutsche Verkehrs Bank AG and Bank of Scotland participated in this facility.

Although the company had claimed that the restructuring was aimed at giving sharper focus to these businesses and increasing shareholders value, analysts had pointed out that one of the intentions could be to facilitate the new entity to tap overseas market for funds to finance its expansion programme.
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Suzlon receives two orders from Italy, Portugal
Pune: Suzlon Energy A/S, (SEAS), the Denmark-based international business headquarters of wind turbine energy manufacturer Suzlon Energy has received two orders worth Rs345 crore for setting up capacity of 61 MW from Italy and Portugal. The company is focusing on tapping European markets such as France and Greece for potential business, the chairman and managing director of the company, Tulsi R. Tanti, said. He said 40 per cent of the company's revenues would come this year from export business.

Suzlon Energy has signed a contract with Maestrale Green Engergy of Italy for 21 MW and has already signed on with Portugal's Tecnologias Energeticas, SA, for 39.9 MW of wind turbine capacity, for a wind farm project in the Penamacor region. The orders will be delivered from the last quarter of the current fiscal with all supplies, barring the tower, to be from India.

The global wind energy market of 11800 MW was worth $14 bn last fiscal and grew by 40 per cent in that period.
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L&T receives Rs 380-cr order from NTPC
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has obtained a Rs380-crore order from National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd for a coal-handling plant. The plant will be located at NTPC's Barh Super Thermal Power Station near Patna and is for Stage-1 of the power station.
This is a greenfield project and will be completed within 43 months from August 2006. The Engineer, Procure and Construct contract includes design, manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of the coal-handling plant. It also includes civil structural, electrical and instrumentation work.
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KRL-BPCL merger cleared
Kochi: An order passed by the Ministry of Company Affairs dated August 18, the Central Government has cleared the merger of Kochi Refineries Ltd with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Subsequently, both the companies filed this order with the respective Registrar of Companies on August 21, as required under the Companies Act.

With this, Kochi Refineries Ltd has ceased to exist as a separate entity and stands merged with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd as specified in the scheme of amalgamation according to a press release from KRL.

Following the merger, all the assets, properties, liabilities, rights, duties and obligations and the like of KRL will henceforth vest with BPCL.
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Max Healthcare to expand
New Delhi: Max Healthcare Institute plans to expand beyond Delhi and the NCR region and would set up facilities in two locations in other parts of the country to begin with. The company is scouting for locations and is considering four places of which it would start work on two by next year.

The company recently announced the launch of its `Max Happy Family', a modular health plan offering outpatient benefits over and above the inpatient benefits for complete healthcare needs of a family. The plan includes an insurance cover in case of hospitalisation for the entire family in collaboration with United India Insurance. The outpatient plan has features such as unlimited consultations with family physician and specialists, free health checks and discount rates on purchases from in-house chemists. The plan is offered in three rates: Rs3,000, Rs4,500 and Rs6,600, depending on the size of the family. The insurance plans, in the range of Rs1-5 lakh, depend on risk capacity and size of family
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Bharat Forge, Maharashtra to co develop SEZ near Pune
Mumbai: Automotive components company Bharat Forge (BFL), has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maharashtra to jointly develop a multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Khed Taluka of Pune District. The prime focus of the SEZ would be auto companies. The SEZ is expected to attract investments of about Rs25,000 crore and generate 1, 20,000 new employment opportunities.

The SEZ project will initially cover 2,000 hectares and gradually double its size to spread over 5,000 hectares.

Bharat Forge will initially invest Rs1,500-2,000 crore in the venture and scale up to Rs9,000 crore over a decade. The SEZ's operations would commence in the next three years said Bharat Forge.

The project would be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to be jointly promoted by BFL and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in which the two promoters would hold up to 74 per cent and 26 per cent of the equity capital, respectively.
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Sitel India to inaugurate centre in Chennai
Chennai: Sitel India, a 50:50 joint venture between the Tata Group and the $1.2 billion US-based Sitel Corporation, plans to open a development centre in Chennai that is likely to come up within a month at the Chennai Citi Centre, located in the heart of the city. The company would invest Rs25 crore in the center.

The company plans to recruit around 1,000 people in the next one year in Chennai and will look for additional space in the city if required. It currently has about 3,000 employees operating out of three centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

The Chennai centre will provide a contact centre and back office services to clients in banking, financial services and insurance, telecom and technology sectors.
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EADS likely to invest €2 bn in India
London: European aerospace major EADS would invest €2 billion ($ 2.57 billion) in India over the next 15 years in various operations like production and setting up of research and development facilities.

The company is expected to announce details about its investment plans during the visit of Thomas Enders, CEO of EADS to India next week.

Enders will be part of a delegation accompanying German Economics Minister Michael Glos, who is scheduled to visit the country next week.

The company already has one Airbus branch office and an EADS office in India.
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