UPL to buy DuPont's herbicide biz
Mumbai: United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) has announced plans to acquire the bensulfuron-methyl business from DuPont Co, including Londax herbicide and all its mixtures, throughout the world (excluding the Asia Pacific region) at a cost of $15 million.

UPL plans to initially market bensulfuron-methyl through its 38 subsidiaries across 80 countries. The product is a rice and aquatic herbicide for the developing countries and enjoys margins as high as 50 per cent.

UPL has also signed a production agreement for agrochemicals developed by Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha Ltd (ISK), Japan. UPL with ISK and Mitsui & Co Ltd (Mitsui) will establish a joint venture for the development, registration and distribution of ISK products in India and other countries.
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Lafarge announces 3-mt plant in Himachal
Mumbai: French cement major Lafarge has announced the setting up of a new three-million-tonne cement plant at Alsindi, Himachal Pradesh, at a cost of around Rs900 crore.

With this, the company's cement capacity in India will go up from 5.5 million tonnes to 8.5 million tonnes.

The company has received necessary approvals from the HP Government and expects the new plant to be completed by 2010, the company said in a press release.

Lafarge has three cement plants in India: two in Chhattisgarh and a grinding station at Jharkhand.
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Dr Reddy's sets up unit in Vizag SEZ
Visakhapatnam: Dr Reddy's Laboratories' has inaugurated its first finished dosages plant here in the Visakhapatnam special economic zone (VSEZ). The plant would produce cytotoxic and anti-harmonal drugs for curing cancer, mainly for export to the development markets of the US and the EU. The plant has a capacity of producing 40 million cytotoxic capsules, 40 million anti-hormonal formulations and seven million injectibles per annum.

It had been set up at a cost of Rs40 crore and capacity expansion could be taken up in the next two years or so at an additional cost of Rs 15 crore. The company has a big bulk drug manufacturing unit at Pydi Bhimavaram in Srikakulam district and therefore there were no plans to set up a unit in the proposed pharma city in Visakhapatnam district. The Vizag unit was benchmarked to the highest global regulatory standards and it would produce drugs conforming to the most stringent standards.
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Hyundai begins recruiting, training for new plant
Chennai: Hyundai Motor India plans to produce a "twin model of Santro" at its new plant in Chennai which will commence production early next year. Company officials said that Hyundai has started the recruiting and training of workers for the new car plant. The existing plant employs over 2,000 workers, the official said. The new plant with a capacity of 300,000 cars a year would start prototype production in January 2007. The existing model and the new model would continue in the market.

Company officials said with the capacity addition from the new plant, Hyundai's production capacity would double. The company's market share as of today is 18.5 per cent and by the end of this year it would be 20 per cent. The company hopes to corner 25 per cent market share in a couple of years.

Hyundai exports about 1,00,000 cars out of its total production of 3,00,000 now and the rest is sold in the domestic market.
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ONGC ties up with Prize Petro, HPCL, M3nergy
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has entered into a service contract for development of three offshore marginal fields with the consortium of three companies that includes Prize Petroleum Company, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and M3nergy (Malaysia).

The consortium, led by Prize Petroleum, has been awarded this service contract under an international competitive bid by ONGC for development of three offshore marginal fields under Cluster-7 (B-192, B-45 and WO-24) in southwest Mumbai High field.

Prize Petroleum would be responsible for activities like log and seismic interpretations, reservoir management and production facilities for the development of the fields. While M3nergy will be looking after the production and processing related operations, HPCL will do the project management and related activities.

The consortium plans to make a capital investment of about $166 million and operational expenditure of $313 million for the development of all the fields in the cluster. According to ONGC, 13 wells are to be drilled during assessment period of three years from two platforms. The envisaged peak oil production is 18,865 barrels of oil per day and gas 0.887 million standard cubic metre per day with cumulative oil production of 46.42 million barrels and gas production of 2.7 billion cubic metre (BCM).

The project will be completed in two phases; which includes an initial development phase of three years and final development phase till the end of the field's economic life.
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Coromandel Fert enters into JV
Hyderabad: Coromandel Fertilisers has signed a shareholders' agreement with Group Chimique Tunisie and Compagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa of Tunisia and Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals for the formation of a joint venture company in Tunisia for manufacture of phosphoric acid.

The JV has been incorporated in the name of `Tunisian Indian Fertilisers SA.

Coromandel Fertilisers has also signed a long-term commercial agreement with the JV company for the supply of phosphoric acid, one of the key raw materials.
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Volvo signs pact with Jaico for JV
Bangalore: Volvo Bus Corporation has signed a pact with Jaico Automobiles, an Azad Group company to start a joint venture company in India for production of bus bodies based on the Volvo bus body technology.

Volvo will have 70 per cent stake in the new company, which will build a new plant with a capacity of 1,000 bus bodies per year.
At present Jaico makes bus bodies for Volvo near Bangalore but because of the increasing demand for more such buses, both the companies decided to enter into a joint venture and set up a separate plant to build bus bodies.

The bus bodies will primarily be used for Volvo buses and coaches in the Indian market and the company will also explore possibilities to Africa, West Asia and South-East Asia.
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Pennar Ind does a turnaround
Mumbai: Pennar Industries has recorded a profit after tax of Rs41.67 crore for the sixteen-month period ended July 31, compared to loss of Rs4.81 crore in the 12-month period previously. Turnover increased by 31 per cent from Rs370.07 crore to Rs647.31 crore. Pennar Industries was earlier only engaged in cold rolled steel production and has moved into value-added products. Apart from cold rolled steel, Pennar Industries now manufactures components for white goods and the auto sector as well as rail coach components and crash guards.

The company is setting up its fourth manufacturing facility at a cost of Rs.25 crore at Chennai to produce value-added steel products and components for the auto sector. It will be operational by March 2007.
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Hind Copper to hike mining capacity
Kolkata: State-owned Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) is planning an investment of between Rs1500 crore to Rs2000 crore to maximise its copper ingot production and ore mining capacity. This is in anticipation that demand for copper will rise considerably in the near future following the Union Government's increasing thrust on infrastructure development (which includes power generation, transmission and consumer electronics etc).

The company had appointed SRK Consulting Co of UK to prepare a scheme for optimising the company's existing mining capacity (including the Banwas deposit at Khetri) and prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for the development of an underground copper ore mine at Malanjkhand.

Having achieved net profits in the last two consecutives years, HCL is now aiming to emerge as self-sustaining and profit-making organisation. It has decided to give maximum thrust for mine development. This includes feasibility studies for transition of open cast mine to underground mine a Malanjkhand.
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GTC launches low tobacco cigarette
Hyderabad: GTC Industries Ltd, formerly Golden Tobacco Company has come up with the world's first low tobacco cigarette and has patented it.

The company is now eyeing a share of around 10 per cent in the Rs25,000-crore Indian cigarette market by 2008 for its 25 per cent low tobacco product, `Loe Tabac'. The company is planning to start aggressive brand building initiatives for the product branded `Loe Tabac'. This includes promoting the low tobacco concept and stepping up its marketing and point of sale activities significantly. The company is also betting big on the low tobacco cigarette to augment its global presence. The company feels that low tobacco cigarettes would be an integral part of GTC's corporate strategy as tobacco consumption is on the rise across segments in the country and Indian consumers want safer and healthier products.

For `Loe Tabac', GTC reduced the quantum of tobacco in cigarette by 25 per cent. By virtue of substituting tobacco by smokeable ingredients, the company found up to 50 per cent reduction in the levels of toxicity and carcinogenity. The leading research institutes of US, UK and India have validated the findings of clinical research conducted by the company.
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Tata Tele supplies CDMA mobile phones to SCR
Hyderabad: Tata Teleservices has issued 2,200 CDMA mobile handsets to South Central Railways for the running staff of its Secunderabad Division. The communication system is not only the single largest bulk order of Tata Indicom mobile phones acquired by any single organisation in Andhra Pradesh but also the highest number of phones acquired by any division of Indian Railways till date. The Tata Indicom phones will be issued to each and every driver, assistant driver, guard and their supervisor with exclusive series telephone numbers.

Some of the special features included in the system are web-based group SMS to facilitate conveying important and urgent messages to select group of staff in one go and roaming facility across the three States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Included in the system are 50 Tata Indicom Walky phones, which will be installed as hotline phones in 45 of 49 identified important railway stations in the division.

The system, which will operate as a closed user group (CUG) network, will be effective in communicating with the running staff in transit. The mobile phones as well as the hotline phones will have connectivity to Railway Exchanges and can access about 4000 Railway phones in Secunderabad Division.
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India Land to invest Rs375-cr in Chennai IT park
Chennai: India Land and Properties, part of Americorp - an international real estate investment, development and management company, plans to invest Rs375 crore to set up a 2.5 million sq ft Information Technology Park in Chennai.

The project, called `Chennai Tech Park' is coming up in 10 acres at Ambattur Industrial Estate on the western outskirts of Chennai. The project is scheduled to be completed by March 2007. The building which will have 17 floors, including three levels in the basement, would incorporate energy efficiency and eco-friendly features that would match Gold Rated Green Building norms.

India Land has signed up British architect Zaha Hadid, a Pritzker Prize winner 2004, for the project. The resident architects are the Chennai-based Cheralathan Associates. Buro Engineers of Singapore and Shapoorji Pallonji are the structural consultants and construction contractors respectively.
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Sonata Soft to acquire majority stake German IT company
Bangalore: Sonata Software plans to acquire a 50.1 per cent stake in the Hanover-based TUI InfoTec for Rs106 crore (18 million). IT company TUI InfoTec belongs to the European travel and tourism conglomerate TUI Group. Company officials said the deal would enable Sonata to achieve its objective of entering new markets such as Germany, besides expanding presence in Europe.

The deal would be subject to clearance from the German anti-trust authorities, which is expected in a month's time. The company has set up a special purpose vehicle - Sonata Europe, through which the investments will be made in TUI InfoTec.

Sonata has cash and cash equivalent of Rs60 crore and the debt-free company expects to raise the required funds through short-term borrowings to fund the buy-out.

TUI InfoTec posted a net profit of 11 million on revenues of 130 million for calendar 2005. It also has two subsidiaries in Travel BA.Sys and Accon RVS, which provide a technology platform and back office services for travel agencies. The remaining stake of 49.9 per cent would be held by TUI AG.

Sonata plans to retain all the 432 employees of TUI InfoTec. The results of the German company would get consolidated from the third quarter onwards. TUI is an existing client of Sonata.
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Maruti rubbishes Hyundai claims at MRTPC
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog (MUL) has rubbished Hyundai Motor India's claims that accused the former of 'disparaging' and indulging in 'unfair trade practice' in the ongoing case at the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission.

In a notice to MRTPC, Maruti contended that it did not adopt any "unfair trade practice" in its advertisement, in which it had compared its models with products of other companies. It said there was no 'disparagement' of either Hyundai or any other car manufacturers in the advertising campaign it launched.

The company claimed that even Hyundai had indulged in a similar practice of comparing products for promoting its sales during 2004-2006.

After accepting MUL's reply, MRTPC Chairman Justice O P Dwivedi asked HMIL to file a rejoinder before the next hearing scheduled in October.

Recently Hyundai challenged the sales pitch of Maruti in an advertisement campaign, saying it was "misleading and disparaging." Hyundai had alleged that MUL's advertisement was a fit case of "unfair trade practices" and was intended only to mislead the consumers.
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Tatas wants Singur land by year-end
Mumbai: Tata Motors says it wants the land at Singur by the year end failing which the company may look at other alternatives.

Tata Motors which has lined up a Rs1,000-crore investment in the state for its Rs 1 lakh car project, was reacting to the strong opposition from the Trinamool Congress to the industrialisation plan.
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