Welspun Gujarat to form JV with TMK of Russia
Mumbai: Flagship of Welspun Group, Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren, has signed an agreement with Volzhsky Pipe Plant (VTZ), a member of the TMK Group of Russia, to form a joint venture. Welspun will hold 40 per cent stake in the joint venture while TMK will hold the rest. The new outfit will expand the manufacturing capacities of VTZ's plant in Russia for pipe products required by the oil and gas sector.

The deal will provide for the transfer of TMK's large diameter (LD) pipe business with an annual capacity of five lakh tonnes to the site of the Volzhsky pipe plant, apart from installation of hi-tech LSAW pipe welding line, bending facility and external and internal coating lines said officials at Welspun.

The deal does not involve any cash transaction for Welspun and it would supply equipment worth $150 million to the new venture for which it would get the 40 per cent equity in the new company.

LD pipes are used in construction of oil and gas trunk pipelines. In addition to Russia, TMK sells line pipes to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries of the CIS and Caspian region.
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Tatas to launch passenger transport vehicle in early 2007
Pune: Tata Motors is readying to launch its newest offering, a people transporter, developed around Renault's `Trafik' model from the Pune manufacturing facilities. The launch is scheduled for early 2007.

The company has already developed two versions of the product codenamed Panel V, a high dome and a flat roof model with the former aimed at the inter-city travel market.

The two models, to be fitted with the company's 4DL engine, are currently being evaluated and are undergoing road tests within the company facilities before it heads for homologation at the ARAI facilities here. The new product will directly take on the Tempo Traveller. At the same time another Renault model, the Logan made by M&M, will hit the roads.

Company sources said a new manufacturing line is being put in place at the Pune facilities for the new entrant, which is expected to sell 50,000 units annually. The company is expecting to initially manufacture 1,250 units every month.
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OMCs begin to profit on petrol sales
New Delhi: As international crude prices fall, oil marketing companies (OMCs) have started making a profit of Rs1.50 per litre on retail sales of petrol and are breaking even on diesel sales. The government wants to wait and watch the trend before revising the prices of fuel since the companies continue to bleed on sale of subsidised kerosene and cooking gas.

The Indian crude basket stood at $57.02 a barrel on October 3. The basket, which averaged $70.84 per barrel in August, had dipped to $61.04 a barrel by September. For the first three days of this month, it averaged at $58.19 a barrel.

The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said on the sidelines of a function here that softening of crude oil prices did not imply that domestic prices of oil products would correspondingly get lowered. He however said that the softening of global crude oil prices spelt good news for the Government and the upstream oil companies as their subsidy burden would come down. He said that the subsidy paid by the Government and firms such as ONGC and other oil companies would be less and to that extent these companies could use them for reinvestments.
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Satyam establishes global R&D hub in Singapore
Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services has announced it has established its first Global Innovation Hub dedicated to research and development (R&D) in Singapore. The company plans to use the hub to test and develop applications with technology partners to continually improve services to global customers. It will host two centres that would focus on telecom and business intelligence (BI) technologies.

The Mobile Applications centre will design solutions for telecom devices and carriers and leverage Singapore's infrastructure and build alliances with key industry players. The business intelligence analytics centre will focus on business performance, R&D, statistical and mining techniques, and analytical frameworks in business processes, telecom, banking and supply chain management.

The company will staff the hub with assistance from the Singapore Economic Development Board, which is providing access to students and graduates.
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NIIT bags large deal in partnership with Singapore co
New Delhi: NIIT has received a multi million-dollar project by partnering with Singapore's Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA). As a part of this association, DSTA will outsource development and maintenance support of the Singapore Government's one-stop e-procurement portal, GeBiz to NIIT Technologies.

NIIT has been working with DSTA since 2000. L Carol, director, DSTA said, "Singapore has been ranked on the top among 175 countries for its e-governance, according to the World Economic Forum report in 2005. Many countries want to emulate our model. Since we have worked with NIIT over the last few years, we have granted the product and marketing licence to NIIT for other countries."

NIIT would focus on countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and West Asia.
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Essar pledges part of Hutch holding to raise $530mn
Mumbai: The Essar group has pledged a part of its holding in Hutchison Essar, its joint venture with Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International, to raise $530 million (around Rs2,425 crore).

Essar has appointed Standard Chartered Plc to arrange the loan which would be repaid in two years. The group intends to raise $ 410 million and the equivalent of $120 million in Indian rupee.

Lehman Brothers has done a valuation of the company at $11.2 billion which translates the Essar holding at $3.73 billion (around Rs17,000 crore).

The loan proceeds would be utilised to finance the group's ongoing expansion plans. The group has been on an expansion mode through a slew of companies. Essar Hazira is in the process of scaling up capacity with an investment of Rs6,500 crore, Hazira Platemills to invest Rs2,000 crore for setting up a 1.9 million tonne plant, the group's holding company Essar Global has signed.
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Tata may acquire Corus
Kolkata: Tata Steel is negotiating with the Anglo-Dutch steel giant, Corus Group, for a possible takeover. Tata Steel might offer around 580 pence per share, valuing Corus at almost £5.5 billion ($10.4 billion).

Corus is the ninth-largest steel producer in the world and the second-largest producer in Europe, with a workforce of 45,800 employees. Its total debt stood at nearly $3.15 billion.
While the details are still under wraps, the deal, if it materialises, will easily be the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company.

Corus whose revenue grew 8.7 per cent to $17.03 billion last year has an annual production capacity of 18 million tones and enjoys 50 per cent share of the UK carbon steels market and 11 per cent of the European market.

When questioned about the deal a Tata Steel spokesperson said the company did not wish to comment on a speculative market report based on unconfirmed sources.

The Tata Steel scrip closed at Rs523 today, down 2.15 per cent in a weak Mumbai market.
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UTV to expand in overseas markets
New Delhi: UTV, the production house of blockbuster film 'Rang de Basanti' is planning to expand it operations overseas in the areas of broadcast, TV content and distribution.

The company is also betting big on diversifying into gaming and home video in the domestic market.

The company is aiming at revenues of Rs1,000-crore in the next three to four years from Rs250 crore currently. With the gaming industry in the country ready to take off, UTV has plans for that too. The company plans to diversify as content developers for the gaming space and is not only looking at the mobile space but also console gaming. UTV plans to develop gaming concepts around the theme of movies, given its expertise in that area.
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Living Media to launch dozen new publications
New Delhi: Living Media India that brings out India Today is planning to launch as many as 12 new publications in the next 12 months.

The first of the lot —Money Today, Men's Health and Prevention — will hit the newsstands in a couple of months.

Money Today would be an in-house publication while the others are international publications to be published under a licence.

Money Today, which will focus on personal finance, and Men's Health and Prevention, which will target lifestyle, health and nutrition segments, have been licensed from US-based Rodale Publishing House.

Living Media has struck similar licence agreements to bring out the Indian editions of Harvard Business Review and Good Housekeeping.

The 11-12 magazines rolling out this year in the genres of lifestyle, family and children's interest, travel, tourism etc," said Ashish Bagga, chief executive, Living Media India.

The company already brings out Time, Cosmopolitan, Readers' Digest and Golf Digest in India.
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