DLF readies Rs10k-cr realty push
Chennai: Real estate company DLF plans to invest Rs10,000 crore in Tamil Nadu which includes a six-million sq ft IT park coming up over a 42-acre plot in Chennai, a shopping mall in the heart of the city and a residential township spread over 100 acres on the IT Corridor (OMR).

DLF has also offered to participate in infrastructure projects to be initiated in the state by the government. The offer includes participating in creating infrastructure facilities in Chennai airport, besides developing ring-roads around Tier-II cities like Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchi.
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SABMiller to launch Peroni in India
Bangalore: SABMiller will soon launch its international lifestyle beer brand Peroni Nastro Azzuro in the Indian market. For the time being the Italian brand would be imported into India and would be sold in Mumbai.

This would be followed by a national launch after a test marketing phase.

SABMiller said Peroni would be initially imported and may be bottled locally in the future. SABMiller controls 36 per cent share of the domestic beer sales. Brands from its local portfolio include Haywrads 5000, Royal Challenge and Knock Out while Castle Lager is its only international brand.

Observers said Peroni would hit the domestic market at a premium to the mainstream brands as the company had stated that it would continue with the Australian brand's premium positioning over arch rival UB's flagship Kingfisher.
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Alkem Laboratories eyes European acquisition
Mumbai: The Rs750 crore Alkem Laboratories is eyeing a European generic company for acquisition.

The company's expected investment in the European buy may range from $25 million to $30 million (about Rs100 crore to Rs135 crore).

Sources said Alkem had shortlisted three generic companies in the European generic space and negotiations with one of the companies, based in the UK, is in the final stages. The deal may be signed shortly.

Alkem is among the top ten players in the domestic pharmaceutical market with only less than 10 per cent contribution from exports.
With the proposed acquisition, the company expects the export revenue to touch more than 25 per cent of Rs1,000 crore sales targeted by end of this financial year, the sources said.

Currently, it is on an expansion spree with the thrust on strategic alliances and partnerships with international pharma majors.
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Govt plans 1,000 tower stations in rural areas
New Delhi: The department of telecom (DoT) has set aside Rs4000-5,000 crore from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund for installing about 1,000 base tower stations (BTS) in rural areas.

The amount is about 70 per cent of the Rs7,206 crore available with the USO Fund. The project is expected to be completed in five years and will cover 85 per cent of the rural areas. The department has placed the proposal before the finance ministry.

The present rural telephone penetration rate is a measly 2 per cent, compared with over 30 per cent in urban areas. The government has set a target of 10 per cent rural penetration by 2010 and a mobile subscriber base of 500 million from the present 110 million.

Last month, the telecom industry added about 6 million subscribers.
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Deccan to outsource cabin crew
Mumbai: Air Deccan will now outsource cabin crew from training institutes and will also get paid for it.

The airline says it is in talks with cabin crew training institutes and would conclude agreements in a week's time.

The airline is said to be in talks with Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training, Air Hostess Academy and a training institute in Hyderabad. They added that the airline would be deploying over 300 cabin crew members in a year through this.

While this arrangement will give aspiring cabin crew of various institutes the chance to train on the job, the airline will not have to hire additional cabin crew. The institutes will pay Air Deccan for giving their trainees this opportunity.

Airline sources said foreign cabin crew training institutes have also expressed their willingness to take part in this innovative model.

They added that the airline was in talks with aircraft maintenance companies to work out a similar arrangement which would enable it to cut down the cost of regular maintenance.

This is the latest in a series of innovations by the airline that introduced tickets for Re 1 to popularise air travel.
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Nahar weaves Rs814-cr spread
New Delhi: The Rs2,000-crore Nahar Group part of the Ludhiana-based integrated textile player Nahar Industrial Enterprises (NIEL), that has diversified interests in textiles and sugar, is investing Rs 814 crore over the next two years to expand its manufacturing and retail activities. The company is also floating a wholly-owned subsidiary, Nahar Retail to have a more focused view on the country's fast growing retail sector.

The new subsidiary will also include NIEL's garment manufacturing and retailing businesses as well as the Cotton County brand that was launched in 2005.

The company plans to add 60 exclusive franchise outlets of Cotton County in the quarter months from the present strength of 110 outlets.

Of the Rs699-crore turnover that NIEL achieved in 2005-06, the retail business contributed a mere 5 per cent, but is expected to grow at 300-400 per cent over the next few years.
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Rasna eyes entry into food segment
Mumbai: Softdrink concentrate maker Rasna is mulling an entry into the food segment in the near future as this would give the company a diverse profile and supplement its healthy market share in the SDC market. In addition, the company has new products in the beverage segment in the pipeline in the coming few months.

Rasna is expecting 30 per cent of its revenues from its collaborations with Cafe Coffee Day, Indian Railways, Sahara Airlines, Big Bazaar, Spencer's and Food Plaza from this year onwards.

The company claims to hold 97 per cent share in the soft drink concentrate (SDC) market and plans to establish a wider presence with other organisations in addition to its 17,00,000-strong dealer network in the country.
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Wipro`s plans more acquisitions
New Delhi: Wipro Technologies plans to continue acquisitions in the IT space at the rate of six to eight companies a year. Wipro acquired as many as eight companies since December last year for amounts ranging from $20 million to $56 million. The target companies will be in the same range.

Officials said while Wipro would continue looking for smaller and focused companies it is also looking at big companies.

Wipro's last big-bang acquisition was that of Spectramind, the business process outsourcing company promoted by Raman Roy, four years ago.
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