Granules India to form JV with Chinese co
Mumbai: Granules India plans to form a joint venture company with China's Hubei Biocause Heilen Pharmaceutical Company to manufacture and sell pharmaceutical APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients). The company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese company, under which the manufacturing assets of Biocause would be transferred to the joint venture entity. Both the firms would hold a 50 per cent stake each in the joint venture.

Granules India would be responsible for the development and growth of the market for the products manufactured by the joint venture entity, starting with Ibuprofen.
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GSPC to sell 30 per cent stake in gas block
New Delhi: State owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corp is planning to sell 30 per cent stake in its gas rich KG-OSN-2001/3 block off the east coast a stake sale and has called for bids from shortlisted global energy majors including Chevron, British Petroleum and ENI.

Royal Dutch/Shell could not clear the preliminary qualifying round. GSPC has set up a dataroom in Dallas.

At the 1850-sq km KG-OSN-2001/3 block, GSPC is operator with 80 per cent stake with GeoGlobal Resources (10 per cent) and Jubilant Enpro (10 per cent) as partners.

ExxonMobil of US, Petrobras of Brazil, Spain's Repsol, Petronas of Malaysia, Husky Energy of Canada and Crescent Petroleum of United Arab Emirates had also put initial bids.

GSPC plans to begin gas production from the field by end-2008 or early-2009 and would transport it through a 1,600-km long pipeline from Kakinada to Gujarat. The Rs5,000 crore pipeline would pass through Madhya Pradesh, avoiding Maharashtra.
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BSNL says Motorola, ZTE disqualified on technical grounds
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam has countered the allegations of Motorola Inc of being biased in evaluating the multi-billion dollar cellular tender for adding 45.5 million lines. It said the processes were completely transparent and open and the evaluation process for the financial bids would be completed in the next one month. Officials said it was purely on technical ground that Mototola has been disqualified.

BSNL said that it has had a long-term relationship with Motorola and ZTE in other telecom projects and therefore there was no malice in disqualifying the two vendors for the cellular infrastructure project. BSNL sources said that one of the reasons for not allowing the two companies to bid was that they did not have the experience in deploying 3G networks as stipulated in the tender conditions. Swedish telecom major Ericsson had emerged the lowest bidder followed by Nokia to supply equipment for GSM and 3G services. The entire project will cost nearly $6.5 billion over the next three years.
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BHEL bags Rs950-cr order in M.P.
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has received an order worth Rs950-crore to set up a 99-MW captive power plant for Bharat Oman Refinery (BORL) in Madhya Pradesh. The project, to be executed on a turnkey basis, is the highest-value single order for a captive power plant received by BHEL so far, a company release said on Thursday.

The plant would be part of BORL's refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh. While the first unit is slated for commissioning in 26 months, the project will be completed within 30 months. BHEL's scope of work in the project envisages design, engineering, manufacture, supply and commissioning of the power plant. The equipment would be supplied by BHEL's Hyderabad, Trichy, Ranipet, Bhopal, Jhansi and Bangalore plants, the release said.
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Reliance largest in M-cap
Mumbai: Reliance Industries' (RIL) market capitalisation has surpassed that of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for the first time in the last four-and-half years.

The market value of the company has appreciated by 68.6 pc since its demerger on January 18. In absolute terms, the valuation rose from Rs96,689 crore on January 18 to Rs1,63,028 crore. The stock price has moved from Rs693 to Rs1,169 during the period.

The stock price of ONGC increased 0.35 pc today to Rs1,132. At this price, its market cap stood at Rs1,61,535 crore.

The RIL share price is now close to its all-time high of Rs1,195. The company will announce its second quarter results on October 19.
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REL mulls foray into nuclear power
Mumbai: Anil Ambani group company Reliance Energy, is in talks GE, Westinghouse and Areva to partner its foray into nuclear power generation and will set up two 1000 mw nuclear power plants in India once the fuel availability is assured, sources said.

Reliance Energy has set up a separate nuclear power initiative to spearhead the move and is said to be waiting for the final nod from the US for the Indo-US nuclear deal before inking the final agreement with these partners.

All the three companies - Westinghouse, GE and Areva - have technologies for setting up large scale nuclear power plants of over 600 mw. Indian indigenous technology stretches to a maximum of 500 mw.

The nuclear power intiative is expected to be spun off into a separate company at a later date. REL is already putting together a team of 200 engineers for the nuclear foray. The company is also talking to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) for a possible joint venture, sources said.

India generates 3,900 mw of nuclear power, which constitutes 3 per cent of the total power generated in India. The country is expected to have 20,000 mw of nuclear power by 2015 and 40,000 mw by 2020.
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ITDC becomes profitable again
New Delhi: India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has shaken off a loss-making trend to register a profit of Rs10.65 crore this year.

The corporation has not only offset a loss of Rs4.44 crore, but also achieved a profit of Rs10.65 crore in the first half this year, thus showing a rise in profits by Rs15.09 crore.

ITDC is also planning to set up restaurants with private partnership.

The hotels division, ITDC's mainstay, registered a hike in profit of 1,636 per cent compared with the first half of 2005-06, with Rs7.70 crore in comparison to last year's profit of Rs0.44 crore, showing an increase of Rs7.26 crore.

The duty-free division recorded a net profit rise of 172 per cent with a Rs6.30-crore hike from losses of Rs3.66 crore in the corresponding period last year. The figures in the first half of 2006-07 showed a profit of Rs2.64 crore.
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Geometric, US firm ink $32mn merger pact
Mumbai: Geometric Software Solutions and the global engineering services division of Detroit-based Modern Engineering have merged to form a global engineering solutions provider.
The transaction is valued at approximately $32 million, including a working capital loan of approximately $7million.

The net equity value of $25 million is funded by Geometric's contribution of $23.75 million representing 95 per cent stake in the company and $1.25 million investment by Modern's executive management for a 5 per cent stake.

Geometric's contribution is funded by approximately $10 million raised through preferential placement of equity with ICICI Venture and the balance through borrowings and internal accruals.

The engineering services business of Modern Engineering has a current annual revenue of approximately $40 million.
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Otis bags largest ever contracts in India
New Delhi: Otis Elevator Company, which provides high-technology products and services to building and aerospace industries, has bagged two contracts for supply and installation of elevators and escalators in India.

Otis, a unit of US-based United Technologies Corp, bagged its largest ever contract in India, which includes supply and installation of 174 escalators and elevators for a new super mall in Mumbai and a major IT complex in Pune.

In Mumbai, Otis will install 62 elevators and 28 escalators at the 1.1 million sqft Dreams Mall.

The company will provide 84 elevators for the Eon Free Zone in 45-acre complex in Pune. The complex will feature technology "clusters" comprised of software development, business process outsourcing and call center businesses, it said.
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