Tata Steel makes $7.6bn bid for Corus
Mumbai: Tata Steel says it is willing to offer $7.64 billion (around Rs34,500 crore) in cash to acquire 100 per cent stake in Corus at 455 pence a share.

It has been learnt that Tata Steel was given access to Corus' books after submitting its proposal to the board. Some other details are expected to be finalised by the end of this week.

Going by the offer the enterprise value of Corus has been put at $10 billion, Tata Steel said in a notice to stock exchanges.

Corus has said in a statement that, "Discussions are taking place," but added that there can be "no certainty that a final offer will be made." Tata Steel will have to place offer documents within 28 days of making a final offer. In case it does not make an offer, the Corus board can approach the takeover panel to impose a "put up or shut up" deadline, according to sources familiar with British takeover rules.

Corus produces 18 million tonnes of steel a year and its total debt and cash balance stood at $3.1 billion and $558 million, in last fiscal respectively. Last year, it posted pre-tax profits of nearly $1 billion on a turnover of $18.16 billion. However, lower selling prices and higher costs hit the operations of the company in the first half of this year.
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Glenmark in drug licensing deal with Merck
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals S.A., the Switzerland-based subsidiary of Glenmark, and Merck KGaA have signed an agreement under which Merck KGaA will develop, register and commercialize Glenmark's DPPIV inhibitor GRC 8200, a treatment for type 2 diabetes in Phase II of clinical development.
Merck will have rights for markets in North America, Europe and Japan, while Glenmark will retain commercialization rights for India.

The value of all payments made by Merck to Glenmark is estimated at euro 190 million. Upon commercial launch, Glenmark will supply the active ingredient to Merck and will receive royalties on net sales of the product. The transaction is expected to close this year upon approval of the exclusive license to GRC 8200 by US antitrust agencies under the HSR Act, the release said.
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MTNL launches IPTV
New Delhi: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has launched Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) in Delhi and hopes to get about 40,000 existing broadband customers (about 3 lakh) to subscribe to IPTV. The services in Delhi will start from November 1 with Rs500 as security deposit and a basic monthly rental of Rs125 for more than 30 free-to-air channels.

Consumers have to pay Rs1,000 as security deposit for the set-top box. For those who want to see pay channels, the payment will be Rs5 per channel. MTNL will offer 150 channels, which includes both free-to-air and pay.

Subscribers could avail of a host of services like video calling, gaming, video-on-demand and different pay channels - each at a flat rate of Rs30 per month - for regular users. A separate bouquet has been prepared targetting business class with slightly higher changes.

MTNL has tied up with Aksh Optic fibre and UT Starcom for the delivery of IPTV. MTNL will be issuing a common consolidated bill for all the three services - phone, broadband and IPTV - together from January 2007.
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Jet incurs net loss of Rs55-crore in Q2
Mumbai: Jet Airways has reported a net loss of Rs55.13 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2006 when compared with a net profit of Rs68.59 crore in Q2FY06.

According to the company its total income increased to Rs1,821.23 crore from Rs1,324.24 crore in Q2FY06.
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Videocon likely to acquire Daewoo unit for $700mn
Mumbai: Videocon-RHJ International consortium is said to have agreed to pay Daewoo's creditors, including Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) and Woori Bank, $700 million (around Rs3,220 crore). RHJ International is the holding company of the US buyout fund Ripplewood.

Earlier in September, the consortium had emerged as the preferred buyer for Daewoo Electronics. Creditors have said they want to sell Daewoo for more than $1 billion, taking into account its assets and business outlook.

Domestic creditors own 97.5 per cent of the unlisted firm. Daewoo posted net losses of 94 billion won in 2005 from a 30.4 billion won net profit in 2004, and was placed under a debt rescheduling programme after its parent group went bankrupt in 1999. It has since streamlined its business to focus on televisions, air-conditioning units and refrigerators.

This acquisition gives Videocon access to the more mature markets where it would not have been easy for it to establish a presence on its own.

Daewoo operates six plants in South Korea and 18 overseas units. Its assets totalled 1.65 trillion won ($1.7 billion) at the end of 2005.
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DLF to invest Rs8,000-cr in MP
New Delhi: Realty company DLF said it would invest Rs8,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh over the next four to five years.

The company still has to acquire the land from the government. The company will raise the money through debt equity ratio and private placements. Officials said the money will also be used for the infrastructure development of the Bhopal airport. The company considers Madhya Pradesh a high potential state. Some of the planned projects include housing, special economic zones, information technology parks and a convention centre with a hotel in Bhopal. Similar projects are also planned in other bigger cities such as Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur.

For similar projects, Bangalore is supposed to be next on DLF's radar. It is planning residential spaces, malls and IT Parks in and around the city.
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Concor to increase rates by 3-6 pc from Nov
New Delhi: Concor plans to increase tariffs by 3-6 per cent depending on the weight and distance of containers to be moved. This follows an increase in haulage charges imposed by the Railways recently. For April-September 2006, Concor paid the Railways total haulage charges of Rs832.32 crore, up 43 per cent from the corresponding period last year.

Of this, 17-18 per cent is on account of increase in volume of containers moved and 23-24 per cent on account of increase in haulage charges this year. Since the Railways haulage rate hike would come into effect from November 1, Concor's new tariffs would be imposed from the first week of November.
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McDowell & Co renamed United Spirits
Bangalore: McDowell & Company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that the name of the company has been changed to United Spirits and the name of McDowell India Spirits has been changed to McDowell Holdings Ltd.
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Leyland to pay $35mn for Czech co
Chennai: Ashok Leyland has agreed to pay around $35 million (Rs157 crore) for the acquisition of the truck unit of the Czech company Avia.

A Leyland team has taken charge of the operations of Avia in Prague, sources said. The unit produces light commercial vehicles of 6-tonne, 7.5-tonne and 9-tonne capacities.

The Indian truck maker will now begin the "process of integration" and scale up. It will make two ranges of trucks — one with Cummins engines for the European market and the other with Leyland engines for markets such as Iran, Turkey and South Africa, where Euro-IV emission norms are not yet mandatory.

Currently, Avia produces only about 2,000 vehicles a year, but Ashok Leyland intends to ramp the production to around 5,000 vehicles a year.
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NDTV sets up new company to foray beyond news
New Delhi: New Delhi Television plans to set up a new company NDTV Ventures to represent its entry into areas which are "beyond news," primarily in the entertainment and lifestyle, and the new media verticals.

The company is targeting to grow to a size of $500 million in five years, and has thus embarked on what the company calls its `Big Bang' approach.
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