M&M signs agreement with Renault for greenfield car plant
Paris: Homegrown tractor and SUV maker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and French carmaker Renault have tied up to form a joint venture that will set up a greenfield passenger car manufacturing plant in India within five years. (See:
Nissan may dump Maruti for Mahindra)

The venture in which Renault and M&M will have equal equity participation will have a peak capacity of five lakh units a year by 2012, but will have initial production capacity of three lakh cars a year. The plant will go on stream by 2009.

The plant will manufacture variants of the entry level Logan, that M&M will start manufacturing on behalf of Renault by mid-2007 at its Nashik plant.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, said that the venture will be in addition to the existing marketing and contract manufacturing joint venture, Mahindra Renault Pvt Ltd, which will be responsible for rolling out the Logan next year.

Renault Nissan has also announced a third Indian manufacturing initiative regarding the setting up of a powertrain plant through a wholly owned subsidiary in India. This plant will supply the engine and gearbox requirements for the Logan and possible derivatives and enable M&M to source future powertrain requirements for its utility vehicles and other products.

The vehicles manufactured at the plant will be sold through the sales network already in place and to be expanded by M&M for marketing both its own utility vehicles and the Logan.

Nissan is also likely to use the new manufacturing facility for producing its cars for the Indian market and has cancelled a plan to build a factory with Suzuki Motor Corp in India, which had been announced earlier.

Ghosn said carmakers cannot compete in the Indian market if they don't produce here. Nissan has been exploring the possibility of expanding its product portfolio in India and currently imports the X-Trail.
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Qantas Airways awards $142-million deal to TCS, Satyam
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services and Satyam Computer Services have bagged contracts worth $142 million (Rs 645 crore) from Qantas Airways of Australia for providing IT support services.

The contracts are for seven years. While the TCS deal is worth $90 million (Rs 402 crore), Satyam's is valued at $55 million (Rs 243 crore).

TCS will assume responsibility for more than 75 per cent of Qantas' applications services & transformation (AST) outsourcing program and the former will shift its application development and maintenance work to TCS to save about $100 million in legacy costs. It will also have access to TCS' new Innovation Lab for Travel and Hospitality, located in Chennai.

S. Ramadorai, TCS managing director and CEO said, "TCS plans to ramp up its headcount by 250 to facilitate operations," he said.

TCS expects to generate $500 million (Rs 2,250 crore) in sales from its travel and hospitality segment over the next three years, said N. Chandrasekaran, vice president, Global Sales, TCS.

Revenues stood at $80 million from this segment last fiscal.
The agreement with Satyam covers application development and maintenance services and follows a recent Oracle e-Business suite contract announced in August between Satyam and Qantas for the latter's e-Business systems.

B. Rama Raju, chief executive officer of Satyam said this was a vindication of the growing presence of the company in the Asia Pacific region, and in Australia in particular, where it hosts about 1,000 people and of them about 600 resources in Melbourne.

The company expects to set up a dedicated centre and would initially deploy about 100 people on the project and gradually ramp it up.
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Astra Microwave gets orders worth Rs 120 crore
Mumbai: Radio frequency and microwave solutions provider, Astra Microwave Products, has bagged orders worth Rs 120 crore to be executed over the next one year.

The orders entail supplies to defence and space sectors and a major portion of current year billing is expected to happen in the next two quarters of the financial year 2006-07, Astra Microwave informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company expects to achieve net sales of Rs110 to Rs115 crores for 2006-07.
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Hershey to enter India
Vadodara: The biggest chocolate maker in the US Hershey is making plans to enter India. The $4-bn company is said to be in talks with maker of Amul brand of chocolates Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), and chocolate maker Campco for possible alliances.

Sources said Ted Jastrzebski, CFO (international division), Hershey led a team to Anand GCMMF's headquarters in early August and held meetings with the top-brass of GCMMF and Campco. Meetings with Campco were organised by GCMMF.

Hershey may also be looking at a larger role in marketing, riding piggyback on its strong milk and milk products brands and distribution channel. No concrete structure for the collaborations emerged from these meetings. But officials of GCMMF are planning to visit the US to take the discussions further.

Pennsylvania-based Hershey is one of the oldest chocolate companies in the world. The company is considering Asia, Latin America and India as key strategic growth areas. The company also owns candy companies and is affiliated with the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Co, which runs Hersheypark, a chocolate-theme amusement park, Hershey Bears hockey team and Hersheypark Stadium.
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Gilette India sells Delhi office as part of restructuring
New Delhi: After being acquired by Procter and Gamble globally, Gillette India said it planned will sell its office near the city which was its headquarters previously.

The property covers an area of 67,000 sq ft across five floors and is located on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road.

GIL had shifted its headquarters from Delhi to Mumbai on July 1 this year.

Market sources said the average base price in the area where it is located is estimated to be about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per square feet.
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Bajaj enters Indonesia
Jakarta: Bajaj Auto, India's second-largest motorcycle maker, has entered Indonesia's $6 billion bike market with its flagship model and plans to set up a regional production base in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

Bajaj Auto has launched the 180cc Bajaj Pulsar in the country, and said it would invest $50 million in Indonesia, the world's third-largest motorcycle market, over the next three years to set up a production base and distribution network.

Bajaj Auto said it eventually planned to turn Indonesia the hub for the Southeast Asian market. The company may also expand in other parts of the world, including South America, where it could set up a production base.

Global motorcycle firms like Honda Motor Co, Suzuki Motor Corp and Yamaha Motor Co Ltd already have production facilities in Indonesia.

The Indonesian market offers huge potential as there is currently only one motorbike for every seven Indonesians versus one in four in some neighbouring countries.

Sales have jumped to a record 5.1 million units last year from under 1 million units in 2000, but the industry has been dented this year by high interest rates and inflation.
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Du Pont India looks at 25 per cent growth in turnover
New Delhi: Du Pont India, subsidiary of US-based E.I du Ponte Nemours, is targeting a 25 per cent annual growth rate in the country and a global annual growth rate of six per cent. The company has unveiled its 2015 Sustainability Goals for its stakeholders in India.

Du Pont India recorded a turnover of Rs 1,600 crore last year.

The company plans to grow its annual revenues by at least 2 billion dollars from products that create energy efficiency or cut green house gas emissions for its customers.
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Merieux Alliance acquires Shantha Biotechnics
Mumbai: Merieux Alliance a French biotechnology company, has acquired a majority stake in Indian vaccine maker Shantha Biotechnics for an undisclosed amount. The companies the acquisition will extend the research and clinical development strengths of the two.

Merieux is said to have acquired nearly 60 percent of the Indian company, from investors in Oman investors and other private investors.

Merieux Alliance, run by billionaire Alain Merieux, comprises bioMerieux, Transgene, US-based Silliker and Advanced BioScience Laboratories.

The French group said it hoped to gain a strong presence in Asia through the acquisition and the Indo-French alliance.

Reddy would continue as the managing director of Shantha, which employs nearly 650 people and expects revenue to exceed 20 million euros in 2006/07.
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NIIT to set up 100 centers, plans Rs 8 crore investment
New Delhi: The largest IT education provider in Asia, NIIT Limited, plans to invest Rs eight crore in the next two years for setting up 100 centres for its new specialised programme on networking and infrastructure - NIIT NetworkLabs.

The company said the industry is facing an acute shortage of manpower in the networking and infrastructure management sector and that "according to an IDC survey, there will be shortage of about one lakh people in this segment".

The programme has been launched this programme in Delhi and Chennai and would be started in 25 cities in the near future.

According to the company the curriculum of NetworkLabs has been designed in partnership with global technology leaders such as 3Com, Intel, Microsoft and CompTIA.

The company already has major IT organisations as placement partners, who would absorb NIIT students as per their requirements.
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Rolls-Royce signs agreement with HAL
New Delhi: Rolls-Royce has signed an agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to pursue collaboration on engine component design and manufacturing in India.

The MoU could potentially include a variety of work in India related to the design, manufacture and assembly of components for Rolls-Royce engines across aerospace segments. Rolls-Royce would also open a supply chain office at HAL facilities.

Currently, HAL manufactures under licence the Rolls-Royce Adour engine for the Jaguar, a deep penetration strike aircraft of the Indian Air Force. Under another agreement, the Adour 871 will be manufactured by HAL and will power the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer for India.
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Tata Motors commences in-factory trials of Rs 1-lakh car
Pune: Tata Motors has begun 'in-factory' trials of its small car also called the Rs 1-lakh car expected to be launched in 2008. The company is currently testing its five prototypes at the Pune facility.

The company said it has frozen the styling of the car and said even though the media has called it the Rs 1-lakh it may be impossible to offer the product at that price, as the costs of almost all inputs have increased significantly over the last couple of years before which the plan for the car was announced.

It also denied media reports that the car will run on a Fiat engine as Tata Motors has planned a joint venture (JV) with Fiat.
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GAIL likely to acquire stake in Reliance gas fields
New Delhi: Gail India is likely to acquire a stake in Reliance Industries' (RIL) field in K-G basin as part of a broad pact being negotiated by the two firms for a possible pipeline and city gas distribution joint venture.

According to the draft MoU for co-operation signed between the two firms Gail "shall consider farm-in opportunity in RIL's D6 field on mutually acceptable terms. Further, both parties may jointly explore farm-in opportunities in other blocks owned by them."

Industry sources said the two companies were negotiating the MoU, which is likely to be finalised in a month.

The MoU provides for the two companies floating a JV to supply piped natural gas to domestic and commercial sectors as well as CNG to automobiles. The states identified for co-operation include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal.
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ITC plans Rs 1,200 crore spend in WB
Kolkata: ITC plans to invest around Rs 1,200 crore to expand its existing hotel and cigarette business in West Bengal and will also roll out a fresh food retail chain in the state.

The investment will be spread out over the next three to five years. According to the plan, the company is likely to pump in more than Rs 800 crore for the expansion of its hotel ITC Sonar Bangla and ramp up capacity of the cigarette factory at Khidderpore and the Triveni Tissue unit.

ITC also plans to roll out fresh food retail chain and has earmarked an investment of about Rs 300 crore for the food and logistical hub. The company also plans to scale up its infotech business.

The company has also sought 60 acre land for food and logistical hub and another 50 acre for setting up an infotech campus, sources said.
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NTPC to invest Rs 500 crore to boost coal mining to 60 mt
Kolkata: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plans to invest Rs 500 crore in the short term to boost its production capacities of at least 60m tonnes (mt) in the next eight years.
Senior NTPC officials said the company has formed a special mining group to oversee mining activities and has appointed former chairman of Coal India (CIL), Sashi Kumar, as an advisor.

Kumar has more than 30 years of experience in the coal sector and served as the chairman of CIL for three years till mid of 2006.
The power major's foray into coal mining is aimed at ensuring timely availability of fuel for its stations and at controlling fuel costs, which constitutes about 50 per cent of its bulk supply tariffs.

NTPC has eight blocks in all. It has been allotted two coal blocks — Brahmini and Chichro Patsimal both in Jharkhand where coal would be extracted through a 50:50 joint ventures with CIL. The Centre has also allotted five more blocks to us. These are Kerandari and Chatti Bariatu in North Karanpura, Chhatrasal in Singrauli, Dulanga in the Ib Valley, and Talaipalli in Chhattishgarh.
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