Zee picks up 50 pc stake in Ten Sports
Mumbai: Zee Telefilms has picked up a 50 per cent stake in Taj TV, which owns the Dubai-based Ten Sports television channel for Rs250 crore. Taj TV has been valued at $114 million (Rs513 crore), said a statement from the company.

Zee will have controlling stake in Taj TV, the new board of which will now comprise seven members with four from the Zee Group, the official said.

Zee Sports International Mauritius, a subsidiary of Zee TV and a wholly owned subsidiary of Asia Today, will buy 50 per cent stake in Taj TV from its existing shareholders, said the company statement.

Zee Telefilms' sports channel, Zee Sports was launched in 2004 and is a relatively new entrant, while Ten Sports has been around in India since 2002. The acquisition gives Zee Sports a stronger presence in cricket.
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3i Infotech acquires majority stake in US firm for Rs54-cr
Mumbai: 3i Infotech has acquired a majority stake in two companies, namely the US-based business Professional Access and in the India-based E-Enable, a company engaged in business intelligence.

3i Infotech will pay $12 million (Rs54 crore) to acquire 51 per cent stake in Professional Access, a service provider in the field of IT and management and also has a right to buy the remaining 49 per cent after two years, company officials told newspersons. The valuation for the remaining 49 per cent will be arrived based on an earn-out formula depending on the revenues and profit after tax of the acquired company after two years, said.

Professional Access has offshore development centres in India and specialises in e-commerce for the BFSI and retail segments. It operates on an onsite-offshore model and has 500 people on its rolls. Its clientele includes Citibank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Duke Energy.
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L&T in collaboration with Mitsubishi
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has entered into a technological collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to manufacture equipment for mega power projects under planning in India.

The companies will together invest Rs450 crore in the venture, currently registered as L&T Boilers Ltd, he said. Under the agreement, the Japanese company will transfer technology to L&T for manufacture of supercritical boilers that can meet the requirements of the domestic mega power projects being planned. Currently, there are few Indian companies in this space, the notable player being Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, said infrastructure analysts.

L&T has expressed interest in bidding for two ultra mega power projects, those at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh and Mundra in Gujarat. The company is likely to pursue other mega power projects as well. The technology from Mitsubishi would also be used for L&T's work for National Thermal Power Corporation.
L&T's facility under this venture will either be located at its existing facility at Hazira or at a location more suited to service the destination power plants of its customers.

Mitsubishi will grant an exclusive licence and transfer the know-how and technical information to the Power Business Unit of L&T. The areas covered under this agreement include design, engineering, manufacture, testing, inspection, erection, installation, commissioning, operation, repair, services and retrofitting of super critical boilers, including pulverisers. The licence that is for a period of 20 years would cover output range from 300 MW to 1,000 MW for nominal super critical coal fired thermal power plants.
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Kirana stores get leg up from HLL
New Delhi: FMCG company Hindustan Lever (HLL) has launched the `Super Value Store' Programme will exclusively target mom-n-pop stores by refashioning them to look like modern retail outlets. Apart from buying shelf space and in turn giving the retailer a three per cent discount on its products, HLL would also impart retail training and solutions to help shopkeepers add value to help them keep pace with changing times.

The programme, created as an effective intervention at the point of purchase, partners with the retailer to reach out to customers through special targeted promotions said a company source.

According to industry sources, HLL's Super Value programme is slated to service around 15,000-20,000 mom-n-pop stores.
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BT enters into joint venture with Jubilant Group
New Delhi: BT (formerly British Telecom) has entered into a joint venture with the $700-million Jubilant Group. The two companies plan to foray into the country's long distance telephony segment. The UK-based telecom major has approached the Department of Telecom seeking both national and international long distance licences and is planning to hire 6,000 people within the next two years.

While BT will hold 74 per cent stake in the joint venture, while the remaining stake will be held by Jubilant Enpro, a member company of Jubilant Group, which has diverse business interests including pharmaceuticals, life sciences and specialty chemicals, food services and food retail, oil and gas and trading services.

BT intends to provide both domestic and international managed services to corporate customers who have sites in India. It will provide these companies with virtual private network-based (VPN) services using technologies such as ATM and Internet protocol-based multi-protocol label switching (MPLS). Currently, BT assists its customers wanting connectivity to India through an arrangement it has with a local licensed operator.
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IVRCL obtains orders worth Rs343-cr
Hyderabad: IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects has received new orders worth Rs343 crore. The company said the major contracts included Rs129.95 crore from Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project; Rs92.34 crore for water supply distribution network in various places in Bangalore from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board; and Rs113-crore power transmission line works in Bihar awarded by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.
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Nagarjuna Const gets orders worth Rs226-cr
Hyderabad: Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCCL) has bagged orders worth Rs226 crore. The company said the orders include one from the Andhra Pradesh Government for widening of SRBC Main Canal under turnkey in joint venture with Maytas Infra (the share of NCCL works out to Rs129 crore of the Rs258 crore of total size of order) and the second order from the Central Public Works Department of Government of India for construction of Jawahar Lal Bhavan in New Delhi valuing Rs98 crore.
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BP to start CBM exploration in 2007
Kolkata: British Petroleum will start coal-bed methane (CBM) exploration at the Birbhum block (BB-CBM-2005/III) in West Bengal in 2007. The government awarded the block awarded to BP Exploration (Alpha) during the recently concluded CBM-III round.

The award of the CBM block marks BP's entry in India's upstream energy sector said a company spokesperson. The British company is bullish on the prospects of upstream oil and gas sector as well as emerging options such as CBM in India. The spokesperson added that BP had also bid for two oil and gas blocks in the Mahanadi basin in the NELP-VI round. Blocks are due to be awarded under NELP-VI by November 15.
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Reliance Jamnagar SEZ gets approval from SC
Ahmedabad: Reliance's SEZ in Jamnagar has received approval from the Supreme Court. The apex court has dismissed the special leave petition filed by Shah Kantilal Depar and others challenging the land acquisition procedure by the district collector for Reliance Industries' Jamnagar SEZ.

Earlier, in October 2006, the Gujarat High Court had dismissed the special civil applications of Depar and others against RIL's Jamnagar SEZ.

With this order, the apex court disposed off the petition filed by farmers challenging the High Court order. The High Court had dismissed their plea against the decision allotting the land to the company in five villages of Jamnagar district.

The farmers had alleged that of the 10,000 acres of land acquired by the state government for Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure's proposed SEZ, 9,000 acres was farm land.
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Bharti signs SMB partnership with Microsoft
Kolkata: Microsoft and Bharti Airtel have entered a strategic partnership to offer software and other services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India.

The partnership will begin by offering Microsoft solutions for hosted messaging and collaboration and will also offer other hosted applications like CRM, accounting, ERP, unified communications and select Microsoft ISV applications.

Airtel and Microsoft aim to provide enterprise-class software bundled with connectivity solutions to small businesses that do not have dedicated IT resources. It is targeted at companies with five or more employees, and is expected to be available in January 2007.

The companies will now be able to enjoy the same experience as large enterprise customers without initial investments using a pay-as-you-go model.

IDC estimates that IT spending by SMEs would grow by 17 pc cent which is the highest in Asia Pacific said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice chairman Bharti Enterprises.
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Tata's proposals on P-Note 5 rejected
New Delhi: Communications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran has rejected the demand made by Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons, that the stringent security riders imposed by the government, while raising the telecom FDI cap to 74 pc be applicable only to those companies with majority foreign share holding.

The guidelines for 74 pc FDI in telecom (set out in Press Note 5), were first issued on November 3, '05, but was not implemented because the DoT could not arrive at a consensus with the different ministries on its various controversial clauses.

Following the third extension to these guidelines on October 2, Tata had written to Maran that delays were preventing Tata Teleservices from making fresh investments in Jammu & Kashmir and North East and Assam circles.

DoT had initially examined the possibility of suspending the guidelines in totality until there was a consensus among different stake-holders.

Maran wrote back saying it was the considered view of the government that further discussions were needed to be held to evolve a broad consensus, an additional period of three months has been given to comply with the conditions set out in Press Note 5.
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