CSN entry may lead Tatas to revise Corus offer
Mumbai: Tata Steel will soon revise its offer for the Corus Group, to exceed Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional's (CSN) takeover bid of 475 pence a share for the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker.

The Brazilian steelmaker said it has approached the Corus board with a formal bid, which is 20 pence a share more than Tata Steel's offer. However, CSN's offer is subject to completion of due diligence.

While Tata Steel's bid amounted to $8.1 billion, the CSN offer values Corus at $8.4 billion.

Though Tata Steel refused to comment on its future move, sources close to the development said the company might come out with an improved offer next week. "Tata Steel had already factored in a possible counter-offer," said an investment banker.

CSN said it would finance the acquisition through a combination of internal accruals and debt and has appointed investment bank Lazard to advise it on the bid.

Tata Steel will now face a crucial test at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on December 4, when the Corus board will place the Tata offer before its shareholders. The company would require support of half of the shareholders present at the meeting and 75 per cent of the total shares.
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Global Auto to launch car priced under Rs1 lakh
New Delhi: Global Automobiles is planning to launch a car priced under Rs1 lakh in collaboration with Chinese automobile maker Guangzhou Motors' Company by next year.

Global Motor's car will be initially brought in semi-knocked down condition from Guangzhou's manufacturing facility in China.

"Our talks on this under-one lakh car are in the final round with our Chinese partner and a Singapore based company. A prototype of the product will be out by July 2007," said Santanu Ghosh, chairman of Global Auto.

Global had earlier announced plans to enter the two-wheeler market in January next year with Xoom bikes.
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Intelligroup bags $1.5mn order
Hyderabad: Intelligroup has announced signing a $1.5-million contract with Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC), a manufacturer of petrochemical products in West Asia. The deal mandates Intelligroup to implement the latest version of mySAP ERP 2005 to update and enhance GPIC's current IT infrastructure.

Intelligroup said West Asia is a focus market for the company, where apart from the newly acquired GPIC order, it is working for leading companies and government institutions.
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Bharti may partner with Wal-Mart for retail foray
New Delhi: Unlisted Bharti Enterprises is said to have tied up with the $316-billion Wal-Mart Stores Inc, for its retail venture in India. Industry sources said the deal may be signed in about 10 days.

The Bharti-Wal-Mart venture will initially invest $100 million, which will go up to $1.46 billion.

Bharti had for several months been in talks with the world's fourth largest retailer, Tesco Plc, UK. However, Wal-Mart came with a better return-on-investment proposal, sources said. Bharti and Wal-Mart have broadly tied up for a master franchise agreement since foreign direct investment (FDI) is not allowed in direct front-end Indian retail, other than in single-brand stores. According to the agreement, Bharti will use the Wal-Mart name for its retail stores.

The foray will include all major formats like hypermarkets, supermarkets and grocery stores. The full format of the agreement and a detailed roll-out plans will be finalised by January 2007 and the execution will be in place a year from then.

Wal-Mart already sources goods worth $1.5 billion from India. This is expected to rise to $10 billion over the next few years.
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Wipro gets Rs304-cr contract from Dena Bank
Bangalore: Wipro Infotech has won a Rs 304 crore contract for providing comprehensive IT outsourcing services to Dena Bank over a period of ten years. Wipro Infotech is the India, Middle East and Asia Pacific division of the $2.39 billion Wipro.

According to Wipro, the scope of the contract covers comprehensive applications and infrastructure provisioning and management to enable centralised banking operations of Dena Bank across its 850 branches.

Wipro will be responsible for provisioning and management of a suite of banking applications covering core-banking, delivery channels, risk management, treasury, credit operations, cash management, asset liability management and anti money-laundering. The core-banking product is Finacle from Infosys.

In addition, the IT company will be responsible for provisioning, system integration and 24x7 management of the entire underlying infrastructure covering computing platforms and networking, including commissioning and management of the data centre and the disaster recovery centre.

The contract ensures that Dena Bank is able to enhance its technology continuously in line with its business objectives of Vision 2010 document through periodic refreshes and upgrade.
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Glenmark manufactures anti-diarrhoea API
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has successfully manufactured the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), crofelemer, used for chronic diarrhoea in persons living with HIV/AIDS.

The company is manufacturing this API at their USFDA approved facility in Ankleshwar, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Many diarrhoea diseases are resistant to antibiotics; crofelemers mechanism of action treats the symptoms of dehydration regardless of cause. Furthermore, a strong safety database including over 1200 patients to date will help us target successful registration and launch of crofelemer by 2008 or 2009.

The company had signed a development and commercialisation alliance with US-based Napo Pharmaceuticals Inc (Napo) in July 2005. Under the terms of the agreement, Glenmark would be responsible for marketing crofelemer in over 140 countries, including India.

In return Glenmark would provide low-cost and large-scale manufacturing in FDA approved manufacturing facilities and upon marketing would pay royalties ranging from high single digits to early teens on net sales to Napo.

Glenmark recently received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) to initiate a Phase II trial for acute infectious diarrhoea and is also working on a development plan for the other indications of AIDS related diarrhoea and paediatric diarrhoea.
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