Reliance eyes Dabhol power project
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has evinced interest in acquiring the Dabhol power project and also the adjacent LNG import facility. RIL had indicated its intention to supply close to 8 mmscmd of gas from the second half of 2008 to the power plant after the government began to examine various options to run the unit. The 2184-mw Dabhol power plant was shut down in July due to the shortage of naphtha.

Although the plant began operations early this month, only 740 mw of the total project capacity is being run on imported naphtha.
As GAIL and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the two major promoters of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd (which owns the assets of Dabhol power plant), have been unable to assure supplies of natural gas, RIL has come into the picture.

Industry circles said what goes in its favour is the discovery of large gas reserves in the Krishna Godavari basin in 2002. Deliveries to consumers from this field are expected to start from the second half of 2008-09.

Sources said the government may sell off the Dabhol unit if its efforts to revive the project and generate electricity at Rs 3 per unit fail.
Back to News Review index page  

Apollo Tyres may make overseas acquisition
Mumbai: Apollo Tyres is looking at international companies for acquisition having recently acquired the Dunlop plant in South Africa. It plans to invest Rs600 crore in the next four years for capacity expansion through the organic and inorganic route. The company would fund the acquisition by internal accruals.

Besides focus on the domestic market, the company intends having a market share of 45 per cent (15 per cent) in exports by 2010.

For export growth, the company is looking at Asia Pacific region and Europe. It is planning to appoint distributors across the region who would promote the recently launched Acelere Sportz a premium V-speed rated (tyre that can go to a speed limit of 240 km/hr) tubeless radial. The new tyre is an all terrain tyre that is ready for Euro norms up to 2009. Apollo has plans to introduce the `Z' rated (tyre that can go to a speed limit of 290 km/hr) Acelere Sportz soon.

Apollo has identified 20 cities and 150 multi-brand dealerships that would promote the brand. The company has a total chain of 1,200 dealerships across the country.
Back to News Review index page  

Trademark dispute arises between Kellogg's and Britannia
Bangalore: US cereal maker Kellogg's is trying to bar Indian biscuits maker Britannia from using the Tiger logo for products other than biscuits.

While Britannia has moved to register the Tiger trademark as its property globally, Kellogg's has raised objections saying that Tony the Tiger is its proprietary logo for breakfast cereals since 1952.

The matter assumes importance in the ongoing Britannia-Danone dispute. Britannia is seeking royalty payments from its French partner Danone for marketing the Tiger brand in various forms (not just biscuits) in Asian markets.

Kellogg's is opposing Tiger's extension in related categories in markets where Britannia's Tiger and Kellogg's Tony the Tiger have a presence.

Britannia developed the Tiger brand of glucose biscuits in the late 90s to penetrate the semi-urban and rural markets. Tiger went on to become the biggest brand in Britannia's portfolio, accounting for nearly 25-30 per cent of its Rs1,800-crore annual sales.
Back to News Review index page  

Zydus Cadilla eyes acquisition in Spain, Italy
Mumbai: Zydus Cadila has re-launched the Nutralite margarine brand. This is the second launch for Zydus Cadila in the healthcare segment after launching 'Sugar Free' about 20 years ago. The company is eyeing generic acquisitions in Spain and Italy and plans to acquire a company with 25-50 million Euros in sales. The company's decision is based on the fact that the penetration level of generic business in Spain and Italy is low.

The company would not be looking for any manufacturing facilities there, but would focus on distribution and marketing.

With the re-launch of Nutralite, Zydus Cadila wants to establish Nutralite as a healthier alternative to butter and capture 8-10 per cent of the Rs 800 crore branded butter market in the next two years. Nutralite is a brand of Carnation Nutra Analogue Foods in which Zydus Cadila has a 61.5 per cent stake.
Back to News Review index page  

Scorpio set to be launched in the US market
Mumbai: Tractor and SUV maker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is launching its sports utility vehicle Scorpio into the US market - the world's largest market for sports utility vehicles. Scorpio will be the first Indian SUV to ply on American roads. Last week, M&M announced a joint venture with Renault to build a plant in India with a capacity of 500,000 cars a year.

The US market is the largest market for SUVs with almost 50 pc of sales. The company says that its experience in Europe and South Africa, it has the confidence to take on global competition in the US. More than 7 million SUVs and pick-ups are sold in the US every year.

M&M would be exporting its Scorpio SUV and the Scorpio pick-up to the US. It is expected that the company would launch its diesel-electric hybrid version of the Scorpio, along with the petrol versions.

M&M has signed an agreement with Global Vehicles USA, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, to sell the Scorpio in the US. The US distributor has 130 dealerships across the US and M&M expects to have about 200 dealers by the time the vehicle is launched.

M&M would be directly competing with Hyundai, Chinese companies and maybe even Tata Motors in the US market. The company is upgrading the Scorpio to suit the stringent requirements of the US market.
Back to News Review index page  

Jain Irrigation buys US company
Mumbai: Jain Irrigation Systems' US subsidiary has signed an agreement to purchase a majority stake in US-based Cascade Specialties Inc.

Jain Irrigation informed the BSE that Cascade Specialties is an onion dehydrater based in Boardman, Oregon, USA, and specialises in natural, low bacteria onion products and organic dehydrated onion.

Jain Irrigation, said. "Cascade's commitment to produce high quality products, coupled with its excellent reputation for customer service, is exactly the approach we take to the marketplace with our other businesses," it added.

With the acquisition, Jain Irrigation becomes the third-largest dehydrated onion producer in the world with a total combined capacity in excess of 25,000 metric tonne.

"The new capacities along with Cascade capacity at full utilization, is expected to generate revenue in excess of $50 million by FY2009 as against $10 million in FY 2006," the release added.
Back to News Review index page  

Sun TV in merger plan
Chennai: Sun TV plans to merge its satellite television broadcasting companies with itself, according to information provided by the company to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The board will consider the merger on November 27.

20 channels operate under the Sun Network, of which Sun TV, Sun News, Sun Music, KTV, Surya and Kiran come under Sun TV Ltd. Some others such as Udaya, Ushe, Adithya and Teja are run by affiliated companies in which Sun TV, has a significant equity stake.

The other channels in the Sun Network are Chutti, Gemini TV, Teja TV, Adithya TV, Teja News, Gemini News, Gemini Music, Gemini Cable Vision, Udaya TV, Ushe TV, Udaya 2, Udaya Movies, Udaya Varthegalu and Udaya News. However, it is not known whether the company plans to merge one of these companies or companies outside the Sun Network.

The Sun TV share closed on Monday on the BSE at Rs1,363.85, against the previous closing price of Rs1,361.55 — a rise of 0.17 per cent.
Back to News Review index page  

Nicholas Piramal signs pact with BioSyntech Inc
Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India has entered into a scientific collaboration agreement with BioSyntech Inc. The companies are collaborating on the drug `BST-InPod', which is being developed to alleviate chronic heel pain. The agreement will seek to generate greater volumes of clinical data at a cheaper cost by conducting the trials in India. Chronic heel pain, caused by atrophy of calcaneal fatty pads (the natural cushions in the heel that act as shock-absorbers), is a complaint voiced by 14 per cent of the adult population according to the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.
Back to News Review index page  

Sterlite Optical gets contract worth $5 million from Qatar co
Mumbai: Integrated manufacturer of optical fibres and telecom cables Sterlite Optical Technologies has received a contract worth $ 5 million (Rs22.5 crore) for the manufacture and supply of copper telecom cables to Q-Tel, Qatar.

Q-Tel is Qatar's exclusive telecommunications provider and one of the largest public companies in that country. It provides a range of telecommunication services, including national, international, mobile GSM telephony, Internet and cable television. The company will deliver the cables through the next three years, starting December 2006.
Back to News Review index page  

Prithvi Info plans overseas acquisitions
Mumbai: Prithvi Information Solutions (PIS) is planning to make four overseas acquisitions in the range of $10-$20 million (Rs45 crore-Rs90 crore) each.

The company plans to raise $70 million (Rs.315 crore) through the issue of FCCBs, part of which will be used to fund its future acquisitions.

The company is in talks with three boutique companies in the US and one in the UK, across the enterprise solutions, manufacturing, healthcare, and insurance verticals.

The company, which expects to close the deals in the next two quarters, will fund the buys through a combination of internal accruals, FCCBs and external commercial borrowings.

All the companies identified will have facilities for operations in India.
Back to News Review index page  

Dell to manfacture PCs in India
New Delhi: Global PC maker Dell will start manufacturing all its products including desktops, laptops and computer peripherals in India by the first half of 2007. Dell plans invest $150 million this year for its various global initiatives including in India.

The company plans to manufacture all its products at its facility in Chennai in the first half of 2007 for the domestic market and will begin by making desktops, which contribute 70 pc of its revenues and would add new products to our portfolio later.

Dell currently employs about 13,000 people in India and in the next couple of years is expected to take the total number of its employees to 20,000.
Back to News Review index page  

Zee group co picks BEL set-top boxes
Bangalore: Bharat Electronics has bagged an order to supply two lakh set top boxes to a Zee group-owned company. The order was placed by Wire and Wireless India Ltd, Mumbai.

The boxes would be supplied with embedded conditional access software that enables the subscriber to choose the pay channels from the bouquet offered by WWIL.

The supplies would start in December coinciding with the expected roll out of the conditional access system (CAS) in January, the defence electronics major said. The metros will have to introduce CAS in phases while the service providers are getting ready to deploy the STBs in large volumes.

BEL has pioneered the design and manufacture of STBs in the country and its capacity can meet the high volume requirements of large service providers such as WWIL. BEL also manufactures DTH and DTT varieties of set-top boxes. The product is one of its main civil arrays along with the electronic voting machines and solar lighting.
Back to News Review index page  

Camlin gets Bombay HC approval for demerger scheme
Mumbai: Writing instruments and art material manufacturer, Camlin said the Bombay High Court (HC) has approved the scheme of arrangement for the proposed demerger of fine chemicals division of the company into Camlin Fine Chemicals Ltd. The board meeting of the company in order to give effect to the demerger would be held on the receipt of the High Court order, it added.

The Bombay High Court had approved the scheme of arrangement between Camlin, Camlin Fine Chemicals and their respective shareholders. The shares of the company were trading at Rs167, up 2.74 per cent, on the BSE.
Back to News Review index page  

SpiceJet signs agreement with United Aviation for pilot training
New Delhi: SpiceJet has entered into an agreement with global pilot training firm United Aviation (UA) for its cadet pilot programme. UA will select and train pilots under the SpiceJet cadet pilot programme, launched earlier this month, Spicejet said in a statement.

SpiceJet has already recruited more than two batches of cadet pilots from UA under the scheme, it said.

The cadet pilots will undergo theory training in Gurgaon for a period of two months, prior to proceeding for flying training, it said.

The flying training is presently being held in Canada and the US and would be followed by the licence conversion process in India, to attain a commercial pilots' licence issued by the DGCA. Upon attaining the licence the cadets would be taken up for a type rating on the SpiceJet fleet of airplanes the company said.
Back to News Review index page