ICI India to sell entire stake in Quest
New Delhi: Chemicals company ICI India, in which UK's ICI Plc has a majority stake, has announced its plans to sell its entire stake in its wholly owned subsidiary Quest India its flavours and fragrances business, for not less than Rs390 crore to Switzerland's Givaudan Group.

The company's board of directors, at its meeting on Wednesday, approved the sale.

The announcement followed news that ICI Plc had agreed to sell Netherlands-based Quest International B.V. to Givaudan for $2.25 billion (around Rs9,900 crore).

ICI India said in a statement that "ICI Plc has, after due evaluation, agreed to accept the offer for sale of Quest International business received by them very recently from the Givaudan Group, who has expressed interest in purchase of Quest India also. Considering the heavy linkages on the international business and the nature of the customers and the market, the board has decided to divest the company's entire shareholding in its subsidiary Quest lndia to the said Givaudan Group.

ICI India has a controlling stake in Quest India, established in 2001 as a joint venture between the ICI Group and Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL). ICI India acquired HLL's 49 per cent shareholding in May this year and subsequently acquired the remaining one per cent of the share capital held by a group company of ICI Plc. Consequently, Quest India became a wholly owned subsidiary of ICI India.

Quest India reported net sales of Rs116 crore and a net profit of Rs7.8 crore for the financial year ended March 31. The company is headquartered in Mumbai and has its manufacturing sites in Daman with about 100 employees on its rolls. Shares of ICI India were up seven per cent at Rs372.10 on BSE on Wednesday.
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Gateway Distriparks takes 50.1 pc stake in Snowman
Mumbai: Gateway Distriparks Ltd (GDL) a port-based container logistics company has acquired a majority stake of 50.1 per cent in Snowman Frozen Foods, for Rs48.12 crore. Snowman Frozen Foods has a pan-India cold chain distribution network, including 90 reefer trucks and 16 cold stores. The acquisition will be funded out GDL's recent GDR proceeds. With this acquisition GDL is foraying into the cold chain logistics segment, expecting a surge in domestic demand for movement of frozen and chilled food in the wake of the boom in the retail sector.

The company has entered into a share subscription and shareholders agreement with Snowman and its present shareholders - Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Logistics Corporation and Nichirei Logistics Group of Japan. The three shareholders will continue to hold a total of 48.69 per cent shareholding in Snowman. The latter had revenues of Rs12 crore last fiscal and is expected to earn a total revenue of about Rs25-30 crore in the current fiscal.
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Coromandel Fert to start production in Jammu
Chennai: Coromandel Fertilisers will start production of pesticide formulations at its Jammu facility in a month's time. The unit will manufacture insecticides in liquid and powder forms and will have a capacity of 30-40 million litres of liquid pesticides a year. The Murugappa group company selected Jammu for its easy reach to the markets in Punjab and Haryana and the rest of the North. In addition, there is a five-year tax waiver followed up with a partial waiver for another five years. The Rs1,800-crore Coromandel Fertilisers has a pesticide facility at Ranipet, Tamil Nadu, catering to the southern markets.

In the West, the company recently acquired Ficom Organics in Maharashtra, which will help it enter the market in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Ficom is to be merged with CFL.

The objective of a dispersed production base is to bring down the lead-time and transportation costs of reaching the markets.
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Tata Power signs JV with Tata Steel to set up captive plants
Mumbai: The Tata Power Company has entered into a joint venture agreement with Tata Steel to set up captive power plants in Chattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. The new venture in which Tata Power will hold 74 per cent equity and Tata Steel 26 per cent equity aims to meet the power and steam requirements to support the expansion plans of Tata Steel in the three States.

Under the joint venture agreement, which will go a long way towards making Tata Steel self-sufficient in its energy requirements Tata Steel will consume power generated from the power plants set up under the joint venture, meeting the requirements of captive power plant norms for the projects, as stipulated by the Union Government's Captive Power Plant Policy. Tata Power has already announced that it will put up a 120 MW captive plant for Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, based on blast furnace and coke oven gases, which are waste gases from the steel making process.
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Granules India to raise authorised capital
Hyderabad: Granules India (GIL) plans to hike its authorised capital from Rs200 crore to Rs300 crore with a corresponding hike in equity shares of Rs10 each from 20 crore to 30 crore.
The company also wants to raise not more than $20 million, including a green shoe option, if any, inclusive of such premium as determined by its board and subject to necessary provisions and approvals. An extra ordinary general meeting of the company's members will be held on December 4 to decide on these issues, among others.

To raise the $20-million, the company proposes to offer, issue and allot either in India or in one or more foreign markets, Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), American Depository Receipts (ADRs), Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) and/or equity shares (through Depository Receipt Mechanism) and/or any other financial instruments convertible into equity shares in registered or bearer form.
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Great Eastern Energy signs agreement with Indian Oil
Kolkata: Great Eastern Energy Corporation (GEECL) plans to form a joint venture with IOC for marketing and distribution of city gas and compressed natural gas (CNG) in the Durgapur-Asansol industrial belt in West Bengal, according to a GEECL release.

The company is exploring coal bed methane (CBM) in Ranigunj block in West Bengal and has recently completed drilling of the first 20 wells resulting in a production of 350 mcfd. Commercial production of CBM is expected beginning June 2007, earlier than scheduled. The estimated gas in the block is estimated at 1.386 trillion cubic ft (tcf).

GEECL is scheduled to drill 100 wells in the block over four years. Since CNG primarily consists of methane, CBM can be converted into CNG by setting up compression facilities. The companies will also join hands in city gas distribution in the area dotted with a number of small towns and cities including Asansol, Raniganj, Durgapur, Kulti, and Barakar.
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L&T to set up shipyard with Rs2,000 cr investment
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro plans to set up shipyard with an investment of Rs 2,000-crore. The shipyard will build high-value ships. The company is looking for a suitable piece of land, measuring 800 acres to 1,200 acres, to set up the shipyard. The states which are in its consideration are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The company expects to finalise the location by end of January 2006.

"The country needs at least three to four more efficient shipyards," said A.M. Naik, L&T's chairman and managing director. The company is still examining whether to hive off its shipbuilding unit into a subsidiary or a separate company, he added. L&T has proposed a joint venture with the state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Ltd in Visakhapatnam three years ago and the proposal is still pending with the Ministry of Shipping he said.
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Honda Siel to launch new model next week
Pune: Honda Siel Cars India will launch the all-new, third-generation Honda CR-V on November 28. The company is also planning to take on Toyota's new Camry, which debuted in India early this year, with a face-lifted version of the Honda Accord in January 2007. The new Honda CR-V debuted at the Paris Motor Show four months ago and the India rollout for the car is one of the fastest done by a global car manufacturer.

The new CR-V has been completely redesigned with luxurious interiors but a host of advanced features that will add to safety and comfort of users. The SUV will also feature Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering body structure.
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Satyam plans expansion of biz intelligence practice
Chennai: Satyam Computers plans to expand its business intelligence (BI) practice. The division would have nearly 10,000 employees by 2010 from 3,400 at present. 30 per cent of the employees work at various onsite projects abroad and the rest in India, according to a company official. Around 70 per cent of the employees in the BI practice are software engineers and the rest are professionals from sectors such as banking, pharmaceutical and telecom.

Satyam's BI practice, which won The Data Warehousing Institute Award 2006, has attained nearly 55 clients (mostly Fortune 500 companies) and is expected to have 85 by 2010. The practice is part of Satyam's Enterprise Business Solution. For Satyam, business intelligence deals, including software service component, ranges between $3,00,000 and $2 million, he said.
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Siemens bags Rs4,000-cr power deal in Qatar
Mumbai: A consortium of Siemens India and Siemens AG, Germany has received a contract worth Rs 4,000 crore by Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA) for the development of phase VII of the electrical grid in Qatar.

Last year the consortium received two contracts, amounting to Rs2,600 crore, from KAHRAMAA last fiscal. The company has already commissioned phase V and is currently executing phase VI.
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ONGC out in cold: RIL to get seven oil blocks
New Delhi: The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has recommended that Reliance Industries be granted seven highly prized assets in the Krishna Godavari basin to prospect for oil and gas.

The authority has rejected state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's bid for a dozen deep-water and four on-land blocks, despite the company being the top ranked bidder in every asset. This was due to DGH's concerns over ONGC's "past performance in deep-water exploration" and on the ground that it had relinquished four onland blocks earlier.

Instead, DGH wants the 12 deep-water blocks to be handed over to some international exploration companies that had participated in the sixth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VI). It has also suggested that four on-land blocks be allotted to second ranked bidders - Suiwah Corp of Malaysia, Kufpec-NTPC, Adani Enterprises, and HOEC-Tata-BPCL.

The DGH has left the final decision to the Empowered Committee of Secretaries, which is scheduled to meet in New Delhi tomorrow. The authority has given clear recommendations for the award of a total of 36 exploration blocks (9 deep-water, 6 shallow and 21 on-land) to the top ranked bidders.

The recommendations have also rejected Essar Oil's seven deep-water bids on the ground that the company did not meet the eligibility criteria. However, Essar has been recommended for two on-land blocks. Of the total 14 bids rejected, the others included two by Niko Resources and bids by Tap Oil, Finder and M3Energy.

However, the DGH has recommended that ONGC be allotted eight blocks (two shallow water and six on-land, of which in four it is an independent bidder). The company had hoped to win at least 24 blocks.

Among the other companies whose bids have been approved by the DGH are Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (in partnership with Naftogaz-Geopetrol), which has been recommended allotment of an on-land block. The only other company to have been recommended for deep-water blocks (two on the north east coast) is Santos International of Australia.

Among shallow water blocks, GSPC, in partnership with IOC-GAIL-HPCL-Petrogas, is slated to win two, and the Cairn Energy-ONGC-Tata consortium, one block. Among the 21 on-land blocks, ONGC is slated to bag six, OIL-Suntera-Shiv-Vani, three blocks, and the GSPC consortium, two blocks.
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TCS likely to win outsourcing contract from IMF
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is in the last stages of finalising a multi-million outsourcing contract with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under the deal, the IMF will offshore some of its back-office work to the Indian company.

A deal is expected to be announced in the next couple of weeks. The exact size of the contract could not be confirmed.

The IMF is believed to be developing an internet protocol-based network and TCS is expected to lend its expertise on it. TCS is also believed to be doing its back-office operations for the international lender and is likely to set up a new wing for the IMF's operations.
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Oracle revises open offer for i-flex stake
Mumbai: I-Flex Solutions Ltd has said global software firm Oracle has revised its open offer to buy 20 per cent stake in the former and it would now pay Rs2,472 crore for its 1.66 crore shares, about Rs20 crore higher than the last bid.

I-Flex' emerging voting capital has marginally increased to 83,156,714 shares due to the delay in the open offer schedule, from 83,145,114 shares previously.

Accordingly, the 20 per cent of the revised voting capital — which has risen to 16,631,343 shares from the original offer for 16,629,023 shares, it added.

Mauritius-based Oracle Global (Mauritius) Ltd's open offer to buy 20 per cent stake has been also revised and now the acquirer would pay Rs2,472 crore for 20 per cent.

The manager to the offer DSP Merrill Lynch said the emerging voting capital of the I-Flex was calculated 15 days after the closing of the offer.

While the offer price of Rs1,475 for each fully paid equity share of the I-Flex remains unchanged, due to the delay a total payment of Rs1486.35 will be made for each fully paid-up equity share of face value Rs 5 each, comprising of Rs1475 as the offer price and Rs11.35 as interest due to delay.
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