Honda Motorcycle to focus on exports
Pune: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Ltd (HMSIL) plans to focus on exports for its Unicorn and Shine models. The company also expects sales in India to cross seven lakh units this fiscal and is significantly increasing its dealer network. The company exports 30,000 units of scooters to overseas markets which includes Europe. It is now looking at Latin America and West Asia as potential markets. The first exports of the two motorcycle models are will be to Nepal this year, and the company is studying other markets where its products might have potential.

The company expects sales to grow from 6 lakh units in last fiscal to over 7 lakh units this fiscal. The company plans to increase its dealer strength from 260 to 280 by the end of the current fiscal and have 320 dealers in place by end of the next fiscal.
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DaimlerChrysler targets sales of 2,000 cars this fiscal
New Delhi: DaimlerChrysler India is looking at sales of 2,000 cars of its various models this fiscal. Till the end of October the company had sold around 1,700 units.

The parent company DaimlerChrysler is targeting a substantial portion of the total turnover from Asia and its Indian arm intends to play a greater role in strategic forays in this part of the globe.

DaimlerChrysler India launched the E280 (petrol version), E280CDI (diesel version), E200 KOMPRESSOR and the E350 models. The E-Class range has 2,000 parts that are new or further developments than its predecessor, according to the company.
The models are priced between Rs43 lakh and Rs60 lakh.
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SC rejects Whirlpool's sales tax exemption plea
New Delhi: Whirlpool India's plea to the Supreme Court seeking exemption from payment of sales tax on products that made by its outsourcing partner but sold under the Whirlpool brand has been rejected.

Whirlpool, which had entered into an agreement with Applicomp India for manufacturing its electrical appliances under its trade name, contended it could not be asked to pay sales tax on the finished products. Instead, the company argued, tax should be collected from Applicomp.

Maintaining that Applicomp was neither a registered user nor a licensee of the trademark 'Whirlpool', the Bench said it was not selling the goods as either the trademark holder or as one having any rights as a proprietor of the trademark.

It said sales made by Applicomp to Whirlpool were not sales to the exclusive marketing agent, distributor, wholeseller or any other dealer but were only sales of manufactured branded goods to the brand owner.

"It is the sale of such goods by the dealer having the right either as a proprietor or otherwise which has to be deemed to be the first sale liable to tax," it said.
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TCS plans to hike billing; hire more
New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), plans to raise its billing rates by 3-5 per cent for existing contracts which will be renewed shortly. Additionally the new contracts that the company gets will be billed at rates that are 5-10 per cent higher, said S Ramadorai, MD & CEO of TCS.

TCS has also launched an initiative to enlarge and develop a suitable talent pool available to the IT industry. The company's TCS Talent Transformation (TCS T2) aims to transform science graduates into global software professionals by graduates from disciplines other than engineering into the global technology services industry. The programme is designed to be a hi-tech, hi-touch learning module that aims to transform B.Sc./BCA degree holders into best-in-class IT professionals. Around 500 science graduates are currently undergoing the pilot program at TCS' Chennai facilities.

Designed as an intensive 7-month residential transformation programme, the curriculum will include formal lectures, projects and assignments, quizzes and interactive sessions. The selected graduates will undergo courses in the principles of software development and IT, develop an understanding of core technologies underlying IT systems as well services like package implementation as well as new technologies like Java, .Net as well as TCS' proprietary tools, frameworks and quality processes.
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CSN bankers pick up 11 pc stake in Corus
London: Brazilian steelmaker CSN's financial services firms UBS AG and Goldman Sachs Group have acquired over 11 pc stake in the Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus, which is in the middle of a takeover battle.

UBS AG acting through its business group and legal entities has picked up 66.12 million shares of Corus Group, representing 7.36 pc as per information available on the Corus website. Goldman Sachs Group Inc acquired 36.06 million shares of Corus, aggregating to 4 pc stake.

CSN has already acquired 3.8 pc stake in Corus through open market transactions.

Although the banker's combined holding adds up to 15.16 pc in Corus, the takeover clause on launching an open offer may not apply for them as they have picked up stake separately.
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Essar's refinery starts operations
Mumbai: Essar Oil's 10.5-million-tonne-per-annum (Mtpa) refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat has begun operations, and is expected to roll out LPG by tomorrow.

The Rs 10,825-crore refinery will begin production with an initial capacity of 7.5 million tonne and ramp up to full capacity by March 2007, a company press release said.

Essar plans to raise the refinery's capacity to 12 Mtpa in a year and to 16 Mtpa subsequently. The capacity would then be doubled by replicating the existing units, a company executive said.

The refinery will process different types of crude, including heavy and sour crude oil varieties.

The company has already imported four cargoes of 4 million barrels of crude oil and a fifth cargo of 2 million barrels is expected on November 25-26. Three more cargoes have been ordered. For now, the refinery will process sweet crude from Algeria, Yemen, Nigeria, and West Asia.

With the commissioning of the refinery, nearly half of the group's revenues are expected to accrue from the refining business, starting next year. The business is expected to generate about Rs50,000 crore in revenue by the next fiscal, when the refinery will be operating at full capacity.

The company expects its basket of petroleum products to fetch around $60 a barrel. These include middle distillates such as high-grade kerosene oil and high-speed diesel, which constitute over 60 per cent of India's domestic consumer demand.

The plant will also produce LPG and lead-free petrol of various octane levels for the domestic market and high-octane lead-free petrol for export.
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RelCom offers free STD at night
Mumbai: Reliance Communications has launched an STD call card that allows subscribers to make domestic long distance calls free at night. Using the card of Rs675 (including talktime of Rs601), customers will be able to make free calls to any Reliance phone anywhere in India between 11 p.m and 6 a.m. For all other calls in the day, subscribers would have to pay Re1 per minute.
The card could be used on all Reliance post-paid, pre-paid phones, the release added.
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TRAI wants operators to cut tariffs on mobile roaming services
New Delhi: With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India proposing to review the current pricing structure being offered by the various operators, tariffs for roaming services on mobile phones may come down.

TRAI has said that the cost of offering services has come down by as much as 67 per cent on a yearly basis and this should be reflected in the tariffs. The telecom regulator has also suggested doing away with the monthly rental being charged by operators and removing the premium charge for availing short messaging services while roaming.

Currently service providers levy a monthly rental of about Rs50 for access to national roaming services and SMS is charged at a maximum of Rs3.50. For outgoing calls, GSM operators' tariff ranges from Rs2.89 to Rs3.99 per minute while the CDMA operator's roaming charges for local outgoing calls range from Re1 to Rs3.99.
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Foreign cos join in bidding to supply to Delhi Metro
New Delhi: Foreign companies, Alstom, Bombardier, CAF, Siemens and a Mitsubishi-Rotem-Melco-BEML consortium have joined the bidding to supply 400 electrical multiple units (EMUs) to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for its phase-II operations.

EMUs are passenger trains whose carriages have the ability to propel on their own. MRC had floated a global tender asking the companies to bid for design, manufacture, supply, testing, commissioning, training and transfer of technology of 400 EMUs. The winner is required to set up a local manufacturing base in India. Most of the rolling stock companies are bullish on the Indian market. Demand for MRTS rolling stock is anticipated from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
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NTPC to spend Rs6,000-cr to develop coal block
New Delhi: NTPC is planning to invest around Rs6,000 crore for developing its 15-million-tonnes per annum Pakri Barwadih captive mine. The company plans to start the first `box-cut' - a trench made in the mining area to expose a portion of the coal seam - by December 2007 and hopes to start coal production by around May 2008. In the first year of production, the mine is likely to have a capacity of up to 1.5 mt, to be ramped up to around five mt over the subsequent two years. The company hopes to achieve the full 15 mt capacity four years into production.
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3G spectrum allocated to 7 telcos for trials
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has allotted 3G spectrum to seven telecom companies and Dishnet to conduct trials across 17 cities in the country. The companies are Bharti Airtel, Aircel Cellular, Idea Cellular, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Telecom and Hutch. The trials are proposed to be conducted in Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Shillong, Jammu, Shimla, Patna, Guwahati, Siliguri, Pune, Hyderabad, Howrah, Chandigarh and Kolkata. The trial services will not be available for retail users.

The companies had approached DoT for allocation of frequency in the 2.1 Ghz band, which is primarily used for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)-based 3G services to be launched by GSM operators.

To CDMA player Tata Teleservices DoT has given the nod for trials in the 1900 Mhz frequency band. The CDMA trials are expected to be carried out by January 2008. Chinese manufacturer ZTE will provide the technology for the trials.

The technology is expected to add to the revenues of the operators through value-added services. According to DoT sources, 3G trials have already been started by State-owned BSNL.

DoT said that 3G services may hit the market by mid 2007.
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Assam Co raises $46mn
Kolkata: Assam Company has raised $46 million through zero coupon unsecured foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs).

The bonds have tenure of five to seven years and will be convertible into equity shares at Rs 28.75. The yield to maturity is reportedly 8.25 per cent. Silverdale Services is the sole lead manager for the offering. The shares of Assam Company closed at Rs 23.55 on Friday, down 2.48 per cent from the previous closing at Rs24.15.
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Sundram Fasteners to pay 85 pc interim dividend
Chennai: Sundram Fasteners's board has approved payment of interim dividend of Re0.85 per equity share of Re1 each for the year ending March 31, 2007.
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SAB Miller to expand capacity
Bangalore: South African beer maker SAB Miller is firming up plans to expand capacity. Four big projects of the company are expected to roll out in another six months, which will add another 4.5 million hectolitre capacity. This would be through a combination of greenfield projects and brownfield expansion of the existing breweries.

The new projects could involve an investment of about Rs 200-250 crore.

A decision on which of the breweries will be expanded and in which states the new breweries will be set up will be taken shortly. Typically, the new breweries will take at least 16 months to go on stream.
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Zydus files IND application for obesity drug
Mumbai: Zydus Cadila has filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the Drug Controller General of India for the new molecular entity — ZY01, a drug candidate for treating obesity and related disorders. ZYO1 will help obese patients lose weight and control blood sugar levels in type-2 diabetes.

According to the company ZYO1 has shown remarkable efficacy and a clean toxicity profile in pre-clinical trials. It holds promising commercial potential in the absence of effective treatments for obesity and related disorders.
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