Hero Honda to foray into 4-wheelers
Mumbai: Hero Honda, the largest motorcycle company in the country, is looking at foraying into the four-wheeler segment.

However, company's future plans in this regard are not clear at the moment.

The company has launched the new Hero Honda CD Dawn and Deluxe at Rs31,900 and Rs34,900 respectively. The new-look CD models have a new 100 cc engine designed and developed keeping in mind consumer needs such as higher mileage and pulling power, low maintenance, powerful lights, while also considering comfort and safety factors, said officials of the company.

The CD series is a brand quite synonymous in the entry-level motorcycle segment. The brand has been in the market for the past 21 years.

With the launch of the new CD variants, the company intends to get a 20-25 per cent growth in the entry-level segment. Currently, it is selling 60,000 units on a monthly basis, said senior company officials.

The company had sales of 2,80,000 units for the month of November.
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Tata Motors reports 43 pc growth in November sales
Mumbai: Tata Motors reported a 43.1 pc growth in total sales for November at 49,061 units (including exports) as against 34,282 units sold in the same month last year.

The passenger vehicle business reported a 48.4 pc increase at 19,475 units in the domestic market in November.

The Indica sales rose 58 pc over November last year at 13,047 units, which is its highest-ever sale in a month since its launch.

The Indigo had sales of 2,857 units - an increase of 17.4 pc. Safari sales stood at 1,143 units, a three-fold increase over November 2005 sales.

Commercial vehicle sales rose 45.8 pc in the domestic market to 25,793 units from 17,694 units in November last year. M&HCV sales stood at 14,453 units, registering a growth of 31.7 pc over November 2005 while LCV sales were at 11,340 units, a growth of 68.7 pc over November 2005.

Exports increased to 3,793 units in November from 3,462 vehicles in the same period last year.
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HMI's wholly-owned arm begins operations
New Delhi: Honda Motor India, a fully-owned subsidiary of Japanese auto major Honda Motor, has begun operations in the country with a capital of Rs15 crore and is targeting a turnover of Rs180 crore for 2007-08. The company that will integrate spare parts requirements of all Honda group companies began its operations from its corporate office in Greater Noida near here. HMI is part of the overall strategy to strengthen and integrate operations of Honda companies in India with respect to spare parts. However its biggest joint venture subsidiary Hero Honda is not part of the arrangement at the moment.

The company would begin by taking over the parts operations of Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) and gradually integrate operations of Honda Siel Power Products and Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India Ltd. It will also study the possibility of establishing a similar relationship with Hero Honda Motors Ltd in the near future.
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Thomas Cook to buy Travel Corp for Rs 182cr
Mumbai: Thomas Cook India plans to acquire the entire shares of Travel Corporation (India) for Rs182.45 crore. According to a release issued by Thomas Cook India to the BSE today, the board approved the acquisition of 15,76,692 shares of TCI at a price not exceeding Rs1,157.17 per share.

TCI is in the business of travel management, tour and leisure services, both inbound and outbound, and the acquisition would expand the company's market share, provide synergistic benefits, enhance buying power, extend product portfolio and offer better customer service, a release from Thomas Cook said.

Apart from this Thomas Cook India will also invest Rs16.91 crore to acquire 76 pc share of TT Enterprises (offering visa facilitation services, cargo services and foreign exchange services) at Rs130.98 per share.
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SPIC to invest $200mn in its Jordan operations
New Delhi: Chennai-based Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation (SPIC) will invest $200 million to double the manufacturing capacity of its Jordanian joint venture, Indo-Jordan Chemicals Co, in which SPIC holds 52 per cent stake and Jordan Phosphate Mines Company 35 per cent stake. The JV manufactures phosphate, which is imported to India.

The joint venture proposes to double its capacity from the existing 2.5 lakh tonne per annum for which the company would make an investment of $200 million said SPIC chairman A C Muthiah. The combined export revenue after the new unit is commissioned would go up to $160-180 million from the existing $80-$90 million, he said.
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Bajaj motorcycle sales rise 36 pc in November
New Delhi: India's second largest motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto has reported a 36 per cent increase in its motorcycle sales for November at 2,14, 321 units compared to 1,57,831 units in the same month last year.

Better exports pushed the company's two and three-wheeler sales for the month by 33 per cent at 2,43, 713 units as against 1,83,411 units in the same month a year ago. The exports in November stood at 36,086 units as compared to 23,112 units in a year ago month, a significant jump of 56 per cent, Bajaj Auto said in a release.
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TVS motorcycle sales up 1.1 pc in Nov
New Delhi: TVS Motor Company has reported 1.1 per cent increase in motorcycle sales for November at 68,874 units as compared to 68,122 units in the same month last fiscal. The company registered a four per cent increase in its two-wheeler sales in November at 1,18, 157 units as against 1,13,261 units during the same month last year, TVS said in a statement.

TVS sold 21,791 units of its un-geared 100 cc scooter 'TVS Scooty' in the month compared to 21,057 units in the same month a year ago, the release said. The company's exports in the month grew by 23 per cent at 7,500 units.
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Guidelines followed for Wal-mart entry: Mittal
New Delhi: Bharti Enterprises has said its tie-up with the US firm was 'as per the guidelines'. "Bharti will manage the front-end 100 per cent, while Wal-mart will provide support at the back-end, logistics and supply chain. The deal is as per the Government guidelines," said Rajan Bharti Mittal, joint managing director, Bharti Enterprises. He said Wal-Mart will be doing the same as other global retailers such as the Germany-based Metro was doing in the country.

Left parties are opposing Wal-Mart's entry into India alleging that the retail giant's joint venture with Bharti would enable FDI entry into the retail sector through the back door.
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Maruti sales up 21 pc at 52,574 units in November
New Delhi: India's leading car manufacturer, Maruti Udyog has reported a 20.7 per cent increase in domestic sales during November at 52,574 units as compared to 43,568 units in the same month last year.

The company's exports were, however, down by 35.7 per cent at 2,459 units as against 3,823 units in November last year. Total sales during the month, grew by 16.1 per cent at 55,033 units as compared to 47,391 units in the year ago period, a company release said.

Sales of the M800 dipped by 18.3 per cent at 6,040 units during November as against 7,397 units sold in the same period last year. Sales of the A2 segment comprising of Alto, Wagon-R, Zen, Swift rose by 32.3 per cent at 37,060 units as compared to 28,01 9 units last year.

The company said sales in A3 segment including Baleno, Esteem declined by 14.5 per cent at 2,083 units as against 2,437 units a year ago. The consolidated domestic sales this fiscal, till November, rose 17.1 per cent at 3,95,090 units as against 3,37 ,512 units in the corresponding period a year ago.

Exports during the period under review were, however, down 4.6 per cent at 22,737 units as compared to 23,831 units a year ago.
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Shoppers Stop can do biz at Bangalore airports
Mumbai: Shoppers Stop informed the BSE that the Bangalore International Airport has awarded the concession to begin retail operations at the International and domestic terminals at the Greenfield Bangalore International Airport to the consortium comprising of The Nuance Group AG, Switzerland and Shoppers Stop.
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Malaysia's top cell phone operator to expand India operations
Kuala Lumpur: Maxis Communications Bhd. which is Malaysia's leading cell phone operator plans to expand the operations of Aircel in which it owns a majority stake. Maxis owns 74 per cent of Aircel Ltd and operates in seven circles.

Maxis chief executive Jamaludin Ibrahim said the company planned to operate in two more circles shortly.

Maxis has 8.9 million subscribers in Jordan whose population is 26 million people.
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Shringar Cinema flags off operations at Fame Aurangabad
Mumbai: Shringar Cinema has commenced its operations at Fame Aurangabad, which consists of three screens and 1,043 seats with effect from December 01, 2006. The company said that the total number of operational properties and screens of the company are 10 and 36 respectively including the above.
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Ranbaxy acquires South African generics firm
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has acquired South Africa's fifth-largest generics player Be-Tabs Pharmaceuticals for $70 million (Rs315 crore). The acquisition is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2007.

Be-Tabs Pharmaceuticals - South Africa's largest manufacturer of penicillin formulations with a strong OTC portfolio - had annual sales of about $30 million. The acquisition would be funded from Ranbaxy's FCCB (foreign currency convertible bonds) proceeds.

According to Ranbaxy the acquisition of Be-Tabs results in considerable synergies and further strengthens Ranbaxy's foothold in South Africa... The move will help Ranbaxy to provide effective disease management solutions in support of the (South African) Government's objective to make healthcare affordable to a wider cross-section of the population.
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Sun TV's equity base to rise
Chennai: Gemini and Udaya TV's merger with Sun TV will result in Sun's equity base rising 43 per cent with the addition of 2.96 crore shares that will be issued to the shareholders of Gemini and Udaya. After the merger, the number of channels in Sun TV's bouquet will increase from 6 to 15. Sun TV currently operates four television channels — Sun TV, KTV, Sun News and Sun Music — in Tamil language, two television channels — Surya TV and Kiran TV — in Malayalam language, three FM radio stations, and another three FM radio stations through its subsidiaries. The two subsidiaries of the company, namely, Kal Radio Ltd and South Asia FM Ltd, jointly hold 41 FM radio licences for FM radio stations across India.

Sun TV would be renamed Sun TV Network Ltd according to a notification from the company to the BSE.

Gemini owns and operates five television channels — Gemini TV, Teja TV, Gemini News, Gemini Music and Gemini Cable Vision. Udaya owns and operates four television channels — Udaya TV, Udaya Movies, Udaya Varthegalu and Udaya TV II.
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