Vodafone may join race for Hutch
New Delhi: European telecom giant Vodafone may also join in the race to pick up Hutchison's stake in Hutchison Essar directly or through its Hong Kong subsidiary.
Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) also seems likely to hike its offer by around $3 billion to buy the entire stake of Hutchison and the Ruias in Hutch.

Vodafone owns a 10 per cent equity stake in Bharti Airtel, which it picked up for $1.5 billion last year. Market sources said Vodafone could buy Hutch's stake and run operations with the Ruias as the Indian partner without violating the telecom FDI rules (which allow them to own up to 74 per cent stake).

Also, as it has only 10 per cent equity stake in Bharti, it does not violate the requirement under which a telecom company cannot have more than 10 per cent equity in a competing company operating in the same circle.

R-ADAG is said to have revised the enterprise value of Hutchison Essar from $12-14 billion to $15-17 billion after it was clear from the bankers of Hutchison that they were looking for a larger premium to sell the stake.
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Lupin gets tentative USFDA approval for generic hypertension drug
Mumbai: Mumbai-based Lupin has obtained the US FDA's tentative approval for its generic hypertension drug Trandolapril Tablets, 1mg, 2mg and 4mg.

Lupin's Trandolapril tablets will be the AB-rated generic equivalent of Abbott's Mavik Tablets. The product's annual sales in the US stood at approximately $53 million for the twelve months ended July 2006, a Lupin statement said here quoting IMS data.

The company intends to launch the generic on final approval, which is expected upon the expiry of the originator's patent protection in June 2007.
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ITC to expand number of Choupal Fresh outlets
New Delhi: ITC plans to expand its fruits and vegetable retail and wholesale business - Choupal Fresh and will open 54 new outlets over the next three years in certain select metros of the country. The company currently operates a few Choupal Fresh outlets in Hyderabad and Pune, since the first outlet opening in August 2006.

The company has also set up complete cold chain for ensuring the availability of fresh products in the market, besides direct linkages with farmers for sourcing farm fresh produce. The emphasis of the stores is on improving the quality and productivity of domestic horticulture products through ITC good agricultural practices as opposed to relying on imported products.

The company also plans to open nine new rural hypermarket outlets, Choupal Saagar. Currently the company has 11 Choupal Sagars.

ITC plans to set up one Choupal Saagar outlet for every 40 e-Choupal, to serve as the core infrastructure to support ITC's rural distribution strategy. The nine new Choupal Saagar outlets will be opened in Haryana, Uttaranchal, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Currently, there are 6,500 e-Choupal kiosks in over 38,000 villages in nine States.
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Honda Motor may introduce small car in India
New Delhi: Honda Motor Company plans to introduce a small-size vehicle in India and also construct a second automobile plant. The company is targeting to produce and sell more than 1,50,000 cars in India by 2010 end.

Honda has in the past evaluated the possibility of introducing the Jazz compact car in India. However, Jazz is positioned as a premium segment hatchback in Japan and even if a high level of localisation is achieved on the model in Indian, the Jazz would still have to be priced equal to the Honda City.

Hence Honda may introduce an all-new India-specific small car with a few elements borrowed from its models sold in the western markets. Honda may also use one of its current platforms for developing the new small car, so that the development and manufacturing costs of the proposed new car can be minimised.

The new car is likely to be in the premium compact car segment, which currently constitutes models such as the Maruti Swift, Ford Fusion and the Hyundai Getz.
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Satyam to offer JD Edwards tools
Hyderabad: Satyam Computer will resell Oracle's JD Edwards applications to mid-market companies in India in an extension of its 10-year partnership with Oracle that will enable both organisations deliver enterprise solutions in India. Satyam has JD Edwards solution centres in Hyderabad and Mumbai, both are positioned to serve the domestic market requirements.

Satyam also resells JD Edwards applications in APAC, Europe, and the West Asia, is part of Oracle partner network. Over 2,500 consultants of Satyam work across 48 countries on Oracle application practices. Oracle and Satyam are collaborating to create tailored solutions for clients in industries such as retail, industrial manufacturing and real estate.

Genpact bags contract worth $80-million from US company
New Delhi: BPO company Genpact has bagged a five year contract that is worth $70-80 million from a US-based healthcare information service provider for analytics work related to medical claims, spend analysis, clinical data and healthcare claims, a company official said.

The scope of the contract includes building a database of information based on healthcare coverage provided by its customers, and also to review medical bills.

The work will be done in India, from the Genpact's Gurgaon centres and may later extend to facilities outside NCR, including Kolkata and Hyderabad. Genpact, which last week announced massive expansion plans in cities like Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur, says it plans to utilise skills spanning statistics, analytics, data management and IT, for the new contract.
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Corus sets deadline of Jan 30 for final bids
Mumbai: UK's Takeover Panel has set a deadline of January 30, '07, for Tata Steel and Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) the two bidders for Ango-Dutch giant Corus, to announce revised offers.

If the bidding crosses the deadline, an auction conducted by the panel will decide the winner. If a competitive situation continues to exist shortly before 30 January 2007..., the Panel Executive may require any revised offers to be published in accordance with an auction procedure, the terms of which will be determined by the Panel Executive the panel told the LSE. The auction procedure will be announced later.

Corus, Tata Steel and CSN have consented to the ruling. The formal bids by Tata Steel and CSN have been through a scheme of arrangement under the Companies Act. They were not tied under the 60-day timeline that is typically set by the panel for an acquisition referred to it.
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