HCL Tech gets five-year contract from Skandia worth $200mn
New Delhi: HCL Technologies has received a $200-million, multi-service, five-year contract from financial services provider Skandia UK.

Skandia UK will outsource application optimisation, including development, maintenance and support (across all platforms) and remote infrastructure management to HCL.

The Indian company will hire 250 employees of Skandia UK and will hire more at its Chennai centre.

Company officials said the contract would be spread out over the five years, with $40 million per annum. The revenues from the deal will start flowing from February 1, 2007.

HCL said it hoped to get preferential access to projects at Skandia Group and Old Mutual Group because of the contract.

Skandia Group is part of the Old Mutual Group, a global financial services company listed on the London Stock Exchange.
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Bangalore airport hotel bid won by Oberoi-L&T combine
Bangalore: An Oberoi-L&T combine has won the bid to set up a five-star, 321-room hotel at the upcoming Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli.

L&T, which is one of the five stakeholders in the airport and the EPC contractor to the Rs1,930-crore project, will also be the contractor for the hotel and has done other Oberoi projects. It will be the country's first true airport-hotel that will be within walking minutes from the terminal building.

The bid document called for an operator-developer team and the Oberoi-L&T team won and signed the bid in mid-November. The contest saw prime bidders such as the European major Accor Group with its Novotel brand and the Dubai-based property major's Emaar-MGF Land India consortium.

The hotel, to come up at an investment of Rs250 crore, will have a spa, conference facilities and restaurants and will be ready in November 2008, he said during an onsite project update.
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Gitanjali Gems acquires US co
Mumbai: The Rs2,500-crore conglomerate, Gitanjali Gems has acquired US' eighth biggest jewellery retailer Samuels Jewellers Inc.

Gitanjali has acquired a 97 per cent stake in the speciality retailer operating 97 stores spread across 18 States for Rs100 crore and will be putting in another Rs100 crore as working capital. The acquisition will be financed through internal accruals and proceeds from the recently concluded $110 million FCCB issue. The stake has been acquired from the majority owner and fund manager, DDJ Capital Management, LLC, a boutique investment manager specialising in private equity and debt financing. Samuels Jewellers has reported net sales of $97.16 million in 2006, a 1.31 per cent growth over last year.

The acquisition is expected to add Rs500 crore to the topline and Rs30-40 crore to the bottom line of Gitanjali Gems Ltd by December 2007.
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Marico acquires hair care brand in Egypt
Mumbai: The Marico Group has acquired the hair care brand HairCode of Cairo-based Pyramid Group. Under the terms of the alliance, Marico will also invest in a manufacturing company in Egypt. Pyramid will continue to distribute HairCode for the medium term and has also signed a non-compete agreement with Marico.

HairCode, which includes hair creams and hair gels, currently has a 23 per cent share of the market. The acquisition of HairCode comes three months after Marico acquired Fiancee in Egpyt. The two brands combined give Marico a 50 per cent plus share of the hair care market in Egypt with a combined turnover close to Rs110 crore, the official added.
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MRF to expand capacity with Rs600-cr investment
Chennai: MRF plans to expand capacity with an investment of Rs500-600 crore over the next two years. The expansion programme would be at Puducherry, Arakonam and Medak. The expansion would be funded mainly from internal accruals.

MRF has three more units at Tiruvottiyur in Chennai, Kottayam and Goa.

The company is also exploring opportunities for an overseas production facility. But no immediate projects are in the pipeline. The proposed expansion at Puducherry, where the company makes radial tyres, would add about 100,000 to the existing capacity of about 300,000 a year.

At Arakonam, where the company makes two-wheeler tyres, production would go up by about one lakh from the current capacity of about five lakh; and at Medak, MRF will add about 15,000-20,000 light commercial vehicle tyres to the current capacity of about 80,000.

The tyre industry, driven by the automobile industry, is buoyant with the passenger car market growing by about 20-25 per cent.

MRF has reported net profit of Rs79.91 crore on income of Rs4,248.31 crore for the year ended September 30 against a net profit of Rs 40.31 crore on income of Rs3,453.48 crore in the previous year's corresponding period.

On the NSE, the MRF scrip opened at Rs4,399 and closed at Rs4,309.45.
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Motorola offers India made mobile for Rs1,649
Hyderabad: Motorola has launched a phone positioned on the affordability plank designed for Indian conditions, with host of features and manufactured at its Chennai plant.

The product branded MotoFone, is a rugged handset priced at Rs1,649 and comes bundled with two-year connectivity from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. The company is also in parleys with other operators to offer similar packages. The product is the result of 18 months of research and the Hyderabad and Bangalore wireless labs have contributed extensively to its features. The company also plans to launch CDMA versions of the phone soon.
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Tech-Mahindra gets $1bn British Telecom deal
Mumbai: Pune based telecom software services company Tech-Mahindra, has bagged the largest outsourcing deal valued at $1 bn from British Telecom (BT) and is the largest contract received by any software services firm in India.

Tech-Mahindra earlier called Mahindra-British Telecom (MBT), a joint venture between BT and the Indian automobile group Mahindra & Mahindra. MBT was renamed Tech-Mahindra before it went public earlier this year.

Post IPO BT reduced its stake in the company from 46 pc to 36 pc. Mahindra group now holds 51 pc in the company while the remaining is with public.

Tech Mahindra's contract with BT is spread over five years, which means that the company can garner revenues upto $ 200m every year from this contract. The revenues from the BT contract, on an annual basis are just a little lower than the total revenues of Rs12.4 billion or $ 280 m of Tech Mahindra.
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Idea to start mobile operations in Mumbai
New Delhi: Aditya Birla Group's Idea has received the licence for the Mumbai circle, where it may launch a new service by mid-2007. The government has granted two licences for the Mumbai and Bihar circles to Idea, expected to hit the market with its Initial Public Offer in February to mop up Rs2,500 crore, earlier this month, sources said.

Sources said Idea may start offering services to subscribers in these two circles in 6-8 months and investment for the purpose could be upwards of Rs1,500 crore.

Idea is currently operating in 11 circles, including Delhi. With the addition of Mumbai and Bihar circles would give the company access to approximately 70 per cent of the cellular market. The company has also applied for new licenses for another nine circles.
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KEC Intl gets orders worth Rs151-cr
Mumbai: Power transmission equipment firm KEC International Ltd said on Wednesday that it had secured orders worth Rs151 crore. Of these, three orders were for setting up transmission lines in the United Arab Emirates, and one for transmission lines in Ghana, the company said in a statement.
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Torrent Power in power distribution pact
Mumbai: Torrent Power Ltd said on Wednesday that it had signed a 10-year distribution franchise agreement with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co to distribute electricity in the state's Bhiwandi circle.
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Parsvnath wins bid for land in Delhi for Rs450-cr
Mumbai: Real estate firm Parsvnath Developers Ltd said on Wednesday that it won an auction for a plot of land in Delhi for Rs450 crore. The land, measuring about 24,355 square metres (2,60,000 sq ft), would be used to build a five-star hotel, a shopping mall and a multiplex.
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Dish TV poised to spark price war by halving DTH rates
New Delhi: Dish TV, floated by Subhash Chandra-floated plans to slash prices by 49 pc from Rs2,950 to Rs1,500 (including Rs200 installation charge). The announcement will be made shortly. The other nationwide DTH player Tata Sky—the 74:26 JV between the Tatas and the Star group—could follow suit since it sells a DTH connection at Rs3,999. Doordarshan's DD Direct airs free-to-air channels at Rs77-plus taxes a month

At Rs1,500, DTH would be nearly as competitive as a local cable connection. In parts of the country, cable installation charges range between Rs300 and Rs1,000.

Currently, Dish TV—India's first and largest DTH service provider—offers two packages of 125 channels (93 paid and 32 free-to-air) for Rs240 plus taxes and 85 channels (53 paid and 32 FTA) for Rs210. Tata Sky offers 100 channels and interactive services at Rs300 a month, inclusive of taxes.
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Dunlop goes to BIFR with rehab scheme
Kolkata: Dunlop India has submitted a Rs600 crore draft rehabilitation scheme (DRS) to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction for the revival of the ailing outfit.

Commenting on the DRS, Pawan Ruia, chairman of the Ruia group said that around 10 per cent of the DRS would be funded through equity and the rest would be borrowing.

According to Ruia, out of Rs600 crore DRS, Rs100 crore would be spent on capex.

The rest would be for working capital requirements, workers liability, refurbishing and for paying out to secured creditors.

According to Ruia, the management was hoping to achieve a turnover of close to Rs100 crore in the first year of operation after revival in 2006-07.

It is also contemplating a third plant to manufacture radial tyres.
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