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Vodafone
representatives meet DoT officials
New Delhi: Global telecom giant Vodafone's representatives
held talks with senior government officials on the latest
position on FDI norms in the telecom sector. Senior telecom
officials however denied that issues related to acquisition
of Hutch Essar were discussed at the meeting.
They
said Vodafone wanted to know the latest position of the
government on foreign investment and did not discuss the
Hutch Essar issue
Analysts
are reading the meeting as being significant in the backdrop
of Vodafone's interest in acquiring India's fourth-largest
mobile firm Hutch Essar and the delay in finalising the
FDI guidelines that will clarify the status of foreign
players.
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Shareholder
warns Vodafone on India venture
According to a report in the UK daily 'The Times'
Vodafone's shareholder State Street, which holds about
1.7 per cent of Vodafone Group Plc has said the telecom
giant should consider dropping its pursuit of India's
mobile phone operator Hutchison Essar since the Indian
business group Hinduja has joined the race for Hutch.
The
shareholder firm in the report said Vodafone risks overpaying
for the unit -- a mistake it had made in the past.
The Hinduja group has joined Reliance Communications and
Vodafone as a suitor for Hutchison Essar in a $17 billion
to $20 billion bid battle.
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NHPC
earmarks Rs30,000 crore capex plan
New Delhi: State-owned National Hydroelectric Power
Corporation (NHPC) has earmarked a capital expenditure
plan of about Rs30,000 crore to more than double its existing
generation capacity to 10,000 MW by the end of 2012. The
company, which has an installed capacity of 3,755 MW at
present, has lined up 14 projects to augment its generation
capacity during the Eleventh Plan period.
Of
the proposed Rs30,000-crore expenditure, internal accruals
will account for Rs4,800 crore and the Government's budgetary
support would be to the tune of Rs6,000 crore, while the
company plans to raise Rs1,000 crore from the markets
through an IPO. The company hopes that the balance amount
will come from domestic and international borrowings.
NHPC
already has two lines of credit worth Rs9,000 crore with
Life Insurance Corporation, of which around Rs1,000 crore
has already been used.
The
company said that of the 14 projects lined up for the
Eleventh Plan, 12 are already under various stages of
implementation and clearance for the remaining two projects
is awaited.
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DaimlerChrysler
signs agreement with govt of Maharashtra
Mumbai: DaimlerChrysler has signed an MoUwith the
Maharashtra Government to set up a new manufacturing facility
in Chakan MIDC area, Pune, to manufacture the C-class,
E-class and S-class vehicles.
The facility will be fully operational by the first week
of January 2009, said senior officials. The company has
bought 100 acres from the state government for its new
operations.
One-third of the land will be utilised for the manufacturing
facility initially, which will have a production capacity
of 5,000 units on a one-shift, annual basis.
The
company reported record sales of 2,100 units in 2006.
On an individual model basis, the company sold 248 units
(S-class), 922 units (E-class) and 883 units (C-class)
with 180 CBUs (Completely Built Units) imported models.
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Alkem
Labs enters health foods segment
New Delhi: Alkem Laboratories, a $130-million Indian
pharmaceutical company, has forayed into the foods sector
with its wholly owned subsidiary Alkem Health Foods and
an initial investment of around Rs80 crore.
Recently the company rolled out two brands, Jeevanprash,
a low calorie, sugar-free health supplement, and Majesta,
a low calorie sweetener, targeted at the cardiovascular
and diabetic patients.
The
company also plans to roll out an entire range of low
calorie juices, jams, jellies, chocolates, cookies and
other confectionery items by March.
The
company has planned marketing spends in the range of Rs25-30
crore for 2007-08.
Alkem
Health Foods also is in talks with modern organised retailing
majors such as Food Bazaar and Reliance for greater visibility
of its products in their retail outlets.
Besides this, the company also has plans of opening its
own retail outlets that will exclusively sell its herbal
and nutraceutical supplements and the range of health
foods.
The
company expects to achieve 20 per cent of the overall
sales from Alkem Health Foods, while targeting a turnover
of around Rs 200-300 crore from the new food initiative
within the next three years.
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Dhoot
bid rejected by Daewoo creditors
Mumbai: The creditors of Daewoo Electronics have
rejected the proposal of the Videocon Industries-led consortium
to acquire the company for a lower price, with a part
of the proceeds being invested in the company in the form
of convertible bonds.
The
creditors, which hold a 97.5 per cent stake in Daewoo,
were not happy with the proposal and put it to vote. The
proposal required consent of 75 per cent of the creditors.
Videocon
Industries and RHJ International, the holding company
of US buyout fund Ripplewood, had signed a memorandum
of understanding to acquire Daewoo for $750 million, subject
to due diligence, by December-end. Since that time, the
creditors have been in talks to fix the terms of the transaction.
On
completion of due diligence the consortium offered to
pay 5 per cent less than the price and also asked the
creditors to invest a part of the proceeds in the company
in the form of convertible bonds.
Sources
close to the development said this did not mean that Videocon's
plan to acquire Daewoo had been dropped, as it had offered
partially revised proposals.
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Hero
Group considers entering electric three-wheelers segment
New Delhi: The Hero Group is considering foraying
into the electric three-wheeler segment.
The
group is expected to partner UK-based Ultra Motor, its
technical collaborator in electric bicycles and scooters,
in its three-wheeler venture. It is likely to launch the
new vehicles either by the end of the year or early next
year.
Currently
the company is testing the prototype of three-wheelers
developed by Ultra Motors in Indian conditions and will
take another six months to finalise things.
The
group, which has so far invested about Rs50 crore in its
facility for electric vehicles in Ludhiana, could expand
it further for the three-wheeler venture as well.
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Essar
awarded the 1000MW Jamnagar power project
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government has awarded the
1,000MW imported coal based power project in Jamnagar
to Essar Power after a long bidding process.
Essar
Power had quoted Rs2.40 per unit as the lowest bid for
the power project as against China Light & Power Hong
Kong, Tata Power, Torrent Power who were also in the race.
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No
tie up with MNCs for retail venture:
Kumar
Birla
New Delhi: A V Birla Group, which recently acquired
department store chain Trinethra, has ruled out partnering
foreign firms for its retail venture.
Without
disclosing any financial details of its retail business
plans, an AV Birla company official said the funding would
not come from any of the listed group companies.
The
group would operate its retail business under the name
of A V Birla Retail, and plans to follow multi-format
retail business model, which would consist of both large
and small-sized stores, the official said.
The
group recently acquired a 90 per centstake in Hyderabad-based
Trinethra Super Retail, which operates a total of 170
stores under the Trinethra and Fabmall brands in Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
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AXA
Asia plans hiking stake in Bharti Axa Life
Kolkata: AXA Asia Pacific Holdings plans to raise
its stake in Bharti Axa Life Insurance (Bharti-Axa) to
49 per cent from the present 26 per cent.
Bharti-Axa
is a 74:26 JV between Bharti Enterprises and France's
Axa Group. However, this depends on whether the government
decides to raise the FDI sectoral cap in insurance from
the present 26 pc to 49 pc. The Insurance Bill is likely
to be placed before the Parliament in budget session.
In
the coming weeks, the promoters plan to increase Bharti-Axa's
Rs150 crore equity base by Rs40 crore to Rs190 crore.
The equity infusion will be in proportion to their respective
holdings.
Bharti-Axa
in recent times has been bundling life insurance products
with phone connections offered by Bharti group.
Bharti-Axa
has also decided to sell its policies at discounts to
some 30,000-odd employees of Bharti group. It is also
in the process of designing group insurance policies for
covering all employees of its group companies.
The
group insurance policies will be bought by Bharti group
for its employees, while the policies for individuals
will be bought by the employees.
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