Dr Reddy's to join the race for Merck's generic business
Mumbai: Indian pharma major Dr Reddy's Labs is planning to join the race for acquiring Merck's generic business. The other Indian companies already in the running are Ranbaxy and Cipla and have disclosed their interests in acquiring the company in partnership with private equity funds.

However, a Dr Reddy's spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company is in discussion with private equity funds for the acquisition. Sun Pharma and Wockhardt are yet to take a decision on attempting a bid.

The acquisition is likely to be valued over $ 5 billion.

Pharma analysts note that the Indian pharma company managements will have to seriously look at the generics business of Merck, as very few generic companies in the world match its size, distribution platforms, geographical reach and technologies.

Merck's Generics has major operations and facilities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, UK, Sweden and USA. It is currently ranked among the top-ten global suppliers in the generics market and has a wide range of more than 400 products in all therapeutic areas.
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SAIL may be allowed to bid for foreign firms: Paswan
Patna: The Centre is planning to relax the existing rules to help facilitate public sector giant Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to join the race for takeover of foreign steel companies like Mittals and Tatas, according to Steel minister Ramvilas Paswan.

Paswan said SAIL had earned a profit 14,000 crore and the Centre was planning to invest rupees one lakh crore by 2020 for its expansion.

He said his ministry had taken a policy decision for uniform pricing of all steel products of SAIL across the country.

He said SAIL would adopt ten steel villages in the country under social development programme.
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Consortium to develop Hyderabad township
Hyderabad: Tishman Spyer Properties, ICICI Venture Funds and Nagarjuna Construction Company have entered into an agreement to develop a Rs3,500-crore Integrated Township Project at Tellapur near Hyderabad.

The consortium was the lone bidder for the project to be taken up under the public-private participatory initiative.

The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda), the nodal agency for the project, opened the bids on January 31.

While Huda had fixed a price of Rs4 crore and upwards per acre, the bid was for Rs4.21 crore per acre. In the 400-acre site worth Rs1,686 crore, close to the Financial District here, the developers are likely to invest about Rs3,500 crore.

Tishman Spyer, with over $27 billion in investment across continents and Nagarjuna Construction Company, with a turnover of Rs2,005 crore for first nine months this year, draw upon construction expertise.
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TCS signs MoU with Mumbai Int'l Airport
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed an MoU with the Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), the joint venture company led by GVK involved in modernizing Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) here, for IT consultancy services for the entire airport value chain from operations to services. The agreement has a tenure of five-years and TCS would be involved in implementation and management of the technology backbone at CSIA, the country's busiest airport. The agreement is in line with MIAL's efforts to upgrade CSIA to international standards, a release here said.
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Gail's Singapore unit to become overseas investment arm
New Delhi: Gail Global, Gail's Singapore unit is set to become Gail India's overseas investment arm, similar to ONGC Videsh (OVL), which is the holding company for ONGC's assets abroad.

As Gail is considering to route all its foreign in-vestments through its Singapore-based wholly-owned subsidiary, it is also likely that all existing overseas assets would be transferred to Gail Global.
Gail has equity stakes in three gas retailing companies in Egypt. In Myanmar, it holds 10 pc stake in both A1 and A3 exploration & production (E&P) blocks. The company also has an equity stake in China Gas and it is a partner in an E&P block in Oman.

Set up in September 2004, Gail Global has not been on the forefront like ONGC's foreign arm, OVL. The basic purpose of its creation was to save taxes, sources in the company said. The new CMD is determined to transform it into a separate profit centre.

Choubey, the chairman of GAIL Global Singapore since 2005 said his priority would be to improve the bottomline of the company.

He said it was unlikely to increase throughput in the current fiscal (2006-07).

Choubey said the company is interested is forging a tie-up with Reliance where there could be a synergy between the business of two companies.
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Danone rebuts Wadia claim on Press Note 1
Mumbai: French dairy giant Group Danone rebutted the claim made by the Wadia group that its 5 per cent investment in Bangalore-based bio-nutritional firm Avesthagen violates Press Note 1.

The French company said that there was no reason to get a no-objection certificate from the Wadias for the investment in Avesthagen as its products did not compete with any of the businesses of Britannia, its joint venture with the Wadias.

Avesthagen makes bio-actives for food products, which, sources said, did not compete with Britannia's food product range.

Avesthagen's promoters have also denied that the stake buy by Groupe Danone was a violation of norms. Villoo Morawala Patell, vice-chairperson and managing director, Avestha Gengraine Technologies said, "We are a nutraceuticals company and there is no way that we are competing with Britannia on any front."

The government has received a complaint from industrialist Nusli Wadia alleging that Danone had violated Press Note 1, 2005, which specifies that new proposals for foreign investment require the government's prior approval in cases where the foreign investor has an existing joint venture agreement with an Indian company in the same field.

The Wadias and Danone hold an equal stake in Associated Biscuits International Holdings (ABIH), through which they control Britannia. Danone has three directors on the 14-member board, the rest being Wadia nominees.
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