Reliance Comm's FLAG slaps notice on VSNL for $406 million
Mumbai: FLAG Telecom, Reliance communications global undersea cable business division ha slapped Tata group company Videsh Sanchar Nigam with a notice of a $406-million claim.

The claim works out to over Rs1,800 crore. FLAG has approached the Arbitration Tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) seeking monetary relief in the FLAG-VSNL dispute with respect to the interpretation of the Construction and Maintenance Agreement governing the FLAG Europe-Asia cable system (FEA), said a statement from VSNL to the stock exchanges on Tuesday.

VSNL owns the Mumbai cable landing system of FEA.

The earlier award of the ICC tribunal in May last year had gone in favour of FLAG. The partial award, by 2:1 majority, ordered VSNL, to grant FLAG access to the Mumbai cable landing station of the FEA cable system for upgradation to any level. In September 2006 VSNL had appealed this in a writ filed at the District Court in the Netherlands.

VSNL's shares slid by 3.4 per cent on the BSE, closing at Rs488.5 on Tuesday.
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BT Telecom India to acquire IP firm i2i
New Delhi: BT Telecom India, a joint venture between British Telecom (BT) and Jubilant Enpro of New Delhi, will acquire Mumbai based i2i - an internet protocol based global managed network service provider.

BT said the acquisition would increase its revenue from India to $250 million by 2009. The amount of the deal was disclosed.

i2i's gross asset was valued at $ 22.5 million in March 2006. i2i is a managed service provider and has a customer base of 200 corporate customers and employs over 200 people. BT employs about 15,000 people directly or indirectly in India. i2i already the distributor of BT Infotel's managed network and products nationwide.
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Ansal plans Rs11,000 crore realty spend in Punjab
New Delhi: Real estate major Ansal Properties and Infrastructure (APIL) plans to invest Rs11,000 crore in Punjab in the next four years. The amount would be spent in developing 20 projects, including townships, housing, retail, commercial, and hotels.

APIL, the flagship company of the Ansal API Group, has also entered into an agreement with Ritesh Industries, a garment exporter, to build a housing project and business park spread over 42 acres in Ludhiana, with an expected revenue of about Rs800 crore.

Ansals has already launched five projects in Punjab and would launch another 15 in the state in next six months.

The total expected revenue from these projects would be about Rs15,000 crore and the investment would be financed through debt and internal accruals.
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Suzuki commits Rs11,000 crore in India
Manesar Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki said the company has committed an investment of 300 billion yen (Rs11,000 crore for the company's various operations in India in the next three-four years.

He said the company has so far invested about 100 billion yen in the country and going forward would invest an additional 200 billion yen up to 2010.

The company has already announced an investment of 250 billion yen for Maruti Udyog (MUL) and Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL). Another 20 billion yen would be invested in Suzuki's two-wheeler venture in India while another 30 billion yen will be f or other capital expenditure. The Suzuki and Maruti Udyog joint venture SPIL diesel engine and transmission plant has also been inaugurated. The plant has an initial capacity to manufacture 1 lakh diesel engines a year and would be scaled up to 3 lakh engines per year by 2010, with a total investment of Rs2,500 crore.

SMC holds 70 per cent equity with the rest being owned by MUL in SPIL.
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HAL to buy 24 engines from GE
New Delhi: Government owned Hindustan Aeronautics. (HAL) has ordered 24 afterburning engines from GE Aviation in a deal valued at more than $100 million. The order of F404-GE-IN20 engines, for the Indian Air Force's first operational squadron of Tejas fighter aircraft, follows an earlier purchase of 17 engines in 2004, HAL said.

GE Aviation is a unit of General Electric Co.

The F404-GE-IN20 engines were trial-installed earlier this year in light combat aircraft as part of a final evaluation exercise for flight testing scheduled for mid-2007, HAL said.
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Ranbaxy-Glaxo extend pact
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories (RLL) and GlaxoSmithKilne (GSK) have extended their four-year-old drug-development agreement.

The new agreement modifies and expands the terms of the strategic alliance the two entered in 2003 to provide Ranbaxy expanded drug-development responsibilities and further financial opportunities. Under the original agreement, Ranbaxy carried out the chemical tests required to take drug leads being developed to the stage of candidate selection.

Under the new agreement, Ranbaxy will advance beyond mere candidate selection, going right up to the stage of completion of clinical proof of the efficacy of the drug concerned. GSK will then go in for further clinical development of each programme and take the resulting products through the regulatory approval process to final commercialisation.

Ranbaxy is likely to receive substantial milestone payments for products it develops, which are subsequently launched by GSK, and up to double digit royalties on worldwide net sales.

Ranbaxy will retain the right to co-commercialise the products in India.

The new milestones and royalties will apply both to future drug discovery programmes and to the two programmes currently in progress at Ranbaxy, that were started under the original agreement with GSK.
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Dhoots to enter telecom in partnership with Verizon
Mumbai: US telecom giant Verizon has tied up with consumer electronics company Videocon to offer international long-distance (ILD) services in India.

Verizon has formed a JV — Verizon Communications India — with Leo Communications, part of the $3-billion Videocon group.

The initial investment in the venture is estimated to be over $30 million.

"The JV is in the process of applying for a licence to provide ILD services," sources familiar with the development said.

Verizon will hold 74 pc stake in the JV, and the rest will be held by Leo Communications. The annual ILD outgoing minutes from India were 2,500 million in 2005-06 and are expected to rise to 3,500 million by March this year.
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BHEL gets Rs3,900 crore contract from Maharashtra Power Gen company
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has received a Rs3,900 crore contract for supply and installation of main plant package to generate 1,500 MW power in Maharashtra, taking the total order book of PSU over Rs20,000 crore in a single year.

Maharashtra State Power Generation (MAHAGENCO) is for one 500 MW unit at Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station (TPS) expansion project and two 500 MW units at Bhusawal TPS expansion project, BHEL said in a statement. These units would add 36 million units every day to the grid on commissioning.

BHEL's power sector order book has crossed Rs20,000 crore mark in a single year with this the company said.

The company is presently executing orders for the main plant package for four 250 MW units for MAHAGENCO, two each at New Parli and Paras TPS expansion projects.
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Fortis Healthcare to set up retail chain
New Delhi: Fortis HealthWorld, a joint venture of Ranbaxy Laboratories and Fortis Healthcare, has announced setting up a retail health store chain with 1,000 shops in 400 towns of the country by 2012. According to Fortis, the health stores will be like a one stop shop offering health products for the entire family.

Ranbaxy is entering the retail business and investing Rs800 crore in the retail stores. The stores will offer prescription drugs, health supplements, health foods, alternate medicines, home and personal care products and a pathology lab collection centre.

The company said the stores will run round the clock and would give customers value-added services like prescription reminder service, loyalty programs, OPD appointments in our hospitals and free home delivery.
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Sasan project may go to Reliance Energy in case Globeleq exits
New Delhi: Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Energy (REL), which lost the Sasan ultra mega power project to Lanco by a thin margin of 10 paise per unit, may get the project if Globeleq exits the consortium.

A Power Finance Corporation official said if Globeleq which holds a 70 per cent stake in the project dilutes its stake to below 51 per cent, then the Sasan UMPP will go to the second lowest bidder, Reliance Energy Ltd.

He said the bid document clearly says any request for change in membership of the consortium would be considered only upon the bidding consortium making a written application to the authorised representative seeking its approval for such change at least 45 days prior to the last date of submission of RFP bids.

The last date for the submission of the letter of acceptance is February 28. The Lanco-Globeleq consortium had in December 2006 won the Rs20,000 crore 4,000 MW project to be set up in Madhya Pradesh.
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Pyramid to set up 150 multiplexes in Malaysia
Mumbai: Pyramid Saimira Theatre (PST) which has a chain of theatres, has tied up with Malaysia-based Asian Integrated Industries to set up 150 multiplexes and single screen theatres in Malaysia within the next 2-3 years. Both the companies will hold 50 pc stake in the JV to be called Pyramid Saimira Entertainment Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Both the companies will equally invest Rs240 crore for the proposed joint venture (JV).

The company plans to start operations by acquiring a three screen multiplex immediately. Following this the JV will begin operations with ten multiplexes by March 2007.

The JV will distribute Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam movies, Chinese and Hollywood films and other contents across Malaysia on theatres, DVD, direct-to-home and other distribution methods. PST will provide back-end resources to the JV for digital display.
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ABB sells stake in Neyveli power station
London: ABB, which builds electricity networks, has sold its stake in power stations in Morocco and India for $490 million as part of a strategy to concentrate on its main businesses of manufacturing and services.

The deal includes 50 pc stake in the Jorf Lasfar coal-fired power plant, located, southwest of Casablanca, and another 50 pc holding in the Neyveli lignite-fuelled power station in Tamil Nadu.

The assets have been bought by Taqa, the Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, and were part of ABB's Equity Ventures unit, the Swiss company said.
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VSNL Ethernet receives MEF certification
Mumbai: VSNL has said it is the first domestic Ethernet service provider to achieve Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) certification.

The Iometris test laboratory certified VSNL's Ethernet Private Line (EPL) service to be compliant with international MEF 9 specification of the MEF.
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Ashok Leyland Jan sales rise 67 per cent
Mumbai: Ashok Leyland's vehicle sales rose 67 per cent in January to 9,650 units from 5,787 a year earlier. Domestic sales rose 62 per cent to 9,096 units from 5,618 units, while exports jumped to 554 units from 169.
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Moser Baer acquires Philips NV's R&D arm
New Delhi: Moser Baer India has acquired 81 per cent stake in Philips NV's wholly-owned subsidiary OM&T BV, a research and development (R&D) company, for an undisclosed amount through an all cash deal.

Moser Baer also plans to complete the acquisition of the remaining 19 per cent within the next two years. OM&T had a turnover of 10 million last year.

The acquisition is being done through the company's Cyprus-based special purpose vehicle (SPV) - Peraround, and comes into effect retrospectively from January 1 this year.
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