Havell's acquires Sylvania's lighting biz for $300 m
New Delhi: Havell's India has acquired SLI Sylvania's lighting business for $300 million (about Rs1,350 crore). This makes it the biggest overseas takeover by an Indian electrical equipment manufacturer till date. The acquisition has been done through Havell's Dutch subsidiary - Havell's Netherlands BV. The combined revenues of the two companies are expected to be around $1 billion.

The all-cash deal would be funded through a mix of debt and internal accruals. The subsidiary would raise a debt of $265 million from Barclays Bank to fund the deal. The transaction is expected to be completed in April-May, with Havell's retaining SLI Sylvania's management team after the acquisition. Sylvania would now operate as Havell's Sylvania, a subsidiary of Havell's, and the company would continue marketing its popular brands under the same name.

Sylvania sells professional and consumer lighting brands such as Sylvania Concord Marlin, Lumiance, Claude, Zenith and Linolite-Sylvania.

SLI Sylvania, which is headquartered in Frankfurt, is a leading global designer and provider of lighting systems for lamps and fixtures. As of the year ending Dec 31, 2006, SLI Sylvania generated revenues of $594 millon, and a normalised EBIDTA of $41.2 milion.

SLI Sylvania operates in Europe, Latin America and Africa through 10 manufacturing facilities. The company would not be able to sell in the overseas markets of Mexico, the US, Australia and New Zealand, where the business is owned by Osram.

Sylvania Osram had earlier sold its lighting business to a consortium of three private equity funds comprising Subros, JP Morgan and DDG Capital and Havell's has acquired the business from the consortium.

Currently, Havell's has eight manufacturing facilities in India and has a limited presence in Europe through its subsidiary, while Sylvania is among the top five lighting companies in Europe, including Germany and the UK.
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Reliance ends drilling pact with Aban
Chennai: Aban Offshore informed the stock exchanges on Tuesday that its subsidiary, Deep Drilling 1 Pte Ltd, had received a "notice of termination" from Reliance Industries relating to a drilling contract entered into for the deployment of the rig, Deep Driller 1.

The rig, which is now working for Hardy Oil, was expected to start on the Reliance contract "within a few weeks." Aban says its subsidiary "disputes Reliance Industries' right to terminate the contract" according to a company notification to the stock exchange.

Normally such contracts have a clause that requires a penalty to be paid in case the contract is prematurely terminated.

Reliance Industries has reportedly not given any reasons for terminating the contract.

After the completion of work for Hardy Oil, Aban intends to take the rig to Singapore where it will be stationed till it gets another assignment.
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Ranbaxy bids for Merck's generic business
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has put in a bid for Merck's KGaA's generic business. If Ranbaxy succeeds in the acquisition it would become the third largest generic drug company in the world.

Ranbaxy has all along maintained that it would not enter into a `rat race' to acquire the German business, and would only consider it at a fair and reasonable value. Malvinder Singh, CEO and Managing Director said that Ranbaxy would evaluate the asset and would be practical about it. Iceland's Actavis Group HF, Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and US-based Mylan Laboratories are reportedly vying for the Merck's generic business.

In India apart from Ranbaxy, Cipla is reported to be party of a consortium pitching for it.

Dr Reddy's has said it will not bid for the asset.

Merck's generic sales were at about Rs10,500 crore (or 1.8 billion) for 2006. Ranbaxy reported sales of Rs6,022 crore for last year primarily due to the 180-day exclusivity advantage it had on the launch of cholesterol lowering, Simvastatin.
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Pfizer may take legal action against Ranbaxy
New Delhi: Ranbaxy is facing a legal suit from Pfizer as it is seeking US approval to sell its own version of Pfizer's drug Caduet, a combination of its Norvasc and the cholesterol-lowering drug, Lipitor.

Pfizer is believed to have complained to a federal court in the US on March 9 that Ranbaxy's drug would infringe on its patents.

The patent on blood pressure drug, Norvasc, expires in September and the patent for atorvastatin, Lipitor's key ingredient, expires in 2010.
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Dabur plans 350-store retail health chain
Mumbai: Dabur India is entering the organized retail market in India with a retail chain of 350 stores. According to the release issued by the company to BSE, the company will invest Rs 140 crores by 2010 to establish its presence with a chain of stores on the health and beauty format.

As part of its plans to provide a world-class retailing experience to consumers across the country, Dabur plans to establish stores ranging from 1,500 sq ft to 6,000 sq ft in size, offering international quality store environment and product range.

Three senior professionals and experts from the global retail industry have been roped in to drive the company's retail foray. These expatriates have retail experience of more than 25 years each, encompassing merchandising, store design and sourcing.
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Stay order on board meetings of Bajaj Sevashram, Jamnalal Sons
New Delhi: Providing relief to the Shishir Bajaj group, the Company Law Board has stayed all board meetings of the two holding companies Bajaj Sevashram and Jamnalal Sons. It has also asked Rahul Bajaj to file a reply by March 30 and also asked Shishir to file rejoinders by April 15.

Kushagra Bajaj, son of Shishir has pointed out that the induction of Neeraj Bajaj and Sanjiv Bajaj on the board of these companies amounted to an indirect takeover of Rahul Bajaj and other family members.

However, the scheduled board meeting of Bajaj Sevashram and Jamnalal Sons to induct Rahul Bajaj's son Niraj and Sanjiv has been called off.

He had also objected to Bajaj Auto buying 1.9 per cent stake in Bajaj Hindustan from stock markets.

Shishir Bajaj controls the Uttar Pradesh-based sugar company Bajaj Hindustan.
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Volvo selects Karnataka to set up bus manufacturing unit
Hyderabad: Sweden-based bus manufacturer Volvo has decided to set up its bus body-building unit in Karnataka instead of Andhra Pradesh, which had offered the bus giant a number of incentives.

Volvo decided on Karnataka since Bangalore already has a strong infrastructure in bus bodybuilding.

Volvo was earlier outsourcing the bodybuilding in India to a Bangalore-based company, Jaico Automobiles (Azad Group).
While engine parts and chasis are manufactured in Sweden, bodybuilding was done in the outsourcing unit.

However, with a number of complaints coming in on defects in structural design, defective air-conditioning against the buses, the company decided to set up its own bus body building unit in the country. Volvo says it opted for Karnataka as it already has a strong infrastructure for bodybuilding units.
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