Radio Mirchi maintains its top position
New Delhi: Radio Mirchi (owned by Entertainment Network (India) Ltd), retained its number one position in listenership in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata — according to the results of the survey 'Wave 3 of Indian Listenership Track 2006-2007' conducted by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC), the fieldwork for which was done by AC Nielsen from December 2006 to February 2007.

Radio Mirchi retained its top position, with 22.3 lakh, 35 lakh and 25.3 lakh listeners in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata respectively. In Mumbai, Mirchi increased its lead to 43 pc over its nearest competitor, while in Delhi and Kolkata it is twice the size of the nearest competitor.

Radio Mirchi is India's only listed pure-play radio company. It operates in 10 cities, with 22 more launches in the pipeline. At present Radio Mirchi is India's largest private radio network. Recently Radio Mirchi launched Visual Radio in Delhi and Mumbai.
Back to News Review index page  

Dell looks at launching low-cost personal computers in India
New Delhi: Dell Computers says its turnover grew by 70 per cent in 2006-07 and is heading towards $1 billion sales in 2007-08. The company is now planning to introduce low-cost PCs in the market. So far, it has been focusing on the enterprise and corporate segment with its notebooks and servers.

The company is the market leader in the enterprise segment but lags behind HP and Lenovo when it comes to the retail consumer segment.

In the enterprise server market, the company increased its market share to 19 per cent from 9 per cent.

According to Michael Dell chairman of Dell Computers, the company's manufacturing facility at Chennai would start operations by July this year and would have a capacity of 4-lakh units per annum.

According to Dell, "The manufacturing facility would initially address the needs of the domestic market. With local manufacturing in place, Dell's most comprehensive presence in the world outside the US would be in India," he said.

He added that the existing tax structure in India is not encouraging for manufacturers and the country was losing investments due to its tariff structure.
Back to News Review index page  

ICICI Venture to invest Rs82 crore in Electrotherm
Ahmedabad: ICICI Venture Funds Management has invested Rs 82 crore through a private placement in Electrotherm (India), the Ahmedabad-based engineering and manufacturing company with major strength in power electronics. The investment is to part fund the latter's second phase of expansion plans of Rs400 crore.

While ICICI Venture would subscribe to Rs82 crore worth of the company's equity, the promoters would bring in Rs58 crore to meet the equity portion.

The term loans have been sanctioned and disbursed and the company has already invested Rs300 crore out of the total planned expenditure of Rs400 crore.

Electrotherm successfully launched battery-run two-wheelers under brand-name of Yobikes last year. The company has seen its turnover of Rs60 crore in 2004-05 jumping to Rs345 crore in 2005-06 and it is expected to close 2006-07 at around Rs650 crore. The company plans to roll out more than 1, 50,000 two-wheelers next year at its Kutch-based unit, now under expansion.
Back to News Review index page  

Jubilant bags $60 million deals
New Delhi: Pharmaceutical research firm Jubilant Organosys has obtained custom research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) contracts worth $60 million to its 2007 order book. Ninety per cent of the contracts are from drug firms based in the US and Europe, the company said in a statement.

The company is in advanced talks with several other global life sciences companies for CRAMS activities.
Back to News Review index page  

Rain Calcining gets approval for Rs334 crore expansion
Hyderabad: The board of directors of Rain Calcining has approved expansion of calcining capacity by 4,80,000 tonnes per annum with a greenfield expansion at Visakhapatnam at a projected cost of Rs334 crore.

The company has said that this expansion shall include a cogeneration facility to generate 49 MW of electricity.

The proposed plant is expected to commence its operations in October 2008.

The company informed the board today the reports by two independent professional valuers Ernst & Young and Grant Thornton on share swap ratio for merger with Rain Commodities. The board approved a share swap ratio of two Rain Commodities shares for every seven of Rain Calcining. The scheme of arrangement for amalgamation of the company with Rain Commodities will come into effect from April 1 and transfer of calcined petroleum coke (CPC) and power business from Rain Commodities Ltd to Rain Industries Ltd. These decisions are subject to approval by the shareholders and lenders of respective companies, High Court of Andhra Pradesh, stock exchanges and other regulatory authorities.
Back to News Review index page  

Essar Telecom Retail ties up with Virgin Group
Mumbai: Essar Telecom Retail has ties up with the UK-based Virgin Group for brand licensing, technical and consultancy services for its mobile phone retail chain branded as 'The MobileStore'. Virgin will provide its expertise in branding, customer care, store operations and staff training, and will also get royalty for use of the brand name.

The logo `Powered by Essar & Virgin' will accompany the store name of `The MobileStore'.

The Essar group company will invest $250 million (Rs1,120 crore) over three years to set up a chain of 2,500 mobile retail stores across 600 cities in the country.

The company said it expects to break-even in two years' time and revenues of $1 billion (Rs4,500 crore) will be achieved in three years' time.

In addition to mobile phone-related activities, the stores will stock entertainment products such as MP3 players, gaming devices and cameras, as well as offer repair and bill collection services.
Back to News Review index page  

Ranbaxy out of race for Merck's generics biz
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has pulled out of the race to acquire German pharmaceutical company Merck's generics business on concerns of over-valuation.

Ranbaxy was the only Indian company to make it to the second round of bidding but opted out after valuations were stretched beyond $6 billion. Sources in Ranbaxy said an auction at this stage may take the valuations to over $6.5 billion.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories had pulled out of the race earlier citing over-valuation.

Global pharmaceutical majors including Teva, Mylan and Actavis have made it to the second round for acquiring the generics business of Merck.

Merck is hiving off its generics unit to concentrate on branded formulations.
Back to News Review index page  

Hutchison Tele registers profit in India, Israel
Mumbai: Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing controlled Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTIL), has reported its first annual profit in India since listing in 2004 as sales rose in India and Israel.

Net income last year was HK$201 million ($26 million), or 4 HK cents per share, compared with a loss of HK$768 million, or 17 HK cents per share, in 2005, the company said today on its website. Sales rose 37 per cent to HK$33.38 billion.

Hutchison Telecom's $11.1 billion sale of its stake in Hutchison-Essar last month will raise funds for expansion elsewhere in Asia even as the Hong Kong-based company loses its most profitable unit.

Hutchison Telecom said it expects to complete the sale of its 67 per cent stake in Hutchison-Essar to Vodafone in the second quarter.

Hutchison Telecom gained 12.7 million users in 2006 for a total of 29.6 million at the end of the year, driven mainly by Hutchison-Essar, which added 11.9 million subscribers to bring its year-end total to 23.3 million.
Back to News Review index page  

ADC to acquire Keonics' 11 pc stake in Krone Comm
Bangalore: Telecom gear manufacturer ADC has agreed to acquire the 11 per cent stake held by Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS) in Krone Communications (Krone India) through its subsidiary ADC GmbH.

ADC will pay KEONICS Rs169 per share, a 52 per cent premium to the prevailing market price. KEONICS presently holds 5,06,000 shares in Krone India. At Rs169 a share, KEONICS will realise a little over Rs8.55 crore by offloading its stake in Krone.

However, the Indian operations will continue to be a publicly listed joint venture between ADC GmbH, which held 51 per cent and KEONICS which held 11 per cent while the public holding was 38 per cent.

Pursuant to the acquisition of 51 per cent stake in Krone Communications in early 2005, ADC had made an offer to acquire an additional 23 per cent stake. However, the open-offer did not sail through, as the price of Rs92 offered by ADC was unattractive and significantly lower than the then market price of Rs130.
Back to News Review index page  

FIPB postpones decision on Hutch-Essar buyout
New Delhi: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has postponed its decision on Vodafone's application to acquire a 51.96 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar (to be renamed Vodafone Essar).

The aggregate foreign interest in the company will be 74 per cent following the completion of the overseas transaction.

The postponement is on account of the Reserve Bank of India asking for more time to send in its comments on Asim Ghosh's and Analjit Singh's holdings (who together hold 15 per cent stake in the company).

It has also decided to have individual consultations with Vodafone, Hutch and Essar group (which holds a 33 per cent equity stake).

Earlier this month, the FIPB had written to the RBI asking whether Ghosh and Singh's equity stake was compliant with FEMA regulations. It had also written to Ghosh and Singh on whether they had not broken the telecom sectoral cap for FDI which is at 74 per cent.

Analjit Singh and Asim Ghosh have told FIPB that shares are held by the companies which are 100 per cent owned by them, with unrestricted voting rights, and whose financial benefit which might accrue will be received only in India subject to the provision of capital gains tax and Indian laws. Vodafone it had clarified does not and will not have any voting arrangement in these companies.

Ghosh had also clarified that he has received credit support for his investments (from Hutchison who gave loans ) which have been publicly disclosed but the primary liability for repayment is with his companies.

Defending allegations that he has violated FEMA regulations Ghosh in his letter pointed out that his agreement specifically provides that any transfers(if he wants to sell his shares for example) can be exercised if complaint with the Indian laws and with the approval of the competent regulatory agencies.
Back to News Review index page