UB Group acquires Whyte & Mackay for £595 million
Mumbai: United Spirits Ltd (USL), the flagship company of the UB Group, has acquired 100 per cent equity in Whyte & Mackay for £595 million (about Rs4,783 crore). The deal was signed on Wednesday morning in Glasgow, Scotland.

Vijay Mallya, speaking to the Indian press from Glasgow said the acquisition plugged a "missing link" in the UB product portfolio by giving the company a strong presence it needed in the scotch whiskey market.

The acquisition pushes USL's consolidated sales up to 75 million cases per annum. USL closed 2006-07 at 66.4 million cases, he said. The potential for premium Scotch Whisky in India is enormous and, with the acquisition of Whyte & Mackay we now have a strong portfolio of internationally recognised brands that we will immediately introduce into the Indian market and use our strong distribution muscle fully to our advantage. In addition we now have access to international distribution and can look forward to exporting our brands from India," he said.

The leading Scotch whiskey distiller Whyte & Mackay recorded sales of 9 million case and case equivalents in the last 12 months and owns brands including The Dalmore, Isle of Jura, Glayva, Fettercairn, Viadivar vodka and Whyte & Mackay blended Scotch.

USL will look to bring the W&M brands into India and China and there will be a revamp of the product portfolio depending on the requirements of these markets, Mallya said.
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Hyundai phases out Viva, CRDi variants of Accent
Mumbai: Hyundai Motor India has phased out the Accent CRDi (diesel) variant and the Viva (petrol and diesel) model and only GLE petrol variant would now represent the Accent range.

The Accent CRDi, launched in October 2002, was the first car in the mid-size segment to feature the CRDi (Common Rail Direct Injection) diesel technology; the Viva model (petrol launched in August 2002, diesel in January 2004) was the first sports notchback vehicle in the mid-size segment.

This is the second batch of variants in the Accent range that have been discontinued. Earlier, the company had discontinued GTX-Tornado, GLX and the GLS model.
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Essar SEZ may be de-recognised
New Delhi: The department of commerce may de-recognise the 247-hectare engineering Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Hazira, promoted by Essar Hazira SEZ. This is as the company already had units under construction in the zone when it applied for approval in 2005, in violation of SEZ rules.

At the same time, the excise authorities based in Gujarat arrested two Essar Steel executives for allegedly moving goods from the SEZ to the domestic tariff area. Commerce ministry officials confirmed that the duty (around Rs300 crore on excise and customs) has since been paid, but that the executives were arrested for violating the Customs Act. They are likely to get bail tomorrow.

The company refuted the allegation of the SEZ land already having units in it before it applied for the zone to be approved.

Under SEZ rules, a developer has to file an affidavit stating that the land area of the zone is completely vacant and without any kind of industrial activity when the application is filed. The idea is to prevent operational industrial units from migrating to SEZs, which would defeat the employment-generating purpose of the SEZ policy.
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L&T looks for acquisitions in West Asia
New Delhi: L&T is looking at acquiring engineering and construction companies with focus on the West Asian market as it plans to ramp up its presence in a slew of business segments.

K.V. Rangaswami, president (construction) and board member, said L&T is looking at acquiring construction companies in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other locations - areas that offer growth and profitability. The company said it is also open to considering possible targets in the new engineering space of hydro power and water engineering, besides metals and minerals companies in the region. L&T wants to augment its expertise in hydro power, water engineering and metals and minerals while in the construction segment it prefers to acquire rather than go in for greenfield manufacturing in the region.

L&T's engineering and construction segment reported 43 per cent growth in order booking during the first nine months of 2006-07, to Rs19,127 crore. The order book backlog as on December 31, 2006 in the segment.
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Indo Rama Q4 profit up 91 pc
New Delhi: Polyester maker Indo Rama Synthetics has announced a 91 per cent jump in net profit for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs6.69 crore, from Rs3.5 crore registered during the same period a year ago. Net sales in the period were up 19 per cent at Rs613.36 crore, (Rs516.59 crore). The company has also reported a 60 per cent drop in net profit for the year ended March 31, at Rs20.64 crore.

Net sales for the year rose by 7.5 per cent to Rs2,011.68 crore (Rs1,870.91 crore). The company attributed the drop in profitability during the year to factors including volatility in the crude oil prices, scarcity of key raw materials and high costs of power during major part of the year, besides higher rates of interest and higher depreciation charge arising from the commissioning of a new facility.
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Reliance Petroleum selects Dow Global process for PP unit
Mumbai: Reliance Petroleum has selected the UNIPOL PP process of Dow Global Technologies for its 9 lakh tonnes-per-annum polypropylene (PP) production facility, the Dow group said in a statement.

Dow Global Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.

The facility will be built at a special economic zone adjacent to the Jamnagar complex of Reliance Petroleum and will have two reactor lines, each with a capacity of 450 kilo tonnes per annum.

Reliance Industries currently operates four UNIPOL PP Process lines at its Jamnagar complex and two at its Hazira complex.
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Ripley's comes to India
Bangalore: Ripley's Entertainment will launch three of its attractions — Ripley's Believe it or not, Guinness World Records and Louis Tussaud's Wax Museum — in India through a tie-up with Innovative Film City. This is Ripley's maiden entry into South East Asia.

Robertson Masterson, president, Ripley Entertainment said there was huge potential in India for the entertainment industry.

Saravana Prasad, chairman and managing director, Innovative Studios, said Ripley's attractions are bound to attract visitors from all across the country.

The Innovative group is setting up a 50-acre Innovative Film City on the Bangalore-Mysore Highway near Bidadi. This will house six studios, a film academy, an IT park, amusement and entertainment areas, multiplexes and food courts. The film city is expected to be ready by December this year. The investment on the first phase is Rs150 crore.
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Virgin Mobile to enter India
Mumbai: Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile is entering the Indian market through an equal stakes joint venture with the Tatas. The Tata Group's telecom arm, Tata Teleservices, will form the JV to introduce the Virgin brand in the world's fastest growing telecom market.

Virgin will exclusively license the Virgin Mobile brand and technology expertise in the area of value-added services (VAS) and handsets to TTSL.

This will allow CDMA operator TTSL to use Virgin's core expertise in marketing and service innovation to create offerings which will be largely targeted at the youth segment.

The two parties are said to have begun looking for people to staff the venture. The UK-based global executive search firm CHR Global is recruiting staff for the new entity, sources added. The search for a CEO to head the joint venture is also on.

The Tata Indicomm brand will be positioned as the mass market brand while Virgin will remain a more youthful brand in line with its global identity. The move will help TTSL expand market share from the current 7.1 pc.
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Tata Tele Maharashtra to invest Rs500 crore in FY08
Mumbai: Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (TTML) has announced plans to invest nearly Rs500 crore during the current fiscal to almost double its telecom towers to 2,500 from the present 1,234.

The company invested Rs738 crore in FY05, Rs 507 crore in FY06 and Rs564 crore in FY07.

The company, which operates in Mumbai and Maharashtra circles, said its net loss narrowed by 68 per cent at Rs45.9 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2007 as against a net loss of Rs151.76 crore in the same period last fiscal.

TTML currently operates in 400 towns and hopes to double the number during the current fiscal, provided such entries prove viable.

The company said it would finance the proposed investment from its cash profit and loans from financial institutions led by IDBI.

TTML posted a cash profit of Rs131 crore for the year against cash loss of Rs21 crore in the last year. Revenue for the year grew by 30 per cent to Rs1,442 crore compared to Rs1,097 crore for the previous year.
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GSM cos oppose TRAI's allowing Internet telephony to ISPs
New Delhi: GSM mobile operators are opposing against telecom regulator TRAI's recommendation to allow Internet telphony to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as they say this will lead to back door entry for voice telephone services.

GSM mobile industry body Cellular Operators Association of India said ISPs would directly compete with the access providers creating a non-level playing field while paying only a fraction of their license fees.

TRAI had last week issued its recommendations on Internet services to the Department of Telecom.

COAI has urged TRAI to ensure that the scope of the ISP License is not enlarged at the cost of UASL/CMTS operators. He said UASL/CMTS operators had paid high entry fees for the right to offer access/mobile services and Internet telephony.
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Tata Power, Doosan enter into $1bn deal for Mundra
Mumbai: Tata Power Company (TPC) has signed a contract worth nearly $ 1billion (Rs4,100 crore) with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Company, Korea for the first 4,000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) at Mundra, Gujarat.

Tata Power told the BSE that the company will bring in the first 800 MW unit to India.

It said, "The contract for the complete boiler island includes super critical boilers for five units of 800 MW each based on super critical technology required for such large-sized units. The technical scope with clear terminal boundaries and interface scope for boilers include supply of super critical steam generator, electrostatic precipitators and instrumentation," the release added.
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Balaji Telefilms' Q4 net up 37.25 pc
Mumbai: The Ekta Kapoor-controlled Balaji Telefilms, which is focused on making films and television content has reported a 37.25 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs21.27 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, as compared to Rs15.50 crore for the corresponding period last fiscal.

Total income has increased by 3.77 per cent at Rs81.09 crore for the Jan-March quarter this fiscal as against Rs78.14 crore for the same period last year.

The company has registered a net profit of Rs79.72 crore for the year ended March 31, as compared to Rs59.64 crore in the year ago period. Total income has increased to Rs326.87 crore in the year ended March 31, compared to Rs289.06 crore last year.
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