Aditya Birla Retail to roll out retail business under 'more.' brand
Mumbai: The Aditya Birla group plans to invest Rs9,000 crore over the next three years in a pan-Indian chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets under the 'more.' brand name.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, AV Birla group said his company intended to be among the leading retail players in India.

The first few of Birla's planned 1,000 supermarkets will open in Pune by June.

The funds for the retail venture will be raised through a mix of debt and equity. The group's listed companies Grasim Industries, Hindalco, UltraTech, Aditya Birla Nuvo and Idea Cellular will not make any investments in Aditya Birla Retail. The various holding companies in the group will be the promoters of Aditya Birla Retail, according to analysts. But investment details were not disclosed.

The company also plans to go it alone in the joint venture, as the group has the necessary competencies in-house, said Birla.
The supermarkets would be neighbourhood stores catering to daily and weekly household shopping needs of customers, while the destination hypermarkets would cater to monthly shoppers and event-based needs.

The company plans to build linkages with farmers and architect supply chains to connect households more directly to farmers, a statement said.
Back to News Review index page  

Tata Motors Q4 net up 26 pc
Mumbai: Tata Motors has registered a 26 per cent growth in Q4 net profit ended March 31, to Rs576.72 crore from Rs458.11 crore in the corresponding previous period. Sales of vehicles during the quarter rose 16 per cent to 172,355 units compared to 148,343 units in the corresponding previous period. Sales of commercial vehicles in the domestic market rose by 22 per cent, while passenger vehicles' sales increased 14 per cent.

For the year 2006-07, profit after tax rose 25 per cent to Rs1,913.46 crore from Rs1,528.88 crore in the corresponding previous period. Revenue (net of excise) grew 33 per cent to Rs27,535.24 crore (Rs20,653.49 crore). On a consolidated basis, net profit for the year increased to Rs2,169.99 crore (Rs1,728.09 crore), a growth of 26 per cent. This includes a foreign exchange gain of Rs60.20 crore. Net income rose 20 per cent to Rs8,267 crore (Rs6,869.65 crore). However, expenditure before income, tax and amortisation margins fell to 11.7 per cent (13 per cent) due to increase in input costs and interest rates and increased competition, said company sources. The board has decided to pay Rs15 dividend per share.

Senior officials said the company would continue to face margin pressure in the current year as inputs costs are expected to go up further.

The Tata Motors scrip fell by 1.07 per cent to close at Rs742.75 on the BSE on Friday.
Back to News Review index page  

Dr Reddy's setting up two SEZs
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) is setting up two special economic zones (SEZs) - one each at Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. One SEZ will be exclusively for active pharmaceutical ingredients, the second will be for other pharmaceutical products.

The company has a capital expenditure programme of $100 million (over Rs400 crore) said G V Prasad, vice-chairman and chief executive officer, DRL. He added that the company would continue its geographical expansion and also enhance its growth into oncology and bio-generic products.

Dr Reddy's would launch 10 new products in the current financial year.
Back to News Review index page  

Dhoot's bid for Daewoo fails
Seoul: The deal led by Videocon Industries to acquire South Korea's Daewoo Electronics for $750 mn has collapsed owing to disagreements over price and other payment issues, Daewoo's creditors said on Thursday.

Korea Asset Management Company, (Kamco) Daewoo's biggest creditor, and Woori Bank, which has led the sale, said creditors rejected Videocon's latest revised offer on May 7.

Kamco said (the Videocon consortium) asked for a big cut from the price offered in the memorandum of understanding, which could not be accepted. They said they were no longer in talks with the Indian consumer electronics company and were now focusing on restructuring Daewoo and returning it to profit ahead of a potential sale to alternative buyers.

A Woori official said: "The company's situation is deteriorating. We want to normalise its operations so that it can fetch a fair price later."

Creditors said they would not block Videocon from joining any future auction for the SouthKorean electronics company.

Daewoo has been run by creditors, who own 98 per cent of the company, since the Daewoo conglomerate collapsed with $80bn of debt in 1999. The company reported a net loss of Won183.5bn ($198m) last year, compared with a Won 79.7bn loss in 2005.
Back to News Review index page  

Danone-Britannia's Tiger dispute seen ending
Mumbai: Britannia Industries and French dairy giant Groupe Danone are said to coming to a country-specific royalty agreement to settle the intellectual property rights dispute over the use of Britannia's Tiger brand.

A company executive said the norms of royalty paid on brand use differ from country to country. Hence, the royalty percentage needs to be viable for the brand to be profitable in those countries.

Industry experts said the norm for royalty use in India is 5 per cent of sales.

For instance, if a foreign multinational permits its Indian operation to sell international brands in the local market, the Indian operation pays the brand-owner a percentage of sales as royalty for brand usage.

However, royalty percentage norms could differ in countries where the Tiger brand is sold, and hence having a uniform norm across countries might not be viable, the executive said.

In case of Britannia's Tiger, Danone currently uses the brand in five countries-Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan and Egypt. The brand is reportedly the market leader for biscuits in Asia.

In 1997, Danone registered the Tiger trademark on its own in 70 countries and received approvals in 35. But the board of Britannia Industries was reportedly unaware of the move till recently.
Back to News Review index page