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Chase takes stake in planetasia.com
Mumbai: Chase Capital Partners has taken a 26.02 per cent stake in planetasia.com for Rs 9.81 crore.

The Economic Times, in a report, said the investment hikes equity in the web services start-up of Bangalore-based Microland Ltd, promoted by Pradeep Kar from Rs 3.10 crore to Rs 4.19 crore.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has approved the investment. The investment will reduce the stakes of Microland and ICICI Venture Fund in planetasia.com to 35.14 each from 47.5 per cent each earlier. Mr Kar and employees together held 5 per cent equity in the company, which will now stand reduced to 3.70 per cent.
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Tatas may drop Tetley acquisition plan
Mumbai: The Tata group, which was very keen on acquiring the London-based international packaged tea brand Tetley, may now drop the proposal. The group is not willing to hike its offer beyond the 270 million pounds that it had quoted earlier.

Business Standard in a report says the present owner of the brand, Schroders Pvt Equity Fund, is seeking a price of 300 million pounds. Schroders seems to be on a strong wicket as there are at least two other bidders, Sara Lee, which had offered a price of 200 million pounds, and Nestle, whose offer price is not known.
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Indian company complains against Kodak
New Delhi: Stovec Industries of Mumbai has, in a letter to the industry ministry, alleged that Kodak Polychrome Graphics, a joint venture between Eastman Kodak Company and Sun Chemical Corporation of the US, has contravened government policy by trying to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary without obtaining prior consent from the Indian joint venture partner.

Stovec says the multinational has sought the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's approval to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary for manufacturing graphic films and printing plates without the Indian partner's knowledge or prior consent.

Stovec had a technical collaboration with Polychrome Corporation, a division of Sun Chemicals, for manufacture of pre-sensitised lithographic printing plates. The company could not, however stabilise its production and in 1997, Sun Chemicals formed a new joint venture with Eastman Kodak Company, Kodak Polychrome Graphics India, and Polychrome Corporation, the original joint venture partner of Stovec, was merged into Kodak Polychrome. Stovec states in its letter to the ministry that Kodak Polychrome as successor to the original joint venture partner of Polychrome Corporation, continues to be a joint venture partner.
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Tech Pacific to acquire majority stake in Godrej Pacific
Mumbai: Tech Pacific of Australia is all set to acquire a majority stake in Godrej Pacific Technology, a joint venture project of the Jamshed Godrej group.

Godrej Pacific has an equity capital of Rs 28 crore and each partner currently holds 50 per cent in the venture, the fifth largest information technology hardware marketing company in India.

However, the company's chief executive officer Shailendra Gupta, has denied the development.

The company is targeting a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore in 1999-2000.
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Hindustan Lever to get patent for Annapurna salt
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever will obtain a patent for the production process of Kissan Annapurna salt in 120 countries. The company claims that the salt is made in such a way that the iodine content is not lost even after cooking. The company is planning to export the salt through its worldwide marketing network.
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Declare Piaggio unfit, LML tells CLB
New Delhi: LML Ltd has told the Company Law Board that it should declare the Italian company Piaggio unfit to do business in India.

In its reply to Piaggio's petition seeking removal of Deepak Singhania as managing director, LML says it is seeking this remedy because of the obstructive and wrongful conduct of Piaggio over the last 17 years characterised by breaches and defaults of its obligations and commitments. The foreign ally should be given no say in the management of the joint venture, LML has pleaded with the Company Law Board.
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PowerGen to invest Rs 2,000 cr in power projects
Mumbai: PowerGen India says it is finalising plans to invest up to Rs 2,000 crore in the equity capital of various power projects in Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The Indian arm of the 2.34-billion UK power major says it is also planning to enter the transmission and distribution sector.

PowerGen has increased its stake in Gujarat Torrent Energy Corporation, has a 74 per cent stake in Spic group's Tamil Nadu Petroproducts, and is an equity partner in the Bina Power Supply Company, a venture of the AV Birla group.
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ISPG to have stake in Albright Wilson
Mumbai: ISPG Ltd, a subsidiary of Donau Chemie of Austria, is acquiring a 27 per cent stake in Albright Wilson Chemicals India.

The UK-based ISPG is acquiring the stake through an open offer for 9.18 lakh equity shares at a price of Rs 240 per share. Albright Wilson shares are quoted in the market at around Rs 261.

ISPG is understood to be in the process of acquiring 96 per cent of the total capital of Albright & Wilson plc, the parent company of Albright Wilson Chemicals India.
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Coca-Cola takes over Pune bottling unit
Pune: Coca-Cola has taken over the marketing and distribution of one of its franchisee bottlers, Poona Bottling, as a prelude to taking over the bottling operations by the end of the year. The acquisition has been done through Hindusthan Bottling South West Pvt Ltd, a venture of Hindusthan Coca-Cola Holdings, which in turn is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola South Asia Holdings.
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Jet Airways plans 8 new routes
New Delhi: Jet Airways will be adding eight new stations to its route network in the next 10 months. The routes will be covered by an ATR-72 turboprop fleet.

Saroj K. Datta, acting chief executive of Jet Airways, says in1999-2000 the airlines will expand its routes through ATRs and not through its jet fleet. The company will induct five ATR-72s in October, and the new hinterland stations that will be connected with the 64-seater aircraft are Keshod, Bhavnagar, and Porbunder in Gujarat, Belgaum in Karnataka and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Udaipr in Rajasthan, and   Chandigarh.
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Sahara to have separate unit for short-haul routes
Mumbai: Sahara Airlines plans to add short-haul routes, which will be handled by a new division of the company, Sahara Connect. The services on these routes will be operated with 12 Embraer aircraft to be leased from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.

The 30-seater aircraft will be operated on routes like Mumbai-Nagpur, Calcutta-Darjeeling, Chennai-Coimbatore and Delhi-Amritsar.
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Wockhardt split approved
Mumbai: Wockhardt's board has approved a scheme to split the company into two with existing shareholders and global depository receipt holders entitled to shares in the second company in the ratio of 1:1.

The two companies are expected to be incorporated and made functional by January 2000.

While Wockhardt will retain the pharmaceutical business, the new company, Wockhardt Life Sciences, will operate in agriscience, intravenous fluids and hospitals areas.
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Titan to stop making Tanishq range
Bangalore: Titan Industries will pull out its Tanishq range of watches, which are jewellery items.

The company is coming out with a new range called Nebula, and digital watches under the FasTrack brand name. The digital range will hit the market in September and priced at around Rs 700-1,200. There will be 20 models. The company will outsource the manufacture of the watches.

Titan recently launched the Dash range of watches for children.
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M & M buys back FCCBs
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra has bought back foreign currency convertible bonds worth $16 million in the first quarter of the current financial year. The FCCBs were bought at around $96.5 per bond.

The company had raised funds through FCCBs in 1996 and this is the first buy back. The company's foreign debt obligations have come down to just over $80 million at the end of the first quarter.
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Mallya firm drops acquisition plan
Bangalore: Ubics Inc, the Nasdaq-listed software company of Vijay Mallya's UB group, has called off its plans to acquire R Systems of California. The deal has been called off due to problems discovered at the due diligence stage, UB officials said.

UB group had announced in March 1999 that Ubics had executed a definitive agreement with R Systems to acquire all the outstanding stock of the company.
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Reckitt & Colman, Benckiser to merge
London: Britain's Reckitt & Colman and Dutch Benckiser are to merge and form a world leader in household cleaning products. The tie-up will to give Reckitt & Colman shareholders 59.1 per cent of the new group and Benckiser shareholders 40.9 per cent.

The merged entity will have a market capitalisation of 4.9 billion, and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The business of the group will be in the range of 2 billion, which  will surpass Unilever's 1.6 billion in this line. The deal involves exchange of five new Reckitt & Colman shares for each Benckiser share.

Benckiser's Bart Becht will be the chief executive officer of the company.

The global merger is not likely to have any impact on Reckitt & Colman India's operations. The Rs 440-crore Reckitt & Colman India is a leader in the Indian market in various brands. Benckiser has no presence in South Asia.
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BT in control of Cellnet
London: British Telecom is taking full control of the mobile phone company Cellnet after agreeing to buying the outstanding 40 per cent from Securicor for $5.02 billion.

The deal will enable Securicor to concentrate on its core businesses of cash collection and overnight parcel delivery, while British Telecom will get the ownership of the second biggest mobile phones group in Britain.

British Telecom is facing bitter competition in the UK mobile market from Vodafone, which had merged with its US counterpart AirTouch to become the world's biggest cellphone company.
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Daewoo creditors take control of restructuring
Seoul: The Daewoo group's creditors have taken control of the restructuring programme of the cash-strapped group. The action, analysts say, has reassured the markets, which are on the brink of a collapse.

Kim Young-jae, chief spokesman of the Korea's Financial Supervisory Commission, said the era of Daewoo-initiated restructuring has passed. The restructuring will be turned over to the group's creditors, he confirmed.

Creditors have given some $3.3 billion in cash to the ailing conglomerate and have agreed to extend the maturities of its bonds and commercial paper in return for collateral from Daewoo and its founding chairman.
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Dell offers free internet services with PCs
New York: Dell Computer of the US says it will offer a full-featured consumer personal computer with a year's free Internet services at $959.

The new Dell home PC offer comes with a year's access to the company's Dellnet internet service for US consumers. The PCs have an Intel Celeron 400 megahertz computer chip, a keyboard, monitor, MS Windows 98 and Works application software with a three-year warranty and online technical support.
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domain - B : Indian business : News Review : 28 July 1999 : companies