Fiat increases stake in Ind-Auto
Mumbai: Fiat is increasing its stake in its Indian joint venture Ind-Auto Limited from 51 per cent to 76 per cent. Fiat's wholly-owned subsidiary, and its holding company in India, Fiat India Automobiles will make the investment to increase the stake.

With the Italian company thus securing virtual control of the Indian venture, Maitreya Doshi, the present managing director, will step down in favour of   G.M. Ravina, who is currently executive director. 

The joint venture will be known as Fiat Indauto and will handle the entire car manufacturing activities, including Fiat's world car project, Project 178, which envisages developing cars on a common platform with several variants including the Palio and the Siena.

The new board of Fiat Indauto will comprise Vinod Doshi as non-executive chairman. Mr Maitreya Doshi will be a whole-time director.
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Zen Classic in market
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog has introduced its Zen Classic model in the market.

The Zen range now comprises Zen LX, the entry-level car, the Zen VX, the Zen Classic, the Zen Automatic and the Zen diesel.

The classic model is priced at Rs 3.64 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). While its Zen LX is priced at Rs 2.89 lakh, the Zen VX is priced at Rs 3.39 and Zen AT at Rs 4.18 lakh.

The Zen Classic has different features internally and externally. These include a new dashboard with wood-finished louvers and a different speedometer panel. The interiors have a leather finish. It also has body-coloured bumpers and a round headlamp and tail lamps.
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Car sales go up
New Delhi: The passenger car segment has recorded a growth of 44 per cent in July 1999 with car sales aggregating 54,640 units, up from 37,950 units in the same period last year. According to data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

Sales of commercial vehicles too have gone up to 10,869 units, up from 9,836 units in the corresponding month last year.
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GE Capital takes stake in Birlasoft
Bangalore: GE Capital has taken equity in the New Delhi-based Birlasoft, a CK. Birla group software development and consulting company.

C.K. Birla, chairman of the group, said the group has given its software business a renewed thrust and focus. "The equity placement from GE Capital is an acceptance of the strengths of Birlasoft and reiteration of the future they see in the company. We are pleased to have GE Capital as our partners in our plans to grow into a $200 million company in the next five years," Mr Birla said.
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ICICI revises ESOS share price
Mumbai: ICICI has revised the exercise price on the proposed Employee stock option scheme to Rs 85.55 from the earlier Rs 43.80. The employees who have been offered the company's shares as a reward for their performance can now exercise that option.

The decision has been taken by the board of ICICI.
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FMCG companies' sales down
Mumbai: Large fast moving consumer goods companies have registered a slowdown in their sales in the last two years, a study by The Economic Times Research Bureau has sown.

Sales of seven large FMCG companies -- Nestle, Marico, Britannia, Cadbury's SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, Reckitt & Colman and Colgate -- slowed down from an average of over 20 per cent in 1996 to about just 13 per cent in 1998, the study revealed.

Hindustan Lever has been left out this study as the company amalgamated with other companies in the fold, making a comparison not possible.

The sales slowdown has been offset by improvement in net profits of these companies, the study said.
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Nicholas Piramal launches Roche product
Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India has launched CellCept, an immunosuppressant drug to prevent kidney rejection in transplant patients.

The company will be sole distributors for CellCept and will source the product from Roche headquarters in Basle, Switzerland.
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SAIL not to pay bonus to executives
New Delhi: Steel Authority of India has decided to hold back ex-gratia payments to executives during the festival season.

The heads of all steel plants and units have also been directed to shortlist people whose services can be dispensed with.

The steel major has not taken any decision on payment of bonus to non-executive workers. The company is burdened with an annual outgo of Rs 2,000 crore on interest and a shortfall of Rs 400 crore.
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IA plans more fare cuts to increase marketshare
New Delhi: Indian Airlines is aiming to push its market share to 70 per cent nationwide by the end of the financial year 1999-2000 mainly through an aggressive fare war and promotional scheme.

At present the airline has a market share of 64 to 65 per cent.

The airline is now contemplating to cut fares on the Mumbai-Bangalore and Mumbai-Chennai routes.
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BSES set for net foray
Mumbai: BSES TeleCom, a subsidiary of power utility BSES, is set to launch internet services in Mumbai soon.

BSES TeleCom said it is planning to have some 25,000 customers in the first year of operations, which will rise to over one lakh customers in five years.

The company said it has received the department of telecommunications licence in February and it would like to go national with bases elsewhere.

In the beginning, the company intends to provide all the basic services like web browsing, e-mail, chat and news services. Later it will expand the portfolio to include e-commerce, media streaming, virtual private networks and data base applications.
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BSES prepays debt
Mumbai: BSES says it has pre-paid its entire outstanding to Indian financial institutions with latest payment of Rs 38.50 crore. The company had availed of a term loan of Rs 110 crore from a consortium of financial institutions for part-financing its 500 MW Dahanu power project.
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VSNL introduces new net cable system
Mumbai: Videsh Sanchar Nigam announced the commissioning of its 45 mbps of internet capacity through the "fibre optic link around the globe" cable system.

The capacity has been commissioned with Teleglobe terminating in the US.

The total internet bandwidth from India will thus go up to 165 mbps. This will reduce the delays to 200 milli-seconds from the current 800 milliseconds. The link will also be the single largest one to be commissioned out of India.
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IL&FS wants Thapars' houses attached
Mumbai: Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services has moved the Delhi high court against the Thapar group's JCT for non-payment of loan and interest. It has decided to invoke the personal guarantee JCT chairman M.M. Thapar and his son Samir Thapar provided and has approached the court for attachment of their houses in Delhi and farm house near the capital.

The Thapars had taken a loan from IL&FS against the personal guarantee for funding the capital expenditure of JCT. As on 31 March 1999, JCT has defaulted in payment of principal amount of Rs 25 crore and interest of Rs 12.33 crore, IL&FS sources said.
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IDBI loan for Hindustan Copper
New Delhi: Loss-making Hindustan Copper has persuaded the Industrial Development Bank of India to extend a working capital loan of Rs 75 crore on the strength of a government guarantee.

The loan will be sufficient to meet the working capital needs of the company in 1998-99. It will be released in two tranches. The loan carries an interest of 16 per cent for a period of six years.
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Tata Electric acquires ACC power plant
Bangalore: Tata Electric Companies has acquired a captive power plant from Associated Cement Companies for Rs 90 crore. The plant is situated at Wadi in Karnataka.

This will be Tata Electric Companies' second plant in Karnataka. It already has a 76.8 MW naphtha-based power project in Belgaum.
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FIs to fund Jindals for acquisition
Bellary: Industrial Development Bank of India and ICICI have agreed in principle to provide warehousing facilities to Jindal Vijayanagar Steel to buy out the 50 per cent stake held by Tractabel in Jindal Tractabel Power.

The company is a 50:50 joint venture between Jindal Vijayanagar Steel and Belgium-based Tractabel. Sources said the Jindals will pledge the shares acquired with the financial institutions in return for the money to fund the acquisition. The financial institutions can sell the shares to another company.
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Alstom to take majority stake in Modi venture
New Delhi: Alstom Engines UK, is buying the majority stake in the Vinay Kumar Modi-controlled Modi Mirrlees Blackstone, a company manufacturing specialised diesel generating sets, motors and generators.

Alstom Engines will pick up 51. 47 per cent equity in the company for Rs 10 per share.

In the second state it will hike its share to 75 per cent within one year by a combination of acquiring shares of Modi Rubber and allotment of shares through a preferential issue.

The proposal has been cleared by the Foreign Investments Promotion Board.
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CG CoreEl formed
Pune: Crompton Greaves and CoreEl group of the US have floated a new company, CG CoreEl Programmable Solutions. The new company will manufacture programmable logic chip market, which has a world market of $2 billion per annum.
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Escorts Yamaha stops moped output
New Delhi: Escorts Yamaha Motor has stopped production of mopeds. It has shelved two brands due to lack of demand. The company will now concentrate on its motorcycles.

The company has been producing Toro Jazz and Toro Rosa models. These will no more be available, a company source said.
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GM plans R&D venture in Canada
Toronto: General Motors of Canada, in partnership with the Canadian and Ontario governments, will announce a five-year, C$1 billion investment in a research and development site in Oshawa, Ontario.

The investment, with funds from federal and provincial governments, will enable the wholly-owned unit of General Motors to develop new applications in robotics, automation and quality control, A Toronto newspaper reported.
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Carolina Power to acquire Florida Progress
New York: Carolina Power & Light Company, the second largest utility in North Carolina, agreed to buy Florida Progress Corporation for $5.3 billion in cash a stock, thus creating the ninth largest US energy utility.

The deal will roughly double Carolina Power's customer base, giving it 1.3 billion new customers in Florida.

The company said the acquisition will enable it to cut costs and boost earnings and revenues, making it more competitive against rivals like Duke Energy Corporation, which has two million customers in the Carolinas.
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German banks plan merger of retail operations
Frankfurt: Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank plan to merge their retail banking operations. But the rivals in the German banking sector said they are also looking at other consolidation options within the banking sector.

Analysts say such a merger will make sense in the light of mounting pressure on margins in German retail sector dominate by public savings banks and heavy overlap between banks' retail networks.
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