Pfizer stymied as all B-complex preparations under price ceiling
Mumbai: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has brought all vitamin B complex capsules and tablets under the price ceiling. The new enactment will cover some 100 brands, including Pfizer's proposed Becosules Plus, being introduced to beat the earlier price regulation on the company's Becosules.

The notification issued on 26 August lists a range of formulations and says that the regulations are also applicable to formulations not specified. It includes how much increase is allowed depending on the degree of variance of the product's composition with that mentioned in the notification.

The notification says in the case of Becosules-like formulations, the price is Rs 9.12 per strip of ten, compared with the older price of Rs 7.90 per strip of ten.

Becosules is Pfizer's biggest brand.
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Reliance Petro pre-pays IFCI loans
New Delhi: Reliance Petroleum has pre-paid loans of nearly Rs 500 crore to the Industrial Finance Corporation of India, which covers its entire borrowings from the institution. The company has financed the prepayment through borrowings from domestic banks at competitive rates, lower by at least three percentage points than IFCI's rate.

Company sources said it will make total savings of about Rs 125 crore because of the prepayment.
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Spencer to have JV with Dairy Farm
Calcutta: Spencer & Company, an RPG group food retail firm, has finalised a joint venture with Dairy Farm International to operate a chain of supermarkets in India under the brandname 'Foodworld'.

Dairy Farm will invest $6 million, to take a 49 per cent stake in the joint venture. Spencer will hold the majority 51 per cent. Dairy Farm is a leading food and drug retailer in the Asia-Pacific region and runs some 1,800 stores in nine countries.

The joint venture will immediately acquire the supermarkets run by Spencer in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company plans to have at least 50 outlets by 2000.
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Gramophone will be a brand
Calcutta: RPG group's The Gramophone Company of India is going to have a new brand, Gramophone. This will be a parallel brand to HMV, the Indian rights of which the company has acquired through a 25-year agreement with EMI of UK.

Gramophone will cater to a new and different segment of music and special products like live recordings. This will be part of the RPG group's strategy to operate with multiple brands.
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Spic firm's default affects IDBI, ICICI
Mumbai: German export credit agency KFW has invoked guarantees issued by the Industrial Development Bank of India and ICICI against loans provided to the M A Chidambaram group's Southern Petrochemicals.

IDBI has guaranteed loans worth DM 120.598 million and ICICI for DM 21.282 million -- together an equivalent of Rs 897 crore. The company has borrowed from several international firms including KFW, Barclays Bank and State Bank of India, Frankfurt.

It had asked KFW to reschedule the loan, but the agency wanted the financial institutions to guarantee the higher interest. ICICI had declined and had suggested repayment of the loan and subsequent conversion into a rupee loan. KFW had invoked the guarantees of IDBI and ICICI in early 1999 and IDBI has made a principal payment of Rs 55.06 crore and interest payment of Rs 9.83 crore.
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Konka cuts TV prices
New Delhi: Konka, the Chinese consumer electronics company, has reduced the prices of its colour televisions within a month of their launch in India.

The company had talked about low prices for its colour TVs, but when it launched it harped on quality, and the prices of its TVs were not significantly lower than those of others. Now the company has been forced to reduce the prices by about Rs 1,000 per set as the response to its models has not been very encouraging.

The company expects to sell about 11,000 units by the end of the month.
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Apollo Hospitals plans healthcare service
Chennai: Apollo Hospitals' 100 per cent subsidiary, Unique Home Health Care, is planning to set up healthcare units in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad.

The company is planning to launch a membership-based healthcare scheme. The service will be available at a membership fee of Rs 1,000 for life for a family of six or less. It will include medical consultation by specialists, laboratory tests, ECG, X-ray, and ultrasound scan, physiotherapy and antibiotic therapy, and will be charged per head on a usage basis.

The company intends to use the existing infrastructure of Apollo Hospitals for the scheme.
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Champavats having second thoughts on KIFL stake purchase
Bangalore: The Ahmedabad-based Champavat group is said to be having second thoughts on buying the 14 per cent stake in Kirloskar Investments and Finance from Vijay Kirloskar. So far, there has been no confirmation from the group about the purchase.

Neither the Reserve Bank of India nor the Bangalore Stock Exchange has received intimation about the transfer. The company's assets have been frozen and it can neither renew existing deposits nor accept new ones. Some of the depositors are also planning to approach the Company Law Board for redressal. These developments seem to be acting as a deterrent for the Champavats.
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Switcher T-shirts launched
Bangalore: The Switcher brand of knitwear has been launched in Bangalore. Switcher is manufactured by Mabrouc of Switzerland. It has an 80 per cent share in printed T-shirts market in Switzerland.

The brand comes in an array of colours and includes T-shirts, polos, shorts sand tops. The products are priced between Rs 145 and Rs 395.
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Tetragon plans JV with Provimi of Holland
Bangalore: Tetragon Chemie, an animal healthcare company, will enter into a joint venture with Provimi of Holland.

Tetragon manufactures Vetcare and Petcare products. The new joint venture will give it better access to technologies, and help the proper positioning of Tetragon products globally, says Tetragon's managing director Bharat Tandon.

Provimi is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eridania Behin-Say, an agro-industiral group with diversified businesses.
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Rain Calcining closes down plant
Visakhapatnam: Rain Calcining, a calcined petroleum coke manufacturer, has closed down its plant due to a major breakdown of its turbine. A 100 per cent export-oriented unit, the company produces calcined petroleum coke and generates 49 MW of power from its co-generation plant.

The plant is expected to be non-operational for at least two months.
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Open auction sought for IPCL divestment
New Delhi: Reliance, Dow Chem and Shell, bidding for the 25 per cent stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation that the government has offered, have sought an open auction instead of the closed bid process for the privtaisation of the company. Indian Oil Corporation is the fourth bidder for the stake.

Sources said both the finance and fertilisers ministries have favoured the suggestion as auctioning is an international practice.
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L&T plans new units
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro plans to set up two subsidiaries for power and infrastructure projects. While addressing the shareholders of the company at the annual general meeting, its chief executive officer A.M. Naik  said the new subsidiaries are planned to leverage financial resources.

The company will also set up "world-class capabilities" in identified thrust areas such as engineering and construction, cement, electricals, construction equipment and information and technology, Mr Naik said.
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Bhel not able to match ABB price
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals has said it will not be in a position to match ABB's price for the boiler plant of National Thermal Power Corporation's 2000 MW Talcher power project. NTPC had awarded the contract to Bhel under controversial circumstances even as ABB's bid was considerably lower.

Bhel has said NTPC's request to match ABB's price is not in line with its offer. The price quoted by Bhel in the revised proposal was around Rs 1,382 crore, while ABB had offered to undertake the work for Rs 1,302 crore.
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Aces International to be partner for Shyam
New Delhi: Aces International, a company co-promoted by Lockheed Martin, will be the new ally of the Shyam group's satellite telephony venture, Shyam Aces India. Aces International replaces PT Asia Cellular Satellite (PT Aces) of Indonesia.

This will be Lockheed Martin's second association in India for the global mobile personal communication systems project. It has a 13 per cent stake in ASC Enterprises of Subhash Chandra of Zee TV.

Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications has picked up a 30 per cent stake in PT Aces, the Indonesian joint venture, promoted by Philippines Long Distance Telecommunications, Jasmine Telecommunications of Thailand and Pacific Satellite Limited of Indonesia. PT Aces has been converted into Aces International and is registered in Bermuda.

The Shyam group of companies will have 51 per cent stake in Shyam Aces India. The rest of the equity will be held by Aces International.
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ICICI Venture invests in Pizza Corner
Bangalore: ICICI Venture has picked up a 33 per cent stake in Pizza Corner India by investing Rs 16 crore in the company. With that, Pizza Corner's equity has expanded to Rs 22.98 crore.

Earlier, Global Investment Partners, a Geneva-based private venture capital fund, held nearly 90 per cent of Pizza Corner.
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Petronet, Shriram group company sign MoU
Mumbai: Petronet has signed a memorandum of understanding with DCM Shriram Consolidated for supply of 0.75 million standard cubic metres of liquefied natural gas per day to the Shriram's urea plant at Kota in Rajasthan.

The gas will be supplied from Petronet's proposed LNG import terminal at Dahej in Gujarat.
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Cisco, UNDP in tie-up for internet education
Singapore: Cisco Systems and the United Nations Development Programme have formed a partnership to bring internet education to students from developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Under the alliance, Cisco, the world's largest networking equipment manufacturer and UNDP will jointly fund and set up 10 Cisco networking academies in nine developing world countries. The project will provide training in information technology.

The countries to be covered are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka.
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Asarco, Cyprus want higher Phelps offer
New York: Asarco and Cyprus Amax Minerals said they have opened the door to a three-way merger with Phelps Dodge. The two copper firms said they wanted the unsolicited buyer to raise its all-stock offer for both companies to $3.3 billion from $2.5 billion.

New York-based Asarco and Denver, Colorado-based Cyprus, which had announced their own merger plan, said they would sit down at the negotiating table if Phelps Dodge agreed to the new terms.
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Rolls-Royce secures record order
London: Rolls-Royce says it has secured a $1 billion order to supply gas turbines for four super fast US ships. This is the biggest marine engine deal to date.

The company, whose engines are used by 30 navies around the world, said its new marine engine deal with US company Fastship is a step forward in the commercial marine sector.

The Philadelphia-based Fastship will contract 25 marine Trent gas turbines, five on each vessel and five spares along with a 20-year support deal throughout the life of each engine.
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VA Technologie buys Kvaerner unit
Vienna: VA Technologie has bought  Anglo-Norwegian firm Kvaerner's metallurgical plant.

VA Tech has paid 31 million euros for Kvaerner Metals Equipment, plus 23 million euros estimated by the Kvaerner management to cover cash settlement and changes in net assets.
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