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SRF plans to buy out Du Pont plant
New Delhi: SRF is in negotiations with
US chemicals company, E I Du Pont, for acquiring Du Pont's
nylon plant near Chennai.
Du Pont has acknowledged
that it is talking to various parties, both Indian and
foreign, to explore opportunities to work together. SRF
has also responded to queries on the same lines and confirmed
that Du Pont is one of the companies it is talking to.
SRF is a major player in
the nylon tyre cord segment with a total capacity of 40,000
tonnes per annum after its acquisition of the Ceat plant.
The Du Pont plant has a capacity of around 6,000 tonnes.
If the transaction takes place, SRF will be a predominant
player in the tyre cord market. Du Pont's nylon variety
has been the main competitor to the nylon manufactured
by SRF.
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Foreign
investors plan action against Essar
Mumbai: A group of foreign investors,
who have large exposure in the $250 million floating rate
notes of Essar Steel, are planning to initiate legal proceedings
against the Indian company.
The Economic Times,
in a report, said the creditors, who included some foreign
banks and investors with over a third of the total $250
million exposure, are planning to gather support to compel
Chase Manhattan Trustees, the trustee for the floating
rate notes, to issue a legal notice.
Foreign investors, the paper
said, hold roughly 84 per cent of the total issue, while
Indian banks hold around 16 per cent FRNs of Essar.
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Thapar
group plans holding company
New Delhi: The LM Thapar group has decided
to set up a holding company. This will be for the purpose
of channelling investments to its paper, chemicals, rayon
and food businesses.
The group has prepared a
blueprint for the restructuring. The proposals
include splitting the business of its flagship Ballarpur
Industries into white paper, industrial paper and folding
paperboard units.
The group has appointed
PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bansi Mehta to do an evaluation
of the pulp and industrial paper businesses.
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VSNL
plans JV with British Telecom
New Delhi: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd is
planning a joint venture with British Telecom for resale
of transit domestic and international traffic.
VSNL's acting chairman and
managing director Amitabh Kumar said VSNL is negotiating
with British Telecom and the venture will be announced
in four to five months.
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VSNL
funds not pledged to Agrani project
New Delhi: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd has
not committed any investments to the Agrani project of
Zee group chairman Subhash Chandra.
Acting chairman and managing
director of VSNL Amitabh Kumar told The Economic Times
that the company will invest $50 million in the project
only if Lockheed Martin invests $100 million.
Two world players in the
global mobile satellite communications -- Iridium and
ICO -- have filed bankruptcy petitions.
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IOC
divestment in January
New Delhi: The proposed disinvestment
of the government holding in Indian Oil Corporation is
expected to be made sometime in January 2000. There will
be a simultaneous issue of global depository receipts
and a domestic offering.
Indian Oil chairman and
managing director M.A. Pathan said the task force set
up for the purpose is yet to take a decision in the matter.
The issue is expected to hit the market by January.
The government plans to
divest around 10 per cent of its equity in the oil major.
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Hindustan
Motors' appeals
Calcutta: Hindustan Motors has filed
a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court challenging
the order of the industrial tribunal of West Bengal, which
had dismissed the company's proposal to lay off its Uttarpara
employees for three days a week.
The tribunal had said there
was allegedly insufficient merit in the company's proposal
seeking layoff.
The company has also challenged
the state government's action in referring the matter
to the tribunal for adjudication.
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Airline
reservation companies agree to make interim tax payment
Bangalore: Sabre and Galileo, the two
global airline computer reservation system companies,
have agreed to pay about 20 per cent of the demand made
by the Indian tax authorities. The income tax department
has made a claim of about Rs 700 crore on these companies.
Airline sources said the
companies plan to meet the chief commissioner of income
tax to present their appeal against the tax demand, which
was raised with retrospective effect from 1994-95. A third
company, Abacus, says the claim does not apply to it as
it has posted losses during that period.
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Marigold
to invest in Trigent Software
Mumbai: Marigold Capital Management Ltd
is investing $1 million as venture capital in Trigent
Software, a Bangalore-based software company that provides
both offshore and onsite solutions in e-business, application
development, maintenance, migration, porting, and euro
conversion.
With this investment, Trigent
plans to make a strategic entry into the Japanese and
European markets while consolidating its presence in the
US. It has its marketing headquarters in Southborough,
Massachusetts, where it has a wholly owned subsidiary,
Trigent Software Inc. In India, it has over 25,000 sq.
ft. of development facility at Bangalore, with over 150
software professionals.
Rattan Joneja, chief executive
officer, Marigold Capital Management, told domain-B: "Trigent has impressed us with its strong
commitment to quality and its methodology. It is an ideal
investment for us as it is past ramp-up stage and ready
to take off."
Bharat Khatau, chairman
and managing director of Trigent, said his company intends
to develop a strong presence worldwide, leveraging on
its core strengths of delivering high quality software
and services.
Marigold is a two-year-old
Bombay-based venture capital investment and asset management
company, with interests in infotech and consumer goods
companies.
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FIs
hand over hospital to Sankara Mutt
Chennai: ICICI and Industrial Development
Bank of India have handed over the 200-bed Children's
Health Institute, Laboratory and Diagnostic Services to
Sankara Mutt of Kanchi. Children's Health Institute owed
Rs 14.5 crore to the financial institutions. The institutions
have chosen the Sankara Mutt ahead of the Apollo Hospitals,
Ramachandra Medical College and the Sankara Netralaya.
The Sankara Mutt has paid Rs 5.3 crore towards the principal
loan amount with the interest payment to be settled towards
the year-end. The dues have been adjusted by the institutions
at Rs 9.5 crore.
The Sankaracharya has appointed Mumbai-based educationist
V. Shankar (formerly promoter-director of Croslands Laboratories
and a director on the Ranbaxy board) as chairman of the
hospital. Other trustees include industrialist K. Badrinarayan
and Spic's vice-chairman A.C. Muthiah.
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Sri
Adhikari Bros to launch Hindi channel
Mumbai: Sri Adhikari Brothers Television
Network is launching its Hindi entertainment channel,
Sabe TV, in January 2000. The project will have a capital
outlay of around Rs 130 crore.
The new channel will be
operated as a fully-owned subsidiary.
The company will expand
its equity base from the present Rs 7.5 crore. It is also
expected to offer around 15 per cent of the total equity
for private placement at a premium.
KPMG is the consultant for
the company.
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TI
to shift focus to design
Chennai: Tube Investments of India, part
of the Murugappa group, will shift focus from being a
manufacturing organisation to a knowledge-intensive company.
Company chairman M.V.
Subbiah, says the focus will be on developing a knowledge
product. "We will be close to the customer and concentrate
more on design capability," he said while speaking
at the company's golden jubilee celebration function.
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Tata
moots Asian car project
Pune: Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Engineering
and Locomotive Company, has suggested a project
to build an Asian car by joining hands with neighbouring
countries.
"India cannot be our
boundary," Mr Tata said at the 39th annual
national conference of the Automotive Component Manufacturers
Association of India. He said, "we can do it provided
we change".
He said the Asian car will
be a challenge and opportunity for the auto components
industry as it will be a partner in the project.
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Indica
sent overseas for evaluation
Pune: The Tata Engineering and Locomotive
Company's small car Indica has been sent overseas for
market evaluation. The car is being test-driven in the
US and South American countries.
Telco expects that Chrysler
may be interested in the car to fill in the gap for the
carmaker's B class or upper end of the small car segment.
Initial evaluation reports
from Detroit, sources said, are positive.
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Mobile
card from Essar
New Delhi: Essar Cellphone, cellular
service provider in Delhi, has launched the First Mobile
card with an airtime offer.
A subscriber availing of
the scheme can get the card for Rs 1,000, which will include
airtime of Rs 900. The card can be used till 15 November.
Calls on this card will be charged at Rs 12 per minute
and there will be no activation and supplementary fee.
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IDBI
to sell Raasi shares to India Cements
Mumbai: The Industrial Development Bank
of India has agreed to sell 1,68,926 shares of Raasi Cements
at Rs 300 per share to two investment companies belonging
to India Cements - Sowdambika Finance and Investments
and Sivassundar Finance and Investments. The sale is as
per an agreement for sale of these shares (outside the
public offer made by India Cements).
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Ajanta
Pharma gets S. African patent
Mumbai: Ajanta Pharma has been awarded
the South African patent for product and process of carotenoids
and micronutrients. The company has recently launched
Carofit, an antioxidant with natural carotenoids and micronutrients.
The company said that it
has conducted clinical and safety trials for the product
and that post-marketing surveillance is in progress.
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Swagelok
plans India hub
Mumbai:
Swagelok Company, the $1 billion US company engaged in
fluid system components, is planing to make India a base
for its Asia operations.
The company has launched
its marketing operations in the country and has opened
four sales outlets in Mumbai, Vadodara, Bangalore and
Delhi. An additional centre is being planned at Calcutta.
Swagelok manufactures and
markets tube fittings, quick connects, valves, high-performance
process instrumentation, ball valves, tube welding systems,
and face seals, which have applications in oil and gas,
power generation, semiconductor, chemicals, pharmaceuticals
and biotechnology.
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Unilever
cutting down brands
Amsterdam:
Multinational consumer goods major Unilever is
pruning its brands. Chairman Antony Burgmans said some
1000 brands worldwide, which account for only 8 per cent
of its turnover, will be retired.
He said the exercise
will be a massive operation. Over the past 15 years, the
company has tightened its focus on on core areas. The
plan to cut down the brands, which is seen taking three
to five years, is a logical extension of that strategy,
he said.
The group has plans to enter
the functional food area, following the development of
its cholesterol cutting margarine, marketed as Take Control
in the US.
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Banks
to take charge of 3 Daewoo units
Seoul:
Korean banks will directly run three of the 12 Daewoo
group companies put under a debt-rescheduling programme.
The decision was made public
by the Financial Supervisory Commission, the South Korean
regulator, after a meeting of major local creditors of
the ailing group.
The commission and the banks
have decided to put the three companies under management
by banks after taking into account their scale and importance,
the commission's spokesman Kim Young-jae said. The three
companies are Daewoo Heavy Industries, Daewoo Telecom
and Daewoo Electronics.
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Seiko
Epson plans subsidiary in India
Tokyo:
Seiko Epson Corporation has decided to set up a 100 per
cent subsidiary in India. The company is operating in
India as a marketing and servicing subsidiary at present.
It sells printers, computers, scanners and multimedia
projects.
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Vodafone
in talks with Bell Atlantic
London: Vodafone Airtouch, world's largest
mobile phone group, said it is talking to Bell Atlantic
about linking up their US mobile networks to cover the
whole of the US.
Vodafone has a strong presence
in the western US states, following its takeover in January
1999 of Airtouch. Bell is strong in the east. There is
little overlap between their markets.
The relationship, conceived
possibly as a joint venture, will create a countrywide
network with which both the companies intend to take on
national rivals.
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Samsung
aims to be No 3 in GSM phone market
Sydney: Samsung Electronics Company says
it will boost its share of the worldwide market for global
satellite mobile phones to make it No 3 in the industry
within three years.
The company intends to be
next to Nokia and Ericsson, says Shin Jung-soo, managing
director of Samsung Electronics Australia. He said Samsung
currently has five per cent of the global GSM market,
compared with its dominant 29 per cent share of the market
in the rival CDMA technology.
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Hyundai
officials questioned
Seoul: South Korean authorities are questioning
the head of the Hyundai Heavy Industries Company in connection
with an investigation into alleged stock price manipulation.
Two other Hyundai senior
executives are also expected to be questioned.
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