Alpha Drugs being referred to BIFR
Mumbai: Alpha Drugs (India), a subsidiary of Dutch company DSM, is being referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Restructuring under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provision) Act. The company's accumulated losses on 31 March 1999 exceeded 50 per cent of its net worth during the immediately preceding four financial years, a condition necessary for referral to BIFR.

DSM has a 51 per cent stake in Alpha Drugs, which makes bulk drugs and intermediates for semi-synthetic antibiotics, trimethoprim, TMBA and Dane's Salt.

The company has attributed the erosion in net worth mainly to failure of the government to make duty adjustments as promised at the time of setting up of the project and the dumping of TMBA, one of its core products, by Chinese producers.
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Rollatainers plans expansion
New Delhi: Rollatainers, a company recently acquired by ITC, is planning to double the combined turnover of its packaging business and that of ITC to Rs 1,000 crore in five years. Rollatainers has a debt-equity ratio of 2:1.

Ambrish Bhargava, managing director of the company, said with funds available from ITC, Rollatainers will upgrade technology, reduce costs, export technology and set up manufacturing facilities for sophisticated packaging formats.
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Hindustan Petroleum bonus issue
Mumbai: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's shareholders have approved the proposal to issue bonus shares in the ratio of 1:2. The shareholders also approved a dividend payment of 110 per cent involving an outgo of Rs 276 crore.

Among other proposals approved by the shareholders at the annual general meeting are amendment of the memorandum of articles of association enabling buyback of shares, complying with the Depositories Act, and nomination facilities for shareholders.
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Rolls Royce sets up Indian unit
New Delhi: Rolls Royce of the UK has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India, Rolls Royce Energy Systems India Pvt Ltd, to give focus to its operations in the power generation and oil and gas markets.

Rod Williams is the managing director of the new company. The company will take up activities in design, development, commissioning and servicing of systems utilising Rolls Royce diesel engines and industrial gas turbines.
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Accor to launch social welfare solutions
Mumbai: Accor Corporate Services, a unit of the French hospitality major Accor, is planning to launch social welfare solutions like childcare, medical coupons and charity vouchers in the Indian market. The company has already introduced food coupons in India, which have proved to be a hit with organisations that do not have canteen facilities.
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Indica is Euro II compliant
Mumbai: The Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company has secured Euro II compliance certification from four European agencies for the petrol and diesel versions of the Indica. However, it will take some six months for Telco's vendors to supply Euro II-compliant components for the car's engine, before Telco will actually begin commercial production of the Euro II-compliant vehicle.

The European certification will facilitate exports of the Indica, Telco's executive director V.M. Raval said. The four agencies that have certified the Indica are the Motor Industries Research Association, UK, Instituto Nacional de Technica of Spain, Union Technique de'l Automobile et du Cyclette of France and TDV of Germany.
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Sun Pharma file drug applications in US
Mumbai: Sun Pharmaceuticals will make three abbreviated new drug applications in the US through its US affiliate Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories.

The company has already made four other applications. The products fall in the niche therapeutic areas.
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Reliance, Taib Bank take stake in Logix
Bangalore: Reliance Fund and Taib Bank have picked up stakes in Logix Microsystems, a leading ERP implementation company, which is planning to go public in October.

In addition to Reliance and Taib Bank, Gulf-based Empire Investments has acquired a stake in the company.
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Iridium India promoters worried
Mumbai: Representatives of Indian financial institutions, which have invested in Iridium India by way of equity, are in Washington to understand the impact of the parent Iridium LLC's filing of a bankruptcy petition in a US court.

These representatives are meeting Iridium officials to understand what will be the next stage. Iridium India has a large equity holding in Iridium LLC and the financial institutions want to ascertain the fate of the Indian entity in the wake of the proposed restructuring of the US parent.
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Ruias to sell stake in Essar Mineral to NDMC
Visakhapatnam: The Ruias of the Essar group are about to sell 15 per cent of their stake in Essar Mineral to National Mineral Development Corporation. The Ruias had already signed a shareholders' agreement with Stemcor to sell their 51 per cent stake in Essar Mineral.

The Ruias hold their equity in Essar Mineral through a group company Essar Steel. Their stake will come down to 34 per cent once the deal with NMDC is through.
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Silicon Graphics to supply servers for Net project
New Delhi: Silicon Graphics India has secured a contract worth Rs 10 crore for the supply of servers for the first phase of the National Internet Backbone project. The company will install the servers by 26 January 2000.

The company will supply a total of 552 SGI Origin 200 servers and four SGI Origin 2000 servers for the project.
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Gujarat Gas sells LPG division
Mumbai: The Gujarat Gas Company is transferring its LPG division to LPG Infrastructure, a Reliance group company, for a consideration of Rs 1.90 crore. The division comprises two bottling plants at Sanand and Lodhika. The move follows revocation of an earlier agreement with Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Gujarat Gas informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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Owens Corning for price hike
Mumbai: Composites company Owens Corning plans to hike prices by 5 to 10 per cent from 1 October 1999. Only on 1 August 1999, the company had increased prices by 20 per cent. Before that, on 1 July 1999, the company had increased rates of all its products by 10 per cent.

According to Brad Wiggins, managing director of Owens Corning, the price levels in India are much lower at $1.2 per kg compared to global levels of $1.8 per kg. He claims that the $1.2 level is even below the cost of production of the company. He also felt that the price increase by Owens Corning will be followed by similar increases by other market players.
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Chettinad Cement plans buyback
Chennai: Chettinad Cement Corporation is planning a share buyback scheme. The matter will be put up for consideration at the company's annual general meeting on 28 September. Besides the buyback, the company has also proposed a sweat equity scheme for its employees and directors.
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Ford plans India to be export hub for Ikon
Dunton: The Ford Motor Company has plans to make India its export hub for the new car Ikon. The company sees potential markets for the car in South Africa, Mexico and South American countries.

The Economic Times, in a report quoting Martin Lutton, chief programme engineer of Ikon, said the car has been specially designed for Indian conditions. The car was designed at Ford's global small vehicle centre at Dunton near London.
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Goodyear develops process to recycle used tyres
Cleveland: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has obtained a patent for a new process to recover rubber from used tyres, which can be recycled and reused in tyres and other products. Goodyear says its process is different from traditional ones. The process has the potential for a recovery rate of 80 per cent or more of rubber, the company says.

Recycling of cured rubber is difficult; once vulcanised, rubber cannot be easily melted and reformed. The new process has given a recovery rate of 40 per cent and with process improvement, the company hopes to achieve an 80 per cent recovery level.

According to Goodyear, nearly 800 million tyres are scrapped every year in North America alone, rubber from which can now be recycled under the new process.
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Michelin to cut down jobs
Paris: French tyre company Michelin is reducing its European staff by 10 per cent, or 7,500 jobs, over three years. "Our principal rivals have clearly announced firm intentions to target Europe. We want to react before anything happens," Michel Rollier, new finance director of the company said.

Michelin slipped to second position in worldwide sales after Goodyear joined with Sumitomo of Japan this year.
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P&G plans Physique
Cleveland: Procter & Gamble of the US says it plans to bring up-market salon hair products to the mass market. The proposal includes marketing on a mass scale a group of consumer products in sleek silver bottles called 'Physique'. The Physique line will also include shampoos, conditioners, gels, mousses, creams, lotions, pomade and sprays for five different hairstyles.
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Dell to buy ConvergeNet
Texas: Dell Computer Corporation is buying network storage company ConvergeNet Technologies in a stock deal valued at $340 million. This will be the first acquisition by Dell, the world's second largest personal computer maker.

Dell said the purchase of ConvergeNet, which makes network data storage systems used to manage internet data, is part of its plan to be one of the top three suppliers of data storage in the world.

Dell will exchange about 6.9 million shares of its common stock for all outstanding shares and options of ConvergeNet
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Viacom-CBS merger plan may face hurdles
New York: The proposed merger between Viacom and CBS Corporation has brought a relatively unknown company, Chris-Craft, to centrestage. Chris-Craft has a 50:50 partnership with Viacom in a losing UPN television network.

Under current Federal Communications Commission rules, Viacom may have to divest its UPN holdings if it has to go ahead with the merger. The merger may also face other stumbling blocks. FCC rules also bar networks from owning TV stations that reach more than 35 per cent of the total US viewing public.
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