LML, Piaggio to settle disputes
New Delhi: Scooter maker LML and its estranged international partner Piaggio of Italy, who are in a bitter court battle, have agreed to settle their disputes out of court.

The two companies issued a statement on 24 October saying they would "move all the legal authorities to suspend the legal proceedings". These will include cases filed in the Supreme Court, and the Company Law Board in India, and the International Chamber of Commerce.

The change of attitude appears to have been triggered by   the process of change in Piaggio's ownership. The majority stake in the company has been sold off to a US investment bank.

LML and Piaggio have been involved in a legal battle after the Singhanias of Kanpur took Piaggio to court to acquire the Italian company's 23.6 per cent sake in LML. According to the Singhania's the joint venture agreement permitted the Indian partner to acquire Piaggio's stake following the death of owner Giovanni Agnelli. The Italian company did not agree to this.
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Flex, Polyplex merge to form JV
New Delhi: Flex Industries and Polyplex Corporation, two major players in the Indian polyester film industry, have merged their capacities to form a joint venture, United Film Technologies, which will be the largest polyester film manufacturer in the country and the fifth largest in the world.

Polyplex Corporation, which has a capacity of 15,000 tonnes per annum, will hold 55 per cent stake in the joint venture, while Flex Industries, one of the largest packaging firms, with a polyester film capacity of 24,000 tonnes per annum, will own 45 per cent. The board of the new company will give equal representation to both promoters. Sanjiv Saraf, managing director of Polyplex, will be managing director, and Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman, Flex Industries, will be chairman.
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Tiger to be Britannia's umbrella brand
Mumbai: Britannia Industries is developing its 'Tiger' brand of biscuits as a mother brand, and plans to launch a number of products under this umbrella brand.

Tiger, with an estimated market share of Rs 100 crore, has become the No 2 player in the glucose biscuits segment in the country. According to Sunil Alagh, managing director of Britannia Industries, the company is working on a strategy to make it No 1 in the market in the next three years. Mr Alagh says the company is also aggressively pursuing a plan whereby every third Indian will become a Britannia consumer.
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Continental set to take stake in Apollo
New Delhi: Continental AG of Germany is all set to pick up an equity stake in Apollo Tyres. O.S. Kanwar, chairman of Apollo, and other senior management staff, who are in Germany, are understood to have reached an agreement on this.

Apollo Tyres has offered a 14.99 per cent stake to Continental either through a preferential allotment or a sale of stake in the company to Continental. A formal decision is expected to be announced in December. The two companies have already signed a memorandum of understanding.
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Taj plans membership programme
Mumbai: The Taj group of hotels has introduced a Taj Inner Circle programme for frequent visitors to Taj hotels. The membership is free but there are qualifying criteria.

A person spending Rs 25,000 over a 60-day period will be entitled to a silver membership, which gets updated automatically when he spends Rs 2 lakh over a 12-month period. For every Rs 100 spent in the hotel chain, one point is earned by a member. The membership is valid for two years from the date of enrolment.

The hotel group says the membership benefits are comparable with the best in the hotel industry worldwide. The programme enables members to earn points on services such as room occupancy, laundry, food and beverages, telecom and business. Members can redeem points earned with free stay at any of the Taj hotels and can also avail of room rate discounts at Taj Leisure hotels. They can also avail of merchandise, including crockery, silver ware, leather accessories and consumer electronic items.
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Novartis drug effective in Alzheimer's
Mumbai: Novartis has a product, Exelon (rivastigmine), which can be used in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and shows some 60 per cent improvement in the condition of patients. Novartis executive director and global head of central nervous system medical affairs Ravi Anand says if patients with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease starts medication at an early stage, there are chances of reversal of the disease.

Novartis also produces Arasat, another medicine for Alzheimer's, which was originally made by Japanese company Isai. The company has also launched Simulect, a monoclonal antibody product for acute graft rejection, in India. The drug is used in liver and heart transplants, and is expected to be used for kidney transplants too.
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Accel takes over Fujitsu-ICIM wing
Chennai: Accel has formally announced its takeover of the SES division of Fujitsu-ICIM for a total consideration of Rs 12.5 crore. Accel will also take over the liabilities of the division worth about Rs 12.5 crore.

Accel's managing director N R Panicker said the division will be merged with Accel Computers and will be called Accel ICIM Systems and Services. It will be headquartered in Pune and will be Accel's main company. Mr Panicker said the company will be among the top 10 information technology companies in India by 2003.
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Hyundai plans test track
Pune: Hyundai Motor India is planning to set up a test track and a research and development facility at a cost of $100 million at its Chennai plant. With this test track and R&D facility, the company will be the second car maker to have such a facility in India, after Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company, or Telco.
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Bhel bags Bhutan project order
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has secured a turnkey order for a 1,020 MW Tala hydel power project in Bhutan. The project is an underground plant on the Wangchu river at Chukha Dzongkhag in western Bhutan.

Bhel's scope of work will include design, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of six hydro turbines of 170 MW each with matching generators.
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Taco plans JVs
Mumbai: Tata group's auto components holding company Tata AutoComp Systems has earmarked investment of Rs 3,000 crore over the next five years in various joint ventures with global auto component companies. The new tie-ups are expected to bring together some 12 Taco joint ventures already in existence. The company plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in 1999-2000.

The joint ventures will be in areas like component manufacturing, component design and development, systems integration and supply chain management. The probable collaborators include Eaton of the US, ZF of Germany and Hitachi of Japan. The company will also set up some 100 plants in and around Chennai, Bangalore and Pune.
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ITDC sell-off plans change
New Delhi: The government has decided to give a fresh mandate to a new investment bank to manage the privatisation of the India Tourism Development Corporation and cancel the earlier mandate given to HSBC Investment Bank. It will invite fresh bids for a new global advisor for the sale of the government stake in ITDC.

Government sources said the change in investment banker has become necessary as the terms of reference for the ITDC divestment have changed.
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IOCL plans JV for speciality chemicals
Mumbai: Indian Organic Chemicals is in talks with a multinational company for the manufacture of speciality chemicals. In a company notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said the venture is likely to start commercial production in September 2000. It said the agreement with the foreign partner is yet to be signed.

The entire production will be exported to the foreign company under a buyback scheme. The agreement will be for a five-year period. The company expects an annual turnover of Rs 18 to 20 crore.
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Employees re-acquire company from US firm
Bangalore: A group of employees of Integra TechSoft, a software solutions company, has re-acquired the company from US-based IKON Office Solutions. IKON had acquired the US-based parent of Integra TechSoft and along with it Integra TechSoft India.

The employees have purchased the company as IKON is focusing on its core business of office automation and is not interested in Integra TechSoft. They said they do not want to lose out on the company as they had spent considerable resources to build their team. The price paid to the US company has not been disclosed.
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Panel for winding-up law reforms
New Delhi: The department of company affairs has set up a 10-member committee to suggest amendments to existing insolvency laws, The group, headed by retired judge K S Parippornan, is expected to submit its report within six months. It will suggest measures to expedite winding up of companies and propose a self-contained law for the process in relation to the Sick Industrial Companies Provision Act, 1985 and the Securities and Contract Regulations Act, 1956.
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Gail in search of LNG suppliers
Dubai: The Gas Authority of India Ltd is in search of new suppliers for liquid natural gas from the Gulf region to meet the gap between the demand and supply of gas in India.

Gail has held preliminary meetings with leading regional producers in the Gulf. Under an existing contract with Qatar's Rasgas, Petronet LNG, the Indian petroleum products supply company, is to buy 7.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from 2003.
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Boycott on Mitsubishi
Washington: Fifteen US mutual funds said they will no longer buy Mitsubishi Corporation stocks and told other investors to join them in a campaign to block the company's plans to build "the world's largest salt factory" on Mexico's Pacific coast.

The funds included the Global Environment Fund, Walden Asset Management, Crown Futures and the Culvert group. The movement has support of 55 Mexican environmentalist groups and the US-based International Fund for Animal Welfare and Natural Resources Defence Council.

The proposed salt factory, a joint venture between Mitsubishi and the Mexican government, will be situated on Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California, the last breeding habitat of the Pacific gray whale.
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Microsoft to pay $3 bn for Telewest stake
Seattle: Microsoft will pay $3 billion in stock for a 29.7 per cent stake in Telewest Communications, the British cable operator. The purchase will be Microsoft's second biggest investment after its related $5 billion investment in US cable and phone company AT&T.

Telewest is owned by MediaOne Group. The deal is part of a complex three-way plan under which AT&T will acquire MediaOne for $58 billion cash and stock.
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Indian workers at Ford attacked
London: Workers of Indian origin at the Ford plant in London have been subjected to racist attack, and Ford's chief executive Jacques Nasser has arrived in the city to avert a possible strike in the unit.

In two instances in recent weeks, foremen in the plants reportedly assaulted Indian workers, who constitute a large part of the 8,000-strong workforce at the plant, which makes Ford Fiesta model cars. Workers had agreed on a strike ballot and a full strike was imminent following a series of wildcat strikes earlier.
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