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Ranbaxy to get milestone payment from Bayer

Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories will receive a sum of over $10 million from Bayer AG as the second milestone payment for the novel drug delivery system of the anti-infective ciprofloxacin it had licensed to the German company. The payment is likely to be received in the fist half of 2000, when the US Food and Drug Administration gives permission to start clinical trials in the US. The third payment will be in 2001. Ranbaxy has already received $10 million from Bayer as the signing amount. The company is to receive a total $65 million as milestone payments for the system. The company hopes that the product will be launched in about 30 months.

Ranbaxy is projecting global sales of $1 billion by the year 2004. The company's strategy will be to move away from low value generics to greater value-added products and original molecules, initiating work on improved chemical entities, a move away from bulk drugs to formulations and likely acquisitions in foreign countries. The company is also in the process of developing at least four molecules -- Parvosin for benign prostatic hypertrophy, an anti-asthma product, an anti-fungal and another one for benign prostatic hypertrophy.
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Continental, Metro in deal for two-wheeler tyres
New Delhi: German tyremaker Continental is to sign two agreements with Metro Tyres for technology assistance and for product off-take. The agreements will cover production of scooter and motor cycle tyres.

Continental will also consider entering into a licensing agreement with Metro for the latter to manufacture and market two-wheeler tyres in India under the Continental brand name. Continental has already entered into a long-term arrangement with the Rs 250-crore Metro Tyres for sourcing cycle tyres for overseas markets.

The company says Metro will be its exclusive Indian partner in the two-wheeler tyre business.
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Fiat hikes Uno, Siena  prices
Mumbai: Fiat India Automobiles has increased the prices of its Uno and Siena cars. All the models of Siena will be costlier by Rs 15,000 and the petrol and diesel versions of the Uno variants will be priced higher by Rs 8,000.

The company has not increased the price of the special edition of the Uno, the Uno Jubilee, and the power-steering variant. The Uno Jubilee is priced at Rs 3.55 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) and the Uno DS with power steering at Rs 4.27 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) .

After the increase, the petrol version of Uno DX will cost Rs 2.93 lakh, Uno DX with AC Rs 3.25 lakh, diesel version Uno DS DX Rs 3.55 lakh and Uno DX with AC Rs 3.86 lakh. The two Siena petrol versions, ELX PS and ELX SP PS, will cost Rs 6.10 lakh and Rs 6.78 lakh respectively. The diesel versions -- EL PS will cost Rs 6.55 lakh, ELX PS Rs 7.08 lakh and the ELX SP PS Rs 7.77 lakh, (all prices ex-showroom, Mumbai).
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Bajaj Auto may pick up stake in Piaggio
New Delhi: Scooter major Bajaj Auto is eyeing for a stake in its one-time partner and now a rival in the international arena, the Italian scooter company Piaggio. The company intends to pick up a passive shareholding of around 20 per cent.

The Economic Times, quoting sources, said Bajaj Auto is in talks with Texas Pacific group, which is having a stake in Piaggio. However, Piaggio has a now a new owner, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, which took over from Texas Pacific a week ago. Bajaj Auto has not talked to this group but an Italian newspaper has reported that Bajaj Auto could be one of the possible candidates for the stake in Piaggio, as Deutsche Morgan Grenfell is understood to be wanting to give minority stakes in the company to strategic two-wheeler concerns the world over.
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Award for Taj, Mumbai
Mumbai: The Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai has won the 1999 best business hotel in India award of Business Asia.

The award is based on an assessment made by a panel of eminent business leaders including Ken Cowley, executive chairman of Ansett Airline, and Robert Stiles, group managing director of Howarth Asia-Pacific. The nominated hotels are judged on a range of criteria from special business services to business clubs and lounge facilities, conferences and convention facilities and guest reward and incentive programmes. In 1998, the readers of Business Asia voted Taj Palace, Delhi as the best business hotel in India.
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HBO movie channel for India
Mumbai: Turner Broadcasting Systems of the Time Warner group is bringing HBO International channel to India. The premium Hollywood movie channel will be in India by early 2000 and will be a specially designed product for India "with the latest and best that Hollywood has to offer".

The Economic Times, quoting Turner Broadcasting System officials, said Time Warner had vetoed a proposal by HBO Asia, a joint venture of Hollywood studios, Columbia, Warner Brothers, Paramount and Universal, to bring in the movie channel to India with the cooperation of Sony Entertainment Television. Instead it created HBO International as a special product.

The 24-hour digital channel will be a pay service from the start.
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IVL India, German company in pact
Thiruvananthapuram: IVL India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Informations Verarbeitung Leverkussen of Germany, and imc of Germany have entered into an agreement for development off various Internet applications. IVL India will provide development support for Internet-based applications of imc's  e-learning, e-commerce and multimedia products primarily for the German market. IVL India is also launching web-enabled solutions for statutory obligations like tax compliance and for foreign trade management.
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Hospital system from Navayuga
Hyderabad: Navayuga Infotech, part of the Navayuga group of companies, has developed IntHosp, an integrated hospital management system.

K. Babu Rao, director of the company, says the product will be launched in mid-November 1999. It is a web-enabled multi-module system, which takes care of a lot of inter-connected activities in hospital management starting from prescription to documentation for medico-legal requirements. The system has a package for diet and inpatient and outpatient records and has multi lingual facility.
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Herbalife plans Indian unit
Bangalore: Herbalife International of the US is planning its operations in India by mid-November through its subsidiary Herbalife International India. The company will market nutritional, weight management and personal products. The US parent had a global sales of $1.64 million in 1998.
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Shiv Nadar plans HCL Comnet buyout
New Delhi: The Shiv Nadar group is initiating a share swap with holders of HCL Comnet shares. Under the plan, overseas funds and employee-investors of HCL Comnet Systems and Services will be given HCL Technologies' shares. The group has already bought the entire overseas fund and non-resident Indian holding in HCL Comnet, including the 19.66 per cent held by JP Morgan Capital Asia Holding. It is now finalising a deal with employee-investors, who together own eight per cent of the company's total stake. The group wants to make HCL Comnet a wholly-owned subsidiary.
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Lafarge Cement from November 1
Mumbai: Lafarge India, the French cement major's Indian arm, will introduce the global brand Lafarge Cement in India from 1 November. The company had earlier taken over Tata Iron and Steel Company's cement capacity.
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India Cements for private placement of equity
Mumbai: India Cements is considering placement of its equity with ICICI to fund its acquisition of 39.5 per cent stake in Sri Vishnu Cement for Rs 115 crore.

ICICI has an exposure of Rs 180 crore in India Cements.
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Videocon files case against ORG
Mumbai: It is now the turn of the Videocon group. It has filed a Rs 100-crore damage suit in the Bombay high court against ORG-GFK contending that ORG's market survey reports on colour televisions are incorrect and that distorted figures have been published in its monthly reports. Videocon has also sought an injunction restraining ORG from publishing its colour television reports in future.

Earlier, ORG-GFK had served a legal notice on Videocon International, threatening proceedings against Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot, for intimidating the company by issuing threats of police search and seizure.
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Wipro to market IBM products
Bangalore: Wipro Infotech and IBM India will have an arrangement under which Wipro will distribute IBM's Intel PC range in India. Immediately, Wipro will undertake marketing IBM servers and notebooks.

Wipro has its own portfolio of products including Wipro Mentor, Wipro Voyager and Wipro SuperGenius. The addition of the IBM range will enhance the company's market potential, say company officials.
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ONGC to pick up stake in Indian Oil projects
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is planning to acquire stakes in India Oil Corporation's Panipat power project and East Coast Refinery as part of the strategic alliance between the two oil companies. ONGC is expected to pick up 20 per cent stake in the 301 mega watt Panipat power project, being set up at a cost of Rs 1,528 crore. Indian Oil and Marubeni have already formed a joint venture to take up 26 per cent equity in the project, while Engineers India has been offered 4 per cent equity.

ONGC is also interested in Indian Oil's East Godavari Refinery project provided the project is taken up as a joint venture.
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VSNL plans new Internet service
Mumbai: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd is introducing a new Internet service with a number of additional features. The service will be open only to new customers. Some 5,000 connections will be provided in the beginning.

The service will be based on a single server but on a centralised system, ensuring faster access to the connection and no mail delays. It will have a better messaging system and provision for online payment.
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CDC sells DSQ stake
Bangalore: The Commonwealth Development Corporation has sold its 19 per cent stake in DSQ Software for a total value of Rs 90 crore. The UK-based private equity fund had purchased the shares at Rs 10 per share six years sago. The average price of the shares sold is around Rs 245 per share.
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Reckitt to introduce Benckiser products
New Delhi: Reckitt & Colman India has set up a group to look at introducing Benckiser products in India in the wake of parent Reckitt & Colman's planned merger with the Dutch home care producer Benckiser.

The merger will see the formation of Reckitt-Benckiser. The proposed new entity gives importance to India and its chief executive officer Bart Decht is likely to visit India in 2000.
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NTL plans European foray
London: Cable company NTL of Britain says it is planning an aggressive foray into Europe. The company's chief executive Barclay Knapp plans to increase the coverage of the company on the continent to around six million homes from the present four million. "Anytime, they are going to be selling a major cable company in Europe, NTL is going to be interested. We are very interested in all the western European countries -- Nordic countries down to Spain," he said.

NTL, five-percent-owned by Microsoft, is one of the leaders in talks to buy Deutsche Telekom's cable TV network and Swiss company Cablecom.
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Nike shoes online
London: Nike is planning to sell customised training shoes on the Internet. The company will try two models of shoes allowing customers to design their colour schemes and add personalised elements. The customised shoes will cost about $85 a pair and delivery will be in two to three weeks.
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Coke vending machine that hikes prices
London: Coca-Cola is working on a vending machine that automatically increases the price of the soft drink when the temperature rises.

The Financial Times said in a report that the machine is designed to reconcile supply and demand by raising the price when demand increased. "Coca-Cola is a product whose utility varies from moment to moment," the paper quoted Douglas Ivester, Coca-Cola chairman, as saying,

The machine has been tested in Japan and the company is still evaluating the technology, Mr Ivester said.
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domain - B : Indian business : News Review : 29 October 1999 : companies