HSBC plans regional processing hub in India
Mumbai : As part of its drive to cut costs, the $497 billion HSBC group is planning to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary for its regional loan processing in India. This loan processing centre will begin with processing HSBC's retail loans in the UK, but its role will eventually extend to other countries too. Aman Mehta, chief executive officer of HSBC since January this year, says that three sites are being examined in India, Mumbai being one of them.

The decision on where to set up the centre finally would depend on the availability of the right personnel for data processing, telecommunication facilities and data links. Property cost and wages would also count. A final decision is expected to be taken in six months. A regional processing centre is also being planned in China. The two centres will help HSBC derive economies of scale and exit high-cost processing areas.
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Iridium ties up with BPL for global roaming services
Mumbai : Iridium India has tied up with BPL Mobile Communication Services to offer its Iridium World Roaming Service. This service will offer Indian cellular subscribers global roaming on a single number. The subscriber can buy/rent an adapter that can enable availability to both Iridium and cellular users on the 8816 and 98 numbers respectively.

Subscribers will be charged Iridium charges for the service, which are higher than regular cellular roaming charges. The tie-up facilitates roaming across protocols such as GSM and IS41, previously incompatible networks.
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ACC to raise capacity
Mumbai : ACC, India's largest cement manufacturer, intends to invest Rs 135 crore in its existing plants, to increase capacity by 1.2 million tonne. The additional capacity, planned at its Gagal, Kymore, Madukkarai and Chanda units, is expected to be completed by June 2000.

The company is also going ahead with adding 2 million tonnes of capacity to its Wadi plant, to take total capacity to 15.2 million tonne. Over the next couple of years, ACC plans to invest Rs 750 crore -- Rs 200 crore of which may be raised through debt -- to expand its capacity, to take it way beyond its closest competitors Larsen & Toubro (current capacity: 12 million tonne) and Grasim (current capacity: 9.75 million tonne). In the face of falling profit, this is a big step for the company.
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Euclid India to become US subsidiary
Bangalore : On the fast track to growth, network service provider Euclid India Ltd. is to merge with the US-based Euclid Network Solutions. This will make the Indian company a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US firm. Clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board is awaited.

The merger is expected to combine the strengths of both companies. While Euclid India focuses on end-to-end network solutions for Internet service providers, Euclid Networks' emphasis is on enterprise networking solutions.
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Air-India cuts losses
Mumbai : Air-India has managed to cut down its losses from Rs 127 crore in the first half of the last fiscal to Rs 6 crore from April - September 1999, according to provisional figures provided by the company. An operating profit of Rs 8 crore has also been achieved, against an operating loss of Rs 52 crore in the corresponding period last year. Air-India's revenues in the first half of this year rose to Rs 2,093 crore from last year's Rs 2,047 crore.

The airline has managed the positive swing by stopping flights to all non-profitable routes, including European destinations such as Geneva, Frankfurt and Rome, drastically trimming other routes and focusing on its Gulf routes.
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CNBC Asia, TV18 join hands to set up CNBC India
Mumbai : CNBC Asia and TV18 have formed a 51:49 joint venture to launch CNBC India Ltd. The company is registered in Mauritius. Indian television viewers will see the CNBC India channel later this month on their sets. The channel will expand India-focused business programming to as much as eight hours a day, from CNBC's current 90 minutes.

The channel's localisation is expected to increase its penetration from 5.7 million homes currently to up to 15 million homes in the near future. TV18 is a programme provider. The joint venture is part of CNBC's broader strategy to go for local joint ventures/tie-ups for wider acceptance in local markets.
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L&T will buy interests for global clout
Mumbai : In order to chase its plans to emerge as a global player, Larsen & Toubro is actively considering acquisitions of construction, engineering and cement operations in countries in the Indian Ocean region. This is a move away from its earlier plan to go for tie-ups.

L&T recently formed a joint venture, with a 49 per cent stake but with management control, with Al Nabat of Saudi Arabia, for securing construction projects in that country. The company has floated L&T Oman for opportunities in Oman and its neighbouring countries; set up L&T ECC Construction (Sdn) Bhd, Malaysia, a subsidiary, to get the construction and erection contract for the Petronas gas project; and gone for a joint venture in Sri Lanka under Larsen & Toubro Ceylinco (Pvt) Ltd for a bulk cement terminal.
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Videocon ORG war hots up
New Delhi : Close on the heels of ORG sending a legal notice to the Videocon group to get an apology for false, defamatory statements against it, V.N. Dhoot, chairman of Videocon, has alleged that ORG charges money to hike market shares of companies. ORG has refuted the allegation as totally baseless.

The two companies have been at war since Videocon went to court some months ago on charges of ORG-GFK putting out incorrect figures, which put Videocon in the number 2 position overall in colour televisions, after BPL. Videocon claims it is number 1 on the basis of factory despatch numbers.
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