Finally, Tata Electric companies to merge
Mumbai: For too long the three companies -- Tata Power Company Ltd., Andhra Valley Power Supply Company Ltd. and Tata Hydro-Electric Power Supply Company Ltd. -- had operated independently, despite the obvious inefficiencies of doing so. Finally, the Tata group has decided to merge the three power companies and raise additional capital for the merged entity.

This move, coming close on the heels of the Reliance group bidding for BSES Limited, assumes great significance, especially in the context of a counter-offer to the BSES bid from the Tatas’.

Reliance Industries had made an open offer to acquire a 20 per cent stake in BSES last month. As per Sebi guidelines, the 21-day deadline for a counter offer expires tomorrow.

Though the group had apparently being planning for some time to merge the three companies, tax implications of the merger had prevented it from happening. The combined generation capacity of the three Tata electric companies is 1778 MW. The generation capacity of BSES is 500 MW.

With Tata Electric already having the distribution rights for electricity in the Mumbai city, excluding the suburbs where BSES has the rights, if TEC is able to acquire BSES it would enjoy distribution rights in the entire city. The company would also additionally stand to gain from BSES's recent entry into the Internet Service Provider business; as well as from BSES's plans for an optical fibre network in Mumbai, using the existing network of its electricity distribution infrastructure.
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Manu Chhabria seeks to put in Rs 20 crore as equity into ailing Dunlop
Calcutta: Dubai-based NRI, Mr. Manu Chhabria, today surprised business circles by agreeing to bring in Rs. 20 crore as equity in the BIFR-listed company group company, Dunlop India Limited. The amount is said to have been deposited in the company’s non-lien account, enabling it to complete the first phase of rehabilitation/revival.

While BIFR's clearance of the rehabilitation package is awaited, DIL is hopeful that BIFR will give its permission soon. The company recently lifted the suspension of operations in its plants at Sahaganj in West Bengal and at Ambattur in Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Chhabria has been quoted saying that this fund infusion should be able to assure all the stakeholders of the company of the group’s commitment towards reviving the company and taking it back to the stature it once held in the tyre industry.
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Government to decide on base price for IPCL sell off
Mumbai: According to a senior official of Indian Petrochemicals Limited (IPCL), in which the government is planning to offload a 25 per cent equity, the government is in the process of appointing a merchant banking firm to determine the minimum floor price for the stake. This floor price will be binding on all the prospective bidders.

This is being done as the government believes that the present share price does not reflect the real intrinsic value of the company. IPCL, which has three units located at Nagothane, Vadodara and Dahej, has a gross fixed assets of around Rs 8,700 crore and a book value of Rs 134.10 per share.

Currently, the government holds 69 per cent equity in the company with the remaining equity being shared by the public and global depository holders.

In the earlier round of bidding, the Reliance group, the Chatterjee-Soros combine and international diversified major Mitsubishi Corporation had expressed interest in picking up equity in the company.
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Bharti eyes basic services
Bangalore: India’s leading private telecom company, Bharati Telecom, is said to be considering bidding for basic telephony licenses in all the circles where it is currently operating cellular services. The group currently operates cellular services through group company, Bharti Tele Ventures, in Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and the Chennai circles.

The company is already providing basic telephony services in Madhya Pradesh.

This was announced by Mr. Deepak Gulati, chief operating officer of the company, at a ceremony to announce the launch of its pre-paid cellular card, Magic, in Karnataka. The company is said to have already over 4,000 km of fibre optic cables in place in Madhya Pradesh and was going to have another 5,000 km of fibre optic cables in place in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, split equally. Bharti bought its way into the Chennai circle recently by taking over the 40 per cent stake of Crompton Greaves in Skycell.

Airtel, the group’s cellular brand, will also be introducing WAP services in the next six to eight weeks and will be setting up its own private gateways. The setting up of the private gateways though may take some more time. The company has already invested a sum of Rs. 5 crore to make its operations WAP compatible. Additionally, the company will also be introducing a device, in the next six to eight weeks, which will make non-WAP cell phones WAP compatible.
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Lucent to increase investment in India
New Delhi: Global communications technology major, Lucent Technologies, is reportedly increasing its investment in the country and will open a new research facility in Hyderabad to expand its Bell Labs wireless research and development in India.

The new facility – which will be the company’s third such facility in the country -- will focus on the third generation (3G) wireless software design, for the company’s 3G mobile network platform. Third generation wireless network will offer high-speed mobile Internet capabilities and two-way multimedia communications from mobile devices.

The company already has two facilities in Pune and Bangalore with 300 engineers working in both. The R&D programs in Bangalore involves software research, and development in Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GPRS, AMPS, Wireless Data and 3G wireless systems.

Bell Labs is the innovation engine of the Lucent technologies. Worldwide it has more than 30,000 people and it owns 27,000 technology patents and is averaging as many as four patents on per business day.
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Volvo introduces new marketing thrust with fleet tracking systems
Bangalore: In its bid to capture a larger share of the commercial transport market, Volvo India, has initiated a new marketing thrust, under which it will launch new range of vehicles and expand capacity. The company is also planning fresh investments and a fleet tracking system for transporters in the country.

The company is said to be launching trucks with smaller capacity for parcel and refrigeration segments, and double production of trucks. It also plans to manufacture mini excavators and launch double-decker buses. The company has also plans to introduce a global positioning system.

Based on a very positive feedback from a research conducted by the company on inter-city buses, Volvo is planning to start production of buses by the end of the year and later look at launching metro buses, including the popular double-decker buses from Volvo.

According to Mr. Ravi Uppal, managing director of the company, the global positioning system will help fleet owners to track the movement of trucks across the country.

Volvo's first truck to be unveiled was FH12, a multi-axle tractor-trailer. It later launched its 7-litre FL7 tractor trailer. The FL7 is specifically designed for medium heavy cargo segment (15-20 ton) and specifically designed for bulk tank and sea containerisation.
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PriceWaterhouseCoopers to restructure Greaves
New Delhi: The Thapar-family controlled, Greaves Limited, has recently appointed consultancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to evaluate the feasibility of the company's various businesses and suggest a restructuring. PwC will also look into the feasibility of the company's joint ventures, especially the ones with Piaggio of Italy to make three-wheelers and with Same to make tractors.

In a family split, recently, the MM Thapar faction recently took control of Greaves, with long time director, Mr. Lalit Mohan Thapar, quitting from the board. Also resigning was Mr. Karan Thapar, B M Thapar's son. The two slots will be filled by M M Thapar's two sons -- Arjun Thapar who is currently looking after JCT Electronics and Samir Thapar who is running JCT.

Former chairman and managing director of Greaves, Shekhar Dutta, has also resigned from the Greaves board. Dutta had earlier stepped down as the managing director of the company.
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Tata Electric to spearhead group entry into internet arena
Mumbai: The Tata group unveiled a plan under which the group’s power companies, led by Tata Electric, will spearhead its entry into the internet arena. The company will create the broadband network and provide the platform for this foray.

TEC will reportedly spend Rs 300 crore over the next 6-9 months for "lighting" up its 400-km optic fibre network across Mumbai. "Lighting-up" amounts to making the underground optic fibre network a broadband one on which high-speed internet access would be possible. The company is also reportedly applying for an internet service provider (ISP) license.

The company has taken several steps in this direction, including putting in a bid for PowerGrid’s national backbone project and talking to the Railways for getting the right of way.

An internet gateway will be set up by TEC and, in fact, it will also shortly set up a separate telecom business group which will run the telecom businesses of the company. Even the billing is proposed to be converged, so that the consumer can get just one bill for the power and broadband usage.

TEC is also in talks with leading cable operators in the city to reach out to homes. Cable operators would have the access to their homes but would need to either create their own broadband networks or align with existing providers, to provide internet on cable.
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Lakme to spread beauty with 200 boutiques
Mumbai: With Indian beauty winning at international pageants with regular frequency, the beauty business has become a big business. It is all set to undergo a further change with Lakme Lever Limited, the subsidiary of the FMCG giant Hindustan Lever Limited, planning to set up 200 beauty salons in more than 40 cities across India, to be run on the franchisee model. The company would thus become the first corporate to enter into the salon business using the franchise route.

While the franchisees will bring in space and manpower, Lakme Lever will spend Rs 40 crore on interiors, training staff and supplying beauty products. The first such Lakme beauty salon will open in Pune by the end of this month. In the first phase, the company is considering setting up salons with only fresh entrepreneurs. It will look at converting existing beauty salons to Lakme salons only in the next stage.

The company intends to stock all Lakme and Lever products in these salons. But the company is open to stocking products of other companies if it is not present in any category.

The company hopes to gather almost Rs 20 crore from the new venture, which is about 12 per cent of the business done by the franchisees.
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