Nestle plans major recast for Excelsia
New Delhi: After wining the battle for taking control of the joint venture company, Excelcia Foods, from its erstwhile partner, Dabur India, the Swiss multinational Nestle SA has decided to completely restructure the operations of the company.

The focus now would be on rationalising manpower and making Excelcia a "low cost operator" by drawing from various resources including the distribution network and in-house expertise of group company Nestle India.

In keeping with this change, the top management of the biscuit company has been reorganised with Mr. Jurg Stocker coming in as the new chairman and the old managing director, Mr. Richard Lister, going back to Nestle SA. The change will also see the foods division coming under the overall control of the Nestle India chairman and managing director, Mr. Carlo Donati, who will be assisted by Ms. Sangita Talwar, the marketing and commercial head, who was till recently with the parent company in Switzerland.

Synergies would be drawn from Nestle India and its distribution network would be used for selling Excelcia products thereby resulting in substantial cost savings in the future.

Excelcia will prune functions and would have no separate posts of finance and human resources head in future and would draw from the expertise available in Nestle India. It would also utilise the lessons learnt in the supply chain management of Nestle India.
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FIPB clears HDFC’s joint venture proposal with Singtel
New Delhi: The proposal of the HDFC Group to enter into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom for providing a comprehensive range of B2B e-commerce solutions to companies in India, has been recently cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board

The joint venture is being set up with a foreign investment upto 60 per cent amounting to Rs 10.75 crore over a period of three years. HDFC and HDFC bank is expected to hold the remaining 40 per cent.

HDFC Bank has signed an MoU with National Computer System (NCS), another 100 per cent subsidiary of SingTel for setting up a payment gateway facilitating payments by Master and Visa card holders to make payments for commercial transcations. The company would operate an online option service as well as real time trading portal for end-to-end B2B commerce services for the Indian market. The foreign collaborator would provide maintenance and support services to the JV company.

In addition, the new company will operate an online auction service as well as a dynamic real-time trading portal for business-to-business e-commerce for the Indian market.
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Kee Pharma plans to increase presence in Indian market
Bangalore: In keeping with the boom in the new economy bio-technology sector, Delhi-based Kee Pharma is said to be planning a tie-up with Biocon, the Bangalore biotech major, to be one of the first to manufacture the much-in-demand hepatitis-B and cancer drugs in India and crash the prices in the market.

Kee Pharma, through its newly created division, Kee Biogenetics, has also entered into a strategic marketing and transfer of technology arrangement with Cuban biotech major, Heber Biotech. This arrangement will help bring Recombinant Streptokinase -- used to dissolve intra-coronary clots to prevent fatal heart attacks -- and Interferon Alpha 2B -- used to treat hepatitis B -- into the Indian market by September and December 2000 respectively.

The company has already secured the necessary approvals from the Drug Controller of India, Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Approval Committee to bring these two drugs into the market. The company may see competition from SmithklineBeecham and US Vitamins in this arena.
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Marriott launches its apartment hotel in the city
Mumbai: Marriott Executive Apartments – also called The Lakeside Chalet -- a 178-room apartment hotel at Powai in north Mumbai, is now operational. This is the first of its kind in India, and the fourth Marriott apartment hotel in the world.

Marriott is also planning the largest convention centre for trade shows in Mumbai, called the Renaissance Mumbai Hotel and Convention centre, which is likely to be operational by January 2001. The hotel will have a 13,000 square feet area for the ball room and an additional 9,000 square feet of pre-function area for setting up stalls to display products.

The concept of executive apartments is itself fairly new. The first Marriott executive apartment was commissioned at Budapest in Hungary in 1997, the second one at Hong Kong in 1998, and the third at Prague in the Czech Republic in February this year.

The apartment hotel targets corporate travellers planning to stay for 30 days or more. The apartments, which range in size from 500 to 1,100 square feet and come with fully equipped kitchens, seek to combine the amenities of a hotel with the feel of home. The complex has a multicuisine restaurant, fitness centre, business centre and a billiards room. The apartments are available on short-term lease without deposit.

In an apartment hotel, the tariffs charged and the tenure of stay are directly related. The tariff is low if the length of the stay is long.
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Piramal ties with CSIR for work on genomic research
Mumbai: Pharma major, Nicholas Piramal India (NPIL), is said to have tied up with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), to work on genomic research through its various laboratories.

This was stated at the launch of Wellspring, a healthcare facility started by Bupa Piramal Healthcare, a joint venture between Piramal Enterprises and healthcare provider Bupa of the UK. According to Dr Swati Piramal, chief scientific officer, Nicholas Piramal the Wellspring facility in fact had a research center which would undertake "frontier research" in functional genomics, provide genomic testing services, explore diseases with a genetic connection, or with a genetic predisposition such as schizophrenia, thallasemia, diabetes, hypertension, and allergic disorders.

It would also explore the genetic basis of ayurveda, and undertake functional genomic sequencing, and observe a large number of nature's random mutations. The company hopes that by focusing on research in genomics, new products will emerge and so will novel disease management.
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MTNL and VSNL employees threaten action on privatisatio move
New Delhi: The Federation of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Employees Union, has stated that the employees’ unions of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Videsh Sanchar Nigam, will go on strike if the government does not stop moving further in privatising the two PSUs.

The union has written to the minister stating that it will all democratic and legitimate means including strike to stop the unhealthy practice of proposed disinvestment in VSNL.

The employees at both the companies, are of the view that the government will be committing a breach of understanding by reducing its stake in two of the most profitable public sector companies in the country.

According to the government, in face of the stiff competition to MTNL from the private sector, any delay in the induction of strategic partner would adversely affect the realisation from the disinvestment of the government equity in the company. At present the government owns 56 per cent stake in MTNL while the government’s holding in VSNL stands at 54 per cent. Both VSNL and MTNL have been awarded navaratna status by the government.
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BOC disposes unviable plants
Calcutta: BOC India Ltd (BOC) has decided to sell off ten small unviable plants of an average capacity of 15 tpd. These plants have reportedly stopped production long ago due to huge power consumption. According to the managing director of the company, the resources available in these plants, can be relocated and used at places where power is cheap.

The company is also planning to sell off or relocate some other assets in order to improve the utilisation of the assets.
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Godrej may increase stake in Pillsbury venture
Calcutta: Godrej Soaps Ltd is aiming to increase its stake beyond the present 26 per cent in Godrej Pillsbury Ltd (GPL), the joint venture company with Selviac Nederland BV, set up to manufacture and market wheat flour based products under the Pillsbury brand.

GPL has set up a production facility at Nashik, Maharashtra for the production of dry mixes for the bakery and food services sector. GPL is expected to come out with further issues to finance working capital needs and brand building of atta and bakery and food services businesses. At a recent meeting of its board of directors, Godrej Soaps was of the opinion that it would be in the interest of the company to invest in such issues to the full extent of its rights entitlement and if possible to increase the stake of the company in GPL beyond 26 per cent. The company will shortly seek shareholder permission to make this further investment.
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