Infosys looks at buying out consultancies
Mumbai; In keeping with the increasing global trend, India’s leading software company, Infosys Technologies, is said to be considering the acquisition of consultancy companies. The company is reportedly at an advanced stage of negotiations with US-based Alpha Networks and a Houston-based management consultancy.

Mr. S Gopalkrishnan, deputy managing director of the company stated that they were looking for companies that would bring in complementary skill-sets, customers and expertise in industry domains.

Infosys would also be following the footsteps of other Indian companies that have acquired consulting firms in the recent past. These include, ICICI Infotech’s acquisition of New Jersey-based Ivory Consulting Group, a small consulting firm, and Aptech’s takeover of Specsoft, a consulting and project firm, in an all cash deal of $10 million. More and more companies are going in for such acquisitions, since they believe it will bring end-to-end solution under one roof.

In the west several companies have already made similar overtures. HP, a leading hardware manufacturer is said to be contemplating taking over PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Last year, Cisco picked up a 20 per cent stake in KPMG for $1 billion. Cap Gemini has also thrown its gauntlet into the consultancy ring and is said to be in talks with Ernst & Young.
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Bharti group buys back Telecom Italia stake
New Delhi: Italy’s biggest telecommunications company , Telecom Italia SpA, announced that it will sell its 20 per cent stake in Bharti Televentures, the holding company of Bharti Group, and 30.2 per cent of Madhya Pradesh fixed-line operator Bharti Telenet Ltd, for an estimated $121 million. The Italian giant also plans to sell its 2 per cent stake in Bharti Cellular. The decision to sell its interests in the Bharti Group forms part of Telecom Italia’s global strategy to develop a strong presence in Europe, the Mediterranean basin and Latin America.

The entire 20 per cent stake of the Italian company will be picked up by Singapore Telecom, which will result in the Singapore company taking its stake in Bharti Televentures from 15 per cent to 35 per cent.

With this move Bharti Televentures’ holding in Bharti Cellular will go up to 53 per cent and Bharati Telenet will become its 100 per cent owned company.
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Murdoch in talks to buy Hughes, Directv for $55 billion
Mumbai: According to reports appearing in publications abroad, newspaper tycoon, Rupert Murdoch, is reported to be in talks with General Motors to acquire Hughes Electronics Corporation and its DirecTV satellite-broadcasting unit for around $55 billion in a stock-and-cash deal.

The take over, if it becomes a reality, will have its effect in India, where Hughes Electronics and its affiliates own over 25 per cent of Hughes Tele.com, the fixed-line telephony operator in Maharashtra.

Analysts believe that the acquisition will then provide Murdoch-controlled Star TV access to the Hughes Tele.com’s broadband network in Maharashtra.

Hughes Electronics is a leading global provider of digital entertainment, information, communication services and satellite-based private networks, has enormous hidden value in DirecTV, its direct-to-home (DTH) business, and the PanAmSat transponder service.
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Race for Pennar to see fight between Hindalco and Sterlite
Mumbai: According to informed sources, Hindalco Ltd and Sterlite Industries are the only bidders to acquire Pennar Aluminium, a company the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction declared sick in April 1998. Both companies are reportedly sitting on a lot of cash and are looking for profitable avenues to invest in.

The bid is seen by analysts as an attempt by the two to dominate the value-added products market, where the competition is intense. With downstream value added segment offers greater price realisations and has lesser volatility, manufacturers are resorting to the take-over route to plug this gap.
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Sitel, Tata International form joint venture
Mumbai: Tata group company, Tata International, recently signed an agreement with US-based Sitel Corporation, a leader in executing electronic consumer relationship management, to form a 50:50 joint venture to provide Web-enabled contact services from india.

The new venture, likely to be named Sitel India, will provide technical support and customer care for English-speaking customers in the US, the UK and other countries.
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Hutchison Telecom to invest Rs 150 crore in Command
Calcutta: Cash-rich, Hutchison Telecommunications, which is the owner of the Orange mobile brand and has gone on an aggressive expansion spree, has firmed up plans to pump in close to Rs 150 crore in the Command network, its recent cellular acquisition in Calcutta.

The approval for this mega investment is part of the Hutchinson strategy to take its city rival, the B K Modi group controlled SpiceCell, head on in establishing market leadership. At present, both mobile networks are running neck-to-neck in terms of subscriber numbers.

The deployment of funds will be in four key areas. Beefing up the Command backbone network, increasing switch capacity, upgrading the billing system and improving the customer interface mechanism. Once that happens over the next six months, the Command network is expected to get the much-belated facelift.

Parallely, funds would also be injected in boosting Command’s radio capacity by adding at least 20-25 new cellsites, enhancing the number of PSTN links and introducing a whole host of value-added mobile services, including intelligent network services, from the Hutch stable.

In the meanwhile, market rumours have it that Mr. Ashwini Windlass, the high-profile ex vice chairman of Reliance Telecom, is returning to the Hutchison fold as operational head of all four cellular networks controlled by the company.
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Aurobindo Pharma plans joint ventures in US, China
Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals Ltd., has made its debut in the international scene by forging agreements with the US based Med-Pharmex and Shan Tonglin of China to set up two units in the US and one near Beijing respectively.

The company plans to raise Rs 125 crore for the purpose of setting up the new units, which could even be through an ADR issue. It plans to pump in about $ 12 million for setting up manufacturing facilities in US for producing cephalosporin and non-cephalosporin drugs. It will be partnering with the US-based Med-Pharmex. In China the company is setting up a Rs 32-crore project with Shahn Tongling for manufacture of cephalosporin.
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Henkel takes the battle to the villages
Chennai: The battle for a greater share of the detergents market took a new turn, with Chennai-based Henkel Spic India firing its first salvo for a major presence in the non-urban areas to help achieve Rs 500-crore turnover by 2002.

The company recently introduce "Hariyali Safar" , a project aimed at taking it to the rural doorstep. The project aims to take Henkel brands to towns with less than 20,000 population.

Under the project, the company has divided the country into 100 blocks with one super stockist for each block, who will in turn, cater to 15-20 dealers in semiurban markets.

Besides just expanding the market, the company is also set to introduce value packing. Its gameplan is to offer some of its fast moving brands in economy packs and sachets to make a dent in the rural segments.

To begin with ,it is introducing Henko compact sachets, 50 gms Margo soap, 20 gms Fa talc and 250 gm Mr White detergent pack. Henkel is presently focusing on Pril, Chek, Margo and Fa brands and has no plans of introducing newer ones at this point of time.
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Reliance to lead consortium on online travel services
Calcutta: A Reliance-led consortium, which has as its members Balmer Lawrie, Compaq, CMC and Japanese software developer Mother & Son, is said to be readying its initiative to offer online travel-related services. The online-based solutions will provide railway ticketing, hotel bookings and provide guidance for different holiday packages.

The consortium is said to have initiated talks with the railway ministry for preferential railway ticket bookings.

While Compaq would be providing the hardware for the project, CMC and Mother & Son would be developing the software. Japanese software developer Mother & Son is well-known for developing travel related software, especially in Japan.
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Tata Chemicals to exit detergents business
Mumbai: Tata group company, Tata Chemicals, has decided to exit detergents business by the year-end. The company is said to have arrived at this decision after careful consideration and is said to be in discussions with potential buyers.

Earlier, the company chairman, Ratan Tata, had given an indication to this effect during the annual general meeting. He had stated that the company was critically looking at all products as its business was impacted due to the import of low cost soda ash from China and over capacity issue.
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Morepen Labs ties up with five Canadian companies
Mumbai: Morepen Laboratories is said to have tied up with five leading Canada-based generic companies -- Apotex, Novex Pharma, Genpharm, Novopharm and Technilab - for supplying its non-sedative anti-histamine, loratadine.

The market for loratadine, which figures among the top five largest selling drugs in the world, is valued at over $3 billion and continues to grow at 31 per cent per annum. The company is said to have an order book till January 2002, including export orders valued at an estimated $20 million.

Morepen Labs manufactures loratadine at its US FDA-approved Parwanoo facility in Himachal Pradesh.

The company had also firmed up plans to launch an over-the-counter garlic-based tablet, Garlitone. Some of the other molecules in active progress include atorvastatin, paroxetine and anti-asthmatic drugs zafirlukast and montelukast.
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