Zee, Turner
joint venture close at hand
New Delhi: The
board of Zee Telefilms will meet on 13 December to consider a
joint venture with Turner International, a group company of
AOL-Time Warner. The proposed joint venture will market and
distribute channels of Zee, Turner and third parties. While Zee
operates 15 TV channels, Turner India manages CNN, HBO and Cartoon
Network.
AOL-Time Warner had expressed interest in entering the Indian
market both in media and internet space.
Zee has a country-wide distribution arm in the form of Siticable.
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GM
mulls introduction of trucks into India
New Delhi: General Motors Corp is contemplating
entering the commercial vehicle market in India. This is inspired
by growth in medium and heavy trucks sales over the past few
months. M&H truck sales have witnessed a 5.4 per cent growth
in the first eight months of the current fiscal to 43,264 units.
Telco, the countrys largest truck maker itself recorded around
10 per cent surge in sales during the period.
GM is likely to look at the fully built unit import route
initially for introducing the commercial vehicles in India.
The company is also considering introducing a series of models
through the completely built unit route in India. These include
Saab, Cadillac and the new-generation Vectra.
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IDBI
plans to cut costs
New Delhi: IDBI is exploring the introduction of
voluntary retirement scheme as part of its efforts to cut costs by
30 per cent.
The cost cutting exercise comes in the wake of financial strain
that the FI is undergoing due to the ongoing recession resulting
in the reduction of net profit by 47 per cent to Rs 207 crore last
half.
IDBI's total expenses increased by about 4.0 per cent to Rs 7,100
crore last fiscal from Rs 6,833 crore in 1999-2000, while total
income dipped to Rs 7,835 crore from Rs 7,860 crore resulting in
reduction in its profitability.
IDBI plans to bring down its total expenses to about Rs 5,000
crore while striving to increase its income to post a net profit
this fiscal.
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Cadbury
to fully acquire Indian arm
Mumbai: Cadbury Schweppes has offered to buy the
remaining 49 per cent stake in Cadbury India at Rs 500 per share.
Cadbury Schweppes currently owns 51 per cent of the Indian company
and the offer price is about three per cent higher than Cadbury
India's current market price.
Shares of Cadbury India surged 4.7 per cent to Rs 495 immediately
after the announcement.
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Marks
& Spencer enters Delhi, Mumbai
New Delhi: Marks & Spencer, the $8-billion UK-based
clothes retailing giant, which owns 302 stores in the UK and
operates 131 franchise outlets in 30 countries, has made its entry
into India.
The company has opened a store in Ansal Plaza in Delhi and at
Crossroads in Mumbai in partnership with Planet Sports India. The
retailer is already looking at issues of supply chain and setting
up hubs. The sourcing for India will be from M&S Worldwide.
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Hyundai
mulls Kia SUV
Chennai: Hyundai Motor is evaluating a couple of
sport-utility and multi-utility vehicles from its parent and Kia
Motors for its next launch.
The company was looking at Kia's 2.0 litre Sportage SUV and
Hyundai's H-1 multi-purpose vehicle as possible choices for either
direct import or local assembly.
Hyundai, which currently builds and sells the mid-sized Accent,
Sonata sedan and the Santro 1.0 litre hatchback cars in India,
expects to decide on the new utility vehicle model by end-February
or March.
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DPC
investors to meet in Singapore
Singapore: Dabhol Power will attend talks in Singapore
this week with foreign and domestic creditors about its troubled
power project in Maharashtra.
Representatives from Dabhol and its lenders will meet Thursday and
Friday to assess the future of the 2,184-megawatt power project,
India's biggest single foreign investment.
Enron wants to sell its 65 per cent controlling stake in the $2.9
billion power project because the plant's sole customer - the
Maharashtra State Electricity Board - has failed to pay its bills
and the Indian federal government has not honored payment
guarantees.
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Net4India
to apply for ILD licence
New Delhi: Internet company Net4India plans to apply
for international long distance licence and has started talks with
domestic financial institution and global voice carrier companies
to raise part of the funds needed for licence fee and bank
guarantee.
Net4India is also looking for a partner for call origination and
termination in case of international subscriber dialling service.
The company is consolidating its data centre business by
finalising an investment plan of Rs 30 crore over the next 18
months.
The company has two gateways in Chennai and Delhi providing 45
mbps apart from leasing from VSNL.
Net4India has data centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune,
Hyderabad and Chennai.
It also has plans to set up internet data centres in Ahemdabad,
Kolkata and Chandigarh.
Net4India is also a domain name registration company.
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NIIT
bags Financial Times award
New Delhi: NIIT has bagged the Outsourcing Contract
Of The year award by Financial Times' business publication The
banker.
The outsourcing contract of the year award was given for its
partnership with financial service organisation - ING Group, a
company release said.
"The award was given in recognition of NIIT's capabilities in
legacy technologies and platforms that provides the key to its
partnership with ing," it said adding that ING had outsourced
a series of major projects to NIIT since 1999.
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StanChart
launches online banking
Mumbai: Standard Chartered Bank on 11 December launched
its global Internet-banking service.
The new customer delivery channel would provide comprehensive
round-the-clock banking services ranging from fund transfer
transaction to real-time financial information in a secure
environment, a bank release here said.
India is the third country to go live after the successful launch
in the group's largest markets of Hong Kong and Singapore as part
of the global roll out of the Internet banking brand, the release
said.
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TCS
sets up regional hub in Singapore
Singapore: Tata Consultancy Services has consolidated
its Asia-Pacific operations by setting up a regional headquarters
in Singapore. The Asia-Pacific region contributes nearly 10 per
cent of global revenues and it expects overall customer billings
to exceed US$1 billion by the end of March 2002.
Girija Pande has been appointed as the regional director
overseeing offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan,
Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.
Customers in Singapore, where TCS has had an office for 20 years,
include Singapore Airlines, Citibank Asia Pacific and Standard
Chartered Bank.
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Tarapore
panel against UTIs trading positions
Mumbai: The Tarapore committee has suggested
several steps to clean up the Unit Trust of India and favoured an
in-depth examination of whether UTI should take trading positions
in the market. The panel recommended that the internal audit of
UTIs accounts should be undertaken by external auditors.
The panel said it is necessary to consider a single trustee
company and three separate and distinct asset management companies
(AMCs) with firewalls between the trustee company and the AMCs.
The panel wants its report to be made a public document so that
the investing public has a correct perspective of its findings and
recommendations.
The panel was against UTI taking risky trading positions in the
market, given its predominant share of the mutual funds business.
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Bio-Rad
plans manufacturing base in India
New Delhi: Bio-Rad Laboratories, the $850-million
California-based manufacturer of life science research products
and clinical diagnostics, plans to shift part of its manufacturing
facilities from the US to India. The company is looking at
manufacturing select diagnostic kits in India for the domestic
market as well as for the Asia-Pacific region.
Bio-Rad will initially look at setting up manufacturing facility
for diagnostic kits for diabetes, thalassemia, other infectious
diseases, HIV and some life science research tools.
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Thomson
to set up 15 retail outlets
Chennai: Thomson Multimedia India Pvt Ltd is planning
to add 15 Techno Shoppes across the country to bring to the
customer the entire range of consumer electronics products of the
company.
The company proposes to open 15 fully owned Techno Shoppes,
across the country by December 2002. The company currently has
outlets in Calcutta, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Chennai. Thomson
would be investing Rs 20 lakh per outlet.
These Techno Shoppes would offer the entire range of
products of the company right from audio and television to top of
the line products.
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Bharti
Tele ups SkyCell stake
Mumbai: Bharti Televentures has hiked its stake in
SkyCell Communications, the Chennai cellular services operator, to
89.5 per cent by buying out Millicom International Cellular of
Luxembourg and BellSouth International of the US for Rs 353 crore.
Millicom and BellSouth held 24.5 per cent each in SkyCell.
Bharti has made huge investments in SkyCell after it acquired
management control in the company last year. Its purchase of the
equity stake held by Crompton Greaves was followed by a prolonged
legal battle between Bharti and BellSouth over whether the other
shareholders should have been consulted. The dispute was later
settled out of court.
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Parry
Agro to be delisted
Chennai: The Rs 3,900 crore Murugappa Group has decided
to delist its tea plantations firm, Parry Agro Industries from all
the stock exchanges, following its move to buy-back the floating
stock in the market.
Parry Agro is listed on Bombay Stock Exchange, Madras Stock
Exchange and Cochin Stock Exchange. The stock on Tuesday at BSE
closed at Rs 49.40.
Parry Agro has decided to acquire the shares at Rs 70 per share.
The promoters currently hold about 77 per cent stake in Parry Agro,
while the balance is with the financial institutions and retail
investors.
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