Diageo to expand operations in India
Banffishire: The leading global premium spirits maker, Diageo, is considering expanding its operations in India. Its plans include setting up a bottling plant in north India after completing setting up a similar plant in the South in a few months. The company also plans to enter into a partnership with a vineyard in Nashik for manufacturing branded wine products in the country.

Diageo also plans to launch the rest of six classic single malt brands having already launched Lagavulin, Talisker and Caolila brands in India. The company recently launched Captain Morgan dark rum brand, the fifth largest spirits brand in the world, has already received good response, the official said.

Diageo has an equal joint venture with Radico Khaitan in India and manufactures some IMFL brands through that partnership.

One of its IMFL brands, Masterstroke, in the premium segment (Rs300 plus category), will be launched across the country in a phased manner while Guinness, the only beer brand of the company priced at Rs300 plus, is currently being promoted at high-end restaurants and major hotels as part of the initial launch process. Guinness is currently available in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. The brand was launched three months back in the country.
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NTPC may tie up with overseas co for power equipment JV
Kolkata: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) may tie up with an overseas JV partner to set up a power equipment manufacturing unit said a senior government official.

Details of the new venture are being worked out. If the unit comes up, it will be able to meet the shortage in power equipment supply the official said.
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ONGC to acquire Shell's 33 pc stake in Egypt gas field
New Delhi: ONGC Videsh plans to acquire Royal Dutch/Shell's 33 pc stake in a deepsea gas field off Egypt for $160 million and bring the fuel in liquefied form (LNG) to India.

Shell holds 100 pc stake in the North East Mediterranean Deepwater Concession in the Egypt Mediterranean Sea Code-named 'Project Wonder', and estimated to hold close to 10 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

ONGC Videsh officials said, "We are not paying Shell for buying the stake but have agreed to pay for its share of exploration cost in 2007 of $140 million and a maximum of $40 million for future cost beyond 2007," the official said.

OVL will also not contribute toward the past costs ($300 million) incurred by Shell till October 1, 2006.

Besides carrying Shell in the development cost, OVL will also pay development bonus to Shell up to a maximum of $19.425 million at the time of award of development lease by the local government and $35.343 million production bonus at the time of start of commercial production.
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Welspun not to renew deal with Tommy Hilfiger
Mumbai: Welspun group has decided not to renew its contract with American fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger due to lack of demand.

The agreement between Welspun Retail, a subsidiary of the diversified textile and engineering group Welspun, and Tommy Hilfiger ended in February this year.

The original agreement was for sale of premium home textile brands, including bath towels, bedsheets, quilts, shower curtains, cushions, and bath accessories, of Tommy Hilfiger under the Welspun Retail roof.

Welspun India, the group's textile manufacturing arm, initially imported Hilfiger brand home linen products to India, but subsequently came to manufacture them locally.

Welspun officials said the products found few buyers as they were priced at a premium to other brands.
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Infosys values employees at Rs57,000 cr
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies' employees have been valued at a little more than Rs57,000 crore, up 23 per cent from the last year. At the end of FY07 the company had about 73,000 employees, a growth of 37 per cent over the previous year.

With a net addition of about 20,000 employees, the return on per employee basis has moved up to 6.7 per cent from the earlier 5.3 per cent mainly on the back of the sturdy systems and processes that the company has put in place to optimise better returns from their employees.

The company paid out a total of a little over Rs7,000 crore as salaries during the year, the ratio of employee cost to value of HR went up to 12.4 per cent from the earlier 10.3 per cent.

The human resources valuation has been carried out using the Lev and Schwartz model, based on the present value of the future earnings of employees.

It is also based on the following assumptions: employee compensation (all direct and indirect benefits earned both in India and abroad); incremental earnings (based on group and age) and future earnings have been discounted at the cost of the capital of 14.97 per cent, Infosys said in its annual report for 2006-07.
Infosys' brand value is now at Rs31,617 crore, up 38 per cent when compared with the value last year.
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UP sugar mills file petition over cane price
New Delhi: Fifteen sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have filed a case against the state government challenging its mechanism of determining the state advised price (SAP) of sugarcane.

The mills include Jagran Group's Shakumbari Sugar and Allied Industries, Aditya Jhunjhunwala's KM Sugar Mills and JK Industries' JK Sugar. The cases were filed during the last days of Mulayam Singh Yadav's tenure.

The SAP of sugarcane in the country's biggest sugar producing state has gone up to Rs125-130 per quintal in 2006-07 from Rs95-100 per quintal in 2000-01. The SAP is different from the statutory minimum price (SMP) of sugarcane fixed by the Centre.

In 2004, the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court had upheld the right of state governments to fix sugarcane price over and above the SMP. Consequently, states like UP and Haryana have been steadily revising the SAP every year to please the sugarcane farmers who constitute a sizeable vote bank.

However, while doing so the government did not take into consideration the market conditions. In UP alone, more that one crore farmers are engaged in sugarcane cultivation.

The gap between the Centre's SMP and the UP government's SAP has widened over the years and for the 2006-07 season the gap between the SMP and the SAP is as high as Rs40 per quintal say officials of the sugar mills. For the 2006-07 sugar season (October-September), the UP government had hiked the SAP by Rs 10 taking the sugarcane value to Rs125-130 per quintal. This, despite a decline in sugar prices to Rs1,350 per quintal from about Rs2,000 per quintal last year. With higher cane prices, mills are not even able to recover the cost of production.
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BPOs can now venture out more easily
Mumbai: BPO companies in India will be able to more easily draw foreign exchange for buying equipments for new overseas call centres, enabling them to start operations overseas. This is as the Reserve Bank has diluted norms for outsourcing firms in India.

It has been decided that authorised banks may allow BPO firms to pay for equipments to be imported and installed at their overseas sites without physically bringing them to India, which was the requirement till now, said a recent RBI notification.

RBI has modified the procedure following such requests from BPO companies wanting to set up call centres overseas.

BPO companies would, however, be required to take necessary approvals from the Ministry of Information Technology in this regard.
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TCS buys out remaining stake in Brazil JV
India's biggest software company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has bought out the 49 pc stake held by its Brazilian partner Grupo TBA in its Brazilian joint venture, TCS do Brasil. TCS acquired its partner for $ 33.4 million.

The buyout will enhance the company's Latin American operations, where it provides services to over 30 clients including ABN Amro, Goodyear, Equifax and Brasil Telecom. TCS had entered the Brazilian market in 2002 through the 51:49 joint venture with Grupo TBA. The latest move is expected to raise its profile.

TCS do Brasil recorded a top line of $ 66.5 million for the year ended March 31, and has over 1,700 employees. The company operates delivery centres in Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

TCS employs over 89,000 people worldwide in 47 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of $4.3 billion in 2006/07.

The company's sales in Latin American countries soared by more than 200 per cent to $160 million in the last fiscal year. Latin America now represents four per cent of TCS's global revenues up from 1.9 per cent last year.
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Dubai Ventures picks up stake in Bharat Hotels
Dubai: Dubai Ventures has entered into an agreement with Bharat Hotels., one of India's largest hotel companies to pick up about 5 per cent stake in the latter for $40 million.

Bharat Hotels, which operates under The Grand banner, currently has eight luxury, five-star deluxe hotels as well as six hotels under construction.

Dubai Ventures is the equity investment arm of Dubai Investment Group (DIG), and invests across the world, but predominantly focuses on Asia. DIG has offices in Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London and New York.

Bharat Hotels currently operates InterContinental The Grand hotels in New Delhi, Mumbai, Goa and Srinagar as well as The Grand Ashok Bangalore, The Grand Laxmi Vilas Palace Udaipur and The Grand Temple View Khajuraho.

Its Kolkata property, the 165-year-old The Grand Great Eastern, is presently under extensive restoration, with a view to make it one of the finest heritage hotels globally.

Other hotels under construction, scheduled for opening between 2008 and 2009 include The Grand Jaipur, The Grand Resort Bekal, The Grand Ahmedabad, The Grand Chandigarh, and The Grand Noida.
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