VSNL divestment before elections
New Delhi: The government will dispose of one million shares of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd in the domestic market before the general elections, VSNL's acting chairman and managing director Amitabh Kumar has confirmed.

SBI Caps and Kotak Mahindra will be bankers to the issue. The VSNL stock is trading around Rs 1,000 per share, and the government is hopeful of collecting about Rs 85 to Rs 90 crore from the divestment, Mr Kumar said. The government has already collected $185 million by selling VSNL's GDR offerings of 10 million shares at $9.25 per GDR.

The company has already filed the draft documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
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Essar to hike stake through rights issue
New Delhi: Essar Steel's proposed rights issue at par would see the promoters' stake in the company going up from the present 36.6 per cent to 50.4 per cent with an investment of Rs 78 crore. The equity capital of the company would double to Rs 660.70 crore.

The Ruias, the promoters, have proposed to inject Rs 200 crore into the company as their contribution under a debt restructuring plan suggested by the financial institutions.
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Symantec in pact with Zenith Computers 
Bangalore: Symantec Corporation, the $578-million US software products company, will sign an agreement with Zenith Computers to bundle its software with Zenith's personal computers and appoint Symantec software specialists in India.

Symantec, which is known for its Norton utilities and anti-virus software, also plans to hold talks with Wipro for a similar agreement. It already has a tie-up with HCL.
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IOC improves Fortune-500 ranking
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation, the only Indian company to figure in the Fortune -500 list, has improved its ranking -- from 297 in 1997 to 278 in 1998. IOC has recorded revenue earnings of $14.7 billion.

Automobile companies dominate the Fortune-500 rankings. The US business magazine will be publishing the list in August.

General Motors is leading the rankings for the third consecutive year, followed by DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motors.
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IPCL, Herdillia tie up for polybutene
Baroda: Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd is allying with Herdillia Chemicals to produce polybutene, an ingredient for lubricating oil 2T. The public sector IPCL is negotiating with the G.P. Goenka group's Herdillia for the supply of polybutene on a tolling basis.

There is a gap between the supply and demand for the product, and with the proposed tie-up, IPCL will have an opportunity to consolidate its position both in India and the global market, K.G. Ramanathan, IPCL's chairman and managing director, said.
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Hoechst Q-1 sales down
Mumbai: Hoechst Marion Roussel India has attained sales of Rs 133.5 crore for the first quarter of 1999-2000, a drop of 9.4 per cent from Rs 147.4 crore in the first quarter of the previous year. However, with some internal adjustments on account of exceptional expenditure and income for the quarter, the profit before tax is 16 per cent higher than the previous year. Net profit after adjustment is up 11 per cent.

Vijay Mallya, chairman of the company, said at the annual general meeting that the company aims to have a 10 to 12 per cent growth in sales in the current financial year.
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Delay at Reliance Petro Jamnagar refinery
Mumbai: The pre-commissioning work at the Jamnagar refinery of Reliance Petroleum has been affected by a delay in commissioning the pipeline and single buoy mooring facilities, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The transportation of crude was suspended in mid-April following pressure problems in the pipeline that connects the mooring system and the tank farm at the refinery site. The contractors are now struggling to complete the work on a war footing.

Three very large crude carriers, berthed at Sikka port are not able to discharge the crude through the mooring system. The company has charted smaller tankers to offload crude from the carriers and bring it to the Jamnagar jetty.
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Delhi civic body bars Kwality pushcarts
New Delhi: The New Delhi Municipal Corporation has debarred Hindustan Lever's pushcarts selling Kwality and Walls icecreams from the city's streets. According to sources, the carts were ordered out of the New Delhi district streets, including the prime shopping and business areas of Connaught Place and India Gate, as their licences to ply had expired. This leaves Mother Dairy, Freakon and Vadilal in the fray.

The company said it intends to renew the licences and recommence operations.
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Satyam profit up
Mumbai: Satyam Computers Services posted a net profit of Rs 23.35 crore for the first quarter ended 30 June 1999, which was 53 per cent up from the previous year's figure.

The company said that including earning from affiliate companies, Satyam Enterprise Solution, Satyam Renaissance Consulting and Satyam Spark Solutions, that merged into it last year, the first quarter net works out to Rs 26.79 crore, up 73 per cent from the first quarter last year.
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Sterling Commerce to invest in Satyam unit
Hyderabad: Sterling Commerce, the world's largest e-commerce solutions provider, will invest $5 million to pick up a 2.7 per cent stake in Satyam Infoway.

Sterling's decision was announced by Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju.
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Mastek offers shares to staff
Mumbai: Software company Mastek will offer some 160 staffers its employee stock option scheme by which they will be able to purchase the company's shares at Rs 320 per share, against a market price of nearly Rs 636.

The company expects a dilution of 0.5 per cent in its equity of Rs 11.88 crore.
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Reliance ends polypropylene exports
Mumbai: Reliance Industries, foreseeing an increase in domestic demand and falling international prices, has discontinued exports of polypropylene, a key product of the company.

The company exported 10,000 tonnes of polypropylene in 1997-98 and 13,000 tonnes in 1998-99. Beginning April 1999, it has only exported a backlog of pending orders. The product contributed 10 per cent of the company's Rs 14,500-crore turnover last year.
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Shasun to supply ibuprofen to Boots
Chennai: Shasun Chemicals and Drugs has aligned with Boots Healthcare International, UK, to supply about one-third of the pharma major's ibuprofen requirement in the British market.

S. Vimal Kumar, finance director at Shasun, said Boots is envisaging sourcing around 100 tonnes of ibuprofen from Shasun during 1999.

Boots is also planning to source ibuprofen lysinate, a value-added derivative to Shasun, which has obtained US Food and Drugs Administration approval for its Cuddalore plant.
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Hindujas' Vizag power project facing problems
New Delhi: The Hinduja-sponsored 1,040 MW Hinduja National Power Corporation power project at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is in trouble because one of its prime lenders, the Exim Bank of Japan, is going slow on its funding decisions.

The fast track project  is committed to attain financial closure within three months of signing the contract. The promoters may have to explore other options like loans from commercial banks to get finances in place for the project.
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Bharat Electronics for JV to make ICs
Bangalore: Bharat Electronics plans to form a joint venture with a foreign partner for design of integrated circuits.

The company is in talks with three international companies for this venture. V.K. Koshy, chairman and managing director of BEL, said the objective is to bring in technological inputs and commitment of sales in the international market. New technology will help BEL to continue upgrading its IC chips, he said.
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Gulf Oil plans plant in south
Chennai: Gulf Oil India is planning to set up a lubricant manufacturing plant in south India. Chennai or Pondicherry are the likely sites. The 11,000-tonne capacity plant with an investment of about Rs 11 crore will be the company's third plant in the country after Calcutta and Silvassa.

The company has launched the Ashok Leyland Genuine Oils range in the market.
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Government okay for M&M's Scorpio project
Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is expected to give its final okay for the Mahindra and Mahindra-sponsored Rs 800-crore Scorpio project.

The group had originally planned the project to be set up in Maharashtra, but had thought of shifting it to Andhra Pradesh following concessions offered by the government of that state. The company has already decided to locate its three-wheeler project in Zaheereabad in Andhra Pradesh.
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Buyback liberalised
New Delhi: The government has liberalised the buyback scheme for unlisted public companies or private companies.

The norms notified by the department of company affairs specify that these companies will not have to seek government or regulatory approval for buying back their shares and no fee would be levied for such buybacks.

The requirement of getting the offer letter vetted by a merchant banker as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India rules for listed companies has also been waived.
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Moody's downgrades Mitsubishi rating
Tokyo: Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the long-term rating of Mitsubishi Motors Corp to BA1 from BAA3. The rating is now below investment grade and affects about 2 trillion yen in debt securities.

Moody's cites the challenges facing the company to broaden its product success beyond mini-cars, currently a high selling model, and to reduce its cost structure to more competitive levels as reasons for the downgrade.
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Royal & Sun buying Orion
New York: Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance group said it is buying speciality property and casualty insurer Orion Capital for about $1.4 billion in cash. The acquisition will double the size of the company's US operations.

Shareholders of Orion would receive $50 a share, which reflects a premium of more than 20 per cent on the market price. The unified company will rank among the 25 largest US property and casualty insurers and will have net written premia of $3 billion in 1998. 
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Apple to launch new notebook
San Francisco: Apple Computer is set to introduce a range of consumer-oriented notebook computers next week.

Like the iMac, the company introduced last year when it scored over its rivals with the brightly coloured personal computers, the notebooks are expected to be attractively styled.
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Daewoo to sell stake in unit
Seoul: Daewoo group announced it is in talks to sell the controlling 8 per cent stake in Daewoo Electronics to a US investment bank for $3 billion. The group refused to reveal more details.

The decision follows Samsung group's announcement that it will place Samsung Motors under court receivership instead of swapping it with Daewoo Electronics.
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SocGen rejects BNP offer
Paris: The baord of directors of Societe Generale, the French bank that is the target of a takeover bid and has also made a move to acquire Paribas, another French bank, rejected the sweetened offer from Banque Nationale de Paris for its shares.

SocGen said its first half earnings will be double those reported in 1998 when the bank posted a net profit of $706.6 million.

The SocGen board did not consider making a new bid for Paribas shares. Paribas has already rejected an offer from BNP, which wants to acquire Paribas as well as SocGen.
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