Pepsi to strengthen presence in India
Mumbai: Pepsico Holdings India is set to invest nearly Rs 400 crore annually in the next four years to create a market share in India. It will also put up seven PET bottling plants by 2000.

Pepsico India chairman P.M. Sinha has been quoted by The Economic Times as saying that the company has been investing Rs 400 crore every year in the last four years and it intends to invest as much in the next four years.

The company has introduced its drinking water brand Aquafina in the Indian market. It is claimed to be the largest drinking water brand in the US.

Mr Sinha said Pepsi intends to establish the bottling lines either through the franchisee route or the ownership route. The company has 40 bottling units in India -- 16 owned by it and 24 by franchisees.

The company will also add one lakh retail outlets every year to its current six lakh outlets.
Back to News Review index page

Unisys plans ventures in India
New Delhi: Unisys of the US will set up a slew of wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures in India. The company had pulled out of its joint venture with the Tatas; it may now tap the Indian market through a series of marketing and sales plans in high-tech areas.

The company has made a proposal to the Foreign Investments Promotion Board under which it intends to undertake projects for the government too in areas such as voters' I-cards, driving licences and vehicle registration systems, besides treasury management, risk management, revenue enhancement and customer loyalty systems.

The company has a subsidiary in India, Unisys India, which is likely to act as a holding company for the proposed ventures.
Back to News Review index page

Tisco plans takeover of Idcol unit
Calcutta: The Tata Iron and Steel Company is evaluating a feasibility of acquiring a ferro-chrome and chrome conversion unit of the Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa. The Idcol plant is located near Dhenkanal.

At present Tisco has a chrome conversion facility at Bamnipal, which was bought from the Orissa Mining Corporation. The Idcol plant takeover is expected to add to the company's chrome ore conversion capacity and provide higher value addition and realisation.
Back to News Review index page

Jindal Vijaynagar in securitisation deal
Mumbai: Jindal Vijaynagar Steel will renew its $45 million export securitisation deal with Duferco of Belgium, with a modification in an earlier proposal. Jindal Vijaynagar Steel has retained the format of the earlier deal but has replaced the foreign banks with five local banks to get the proceeds in local currency.

This is the first time a securitisation deal has been denominated in Indian rupees. Foreign bankers had insisted on a modified performance guarantee, which was declined by ICICI, leading to the cancellation of the earlier deal.

The deal is a standby arrangement for the final call in arrears of equity shares. The proceeds of the deal are expected to bridge the gap in financing the Rs 5,500-crore project cost of an integrated steel plant.
Back to News Review index page

Danabhai Jewellers to set up Pallazzio
Mumbai: Danabhai Jewellers, the city-based jewellery store, is coming out with Pallazzio, India's first design and jewellery retail house. Pallazzio is expected to retail multi-branded jewellery, watches and accessories.

The promoters claim the multi-branded multinational one-stop centre spread over 13,000 sq.ft area in the city is slated to be more lifestyle-oriented.
Back to News Review index page

SAIL to pay interim relief
Calcutta: Steel Authority of India Ltd will pay its employees, including board-level executives, interim wage relief of around 10 to 15 per cent of the present basic salary pending finalisation of a wage revision agreement.

The payment will cost the ailing public sector steel company an additional Rs 135 crore. The management has asked the integrated steel plants to generate extra cash to meet the interim liability.
Back to News Review index page

Godrej Soaps handles sales directly
Mumbai: Godrej Soaps has taken over the distribution and sales of all its products. Subsidiary unit Godrej HiCare has been handling this since September 1996.

Godrej Soaps expects that direct handling of distribution and sales will yield better results.

The company has reported a loss of Rs 29 crore for the year ended 31 March 1999. It has attributed this to a drop in sales to the government's Canteen Stores Department and absence of sales to companies for cross-promotion. The soap sales volume has dropped 7 per cent.
Back to News Review index page

Hallmark plans Vision 2010 stores
Mumbai: Hallmark India is planning Vision 2010 stores all over the country. The first such store will be at Crossroads, a mall promoted by the Nicholas Piramal group in the city. The company proposes to open at least 20 such stores by March 2000.

The greeting card maker has announced its plans to enter the gift market. It says the proposed stores will add to Hallmark India's network of 219 exclusive franchises and 8,000-odd multibrand stores.

Hallmark India is the exclusive licensee of the $4.4 billion Hallmark Cards of the US.
Back to News Review index page

Grasim plans more RMC units
Mumbai: Grasim Industries will set up four or five ready-mix concrete plants in the next two years. The company has said in its annual report that it has identified ready-mix concrete as an important value-added adjunct to its core cement business.

The Aditya Birla group company, which produces viscose staple fibre, sponge iron and textiles, besides cement, has two RMC plants already functioning at Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and Gurgaon near New Delhi, each having a 30 cubic metre per hour capacity.
Back to News Review index page

Tata Tea to raise funds for acquisitions
Mumbai: Tata Tea is raising $100 million for the purpose of acquisitions overseas. Plans include its proposal for taking over the British tea firm Tetley.

The company's annual report said it is seriously examining the opportunity to obtain a major shareholding and control of Tetley, which has operations in the UK, Australia, Europe and Canada.
Back to News Review index page

Sesa suggests co-generation of power
Panaji: Sesa Goa has made a proposal to the government for co-generation of 30 MW of electricity from heat emitting from its coke oven flue gas and from the furnaces at its pig iron plant. The proposal is awaiting government's approval.

The company had initially suggested this as a captive power generation project located at Amona in north Goa. The proposal has now been modified since the state government does not have a proper captive power policy.

The company does not want to invest in a power generation project as it is not its core area of activity. It is said to be in talks with companies like Reliance and Larsen & Toubro for investment of up to Rs 150 crore in the project.
Back to News Review index page

2 Torrent group companies go to BIFR
New Delhi: Torrent group's two companies -- Torrent Cables and Torrent Gujarat Biotech -- have sought help from the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction. Torrent Cables has been declared sick by BIFR, while orders on Torrent Gujarat Biotech has been reserved.

Torrent Cables has reported that its net worth of Rs 22.4 crore has fully eroded by accumulated losses of Rs 23.70 crore. The company has been directed to submit a proposal to the operating agency. The company's entire dues of Rs 19 crore to the financial institutions have been settled for Rs 16.6 crore by Torrent, a major shareholder.

Torrent Gujarat Biotech has accumulated losses of Rs 108.84 crore. The company's annual general meeting is yet to be held, and BIFR has therefore not taken a decision.
Back to News Review index page

Lipton Taaza to be real 'taaza'
Calcutta: Hindustan Lever has developed a technology to preserve the freshness of packaged tea. It has introduced New Lipton Taaza-FX Tazgi TM, using an international preservation technology.

Lipton Taaza is claimed to be the largest tea brand in India with a turnover of Rs 300 crore. The company hopes that strengthening the preservation features will help to get greater value to the brand.

The technology helps arrest the oxidation process, thereby retaining freshness, the company claims.
Back to News Review index page

Essel Packaging buy-back to be finalised
Mumbai: Essel Packaging will decide on its proposal for buy-back of its equity shares at a meeting of the company's board on 14 September. The shareholders of the company have already approved the buy-back at a price between Rs 250 and Rs 300 per share. But the shares are now being quoted at Rs 300 in the stock markets and, as such the buy-back plan may not materialise, the company feels.

Essel wanted to reduce capital and improve the rate of return and shareholder value, for which it is planning the buy-back.
Back to News Review index page

Suzuki seeks control in JV with TVS group
New Delhi: Suzuki Motor Company is understood to have told the TVS group of Chennai that it will prefer majority stake in the two-wheeler joint venture TVS-Suzuki.

Suzuki holds 25.9 per cent of the company's equity, and the TVS group 32 per cent. Of the balance, 17.1 per cent is with non-resident Indians, foreign institutional investors and domestic financial institutions, and 25 per cent with the public.

Suzuki is understood to have indicated to the TVS group that in case the group does not allow the Japanese company to acquire a majority stake, it should allow Suzuki to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary. The TVS group has objected to the Suzuki move.
Back to News Review index page

BPL plans to sell subsidiary
Mumbai: BPL is planning to sell its newly merged BPL Sanyo Technologies. Sources said Whirlpool India is considering buying the company, which was formed after the merger of four group companies -- BPL Refrigeration, BPL Sanyo Utilities, BPL Sanyo Finance and Alfa Securities.

Whirlpool is in the business of making refrigerators, and washing machines.
Back to News Review index page

SPC told to have partner
Mumbai: Financial institutions have told the promoters of Southern Petrochemicals to bring in a strategic partner to complete the project at Manali in Chennai to manufacture 2.5 lakh tonnes per annum of purefied terephthalic acid.

The project is expected to have a cost overrun of Rs 873 crore. ICICI and the Industrial Development Bank of India are the main lenders to the project.

Madras Refineries and Spic, the promoters of Southern Petrochemicals, had signed a memorandum of settlement envisaging the withdrawal of MRL from the project after receipt of compensation from Spic. The MoS is yet to be cleared by the government.

The project cost has now shot up to Rs 2,998 crore from the earlier projection of Rs 2,125 crore. The promoters are finding it difficult to raise the required funds.
Back to News Review index page

AIG, IL&FS, SDC seek stake in L&T units
Mumbai: American Insurance Group, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, and Singapore Development Corporation are in the race for picking up stakes in two subsidiaries to be floated by Larsen & Toubro.

The company had announced plans to set up two subsidiaries -- one for power and another for infrastructure projects.

Company officials said IL&FS is interested in picking up stakes in both ventures, while AIG and SDC are interested in the infrastructure subsidiary.
Back to News Review index page

Hyundai starts LC engine production
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India has announced that it has started producing engines for its new car LC. A company statement said the P2 stage of its pilot production has commenced at its Chennai plant.

The mid-size LC has an engine capacity of 1,500 cc. The car is expected to be introduced in the market in October.
Back to News Review index page

KPMG develops largest website for UNDP
Mumbai: KPMG LLP, the US member firm of KPMG International, will set up what is claimed to be the world's largest website. The site, set up for NetAid, a United Nations Development Programme-sponsored organisation, is designed to accept 60 million hits an hour, 10 times the peak received during the last Olympic games,

Cisco Systems has developed the network architecture for NetAid, while Akamai Technologies, the global internet content delivery service, will serve the site content.

The site will have a total of more than 1,500 servers located in more than 90 centres worldwide.
Back to News Review index page

It is nationalisation of Daewoo: analysts
Seoul: South Korea has virtually nationalised the debt-ridden Daewoo group to avoid total bankruptcy of the group, say analysts.

The nationalised banks in the country are the leading creditors who have placed 12 of Daewoo's key affiliates into a debt restructuring programme. Payments on principal and interests on the loans of these companies are to be frozen for three months. This will help the company avoid a closure.

This step also avoids putting the group -- which has 90,000 employees in Korea, accounts for over 10 per cent of the country's exports, and whose book value of assets of $63 billion are greater than the gross domestic product of a country like the Philippines -- into formal bankruptcy, feel analysts.
Back to News Review index page

Cisco to acquire 2 companies
Palo Alto: Cisco Systems, the network equipment manufacturer, says it is agreeing to buy Cerent Corporation and Monterey Networks for a combined $7.36 billion in stock. These deals are seen as Cisco's most aggressive moves to consolidate its position in optical networking using fibre optic cables.

The move may turn the heat on competition -- especially Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks.

Cisco said it will exchange 100 million shares of its common stock for all of closely held Cerent's shares and options, making it Cisco's largest ever acquisition at $6.8 billion.

Monterey Networks is a privately-held company, making cross-connect technology that boosts network capability at the core of an optical network. The purchase involves 7.3 million shares costing $501 million.
Back to News Review index page

P&G plans acquisition of Recovery
Cleveland: Procter & Gamble announced its plan to acquire Recovery Engineering at a cost of $265 million.

Recovery Engineering is engaged in the manufacture of drinking water systems and filters. The acquisition will give P&G an entry into the $1.2 billion yet to be fully tapped global market. P&G is offering $35.25 per share of Recovery, which is double its present market price.
Back to News Review index page

Reckitt shareholders approve merger
London: Reckitt & Colman shareholders approved the company's takeover of Dutch Benckiser.

The new company, to be called Reckitt Benckiser, will be 59.1 per cent owned by Reckitt and 40.9 per cent by Benckiser. The takeover is expected to create the world's leading household cleaning products company.
Back to News Review index page

GM faces record damages in car suit
Los Angeles: A Los Angeles judge reduced a record $4.9 billion damages judgement against General Motors, to $1.2 billion, which is still a record. The judge said the automaker's disregard for safety had caused six people to be burned in a crash.

The judge said the company has placed a gas tank of its 1979 Chevrolet Malibu in an unsafe spot behind the rear axle simply to "maximise profits".
Back to News Review index page