Pure Drinks family ends dispute
New Delhi: The family that controls soft drinks bottling company Pure Drinks has settled its internal disputes. Under an agreement reached between Harjeet Kaur, wife of the late Charanjit Singh, chairman of the group, her nephews, A. Ajit Singh and S. Satwant Singh and some minor shareholders, a professional firm will be appointed to determine whether Coca-Cola or Pepsi will be interested in buying or utilising the bottling plant and other infrastructure facilities of the group.

The group will buy out the shares held by Project Investments, a Montari group company, in two Pure Drinks companies. The shares were issued in lieu of loans that had remained unpaid.

The group's property at Connaught Lane in Delhi will be sold and the proceeds will be used to settle the group's dues.
Back to News Review index page

Spectra being re-made
New Delhi: TVS Suzuki plans to "re-make" its four-stroke scooter Spectra in view of the lukewarm response to the vehicle. The revamped vehicle will be in the market in January 2000.

The TVS Suzuki management believes that the Spectra failed because of  "tremendous resistance" to plastic, which the company has used substantially to substitute metal in the vehicle. The re-making will not involve any major changes, according to the company's chairman and managing director Venu Srinivasan.

The company will also phase out its two-stroke vehicles in three years.
Back to News Review index page

Sterlite expands fibre optic capacity
Mumbai: Sterlite Industries India has almost doubled its optic fibre cable capacity to 2,50,000 km. The company plans to further expand the capacity of optic fibre considering the potential demand for the product from telecom operators.

The capacity expansion has been undertaken at a cost between Rs 20 crore and Rs 30 crore, company officials said.
Back to News Review index page

BSES power project in Delhi
Mumbai: BSES, the city-based power distributor, is setting up a 500 MW gas-based power project in Delhi. It is seeking distribution rights in lieu of an escrow account or state government guarantee.

The final approval of the project is awaited. BSES is planning to set up the project as a joint venture with the Gas Authority of India and Delhi Vidyut Board. BSES will have 51 per cent equity in the project.
Back to News Review index page

Archies plans brand evaluation
Mumbai: New Delhi-based Archies Greetings & Gifts, a public limited company enjoying a 45 per cent market share, is planning evaluation of its brand and a foray into global markets.

The company is also planning to sell its greeting cards and other merchandise through the internet, Anil Moolchandani, chairman and managing director, said.
Back to News Review index page

ICICI transfers staff to infotech arm
Mumbai: ICICI has shifted its personnel in the information technology and transaction-processing units in all group operations to ICICI Infotech, a 100 per cent subsidiary. The transfers have been made from ICICI, ICICI Bank and ICICI Securities.

Besides the 150 people who have been transferred, ICICI Infotech has taken 43 personnel from Rohan Software, a firm it acquired recently. ICICI Infotech will be the transaction-processing company for the group and plans to become a 2000-people strong IT major.
Back to News Review index page

NIIT gets certification
New Delhi: NIIT has been assessed to be operating at SEI-CMM level 5, the highest maturity level as per the US-based Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model. The Indian company is now amongst the ten companies in the world that include -- Motorola (Bangalore facility), Boeing (Space Shuttle division), IBM (federal systems Space Shuttle division,), US Airforce Logistics Center, TCS, Wipro, Satyam, and ICIL.

SEI-CMM is now a globally recognised framework for assessing and improving the software development process.
Back to News Review index page

Shubham Industries acquired by Jain
Calcutta: Shubham Industries, a mini cement plant in Rourkela in Orissa, is understood to have been sold to Bhag Chand Jain of Kanknarah Jute. Unconfirmed reports said Mr Jain has purchased about 20 per cent of the Rs 4 crore equity from the promoters, the Sukhanis, at a nominal price of less than a rupee per share.

Mr Jain said he has not taken management control of the company.
Back to News Review index page

Trastream to take stake in Shri MM
Mumbai: US-based infotech company Trastream is to take one million shares in Shri MM Softek of Bangalore. This will be 17 per cent of Shri MM Softek's enhanced equity of Rs six crore.

The offer price to the US firm is likely to be Rs 60 per share (a premium of Rs 50 per share). This will constitute a 30 per cent discount as the shares of the company are traded at around Rs 90.
Back to News Review index page

Videocon plans Bahrain facility
Dubai: Videocon is setting up a $30-million manufacturing plant in Bahrain to cater to the local and other Gulf markets.

According to Bahrain Tribune, Videocon's partner in the project is Bahrain's United Commercial Agencies. Videocon will hold a 49 per cent stake in the venture and United Commercial Agencies 51 per cent. The company will manufacture television sets.
Back to News Review index page

ICI selling acrylics firm
London: Imperial Chemical Industries is selling its acrylics business, and Jim Ratcliffe, a known figure in the UK chemical industry, is bidding for the business in association with Charterhouse Development Capital. The deal is estimated to be worth 500 - 550 million. It will be concluded in about two weeks, sources said.

ICI is known to be interested in retaining a minority stake in the business.
Back to News Review index page

Microsoft, Lycos join to form eBay rival
New York: Microsoft, Lycos and a host of electronic commerce internet sites have formed an online auction alternative to eBay, the No 1 online auction site.

Scott Randall, founder and chief executive of FairMarket, the company that created the auction network, says it will function like a virtual warehouse to which nearly 100 sites will link their auctions. Until now eBay has dominated the business offering consumer-to-consumer auctions within a single marketplace.

The creation of the alternative saw the shares of eBay fall by more than $8 on the Nasdaq.
Back to News Review index page

EC inquiry against Volkswagen
Brussels: The European Commission says it is investigating Volkswagen's sales practices over suspicions that the carmaker would have violated European Union antitrust rules. An EC spokesman said the alleged infringement pertained to price-fixing attempts when the company launched a new Passat.  

The EC had fined Volkswagen $106 million in January 1998 after finding it and its Audi subsidiary guilty of banning Italian dealers from selling vehicles to residents in neighbouring Germany and Austria.
Back to News Review index page

Bosch unit for sale
Frankfurt: Siemens, Deutsche Bank and a unit of GEC of Britain are interested in buying parts of electronic conglomerate Robert Bosch's telecommunications business. Bosch wants to sell off its entire telecommunications division, Der Spiegel magazine said.
Back to News Review index page

Chevron plans Phillips Petroleum buy
London: Chevron, the US oil giant, is planning to buy rival Phillips Petroleum for around $16.2 billion to create a combined group worth $81 billion.

According to the Sunday Times, an advisor close to the deal said the firms had been in talks for the last two months.
Back to News Review index page

Qwest chief gets stock windfall
New York: Qwest Communications International chairman Joseph Nacchio, who wrested local phone company US West from rival Global Crossing has been granted stock options worth $136.6 million and cash payments of about $26 million.

US West chairman Sol Trujillo gets stock options worth about $27 million as part of a retention package to make him stay with the merging phone companies.

Qwest, the No 4 US long distance company, launched a bid for US West, the smallest of the five Baby Bells, and long distance company Frontier Corporation in an attempt to woo them away from their existing merger agreement with Global Crossing. After five weeks of deal-making Qwest and Global Crossing reached a compromise, with Qwest winning the hand of US West and Global Crossing winning Frontier.
Back to News Review index page