ABB to buy Crompton Greaves' stake in CG-Elsag
New Delhi: ABB is buying Crompton Greaves' stake in CG-Elsag Bailey, a joint venture between Crompton Greaves and Elsag Bailey. Crompton Greaves holds 49 per cent in the venture, and its financial arm Crompton Greaves Capital Investment 8.33 per cent.

ABB Holdings (South Asia) will buy the shares held by the two. CG-Elsag Bailey will issue 6.9 lakh preference shares to ABB Asea Brown Boveri, the parent company of AB Holding.
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Apollo Tyres to offer equity to Continental
New Delhi: Apollo Tyres will creater firmer ties with Continental of Germany. The plan covers offering equity to Continental, the world's fourth largest tyre producer.

O.S. Kanwar, managing director of Apollo Tyres, will be visiting Europe, and talks on the proposal are likely to be held at that time. At present, Continental has a technology sharing arrangement with Apollo Tyres. Apollo Tyres has already inducted Continental's Robert Steinmetz, international business unit head, as a director on its board.
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Sahara talking to Boeing Capital for plane lease
Bangalore: Sahara Airlines is talking to Boeing Capital Corporation, the newly set up financing arm of Boeing Airplane Company for finance arrangement to purchase six Brazilian-made turbo-prop Embraer planes on dry lease for three to five years.

Boeing Capital has already leased two Boeing 737-400 planes to Sahara Airlines. The airline is also inducting two more next generation Boeings on lease from Mitsui Aviation in a few months.

Sahara Airlines is also talking to other leasing companies.
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Compaq ties up loan scheme for PCs
Mumbai: Compaq Computers (India) is tying up with American Express to offer loan schemes for consumers to buy its Presario range of home computers. American Express will give 100 per cent financial support to consumers. An entry level Presario is priced at Rs 30,000 under the scheme, and the consumer will have to pay Rs 600 plus Re 1 for taking delivery.
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DSP Merrill employees on strike
Mumbai: Employees of the equity operations department of DSP Merrill Lynch in Mumbai are on a strike. Some 28 employees have struck work following the management's decision to charge-sheet and hold an inquiry against  president of DSP Merrill Lunch Employees Union, Jitendra Kamble.

Mr Kamble said the union has resorted to a strike as its demands regarding reinstatement/payment of proper compensation to two union members, whose services were terminated, were not heeded.

The company has claimed that the strike is illegal and has alleged that the union president has committed several acts of misconduct, including violation of the company's policy regarding equity trading by employees.
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Telco reports higher truck sale
Mumbai: Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company has reported a rise in the sale of medium and heavy commercial vehicles in September 1999. The company says it has sold 7,199 trucks, marking a 120 per cent increase from the 3,262 units it sold in the corresponding period last year.

The company sold 29,621 trucks during April-September 1999 compared to 18,049 last year.
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UAE's Conmix to set up Indian unit
New Delhi: Conmix of UAE is setting up a manufacturing base in Pune. The company makes construction materials like ready-mix concrete and dry plasters.

Conmix is a joint venture between Germany's Karl Epple and two UAE companies, Bhuktiar Investments and German Gulf Enterprises. The Indian unit is also expected to cater to construction material requirements in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Singapore and Brunei.
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L&T, Case Corporation in JV
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro and Case Corporation of the US have set up a joint venture company, L&T Case Equipment, to make small and medium construction equipment. The new company will have equity participation on an equal basis from L&T and Case Mauritius, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Case Corporation.

The joint venture company has taken over the existing manufacturing facilities of L&T at Pithampur near Indore in Madhya Pradesh as a going concern for a consideration of Rs 29 crore.
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L&T scouts for partners in cement unit
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro is exploring partnership with world leaders in its cement business. It has identified Cement Frances and Lafarge SAS of France, Cemex of Mexico, Blue Circle of the UK and Holderbank of Switzerland. The plan is for L&T to hive off its cement division and offer a stake in it to strategic partners.

The hiving off will take place after the company's consultants, Boston Consulting Group, finalises the restructuring plan sometime in end-October. Initial discussions with these cement majors have already taken place, L&T sources said.
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The Media Edge coming to India
Mumbai: Dentsu Young & Rubicam's The Media Edge is coming to India. The media management company plans to offer media services for only brands handled by the company's associates in the country, namely Rediffusion and Everest Advertising. The service package includes selling, buying and research.
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RPG group plans to make big-budget films
Calcutta: The RPG group is now into showbiz. It is talking to well known producers from Mumbai to produce big-budget films. Gramco Music Publishing, a subsidiary of the RPG group company, Gramophone Company of India, will be the vehicle for the foray into films. The company will handle the entire financing of the films.

The company is not a novice in the line. It has produced films like Kalki in Tamil and Godmother in Hindi.
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Enron plans Gujarat foray
Ahmedabad: Enron has decided to set up a base in Gujarat. The company will take up power projects in the state, says Sanjay Bhatnagar, chief executive officer of Enron India. The company is also interested in marketing LNG in the state.

Government sources said Enron is interested in setting up a mega power plant in Gujarat.
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ZiLOG sets up design centre
Bangalore: ZiLOG, the Campbell, California-based $260 million company making semiconductor products for home entertainment, communications and integrated control markets is setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India. ZiLOG India Electronics will be the company's first design centre outside the US.

The company will invest about $500,000 initially in the centre. The centre will develop realtime operating systems, compilers and development tools for ZiLOG.
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Tata Tea scales down price for Tetley
Calcutta: Tata Tea may not like to invest more than 220 million in acquiring Tetley of the UK. It has decided this is after a recent due diligence exercise. Earlier Tata Tea had offered up to 290 million for the acquisition.

The company has been in the process of tying up funds from Rabo Bank, HSBC and Credit Suisse First Boston for part-financing the deal.
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Fujitsu-ICIM-Accel deal signed
Chennai: Fujitsu-ICIM and Accel have finally signed the agreement for the sale of the former's systems and engineering services division.

The sale, which was finalised over a year ago, was delayed due to differences between Fujitsu and the RPG group. The matter was referred to a court in Pune. Accel had twice given three-month extensions to Fujitsu-ICIM as the deal could not be completed after it was signed.
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M&M pact with Israel co for bullet-proofing
New Delhi: Mahindra and Mahindra has tied up with Plassan of Israel for bullet-proofing vehicles. Its subsidiary Mahindra Auto Specialities will convert Mahindra vehicles and Hindustan Motors' Ambassador cars initially into bullet proof vehicles. Other vehicles will be taken up later.

The company has displayed a bullet proof vehicle, which uses composite steel, high performance polyethylene and aramid laminates, at the Defexpo 99 in New Delhi.
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VNU buys BI's stake in ORG Marg.
Mumbai: Netherlands-based VNU, an international information and publishing company, has formally concluded its deal with Ashok Advani's Business India group for purchase of the Indian group's 50.2 per cent stake in market research company ORG-Marg. The deal will be finalised after clearance from the Reserve Bank of India.

The agreement signed on 11 October has a clause enabling Mr Advani to buy back the entire VNU stake in ORG Marg on or before March 2000. VNU had earlier picked up a 26 per cent stake in ORG Marg in 1996.
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Bonus issue by Gujarat Ambuja, profit up
Mumbai: Gujarat Ambuja Cements has declared a1:1 bonus as it posted a 195 per cent increase in its first quarter net profit. The company said its net profit for the period is Rs 50.1 crore, up from Rs 17 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The company's turnover grew 16 per cent to Rs 281 crore from Rs 241.6 crore.
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GM may buy Ssangyong, Samsung
Seoul: General Motors Corporation said it is considering buying two South Korean automobile companies, Ssangyong Motor and Samsung Motors, in addition to Daewoo Motor Company. "We do not rule out the possibility that GM could also buy Ssangyong Motor and Samsung Motors," said General Motors' Seoul spokesman Lee Ki-sup.

Ssangyong is a unit of the debt-ridden Daewoo group, which is being dismembered. General Motors is already in talks for acquiring Daewoo Motors. Analysts find some logic in General Motors' plans. They say it will be difficult to sell Ssangyong and Samsung separately because of their limited capacity, but a purchase of these units along with Daewoo Motor makes eminent sense.
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Pfizer told to pay Trovan
Los Angeles: A US federal court jury awarded $143 million in damages to British pharmaceutical company Trovan after a two-month-long legal battle against Pfizer Corporation for alleged trade mark violations. This is claimed to be the largest such award in a trade mark infringement case.

Pfizer was ordered to cease using the Trovan name to market a human antibiotic product. Pfizer proposes to appeal against the judgement.
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Cisco plans 20 acquisitions
Geneva: Cisco Systems, the largest maker of computer networking systems in the world, is earmarking $10 billion for takeovers. It said it will acquire some 20 companies, mainly in Europe in 2000.

Cisco has purchased some 40 companies in the last six years. Cisco president John Chambers says he plans to pick up a number of companies in Europe in areas like data, voice and video integration and software applications.

Mr Chambers said he is in talks with Nokia and Ericsson for possible partnerships.
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Kvaerner to cut jobs
Oslo: Anglo-Norwegian engineering and shipbuilding company Kvaerner said it planned to divide 3,000 job losses in its oil and gas division equally between Norway and Britain. Employees in Kvaerner Oil and Gas will be informed that 1,500 of these represent cuts in the Norwegian activities, a company statement in Oslo said.
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Electronic paper being developed
New York: Lucent Technologies and E Ink Corporation, which makes 'electronic ink' used on billboards and large signs, have teamed up to develop a low-cost electronic paper that can pave the way for paperless books.

The technology involves a flexible plastic sheet to electronically display text and images that will be comparable to viewing printed ink on paper.
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