Ficci tells government to dilute BPCL, HPCL stakes
New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has asked the government to dilute its stake in four public sector petroleum companies to less than 50 per cent. This will show that the government means business on the disinvestment front, says Ficci.

The companies are Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Madras Refineries and Cochin Refineries. The dilution of stake will almost double the market capitalisation of these companies, says Ficci.
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Ikon launch set for 22 November
New Delhi: Ford India will launch its Ikon on 22 November. The mid-size car is expected to be a direct competitor to Hyundai's Accent, which is set to hit the roads this week.

Ford India is expecting Ford Motor chief executive officer Jacques Nasser to be in India to launch the vehicle.
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Hyundai not to cut Accent prices
Chennai: Hyundai Motor India has confirmed that it is not making any change in the price structure announced for its Accent -- Rs 5.35 lakh to Rs 5.85 lakh -- following Ford's pricing of its Ikon at below Rs 5 lakh. "There is no proposal to roll back the base prices announced in Delhi on 14 October," Hyundai Motor officials said.

"We decided to place Accent on a technology as well as value bench mark. Depending on their own brand, others can price their products above or below this level, Hyundai director (marketing) B.V.R. Subbu said.
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Baron changes TCL ads
Mumbai: Baron International is making changes in its TCL advertising campaign. This follows objections filed with the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission by BPL and Philips over a "misleading advertisement".

BPL and Philips contend that Baron has been placing ambiguous advertisements that have confused the general public. The group has been aggressively promoting TCL, a leading Chinese electronics company, in the lower end of the colour television segment in India.

Baron claims there are no factual errors in the advertisements, but it is making some minor changes so that they are legally correct.
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Thermax unit to sell air monitoring systems
Pune: Thermax Fuji Electric, a unit of the Thermax group, has launched a range of ambient air monitoring systems in collaboration with Advanced Pollution Instrumentation of the US. Advance Pollution Instrumentation will supply the basic equipment -- the analysers -- and Thermax Fuji Electric will customise the assembling, designing and installation of the systems.

The units will be assembled at the company's plant at Chinchwad near Pune.
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UB to set up Millennium division
Bangalore: The UB group is setting up a 'millennium division'. Group chairman Vijay Mallya is expected to make a formal announcement to this effect on 20 October. The division will market all the group's premium beer and spirits brands. It will be headed by Ravi Jain, who recently joined the group as president after quitting Shaw Wallace & Company.
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AceS, Globalstar to launch satellite phone services
Geneva: Two world companies, the Lockheed Martin-promoted AceS, and Loral Orion-promoted Globalstar, have announced their plans to go ahead with their satellite phone projects, in spite of the setbacks suffered by two other major international players, Iridium and ICO.

AceS said it will launch its satellite on 31 October from Kazakhstan and plans to offer its services in another three months. Globalstar has already started its services from 11 October.

AceS will offer its services in India in the first quarter of 2000 and Globalstar by the end of 1999.
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DaimlerChrysler likely to buy Ssangyong
Seoul: DaimlerChrysler has proposed to buy the van division of South Korea's Ssangyong Motor, a unit of the Daewoo group. The Seoul Economic Daily said a high-level government official has said the German company will begin negotiations on the takeover of Ssangyong's van division soon.

Earlier General Motors had clarified that it is not pursuing a takeover plan of Ssangyong Motors, although it is in talks with Daewoo Motor for a strategic alliance.
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