Voltas to shift operations to Vapi
New Delhi:  Tata group company Voltas has decided to shift its manufacturing operations to Vapi, an industrial town in south Gujarat. It will close down its Thane plant  in a phased manner under a restructuring programme now under way. The shift is to take advantage of the octroi concessions and the low cost of labour in Vapi. Initially, the forklift business will be transferred and later the heavy engineering and pumps operatiosn will also be shifted.

The company will henceforth give more weightage to engineering products and services and reorient itself as an assembly operations company,  its managing director N.D. Khurody told The Economic Times.

The company is also considering exiting from certain areas and selling off stakes in group companies under the restructuring programme. It will hive off Perfect Moulds, a group company, into a joint venture with a foreign company, sell group companies Premium Granites, Voltas Switchgear, and AgroChem, and dispose of its stake in Electrolux Voltas.
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Allwyn Watches shuts down
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has ordered the closure of Allwyn Watches with effect from 15 October. The company has terminated the services of 150 employees. Allwyn Watches, run by the state government, has accumulated losses of Rs 200 crore.

The other operations of the company, earlier called Hyderabad Allwyn, was formed after its refrigeration division was sold to Voltas. A scheme of its revival was approved by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, and BPL was to take over the company and infuse Rs 45 crore to revive and modernise it. But BPL later backed out of the deal. The state government had then taken over the company.
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M&M to pay Rs 20 per share of Guj. Tractors
New Delhi: Mahindra and Mahindra will pay Rs 20 per share of Gujarat Tractors in a deal that is almost finalised. Mahindra and Mahindra will acquire a 51 per cent stake in the company at a total cost of around Rs 20 crore.

The Gujarat government had earlier decided to divest its stake in Gujarat Tractors. Mahindra and Mahindra intends to supplement its product range with higher power tractors made by Gujarat Tractors and strengthen its presence in the Gujarat market.

Gujarat Tractors' manufacturing facility at Baroda has a capacity to annually make 1,500 to 2,000 tractors of  20 to 80 horse power. The company had come into existence through the nationalisation of the ailing Hinudustan Tractors in 1962.

Mahindra and Mahindra shareholders have already cleared the deal.
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Cybertech plans European acquisition
Mumbai: Cybertech Systems and Software, the Indian subsidiary of US-based Cybertech Systems Inc, will acquire an infotech company in Europe in order to consolidate its presence in the European market. The company Cybertech is considering has revenues close to $10 million and is engaged in ERP implementation and open systems.

The acquisition, expected to cost Cybertech around $9 to 10 million, will be financed by internal accruals. The European firm will be merged with the Indian arm.
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Sony to phase out curved TVs
New Delhi: Sony will phase out production of its curved picture tube televisions from the Indian market in line with its global strategy to concentrate on flat TVs. Sony will make only flat TVs, Takashi Itagaki, general manager (marketing), Sony India, says.

Sony was the first to launch flat TVs in India.
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Nestle to give up Campco facility
Bangalore: Nestle India is planning to return the production facility it has taken on contract from the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative at Puttur in Karnataka. Nestle says it is willing to release the capacities under its control by the beginning of 2000.

Campco's chocolate factory at Puttur produces 3,000 tonnes of finished products and 2,000 tonnes of semi-finished products for Nestle in a year. Campco earns Rs 7.5 crore from this contract. Now it wants to make finished products of its own at this facility.
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BIFR directive to govt on Bharat Pumps
New Delhi: The Board for Industrial and Financial Restructuring has said the government should consider changing the management of public sector company Bharat Pumps & Compressors Ltd or allow its merger with another company if it is not willing to finance the undertaking's revival. The government could also wind up the operations of the company.

The government had earlier appointed Crisil Advisory Services to conduct a diagnostic-cum-restructuring study, and the report is ready.

The BIFR has directed the government to communicate its view on the company to the State Bank of India, the operating agency, and the BIFR, by 30 December.
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Wockhardt files patent applications for  drug delivery system
Mumbai: Wockhardt has filed patent applications with the US drug regulator for four novel drug delivery systems. The Economic Times, in a report, said the company is now in the process of filing abbreviated new drug applications for these products in the US.

Three of the products are cardiovascular drugs and one an anti-ulcer product.

Habil Khorakiwala, managing director of the company, said the novel drug delivery systems are identical to the existing products of the company.
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Ranbaxy planning to buy stake in Ind-Swift
Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories is considering acquiring Ind-Swift, a Chandigarh-based company manufacturing formulations. Ranbaxy wants to take full control or at least a 51 per cent majority in the company.

Ind-Swift's managing director G. Munjal, confirming the move, said the talks are on, but the two companies have not reached any decision so far. He said Ind-Swift is offering a 15 to 20 per cent stake in its equity. The price offered by Ranbaxy is also too low, Mr Munjal said.
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Bajaj's Saffire ready for launch
Pune: Bajaj Auto's plant at Chakan in Maharashtra will go on stream on 20 October, producing the 100 cc Saffire. The plant, the company's third, is expected to make the two-wheeler major's new products, which were displayed at the Delhi Auto Show in January 1998.

The four-stroke Saffire, the company’s first offering with automatic transmission, will come in two versions -- 74-cc and 100-cc engines.
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Compaq computers or army
New Delhi: Compaq has launched a new range of notebook and hand-held systems for the army. The company is offering to customise them for the Indian armed forces. The rugged, state-of-the-art systems can be used in most demanding environments such as moving tanks, fighter planes and submarines, and in extreme temperatures, Compaq officials said.

The products were on display at the defence exhibition Defexpo-99.
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AT&T loses damages case
London: AT&T has lost a London High Court case in which it had sought the court's intervention to overturn an arbitration ruling ordering it to pay multi-million dollar damages to the Saudi Cable Company. AT&T had contended that the chairman of the main arbitration panel was possibly biased since, it was discovered, he was a non-executive director of a rival company.

The high court, however, rejected the claim, saying there is  no evidence of bias in the International Chamber of Commerce arbitrator, Canadian lawyer Yves Fortier. The original dispute arose over a preliminary agreement reached before awarding a contract for a $4.6 billion telecommunications expansion project in Saudi Arabia.
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CMC Group plans Nasdaq float
London: CMC Group, the online exchange and futures dealer of Hertfordhire, is considering a 500 million float. The company intends to list on the Nasdaq. However, the listing is not likely to take place until the end of 2000.
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