Telco plans JV for engine, foundry and tools units
Mumbai: Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company will hive off its engine, foundry and machine tools divisions and convert them into joint ventures. The company is in the process of identifying partners for this purpose. The names of Italian foundry major Teksid and Fiat group company Comau have been mentioned in this connection.

Telco had earlier hived off its axles and transmission divisions, and it is likely to sign a memorandum of understanding with Meritor, a division of Rockwell, for the axles joint venture. The company is also talking to NVG of the US for the transmission division joint venture.
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JD Power study to be standard for Telco
Mumbai: Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company has taken the adverse quality rankings given to its vehicles  in the market research report of  JD Power & Associates in its stride. The company says it views the study with immense respect and as a "constructive feedback".

The JD Power & Associates' market survey for 1999 places Telco vehicles Sumo, Indica and Safari, at the bottom of the quality rankings, just above Ambassador of Hindustan Motors. The rankings are in the order of number of problems per 100 vehicles.  Mitsubishi's Lancer gets the top spot.

Telco chairman Ratan Tata said the company will take the survey as a standard and it stands committed to do whatever it takes to retain customers and win over new ones. "We will make every effort to ensure that Telco's products compare favourably with those of competitors," Mr Tata said in a statement. He, however, contended that  "the customer perceptions that have been highlighted appear belied by the heartening response that the Indica has had since the launch and the continued demand for the product".
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Indian Oil, ONGC cement ties
Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation is signing an agreement with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to ensure exclusive rights to market all the crude produced by ONGC after the year 2002. The two companies already have cross shareholdings and are strengthening their relationship to market each other's products, The Economic Times said in a report,

The agreement is likely to give Indianoil the first right to refuse ONGC's entire annual production of crude. Industry sources say Indianoil has the capacity to consume ONGC's entire output. Besides this agreement, Indianoil and ONGC plan to invest in each other's new ventures, including petrochemical complexes.
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Canadian online firm takes stake in Tata co
Mumbai: TD Waterhouse Group, world's third largest online brokerage firm with some $100 billion assets, has picked up a 49 per cent equity stake in Tata Finance Securities, a wholly-owned brokerage subsidiary of Tata Finance.

This is the first ever investment made by a foreign online broker in an Indian firm. The consideration for the stake has not been disclosed. The majority 51 per cent will remain with Tata Finance. TD Waterhouse, owned by Canada's Toronto Dominion Bank.

Tata Finance, with some 75 branches in India, is planning a big thrust into the Internet broking business with this joint venture, says Dilip Pendse, Tata Finance managing director.
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Dow Chemical opts out of IPCL bid
Baroda: Dow Chemical Company is opting out of the bid for a stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. Dow is understood to be opting out of the process as it is preoccupied with its acquisition of Union Carbide at the global level and is not in a position to undertake the due diligence exercise at present.

This leaves the Soros-Chatterjee-Indian Oil combine, Reliance Industries, and Mitsubishi in the field for the stake that will result from the government's disinvestment of 25 per cent equity in the petrochemicals company.

Dow is said to have requested the government to permit it to postpone the due diligence study, but the request was rejected.
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L&T, Indian Oil in JV
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian Oil Corporation for joint onshore and offshore oil exploration. The MoU covers petroleum production, upgrading refineries, pipelines and plants and offering training and consultancy services. The two will jointly focus on the development of power, petrochemical, pipeline and refinery projects on a joint venture basis.
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Indal plans Rs 350-crore expansion
Mumbai: Indian Aluminium Company, the 54 per cent subsidiary of Alcan Aluminium of Canada, is implementing a Rs 350-crore expansion programme to raise alumina production capacity from 2.9 lakh tonnes to 5.1 lakh tonnes per annum.

Indal chairman and chief executive officer Chris Bark-Jones said the project is expected to be completed within three years. The project cost will be financed through internal generation funds, Mr Jones said.

The company is implementing a "full business potential programme" to maximise value from existing assets.

Announcing the second quarter results of the company, Mr Bark-Jones said the prospects for the aluminium market are good as the prices of the metal have increased 30 per cent in international markets and domestic demand is expected to grow 7 per cent.

The company has also decided to divest its 29.9 per cent holding of 29.9 in Courtaulds Packaging (India) at the book value of Rs 4.7 crore.
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Citibank, FMO take stake in DCM Asic
Mumbai: Two equity funds of Citibank and FMO, the Netherlands-based fund, have picked up 57 per cent equity in DCM Asic Systems, the DCM group company formed by hiving off the software division of DCM Data Systems.

Citibank and FMO are reported to have paid $5.5 million for the stake. Citibank funds will hold 40 per cent and FMO 17 per cent. The balance 43 per cent will be with the DCM group (23 per cent) and the employees of the group (20 per cent).
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Ikon launched
New Delhi: Ford India officially announced the launch of its Ikon, pricing the car at a competitive Rs 4.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). This will be the most economic price in the mid-size luxury segment, after Maruti's Esteem, which is priced at Rs 4.66 lakh.

Philip Spender, managing director of Ford India, said the company will adopt a straddling pricing strategy with the entry level model competing with Esteem and Daewoo's Cielo and the top end model against Honda City, Lancer and Opel Astra. The price of three models to be introduced will range from Rs 4.99 lakh to Rs 6.47 lakh. The booking of the car will start on 3 November and will be on a 'first come, first serve' basis.
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Suzuki may allow GM to have stake in Maruti
New Delhi: Suzuki Motor of Japan, equal partner in Maruti Udyog, is not opposed to America's General Motors acquiring a stake in the Indian car major as the Japanese company has a global partnership with General Motors.

However, such an offer for equity will arise only if the Indian government decides to sell its stake.
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Hero Honda plans Rs 300 crore investment
New Delhi: Hero Honda will make an investment of Rs 300 crore by 2002 and introduce two new motorcycles. The company will also expand its production capacity to 1 million units.

Company chairman Brij Mohan Lall Munjal said the company has already invested Rs 100 crore in 1999-2000. He did not disclose the details of the proposed models.
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ORG slaps legal notice on Videocon
Mumbai: Market research agency ORG-GFK has slapped a legal notice on Videocon International, threatening  criminal proceedings for intimidating the company by repeatedly issuing threats of police search and seizure. ORG-GFK has also accused Videocon of manipulating its data to suit its purposes through motivated statements to the media. ORG seeks an unconditional apology from Videocon and retraction of imputations made against ORG.

ORG and the Videocon group have been engaged in an acrimonious battle over estimation Videocon's market share.
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ICICI, eVentures pick up stake in contest site
Mumbai: ICICI and eVentures, a News Corp-Softbank alliance, have each taken a 20 per cent stake in Surreal Contact, a holding company hosting a contest website, contests2win.com. The site claims to have a membership of 65,000 Indians and 150 brand associations from 120 companies.
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Berkshire Hathaway buys power company
Houston: A group of investors led by Berkshire Hathaway, the Warren Buffett-owned investment group, is purchasing MidAmerican Energy, a regional power utility holding company, for $9 billion.

The purchase, $2.1 billion in cash and the rest  in assumed debt, is likely to be used by Mr Buffett as a vehicle for further investments in the energy sector. The Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway is into property and casualty insurance. MidAmerican owns two retail electric utilities, Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy and Northern Electric in the UK, as well as interests in several independent power generation facilities in the US, the UK and the Philippines.
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Micron chips for Compaq
New York: US semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology will supply memory components to Compaq Computer under a five-year contract.

The deal has been estimated at $20 billion over five years. Micron will become Compaq's single largest supplier of memory chips, meeting a bulk of the computer company's global requirements.
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Microsoft, NTT form JV
Tokyo: Microsoft and NTT Docomo are creating a joint venture to deliver mobile data services to corporate users in Japan. The joint venture, Mobimagic, will be held equally by the two firms. It will offer a data centre service for users of mobile phones, palm computers and other mobile computing devices.
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Grupo Mexico acquires Asarco
New York: Asarco has announced a $1.18 billion merger deal with Mexican company Grupo Mexico, cancelling an earlier $1.17 billion deal with Phelps Dodge. Phelps Dodge had refused to raise its cash and stock offer that valued Asarco shares at $29.34.

Grupo Mexico will pay $29.75 per Asarco share in cash and assume about $1 billion of Asarco's debt. Asarco paid Phelps Dodge a $30 million break-up fee in accordance with an earlier agreement.

With this merger, Grupo Mexico will be the third largest copper producer in the world, behind Chile's Codelco and Phelps Dodge.
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Cisco moots standard in wireless transmission
California: Cisco Systems is planning to involve 10 high-tech companies to set a standard for wireless transmission of data at high speeds. High-speed wireless data transmission is often interrupted in urban areas by buildings and other structures.

Cisco is to team up with Bechtel Telecommunications, Broadcom Corporation, Electronic Data Systems, KPMG, LCC International, Motorola, Pace Micro Technology, Samsung, Texas Instruments and a unit of Toshiba in this exercise.
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Intel launches 15 processors
California: Intel unveiled, as planned, 15 new Pentium processors, including a 733 MHz version. The mega-speed processor is an answer to rival Advanced Micro Device's 700 MHz version of its Athlon chip. Intel so far has only a desktop processor with a speed of 600 MHz.
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Viagra for women in 3 years
London: Pfizer is hopeful of a licence for use of its potency drug Viagra by women in three to four years. The company says doctors are currently carrying out both physical and psychological experiments on women to see their response.

"The science is still developing at present, but I think we're looking at at least three or four years before it is officially in the market," Dr Michael Sweeney, medical director of Pfizer, told BBC.
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