Satyam Infoway in deal to buy IndiaWorld
Mumbai: In perhaps the first-ever acquisition in India of Internet-related startups, Satyam Infoway has bought over the Mumbai-based portal site IndiaWorld  for $115 million (around Rs 499 crore) in a two-stage cash transaction. The Rs 1.3-crore IndiaWorld has a focus on non-resident Indians and runs popular sites like khoj.com, an Indian search engine, samachar.com, a news-based site and khel.com, devoted to sports.

The deal has already come into effect, with Satyam Infoway having paid $28 million in cash to IndiaWorld for 24.5 per cent of the company as the first phase of the transaction. In the second phase, the company will acquire the remaining shares before 30 June 2000 for $87 million. Towards this, Satyam has paid an advance of $12 million, which will be adjusted against the final payment. Satyam also has the option to extend the deadline up to 30 September 2000 -- after which IndiaWorld’s owner Rajesh Jain can offer the remaining 75.5 per cent stake to anybody else. Satyam will lose the deposit.

Satyam Infoway managing director R. Ramraj said IndiaWorld, with its dominant audience overseas would provide a perfect fit to make Satyam's Satyam Online the portal of choice for India.
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Maruti launches Baleno
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog unveiled its mid-size luxury sedan, the Baleno, pricing it at Rs 6.74 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi). The Baleno is the first new Maruti model to be introduced after the Zen was launched six years ago. Maruti’s managing director Jagdish Khattar said the company will bring in a number of models across the spectrum in the new year. "The introduction of the Baleno is the first of the many steps that we will be taking to make this happen," he added.

With the launch of the Baleno, the company now has the full range of vehicles, from the entry level Maruti 800 to the Baleno at the top level. The car has a 1,600-cc, 16-valve four-cylinder aluminium engine with a maximum power of 94 brake horse power. It is Euro II compliant and will have a multi-point fuel injection system, power steering, power windows, central locking, air-conditioning and heater. The car is expected to give a mileage of about 12 km per litre of petrol in city driving conditions.
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Daewoo plans a top-end model
New Delhi: Daewoo Motors India will introduce a new model at the upper end of the Indian car market soon. Announcing this, S.G. Awasthi, the company's managing director,  said the company would like to be present in every segment of the passenger car market in the country.

Daewoo Motors India plans to give a semi-urban thrust to its marketing. It will also introduce innovative marketing schemes like car replacement. The company has secured a firm export order for 2,500 Matiz cars from Western Europe. The exports, initially to the UK and Italy, will start in January 2000.
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Petronet marketing pact
New Delhi: The Gas Authority of India Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation have reached an agreement on the rights for marketing the product of Petronet LNG. Gail will be the principal marketer at Dahej and Kochi, where Petronet proposes to develop two terminals. Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum will be subsidiary marketing companies in the northern and southern regions. Petronet LNG will sell the entire product to the principal marketing company in a take or pay contract.

The three oil companies are equity holders in Petronet LNG along with the Oil and Natural gas Corporation.
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ModiLuft revival plans
Mumbai: British Airways unit Speedwings has structured a revival plan for ModiLuft, the S.K. Modi-promoted airline that has been grounded for several years and is now planning a revival of operations. Speedwings has presented a $37 million plan for this. The funds will be raised through debt and equity.

ModiLuft plans to clear all its debts by the end of the current year to meet the norms set by the directorate general of civil aviation for revalidation of its licence. The airline is understood to have received a letter of intent from an European bank for $17 million in debt.
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Bar on Kirloskar Systems
New Delhi: The government has rejected an application from Kirloskar Systems to supply components to companies other than Toyota, with which it has a joint venture to make cars in India. The government has ruled that the auto component joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and the Kirloskars cannot supply components to players other than Toyota.

The department of industrial policy and promotion has said granting such a permission will amount to retail trading as third party sales could be carried out by Kirloskar Systems. The ruling makes it clear that Kirloskar Systems can supply goods only for the Toyota vehicle project.
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Global Tele sets up e-com gateway
Mumbai: Global Tele-systems has set up a payment gateway infrastructure that paves the way for complete e-business over the Internet. It has thus become the first company in India to set up such a system. Global Tele-systems has collaborated with a Hewlett-Packard subsidiary, Verifone, for the technology, and with Deutsche Bank, which will act as the clearing agency. The payment gateway is a validating agency and a middle link for large scale e-commerce transactions.

Global Tele-systems has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about the project and its collaboration with Verifone. The agreement is exclusive for the next 12 months. Verifone is the world’s largest  e-commerce business payment processor.
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Mannesmann campaign against takeover
Frankfurt: In a bid to persuade investors to reject the Vodafone AirTouch offer, Germany's Mannesmann has launched an ad campaign about its desire to ensure shareholder value. It is saying that it expects its average annual proportionate telecom earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to grow more than 30 per cent a year from 2000 to 2003. It also says that it expects an average proportional telecom growth of more than 25 per cent.

Mannesmann chief executive Klaus Esser, in London talking to analysts, said the Vodafone offer -- at over 253 euros per share -- was totally insufficient, taking into consideration the closing figures of Mannesmann shares.
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Australia welcomes Branson
Canberra: Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin group, who met Australian prime minister John Howard, is upbeat about the prospects of his plans for Australia. Emerging from the meeting, Mr Branson said the Australian government is keen to lower domestic airfares now imposed by Qantas and Ansett Australia. "They have said they want competition, they want lower fares, they want the duopoly to be broken," Mr Branson said.

Meanwhile, the Australian stock market reacted to the meeting, dumping Qantas, which, along with Ansett, has prevented attempts for starting a third airline. Its shares fell more than 15 per cent on 29 November.
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Hanson buys Pioneer
London: Hanson, the British building materials firm, is paying $2.54 billion in cash and shares to buy Australian company Pioneer International, which is engaged in the same business. The deal will make Hanson the world’s largest aggregates group. Hanson chief executive Andrew Dougal said the combination will expand the company’s US operations in Texas and bring in new markets in aggregates and ready mix concrete in Arizona and Utah. The acquisition will also complement Hanson’s existing activities in the US.
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Lufthansa, Austrian airline plan JV
Vienna: Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines Group are close to creating a joint venture carrier to serve routes between Austria and Germany. Reports said the Austrian Airlines Group, which joined the Lufthansa-led Star Alliance, and Lufthansa will pool all business areas on these routes and divide income equally.
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AMD’s new chip to take on Pentium III
New York: Advanced Micro Devices is introducing its new Athlon chip that runs at a faster speed than Intel’s Pentium III chip. While Pentium III has speeds of 733 megahertz, the Athlon chip can run at 750 megahertz, analysts said. AMD is also expected to announce a 533-megahertz K6-2 chip, which targets Intel’s Celeron range.
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