Indian Oil, Lubrizol in JV
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation has signed an agreement with Lubrizol Corporation of the US to set up a joint venture and to market speciality additives. Indianoil will buy out 83 per cent of the government’s stake in Lubrizol India, a 60:40 joint venture between the government of India and Lubrizol of the US. The balance stake will be bought by the US company. Lubrizol India makes additives at its plant near Mumbai.

The government has appointed the Industrial Development Bank of India and Enam Finance as merchant bankers to finalise the price at which its stake can be sold.
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Thai companies to exit JT Mobile
New Delhi: Two Thai companies, Jasmine International and TOT, which together hold 23 per cent of southern cellular service provider JT Mobile, are planning to exit the venture. They will not participate in the new round of funding planned by Bharti Enterprises, which has acquired a stake in the company.

The Bharti group has taken over SC Cellular, the Sanmar group company that holds 18 per cent of JT Mobile's equity. Bharti Enterprises is committing Rs 400 crore to expand the company's network in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where it has licences for cellular services.

Jasmine and TOT have cited domestic pressures as reasons for their decision. They are, however, extending "all support" to Bharti’s efforts at JTM, a press release from the company said.
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Bharti now eyes Skycell
New Delhi: Immediately following the deal that saw his group acquiring SC Cellular, which gave him a stake in JT Mobile, the southern cellular telephone venture, the Bharti group's Sunil Mittal is spreading his tentacles further. He is in planning to buy a 51 per cent stake in Skycell, the cellular operator for Chennai.

Bharti group officials confirmed that the group is in talks with the Thapars to buy their 40.5 per cent stake and with DSS for its 10.5 per cent in Skycell. This will give the Delhi-based Mittals a controlling interest in the cell venture and make their group the largest private sector telecom operator in the country with a presence in Delhi in the north and Chennai in the south and in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka. Mr Mittal is understood to have earmarked Rs 125 to Rs 150 crore for the acquisition.
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Kirloskar Systems starts output
Bangalore: Kirloskar Systems, Toyota’s joint venture partner in Toyota Kirloskar Motor, has started production of rear and front axles, side steps and propeller shafts that will go into the new Toyota multi-purpose vehicle Qualis. The vehicle will be launched in January 2000. The company is also likely to make transmission systems for the Qualis, which are at present imported from Japan. Kirloskar Systems has set up a Rs 90-crore plant at Bidadi in Karnataka.

Kirloskar Systems owns 11.14 per cent of the equity of Toyota Kirloskar Motor although the joint venture was conceived with a 26 per cent holding for the Kirloskars and 74 per cent for Toyota. The Kirloskars have the option to enhance their holding to 26 per cent before 2004. The Kirloskars have three seats on the 11-member board of the joint venture.
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Maruti posts 76% hike in November sales
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog recorded a 76 per cent increase in sales in November 1999 compared to November 1998. The Indian passenger car industry registered a marked increase in sales during the month. Other leading companies, Telco, Daewoo, and Hyundai, also posted growth in sales during the month.

Maruti sold 32,115 cars, against 18,241 in November 1998. The company’s Omni almost doubled sales – 7,518 units compared to 3,585 in November last year. Bot the Maruti 800 and Zen recorded higher sales.

Telco registered sold 5,214 Indicas, against 4,744 in October 1999. Daewoo sold 3,139 units of its Matiz in November against 2,940 in October, and Hyundai sold 6,301 Santros against 6,207 earlier.
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Seiko Epson plans India arms
Mumbai: Japan’s Seiko Epson Corporation is setting up two wholly-owned subsidiaries in India to look after sales and to handle research and development in software. Seiko Epson is a global leader in inkjet printers. Company sources, however, ruled out any plans to start manufacturing facilities in India as it has well-established facilities in China, Indonesia and the Philippines. The company will initially focus on its sales and marketing activities and plans to extend its reach to smaller cities and towns.
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NIIT bags Malaysian Smart Schools Order
Mumbai: Global IT solutions and training company NIIT has bagged an order worth $7 million to develop multimedia learning software for Malaysian Smart Schools. Smart Schools is one of the seven flagship applications of the Malaysian multimedia super corridor (MSC), a unique effort by the Government of Malaysia for school students to practise self-directed and self-paced learning.

NIIT will be creating the entire science curriculum for primary as well as secondary classes based on simulation and animation created in the latest multimedia platform. Over 500 hours of learning material that would include electronic courseware, teachers’ guide and lesson plans from class IV onwards will be developed.
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Eximsoft gets ICT contract
Mumbai: EximSoft Technologies (formerly Reliance Systems), has bagged a $1 million contract for developing advanced business tools, products and solutions for North Carolina, US-based International Communication Technologies Group. The contract is to develop an entire range of advanced "3 D Business Tools" to be marketed globally. The project will be executed over a 15-month period.

This will be the first of the many development contracts to be executed for ICT Group by EximSoft. The ICT Group has decided to set up an independent company, named "3D Business Tools Inc." to promote and market the products that will be supplied by EximSoft. In addition to developing the products, EximSoft will also have the rights to market these high technology products in several parts of the globe.
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Compaq launches e-business initiative in India
Mumbai: Compaq has announced its e-commerce initiative in India, the Non Stop eBusiness strategy. It comes close on the heels of similar initiatives by IBM and Hewlett-Packard and aims to offer the highest level of availability, scalability, manageability and security to any enterprise in the e-business environment. These solutions will allow businesses to run non-stop every hour, every day, every week of the year. They integrate with and build on enterprise applications like customer relationship management, knowledge management and value chain management.

Compaq has signed up partnerships with industry leaders like Financial Software Systems and Tata Technologies in India besides Microsoft, Oracle and i2 Technologies at the global level for this initiative.
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Datapro is Nortel distributor
Mumbai: Software vendor and training company Datapro has been appointed as "country distributor" for Nortel Networks, the $18 billion US telecom major. Nortel’s products include services based on the Internet protocol, telephony and wireless networking. Nortel owns brands like Bay Networks, Accelar and Norstar.
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Aptech, Sun in collaborative venture
Mumbai: Software training major Aptech and Sun Microsystems are partnering in a venture to make electronic commerce solutions for banking, insurance and business-to-business retail segments based on the Sun platform. The two companies are also working on building a portal for enabling business-to-business transactions covering 10 segments of the manufacturing industry.
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Ocean Infrastructure plans catamaran service
Calcutta: Ocean Infrastructure, a marine infrastructure company, is planning to operate a catamaran service between Mumbai and Diu in Gujarat. The service will be operated through a 400-seater catamaran to be acquired from Australian shipbuilders at a cost of Rs 45 crore. The service is expected to start in September 2000. The company is also planning to operate hovercraft between the Gateway of India and Navi Mumbai in Mumbai.
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BC Components takes over Philips plant
Pune: BC Components India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of BC International of the Netherlands, has acquired the component facility of Philips India at Loni near Pune for Rs 32.5 crore. The sale is part of Philips’ global strategy to exit components and concentrate on design and product development.

The Loni plant is being sold as a going concern with all its assets. The acquisition will help the BC International make an entry into the Indian component market. The Loni facility has multi-product manufacturing capabilities.
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Rafael group in hotel JV
Mumbai: Rafael group of hoteliers and a new Indian company, Indian Hotels and Health Resorts, are setting up a joint venture to develop, manage and market luxury hotels and resorts in India and other Saarc countries. The $150 million Monaco-based Rafael group will have a 51 per cent stake in the proposed Rs 46.25-crore equity of the joint venture, Rafael Hotels South Asia.

Indian Hotels and Health Resorts is a company jointly promoted by Gautam Khanna, former executive director of the Oberoi group of hotels. Ashok Khanna, former president and chief executive officer of Indus Hotels Corporation, Ghanshyam Sheth, executive director of Great Eastern Shipping, Parmeshwar Godrej of the Godrej group, and Chandu Chadda, architect and hotel designer of Hong Kong.

Rafael Hotels South Asia will develop Anand, a Rs 44-crore spa-cum resort in the Himalayas in the first instance. The spa will be spread over 100 acres of saal forests close to Rishikesh.
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Hoechst selling Omnatax
Mumbai: Hoechst Marion Roussel is selling its anti-bacterial Omnatax. The brand joins Corbutyl, Cidoresp, Synastat and Cidomex, which are all being sold by the company in its effort to prune its product mix. Omnatax is a brand of cefotaxime, a third generation cephalosporin. The company will continue to make another brand of cefotaxime, Claforan.

Nicholas Piramal India is believed to be interested in Omnatax.
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Vickers, Goh merge
Singapore: Vickers Ballas Holdings, the largest stockbroker in terms of market value in Singapore, is merging with GK Goh Holdings, creating a S$1.46 billion company -- Goh, Vickers. The merged entity will have a major retail distribution franchise across the region as well as a global institutional client base. "The merger will transform Goh, Vickers into an integrated financial services group with the size and capability to enable it to compete more effectively than either company by itself," GK Goh Holdings said. Analysts said the new company will be able to get an estimated 20 per cent of Singapore’s stock market activity.

Last year, Vickers and ST Capital had merged, while GK Goh Holdings had tied up with Lee & Co.
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NBC launches net company
New York: NBC has launched a publicly-traded Internet company, NBC Internet, which is said to be the first of its kind. The company was formed by combining the Snap.com portal, a community services and direct electronic commerce company XOOM.com and select Internet properties of NBC, which is known as the Peacock Network.

NBC, a General Electric unit, is the largest equity holder in the company. NBC Internet will provide services like search and directory, community, shopping, e-commerce, multimedia and entertainment services across all bandwidths. Consumers can find and buy virtually anything on the Internet through the portal.
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Okay for Exxon-Mobil deal
Washington: The US government has approved Exxon Corporation’s $82 billion purchase of Mobil Corporation that will create the world’s largest publicly-traded oil company. The two companies have agreed to sell a record $2 billion in assets to satisfy antitrust concerns of the Federal Trade Commission.

The new company will divest 2,431 gasoline outlets, pipeline interests in Alaska and the American south-east, an oil refinery in California, and other assets.
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Microsoft mediator holds meeting
Chicago: Richard Posner, the judge appointed as mediator in the Microsoft anti-trust case, met representatives of Microsoft, 19 states and the justice department for nearly two hours on 30 November to explore chances of a settlement in the case. None of the parties at the meeting made any formal statement.
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