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Essar Power, Marathon officials to meet
Surat: Senior Essar Power executives are meeting their counterparts in
Marathon Power next week, perhaps, in an attempt to salvage the $170 million deal under
which Marathon was to buy Essar Power. The deal has been under cloud as a number of
Essar’s bankers and financial institutions have advised the group against the sale.
The Gujarat government and the Gujarat Electricity Board have also not given their final
clearance for the sale. Essar Power, a subsidiary of Essar Steel, is the only independent
power producer in the country, which supplies power to two customers, Essar Steel and GEB.
The deal with Marathon has been worked out partly to help Essar Steel meet its floating
rate notes commitments.
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Glaxo plans business restructuring
Mumbai: Glaxo Wellcome is initiating a restructuring exercise in its
pharmaceutical sales and marketing division. The company plans to reorient its focus on
therapy rather than trade. It will convert its three units, Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, Glaxo
Allenburys and Burroughs Wellcome into seven business units, with therapy focus on
gastroenterology, dermatology, respiratory, pediatrics, neurology, gynaecology and
surgery, intensive care, cardiovascular and diabetes. Each of these business units will
have independent sales and marketing staff. The company will also trim its 200-odd
products and reallocate them among the seven business units.
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Wagon-R from Maruti by
month-end
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog announced that it will launch its Wagon-R car by
December-end. The vehicle will be fitted with a 1000-cc engine. The launch comes barely a
month after the company introduced a luxury model, the Baleno, in the Indian market.
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Sterling Cellular
plans restructuring
New Delhi: Sterling Cellular, the cellular service provider in Delhi
owned by the Ruias, is restructuring its business activities. The immediate fallout is
removal of five senior executives. The company says it wants to set up a new operating
team. Sources, however, said the Ruias are in talks with Hutchison, possibly, with a view
to offering a stake in the company. The five executives who have got the sack are at the
vice-president and deputy general manager level.
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Dr Reddy’s open offer
for American Remedies
Mumbai: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories is making an open offer to acquire
10.53 lakh equity shares of American Remedies at Rs 175 per share. Dr Reddy’s has
already acquired nearly 45 per cent of American Remedies’ shares recently.
The American Remedies’ share is now quoted at Rs 144
on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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Adidas plans low-priced
items
New Delhi: Sportswear maker Adidas is developing a new range of shoes and
apparels at lower prices for the Indian market. These will be among the cheapest Adidas
products the world over, Adidas (India) said. The new range of sports shoes, to be priced
between Rs 900 and Rs 1,200, is expected to expand the company’s business by 20 per
cent. The new products will be in the market in four months and will include items for
women and children.
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CMM Level 5 for Infosys
Mumbai: Infosys Technologies has been assessed at Level 5 of the Software
Engineering Institute – Capability Maturity Model. Global Systems Technology,
California, an authorised Software Engineering Institute assessment organisation, which
carried out the assessment of Infosys Technologies, said Infosys has exhibited a thorough
understanding of the Level 5 Key Process Areas. Global Systems Technology principal
Richard Knudson says Infosys rates the best among all Level 5 companies when it comes to
leveraging the CMM model to gain maximum business advantage.
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Large buy-out of IPCL
shares
Mumbai: The race for acquiring a stake in the public sector Indian
Petrochemicals Corporation has begun. Nearly one crore shares, roughly four per cent of
the company’s equity, have changed hands over the last one week in the Bombay
Stock Exchange. It is said that one of the three contenders for a strategic stake in the
company is found to be buying these shares in the open market. There are three candidates
for the 25 per cent stake the government is divesting in the company – Mitsubishi,
Reliance Industries and the Soros-Chatterjee group.
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Novartis, AstraZeneca
to merge agri-business
Zurich: Swiss drug firm Novartis and Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca are
merging their agri-businesses. The merged entity will be called Syngenta and will be a
world leader in the sector estimated at around $15 billion. The agri-divisions of
the two companies accounted for $7.9 billion worth sale in 1998. Novartis
shareholders will get 61 per cent of Syngenta shares and AstraZeneca shareholders 39 per
cent.
Syngenta will be the largest in agricultural chemicals and
third in seeds. The company will be based in Switzerland and will be listed on the Swiss,
London, Now York and Stockholm stock exchanges.
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GM, Fuji Heavy plan tie-up
Tokyo: General Motors is planning a tie-up with Subaru carmaker Fuji
Heavy Industries. The two are discussing a tie-up which will see GM buying 20 to 25 per
cent stake in Japan’s top maker of four-wheel drive cars, media reports said. Fuji
Heavy confirmed that it is in talks with foreign carmakers, including a US auto major,
about alliances in various fields, including technology and components.
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Informix to buy
Ardent
Palo Alto: Informix is buying Ardent Software for $660 million in stock.
The acquisition will enable Informix to add to its portfolio of database software,
Ardent’s software used to track customer buying and product preferences. Ardent
shareholders will get 3.5 Informix shares for each share of Ardent.
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Sybase to buy Home
Financial
California: Database software company Sybase is acquiring a
privately-held company, Home Financial Network, a service provider to financial websites,
for $130 million in cash and stock. Sybase said it intends to combine Home Financial with
a new financial service unit it is planning to provide web-based services for online
banks, brokerages and insurance firms.
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Bausch & Lomb to
cut jobs
New York: Bausch & Lomb said it will consolidate its contact lens
making unit and cut jobs worldwide in a restructuring exercise. A company spokesperson
said there will be 850 job cuts over a year. The company will also continue to focus on
its contact lens portfolio and evaluate its older products to determine whether they
should be eliminated.
Bausch & Lomb had earlier divested its Ray-Ban
sunglasses business.
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McDonald’s buys
Boston Market
Chicago: McDonald's is buying the assets of ailing restaurant chain
Boston Market. McDonald’s said it plans to buy 751 restaurants and acquire franchise
rights for 108 more under the deal, which is part of Boston Market parent company Boston
Chicken’s bankruptcy reorganisation.
McDonald’s had earlier bought Donatos Pizza and a
minority stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill. The latest buyout, according to McDonald’s
officials, is part of its strategy to grow in domestic business without hurting its
hamburger restaurants.
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