Coca-Cola to invest in holding company
Mumbai: Coca-Cola is bringing in Rs 380 crore into its newly restructured holding company, Hindustan Coca-Cola Holding. The soft drinks company has also decided to reduce investments in group company Britco Foods by the same amount while investing additional funds to set up a bottling facility.

After the recent restructuring of its operations, Coca-Cola will have two entities in India, the holding company Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings, and Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages. The latter will handle the bottling operations of the company and has been  formed after the merger of the four downstream operating companies belonging to the group. Coca-Cola is also transferring a major part of the operations of Britco Foods to Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages.
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Bayer plan to buy out Zydus in JV okayed
New Delhi: Drug multinational Bayer has been allowed to increase its stake in the joint venture company, Bayer Zydus Healthcare, to 100 per cent. Industry minister Murasoli Maran has formally accorded approval for the proposal following a recommendation from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Bayer will acquire the equity allotted in the venture to Zydus. This will then be Bayer’s second wholly-owned subsidiary in the country. The proposal was pending before the FIPB as the department of chemicals and petrochemicals had raised certain procedural objections.

Bayer had told the FIPB that it was ready to implement the proposed joint venture but its partner Zydus group had decided that it could not continue with the plans. Bayer, therefore, wanted to buy out Zydus and meet all the funding requirements of the project, including the equity of Rs 12.24 crore. Zydus has given a no-objection certificate to this proposal. There will be no additional infusion of funds.
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Campco exits Nestle arrangement
Mumbai: Campco is not renewing its manufacturing tie-up with Nestle. The deal will expire in 2000. The company has decided to market its own products like Treat, Turbo, Megabite and Campco bar. Except Kit Kat, all the chocolate-based products of Nestle are now made by Campco.

Campco has been supplying cocoa and intermediary products to Nestle and Cadbury. Its 170 branches and depots form an effective network for distributing chocolates and arecanuts. The company had a turnover of Rs 400 crore in 1998-99 with a profit of Rs 20 crore. Nestle utilises nearly 4,500 tonnes of Campco's manufacturing capacity.

Campco intends to launch its chocolate brands through Akbarally’s, the Mumbai-based retail chain.
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Hoechst, Rhone arms in India to stay independent
Mumbai: Indian affiliates of Hoechst and Rhone-Poulenc will function as different entities for the time being, in spite of the merger of the parent companies which created the global pharma major Aventis. A press release by Hoechst Marion Roussel (India) said the new management of Aventis will examine in due time opportunities to maximise the utilisation of its resources in various countries and the Indian affiliated companies will function, for the time being, as stand-alone companies.
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Pentafour plans US acquisitions
Chennai: Pentafour Software and Exports is in talks with some multimedia companies in the US to acquire them. Pentafour’s chairman and managing director V. Chandrasekharan said the company may go in for an equity offering in the US market to fund the acquisitions.
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Maruti to hike prices
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog is increasing the prices of its cars, including the Maruti 800 and the Zen by Rs 18,000 to Rs 24,000 from 3 January 2000. Company sources said increased input costs and compliance with emission norms have forced the company to increase the prices.

The prices of all three variants of the Maruti 800 will go up by Rs 22,000. This will take the ex-showroom price of the standard, EX and DLX versions in Delhi to Rs 2.13 lakh, Rs 2.34 lakh and Rs 2.59 lakh respectively,. The prices of Zen models will be hiked by Rs 21,000 to Rs 24,000, of Omni by Rs 22,000 to Rs 24,000, of Esteem by Rs 16,000 to Rs 19,000 and of Gypsy by Rs 21,000 to Rs 24,000.
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Walden, LSO pick up holding in Mindtree
New Delhi: Walden Software Investment and LSO Investment of Mauritius are picking up a 36.84 per cent stake in Mindtree Consulting, the start-up software company promoted by former Wipro head Ashok Soota and his associates.

Walden will invest Rs 23.68 crore to pick up 57,75,000 equity shares, of face value Rs 2 each, at a price of Rs 41 per share. This will give it a 27.5 per cent holding in the company. LSO Investments is putting in Rs 43.45 lakh by subscribing to 19,66,463 equity shares.
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Mahindra Holidays plans to add members
Mumbai: Mahindra Holidays and Resorts, a timeshare company of the Mahindra group, has set a target of 1 lakh timeshare members for its schemes. It is also planning to construct three more resorts at a cost of Rs 100 crore, Arun Nanda, chairman of the company, said. The company is also planning to enter overseas destinations, he added.
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Grasim denies brand takeover report
Mumbai: Aditya Vikram Birla group company Grasim has clarified to the National Stock Exchange that there is no immediate plan to acquire three clothing brands, belonging to Madura Coats, as reported in a section of the press. The company in a letter to the NSE said any such proposal will have to be put before its board and that no such proposal is under immediate consideration. The report had said Grasim is in talks with Viyella and Madura Coats for acquiring three clothing brands - Allen Solly, Louise Philippe and Van Heusen.
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Pfizer files plan for Warner board replacement
New York: Pfizer, in a move to consolidate its position in the hostile $72 billion acquisition bid over Warner-Lambert, has formally filed a consent solicitation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to replace Warner-Lambert’s 10-member board with a hand-picked seven-member team. The suit is essentially an attempt to block part of the friendly American Home Products-Warner-Lambert merger. Pfizer said although it has not launched its hostile bid, it hoped that by consenting to the proposal for a change in the baord, the shareholders of Warner-Lambert will be given an opportunity to vote for the best possible merger proposal. Warner-Lambert, which has rejected Pfizer’s proposal for merger, has asked shareholders to take no action on the proxy sent by Pfizer.
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GM willing to pick up part of Daewoo debts
Seoul: General Motors is willing to pick up some debts of Daewoo Motors if it takes over the ailing South Korean automobile company. General Motors South Korea president, Alan Perriton, has been quoted in newspapers as saying that the company cannot take up all of Daewoo Motor’s debts, but we may be able to pick up some of them.
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Abbott, Alza merger plan off
North Chicago, Illinois: Abbot Laboratories and Alza Corporation have called off their $7.3 billion merger plan as they have not been able to fulfil regulatory requirements. Abbot had problems with the Federal Trade Commission over prostate cancer treatment products as both Abbot and Alza makes similar products. Again the US Food and Drug Administration had said one of Abbott’s plants was not in compliance with quality-assurance regulations. Abbott, had however, agreed to pay $100 million to temporarily stop making some 300 medical testing devices. In view of these problems Alza had said its shareholders will have to vote again on the deal.
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Monsanto, Pharmacia merger rumoured
Stockholm: Swedish drug company Pharmacia & Upjohn and US life sciences company Monsanto are learnt to be in talks for a merger. Analysts say Monsanto, whose controversial genetically engineered products have attracted lawsuits, has been an acquisition target. Pharmacia & Upjohn, however, declined to comment on reports in Swedish newspapers. The company is also understood to have received proposals from American Home Products for a merger.
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Wal-Mart, AOL in alliance
New York: No 1 retail firm Wal-Mart has firmed up an alliance with America Online under which Wal-Mart will offer Internet-access software at its stores. The tie-up follows another America Online’s alliance with Circuit City Stores, the No 2 seller in the US of consumer electronics.

Wal-Mart has estimated weekly customers in excess of 90 million. AOL will provide a customised version of its CompuServe budget service.
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Kirch sues Universal
Los Angeles: German pay TV Kirch is seeking $2 billion in damages from Hollywood film company Universal Studios and wants to break a five-year contract with it. Kirch says the Hollywood movie firm had failed in its $65 million deal to provide quality films and entertainment for distribution on the German pay channel. Kirch has filed a law suit arguing Universal has failed to meet its obligations. The 1996 deal had given Kirch exclusive German pay-televisions rights for a package of Universal feature films. It said Universal has cut the number of films it makes available to Kirch by about a half and that it has started giving a US focus in its TV programmes, which is of no interest to its German viewers. 
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