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Tata Sons to hike holding in 3 companies
Mumbai: Tata Sons is planning to increase its stake in three group
companies – Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company, Tata Iron and Steel Company, and
Tata Hydroelectric – through purchase of equity shares of these companies from the
open market. The Tata group's holding company has earmarked Rs 375 crore for this purpose
and aims to own 26 per cent of each of these companies.
The group currently holds 23 per cent of Telco and Tisco, and 22
per cent of Tata Hydro. The proposed acquisition will not come under the takeover
regulations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
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L&T may expand
cement capacity
Mumbai: With its proposed restructuring now formally announced, Larsen
& Toubro is considering increasing its cement capacity to 36 million tonnes by 2005.
The company currently has a capacity of 12.8 million tonnes. The expansion, in all
probability, will be carried out after the cement division is hived off as per the
restructuring plan.
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Kuoni may buy Sita
Travels
Mumbai: Swiss travel major Kuoni Travel group’s India wing, Kuoni
Travel India, has stolen a march over international travel group Thomas Cook
in acquiring the New Delhi-based Sita Travels. The acquisition will make Kuoni the No
1 company in the Indian travel business. It had recently acquired the SOTC brand for Rs 70
crore.
Sita is a family-run business.
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Hindujas to exploit
convergence
Mumbai: The Hinduja group has big plans for
telecom, cable TV and Internet in India. It will invest $1.3 billion in the next three
years in these sectors to take advantage of the convergence of technologies. The group is
finalising a divestment plan in its cable network business offering a stake to a US
company. Along with this, it is setting up an optical fibre Internet and telecom
infrastructure in Gujarat, which will be extended to 33 cities in the country. The group
will also enter Internet-based trading and settlement through a financial services company
to be set up for this purpose.
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Bajaj Auto plans AMC
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto is exploring a new way to handle its investments.
According to The Economic Times, it is thinking of using a mutual funds kind of
structure for this purpose, and is applying to the Securities and Exchange Board of India
for permission to set up an asset management company. The plan is to transfer a
substantial portion of its huge reserves to the finance company, which will be a
wholly-owned subsidiary. But this will not be a regular mutual fund since it will not
accept money from the public.
Bajaj Auto will draw funds from the subsidiary as
required.
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Infinity to fund four
net ventures
Mumbai: Infinity, a technology fund, is investing Rs 10 crore in four
start-up information Internet companies – coolstartups.com, broadcastindia.com,
expopoint.com and Linc Technologies. The fund is awaiting approvals from the Foreign
Investment Promotion Board. Infinity has an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore and its main
contributors are leading Indian IT entrepreneurs.
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Bonus issue by Max
New Delhi: Max India has announced a 1:1
bonus and a 250 per cent special dividend to its shareholders. After the bonus issue, the
company’s share capital will increase to Rs 23.06 crore from the present Rs 11.53
crore. The company has decided on the bonus issue after its reserves piled up following
the merger of Max Corporation with it. The company is also planning an employee stock
option plan that will entitle some 40 to 50 senior managers to the company’s shares.
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Glaxo-SmithKline merger
on 17th
London: A merger between Glaxo Wellcome and
SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals is likely to be announced on 17 January, according to
sources close to the two pharma majors. The $180 billion merger will create the
world’s biggest drug company.
Talks are reported to have reached the final stage on 15
January. Official company sources declined to comment on the report.
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Tesco, Green eye Marks
& Spencer
London: Retailing entrepreneur Philip Green
and British supermarket major Tesco are interested in acquiring the ailing Marks and
Spencer. While Mr Green has publicly said he is interested in Marks and Spencer, Tesco has
informed the UK Takeover Panel that it is not immediately targeting Marks & Spencer.
However, it has said it is keeping the rival retailer under constant review.
Mr Green has sought the help of US major Wal-Mart to join
an estimated $18.07 billion bid for the company.
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