HDFC plans foray into insurance and real estate mutual fund
Bangalore: India's largest housing finance company, HDFC, which recently signed an agreement with the UK based Standard Life Assurance Company, to enter the insurance business in India, is said to be awaiting the formal approval from the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority. This was stated by Mr. Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC, while inaugurating a new office at Bangalore.

Mr. Parekh also stated that the company was planning to set up a real estate mutual fund very shortly. He said that the company's foray into mutual funds will offer investors with a wide range of savings products.
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ICICI and IL&FS may settle out of court
Mumbai: A trend setting case filed by IL&FS against ICICI on the domain name "investmartindia.com" appears to be heading for an out of court settlement.

To recapitulate, IL&FS announced an online share trading site under the name "investsmartindia.com" A few days after this site was launched, ICICI announced the setting up of a similar site with the name "investmartindia.com". IL&FS contended that the name of the ICICI site was deceptively similar to the name of its website and sought to reach an understanding with senior management of ICICI. When no replies were forthcoming, IL&FS filed a case in the Bombay High Court for an ad-interim injunction against ICICI preventing them the use of the name "investmartindia.com". While the High Court turned down its plea, IL&FS decided to appeal against the decision.

It is now believed that ICICI, in order to avoid a prolonged and costly legal battle, will meet with IL&FS to negotiate the transfer of the domain name "investmartindia.com" in favour of IL&FS. Company officials are said to have refused comments on the state of the negotiations under the plea that the matter was sub-judice.
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LG group to invest $185m in telecom and IT
New Delhi: South Korean conglomerate LG announced that it will invest $185m over the next five years in the country. These investments are to be in the areas of telecom, electronics and information technology. Of this amount approximately $50m is to be invested in telecom, $100m in electronics and $35m in software.

For the telecom venture, the group is setting up a subsidiary -- LG Information & Communications -- which will manufacture CDMA WLL technology products, key telephone systems and GSM terminals. It will later on manufacture CDMA systems and phones, network products, and ATM switching systems. It has already taken a 49 per cent stake in Escorts Communications for this purpose, which will be taken over by LGIC.

It plans to play a big role in information technology through its subsdiary LG Soft in India.
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Reliance plans mega farm deal in Karnataka
Bangalore: In a news report in the Economic Times, Reliance Industries is said to be close to firming up its plans for a mega -- Rs. 500 crore -- farming deal in Karnataka. This will be the country's largest corporate involvement in farming and would require the Karnataka government to allot nearly 50,000 acres of arid land to the company for farming certain select group of crops and horticulture products.

While the government is said to be very excited on the prospects of this project in creating a multiplier effect of the state's economy, it has decided to tread cautiously and will decide on the matter after a group of politicians, from across the political spectrum, and government officials have done a thorough study and made its recommendations to the government.
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Rabo India may enter venture funding
Ahmedabad: Rabo India Finance, which has been in the news lately, is said to be finalising plans to enter the venture capital business in India soon. However, in light of the fact that the venture capital industry is already crowded, the company is seriously evaluating the areas it should be entering. The company will look only at opportunities which have a medium to long term perspective, unlike current players who are all after the dot com businesses.

The company intends to develop its venture fund business over the next three years.
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Sun TV to introduce 7 new channels
New Delhi: South India's Sun TV which, alongwith its sister companies Udaya TV and Gemini TV, rules the skies of south India, is planning to introduce seven more channels, at least three of which are to be introduced in the next fortnight.

The media group, which plans to make an IPO shortly, will introduce three Telugu language music, news and movie channels in the next ten days. The other channels being planned are a 24-hour news and current affairs channel called Sun News, another undisclosed general channel and Udaya News.

Sun TV became among the first players in the television arena to uplink from India through its own private gateway, thus effectively bypassing VSNL. The new channels are part of its efforts is getting a greater market share and mindshare in the south.
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Ranbaxy gets approval to market 2 drugs in the US
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals today announced that it had secured an approval from the US Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) to market its drugs Pentazocine (50mg) and Nalozone (0.5 mg) in the US market.

The drugs, which belong to the potent analgesic segment, represent a major achievement for the company which is the first Indian company to get the approvals from the FDA given the complicated nature of the product formulation.

The drugs are used effectively for post-operative surgeries and acute pain associated with ailments like cancer. At present, there is only one generic approval in the US for the product category.

Ranbaxy, with its focus on R&D that has developed significant new drug discoveries, has received several drug approvals in the developed markets, including 16 approvals for 8 new molecules in the US market. The company has an expanded international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and alliances that have helped to establish itself in more than 24 countries with manufacturing operations in more than six countries.
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BASF to buy Cyanamid for $3.8 billion
Frankfurt: In the ongoing saga of mergers and acquisitions, Europe's biggest chemicals group, BASF, acquired American Home Product's, Cyanamid crop protection group for an estimated $3.8 billion. This acquisition will make BASF the fourth largest agro-chemical group in the world. BASF outbid German compatriot Bayer AG and America's DuPont for this acqusition.

The deal, apart from helping BASF get a foothold into the lucrative North American market, will result in the company doubling its annual crop protection business sales and yielding great cost savings on the synergies between the two companies.
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