Escorts to pull out of Yamaha JV
New Delhi: Escorts Yamaha, a 50:50 joint
venture between the Nanda family controlled Escorts Limited and the Japanese giant, Yamaha
Motors, is all set to become a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Japanese company.
The Nanda family has decided to sell off its entire holding in the Indian joint venture to
the Japanese partner. The decision to sell out has been taken by the board of Escorts
Limited, which has decided to pull out in an effort to concentrate on its core tractor
business.
The joint venture manufactures the Rajdoot, RX and the four-stroke YBX range of motor
cycles at the Faridabad plant of the company. Sales of the joint venture has been hampered
due its limited range of models, and the Japanese company now hopes to leverage on its
international stable of brands to introduce newer models. The new-look Indian company will
now initiate steps to consolidate its position in the motor-cycle industry, which has been
growing quite rapidly.
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ACC manages to reduce
workforce by 16 per cent
Mumbai: Leading cement producer, ACC
Limited, has managed to get a good response for its voluntary retirement scheme (VRS)
which closed on March 31, 2000. Nearly 2,150 workers of its total strength of 13, 150
workers have accepted the VRS and left the services of the company.
A majority of the workers accepted the scheme after Gujarat Ambuja, another leading cement
player, acquired 7.2 per cent stake in the company. Company officials believe that the VRS
was successful due to the unique features offered under the scheme, which included,
insurance coverage and medical allowance to the employees and their families.
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Indo Gulf to hive off
captive jetty
Mumbai: Indo Gulf Corporation, an Aditya
Birla company, has decided to hive off its captive jetty at Dahej into a separate company,
after having failed to identify a joint venture partner. The company has been, for the
last 18 months, trying to identify a partner to develop the port into a 7 million tonnes
port facility. It is understood that the company's reluctance to part with majority
shareholding has been a stumbling block in its attempt to find a suitable partner.
The 2-million tonne facility has been hived into a separate subsidiary, Dahej Harbour and
Infrastructure Limited, which will go alone in developing the port for full scale
commercial purpose.
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Casio to plan local watch unit
New Delhi: Japanese watch company, Casio
Corporation, which has manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Japan, has
recently decided to set up a manufacturing facility in India for watches. The company is
currently undertaking a feasibility study for the same and is likely to put up the plant
in a year's time.
The company, which has already invested Rs. 10 crore in India, and has around 400
retailers, is planning to increase its retail base to over 2,000 by the year 2002. The
company has also introduced two new models in the country.
The first, a high end and high priced product, is called the Global Positioning System
watch, which helps in navigation through the use of signals from 27 satellites it is
capable of receiving. The second, called PC-Unite, enables its users to exchange and
synchronise personal information with a PC.
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Satyam Infoway ties with
Loral for further gateways
Calcutta: Internet service provider, Satyam
Infoway, today signed an agreement with noted US satellite equipment maker, Loral Space
and Communications Inc., to set up a three-metro global gateway that will link Chennai,
Delhi and Calcutta. This agreement comes close on the heels of a similar agreement the
company signed with Singapore Telecom, for a five-city international gateway.
Satyam, which is expecting its in-principle approval for gateways to translate into
licenses by June 2000, is gearing itself up to become a major player in this arena. The
crux of its gameplan is to bolster its global internet connectivity infrastructure with
North America, besides building a repository of bandwidth to serve its expanding customer
base in India.
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Microsoft modifies licensing policy for India
Calcutta: In a landmark development that is
likely to benefit the small and medium entrepreneurs in the country, Microsoft Corporation
has decided to modify its software licensing policy in the country, with the aim of
grabbing a larger market share.
The policy, is step with its global Open Licensing Program, offers larger discounts to the
booming small business sector. At present the small and medium enterprises sector
generates nearly 45 per cent of the total revenues for Microsoft India. The new policy
will offer discounts as high as 22 per cent over the fully priced packages for Microsoft
products.
Under its earlier policy, the company expected small companies to have a minimum number of
products under license for it to avail of discounts. The discount structure was built on
four levels, with the highest discount of 35 per cent for the last level. Generally, small
companies rarely went beyond the first level (for which discount was 15 per cent) because
of the quantity restrictions. The new policy combines and restructures the levels, besides
reducing the number of products the small companies need to take, thus making it very
attractive for these businesses to go in for Microsoft products.
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Indian Hotels signs 20-year management contract
Ahmedabad: Indian Hotels owned, Taj group,
of hotels signed a 20-year management contract with the Ahmedabad-based Royale Manor
Hotels, a listed company which has a major property in the city. This marks the entry of
the Taj group into Ahmedabad.
The hotel, which previously had associations with the Oberoi and Accor groups, will be
renamed the Taj Residency Ummed, and will be rank among the few upscale hotels the city
has. It is expected that the Taj group may change the top management of the hotel.
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Gramaphone Company to merge two units
Calcutta: AS part of an restructuring
exercise, RPG Enterprises has finalised merger proposals for two of its entertainment
companies _ RPG Music International (RMI), which is engaged in selling pre-recorded
cassettes and compact discs and their delivery, and Gramco Music Publishing (GMP), which
is involved in publication of music and production / distribution / marketing of films and
TV serials including their music rights with the Gramophone Company India (GCI) - owners
of the HMV brand.
The mergers would result in the formation of a larger company with enhanced capital base,
which would allow greater leverage in resource mobilisation, according to the notices for
shareholders' meetings.
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