Sebi clears Gujarat Ambuja stake in ACC
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which initiated an enquiry into the purchase of 7.2 per cent in ACC by cement major Gujarat Ambuja, has come to the conclusion that the purchase did not violate the takeover code. Sebi had top legal experts, including the attorney-general, Mr. Soli Sorabjee, look into the issue and arrived at this decision.

Sebi has taken the view that "the transfer of stake does not tantamount to change in management control unless the acquiring party is in a position to change the majority of the directors on the board of the acquired company". This decision, which would now relieve Gujarat Ambuja from making an open offer, would become a benchmark case for future similar cases.
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Hutchinson group eyes Usha Martin
Calcutta: In what is billed to be the largest cellular deals in the country, Hong Kong-based Hutchinson group, which has substantial interest in the Indian cellular industry, is said to be close to acquiring a controlling stake in Usha Martin Telekom Limited, one of India's oldest cellular operators.

The deal envisages the group acquiring the entire 51 per cent stake of the Malaysian partner in Usha Martin, besides a small portion of the Jhawar family stake in the company.

Usha Martin provides cellular services in Calcutta under the Command brand name. The deal, which is under wraps, is estimated at $120 million. Hutchinson has been on an acquiring spree in order to increase its stranglehold on the Indian cellular industry. It recently acquired a 49 per cent stake in Fascel, the service provider for the Ahmedabad circle.
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Unitech may bid for ITDC properties
New Delhi: Unitech Limited, a real estate company which ventured into the hospitality arena last year through its Radisson Hotel in Delhi in partnership with Carlson Hospitality of the US, today announced that it was keen on buying some key properties of the state-owned ITDC or HCI, as and when they divested. The company believes that the experience at the Radisson has helped it become more confident in the hotel industry.

The company is mainly interested in the smaller properties of the two government chains, including Varanasi, Ooty, and Jaipur.

Unitech already has a four-star property under development in Varanasi and yet another one in Bangalore.
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Bharti group and BPL to rollout joint cellular services
New Delhi: In an era of consolidation, and as a means of contending with the increasing threat from competitor, Hutchinson group, the two major cellular players in the metro cities of New Delhi and Mumbai are in the process of joining hands to roll out a joint service.

Bharti Cellular, the cellular operator in New Delhi, and BPL Mobile, the cellular operator in Mumbai, are in the final stages of negotiations to offer consumers in New Delhi and Mumbai access a variety of services including a common five digit number. While the joint services will begin in the two metros, the services will be extended into other circles where the two operators have the license to operate.
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Shalimar Paints likely to change hands soon
Calcutta: Shalimar Paints Limited, a company controlled by the OP Jindal group, is likely to see a change in controlling interest. The Jindal group is said to be contemplating exiting the company through a sale of a controlling interest to the Johannesburg, South Africa-based, Barlow group of companies.

The group had been wanting to exit the paints industry for a long time and stopped funding the brands or distribution expansion for the paint company. Shalimar Paints, has a very small share in the paints industry, which is dominated by Asian Paints with a whopping 40 per cent market share in all major categories.
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Jindal Strips to increase its holding in US-based Massilon
Calcutta: The OP Jindal controlled, Jindal Strips Limited, which already has a 51 per cent stake in the US-based Massilon Stainless Inc., is planning to acquire an additional 14 per cent stake, thus taking its total holding in the US company to 65 per cent.

The US company manufactures cold rolled steel with a total capacity of 60,000 tonnes per annum. The unit, which went operational in March 2000, is likely to stabilise by the end of this year. The strategic stake in the US company is likely to help Jindal Strips increase its presence in the growing US market.
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Pfizer to market products of Shantha Biotechnics
Hyderabad: Multinational drug major, Pfizer India, entered into an agreement with Shantha Biotechnics, to market the latter's products. The first such product to be marketed by the MNC is the r-DNA Hepatitis-B vaccine, which has a 46 per cent market share. Pfizer intends to market this product under its own brand name - HepaShield.

The multinational will also market Shantha's anti-cancer drug, which is due to be launched shortly. Shantha Biotechnic has seven other products in the developmental stage, and the company intends to introduce one product every year.
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Shoppers' Stop in talks with Lupin for real estate deal
Mumbai: The Gupta-family controlled pharma company, Lupin Laboratories, which entered the real estate business with great zeal some years ago and which proved to be the undoing of the company, is said to be in serious talks with retail major, Shoppers' Stop, for leasing out the 50,000 square feet property at Bandra Talkies, in the upmarket shopping area of Mumbai.

Lupin, which is undergoing a restructuring exercise under the supervision of consulting major, McKinsey & Co., had acquired the property some years ago during the real estate boom in Mumbai. The subsequent slump in the real estate industry saw large amounts of funds of the company stuck in illiquid assets. The Shoppers' Stop deal may help the company release value from this property, which has drained Lupin's balance sheet for some years now.
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Cadbury to focus on branded impulse market
Mumbai: In an attempt to broaden its focus to increase its share in the branded impulse market, confectionery major, Cadbury India Limited, is going to concentrate on ensuring "Cadbury in every pocket".

The branded impulse market, which has shown fast growth and offers huge opportunities, has recently seen a great deal of innovation and activity with both locally manufactured and imported products. Currently, the company's chocolate and confectionery share in the impulse market is six per cent. The future strategy will remain maintaining dominance in the chocolate confectionery market and leadership in brown drinks.

According to Mr. Rajiv Bakshi, managing director of the company, Cadbury hopes, in the near term, to expand sugar confectionery product range and obtain critical mass through value-added products. The company's aim is to improve product quality and packaging, increase width and depth of penetration, improve utilisation of assets, keep Capex close to depreciation and work towards further improvement in working capital norms. the company also plans to take advantage of E-Commerce. The company has already set up Web sites _ cadburyindia.com, bournvita.com and cadburygift.com _ and is looking at exploring B2B initiatives.
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Orchid Chemicals to begin clinical trials for Sildenafil
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, which was the first Indian pharma company to synthesise and commercially produce Sildenafil in ’98, almost at the same time as it was introduced in the US, has initiated clinical trials for Sildenafil Citrate, the blockbuster drug for male erectile dysfunction, following the clearance given by the Drug Controller General India (DCI). The company has been exporting Sildenafil Citrate to those countries which have allowed the usage of this medicine.

The company is hopeful of completing the trials quickly and move towards commercial introduction subject to receiving necessary regulatory approvals.

The company is also in the process of setting up a new NDDS division backed by the full chain of pharmacological development and drug screening infrastructure to provide the needed impetus. Orchid to expand Aurangabad facility.

Its proposed product portfolio for this plant includes non-cephalosporin antibiotics, NSAODs, osteoporosis drugs, anti-ulcerants and cardiovasculars. In this line of business, the company's gameplan is to focus on a wide variety of low volume, high profit products for standalone export marketing as well as input to Orchid's domestic formulation business.
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Reliance to gain from anti-dumping duty
New Delhi: In a significant move, the government today announced the imposition of anti-dumping duty on pure terephthalic acid (PTA) imported from Spain. The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied duties has recommended imposition of anti-dumping levy of Rs 521 per tonne of PTA and Customs is likely to notify it soon. This move is definitely bound to help PTA-major, Reliance Industries Limited, to improve its bottom line.

The only manufacturer of PTA in the country, Reliance had complained that imports from Spain, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan at rates below fair selling price were hurting its business. No link between dumping and injury to the domestic industry was proved in the preliminary probe and no provisional duty was imposed. While the preliminary investigation did not result in imposition of anti-dumping duty, Reliance has succeeded in proving during the final investigations that imports from Spain at rates below fair selling price were hurting its bottomline. At the same time, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia which were also on the Reliance list of offending companies, have managed to slip off unscathed.

Parallely, the imposition of the duty would also cause an impact on the textile industry as PTA is used in the manufacture of polyester staple fibre (PSF), polyester filament yarn (PFY) and textile-grade PET (polyethelene terephthalate) besides polyester films. The input costs for manufacture of synthetic fabrics will go up in cases where Spanish PTA is utilised.
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General Motors to get into banking
Washington: The world's largest corporate body and the largest automobile manufacturer, General Motors, was all set to get into banking after the US regulators approved an application made by it in this regard.

While GM already has a solid presence in the financial services sector, through its subsidiaries, General Motors Acceptance Corp auto-lending arm and home loan unit GMAC Mortgage Corp, it will make its entry into the banking sector by setting up a federal thrift. The new institution would be called GMAC Bank and be based in Wilmington, Delaware.

A federal thrift charter can have several advantages for mortgage lenders. It enables them to fund loans with deposits as well as the short-term commercial borrowings non-bank lenders use, and to deal with a single regulatory scheme rather than a patchwork of state laws.
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NEC to build new plants for chip production
Tokyo: The world's second largest chip maker, NEC Corporation, today announced that it would begin work on two new plants -- one in California and the other in Hiroshima -- for the manufacture of chips.

NEC will spend 300 billion yen ($2.84 billion) to build new plants, to make general-purpose memory chips and valued-added system LSI (large- scale integrated) chips.

In June 1998, NEC said it would spend $1.4 billion to build a plant in Roseville, California, which is about 30miles (50 km) northeast of Sacramento, to make high-performance multimedia chips, system-on-a-chip processors and 256-megabit and 1-gigabit dynamic random access memory, or DRAM chips.
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