Wipro ADR proposal cleared
Bangalore: Shareholders of Wipro Ltd's today passed an enabling resolution at the recently held EGM, allowing the company to go in for an ADR/GDR issue, not exceeding $500 million.

Mr. Azim Premji, chairman of the company, said that no specific time frame has been set for the issue. The chairman also reiterated that the company's focus would continue to be on the IT sector. Over the next three years, the company also plans to invest aggressively in brand-building in the consumer care and lighting area. He also stated that there was no plan to hive off the IT divisions. He confirmed that the company would be setting up a new facility in Pondicherry with a capacity to produce over 100,000 PCs.
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UK-based Contship partners others to make an offer for 40 per cent stake in SCI
New Delhi : In the wake of deliberations within the government to shed more than half the stake in the country's premier shipping company, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), the UK-based multinational, Contship Shipping Lines along with other multinational shipping lines have offered to pick up 40 per cent equity SCI.

Contship Shipping Lines is one of the largest shipping lines in the world with operations all over the world. The group with two main operating divisions, Contship Italia Spa and Contship Containerlines operates a leased and owned container fleet of 70,000 teus.

Under the existing equity structure, government holds 80 per cent equity in SCI. The rest 20 per cent in the shipping company is distributed among Unit Trust of India (UTI), General Insurance Corporation (GIC), Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the financial institutions (FIs) and general public.

However, the final decision with regard to the divestment procedure in SCI is still awaited. Sources said, intense deliberations are on within the disinvestment ministry to come out with a solution that would not be viewed as privatisation of another government company.
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Ballmer allays fears of Microsoft break-up
Seattle : Despite intense speculation that the company would be broken up pursuant to the anti-trust case filed against it by the US government, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday that he was extremely bullish about the software giant's future and was confident that the company would avoid being broken up. Microsoft was found guilty of breaking the anti-trust law earlier this month by district court Thomas Penfield Jackson, and sources in Washington said the justice department would advocate splitting up the company along product lines when it formally filed its proposed penalty sometime this week.

He stated that the company will appeal against Judge Jackson's ruling, and the company believes that its stand will be vindicated in the end.

The legal woes, combined with investor concerns over the company's financial future amid a lacklustre outlook for the coming months, drove the stock down 16 per cent on Monday to a 52-week low of 66-5/8.
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Zee Telefilms gets FIPB clearance for mega ADR issue
New Delhi: In its meeting held on Monday, the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) has cleared the largest ever overseas issue by an Indian company -- the $1.5-bn ADR issue being planned by Zee Telefilms. The FIPB decision has now been referred to the cabinet committee on economic affairs, for its approval.

While the issue size has been pegged at 40 million shares or $1.5 billion, whichever is higher, the actual number of equity shares will be decided at the time of the issue depending on the market conditions.

The company will use the funds raised through the ADR issue for its expansion plans and plans to make investments in content production, e-commerce activities, establishing an internet access network and installing optical fibre network, besides acquiring media and internet content businesses in India and abroad.
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DGFT spikes Seagram's plans
New Delhi: The director general of foreign trade (DGFT) has put a spoke in the plans of Seagram's proposal to renew its import licence for raw materials and concentrate. The proposal was earlier cleared by the FIPB. As a result Seagram has been unable to continue production of its liquor brands due to lack of raw materials and scotch malts leading to loss in revenue to the company.

The stated reason for the delay is, apparently, Seagram's inability to maintain foreign exchange neutrality, despite having been given six months’ extension for it do so. During the period from ’95 to December ’99, the company made exports of liquor products worth Rs 7.14 crore against an import of Rs 12.44 crore. The company has claimed that they have balanced 57 per cent of its cumulative imports by export of alcoholic products.

Other factors that influenced the FIPB decision earlier, were various allegations related to violations by Seagram, including manufacturing and marketing liquor in excess of the licensed capacity endorsed by the Centre; not abiding by the approval regarding establishment of a facility to produce fruit juices and products and sale of `Tropicana’ brand to Pepsico without obtaining prior government approval; exporting items other than liquor products to maintain forex neutrality; and, take-over of 100 per cent shares of Oceanic Distilleries without prior approval of the government.
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Nokia signs first major cell phone deal in China
Helsinki: In a pathbreaking contract, Nokia, the world's largest cellphone maker, said that it won its first commercial WAP contract in mainland China to give cellphone users access to the web. Nokia said the contract with Jilin Mobile Communication of China -- which has one million subscribers -- raised the number of mobile phone operators which had signed commercial deals to buy Nokia's Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technology to over 20. With over 20 customers the company is now one of the market leaders in supplying WAP platforms for mobile operators.

The Nokia Artus Messaging Platform acts as a gateway between information and applications on the internet and a mobile phone, giving users access to information such as news or stock quotes, or access to web applications like games or e-commerce.

According to company sources, it's a milestone deal as it's the first of its kind for the Chinese market and it means more deals for telecom equipment makers, but especially for Nokia, in the future. It is expected that between two and five million Chinese will own mobile phones capable of logging onto the internet by the end of the year.

Official figures predict the number of China's internet users will grow to 60m by 2005 from 10m now.
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Honda does well despite sluggish industry performance
Tokyo: Despite sluggish performance by the Japanese auto industry, and poor performance by its rivals, global output at Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co hit a record in the last business year. Honda cemented its position as Japan's number two automaker with a 4.4 per cent rise in output to a record 2.44 million vehicles in the 12 months to March.

Figures released by Japan's major automakers on Wednesday also showed Toyota Motor Corp extending its lead over other Japanese automakers with global production up 6.4 per cent at 4.88m vehicles in the year. In March alone, Toyota's domestic production rose 9.5 per cent to 3,32,722 vehicles.

Of Japan's other three main automakers — all of whom are restructuring — Nissan saw the biggest drop with world-wide production down 2.5 per cent at 2.4m vehicles. Japan’s fourth biggest automaker, Mitsubishi Motors, said its global output rose 2.6 per cent to 1.73m vehicles in ’99-00.
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Kebabs give KFC a knockout
New Delhi: Pepsico-owned Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), America’s favourite , which took the country by storm a few years ago, has closed all it outlets in India except one which it owns directly in Bangalore, thanks to the match it has met in the Indian tikkas and kebabs. All three outlets which were opened in New Delhi have been closed down.

While the official reason is high real estate price and not so attractive locations, people in the industry point out that the key reason for its failure is the lack of acceptance of the product in India, especially with tough competition from the desi chicken varieties.

Company chief executive, Mr. Sandeep Kohli, blamed the company’s failure to get prime location for the eating joints and its inability to have quality local suppliers of raw chicken in the New Delhi area as reasons for the closure. The company was getting the chicken from Pune and that added to the cost of the product.

There was nothing wrong with the product acceptance which lead to the closure of the outlets, he said, adding that KFC’s Bangalore outlet received more than 2000 visitors everyday.

But KFC has learnt a lesson about the India palate. It is now experimenting with a third range of chicken products (at the moment they have the classic Kentucky chicken, the hot and spicy chicken) non-fried chicken, which is expected to hit the country by the end of this year.

KFC also expects to relaunch its outlets in India by setting up one outlet in Delhi’s upmarket Connaught Place, another outlet in Mumbai, one in Pune and another in Hyderabad.
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Comsat gets nod for Net gateways
Mumbai: Comsat Max, one of the largest satellite communication service providers in the country and a 51:49 joint venture between Analjeet Singh and Comsat International, has received clearance from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to establish international Internet gateways in five cities in the country.

The authorisation to provide international Internet gateways via satellite follows the government's decision in December 1999, granting the company a 'A' category Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence. Incidentally, Comsat International already provides Internet service to corporate customers throughout Latin America and in Europe. Comsat hopes to use its parent company's new globalway platform to offer its customers end-to-end, high speed, reliable and dedicated Internet access and applications.

It is believed that the use of foreign satellites to carry data traffic is a first for ISPs in India and is expected to allow service providers to expand Internet access and accommodate increasing demand for business critical applications.

The licence, combined with existing VSAT services, strengthens Comsat Max's connectivity solutions to corporate customers. These solutions would ensure connectivity needs in areas of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), B2B e-business for corporate houses who are completely handled by Comsat Max.
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Saurashtra Cements mulling stock-options for dealers
Mumbai: In what may be a trend setting incident, Saurashtra Cements Ltd., promoted by the J M Mehta group, is planning to issue stock options to its thousand-odd dealers spread across Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala. This is part of its strategy to retain the dealer network and reward them for their loyalty of many years.

The company expects its share price to fare better as soon as the expansion plans of the company are complete. As part of the expansion plans, the installed capacity of the company will be expanded to 2.3 million tonne from the present 1.2 million tonne per annum (mtpa), while sister concern, Gujarat Sidhee's capacity will be further enhanced to 1.5 mtpa from the previous 1.2 mtpa.

The company sells around 70 per cent of its products in Gujarat, 20 per cent in Maharashtra and 10 per cent in Kerala.
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Boston Consulting to help Thermax restructure
Pune: Water treatment specialist, Thermax Limited, has given the mandate to restructure its business -- divisions, subsidiaries and joint ventures to the US-based Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Code named "Project Green", this exercise is being done to enable Thermax to focus on environment, water, chemical and energy businesses and get out of unrelated areas.

The immediate casualty of the appointment of BCG and the decision of Thermax to focus on environment, water, chemical and energy businesses will be the closure of the industrial fans manufacturing unit -- which employs 55 people -- and sale of the electronic division -- which employs around 60 people.

The company managing director, however, said that there is no possibility of any retrenchment as the company will undertake redeployment wherever possible.

The mandate given to BCG is to review the business strategy and organisational structure of the company, to identify which business portfolios to focus on and to advise on the development of markets, customers, competition, cost structure and value chain. The entire restructuring exercise is expected to be completed by July-end.
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