Steel Authority shortlists Tata-Usinor and Avesta for Salem steel plant
Mumbai: The country’s steel major, the Rs 16,723 crore Steel Authority of India Ltd., which has been seeking joint venture partners for its Salem Steel Plant, has shortlisted two of the four companies who had bid for the same. The move to scout for joint venture partners for Salem Steel is part of the restructuring exercise initiated by SAIL and approved by the government.

The selected parties are Avesta Sheffield and the Tata Steel-Usinor combine. These parties are said to have fulfilled the pre-qualification criteria and SAIL’s financial advisor, JM Morgan Stanley, will now initiate a due diligence exercise.

Of the remaining two companies, the Jindal Strips Ltd. (JSL) bid is still being considered Morgan Stanley, while the fourth, Shah Alloys, did not qualify.

Usinor is the world’s third largest crude steel producer and produced 22 million-ton (mt) of steel last year. Avesta Sheffield too is a global stainless steel major with a last recorded net profit of 1.2 million Swedish kroner.

The saleable steel capacity of the Salem Steel plant is 70,000 tpa of cold rolled products, 186,000 tpa hot-rolled products and 3,600 tpa of coin blanks/ circles. It is also a major exporter of cold rolled stainless steel.
Back to News Review index page 

L&T to float investment services company
Mumbai: Engineering and cement major, Larsen & Toubro, today entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Bluestone Capital Partners, LP, a US-based investment banking and brokerage firm, to float a new company called L&T Trade.com Ltd. The venture will be an advanced technology financial portal, which offers investment services to Indian consumer beginning with online equities trading around the world, as and when the regulations permit it.

L&T Trade.com will be the first Internet-trading platform in the country to offer investors the option of conducting trades across global markets, at a time when the rupee is still not fully convertible on the capital account and when transactions in financial assets by local residents abroad are restricted by laws.

According to Mr. Y M Deosthalee, senior vice president of L&T, most of the development work for the venture will be done in house through L&T’s infotech division and the investment over a period of time will be around Rs 30 crore.

L&T Trade.com will also offer wide variety of investment options like bonds, mutual funds, convertible debentures etc. These services will also be offered to foreign investors who are looking at India.

The company has tied up with Chuniwala Securities, a Mumbai based broking house with memberships at the BSE and NSE, besides being a member of the Central Depository Services, to offer services to its customers. The portal is also tying up with three banks in the country for acting as anchor banks. Trade.com has anchor-banking relationship with 25 banks in 50 countries. It enables the customers of these banks to trade or invest in any security worldwide.

The two major contenders in the present Internet trading market are ICICIdirect.com and HDFC Securities, who are offering investors a direct banking and depository interface. Several equity brokerages who offer their clients Web-trading services do so in tie-up with other banks.
Back to News Review index page 

Ashok Leyland Finance to diversify into retail finance
Chennai: Ashok Leyland Finance, which has strong presence in truck and car finance, is making a plunge into consumer durable financing. It is banking on its strong network and the ability to mobilise funds at low cost. The company estimates the market for personal products, excluding automobiles, to be in the range of Rs. 10,000 crore a year.

It is also contemplating a move into e-business by launching a portal soon to have tie-ups with various dealers and customers for quick processing of applications and sanctioning loans. The company also intends to expand its distribution network. Now, it has 135 branches all over India. In the next two years, it might be increased to 300.

In three years time, it wants to increase the share of retail finance to 33 per cent. It has already grown in the car segment with a disbursement level of Rs 250 crore.
Back to News Review index page 

Global TeleSystems and Oracle tie up for ERP solutions
Mumbai: Global TeleSystems, which already offers Verifone payment services and some products of GE Information Services to its customers, has tied up with software solutions giant, Oracle, to provide its enterprise resource planning products for small and medium enterprises on its Application Service Provider called Global-enterprises. GTL will share revenues from renting Oracle solutions on the net in 70:30 ratio.

An ASP offers enterprises the option of renting software application without spending on manpower and hardware infrastructure. The objective of the tie-up is to offer a cost effective solution to the customers. The customer will save around 60 per cent in the first year of using the ERP solution, in the second year his saving will increase further.

If the customer rents the service than it does not have to buy the license for the software, invest in hardware, consulting fees, and data migration service.

According to GTL software Internet group president & chief operating officer Yash Sahni, the company will offer remote vendors and remote branches of large corporates, connectivity to the web to access to these solutions, besides implementation consultancy.
Back to News Review index page 

Murugappa group to launches Rs 18-crore power project
Chennai: The Murugappa group-company, Southern Energy Development Corporation (Sedco) has set up a 5 MW natural gas-based power project at Nallur near Mannargudi in Thanjavur district of Chennai. The Rs 18-crore project was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board member (distribution), Mr. Abraham, recently.

The group had already built a 12 MW hydro power plant at Maniyar, Kerala, and a 21-mw plant with about 80 wind mills near Muppandal in Tamil Nadu. Another group company, EID Parry, has established a 30-mw cogeneration plant using bagasse at Nellukuppam.

Appreciating the efforts of the group in completing the project in a short span of nine months, Mr. Abraham said the electricity board was setting up capacitors to prevent transmission loss incurred while transmitting power on long distances.
Back to News Review index page 

Cadila launches anti-HIV drugs
Ahmedabad: Cadila Healthcare today announced the launch of two drugs for the treatment of the dreaded HIV virus.

According to a company spokesperson, Cadila has developed a new process for lamivudine that is being marketed under its brand name Ladiwin. Lamivudine was discovered by Canada's, BioChem Pharma and the worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and sell the drug rests with Glaxo Wellcome. India, currently, recognises only process patents, which allows domestic firms to reproduce foreign drugs without payment.

The company has also launched zidovudine, which is imported and marketed under the brand name Zydowin, an AIDS-retardant drug made by Glaxo Wellcome.

These drugs suppress the HIV that affects the immune system of the body making it vulnerable to tuberculosis, fungal infections and certain neurological illnesses, thus helping the HIV patient to live a longer and healthier life by delaying the clinical progression of the disease.
Back to News Review index page 

"Branson blitz" may turn the heat on Air India
New Delhi: Virgin Airlines, owned and run by the flamboyant Mr. Richard Branson, is all set to begin its India sojourn today, with its first Delhi-London flight being inaugurated. Virgin, which has entered into the country through a code sharing arrangement with the country’s international airline, Air India, is all set to turn the heat on its partner.

The reason is a "trigger clause" in the code-share agreement, which allows Virgin to increase its flights to as many as six a week by March 2001, thus putting it in direct competition with its partner.

Launching with two flights a week tonight, Virgin is scheduled to increase its capacity to three flights a week from October, which fill up the slots left vacant by Air India. Ever since the agreement was signed, the management of Air India has been maintaining that there was no competition with Virgin since the code-share partner was to operate flights on the days left vacant by the national carrier.

With the disinvestment in Air India gaining momentum and the bid to dry lease aircraft receiving a temporary setback, the country’s carrier is yet to firm up its expansion plans, thus giving its partner, Virgin, a field day to play in.

The there is also the possibility of Virgin being allocated more flights when India and the UK go in for their next round of bilateral civil aviation discussions. In that case, Virgin would be able to plan out its expansion plans without having to take Air India along.
Back to News Review index page