Instead, Chauhan is said to have drawn up an ambitious plan for the bottled water business by investing Rs 150 crore to set up 12 bottling plants in different parts of the country and launching different pack sizes in the market. He said that the turnaround was due to the fact that the domestic bottled water business had very bright prospects and was growing at a rate of over 180 per cent per annum.

The company was said to be in negotiations with several multinationals including Coke, to whom he had sold his soft drinks brands.

Parle Bisleri plans to set a target of a five-fold increase in business over the next two years. As per this target it will raise its sales volume from its current 200 million litre to 1 billion litres in two years flat.

Bisleri is currently being sold through some 400,000 retail outlets in the country right now. It is conspicuous by its absence in Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Kerala, Andhra and North-Eastern regions. As a result of this, it plans to expand its reach to these geographical regions.
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Indian Oil puts in offer to buy stake in IBP
New Delhi: India’s Fortune 500-oil company, Indian Oil Corporation, is said to have approached the government with an offer to buy its stake in IBP, another State-owned oil marketing company that has been listed for disinvestment.

It is said that IOC has approached the petroleum ministry earlier this month to discuss the possibility of buying the entire government stake in IBP, which has over 1500 retail marketing outlets.

However, IBP officials and petroleum secretary, Mr. S. Narayan, have refused to comment on this development.

While the government holds a majority 59.59 per cent equity in IBP financial institutions and banks have 23 per cent stake in the company. Employees, non-residents and others hold a total of 17.4 per cent equity in the company.

The proposal of disinvestment in IBP is also part of the restructuring process announced by the petroleum ministry for the entire oil sector.
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Indian Shaving may win race to buy Eveready's batteries unit
Mumbai and Calcutta: The Indian subsidiary of US shaving products giant, Indian Shaving Products, is said to have emerged as the front-runner in the race to take over the batteries business of Eveready Industries, which has been on the block for some time now.

According to an investment banker in the know, the two negotiating parties have sorted out "multiple issues" and the gap between the asking price and the offer price has narrowed. As a result, a deal could be expected in the next three to four weeks.

Gillette, which owns the battery brand Duracell globally, is already a strong player in the alkaline battery segment in India.

Eveready has a large amount of debt on its books as a result of a reverse merger of McLeod Russell, the original buyer of the then Union Carbide, with Eveready. This has made the pricing a very tricky issue and that has delayed the whole process.

The Khaitans, owners of Eveready Industries, also have a 50:50 joint venture with Eveready Battery Co, USA, to market its "Eveready Energiser" brand of alkalines. Taking over EIIL would give Gillette a strong foothold in the dry cell battery segment where Eveready is the market leader. Gillette has already taken over the Allahabad-based "Geep" brand of dry cell battery to strengthen its market share.
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Jatia group to bring in drugstore chain in the country
New Delhi: In what might be the desi counterpart to the Boots chain of drugstores in the UK, India might see the first of such drugstore chains starting August this year. This chain will, besides medicines and drugs, have an exotic product offering that will include pregnancy pillows and anti-snore pillows and even smoker’s toothpaste!

The Jatia family – which has such companies like Wimco Ltd., Bell Ceramics and Asian Hotels -- has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Bodium International, to launch a company called Total Care India, which will set up a chain of drug stores in the country over the next two years. The chain, christened Lifespring, is intended to ultimately facilitate deliveries for its online drug store.

Bodium International, an A$70-million group which owns over 20 drugstores in Papua New Guinea, is also involved in he management and consultancy of supermarkets and drugstores in Australia and the Fiji islands.

The first of such drugstores is to be opened in a 3,000 sq. ft of space in South Extension in New Delhi in August. The average investment per store is approximately Rs 2 crore.

The store is to have two main sections: health, and beauty & personal care products. Supplementing these would be the infant care section, optical section, photography section and the gift section.
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Vodafone wins over Spanish group for stake in cellular company
London: British cellular phone major, Vodafone Airtouch plc., announced that it had managed to convince a group, which included Banco Santander Central Hispano, to accept its offer to acquire their 43.5 percent stake in Spain's Airtel, the country’s second largest mobile phone operator with over six million subscribers. Vodafone currently has a 21.75 percent stake in Airtel.

Under the agreement, Vodafone will issue between 2.4 billion and 3.2 billion new Vodafone shares, depending on the average close for the Vodafone share price in the 30 days prior to notice of completion. These shares issued to the Airtel shareholders will have a six month lock-in period.

The company had previously signed a co-operation agreement with British Telecommunications plc., which holds 17.8 percent of Airtel, in order to ensure a smooth completion to the transaction.
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Kesoram to hive off realty into two subsidiaries
Calcutta: BK Birla controlled, Kesoram Industries, has decided to hive off its entire real estates into two newly formed subsidiaries in an all-equity deal of Rs 11.08 crore. The two subsidiaries will, in the long run, develop real estates acquiring lands from others. While analysts have lauded the company’s move to hive off idle assets, they are confused by the move to incorporate two entities for this purpose. According to them, the move is reminiscent of the pre-liberalisation days, when companies generally split their businesses over several companies.

According to company sources, the proposed demerger is in lines with the company's plan to focus on its core areas namely rayon and transparent paper, spun pipes, refractory and cement.

In an ongoing restructuring exercise, the company had already hived off its textiles business in a company, Kesoram Textiles, last year. It is also said to be close to striking a deal with a global tyre giant to control Birla Tyres. It is learnt that the Italian tyre maker Pirelli, with whom Birla Tyres has a technical collaboration for radial tyres manufacturing, has evinced interest in participating in the company's equity.
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ONGC and Indian Oil may set up joint venture
New Delhi: Oil majors, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), are said to be forming a new joint venture company to offer services in the global upstream and downstream sectors.

As per a report appearing in the Financial Express, the two public sector giants are incorporating a 50:50 joint venture for this purpose, and will later rope in leading companies like Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Wipro and Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC).

It is planned that, on the entry of these private sector companies, the joint shareholding of the oil companies in the joint venture, will come down to 26 per cent. Technical and financial modalities related with formation of this new company are being worked out and a formal announcement to this effect is expected to be made by this month-end.

This is the first joint venture of the two oil majors ever since they announced their strategic alliance last year. The two companies entered into an alliance to pool efforts in exploration & production, refining & marketing, petrochemicals and power.
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