Tatas may consider minority partner in Indica project
Mumbai: In a brief report appearing in the Economic Times, Tata group chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata, is quoted as saying that the flagship group company, Tata Engineering, was not averse to looking an equity alliance in order to prepare itself for the future.

According to the report, the chairman is quoted as saying that it was impossible for the company to survive the post-WTO rules era with just one or two products. In order to defend its position in a era where imports of fully built cars will be allowed, the chairman felt that the company will look at an appropriate alliance that will bring in technology apart from equity.

However, the Tata Group chairman clarified that the equity alliance would definitely be for a "minority partnership".
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ICICI plans may give boost to construction industry
Bangalore: According to Ms. Chanda Kochar, senior general manager of financial institution, ICICI, the FI is contemplating funding apartment builders and developers. The funding is likely to start this fiscal.

ICICI, in league with other players in the housing finance industry, is said to be working on the possibility of developing a mortgage-refinance institution on the lines of FannieMae of USA. Ms. Kochar states that the formation of such an institution will only give a boost to financing the construction industry, as it would offer financing companies a way to securitise their debts.
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Tata Chemicals merges investment arm
Mumbai: In a year where it has not done too well, Tata Chemicals has merged its investment arm, Sabras Investments, into itself, thus giving a boost to its sagging bottomline, besides reducing its tax liability.

With the approval of the shareholders of the company, the merger will ensure that the profit from the shares of ACC sold by Sabras, will now accrue to the Tata Chemicals bottomline. The sale of the block of ACC shares will lead to a capital gain of Rs 207.75 crore.

Sabras earned pre-tax profit of Rs 160 crore for 1999-00. Of this, Rs 153.41 crore was on account of sale of investments.

Apart from its holdings in ACC, Sabras Investments holds large equity investments in some other Tata group companies, including Tata Tea, Rallis India, Tata Telecom and Tata Finance.

As part of its restructuring exercise, Tata Chemicals, is planning to strike marketing alliances with established domestic players, since its non-core businesses like cement and detergents do not have critical mass.
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Hughes Telecom IPO gets good response
New Delhi: The first public offering from a private telecom player, the IPO of HUGHES Tele.com, opened to a good response from institutional buyers.

According to reports from the company, the company has already garnered about Rs. 720 crore in just three days, exceeding the target figure of about Rs 675 crore.

The book-built portion of the IPO, for which the floor price is fixed at Rs 12, was opened on August 29 and will be closed on September 5. The total size of the Hughes Tele.com IPO is Rs 749.21 crore.
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SRF to venture into IT, ISP businesses
New Delhi: SRF Ltd. will be seeking shareholder approval to amend its articles, thus allowing it to diversify into the high growth knowledge-based business areas of information technology and Internet Service Providers (ISP).

The company has been actively seeking to enter the knowledge-based industry, which, according to the company, ensures high returns, and involve low investments. The company has already renamed its management services department as SRF Infotel' Division. The division has been looking after computer facilities and has acquired expertise in certain management services, including development of software.

As part of this strategy, the company plans to design, develop, purchase, import, export, distribute and deal in all types of information technology-related software used by computers, data processing systems. It also intends to provide complete solutions in related business activities, including computer consultancy services, management consultancy services and running training centres for all uses and for all types of consumers.
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Aptech may hit Nasdaq by mid-2001
New Delhi: According to Mr. Ganesh Natarajan, managing director or Aptech Limited, which is currently listed on the London Stock Exchange, the company would be ready for listing its stocks on a US bourse by mid-2001. This would give its shareholders an option to convert their Global Depository Shares (GDS) into American Depository Receipts (ADR).

Mr. Natarajan also stated that the American listing would allow the company to acquire firms through stock swaps as compared to the cash deals that Aptech was currently using for takeovers.

The company is planning to invest upto $60 million to expand its overseas operations by establishing overseas subsidiaries and development centres, and acquiring IT services companies.

On the anvil are three overseas proximity development centres, two in US and one in UK with an initial investment of 15 million dollars by early next year. Besides, the company is planning to set up operations in France, Germany and Italy over the next few months and would establish a subsidiary in Japan by the year-end.

The company, which recently acquired US-based e-commerce company SpecSoft for $9.7 million, has shortlisted three firms, one in New York and two in Mid West for a takeover.
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