Tata Coffee gets new head
Bangalore: Tata Coffee (formerly known as Consolidated Coffee), which is Asia’s largest corporate coffee plantation, is being restructured under a new chief executive. It is understood that Mr. M H Ashraff, currently executive director of Tata Tea, will be taking as managing director of the company, by the end of this month. He will take over from Mr. M A Bopanna, the current incumbent, who will be retiring.

In the ensuing management restructuring, Mr. Ashraff will have two vice-presidents reporting directly to him. They are Mr. Hameed Huq, vice-president in charge of plantations, who will focus on production and Mr. Harish Bijoor, vice-president for marketing, who will focus on consumer-related value-addition. This restructuring is seen as significant, given the company’s thrust on going up the value-addition chain.

Despite coffee prices plummeting the world over, the turnover of Tata Coffee touched Rs 218 crore for fiscal 1999-2000, up nearly 18 per cent over the previous fiscal’s Rs 175 crore. Profits after tex touched Rs 26 crore, up 13 per cent. Tata Coffee’s strategy under the chairmanship of Mr. R K Krishnakumar has been one of growth through not just improved performance but acquisitions.
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CEC of US enters India through a tie-up with Marshall
Calcutta: The US-based, Construction Equipment Company, is making its entry into the Indian market through a technological and marketing alliance with Marshall Sons & Co.

CEC has given sole and exclusive distribution rights for marketing its heavy duty jaw, cone and impact crushers in India and Srilanka to Marshall.

Marshall, which has a 50 year presence in the road construction industry, would also be serving as the company’s servicing and maintenance representative in these countries. Both companies believe that the construction scenario in our country is changing very fast and India is going for the latest technology. The big push in highway development projects has created a huge demand for the latest technology, high capacity plants.
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HCL Infosystems ties up with Broad Vision
Calcutta: In an agreement recently signed, HCL Infosystems has tied-up with Broad Vision, a leading provider of personalised e-business applications. Under the agreement, HCL Infosys will act as a value-added distributors for Broadvision's customised software, services, support, maintenance and other related services.

It is expected that the tie-up will strengthen HCL Infosys' ability to provide end-to-end solutions by adding to its portfolio. A wide spectrum of e-business solutions and services, which are, customised applications for extended enterprise customer relationship management will be offered under this tie-up.

These applications included suites for e-commerce, online banking and knowledge management. HCL, Infosys would resell Broadvision's software, services, and support/maintenance as well as provide additional related services for the customers, the release added.
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Tata Tea to leverage Tetley brand and explore new markets
Calcutta: Fresh from its success with the Tetley acquisition, the Tata Tea management is exploring the possibility of leveraging its Tetley brand to cater to cater to countries from the Middle-East to the CIS. The company is also contemplating sourcing tea from India and Sri Lanka for its Tetley brand. It is understood that a joint team drawn from Watawala in Sri Lanka, India and in the UK, has been formed to frame strategies for increased exports.

The company is also experimenting with various forms and flavours of tea for both the Indian and overseas markets. According to Mr. Krishna Kumar, managing director of the company, it is also contemplating introducing new forms and brands in the domestic market as well.

The tea major is likely to use south Indian teas to source its Tetley brand instead of the lower priced Malawi teas which are used for blending purposes. For this, it is putting in place better operation lines and technology. Packaging is another key area being studied seriously. The company is working on various packaging formats currently.
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Sun Infoways hires consultants for Zap deal
New Delhi: Leading accouting firms, Delliotte Haskin & Sell and Sharp & Tannan, have been appointed by Mumbai-based Sun Infoways to advise the company on the structure and alternatives to conclude the Rs 475-crore Zap Infotech acquisition deal, which was announced in August this year.

The appointment has been made under the approval granted to the company by its board which cleared the appointment of two international consultants to advise the company on the acquisition deal.

The company has also finalised divestment of 10 per cent equity to strategic foreign investors, with the aim at upgrading WAP development and m-commerce centre at Bangalore and Delhi besides proposed setting up of facilities in Europe and Australia.

The deal reported to be the second largest in the Indian infotech sector, envisages transfer or alignment of entire of Zap Infotech to Sun Infoways as per the memorandum of understanding.

After the acquisition of Zap Infotech, the company would have five software development centres, one Research & Development outpost, a retail brand identity and 250 centres imparting technology education all over the country.

The company has further claimed that the deal has strengthened the position of Sun Infoways as a dominant player in the wireless telecommunications solutions market leading to convergence.
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Indian Oil plans to set up Haldia-Paradeep pipeline
Calcutta: The management of India’s leading oil company, Indian Oil, has taken a decision to set up a pipeline between Paradeep and Haldia for transporting crude oil. This move, which sets aside its earlier plan to construct floating storage offtake facility at the Sandheads near Haldia port for crude imports, is likely to have far-reaching consequences on the operational costs of Indian Oil Corporation.

Even though this decision will have a higher initial cost in setting up the facility, it is expected to reduce operational costs considerably in the medium and long run. Fraught with the inherent difficulties of being a riverine port, Haldia cannot accommodate the very large crude carriers (VLCC), which require drafts of around 25-30 metres and hence, can come only upto Sandheads.

Although the company’s earlier plan to have a FSO has many advantages, it ran into rough weather when IOC had disagreements with Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), initially entrusted with the job of setting up the FSO, over the costs of setting up such facility.

IOC is now feeding its Haldia refinery and also partially its Barauni refinery with crude imports through the Haldia port. There are also plans to increase the capacity of both these refineries.

In spite of the massive differences in the initial costs, IOC feels that the pipeline is far more cost effective in the long run, keeping in mind the recurring expenses of an FSO.

The recent increase in port charges of the CPT is also believed to have acted as a catalyst to the IOC decision. The revised rates imply an additional Rs 150 per tonne of crude, as per IOC estimates.
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Voltas exits from its foods subsidiary
Mumbai: In its continuing round of divestments, Voltas Ltd, has sold its wholly-owned subsidiary Voltas Foods & Beverages to a Mumbai-based company. The company is said to have received Rs. 1.05 crore for the deal. Voltas Foods was set up in the late 1980s as part of the marketing arrangements the company had with Pepsi Holdings.

In another development, the company has found a multinational as strategic partner for Perfect Moulds, a loss-making subsidiary, is in the business of manufacturing precision moulds for plastic injection moulding machines. Perfect Moulds has finalised an agreement with Jaud SA of France, wherein the French major will initially hold 50 per cent in the venture. Jaud’s stake may later go up, subject to approval from Voltas.

The exercise to restructure subsidiaries had begun over two years back when the diversified company had slipped into the black. Since then, Voltas has sold its entire 49 per cent stake in SMS India in favour of the German joint venture partner.
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LML may go in for fresh technical tie-ups
Kanpur: LML Ltd, which broke off from its earlier partner, Vespa, is looking at forging technical alliances with two other companies, besides Daelim of South Korea, with whom the company already has a tie-up. The new tie-ups would help the company launch new products in the high-growth two-wheeler segments such as scooterettes, step-thrus and motorcycles.

The company has already launched two Daelim motorcycles in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, while work on the scooterrettes and step-through would begin by the year-end. In addition to these bikes, the company plans to introduce three Daelim bikes -- 125cc, 100cc and a chopper-like 150cc or 200cc motorcycle by the close of 2001. Besides these, the company also plans to launch a 75cc plastic body scooter and a 125cc/150cc metal body four-stroke scooter sometime next year.

The company is, however, very clear that it would not offer stake to any of the foreign partners in LML Ltd.

Within the next two years, LML hopes that 45 per cent of its volumes will come from motorcycles, while the remaining would be equally divided between metal-body geared scooters and gearless scooterrettes and step-thrus.
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Mafatlals scouting for partners in Nocil joint venture
Mumbai: Post the trifurcation of its businesses, the Arvind Mafatlal group is said to be scouting around for partners to form a joint venture that will run Nocil Ltd, the new plastics and chemicals company.

After the trifurcation, the plastics business was undergoing a recast. The joint venture option is being sought out by the management, despite having bagged contracts from several state governments including the Madhya Pradesh government, because the finances from these are not expected to be not be sufficient to run the company.

With the trifurcation, the plan was to split the NOCIL share capital of Rs 122 crore in the ratio of 70:16:14 between its petrochemicals, rubber and residual business, which is also roughly the ratio of their contribution to the then Nocil turnover of Rs 1,100 crore.

The three-way restructuring is effective from October 1, 1998, resulting in shareholders getting free of cost one new share each in the two new companies formed by the spin-off of NOCIL'S petrochemicals and rubber business for every one NOCIL share held.

The Arvind Mafatlal Group had hit a rough patch when their flagship company Mafatlal Industries was declared sick by the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) early this year. The company was squaring off a large portion of their debts by disposing of its real estate assets in Mumbai.
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