Hutchinson drops plans to buy into Aircell
Mumbai: It is understood that the ongoing talks between Hutchinson Telecom and the Ruia-family controlled, Aircell Digilink, has fallen through due to differences over pricing. Earlier, Hutchinson was in talks with Aircell to take a stake in the four cellular circles operated by Aircell, in what was billed as the country’s largest telecom combine in the making.

Aircell Digilink holds cellular licenses for the Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (East) circles.

Officials from both companies refused to comment on the issued.
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Polaris sued by Data Inc for backing out of acquisition
New Delhi: In what may be the first legal battle Indian infotech companies are likely to face in their bid to expand overseas, Chennai-based Polaris Software is being sued by Data Inc, the New-Jersey based IT company, after the former dropped its plans to acquire the latter in a $21-million cash-stock deal.

Data Inc provides software services in the banking, brokerage and telecommunications domains to several Fortune 500 companies including Merrill Lynch, Chase, UBS, Goldman Sachs and Bell Atlantic.

The suit has been filed against the company, as well as against the chairman and managing director, Mr. Arun Jain, who also happens to be the majority shareholder of the company. Polaris has apparently called off the deal on the recommendation of its audit committee.

The suit filed by Data Inc., does not quantify any damages, but seeks to force Polaris to comply with an agreement to acquire Data Inc, for which a MoU to this affect was signed in May this year, and reimburse major expenses incurred by Data Inc in reliance upon Polaris’ promise to complete the acquisition. The US company is also contending that it had revealed extensive confidential information to Polaris during the period of negotiations and believes that it could now seriously compromise its competitive position if the deal is not consummated.

As per the agreement, Polaris was to buy 100 per cent stake in Data Inc in a cash deal of. The stock option was to be fungible with Polaris ADR issue.

Polaris had struck the deal with the Indian-owned Data Inc. for $15 million in cash and the balance in stocks to the owner and employees of Data Inc. According to unconfirmed sources Polaris, now wants to reduce its cash part substantially and increase the stock option which is not acceptable to the promoter of Data Inc., Mr. Verma.
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UB acquires strategic stake in Inertia Industries
Bangalore: As part of its desire to increase brewing capacity, Vijay Mallya-controlled United Breweries has bought 31 per cent strategic stake in Inertia Industries, which owns Sandpiper and Turbo beer brands.

With this stake, UB will be able to strengthen its presence in the Northern and Western markets, particularly Maharashtra. Addressing the shareholders, Mr. Mallya stated that UB has garnered a significant rise in marketshare and that its brands now command a 53 per cent of the mild beer market, compared to 48 per cent in the previous year.

The success of Kingfisher Strong launched last year is said to have helped UB record an overall increase of 25 per cent in volumes during the first quarter of the current year as compared to last year. According to Mr. Mallya, Kingfisher Strong registered sales of two million cases during the first 10 months of launch.
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Reliance plans mining joint venture with CIL
Calcutta: Reliance Power, alongwith its partner Southern Electric of the US, is said to be in talks with Coal India Limited to set up a coal mining joint venture for assured coal linkage to the $5 billion, 3,960 MW mega thermal project coming up at Hirma, Orissa. The power project is expected to feed power to five states, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan.

The coal linkage for the power project is estimated to be around 19.13 million tons per annum. The investment required to develop the two identified mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a CIL subsidiary, is estimated to be over Rs 3,000 crore.

CIL already identified the linked mines for supplies to the Hirma project. MCL’s Kulda and Garjanbahal project are slated to supply around 19.13 million tons to the Hirma project which is slated to be completed within a 51 month period after its financial closure.

Reliance and Southern Electric have tied with Power Trading Corporation to evacuate power from Orissa. Setting the future trend of captive mining joint ventures for mega power project requiring heavy coal linkages and a sizeable investment in the process, CIL has already taken up joint venture projects with NTPC for two mines proposed to supply around 20 million tons annually.
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Chauhan again in talking mode over Bisleri stake
New Delhi: Mr. Ramesh Chauhan of Bisleri is once again in the news. He is now said to be talking to international bottled water majors, Nestle and Dannone, to set up a joint venture for mineral water in the country.

After denying earlier reports that he was selling out, Mr. Chauhan, is said to be talking to these two companies to form a joint venture where he would hold a majority stake.

Dannone, the parent company of Britannia Industries, is the second largest bottled water company in the world, and owns Evian and Volvic mineral water brands, while Nestle has Perrier and Vitel brands.

Mr. Chauhan is understood to have refused any comments on the issue.
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HP may join hands with Wipro to market e-services
Singapore: According to Mr. Ganesh Ayyar, director marketing and business customer organisation, Asia Pacific and president, HP India, computing major, Hewlett-Packard (HP) is looking at forging alliances with Wipro for e-services and technology. It is understood that a team from HP, will be visiting India for the purpose.

HP claims to have deployed more than 200 portals for Fortune 500 customers and Internet start-ups and guarantees the company can get a portal up and running in 90 days. Wipro's e-business framework, net.profit, on the other hand, enables seamless e-business transformation by not only developing and integrating e-commerce applications but also designing the next generation of information technology (IT) and communication products for e-business infrastructure. Net.profit addresses both commercial and engineering markets.

This strategic tie-up will be in line with HP's philosophy of growth through alliances and acquisitions. It recently announced a tie-up with AT&T and will jointly develop and co-market networking and application management solutions for e-businesses. It is also said to be looking at a possible acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' global management and IT consulting practice.
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Essar Shipping accounts qualified
Mumbai: South-based Essar Shipping's 1999-00 accounts have been qualified by the company's auditors, Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, over a Rs 85-crore sales-tax dispute that the company is involved with the Tamil Nadu authorities.

The controversy began about two years back state-owned Poompuhar Shipping chartered ships from Essar for transporting coal from Paradip in Orissa to Chennai for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. With the Tamil Nadu government bringing lease transactions under the purview of the sales tax, authorities promptly slapped a claim on Essar's transactions with the state-owned company.

Essar refused to pay the claim, on the ground that there is no change of ownership involved in the transaction. Essar claims that although the ships were being used by Poompuhar, the company always owned them. Sales tax is applicable only on those lease transactions in which the ownership changes over a period of time. This line has been rejected by the sales tax authorities, but Essar has go in for an appeal.

The auditor has also said that according to legal opinion Essar’s stand is not sustainable. Even if they have to be paid, these charges can be recovered from the customer.
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