Bharat Petroleum joins race for IBP
New Delhi: After having adopted a "wait and watch" policy, domestic oil major, Bharat Petroleum has decided to join the bandwagon and bid for IBP either on its own or in collaboration with its existing partners. BPCL’s strategic planning group is working various bidding options and is expected to finalise its plans shortly.

Other oil companies which have already evinced interest are Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and private oil major Reliance Petroleum.

According to sources, IBP, which has a marketing share of about 20 per cent, is only 45 per cent self-reliant. However, with the additional refining capacity the company is expected to have another 12 mt of products available for marketing.

The government has been proposing to dilute government equity from 59.6 per cent to 26 per cent in IBP & Co by offloading 33.9 per cent to a strategic partner through global competitive bidding, along with transfer of management control to the strategic partner.
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Bharti gets ready for biggest battle of all
New Delhi: The Bharti group, which has a big presence in the northern cellular phone services, is getting ready to wage its biggest battle yet. According to reports, the group is planning to bid for the fourth cellular license in Mumbai, the norms for which are likely to be decided soon.

The telecom minister had earlier announced that the fourth licence in cellular is being opened up and norms will be announced soon.

For the Bharti group, which is already one of the largest telecom operators in the country, this will be the third metro it will be bidding for. Currently, the circles with the Bharti group include cellular ones in Delhi, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and for basic circles, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

The group is also seeking to streamline its holding in various telecom ventures as part of the restructuring following the exit of some of its earlier partners. Singapore Telecom, which has invested $400 million in the group, will be a key ally in the group’s telecom projects.
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Aptech on the prowl for overseas software firms
Mumbai: Having successfully acquired the Silicon Valley-based software firm Specsoft two months ago, Indian software education company, Aptech, is on the prowl again.

The company has shortlisted two to three companies in the US and is expected to seal the deal in four months. It plans to utilise a part of the proceeds of its $75 million global depository receipts issue for the acquisition.

According to Mr. Ganesh Natarajan, the future strategy of Aptech will hinge on a combination of organic and inorganic (acquisition) growth. The company was also working with a large well-known consulting firm to put in place the US Generally Accepted Accounting Practices to convert its GDRs into American Depository Receipts.

Mr. Natarajan also said that a 65,000-square feet software centre at the millennium business park at Mhape was being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore, and this is likely to become operational in January 2001.

The company has added 57 new international training centres during the third quarter to the existing 83 across 35 countries and further plans to open 75 more overseas centres abroad by the end of this calendar year.
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Fiat to use India as sourcing point for Punto
Mumbai: In a significant move, the Italian auto major, Fiat Auto, will source components from India for its leading car model, Punto. The model is to have as much as 30 per cent of its components sourced from India through its Indian subsidiary, Fiat India.

The Punto is one of Fiat’s leading products in Italy and currently there are no plans to produce it in India. Fiat sells about seven lakh Puntos every year in the Italian market.

The spare parts among others include wiring-harness, pulleys, sheet metal parts, brake, transmission and plastic parts, leaf springs and fly wheels.
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HM has an open mind for Mitsubishi stake
New Delhi: The C K Birla flagship company, Hindustan Motors, has said that it is in favour of divesting a part of its equity to Mitsubishi Motor if such a move is in the overall interests of the company in terms of getting perpetual support for technology.

The company is, however, waiting for things to settle down at Mitsubishi following the increase of the DaimlerChrysler stake in the Japanese company, before making any move in that direction.

HM, which has technology agreement with Mitsubishi, had initially offered 10 per cent stake to the Japanese car major, only to withdraw it later.

The company is also dispatching a high-level team to Japan to negotiate with auto giant Mitsubishi for introduction of more models of the Lancer in India.

The issue of more models from the Lancer family, including Cadia and Gallant, was discussed when a team of the Japanese car giant visited India earlier this month.
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Dabur starts talks with MNCs for insurance
New Delhi: Following the last minute and unexpected pull-out by Allstate International, its earlier partner for its foray into the insurance sector, Dabur India said that it was in talks with several other multinational companies for its insurance ambitions.

While stating this, the company did not put any time frame within which the deliberations would be complete and the application for a license made to the IRDA.
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Indian Hotels to expand overseas via JV
Mumbai: In what might represent a major strategy shift, the Tata group-controlled, Indian Hotels, has decided to set up a joint venture with a local partner for its foray into South East Asia.

The company has also, decided to lease out the Taj brands and set up hotels in the Middle East, instead of directly acquiring hotels. The company is planning to put minimum equity in the JVs, while setting up new entities in this region. The onus will be on the joint venture to raise funds from the local market.

According to Mr. Zubin Dubash, executive director of Indian Hotels, the group has already begun negotiations with some hotel majors in the region for this purpose. While the South East Asian hotels will focus on the leisure segment, the ones in the Middle East will focus on the business segment.

The company had been reviewing its international growth strategy for the last two years. It first sold two hotels in the US, and forged a joint venture for the London-based St James Court.
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Mahindra British enters into strategic tie-up with ITI Bangalore: In a deal that is to bring together India’s largest telecom software maker and the largest telecom equipment maker, Mahindra-British Telecom Ltd (MBT) announced a strategic alliance with ITI Ltd for joint business development and project management.

As per the memorandum of understanding (MoU), MBT and ITI will jointly execute IT consulting projects along with develop tools and components in emerging telecom software technologies.

The alliance is also to focus on enterprise level security consultancy, telecom software services like billing, network management, fraud management, customer care, order handling, operational maintenance and telecom network services like network planning, installation, commissioning, maintenance and micro-electronics.
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Spice Cell launches branded services
Calcutta: With an investment of $1.5 million, the BK Modi group company, Spice Cell, took its data services a step further and launched branded services, Planet Spice and Post Me, through the Nokia messaging platform.

Planet Spice is a wireless Internet portal to provide customers access to a variety of information services, irrespective of the handsets. Post Me, on the other hand, is a person-to-person (P2P) messaging service, enabling all Spice pre-paid and post-paid customers to send messages. As an introductory offer, both the services will be free till they are popularised.

The company hopes to generate revenues from data services to the extent of 30 per cent of its airtime revenues in three years time.
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