Dalmia brace for long drawn battle, ask for Gesco board revamp
New Delhi: Renaissance Estates Ltd, the AH Dalmia group company which has fired the first salvo in the hostile takeover battle with Gesco Corporation, is said to have readied a a budget of Rs 70 crore to bankroll the takeover. The Dalmia family is understood to have liquidated several of its investments, to the tune of Rs. 75 crore, to help Renaissance fight the takeover.

Meanwhile, Mr. Abhishek Dalmia of Renaissance has expressed his full faith in the line-management of the company but wants to change its board of directors. In a statement issued through their investment bankers, ASK Raymond James, Mr. Dalmia stated that he feels Gesco is run by good managers in charge of various line functions. But the track record of the different members of the board can be easily questioned. In this connection he is therefore calling for a complete recast of the board, based on the strength of his shareholding.
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Bharti Group and Singapore Telecom in undersea cable project
New Delhi: In a significant move that will help it leapfrog in the telecom game, Bharti Enterprises announced a joint venture with Singapore Telecom, christened Bharti Aquanet, for laying a submarine cable connecting Singapore with Mumbai and Chennai. The project will cost an estimated $650 million. The proposed cable will give Bharti an advantage when it goes for the international long-distance telephony, slated to open up for private sector competition in 2002.

With a planned bandwidth of 8.4-terabit-per-second, this will be the largest private undersea cable network with a capacity to carry 100 million conversations simultaneously.

In order to fund its expansion plans, Bharti Televentures, a joint venture between Bharti and SingTel, is expected to raise $200 million through public issue route in the first quarter of next year.

According to the plans, the first phase of the project will envisage a cable between Chennai and Singapore, which will be executed by Alcatel Submarine Networks. It will design, manufacture, install and commission the cable. The value of the supply contract is nearly $250 million.

Already, Dishnet, a Chennai-based national internet service provider, has announced setting up a submarine cable between Chennai and Singapore, which is expected to be operational next year. Further, FLAG, an international bandwidth provider, has also announced its intentions to increase its capacity in India. This will obviously lead to competition, thus bringing down bandwidth prices.
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Slump in domestic market forces Cummins to look out
Pune: Faced with a stagnant domestic market for engine sales, Cummins India is to focus on the export market and target 50 per cent of its total engines sales for the export market in the current year.

Cummins Inc, USA, the parent company of Cummins India will assist its Indian arm to push sales in the global market. Currently, the US and the UK markets are the largest markets for Cummins India. In a move to gear-up for a larger slice of the overseas market, Cummins India has now upgraded its most poplar 900 horse power (HP) diesel engine--V-28 to meet the tough US and European emission norms. The V-28 engine is being exclusively produced at the Cummins India's Pune facility and meets the worldwide requirements of Cummins Inc.

With increase in fuel prices globally, even exports remained stagnant in the first half of the current fiscal year.

Cummins India recently bagged a Rs 15 crore order from Telco to supply 500 compressed natural gas (CNG) engines that will go in for the buses that will be used by Delhi Transport Corporation.
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Ajanta Pharma plans to buy six brand
Mumbai: AS part of its expansion startegies, herbal-drug major Ajanta Pharma is planning to acquire at least six brands in different therapeutic segments. It has laid out a budget of about Rs. 60 crore for such acquisitions.

The company has retained the services of ICICI Securities and SBI Caps for its acquisitions and has also roped in KPMG Peat Marwick for consultancy.

According to the plans, the company wishes to acquire products in the nutritional, anti-diabetics, cardiovascular and pain-management segments and is identifying brands which can make a significant difference to its topline and bottomline growth.

The merchant bankers said some pharmaceutical companies have already approached them with proposals to sell their brands to Ajanta. Of the eight proposals received, two have already been rejected by the company.

The company has also entered into a marketing alliance with a Ranbaxy to market some of its natural products in South East Asia. The alliance is for a basket of Ajanta's natural products which is patented in several countries to the company.
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Godrej Foods under pressure after break with Pillsbury
Mumbai: In what is likely to be a repetition of the Godrej Soaps experience, when it handed over its entire distribution to its joint venture with P&G, only to divorce from the joint venture, Godrej Foods is seen to be going the same way.

The company’s decision to sever its marketing alliance with joint venture Godrej Pillsbury and rebuild its distribution network from scratch is expected to put the company under severe pressure as it was on the verge of turning around.

Godrej Foods had set up a large distribution network which was transferred to the Pillsbury venture as its equity contribution. The marketing rights of brands Jumpin' fruit juices, Cooklite, Godrej Sunflower Oil was also given to Godrej Pillsbury.

The additional burden of rebuilding the distribution network would make the company incur substantial costs, analysts felt. In 1999-00, the company posted a loss of Rs 10.8 crore on a turnover of Rs 393.8 crore.

According to leading marketing professionals, the move is lead to confusion in the market place and invariably lead to loss of availability, talent, good distribution, visibility and most importantly market share.

The Godrej group feels the JV has not provided any value-addition to Godrej brands and that Godrej Pillsbury has not expanded the distribution network for the group's products, which has led to a stagnation in the reach of the Godrej brands in its portfolio.
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Polaris set for global launch of BankWare
New Delhi: Notwithstanding its legal problems with Data Inc., Indian software company, Polaris Software, is kicking off the debut of its branded banking software product, BankWare, in a series of international dos at Frankfurt and Dubai.

The company has also forged strategic alliances with a host of IT majors, like IBM, Sun and HP to hawk its product to international banks.

Polaris had for quite some time been implementing banking solutions for the $25-billion banking software giant M&I. According to company officials, around 70 banks worldwide are implementing their systems, through the M&I tieup.

Company officials said that Polaris is taking a ``risky but potentially lucrative’’ step ahead by taking the branded products route.
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PCCW plans internet cutbacks after share slide
Hong Kong: Pacific Century Cyberworks, the Hong Kong internet and telecommunications group, announced plans to cut back on its interactive entertainment project, Network of the World, after the company's share price tumbled on Tuesday to a 12-month low.

According to the company’s chief financial officer, the company would cut costs according to what it could afford. The decision to make cutbacks suggests that PCCW is less optimistic about the pace of growth in internet-related businesses.

The company, which announced a complex share and bond sale that could raise up to US$1.83bn, is seen by analysts to be in a desperate state. Analysts' main concern is the lack of progress on PCCW's broadband strategy and the company’s debt levels.

PCCW's shares have dropped nearly 60 per cent in the last three months as investors focus on the US$12bn in debt taken on to finance its acquisition of Cable & Wireless HKT, Hong Kong's dominant telecoms group, and the forthcoming disposal of shares by HKT's former parent, Cable & Wireless.
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