Tata Finance negotiating with IFC for sale of stake
New Delhi: Officials of Tata Finance, are understood to be in discussions with International Finance Corporation, for a possible sale of about 19 per cent equity in its newly formed subsidiary, Tata Homefinance.

The company, which originally held 100 per cent of the subsidiary, recently sold 30 per cent of the equity in Tata Homefinance to UK-financial major, Abbey National. The deal was done for an estimated value in excess of Rs. 17 crore.

IFC, the private financing arm of World Bank, already holds 20 per cent equity in Sundaram Home Finance, the housing finance subsidiary of Chennai-based NBFC major Sundaram Finance.

Tata Finance officials do not see this investment as a hinderance to the sale of its stake.
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Samsung India pays parent company trademark fees
New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind payment, Samsung Electronics India, has decided to pay its parent company 2 per cent of its export earnings and 1 per cent of domestic sales as trademarks and brandname fees.

Until recently, the existing policy allowed MNCs to pay only royalty to its parent, which included payments equal to 8 per cent on exports and 5 per cent on domestic sales. A recent cabinet clearance permitted MNCs for the first time to also charge a fee for the use of trademark and brandname in India.

This decision of the cabinet allowing payments for brandname and trademark use is part of India’s commitment to the IPR and the recognition of these items as intellectual property, which carried quantifiable value.

The company’s proposal for the payment has already been cleared by the FIPB and is awaiting the industry minister’s approval.
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Nortel to invest $350 million in India over next 3 years
New Delhi: The world’s leading network technology company, the Canada-based Nortel Networks, announced its plans to invest up to $350 million in India over the next three years.

Announcing his company’s commitment to the Indian market, Mr .Clarence Chandran, the chief operating officer, said that Nortel would help unleash India’s businesses to develop a world-class optical Internet and wireless Internet infrastructure. The company plans to make significant investment in creating a high-performance Internet infrastructure in the country.

Nortel also plans to work with local operators and partners to build a next-generation 10-gigabit optical network and double India’s backbone bandwidth with the potential to increase it 160-fold in future.

Also on the cards is a knowledge centre, which will employ over 500 scientists and engineers to expand the software development activities of the company.
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Reliance group company also to sue government
New Delhi: Closely on the heels of a suit filed by Zee group company, New Media Broadcasting, over the imbroglio on the FM license issue, it is understood that Observor Network Ltd, part of Reliance group, is also likely to file a writ against the government regarding the refund of its money.

It may be recalled that, Observor Network, New Media and several other applicants for FM radio licenses withdrew their applications, since the memorandum of understanding these applicants were told to sign was not in consonance with the terms of the tender.

The ministry had stated that those applicants who do not sign the MoU and furnish the bank guarantee, would forfeit their earnest money deposit and the advance license fee paid.
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Panasonic to open brand shops with Ansals
New Delhi: Japanese consumer electronics giant, National Panasonic, has entered into a strategic alliance with the Delhi-based real estate group, Ansals. Under this alliance, the Ansal group will open up Panasonic brand shops at their various real estate projects, where the entire range of Panasonic products will be displayed.

The first Pansonic brand shop would be loacted at Delhi’s Ansal Plaza and would be followed up at the Ansal’s proposed shopping malls in Gurgaon and East Delhi. Similar brand shops would also be set up in other cities as well, company officials said. National Panasonic’s entire range of products, from audio, video, ACs, washing machines and rice cookers, would be available in the brand shops.

The Ansals may take the alliance further to build "Panahomes", which are essentially flats that would have all possible home appliances and consumer electronic products from the Panasonic stable.

National Panasonic plans to invest Rs 6 crore in more such shops across the country and is expecting a turnover of Rs 6 crore from the first outlet in the first year of operation.
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Kesoram to pull out of real estate business
Calcutta: BK Birla-group company, Kesoram Industries, has decided to call it a day in the real estate business. The company has kicked off the process of hiving off its real estate subsidiaries to third parties.

Earlier, the company had put all its real estate holding in two subsidiaries -- Akhileswar Properties and Softshree Estates -- in an all-equity deal valued at Rs 11.08 crore.

The proposed sale of the real estate subsidiaries was in line with the company's plan to focus on its core areas namely rayon and transparent paper, spun pipes, refractory and cement.
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Alembic launches new molecules
New Delhi: After having launched Roxid M, Nimegesic drops and Lormeg D in the domestic formulation segment, the Rs 400-crore Alembic Ltd is fast expanding its in the growing analgesics and anti-inflammatory segment with the launch of new molecules Rofecoxib and Celecoxib.

The company has already received permission from the Drugs Controller General of India to manufacture and market the molecule in the domestic market. With these launches, the company would have introduced 17 new products into the market this financial year. These launches are expected to contribute nearly Rs. 40-45 crore to the company’s top line this year.

Globally, Rofecoxib and Celecoxib are the top-most prescribed NSAID and were introduced in the international market only at the end of the last year. These two drugs are expected to yield an annual revenue of around over 20 crore for Alembic.
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