BASF India to exit healthcare business
Mumbai: BASF India will fully exit from pharmaceutical or healthcare business in India after the global sale of its stakes in Knoll Pharmaceuticals to Abbott Laboratories. BASF has just announced the sale of its group company, Knoll Pharmaceuticals for a cash deal worth $6.9 billion.

The board of executive directors and the supervisory board of BASF and the board of directors of Abbott Laboratories signed an agreement for the sale on December 14. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2001.

The parent company BASF held 51 per cent in Knoll Pharma in India, whose most popular brands included `Brufen' and `Digene'. Currently, Abbott Laboratories has a presence in anti-infectives, vitamins (30 per cent of sales), cardio-vascular and anti-fungal therapeutic segments.
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Max India launches three consulting clinics
Mumbai: Max India Ltd. has opened three consulting clinics and one medical centre in Delhi as a part of company’s foray into healthcare. The new facilities will be operational from January 15. The consulting clinics called `Dr Max' are proposed to be developed as branded services and would be set up in more cities in the future on a franchisee basis, Dr Nirmal Joshi, Medical Director, Max India Ltd. has said.

The company has so far made an investment of about Rs 30 crore for Phase I of the project. The total project cost is however, pegged around Rs 400-500 crore. The project involves the setting up of consulting clinics called `Dr Max' across Delhi, four MaxMed centres, a MaxGeneral hospital, a super-speciality hospital, four centres of excellence and a Max university.

`Dr Max' will be a consultation clinic, which will have a laboratory facility and will be open 24 hours. The MaxMed centre will be a polyclinic with a diagnostic centre and operation theatre. These centres would offer day-care services only. The four areas setting up centres of excellence include diabetes, arthritis, asthma and hypertension.

Currently, the company has a large diagnostic centre housed in a four-storied building in South Delhi with operation theatres. Max India also has plans for a Max university for nursing courses.

The company has plans to set up a super-speciality hospital that would specialise in tertiary care such as renal transplants and open heart surgeries.
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Bayer to enter into engineering plastics soon
Mumbai: Bayer India, the Indian arm of the German chemicals major is considering investing $200 million in a facility to make engineering plastics in India. The proposal will be initially presented to Bayer AG for acceptance and a final decision is expected in second half of 2001. According Mr. Dieter Kambeck, who recently took over as head of Bayer’s Indian operations and chairman of Bayer India, the possible locations for the new facility could be in Tamil Nadu, Kerala or Gujarat.

The investment would probably be made through a new company formed for the purpose, which would be a fully owned subsidiary of Bayer AG. The company presently makes polymers, chemicals and agrochemicals. Other group companies in India operate in areas like healthcare, leather chemicals and diagnostics. The group registered sales of Rs 1,090 crore ($233.2 million) for the year ended December 1999.
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Gail to go in for Rs 2,500-cr pipeline expansion
New Delhi: Gas Authority of India (GAIL) has announced that it would invest over Rs 2,500 crore for the expansion of its Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur gas pipeline capacity to 60 million cubic metres per day from the present 33.4 million cubic metres. The company plans to complete the project by 2003.

According to Mr. C R Prasad, chairman of GAIL, detailed feasibility report of the expansion project has been completed and the company is now vetting the funding plan before the proposal is to be placed before the board for approval.

The upgraded pipeline would enable the company to transfer imported gas coming from the Middle East via Gujarat ports to the northern states. The upgradation project was likely to take off in March 2001, Prasad said.

Gail has targeted 35 per cent increase in net profits to Rs 1,150 crore during the current fiscal from Rs 850 crore in 1999-2000. It is also planning to extend the HBJ pipeline to Ludhiana to cater to the gas requirements of Punjab and Haryana. With the expansion, Gail will be able to supply gas to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana by 2003.
The company was targeting a turnover of Rs 11,500 crore in 2000-01.
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