Ashok Leyland to spin off its engine division
New Delhi: Ashok Leyland Ltd. (ALL) is considering spinning off its engine manufacturing division into a separate joint venture company with Iveco of Italy. Iveco is currently a technology and equity partner with Ashok Leyland. The new JV would concentrate on engine development and act as an international production base for Iveco.

The company board which is meeting on January 27, 2001 to approve its third quarter results is also slated to finalise the decision to hive off the engine manufacturing unit to Iveco. ALL is yet to finalise the equity distribution in the new venture but it is believed that Indian partner will pick only a minority stake. Ashok Leyland and Iveco are currently jointly developing engines.
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Videocon cut back on CTV prices
New Delhi: Videocon has announced cuts in CTV prices upto Rs 1,500 from January 26, 2001. Videocon, whose CTV sales fell by 20 per cent this fiscal to 10 lakh units, has effected price cuts above Rs 1,000 across all screen sizes and models. The 20 inch-TV is now available for Rs 8,990 against Rs 10,000 earlier; 21-inch set is priced at Rs 9,990 against Rs 11,000.

Videocon has also announced price cuts for refrigerators (165 and 210 litre direct cool) and washing machines. Refrigerator prices have been lowered upto Rs 1,000 and upto Rs 800 for washing machines.

The price cut was possible because the company is manufacturing glass shells -an input into picture tube manufacturing for colour TVs -picture tubes, compressors, integrated circuits (ICs) and printed circuit boards (PCBs) in-house. The company claims to be one of the very few, to have invested in component manufacturing to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore over the last six years.
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Adani to set up storage capacity at Mundra port
New Delhi: Adani Exports is planning to set up grain storage capacities at Mundra port to facilitate exports. The company plans to set up silos for cleaning and storing upto 80,000 tonnes of grain at an estimated project cost of Rs 16 crore. The company has already floated tenders inviting bids for designing the silo complex. The group has handled 45 per cent of India's total wheat exports.

The Adani Exports is also planning to double its edible oil refinery from 600 tpd to 1200 tpd within a year, for its newly-launched range of refined soya, sunflower, vanaspati and palmolein oil. The expansion is expected to cost another Rs 38 crore, which will be shared by the Adani group and Wilmar Holding Pte of Singapore, co-promoters of Adani Wilmar.
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MTR to expand its presence in ice-cream market
Bangalore: MTR Foods, a convenience food major, which recently soft launched itself into the ice-cream market in Bangalore is now planning to spread itself throughout the state by setting up its own chain of branded ice-cream parlours. According to Mr. P Sadanand Maiya, chairman and managing director of MTR "Softee" a well-known brand in Bangalore, will now be made available in the major towns and cities of the state over the next four to six weeks.

Softee is now available in 96 outlets in the city. MTR plans to make available deep-freezers at all these outlets and is also talking to major retailers in Bangalore for stocking Softee. MTR sells a variety of ice creams with interesting ice cream varieties like "Crazy Cones", "Gadbad" and "Chocoba".
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Mattel to foray into children's garments and stationary products
Mumbai: Mattel India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Mattel, US, is making diversifying itself into children's clothing and 'back to school' products by summer 2001. The company is also launching the same set of products for boys, but under the Hot Wheels brand name.

Under the Barbie brand name, the company is looking at manufacturing and marketing alliances and is talking to textile companies for launching children’s clothing and considering tie-ups with stationary players for school products. As per its plan, Mattel would give its brand name and do the marketing, while the partner will do the manufacturing.

In Barbie clothing, the company is looking at the leisure and casual wear segment, targeted at the age group of 5-10 years. The range will include T-shirts, skirts, frocks and caps.
Worldwide, Barbie is in personal wear, toiletries, sleepwear and furnishings like table linen and school accessories. In India, it is presently looking at clothes, school products and bed linen and furnishings.
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Samsung India to host first global R&D meet
New Delhi: Samsung India's research & development centre at Noida has hosted the first ever global R&D meet of the company, outside of South Korea. The three day meet, which saw the launch of its global R&D campaign -- 'Be First' -- for the year 2001, was attended by the R&D heads from Samsung subsidiaries in Thailand, Mexico, China, Hungary, India and Korea. The R&D meet also finalised some of the key projects to be taken up during the year.

Samsung India’s R&D centre set up recently with an investment of $5 million was made the regional hub for Samsung’s requirements for the middle east and the entire south east Asian region and is among four such centres for the company in the whole world. Indian R&D team is already working towards the development of a new CTV chassis for the company’s global requirements. The product would be ready for launch by the end of the first quarter of 2001 and is being designed to provide customers with extra sound output and greater picture clarity.
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Hindustan Lever hikes shampoo prices
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) has announced its first price hike of five per cent in the New Year for all bottles of its shampoo brands. Consequently, the price of it's leading shampoo brand Clinic Plus has risen to Rs 75 for a 160 ml bottle from Rs 71.20. The price of Sunsilk shampoo, a second leading brand now selling at Rs 58 for 100 ml is also expected to go up by a similar margin.

Clinic Plus, the market leader with a share of 30-32 per cent, took the initiative to launch the Re 1 sachet as "Clinic Plus Mini" - the lowest ever price - as the bottom end of the market is price-led. HLL's other shampoo brands include Lux for shiny hair and Sunsilk for strong hair.

HLL is the market leader in the Rs 700 crore-shampoo market, with a market share of around 65 per cent. The growth of the shampoo market is believed to be around 10-12 per cent. The company is planning to double the shampoo market penetration to 40 per cent in the next three to four years. Personal products, as a category, have contributed 17.4 per cent to HLL's 1999 turnover of Rs 10,142 crore. The turnover from the personal products business stood at Rs 1,765 crore in 1999.
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Jindal Tractabel to buy Belgian stake in power JV
Mumbai: Jindal Tractabel Power Company (JTPC) is prepared to buy the entire 49 per cent stake held by the Belgian-based Tractabel Power in the 260-MW power joint venture for Rs 200 crore. The other partner in the company is Jindal Vijaynagar Steel, holds the remaining 51 per cent. Three foreign companies — PSEG and Ogden — both from the US and the UK-based Powergen had been in the race to buy Tractabel’s stake earlier.
The 260-MW plant at Bellary, Karnataka, operating at 98 per cent PLF is currently making profits and is targeted to earn Rs 100 crore for the year ending March 2001. The company has signed a five-year power purchase agreement with Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation

The state government has recently cleared a proposal from JTPC to carry out a feasibility study on setting up a 500-MW project in the state at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore.
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