Balco to write-off 10 per cent of government equity
New Delhi: Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), a public sector undertaking, has approved a proposal to write off nearly 10 per cent of its equity prior to taking up privatisation initiatives. Consequently, Balco's paid up equity capital will now stand reduced to Rs 220.62 crore down from the previous Rs 244.42 crore. The total amount of equity sought to be written-off is placed at Rs 23.80 crore.

The government had earlier permitted the company to dilute the equity stake of the company. The decision to dilute equity has been taken by writing off the expenditure incurred on its Gandhamardhan project in Orissa, which has been embroiled in controversy, since its inception in 1982.

The government had earlier decided to sell 51 per cent of its equity in Balco to a strategic partner. Three companies have been short-listed by the government for acquiring majority stake in Balco, namely Alcoa, a American aluminium major and domestic aluminium players - Hindalco and Sterlite Industries.
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Samsung India to hike its CTV capacity 6 times
New Delhi: Samsung India, the first company to achieve the 1m mark in CTVs is now gearing up to achieve the 2m mark by mid-2001 by end-2001. Samsung India has decided to implement the six-sigma principle in its manufacturing and to increase its CTV line capacity six times from the current level of four times. Under the plan, eight projects would be taken up for implementation across all departments in production, which includes, production engineering, production, quality and purchase.

Samsung India has also undertaken the Challenge 4000 at its CTV facility in Noida to achieve six times productivity. The company targets eight lakh CTVs in the year 2001 compared with six lakh during 2000. The company will also become the first Samsung subsidiary outside of Korea to install a TGV line for CTV production. It is investing $2m to install this high speed, high quality production line. With this, the company targets a market share of 11 per cent next year.
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Metropolis to expand its lab network
Mumbai: Metropolis Laboratories, is expanding its network of labs in the country and has planned to start four more referral laboratories in the states of West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh. The company, which conducts speciality tests for other labs, hospitals and institutions, currently has a presence in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Jaipur.

The company, which currently earns revenues of Rs 12 crore from its existing referral labs is planning to cash in on the boom in the diagnostics business, which is believed to be growing currently at about 50 percent. The company is planning to have one referral laboratory and several collection centers in each state and has projected an investment of Rs 4-6 crore to be made to set up these centers.

The company recently invested about Rs 14 crore in setting up a spanking new laboratory in Mumbai, which also has a molecular biology centre. The company is also talking to an international company, to be brought in as a strategic partner. The diagnostic laboratory business has three large players — Dr Lal’s Pathlabs, Metropolis and Specialty Ranbaxy — a joint venture between the $40m Specialty of the US and Indian pharma company Ranbaxy.
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Enron shortlists ONGC for sale of stake
New Delhi: Enron International has short-listed the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for acquiring its 30 per cent stake in Panna-Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields. ONGC sources have conformed that its initial non-binding bid for Enron’s stake in the oil and gas fields in Gujarat and Mumbai offshore region has accepted and it has now been asked to submit a detailed financial bid. Acceptance of non-binding bid would now provide ONGC access to Enron’s data on the oil and gas field, based on which the company would be making the final bid.

A similar bid from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), yet another strong contender for the Enron project is yet to be accepted. IOC had submitted a non-binding bid in the form of expression of interest (EoI) to global consultants Credit Suisse First Boston. Others players contending for Enron’s stake in the oil and gas fields, which is slated to produce around 300 million cubic metres of gas and 29,000 barrels of oil per day, include Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) and Royal Dutch Shell.

ONGC has hired merchant banker N M Rothschild India as its consultant for the two-stage bidding process, comprising non-binding EoI and a detailed financial bid from the shortlisted companies.
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Bajaj Auto’s scooter sales rise in January
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Ltd. (BAL) has said on Saturday said its scooter sales nearly doubled in January 2001 over the previous month, boosted by the success of cheaper new models. The company has reported sales of 32,622 geared scooters in January against 16,761 in December 2000, reversing declining trend seen in scooters sales during much of last year.

The improved performance is however, still below January 2000sales of 73,040.
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DCM Shriram forays into power consultancy
New Delhi: DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd. (DSCL) has carved a separate division called DSCL Esco to take up power consultancy. This division will take up consultancy projects for power savings, look after operations and maintenance of power systems as well as do energy procurement and construction contracts.

DSCL Esco will be focussing on industries like vanaspati, soyabean processing, paper, sugar and hotels. The company has already done some projects for companies like Amrit Paper, Dhampur Sugars and Raghuvir Vanaspati. The division will be eventually spun into a separate company.
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Usha International to import fans from China
New Delhi: Usha International, a leading player in domestic fan market is importing plastic table-pedestal-wall (TPW) fans from China and plans to sell them in India, under its own brand name. The move, which forms part of the company’s global outsourcing plans, is expected to help the company increase its market share at more competitive prices.

At present, the total market size of TPW fans in India is about one lakh per month and out of that plastic TPW fans account for only about 50,000 fans per month

The fans to be imported from China are expected to have unique and good-looking features, presently unavailable in India. The company is importing TPW fans from China, as they are believed to be cost-effective. There is a 10 per cent cost difference between the Chinese and the Indian goods.

Usha International is also in the process of tying up with the US-based Hunter company to source ceiling fans for the Indian market. Ceiling fans presently comprise about 80 per cent of the total fan market in India.
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