Ranbaxy to acquire Speciality Lab’s JV stake
New Delhi: After exiting from the joint venture with Eli Lilly, Ranbaxy is presently negotiating with the US-based clinical major Speciality Labs for buying the latter’s 50 per cent stake in their joint venture, Speciality Ranbaxy Ltd.(SRL)

Speciality Labs holds a 50 per cent stake in SRL through its Singapore-based subsidiary, Speciality Laboratories Asia. Ranbaxy’s move follows the US major’s reluctance to bring in additional funds for the joint venture’s proposed expansion plans. SRL, which has a centralised world-class testing laboratory based in Mumbai and a chain of collection centres in all major cities, has chalked out a major expansion plan under which it proposes to branch out to several cities in South-East Asia, Middle East and other regions. The company is also planning to beef up its result delivery system by introducing the latest integrated communication system.
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Caprol wants 10 per cent stake in Snowcem
Mumbai: Caprol, a German paints company, has evinced interest in becoming a strategic partner with Snowcem India, by striking a deal for buying out a 10 per cent stake in the company. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between both parties for technology transfer, has a provision for the German company to buy out a minority stake in Snowcem India at a later date.

Under the agreement, Caprol is to provide technology to Snowcem for royalty payments equivalent to 2.5 per cent of total sales. Only products that are manufactured using technology from Caprol will be considered for arriving at the sales value. If Snowcem uses the Caprol brand name, the royalty charged will be 5 per cent. Snowcem had earlier struck a technology transfer agreement with Krautol, which was later abandoned following the takeover of Krautol by Marmorite.

Snowcem will make four products using the technology from Caprol, including flooring systems, construction chemicals and exterior paints and roofing systems.
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Essar Oil seeks foreign partner to jointly bid for IBP
Mumbai: Essar Oil is on the look out for a foreign partner to jointly bid for IBP, where the government wants to disinvest 33.58 per cent of its stake. The competitive bidding process for the government's stake in IBP is now expected to be stiffer.

Among the PSUs, which have evinced keen interest in picking up equity in IBP include Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). Reliance Petroleum already well entrenched in production and refining also has plans to bid for the IBP. Reliance Petroleum is reportedly examining the opportunity, as it will need a strong retailing facility to sell its products from its 27 million-tonne refinery at Jamnagar.

The last date for putting in an Expression of Interest for the strategic stake in IBP is February 28, 2001.
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Kotak Mahindra to sell its stake in Matrix
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Finance has decided to sell its stake in its fully-owned subsidiary Matrix Information Services, the company dealing in information and content syndication on the Internet. The move to exit from the information services business by Kotak Mahindra follows the dotcom bubble burst across the world and poor returns on its investment.

During 1999-2000, it had made investment of Rs 3.5 crore in equity, besides providing inter-corporate deposit of Rs 1.68 crore. Matrix suffered due to closure of many dotcom companies to whom it had been providing the content. For the financial year ending March 2000, it reported a loss of Rs 1.73 crore on gross income of Rs. 1.386 crore. Matrix had accumulated loss of Rs 5.06 crore till March 2000 on paid-up capital of Rs 3.5 crore.
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Hilton plans $75-million investment in Indian hotels
Bangalore: Hilton International, with its plans to invest about $75 million in the Indian hotel properties, has re-entered into the hospitality sector with an agreement to manage Golden Palms SPA, located on the outskirts of Bangalore. World Resorts Ltd. owns the SPA, which is promoted by actor Sanjay Khan and was recently the venue for the highly publicised wedding of his daughter to Hritik Roshan.

Mr. Koos Klein, president, Hilton International Asia Pacific has said that Bangalore being an important commercial and economic centre of South India is an ideal location for Hilton to re-enter India. Hilton had moved out of India in 1998 on completing its management contracts in New Delhi and Chennai.
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Oriflame to turn India its Asian hub
Mumbai: Oriflame India, a subsidiary of the Sweden-based direct selling cosmetics major, has decided to make India its regional hub for Asia. India will be used as an export hub as Oriflame International plans to enter new markets every year in the region. As part of its expansion plan, the company will soon be entering Bangladesh and the Philippines.

The parent company has identified India as key and potential market. Oriflame will be exporting products from India to other Asian markets. Its products are manufactured through its six third-party manufacturers. India contributes close to 8-9 per cent to Oriflame's turnover, at Rs 100 crore, a growth of 83 per cent from the previous year.

Globally, direct selling is a $80-billion industry and Oriflame International has recorded sales worth $615 million for 2000.

The direct marketing industry in India is estimated at about Rs 600 crore and is growing at 62 per cent. Since entry in India in 1995, Oriflame has expanded its distribution network from 100 to over 1lakh dealers. Oriflame's brand portfolio consists of skin, body and hair care products, fragrances and colour cosmetics, catering to the premium and the middle segment.
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Ajanta Pharma to take 3 brands on OTC
Mumbai: Ajanta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (APL) is planning to take three of its leading brands -- Pinkoo, Trimol and Thirty Plus -- umbrella brands to the over-the-counter (OTC) segment. The company is also planning to introduce more products under each of these umbrella brands. The fast moving OTC brands belong to childcare, pain management and healthcare segments, respectively.

Over a period of two years, APL plans to introduce at least 10 products under each brand in the OTC market. In the first phase, the company will be launching cough syrup for children under the Pinkoo brand and pain balm under the Trimol brand. Currently, under Pinkoo only gripewater for children and under Trimol pain management tablets are available. Around three products are in the pipeline under the Thirty Plus brand.
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Welspun to hive off its two divisions
Mumbai: Welspun India, the flagship company of the Rs 800-crore Welspun group, has decided to demerge two of its divisions - Terry Towel and Cotton Spinning - into two independent companies, Welspun India Ltd. (WIL) and Welspun Cotton Yarn Ltd (WCYL).

The exercise is part of the restructuring planned in consultation with the international consultancy group KPMG. Following the demerger, every shareholder of the company will get shares of two companies in the ratio of 7:3 - seven shares of WIL and three shares of WCYL - for every existing 10 shares of Welspun India.

Welspun India Ltd. is the largest producer of Terry Towel in Asia and one of the 10 leading manufacturer in the world, possessing a state-of-the-art, fully integrated terry towel unit at Vapi, Gujarat.
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Kopran and E Merck in sign up for co-marketing
Mumbai: Kopran Ltd. has tied up with E Merck Ltd. for a co-marketing arrangement for a new anti-inflammatory or analgesic drug - Rofecoxib, for the Indian market. Rofecoxib a popular non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) was launched a year ago in the international market.

As per ORG estimate, the total Indian NSAID market stands at approximately Rs 761 crore, and is growing annually at 16.8 per cent.

Kopran has launched Rofecoxib under the brand name of Ziflam. E Merck Ltd. is launching it under the brand name `Acrobat'. The strategic alliance with E Merck Ltd to co-market drugs is a part of Kopran's strategy to increase its presence in the formulations market.

International patent for Rofecoxib is held by Merck and has recorded first year sale of about $1.2 billion.
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JK Tyre set to gear up exports
Chennai: JK Tyre, the largest tyre exporter has drawn up a strategic business plan to increase the exports from the present Rs 200 crore to Rs 450 crore in 2006. The group accounts for over 26 per cent of tyre export out of India in FOB value terms and over 27 per cent share of export in terms of quantity of truck and bus tyres.

As a part of the move the company has stepped up the operations of JK Asia-Pacific Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary floated in Hong Kong some time back. The subsidiary was established specifically to give a thrust on exports into south Asia and Australia. The company has recently opened an office for the purpose in Singapore and is also looking at more export opportunities in other parts of the world. The company has identified the African and the Latin American markets as the other thrust areas.

Its tyre export basket largely comprises truck bias, truck radials and LCV bias. The company has total four million tyre capacity, of which about 1.2 million units has been earmarked for passenger car radials. Two-wheeler tyre is another priority area and the company plans to start sell two-wheeler tyres before the end of 2001.
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