Sinar Mas to divest its stake in Indian arm
New Delhi: Sinar Mas group is planning to divest its stake in its fully owned Indian subsidiary, Sinar Mas Pulp & Paper (India) Ltd. The group is reportedly talking to the Lalit Mohan Thapar group, promoters of Ballarpur Industries Ltd. (Bilt), country’s largest paper company and at least two other international players for off-loading its stake.

The Indonesian paper major has however, not made up its mind whether it wants to divest fully or not. The proposed sale has been prompted by the financial crisis faced by the Sinar Mas group worldwide.
Back to News Review index page 

Havell's bag top revenue payer award
New Delhi: Havell's India Ltd. (HIL), a leading electrical engineering company has been awarded the highest revenue payer award for the year 2000 in the organised sector category. The department of revenue under the ministry of finance has conferred the award to Havell's for paying the highest revenue for three consecutive years between 1998 and 2000.

The New Delhi-based Havell’s India, which started off as a small electrical goods trading company in 1958 is now Rs 400-crore major manufacturing and supplying the widest range of low voltage electrical equipment. The company's diverse range of electrical products caters both to the needs of the consumer and industrial markets.
Back to News Review index page 

UB to reposition Pilsner, San Miguel brands
Bangalore: United Breweries (UB) plans to shortly relaunch London Pilsner and San Miguel, beer brands it acquired from Associated Breweries. The relaunch plan will include some more niche brands, which will be new flavours and new concepts altogether in the beer segment.

The new brands are expected to increase the company’s market share by over 10 per cent to 50 per cent in the beer segment. The UB group has said that company is working on the lighter variants of ice and low calorie beers and will be refurbish the new beer brands by giving them a new look and new positioning.

Sandpiper, yet another beer brand, acquired from Inertia Industries will however, be handled by Millennium Alcobev, a marketing subsidiary of UB, which will develop the regional markets for its beer brands.
Back to News Review index page 

Cipla plans cheap generic version of AIDS drugs
Mumbai: Cipla has said that it would soon associate itself with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to supply cheap generic versions of AIDS drugs. Cipla earlier this month came up with a startling offer to supply AIDS drugs for under $1 a day to the world’s impoverished. The offer apparently was made to charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

According to Mr. Yusuf Hamied, chairman of Cipla, the company has also received letters from the European Commission saying they want to know more its AIDS drugs. Cipla is offering the three anti-retroviral drugs -- stavudine, lamivudine and nevirapine -- at what it calls a humanitarian price of $350 per person per year to MSF. MSF was trying to introduce Cipla's AIDS drugs in 10 African countries.

The US firm Bristol-Myers Squibb holds the patent on stavudine, GlaxoSmithKline has the patent on lamivudine and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim owns the patent for nevirapine. Cipla is able to manufacture the drugs because Indian patent laws protect only the processes by which drugs are made and not the products themselves.
Back to News Review index page 

Sun Pharma to merge PDC with itself
Mumbai: Sun Pharmaceuticals’ board has approved the merger of Pradeep Drugs Company (PDC) into itself and has fixed a share swap ratio of 1:500. PDC shareholders will get one share of Sun Pharma for every 500 shares of PDC. The merger will be effective from April 1, 2000.

PDC is a sick bulk drugs company with accumulated losses of over Rs 15 crore. The company has debt of Rs 7.26 crore and net current liabilities of Rs 5.57 crore. PDC's paid up capital is Rs 9.25 crore. Sun Pharma has been sourcing quantities of bulk drugs from PDC on a contract basis like the anti-biotics erythromycin, clarithromycin and azithromycin.

PDC had a turnover of Rs 21.47 crore and net loss of Rs 0.95 crore in 1999-2000. The Chennai-based listed company belongs to the Dadha family from whom Sun acquired Tamil Nadu Dadha Pharmaceuticals in 1997. This has since been merged into Sun.
Back to News Review index page 

MBL set to launch a global beer brand soon
Bangalore: Mysore Breweries Ltd. (MBL) has announced it plans to introduce a foreign brand in India through a joint venture. Mr. KP Balasubramaniam, MBL’s vice-chairman and managing director has said that talks were at an advanced stage and the shortlisted partner would pick up a stake in Mysore Breweries' (MBL) proposed brewery in Andhra Pradesh.

MBL plans to introduce a premium beer through the joint venture and leverage its large retail network. It has around 10,00 retail outlets in the country. The company has already launched Bengal Premium lager beer, its first foray into premium beer segment. Bengal Premium has already been introduced in the UK, Australia and Indonesia. It is likely to be soon introduced in Maharashtra and produced at MBL’s Aurangabad brewery.

MBL's flagship brand, Knock Out, a strong beer, is believed to have market share of around 53 per cent in Karnataka and 25 percent in Andhra Pradesh. MBL expects to sell around 5 million cases by the end of fiscal 2000-01. MBL expects to have a turnover of around Rs 100 crore in the next two years from the existing turnover of Rs 85 crore.
Back to News Review index page 

Eftec picks 49% in STS Chemicals unit
Mumbai: Eftec Inc, a Swiss specialty chemicals giant, has acquired a 49 per cent stake in the anti-corrosives business of STS Chemicals, part of agro-chemicals major Excel Industries.

STS Chemicals was recently hived off into a separate entity by floating a 100 per cent subsidiary.

The new entity Eftec Chemicals India will now have STS Chemicals holding 51 per cent stake. Eftec is a global supplier in the areas of bonding, coating, sealing including application engineering systems for the automotive industry.

STS started as a consultancy firm for chemical industry and gradually shifted its focus into specialty chemical business. The company has two manufacturing facilities, which mainly produces phosphorous-based chemicals such as phosphorous trichloride, phosphorous oxychloride and phosphorous pentachloride for markets in the US, Europe and the Far East.
Back to News Review index page