ICICI sells 7.88 per cent stake in venture fund to Compaq
New Delhi: Leading financial institution, ICICI, is bent on unlocking the value in its balance sheet. It recently sold 7.88 per cent of its holding in ICICI Venture Fund to computer major, Compaq. ICICI Venture Fund manages/advises 11 funds aggregating about $450-500 million.

This deal comes close on heels of a similar deal concluded recently where ICICI sold a 3.6 per cent stake in ICICI Bank to US-based institutional investment company Capital International.

According to reports, Compaq would be mainly looking at downstream investments mainly in IT companies and call centres which are expected to come up in a big way in India.
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Hindustan Lever in fragrance venture with ICI
New Delhi: India’s largest FMCG major, Hindustan Lever is divesting 51 per cent stake in its fragrance and flavouring business to ICI India and Quest International.

Since the business was part of HLL’s specialty chemicals group, the divestment will lead to the formation of a new company. Christened Quest International India, the new company will have ICI India hold 50 per cent, Quest International (a 100 per cent subsidiary of ICI) 1 per cent and HLL the remaining 49 per cent. The company will make flavours, fragrances and food ingredients.

The joint venture, which will be operational in the middle of this year, is reportedly valued at Rs 155 crore, which includes a premium for management control.

Three years ago, Unilever sold the speciality chemicals business to ICI for $8 billion, since it felt that speciality chemicals did not fit into Unilever’s core businesses which comprise foods, soaps and detergents and personal products.

HLL had, however, been authorised by Unilever to take independent decisions regarding its existing businesses. While there was no compulsion on HLL to follow suit and sell off business in India, it was evaluating various options to secure technology inputs which would could result in possible JVs.
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Intelsat to invest $17m in signal interference system
Mumbai: The world’s largest satellite services provider has announced the investment of $17 million in signal interference systems. This decision was taken by it due to the increase in signal interference as a direct result of the exponential growth in the number of transmitter antennas.

Adding to the interference from the increase in antenna was the wrong usage by operators which resulted in the signal interference and reduction in quality of broadcast.

Intelsat plans to put in place by June this year a tranmitter locator system that was capable of isolating an unwanted signal source within a 10 km radius anywhere in the world. While the system would only locate the unwanted signal, it would not remove it from the logjam. The actual removal of the interferring signal was a more long drawn-out process.

The TLS system will be in place in the Atlantic Ocean region by June, after which it will be installed to cover the Indian Ocean. The TLS system, the first of its kind, would be able to identify similar interefering signals in other satellite systems too.
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Satellite-based phone service may be relaunched by Iridium
New York: The newly revived-from-bankruptcy, 66-satellite networked Iridium Satellite Corporation plans to relaunch its satellite-based mobile phone service this week, almost exactly a year after commercial service was turned off.

Iridium Satellite paid just $25 million to acquire the system, which cost Motorola and other investors more than $5 billion to develop, launched service in late 1998, and slid into bankruptcy court by the following summer, drowning in debt.

The revived venture plans to initially focus on remote work settings such as oil rigs and cargo ships, not the business travellers and consumers the old Iridium tried to lure. Another distinction will be the launch of wireless data services in June.

With handsets costing $3,500 and airtime costing $7 a minute, the old Iridium had to die a natural death with only 55,000 customers all over the world.

The new Iridium expects that the wireless carriers it has partnered with will charge about $1.50 per minute for calls. Exact details, including any monthly charges, weren't immediately available.
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Sycamore to provide Tata Power optical network
Bangalore: Noted US-based optical networking firm, Sycamore Networks, floated by Gururaj Deshpande, was chosen to supply equipment to Tata Power to help the company build a state-of-the-art network in Mumbai.

Sycamore develops products that manage and switch the path of light waves carrying voice and data traffic over fibre-optic networks.

The order is to be executed through Tejas Networks India, a fibre-optic network start-up firm in which Sycamore has a minority stake. Tejas will design and install the network and provide support services.

Tata Power plans to build high-speed optical infrastructure to support India's growing broadband requirements.
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Xerox denies dilution of stake in Xerox Modicorp
New York: Denying industry rumours coming at a time when it is trouble, global document management major, Xerox Corporation, has categorically stated that it has no intentions of selling its stake in the Indian venture, Xerox Modicorp.

Hit by slowing demand, increased competition, and a series of mishaps, Xerox has been forced to raise money by selling its assets and cut costs. It has recently sold half of its 50 per cent stake in Fuji Xerox to Fuji Photo Film for more than $1.3 billion.

The US company has also sold its China operations to Fuji Xerox for $550 million. The company is also trying to reduce its cost base by $1 billion by the end of the year.
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Dabur may acquire Boroline brand
New Delhi: Domestic FMCG major, Dabur India, is said to be planning the acquisition of the Boroline brand of skin cream from G D Pharmaceuticals. Once a hot item among buyers, especially in the East, Boroline seems to have lost steam, sidetracked as it is by a bunch of upstarts. As a result of this the Rs 30-crore brand has been lying low for sometime now, lacking in re-launch gimmicks and marketing push.

Dabur plans to make use of this acquisition to boost its personal care portfolio which has the popular Vatika range of hair oil and shampoo, Amla hair oil and Lal Dantmanjan to boot.
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Tata Engineering to reduce dependence on HCVs
Mumbai: As the company battles a severe downturn, Tata Engineering is preparing a blueprint that will see its dependence on medium and heavy commercial vehicles come down. The heavy and medium commercial vehicle segment is highly cyclical in nature.

As part of the strategy to overcome fluctuating fortunes, the company plans to focus more aggressively on light commercial vehicles, a segment which is relatively stable.

It also plans to get better yields from its other businesses like engines for industrial and marine applications, spare parts, hire purchase, reconditioning and services.

The company also plans to leverage the revenue from passenger car business, which achieved a cash break even this year.
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Kotak Mahindra Finance to set up bank
Mumbai: The board of directors of non-banking finance company, Kotak Mahindra, resolved to make an application to the Reserve Bank of India for setting up a new bank, which will be promoted by the company with a paid-up capital of Rs. 200 crore, the minimum required for setting up a bank.

The board chose the option of setting up its own bank as compared to acquiring an existing bank or going for a reverse merger or promoting a new bank.

Consultancy Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and Crisil are understood to have been hired to develop the business model.
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Hindustan Lever to phase out top Bestfoods brands
Mumbai: To avoid the risk of cannibalization of its Kissan Annapurna brands, FMCG major Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) plans to phase out several of the top brands of International Bestfoods, which its parent Unilever recently acquired worldwide.

The brands to be de-emphasised are Captain Cook salt and atta, Skippy and Trinka soft drink concentrate, Tarla Dalal range of recipes and Glucovita Glucose D, senior executives at International Bestfoods said.

However, leading brands from the International Bestfoods stable, like Knorr soups, Brown & Polson custard powder and Rex baking powder and jelly will be retained, as these do not directly compete with HLL’s own products.
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Ambit takes stake in Salomon Smith India
Mumbai: Ambit Corporate Finance, the corporate finance boutique promoted by Ashok Wadhwa, former managing partner of Arthur Andersen, today took a 26 per cent equity stake in Salomon Smith Barney India for an undisclosed amount. SSB India is the investment banking arm of the Citigroup of US.

With this acquisition the two companies are likely to stop competing with each other for business and instead strengthen their investment banking and corporate finance activities in the country.

According to sources close to Ambit taking the strategic stake in SSB India is part of ACF’s vision to expand its business in corporate advisory and other segments.
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Zydus and Unichem in marketing agreement
Mumbai: Two domestic pharma companies, Zydus Cadila and Unichem Laboratories, have entered into an agreement to manufacture and market locally two Zydus Cadila drugs in the anti-diabetic and cardiovascular segments.

The agreement envisages Zydus Cadila supplying the anti-diabetic bulk drug bioglitgazide to Unichem, which, in turn, will manufacture and market the formulation under the brand name Glitaze. Unichem will also co-market Zydus' cardiovascular formulation Clopitrogrel.

They said domestic pharma companies have identified co-marketing as an easier way to sell formulations across the country as setting up of marketing network requires big investments.
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