GE Pacific in a buy out of Satyam’s stake in JV
Mumbai: GE Pacific, General Electric's Asia Pacific arm, may buy out Satyam's stake in Satyam-GE Software Services, a joint venture between Satyam Computer Services and GE Industrial Systems.
According to the terms of the joint venture agreement, listed in Satyam’s ADR offer, GE Pacific has an option to purchase Satyam's interest.
Thus GE Pacific will buy out the stake for a purchase price of $4.0 million, if the deal meets performance targets and other conditions, according to Satyam’s ADR documents.
Satyam had entered into an agreement with GE in 1998 to start Satyam-GE Software Services.
The company provides GE Industrial Systems with engineering design services, software development and system maintenance.
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Banc America to set up 100 percent subsidiary in India
Mumbai: Banc of America Securities is planning to form a wholly owned subsidiary in India. This is following the budget announcement that 100 per cent foreign investment in the non-banking finance company sector would be allowed.
In its application to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) Bank of America has stated that it will invest $50 million in the company.

Bank of America Financial Corporation will own the entire stake.
It will bring in $7.5 million upfront in its wholly owned subsidiary and will bring the remaining $42.5 million over a period of 24 months.
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Satyam’s US subsidiaries accumulate losses
Mumbai: Vision Compass Satyam Computer's US subsidiary has accumulated losses well over Rs 100 crore ($21.5 million).
Satyam Computer's ADR prospectus says that it has invested around $19.5 million in Vision Compass till December 31, 2000.
Vision Compass is Satyam's oldest subsidiary and is a supplier of Collaborative Enterprise Management software that enables organisations to implement and manage complex, inter-related business objectives.
Satyam's other subsidiary, Satyam Infoway -- an Internet service provider -- is also a loss-making company. The total accumulated losses of Satyam Infoway as on December 31, 2000, were $52.7 million.
Satyam Infoway's accumulated losses are not a cause for concern, as it is a listed company and also has cash reserves from its ADR issue last year.
Satyam Computer also has other loss-making subsidiaries. The total losses of all the subsidiaries of Satyam are around $ 87.8 million (Rs 412 crore).
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Thapars to sell-out to Piaggio in Greaves JV
New Delhi: Piaggio the Italian scooter major, is buying out the 49 percent stake of the Thapar’s in their joint venture, Piaggio Greaves Vehicles.
Thus the venture will become a 100 per cent subsidiary of Piaggio.
Ssources say the deal as been struck and the two are waiting for the the mandatory government approval for the stake acquisitions for sealing the deal formally. The financial details of the deal could not be ascertained immediately.
Piaggio Greaves Vehicles, set up as a 51:49 joint venture between Piaggio and Greaves in 1988, manufactures the APE range of diesel three-wheelers, both passenger and pick-up, and delivery vans.
While Piaggio directly holds 36 per cent in the venture, the remaining 15 per cent was held by Simes, a group company of Piaggio. The venture was set up with a paid-up capital of Rs 35 crore.
Post-stake buyout, Piaggio’s direct holding in the venture will go up to 85 per cent, while its group company’s holding will remain at 15 per cent.
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Pfizer may go in for alliances with Indian firms
Mumbai: According to Hocine Sidi Said, managing director, Pfizer India, the 40 per cent affiliate of American multinational Pfizer, the company is open to strategic alliances with Indian companies. He added that strategic alliances could take different forms, and Pfizer could partner Indian firms as well.
Said, however, denied Pfizer's attempt to tie-up for products locally was the result of Pfizer Inc's decision to introduce new products through a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Said identified cardiovasculars and central nervous sytem disorders as the focus areas for Pfizer in the future.
Traditionally, the company has been a leading player in the vitamins segment, with the blockbuster multi-vitamin brand Becosules.
Pfizer has been marketing a hepatitis B vaccine manufactured by Hyderabad-based firm Shantha Biotechnics and has the first right of refusal to sell Shantha's new products for the Indian market.
Pfizer is in the process of merging with fellow multinational Parke-Davis India after the global merger of the majority stake holders of both firms i.e. Pfizer Inc and Warner Lambert.
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Parke-Davis, Pfizer to finalise merger by 2002
Mumbai: Pfizer and Parke-Davis India will informally merge their activities this year, and will finally merge during 2002.
This follows the acquisition of Parke-Davis’ parent Warner-Lambert by US drug giant Pfizer Inc last year.
Pfizer Inc has a 40 per cent stake in Pfizer India and has a similar stake in Parke-Davis India following its acquisition of Warner-Lambert.
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IDBI, Principal plans for insurance venture fall through
Mumbai: Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) talks with the US-based Principal group to form a joint venture for life insurance business have fallen through. Consequently, the former has dropped the plan to partner the Principal group, with whom it has a tie-up for mutual fund business, and is now scouting for a new partner to enter the insurance sector.
The joint venture plans between the two, which were on the verge of being finalized, did not materialise due to certain differences between the two. It is said that the Principal group insisted that it wanted the basic business focus to be on the pension market and wanted to outsource the life insurance cover from another company.

IDBI, however, wanted a pure life insurance focus, where products on pension could also be included.
The Principal group is the world’s largest pension market player and is keenly waiting for almost more than four years to do similar business here.
The government is yet to open up the pension market in India and the Insurance Regulation and Development Authority, which will also be regulating the pension market in future, has recently been asked to prepare a report for setting up of a pension regulatory mechanism to kickstart this market.
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ACC plans to set up captive power plants
Mumbai: ACC, the Rs 3,031--crore-cement company, has laid out an investment outlay of Rs 120 crore to set up captive power plants of 15 MW each at Chanda in Maharashtra and Madukkarai in Tamil Nadu. This is a part of the company’s ongoing exercise to increase its cost efficiency.

Senior company officials say that the company plans to fund the project partly through internal accruals and the rest through debt, depending on its financial position.
The captive thermal power plants are likely to be commissioned by 2002 and bring down the cost of power substantially. Company officials added that grid power is almost 100 per cent more expensive than captive power, and if the capex is taken into consideration, the price per unit of power will come down from Rs 4.5 to Rs 3.

With these two power plants, ACC will have captive power in all of its 16 plants except at Gagal in Himachal Pradesh (HP), where the availability of hydel power makes grid power cheaper compared with the rest of the states. Also, freight cost of coal to the hilly terrain of the state makes a captive plant unviable.
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Mercedes-Benz India plans foray into MUV segment
Mumbai: The multi-utility vehicle (MUV) segment is proving to be by far the most popular segment for automobile manufacturers in India as a manufacturer none other than Mercedes-Benz India (MBIL) has said that it proposes to foray into the MUV segment as well as launch its A-Class and M-Class models at cheaper price points (less than Rs 20 lakh) within a year.

To promote its existing range of cars, the company has earmarked a Rs 7 crore communication package for the calendar year 2001.

Jurgen Ziegler managing director Mercedes Benz India says said that the company has already initiated feasibility studies for rolling out MUV and models at cheaper price points. He said that in the luxury segment, MBIL was the first automobile company to offer three products in the range of from Rs 20-50 lakh.
The company hopes to make India as a major hub for the manufacturing of world class range of Mercedes-Benz cars in a bid to enhance its presence in India.

MBIL plans to step up its brand building exercise in full steam and has earmarked a budget of Rs 7 crore to promote its entire range for this calendar year. The communication package will include advertising, direct marketing and public relations.
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BT settles payment dispute
Mumbai: British Telecommunications (BT) of the UK has settled its unpaid dues to the tune of $ 50 million with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL).
The issue of unpaid dues had forced VSNL to block international traffic via BT since early 2000.

BT and VSNL ran into differences over the due amount because of transit fees. The dispute arose on the high incidence of transit fees being accrued to BT as a result of calls from other carriers transiting through BT, en route to India.

Reportedly on account of these dues, the VSNL management was planning to block any move by British Telecommunications to bid for the state-owned VSNL.

However, due to strategic reasons, BT did not bid for VSNL.
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IMG hikes cricket sponsorship rates
New Delhi: IMG, the wholly owned Indian subsidiary of the $1.3 billion sports marketing company IMG Worldwide, has hiked the sponsorship rights of the Indian cricket team to unprecedented amounts. The rights which were sold by BCCI recently for Rs 19 crore will now be sold by IMG for a whopping Rs 35.48 crore a year.

Thus it is any company or brand interested in sponsoring the Indian cricket team will need to shell out at least Rs 106.44 crore for a three-year contract with IMG.

IMG is understood to have acquired the rights for the Indian cricket team sponsorship from BCCI for approximately Rs 27 crore.

Officials at IMG said they already speaking to several companies in different product categories for sponsorship rights.

Advertising industry sources say that IMG has sent out proposals to advertisers as well as agencies, asking for Rs 60 lakh per test match and Rs 50 lakh for every one-day match.

Besides this, it is separately hawking logo space on the sleeve of the non-leading arm of the players at Rs 7 lakh for every test match and Rs 6 lakh for every one-day match.

Most advertisers and agencies feel that the sponsorship fee is too high and not viable as besides paying IMG, the company will need to invest another Rs 10 to 15 crore on promoting the event. Also, according to the contract the sponsorship fee would increase by 10 per cent each year.
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Kalyani Brakes bags disc brakes export order from Bosch
Pune: Kalyani Brakes has received an export order to supply 5,000 disc brakes per week to Bosch of the US.

Bosch in turn will supply the braking systems sourced from Kalyani Brakes of the Pune-based Kalyani group to General Motors (GM) of the US for its passenger cars.

This export order will enable Kalyani Brakes to quadruple its exports to Rs 10 crore in the current fiscal as against the previous year.

Bosch holds a 26.66 per cent equity stake in Kalyani Brakes and an equal amount of equity stake is held each by Nippon Air Brakes Company of Japan and the Pune-based Kalyani group. The public holds the balance 20 per cent.

Kalyani Brakes has a 50 per cent market share of the braking systems segment for the passenger car industry in the country. Almost 50 per cent of its revenues come from sales to Maruti Udyog Ltd.
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