UTI Bank may offload equity; talks on with Citi, Fortis
Mumbai--UTI Bank may be in an advanced stage of negotiations with Citigroup, Dutch-Belgian group, Fortis and Commonwealth Development to place around 20 per cent of the bank’s equity through preferential allotment by the end of this month.
The fresh issuance of equity will bring down the parent Unit Trust of India’s stake in the bank from 60.7 per cent to 40 per cent.
At present corporates and public together hold 27.1 per cent equity, while 6.5 per cent is with LIC and 5.7 per cent with GIC and its subsidiaries.
The private bank has a paid-up capital of Rs 132 crore. Following the sale of equity, the equity capital is expected to go up to Rs 160 crore. This sale of equity will also enable the bank to meet the Reserve Bank of India stipulation, requiring promoters of new private sector banks to bring down their stake to 40 per cent.
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Sony’s plans come to naught
New Delhi--Sony’s plans of a common bouquet of channels involving Discovery and Aaj Tak seem to be coming to naught.

The issue this time is Sony going pay from August this year and Aaj Tak says it is not yet ready for that step, while it says it does not mind a common bouquet with Sony and Discovery for a DTH platform.

Earlier Sony had mooted the idea of Aaj Tak and Discovery joining its bouquet of channels.
Discovery has earlier said that it too is keen on this barring some consensus on certain issues related to the common league. Aaj Tak, however, was till now discreet about its intentions. Now, Aaj Tak sources say that the bouquet dream may still be a long way off, as despite the willingness of all concerned, the contentious issue of Sony bouquet going pay from August this year remains the biggest hurdle.
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Crompton Greaves to lay off 900 workers
Mumbai-- Crompton Greaves is again in the cost cutting mode. Now the the L M Thapar-controlled engineering company, is reducing manpower by 900 over the next four months.
That's not all. The company has, in recent months, reduced its working capital by Rs 300 crore, while the level of inventory has been slashed from Rs 316 crore to Rs 161 crore. Receivables have come down from Rs 661 crore to Rs 475 crore.
The reduction in manpower would be completed by the first half of the current fiscal, after which the company would be comfortable in terms of the strength of its workforce.
Cromton Greaves posted a loss of Rs 147 crore in 1999-2000, after which it took up the cost cutting programme.
During the last fiscal, the company reduced its workforce by around 2,700 to survive in the difficult business conditions. The company's current workforce is 7,876.
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Pfizer sues Cadila over Penegra
Mumbai- Pfizer Inc has taken Cadila Healthcare to court over the brand name Penegra, which it says is a direct take-off on its own drug, Viagra and the HC issued an ex-parte injunction last week against Cadila Healthcare, a Zydus Group company, restraining it from using the brand name Penegra.
A senior Pfizer official said intellectual property rights need to be defended. In India, we are restricted by a process patent. However, this case is being fought on the basis of the trademark for the brand name Penegra which has a similar shape and look to Viagra.
They added that the company may take similar action against other Indian companies if the brand name and logo seem similar.
Several local brands similar to Viagra are already available in the Indian market, but they haven’t been able to boast the international drug’s sales figures.
These include Sun Pharma’s Edegra, Ranbaxy’s Caverta, Cipla’s Silagra, Torrent Pharma’s Androz, Unichem’s Erix and Cadila’s Juan. Pfizer Inc’s Viagra (Sildenafil Citrate), which has a blue diamond shaped logo, is not manufactured in India.
According to research agency ORG-MARG, in the first three months of the calendar year, Zydus Cadila clocked sales of Rs 2.19 crore from its Penegra brand.
Ranbaxy’s Caverta earned Rs 1.23 crore, Sun Pharma’s Edegra managed a 0.85 crore and Cipla’s Silagra clocked 0.53 crore for the same period.
Torrent Pharmaceuticals raked in Rs 1.01 crore for its Androz and Unichem, Rs 0.24 crore for its Erix. Cadila earned the least with 0.08 crore for its brand, Juan.
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Bharti Telenet picks up 30 percent stake in Bharti Telesonic
New Delhi-- Bharti Group has bought in Bharti Telenet as a 30 percent shareholder in its national long-distance venture, Bharti Telesonic. This is in order to meet the eligibility criteria for acquiring license for NLD services.
With this shareholding rejig, Bharti Televenture now holds a 60 per cent stake, Singapore Telecom 10 per cent stake and Bharti Telenet 30 per cent stake in the domestic long distance venture according to Sunil Mittal, chairman and group managing director of Bharti..
The Department of Telecommunication requires that only a company that has prior experience in the telecom sector can have a 30 percent shareholding in an NLD venture.
Prior to this Bharti Telesonic was a 100 per cent subsidiary of Bharti Televentures. Bharti was denied the letter of intent at the first instance as it did not fulfill the required criteria for obtaining the license as laid down by DoT.
Reliance is the only company so far which has been issued a LoI for NLD services.
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ModiCorp to be prime mover behind BK Modi Group’s Net foray
Kolkata—Management holding company ModiCorp will be the prime-driver of the BK Modi group's mobile Internet industry thrust.
SpiceComm, SpiceCell and Cellebrum, in which ModiCorp holds 51 per cent equity, represent the cellular face of the B K Modi group. Cellebrum, a wholly owned ModiCorp subsidiary, operates in the wireless applications and technology development space.
ModiCorp plans to invest close to Rs 350-crore in the Spice cellular expansion and diversification exercise. And much of that diversification is likely to be in the evolution of cutting-edge mobile Internet solutions, by internally leveraging Cellebrum's domain knowledge.
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Canon looks for tie-ups with PC-makers for new digital camera range
New Delhi—Canon, the Japanese camera maker, is looking for a strategic tie-up with personal computer manufacturers to market its new range of digital cameras in the country unveiled on Tuesday.
Said Ajay Mehta, director-operations, Mahatta Camera Corporation, Canon's sole marketing affiliate in the country, Canon is in talks with PC manufacturers for a possible tie-up as a part a marketing strategy.
He however, refused to divulge the names of PC makers but said the tie-up would be for its model A10 and printer CP10.
As a part of the tie-up, the camera and the card photo printer would be bundled with the computer details of which were still being worked out, he said.
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Reliance Petro to retail controlled products
Ahmedabad—Reliance Petroleum, RPL, intends to enter the business of retail marketing of controlled products in India. The company has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian Oil Corporation for marketing, even while it is a major bidder for IBP Ltd, which is up for divestment.
The petroleum major, which owns the country’s largest 27 million tonnes refinery, has also decided to debottleneck its refining capacity at a marginal cost.
The company says it has the ability to increase production from its existing refining assets and the logistics and related infrastructure to support increased volumes were already in place.
The refinery’s project cost was already competitive at Rs 14,250 crore ($3.4 billion), which is Rs 5,278 ($116) per tonne, at least 30 per cent lower than that compared to capital costs of those refineries set up recently by the public sector companies.
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SAIL to enter into JV with DVC and NTPC for 2 power plants
Kolkata—The Steel Authority of India, SAIL, is planning to enter into a joint venture with the Damodar Valley Corporation and the National Thermal Power Corporation for its captive power plants at Bokaro and Bhilai, respectively.
The public sector steel maker is expected to retain a 50 per cent stake in both the power plants.
Following the recommendations of international management consultancy, McKinsey & Company, SAIL had decided to convert some of its non-core production facilities into joint venture businesses in order to focus on its viable and core activities and help in asset restructuring.
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McDonald’s parent can claim franchisee fee from Indian operations
New Delhi--The government has finally decided that McDonald’s can claim franchisee fee from its Indian subsidiary, which means that McDonald’s India can pay its parent initial franchisee fee of $45,000 that is given prior to opening an outlet anywhere in the country.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board cleared the proposal early last week after consulting with the department of food processing and then with the department of tourism.

McDonalds’s case got mired in a controversy when in March this year the Indian subsidiary sought the government's permission to make payments pending for years now.
Though the payment was to be made prior to opening outlets in India under the master franchisee agreement, parent McDonald’s took a lenient view to "not to unduly burden McDonald’s India in the initial years of its operations."
But after reviewing the situation, it decided to claim its dues this year and approached the FIPB for permission.
Trouble broke out and FIPB referred the proposal to department of food processing, which rejected the proposal as it did not form a part of the original proposal cleared way back in 1993 and said no remittances in the form of initial franchise fee could be made to the parent.

However, the FIPB soon discovered that restaurants related to tourism related activity, so passed the file to the department of tourism. After the latter stated that it had no objection to the remittances of franchisee fee by McDonald’s India to its parent, did the FIPB relent.
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Bajaj Electricals net up 104 percent in 2001
Mumbai—Bajaj Electricals has posted a 104.31 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 2.84 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2001, as compared to Rs 1.39 crore for the previous year.
The total income for the period grew by 12.67 per cent at Rs 393.74 crore against Rs 349.44 crore for 1999-2000, the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange here on Tuesday.
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FIs now say DPC power possible at Rs 3 per unit
New Delhi--Financial institutions have bought down the Dabhol Power Company’s tariff to Rs 3 per unit, which would bring the levy now down to almost 25 per cent from its first phase base level of Rs 3.97 per unit at a plant load factor of 90 per cent.
The reduction in tariffs is to be linked to a substantial drop in interest rate on loans by Indian lenders to the 2,184-mw two-stage power project.
The cost of funds is estimated at about 16.5 per cent for the first phase and 16.1 per cent for the second phase.

DPC has already proposed reducing tariffs by 10 per cent to Rs 3.20 per unit provided there is no delay in implementation of the second phase of the project.
In the normal course, DPC’s tariff would have come down to Rs 3.56 per unit from June 2002, when entire generation switches to LNG as the fuel in India.
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Dabur goes in for a youthful look
New Delhi-- Dabur India Ltd, in a strategic gambit, is targeting the young and modern consumers by giving its products a more colourful and youthful packaging and rolling out a new communication strategy. The new look is part of a larger initiative to transform Dabur the ayurveda-based company into one dedicated to "health and well-being."
when in-house research revealed that its products were mostly bought by the middle aged and older people Dabur decide that a change of track was required and the company decided to expand into natural and herbal products, a company source said, adding, Dabur is targeting consumers in the 15-40 years age bracket. Even now, most of its consumers are in this bracket, though they are closer to the upper limit of 40 years.
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BK Birla group puts ECE elevator unit on the block
Kolkata-- The B K Birla group is putting its ECE elevators business on the block and has appointed ICICI Securities (I-Sec) to locate a buyer for the business. The sources, however, declined to the name the companies with whom the talks were on.
Industry experts said the proposed sale was expected to bring in nearly Rs 60 crore to the Birla company. The elevator divisions, located at Ghaziabad and Budge Budge, recorded a turnover Rs 40.35 crore from selling 708 units in the financial year ended March 31, 2000. The divisions have an installed capacity of producing 800 units of elevators a year.
ECE Elevators has a technical collaboration with the Japanese major Toshiba Corporation, and has introduced several new products over the past couple of years.
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Netkraft targets $100 m revenues by 2005
Bangalore-- Netkraft, an e-business consulting and Net centric technology service provider, has totally recast itself and is targeting $100 million in revenues by 2005. The company plans to invest $5 million in the next two years to enhance its existing infrastructure and global presence.
According to company officials, "in a changing business environment, clients demand understanding of both e-business technologies and their industry domains. Hence we should build skills to focus on industry domains and develop region based sales strategies to aggressively market NetKraft as a truly world class e-business solution provider.
The company has set up two dedicated off-shore development centres (ODC) and is expecting almost 40 per cent of its projected $100 million revenues to come through the ODC route. NetKraft has 15 active clients and expects to expand its operations in South America, Australia, and Japan by 2005.
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Yamaha to focus on increasing market share
New Delhi--Two-wheeler major Yamaha Motor India in order said it planned to achieve a target of 21 per cent market share by 2003 from the existing 15 per cent. In order to achieve this would launch one new model every year over the next three years. It would also hike annual production capacity to 5.5 lakh units by 2003 from the present 3 lakh units.

Yamaha’s new managing director Masahiko Shibuya said here on Tuesday, "India being the second largest bike market in the world, has a very important place in our global strategy," he said.
"Yamaha has already invested Rs 550 crore since 1996 when the joint venture started. Every year, we will invest Rs 50-70 crore depending upon the market demand," company’s executive director SK Taneja said.
The company is also likely to go in for an initial public offering (IPO) within the next five years besides achieving break-even this fiscal, a top company official said on Tuesday.
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Hyundai launches new variant of Accent
Chennai--Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has launched a new variant of Accent targeted at the lower end of the mid-size segment and top end of the small car segment. Accent GVS, powered by a 1.5 litre engine, priced at Rs 5.65 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) and is positioned against Ford’s Ikon 1.3 version.
Accent GVS will help the company to broad base its offering and be present at multiple price points, said HMIL director (marketing) BVR Subbu, at a meeting with presspersons on the occasion of the roll out of the 2,00,000th car from its production facility at Irrungattukottai, near Chennai.
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Contempt charge against Bright Star
Kolkata--The Damani-owned Bright Star Investments, one of the two bidders for VST Industries, is facing a contempt petition in the Karnataka High Court. The petition filed on Tuesday by one MV Subramanyam, a shareholder of VST Industries following advertisements in several dailies Tuesday by the Damanis urging VST shareholders to take up Bright Star’s offer of Rs 151 per share. Russell Credit had offered Rs 125.
ASK-Raymond James & Associates, the managers to the Bright Star open offer, said they had not received the stay order."
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IOC gives nod for Rs 3,365-cr upgrade of Panipat refinery
New Delhi—The Indian Oil Corporation, IOC, has given its consent for the Panipat Refinery capacity to be expanded from 6 million tonnes to 12 million tones estimated to cost Rs 3,365-crore.
The project is estimated to take 36 months to complete.
The expansion would involve constructing an identical set of unit that already exists. Besides putting up a fluidised catalytic cracking unit, the expansion also involves setting up a coaking unit, sources said.
IOC is taking up the expansion to meet the deficit in north and north-west region of the country.

Malaysian oil major Petronas and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation have evinced interest in picking up stake in the Panipat refinery expansion project.
IOC has offered 26 per cent equity stake to Petronas, a decision of which would be finalised by end of 2001, sources said adding Petroliam Nasional Berhad or Petronas for short is already partnering IOC in its Panipat petrochemical project.
Panipat refinery expansion project has received the first stage clearance from the Public Investment Board.
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Dhanalakshmi Bank plans to launch 1:1 rights issue
Mumbai—Dhanalaxmi Bank, a Keralabased private sector bank, is coming out with a 1:1 rights issue at a premium of Rs 10 per share.
Post-issue the bank’s paid-up capital will double to Rs 27.4 crore and the bank’s net worth will be Rs 100 crore, compared with Rs 73.5 crore at present. The bank’s shares are held by 37,000 shareholders and its share price currently quotes at around Rs 26.
The Reserve Bank of India has been putting pressure on old private sector banks to increase their net worth to Rs 100 crore, in line with the norms for other commercial banks.
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US court orders Kitply to pay $2.25-m compensation
New York—Kolkata-based Kitply Industries was ordered by the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to pay $ 2.25 million compensation to California Pacific Trading Corporation, owned by Roy P Chowdhry, along with interest from February 1995, when the lawsuit was filed, till the amount is paid. The compensation is for breach of contract.
According to court documents, in 1994 Kitply, whose senior officials visited North Carolina, entered into an agreement to supply large quantities of teak marine plywood to California Trading.
According to the charges, when the supply reached the US, it was found to be defective and having irregular thickness and bad coloration.
Chowdhry said that when Kitply "refused to rectify the problems" despite repeated attempts by California Trading to settle the matter suitably, his company sued Kitply.

California Trading, Chowdhry said, has notified ICICI Bank, one of Kitply's lenders and financial partner, whose stocks are traded in the New York Stock exchange, of the judgment.
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