Sri Adhikari Bros. to sell SAB TV to SET
Mumbai: Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd (SABTNL) will sell its SAB TV brand to SET (Singapore) Ltd for Rs57 crore. SET will also get 1,305 hours of programming and related assets from SAB TV.

Makarand Adhikari, vice-chairman and managing director of SABTNL, said the board has approved the proposal to sell the TV brand, part of its programming library and related assets. But the board's approval is subject to a go-ahead from the shareholders.

He said the deal would have no impact on the equity pattern as well as management of SABTNL. SABTNL would now concentrate on its area of core competence of content production.

Shares of SABTV were down Rs2.2 or 1.9 per cent at Rs112,80 on the BSE in late morning deals.
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Mphasis and Geometric make acquisitions
New Delhi: Mphasis BFL has picked up Eldorado Computing, a firm specialising in outsourcing for the US healthcare insurance industry, in an all cash deal of $16.5 million. Eldorado has 128 clients and its divisions had revenues of about $10 million last year.

Geometric Software in the meanwhile has acquired two companies for a total of $1.75 million. The companies, TekSoft and Cimtronics, make software for engineering. Geometric expects them to add $3 million to its topline every year.
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Jet plans more US links
Mumbai: Jet Airways plans to operate flights to Chicago and San Francisco via Paris and is currently negotiating with Continental Airlines and United Airlines for a tie-up.

Company officials said that they shall be starting flights from Mumbai to New York in two months time, but in the long term, are looking at operating flights to Chicago, San Francisco and Houston or Dallas.

Jet has tied up with South African Airways for leasing three Airbus 340s for operating direct flights to London from next month, officials said on the sidelines of the listing of te company's shares at the National Stock Exchange.

Officials also said that they are studying options for long haul aircraft and expect to come up with a firm plan shortly. Both Airbus (A340s) and Boeing (777s and 787s) are in the race for the fleet plan.

Jet would launch its direct flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur next month and link Hong Kong and Bangkok when permitted. The airline would be taking seven new generation Boeing 737s on lease for domestic operations and purchase 10 more next year for deliveries till 2007 end.
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Nagarjuna Construction bags turnkey projects for Rs.212 crore
Hyderabad: The Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd has secured two new orders worth Rs212 crore from the Andhra Pradesh Government for execution of irrigation projects on a turnkey basis, according to a company press release.
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Survey: Nokia tops in Indian GSM mobile handset market
Bangalore: Nokia leads the Indian GSM mobile handset market with its share increasing 8 per cent to 67.6 per cent since August 2004, according to an ORG-GFK study. The study says that Nokia models occupy the top three positions with Nokia 1100 being the largest selling brand in the country. The others are 3315 and 2300 followed by Samsung's C100, Nokia's 1108 and Nokia's 3310.

The ORG-GFK study says that in value terms, Nokia's share increased to 62.4 per cent in January from 56.9 per cent in August 2004. In the colour handset category, Nokia's share increased nearly 11 per cent to 43.9 per cent during the same period.

In January, about 5 lakh handset units were sold and in value terms, it was about Rs250 crore. In August 2004, it sold 4.35 lakh units worth Rs216 crore. The second largest handset maker was Samsung with was 13.4 per cent market share in unit terms and 16.9 per cent in value terms. Sony Ericsson was the third largest with 7.2 per cent in unit terms. In value terms, its share was 9.9 per cent in January 2005, nearly 2.5 per cent more than what it was in August 2004. Motorola and LG were in fourth and fifth positions.
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Coke gears up for summer wars
New Delhi: Coca-Cola India is gearing up for the peak season sales through several new marketing initiatives, involving flagship brand Coke, ThumsUp and Limca.

The company has a new promotion campaign for Coca-Cola, and it has repositioned Limca on the freshness plank. The campaign for Coca-Cola stars Aishwarya Rai. It is called Thanda Aish-Cash and involves cash prizes totalling Rs1 crore. Also, one lucky winner will get to accompany Aishwarya to an international premier of her next film on a foreign location.

As for Limca, the `lime and lemony' tag line has now been overhauled, with the brand communication now being based on `freshness'. The new TV commercial will feature model Deepika Padukone and will carry the tag line maza taazgi ka.

Of the Rs5,000 crore carbonated soft drinks market, the lime-lemon category accounts for thirty per cent volume share with brands such as Limca, 7 Up, Mountain Dew and Mirinda Lime. However, despite the stepped up marketing activity by Coca-Cola India, the company's total marketing budget is expected to remain unchanged at last year's levels.
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