Kirloskar Brothers Ltd. to execute Gandikota Lift Scheme
Pune: The Kirloskar Brothers Ltd has informed the BSE that the Company as a lead partner in KBL-MCCL joint venture has received an order from Government of Andhra Pradesh, Irrigation & CAD Department for execution of Gandikota Lift Scheme.

The order is on a turnkey basis for the construction of a reservoir, construction and development of a distribution system to cover 46,000 acres area, the laying of a 30 km MS pipeline and for the supply of eight vertical turbine pumps including electro mechanical works.

Further the Company has informed the BSE that the total order value is Rs2860 million. The company's share of the total order is Rs2290 million.
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Quarterly Reports: Bajaj Auto, TVS Motors, Hero Honda, BHEL, SAIL, Tata Steel, GMI, Mishra Dhatu Nigam, MindTree
Bajaj Auto sales up 17.8 per cent
New Delhi: India's second-biggest motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto has announced its March sales numbers, and has reported that its sales are up 17.8 per cent to 163,530 units as compared to138,819 units a year ago.

While motorcycles sales are up 42.9 per cent to 134,670 units, sales of three-wheelers have however slipped 6.9 per cent to 18,754 units.

The company's exports have registered a 79.1 per cent rise to 24,404 units.

TVS Motor sales up 5.6 per cent
Chennai: TVS Motors have reported their March 2005 vehicle sales, which have risen 5.6 per cent to 106,218, up from 100,591 in March 2004. The company's two-wheeler sales have also moved up to 1.17 million units from 1.1 million posted a year ago.

Its motorcycle sales rose 3.6 per cent to 64,273 units in March 2005 from 62,060 in March 2004.

Hero Honda sales up 20.5 per cent
New Delhi: India's largest motorcycle maker Hero Honda Motors Limited has reported that its motorcycle sales grew by 20.5 per cent in March.

The company's sales are up to 231,593 vehicles from 192,181 units in the same month a year earlier.

The sales in the year ended March 31, 2005 surged 26.6 per cent to 2,621,400 units from 2,070,157 units in the same period a year ago.

BHEL net up 52 per cent
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has reported a 52 per cent jump in net profit at Rs1,002 crore in 2004-05 compared to Rs658 crore in the previous fiscal.

BHEL's turnover stood at Rs10,520 crore, up by 21 per cent from the previous year's Rs8662 crore.

The company is planning to enhance annual manufacturing capacity to 10,000 MW from the existing 6,000 MW at an investment of about Rs1,000 crore.

SAIL turnover set to cross Rs30,000 crore
New Delhi: The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is all set to post a turnover of more than Rs30,000 crore for the fiscal 2004-05, with its highest ever domestic sales of saleable steel at 10.3 million tonnes, an official release has said.

The company has recorded a five per cent growth in finished steel production during the year amounting to 9.28 million tonnes, while domestic sales increased eight per cent at 10.3 million tonnes.

The increase in domestic sales was on the back of lower export figures of 4 lakh tonnes against 11 lakh tonnes in 2003-04, the release added.

The company faced serious coal shortage during the years following which the company focused on optimising production of value-added products through the continuous casting (CC) route.

During the year the company further consolidated its financial strength by reducing its borrowings by Rs2,800 crore, leading to interest charges coming down by Rs300 crore annually. Labour productivity too improved by four per cent during the year to the level of 142 tonnes per man per year, the release added.

Tata Steel production at all-time high
Mumbai: Tata Steel has ended fiscal 2004-05 with a production of 4.11 million tonnes of saleable steel, an all-time high.

Supplies of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanised sheet products to the automobile industry jumped by 19 per cent over that of last year. Sales of branded products, Tata Shaktee (corrugated galvanised sheets), Tiscon (rebars) and Tata Steelium (cold rolled sheets) also witnessed a significant increase of 10 per cent, 13 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. Production of clean coal and iron ore touched 3.27 million tonnes and 10.47 million tonnes, respectively.

The company recorded best annual production at all its profit centres: Ferro Alloys & Mineral Division, Tubes division, Rings and Agrico division, Bearing division, Tata Growth shop and Wire division.

The Ferro alloys and mineral division produced 0.63 million tonnes of ferro-chrome, whereas the Bearings division produced 25.047 million bearings. The company also enhanced its presence in the markets by increasing its share in the Original Equipment Manufacturers categories such as auto direct, ancillaries and appliances.

"It appreciably gained market share in focus segments such as auto and construction. Tata Steel has also emerged as a preferred supplier to major companies in the auto and white goods segments," the release said.

GM sales up 35 per cent
New Delhi: General Motors India has said that its sales grew 35 per cent in the month of March 2005 to 3,516 units. The monthly sales is the highest ever since the company was formed, GMI said in a press release.

The growth was aided by GMI's multi-utility vehicle Chevrolet Tavera, which sold 1,905 units in March, the highest ever sales figure for the vehicle since its mid-2004 launch. The March sales also include 1,101 units of Chevrolet Optra and 506 units of Opel Corsa.

The Indian subsidiary of US-based car maker registered 56 per cent growth in sales to 8,397 units during the last quarter of 2004-05 (January to March 2005).

Mishra Dhatu Nigam PBT at Rs.8.8 crore
Hyderabad: Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (Midhani) has achieved a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs8.8 crore on a sales turnover of Rs131.29 crore during 2004-05.

The Hyderabad-based defence public sector unit has also recorded a modest exports of Rs80 lakh.

MindTree revenues up 80 per cent
Bangalore: Software services firm MindTree Consulting has reported a revenue of Rs245.3 crore for year-ended March 2005, a growth of 80 per cent over previous year's Rs136 crore.

MindTree, which doubled its headcount to over 2,000 during the year, added several customers in various geographies and strengthened its relationship with existing clients such as Volvo, AIG and Unilever.

"The US continued to be the biggest market. Europe made strong gains, where our revenue grew by 120 per cent. We also expanded our customer portfolios in West Asia, Japan and Asean," the company has said in a press release. It also consolidated its leadership position for Bluetooth solutions that are licensed to more than 30 leading product companies across the globe.
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MTNL and BSNL fire broadsides over merger
New Delhi: Just a day after BSNL said MTNL should become its subsidiary, MTNL has responded by demanding a reverse merger.

The MTNL chief said that, "Either it can be straight merger or reverse merger. If it's a straight merger they will again have to get listed on the exchanges which will be difficult."

MTNL also says that BSNL's claim of Rs1840 crore in IUC or interconnect charges is unsubstantiated and that it will challenge the IUC claim at the Department of Telecommunications.

Like BSNL, MTNL too has aggressive expansion plans ahead of a possible merger. The first step will be to expand its broadband base to five lakhs over the next 12 months.
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SAIL and Tata Steel hike prices
New Delhi: Domestic steel manufacturers have increased steel prices effective from Friday. The largest domestic manufacturer Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has raised hot-rolled steel coil prices by around Rs2,000 per tonne, while the second largest manufacturer Tata Steel has raised prices by around Rs5,000 per tonne.

Ispat Industries Ltd, the nation's fourth-biggest, raised prices by about Rs900, company officials said. Officials in Essar Steel said that the company would take a decision on price hike within a day or two.

In the case of Jindal Vijaynagar, a formal announcement has been delayed on account of the sudden death of the company Chairman, O.P. Jindal.
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Ranbaxy to pay £4.5 mn to UK health service
New Delhi: Ranbaxy (UK) Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, has agreed to pay UK's National Health Service (NHS) £4.5 million (about Rs37 crore) for settlement of claims brought against it for allegedly fixing high drug prices of antibiotic - penicillin and ulcer drug, ranitidine during 1996-2000.

A joint statement issued by Ranbaxy (UK) Ltd and the Department of Health, said, "Under the terms of the settlement, Ranbaxy has agreed, on a full and final basis and without admission of liability, to compensate the NHS by payment of £4.5 million and to provide co-operation in the context of the ongoing proceedings."

The NHS had sued some generic companies for alleged anti-competitive cartel conduct in connection with the supply of generic drugs. It had said that prices did not fall fast enough when generic competition was introduced in the late 1990s. Last year, it had alleged that Ranbaxy and Generics UK, part of Merck, had indulged in price fixing of ranitidine, which is not patent protected.

In December 2003, it had launched a civil action against seven other pharmaceutical companies, including Generics UK and Ranbaxy for alleged price-fixing of penicillin. A £30-million lawsuit was filed against these companies. Prior to this, a £28-million legal suit was also filed against six companies, including Norton Healthcare Ltd, Regent- Gm Laboratories, Goldshield Group Plc and Forley Generics Ltd on unfair pricing practice of a blood-thinning agent, Warfarin.

The Ranbaxy spokesperson here said, "The settlement was reached as the NHS has been one of the largest customers and the local management in UK was not in favour of a protracted legal battle. After this mutual settlement, we hope to continue supplying drugs to the NHS." The cumulative sales of Ranbaxy in UK, for all products during 1997 to 2000 amounted to £35 million.
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