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Videocon and Thomson SA in circular deal for picture tube business
New Delhi: The Videocon group has acquired the entire picture tube manufacturing operations of Thomson SA, one of the biggest players in the business, for about Euro 240 million.

Videocon will now own all the three manufacturing facilities of Thomson in Poland, Mexico and China with an aggregate capacity of 1.90 crore units of colour picture tubes and 40 lakh piece of picture tube glass.

The purchase agreement also allows Videocon to take over the R&D facilities at various places in Europe and China and access to a large resource of the patents and IPRS relating to technologies in colour picture tube segment.

Videocon and Thomson executed the agreement in Tuesday in Delhi in the presence of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the French Ambassador.

Videocon group, which comprises of four mainline listed companies has managed this acquisition through a complex deal with Thomson, which in the final analysis, will not involve any net outgo of funds.

The acquisition of Thomson's manufacturing units has been made through an offshore entity of Videocon group in which the other group companies like Videocon Communication, Videocon Appliances and Videocon International hold 19 per cent equity each, totalling 57 per cent. As part of the deal, Thomson will receive 240 million Euros for the picture tube business from Videocon. At the same time, Thomson will invest the same amount in two listed Videocon companies - 225 million Euro or about Rs1,200 crore in Videocon Industries, which is mainly active in the energy sector, at $10 per share and 15 million Euros or Rs80 crore in Videocon International.

Thomson will thus invest Euro 240 million in Videocon group companies, exactly the same amount as will be realized by the sale of its business.
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Thai Rung Union Car and Tata's mull production venture
Bangkok: Thai Rung Union Car Plc, Thailand's largest pickup truck modifier, may have arrived at an agreement with Tata Motors, India's largest automotive manufacturer, to set up a pickup truck manufacturing plant in Thailand for both export and domestic sales, according to reports emanating from Bangkok.

Although both Tata and SET-listed Thai Rung (TRU) have declined to confirm that they had signed an agreement, they said there were some developments in the pipeline and an announcement would be made at the appropriate time.

According to TRU officials, currently, the two sides are in the study and discussion stage, and maybe in a week or two the hope to make announcements. Tata Motors, on the other hand, said it was interested in Thailand and the country's potential for being the global hub for pickup truck production but it was still in the exploration phase, but confirmed that they definitely were in negotiations with potential partners.

Tata is hoping to use Thailand as a base for production of pickup trucks and then move on to manufacturing energy-saving cars or eco-cars in the near future.
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Reliance Infocomm stands valued at Rs.22,532 crore
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm now stands valued at Rs22,531.52 crore, with its promoting company, Reliance Industries, converting preference shares of Reliance Infocomm into fully paid-up equity shares of the face value of Re1 each at a price of Rs32 per equity share.

Reliance Infocomm would in turn allot 287.76 crore equity shares of face value of Re1 each to RIL for a value of Rs9,208.27 crore, the amount RIL had invested in the company.

Prior to conversion, Reliance Infocomm's paid up capital was Rs416.35 crore. Out of this, around 43% was hold by Reliance Industries and the rest by Mukesh Ambani and his associates. After the conversion, the paid up capital will increase to Rs704.11 crore and RIL's holding in the company will become 65.9%. The other promoter's holding will be reduced to 34.1%. At the conversion price of Rs32 per share, the market capitalisation of the company will be Rs22,531.52 crore.

The ownership of 34.1% share of Reliance Infocomm will also be transferred to Anil Ambani's name.

RIL had invested Rs8,100 crore, representing 162 crore preference shares in Reliance Infocomm. The value of the preference shares after accruing the premium had become Rs9,208.27 crore which has been converted into shares.
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Visteon and Taco sign up for joint ventures
Mumbai: Leading automotive supplier Visteon Corporation has joined hands with Tata Automotive Components (Taco) to set up two 50:50 joint venture companies - Taco Visteon Automotive Products (TVAP) and Visteon Taco Engineering (VTEC).

Taco Visteon will be a stand-alone entity, separate from Visteon India, and will manufacture engine induction systems and lighting systems. Visteon Taco Engineering will initially provide computer-aided designing and other engineering services to Visteon's facilities globally. Its key customers are expected to be Visteon US and Visteon Europe. Taco Visteon will also use Visteon Taco's engineering services.

Both the joint venture companies will be based in Pune.
Visteon is a leading player in delivering climate, interior and electronics components and systems to automobile manufacturers.
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Boeing to demonstrate the A777-200 LR
Mumbai: Leading aircraft manufacturer Boeing will demonstrate its latest plane, the A777-200 LRS in the country in the first week of August. Boeing's move comes on the back of the Indian aviation sector projections of growth at over 20 per cent in the coming years.

According to Boeing officials, the demonstration will be held in Delhi and Mumbai.

Within months of Boeing winning a major order from the national carrier Air-India, aircraft manufacturer's main rival, Airbus, had bagged major orders from private airlines from India at Paris airshow a few weeks ago.

The aircraft, which was unveiled on February 15, would be arriving in Delhi on August 1. The plane would be in the country till August 5 and fly non-stop to San Francisco two days later, an official said. While Air-India had placed orders for eight such aircraft, leading private airliner Jet Airways had booked six.

The 777-200LR (longer range) allows airlines to service non-stop routes such as New York-Singapore and Los Angeles-Dubai at full passenger capacity and carry revenue cargo. The 777-200LR can carry 301 passengers up to 9,420 nautical miles (17,446 kilometers).

The first flight is scheduled for early March and flight-test employees are putting final touches on the systems. The seven-month flight-test programme will include approximately 300 hours of ground and 500 hours of flight testing.

The first 777-200LR world liner would be delivered to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in January, next year.
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Handset market worth Rs.8,805 crore in FY05
New Delhi: The Indian mobile handset market was worth Rs8,805 crore in 2004-05. A whopping 84% were GSM handsets valued at Rs7,384 crore with Nokia alone accounting for an incredible 62.3% market share.

According to a report by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) quoting a Voice & Data report of June 2005, the share of GSM handsets was even higher than the GSM connections, which stood at 75% for the same period.

The report said CDMA handsets accounted for 16% of market share at Rs1,421 crore.

In the GSM space, Samsung was way behind Nokia with 11.3% market share followed by Motorola at 9.2% and Sony Ericsson at 4% while LG had a market share of 2%. Other brands such as Sagem, Alcatel, Ben Q, Bird, Siemens, Philips, Blackberry, Krome, Palm, Kejian cornered 10.3% market share in 2004-05, the COAI report claimed.

In the CDMA handset universe, LG was the undisputed leader with a market share of 59.1% followed by Nokia at 17.6%, Samsung at 6.3 %, Motorola at 5.3%, Kyocera at 5.2% and others like Hyundai at 6.5%.
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NTC mulling gem, jewellery centre on Mumbai mill land
New Delhi: Buoyed by the returns from the sale of surplus lands of its three mills, amounting to Rs 1,160 crore, National Textile Corporation (NTC) is keen on retaining one of the mill lands for itself to develop it on a commercial scale.

Sources in the Textile Ministry have indicated that NTC has decided to keep the land of Indu Mills in Prabhadevi facing the Arabian Sea for commercial exploitation through an ambitious development programme. They said that the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) would be approached to develop a world-class gem and jewellery centre in that land. The EPCH has expertise in developing such a world-class mart, as it had developed one such international mart for handicrafts in Greater Noida near Delhi.

The sources said that the proposal is to develop this NTC land in Prabhadevi not only to build a world-class centre for gems and jewellery, but also other business centres, including hotels and malls for making it the tallest building in Asia.

The sources said that NTC has disposed of 37 acres of land so far and if it gets the Bombay High Court approval, it could free up another 93 acres that it has as surplus land in the city.
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Online shopping to grow four times to Rs.2,300 crore
Calcutta: According to research conducted by the Internet & Online Association, over Rs570 crore worth of commerce was conducted online in 2004-2005. The figure is expected to grow almost four times to Rs2,300 crore by 2006-2007.

"Though it is at a nascent stage right now, there's a huge prospect for e-commerce in the country," said Kiran Karnik, head of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).

Flight and train bookings are contributing to the growth, besides direct purchases. The study surveyed 3099 respondents across the country - of whom 55 per cent had shopped online at least once, among them 87 per cent more than once - for insights into the profile of the online shopper.

Among the metros, Mumbai led in all categories, except jewellery, where Delhi came out on top. Calcutta scored in online music sales.

But a few hurdles have to be crossed, the players and the promoters feel. "There has to be greater PC and Internet penetration and the merchants need to build consumer confidence," Karnik said.

India, with a population of over a billion, has around 2.5 crore Internet users.

The study found that most shoppers access the Internet from office, followed by those who access it from home. Some also go to cyber cafes.
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L&T gets Rs.418-crore flyover contract in Haryana
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has won a contract from the National Highways Authority of India, estimated at Rs418 crore, for the construction of a flyover in Haryana.

The contract for the six-lane flyover on National Highway 1 in Haryana also includes widening an existing four-lane-10-km stretch that passes through Panipat.

The contract will be executed on a build-operate-transfer basis through a special purpose vehicle to be formed for the project, said a statement from Larsen & Toubro.

The six-lane elevated section of 3.4 km (3,048 m of viaduct and 360 m of ramps) covering the central built-up Panipat section will be India's longest 6-lane flyover on the National Highway network, it said.
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SAIL to invest Rs.300 crore in eight projects
New Delhi: The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has approved the implementation of eight projects at an investment of around Rs300 crore.

Out of these projects, three have been cleared for Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL), two for Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and one each for Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) and Visvesvaraya Iron & Steel Plant (VISL), according to a company release.

The projects sanctioned on Tuesday are in addition to the capital schemes valued at over Rs3,000 crore, which are under various stages of implementation.

One of the projects is the modification of the Mae West block system at BSL's hot strip mill. The project is likely to improve the consistency in the quality of BSL's hot rolled products. The project is scheduled for completion in two phases by 2007-08 at a cost of Rs92 crore.

Another project at BSL is the installation of a hydrochloric acid regeneration plant for the pickling line II at an investment of around Rs50 crore. The project on completion will improve the pickling process that involves the removal of oxide layers from the surface of colled rolled coils.

The other projects include the installation of power supply facilities for setting up a new oxygen plant at Bokaro on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis. Simultaneously, VISL was given a final nod for setting up a cryogenic air separation unit also on a BOO basis.
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B.P. Poddar group to invest Rs 250 cr in healthcare initiatives
Kolkata: The Rs300 crore B.P. Poddar Group, which has interests in sectors such as real estate, education, steel and healthcare, has unveiled plans to invest Rs250 crore in various healthcare initiatives over the next couple of years.

The proposed investment corpus would be generated by way of promoters' contribution and debt, according to Arun Poddar, Chairman of the B.P. Poddar group of companies.

Speaking to newspersons at a function held here to announce the launch of the "hub-and-spoke concept" in healthcare in Kolkata, Poddar said the group had already invested Rs60 crore in a 220-bed, multi-speciality hospital at New Alipore in Kolkata. This facility would act as a hub for the "spoke concept" clinics that would be set up throughout West Bengal. The first of these "spoke" clinics has just been inaugurated in the central business district of Kolkata at an investment of around Rs5 crore.

About 4-5 such "spokes" would be set up in and around Kolkata in 1-2 years.

According to him, the group proposes to invest a further amount of Rs250 crore on healthcare and related fields over the next two years. Plans in this regard include the setting up of another 100-bed hospital and a chain of clinics. The group has also proposed to set up a medical college, a dental college and a college of nursing and paramedics. The proposed medical college is expected to be operational within the next three years.
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Corporate Results: Exide, Calsoft, Four Soft
Exide profit drops 14% in fourth quarter
Kolkata: Exide Industries has reported a 14 per cent drop in net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2005 to Rs18 crore against Rs21 crore in the fourth quarter ending March 2004. Sales, however, rose to Rs393 crore against Rs325 crore in the same period last year.

For the full year ended March 31, 2005, Exide reported a 23 per cent jump in turnover to Rs1482 crore against Rs1203 crore for the fiscal ended March 2004.

Profit after tax rose 6 per cent to Rs77 crore for fiscal 2005 from Rs72 crore in fiscal 2004, despite a sharp rise in global prices of lead.

The board of Exide has recommended a dividend of 25 per cent on its expanded equity capital base of Rs75 crore.

Calsoft net at Rs3.4 crore
Chennai: California Software Company Ltd (Calsoft) has reported a net profit of Rs3.35 crore on revenue of Rs48.86 crore for the year ended March 31,2005 compared to Rs3.04 crore on revenue of Rs37.80 crore for the previous year.

The board of directors has recommended a final dividend of 10 per cent (Re1 per equity share) payable subject to approval at the ensuing annual general meeting by shareholders, says a company press release.

Total expenditure was Rs43.76 crore (Rs33.15 crore), interest was Rs36.67 lakh (Rs8.86 lakh) and depreciation was Rs1.35 crore (Rs1.23 crore).

Four Soft net down
Hyderabad: Four Soft Ltd has reported 52.15 per cent growth in consolidated revenues at Rs21.65 crore for the year ended March 2005, compared to Rs14.23 crore the previous year.

Consolidated net profit for the year stood at Rs4.14 crore, (Rs5.34 crore).
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