Govt decides against selling Tide Water Oil stake to ONGC
Kolkata: The government has decided not to sell Andrew Yule's 28 per cent stake in Tide Water Oil to ONGC as it feels that the latter has valued Tide Water Oil's stake far too low.

The valuation arrived at by ONGC for the 28 per cent stake in Tide Water Oil was around Rs60 crore. The upstream oil company had evinced interest in lubricant maker Tide Water Oil in 2006, the sources said. . The government now plans to go ahead with a fresh due diligence of the lube manufacturing company.

Tide Water Oil is a subsidiary of Andrew Yule and Company, which is into industrial equipment and tea business.

The sources said the sale of stake was a part of the revival package of Andrew Yule and Company, which was sanctioned recently.

BIFR had received enquiries from other suitors, for which a fresh due diligence would be done to arrive at a fair value of the company's shares.
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Reliance Fresh to open outlets in Mumbai
Mumbai: The Mukesh Ambani-controlled retail venture Reliance Retail will now open outlets in Mumbai, India's biggest market.
The company, which has opened 157 Reliance Fresh outlets in 18 states, is planning a two-phased strategy for Mumbai. At first it will open outlets in western and central Mumbai followed by Thane and Nashik, an industry source said. Reliance will have about 100 stores in Mumbai.

Company sources said, "Reliance Industries is headquartered in Mumbai and holds significance for the promoters. With this in mind, the company will launch the Reliance Fresh network in a much bigger way in comparison with what it did while entering certain other cities."
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Avesthagen subsidiary signs agreement with Biotech Corp
Bangalore: AvestaBiotherapeutic and Research (ABRPL), a joint venture between Avesthagen and Meditab Specialities, which is part of Cipla group, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (MBC) for manufacture of biosimilars.

MBC is an agency under the purview of the Malaysian ministry of science, technology and innovation and owned wholly by the ministry of finance. The agency identifies value propositions in the biotech sector in both research and development and commerce and supports these ventures via financial assistance, and developmental and facilitation services. The agency wants to facilitate ABRPL's investment in Malaysia.

Through the MOU ABRPL wants to establish a legal presence in Malaysia and would place the intellectual property rights for the product with ABRPL Malaysia.

This would also give ABRPL Malaysia an opportunity to obtain the BioNexus Status offered by the Malaysian government as well as apply for any relevant incentives as soon as practicable.
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Spices Board to open retail outlets
New Delhi: Commerce ministry promoted entity the Spices Board is floating a company to market spices in India and abroad. The new company called - Flavourit Spices Trading - will focus on selling a range of spices like mint, chillies and jeera, under the brand name Flavourit.

The company will first launch products in Delhi in a couple of months and is negotiating with Mother Diary to sell Flavourit. An initial investment of Rs10 crore will be made by the Spices Board to set up the company, which will be based in Cochin but have presence throughout India. In a few years time, a private company could be roped in as a partner of the company. The company will have its own supply chain to package and market different spices, especially produced by small growers across the country. Services of the India Brand Equity Foundation will also be taken for promoting the product in international markets, where it would be positioned as a premium product.

As per the plans drawn up by the board, spice parks will be set up in places across the country. Two spice parks will be set up for black pepper and cardamom in Idduki district in Kerala while one each in Lucknow for mint and Guntur for chilli. More over, a spice park will be set up in one of the north eastern states for promoting organic ginger and turmeric.

In addition, 65,000 hectares of pepper plantation and 45,000 hectare of cardamom plantation in Kerala will be replanted.
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