Tata Group to get into food retail
Mumbai: The Tata Group will soon begin food retailing after the group's entry into processed foods with the acquisition of 70 per cent stake in Innovative Foods from the Amalgam Group. The group may sell food products, including fruit and vegetables and baked food, through a chain of retail stores.

Residency Foods and Beverages – a subsidiary of the Tata Group's hotel arm, Indian Hotels Company, the vehicle for acquiring a stake in Innovative Foods last year has also acquired 80 per cent equity in Kochi-based seafood exporter Amalgam Foods and Beverages.

Residency has already entered into an agreement with Jasper Aqua Exports, a Vizag-based seafood company, which will manufacture products exclusively for the Tata company's product portfolio.

R K Krishnakumar, Indian Hotels' vice-chairman, had said at the time of Innovative stake acquisition: "The IFL acquisition and our agreement with Jasper outline the company's strategic intent for the processed foods business. We strongly believe in leveraging our in-house expertise in the group with FMCG, F&B and retail businesses."

Tata group's planned foray into food retail may be in synergy with its TAJ SATS Air Catering and hotel business a joint venture between Indian Hotels and Singapore Airport Terminal Services, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.

It has a commanding 60 per cent share of the airline catering market in India.
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Titan to exit Europe
Bangalore: Titan Industries has wound up its European operations after incurring losses of Rs110 crore in the continent during the last decade.

Titan entered 12 countries in Europe in the early '90s and exited in December 2006.

The company made losses throughout the 1990s and, in 2004 and withdrew from eight of these countries. Following this, it was present only in Britain, Spain, Greece and Portugal.
Since December 2006, it has ended its European operations completely, except for selling the Titan Edge watches in a small territory through an old distributor.

The company was chiefly not able to compete with the popularity of the Swiss and the Japanese watches in those markets and also was unable to popularize the brand as it did not spend enough time and money on advertising the brand in Europe.
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Kerala govt says Tata Tea 'grabbed' Munnar forest land
Kochi: The Kerala government has filed a counter affidavit in the high court saying that Tata Tea had 'grabbed' forest land at Munnar. A day before the state government launched eviction proceedings against Tata Tea.

The department claimed that their action was well within the act and rules for conservation of nature and its resources.

According to the Land Board Award of March 29, 1974, about 57,359.14 acres of land was given on lease to Tata Tea.

The government alleged that Tata Tea had converted 3,000 acres of land, and that the department wanted to prevent the 'grabbing' of forest land.

The department also claimed that five forest offences were registered against the company for destruction of trees from the 'Shola forest area.' It was also pointed out that an excess of 2,573.32 acre of fuel plantation was held by the company at Munnar.

Tata Tea has been granted time until July 12 to file a reply.
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Cement firms increase prices
New Delhi: The cement industry hiked prices by Rs3-5 per 50 kg bag, an increase of 1.3-2 per cent within four months of committing to hold prices for a year.

Cement companies have hiked prices by Rs3-5 in Maharashtra and southern India from July 5, taking the price per 50 kg bag to Rs270 in Maharashtra and Rs250 in the South. The rains have not affected demand as of now and no price cut is expected this monsoon," said Sanjay Ladiwala, the president of the Mumbai Cement Stockists and Dealers Association.

Cement companies reduced prices in the last monsoon due to a dip in demand.

The steep decline in inflation from 6.7 per cent to just above 4 per cent has also encouraged the industry. Cement carries 1.73 per cent weight in the wholesale price index (WPI) and the government has taken a number of steps to keep its prices under check.
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HDIL ties up with Lehman Brothers
Kolkata: The real estate arm of the Wadhawan Group, Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL), is in talks with Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners (LBREP), the real estate private equity fund of Lehman Brothers, to form a joint venture for developing a luxury hotel on Juhu Beach in Mumbai.

DS Corporation, a builder and real estate contractors firm in which HDIL has 45 per cent stake, will build the proposed hotel.

HDIL is likely to have 45 per cent stake in the joint venture but the size of the investment is so far not known.

LBREP's inaugural real estate private equity fund, LBREP I, closed in 2001 with over $1.6 billion in aggregate commitments and was fully invested. The fund makes direct private equity investments in properties, real estate companies and service businesses ancillary to the real estate industry in North America, Europe and Asia. Lehman Brothers also has a $1.1-billion mezzanine investment vehicle called Lehman Brothers Real Estate Mezzanine Partners, which closed in August 2005.
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Cadbury outsources HR and accounting functions to Genpact
Mumbai: Cadbury Schweppes plans to outsource a substantial chunk of its accounting and HR activities to Genpact India on the back of rising costs and shrinking margins.
Sources said Cadbury may outsource over 500 jobs to India by the end of the year as part of its 'Vision In Action Programme.'

These include jobs in core accounting functions such as salary processing and bill payment. Jobs in the HR-related roles are also likely to be outsourced with Genpact's Shared Business Services (SBS) in India, China and Romania among the major beneficiaries.

The 'Vision In Action Programme' launched in 2007 is an effort to lift Cadbury's operating margins to about 14 per cent to 15 per cent from about 10 perf cent now. It will achieve this through cost-cuts and asset disposals.

The London based Cadbury recently put its beverages business, estimated to be worth about $16 billion, on the block inviting attention from private equity giants such as Blackstone, KKR and the Tata group.
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