Wipro acquires Unza for Rs 1,010 cr
Bangalore: Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting (WCCL), the FMCG arm of infotech major Wipro Ltd consumer care business of infotech major Wipro Ltd, has acquired Unza Holdings, a Singapore-based detergent and personal care products manufacturer, for Rs1,010.2 crore in an all-cash deal.

Wipro has brought the entire company, including 58.6 per cent held by institutional investors Standard Chartered Bank and Actis, a 35 per cent stake from Unza's management and the rest held by some minority investors. The acquisition will be funded through internal accruals.

Unza owns 48 brands and sells in 40 countries with a strong presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Hong Kong. It is said to be South East Asia's largest independent manufacturer and marketer of personal care products with personal care brands Enchanteur, Safi, Romano and Izzi, and two detergent brands Vigor and Maxkleen.

The acquisition will also give Wipro access to a vast portfolio and a presence in new categories like deodorants and household care.
Back to News Review index page  

TVS Motor plans launch of 100cc-plus scooter next fiscal
Bangalore: TVS Motor is planning to launch a 100cc plus four-stroke scooter during the next fiscal. The company said it would launch a scooter as it believes that the segment has not been tapped fully. There are only two other major players in the segment - Honda and Kinetic Motors. This will be the second time TVS is entering this category. Its earlier foray had to be abandoned because it could get the numbers.

Sources say TVS wants to enter the scooter segment because it wants to widen its customer base. The 90cc TVS Scooty has always been associated with women and the 100cc plus scooter could bring in male customers into the fold. The scooter segment constitutes 10 per cent of the two-wheeler market. Its size in volume terms is around 5-6 lakh units per month. TVS itself sells between 22,000 units and 25,000 units of Scooty every month.

The company is also opening a factory in Indonesia and another one in India (Rajasthan), TVS has lined up launches of a motorcycle in the executive as well as in the premium segments during the current fiscal.

TVS sold a total of about 9 lakh motor cycles during 2006-07 and expects to cross the one-million mark during the current fiscal. Its total market share in all segments is 13 per cent and is the third largest two-wheeler company in the domestic market. TVS expects to sell 1.7 million two- wheelers during the current fiscal, posting a growth of about 13 per cent.
Back to News Review index page  

Moody's rerates Tata Group
Mumbai: After the inclusion of the Corus Group on Tata Group's balance sheet, global credit rating agency Moody's has downgraded Tata Steel Ltd's corporate family rating from investment to speculative.

The agency gave a rating of 'Ba1', against 'Baa2' earlier, but kept the outlook for the company as stable.

Moody's warned that rating may be downgraded further if Tata Steel experiences delays or cost-over-runs in execution of various expansion projects, fall in steel prices or failure in integrating the two businesses and realising synergies.

Moody's said it expects Tata Steel's ambitious capacity expansion plan to lead to higher project execution risk over several years and materially elevate financial leverage, but added that current high leverage limits the company's financial strength and flexibility.

Earlier, Fitch Ratings had assigned a long-term foreign currency issuer default rating of 'BBB-' to Tata Steel Ltd with a stable outlook.
Back to News Review index page  

Carlson hikes stake in AFL
New Delhi: Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the corporate travel specialist, has taken majority control of its India operations by buying 26 per cent more stake from Indian JV partner, Cyrus Guzder-promoted AFL Pvt Limited, for an undisclosed amount. With this Carlson's stake in the JV rises to 76. The company now plans to take the inorganic route to ramp up India operations.

Carlson has no plans to change the management of the company. Hence Praveen Gandhi would remain CEO of India operations, while Guzder would remain chairman of the board for CWT India.

Company officials said the move will pave the way for integrating the India operations with the company's global network. Carlson Wagonlit Travel, with presence in 150 countries, is the world's second largest travel management company.
Back to News Review index page  

GSM operators' average revenue per user declines
Mumbai: GSM operators's average revenue per user (ARPU) — an indicator of revenue for service providers — has declined while that of CDMA operators are on the rise according to a study by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on quarterly performance of the sector for the period ended March 2007.

The study found that while the all-India blended ARPU per month (both prepaid and post-payment) for GSM services stood at Rs 298 during the quarter, a fall of 5.69 pc from Rs316 posted during the quarter ended December 2006. The ARPU for GSM post-payment services declined 3%, while prepaid ARPU fell 4.58 pc.

On the contrary, the all-India blended ARPU for CDMA operators rose 3.06 pc to Rs202 during the quarter under review from Rs 196 recorded during the previous quarter. While ARPU in the prepaid segment rose, post payment saw a decline.

The study found that telephone penetration increased to 18.23 pc during the quarter ended March 31 when compared with 17.16 pc recorded during the comparable period of the previous quarter.

The gross subscriber base (wired and wireless) has eventually crossed the 200 million mark - much earlier than what may analysts had expected.

While the total number of subscribers rose 8.39 pc to 205.86 million during the quarter, the number of public call offices (PCO) went up 4.72 pc.

The number of Internet subscribers grew by a modest 8.03 pc to touch 92.71 lakh subscribers during the March quarter.
Back to News Review index page  

Budweiser to be launched in India
Mumbai: Crown Beers India, the joint venture between Anheuser-Busch and Crown International, has launched the globally renowned beer brand, Budweiser, in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. In May this year the company had launched its premium beer brand Armstrong.

The company will manufacture both brands at its brewery in Andhra Pradesh.
Beer accounts for 25 per of liquor consumption in Andhra Pradesh, while in Maharashtra it stands at 60 per cent.

Company executives said Andhra Pradesh was a natural choice because the company's brewery is based there.

Crown Beers has plans of going pan-India but will first get a foothold in the southern and western regions.

Budweiser is currently sold in hotels, retail outlets in Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai.

Crown Beers is planning massive below-the-line activities to make its presence felt in the market.
Back to News Review index page  

BSNL customers to get free insurance
New Delhi: In a bid to shore up its eroding customer base Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is coming up with attractive incentives. For starters it is planning to offer its 36 million customers an accident insurance scheme free of cost. Customers will be insured for up to Rs50,000 against death and permanent total disability. The programme will cover the period between August 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008.

BSNL, the country's largest telecommunication service provider, is planning the offer as it has seen its fixed-line subscriber base erode by 2 million since 2004.

Six leading insurance companies, including public sector majors, have provided their quotes for the scheme. The company board will take a final decision shortly.

Given BSNL's huge customer base, the premium is working out to not more than 15 crore.

The insurance cover will be given to all subscribers from the date of the launch, and new customers shall be eligible to join from the date they subscribe to a BSNL connection.

The cover, however, will terminate on July 31, 2008.

The insurance coverage is expected to cover over 33.7 million fixed-line subscribers and 3.4 million post-paid mobile subscribers.
Back to News Review index page