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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (5813)	8/24/1999 4:42:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

AutoNews-Fiat pumps in $58 mil, Maruti launches ZEN Classic. Maruti launches Zen Classic timesofindia.com Fiat to pump in Rs 250 crore, hike JV stake to 76% Business Times Bureau MUMBAI: In an attempt to consolidate its car manufacturing activities in India, Fiat India Automobiles Ltd (FIAL) has enhanced its equity stake in Ind Auto Ltd (IAL), its joint venture with Premier Automobiles Ltd (PAL), from 51 per cent to 76 per cent. The joint venture would now be called Fiat Indauto Ltd (FIL). FIAL, the Indian arm of Italy's Fiat Auto SPA, would now undertake administrative activities and also carry out activities complimentary to auto production. FIAL's spokesperson informed The Times of India that manufacture of all the cars under its `Project 178' operations would now be undertaken by FIL...... timesofindia.com

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (5813)	8/24/1999 4:55:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

LG Electronics India turnover crosses Rs 600 cr (US$140 mil) lgeil.com Business Times Bureau NEW DELHI: Buoyed by sharp growth in colour televisions and refrigerators, LG Electronics India Ltd had a turnover of over Rs 600 crore during January to mid-August against Rs 464 in the entire 1998, vice-president marketing Rajiv Karwal said. Although the first half of the year is generally low on television sales and the refrigerator market has generally been sluggish, the company has recorded sharp growth owing to the pull created by World Cup promotions, Mr Karwal told The Times of India. Besides, better working capital and inventory management had helped the company generate profits to prepay its term loan to ICICI to the extent of Rs 27 crore, he said. At this rate, he said, the company would touch a turnover of Rs 950 crore by the year end against the Rs 750-crore target it had set for itself. While the market for refrigerators in the January-to-July period grew at 12-14 per cent over the corresponding period last year, the company's refrigerator sales grew over 48 per cent. On ACs too the company did better at three times over the corresponding period of last year compared to the industry average of 11-12 per cent. The company is now gearing up for bumper sales around the festival time, which is usually the peak time for televisions as well as other products. Washing machine sales which pick up in the monsoon season continue to grow till the end of winter. The company had taken Rs 57 crore term loan from ICICI in the first quarter of 1998 when it was beginning the construction of its factory at Greater Noida. The total project cost was Rs 190 crore. Of this, Rs 77 crore was taken as term loans from financial institutions and Rs 113 crore as equity. General manager (finance) of LGEIL SN Ajmera said at the time of negotiation of this loan, the Korean economy was undergoing a crisis and the FIs were hesitant to finance Korean companies' projects. ``We were able to convince ICICI that our project was good. But ICICI had to cover risk, so it charged us a higher rate of interest of 16.63 per cent.' Mr Ajmera said that just to secure the confidence of FIs, the company has prepaid part of the loan out of its internal accruals. ``For the balance Rs 30 crore, we have reset the terms of interest at 14 per cent, which in our view is a fairly good rate of interest. We do not foresee the interest cost going down further in the medium term,' he said. After restructuring of the term loan, the company's debt equity ratio has come down to 0.35:1 against 0.65:1, said Mr Ajmera.