India BizBits -->
Thursday, March 23 3:11 PM SGT
Hindalco To Buy Alcan's 55% Stake In Indian Aluminium
BOMBAY (Dow Jones)--Aluminum company Hindalco Industries Ltd. (HALC.NS) said Thursday it is acquiring Alcan Aluminium Ltd's (AL) 55% stake in Indian Aluminium Company (IALM.NS) at 190 rupees ($1=INR43.60) per share.
Hindalco has entered into an agreement to buy the Canadian company's 3.88 million shares, a company spokeswoman said.
Hindalco also plans to buy an additional 20% stake from Indian Aluminium shareholders at INR190 per share.
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Thursday, March 23 7:31 PM SGT
Refco Group, India's Satyam Info In JV For Online Trading
BOMBAY (Dow Jones)--Refco Group Ltd. said Thursday it formed a joint venture with India's Satyam Infoway Ltd. (SIFY) to offer online equity and futures trading for retail customers and also execution and clearing services for financial institutions.
The new company will be called Refco-Sify Securities India Pvt. Ltd. and it will have an intial capital of $100.0 million, Refco said in a news release.
Refco will hold 60% stake in the venture, with Satyam Infoway holding the rest, Refco said.
Satyam Infoway is the largest private Internet service provider in India, serving corporate and residential clients.
Refco Group is a U.S.-based diversified financial services organization with operations in 13 countries and an extensive global institutional client base.
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Refco Launches Risk Management Services for Indian Clients
(Repeating to correct headline.)
(Full text of statement. Contact details below.)
MUMBAI, India, March 23 PRNewswire-AsiaNet - Refco Group Ltd., LLC is. pleased to announce the official opening of its India office in Mumbai. Subsequent to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's approval, the Group. incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary named Refco India Pvt. Ltd. to provide risk management services to Indian corporate and commercial clients. managing price risk exposures using futures & options and OTC products.
"With the liberalisation in the use of such products in late 1998 by the Reserve Bank of India, producers, consumers and traders of commodities such as vegetable oils, coffee, non-ferrous metals, and precious metals can now avail themselves of Refco's global expertise and services in the commodity markets," said Vineet Bhatnagar, Country Head and M.D. of Refco India.
"We have an experienced team of ten analysts and client service officers to give Indian clients direct educational support, training and advisory services while maintaining close contact with Refco's specialised commodity desks in Singapore which serve commodity players in all Asian markets," said Rajendra Bhambhani, director and head of commodity services at Refco India.
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Thursday, March 23 7:07 PM SGT
Refco Launches Indian Subsidiary to Provide management services to Indian corporate and commercial clients
(Full text of statement. Contact details below.)
MUMBAI, India, March 23 PRNewswire-AsiaNet - Refco Group Ltd., LLC is. pleased to announce the official opening of its India office in Mumbai. Subsequent to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's approval, the Group. incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary named Refco India Pvt. Ltd. to risk provide management services to Indian corporate and commercial clients. managing price risk exposures using futures & options and OTC products.
"With the liberalisation in the use of such products in late 1998 by the Reserve Bank of India, producers, consumers and traders of commodities such as vegetable oils, coffee, non-ferrous metals, and precious metals can now avail themselves of Refco's global expertise and services in the commodity markets," said Vineet Bhatnagar, Country Head and M.D. of Refco India....
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Thursday, March 23 7:11 PM SGT
India Business Briefs: Citicorp Buys 74% Of Fin Co
NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--Citicorp Finance India Ltd. bought a 74% stake in Nation Wide Finance Ltd. for $3.4 million, reported Press Trust of India. The stake gives Citicorp a significant presence in the consumer durables sector, a company executive said.
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Thursday, March 23 7:23 PM SGT
India Business Briefs: Citigroup Buys 40% Indiatimes.com
NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--International finance major Citigroup Inc. (C) has bought 40% of a financial portal being set up by Indiatimes.com, a unit of media conglomerate Times of India Group, according to Press Trust of India. The company already announced plans to list Indiatimes.com on Nasdaq.
Citicorp Finance India Ltd. bought a 74% stake in Nation Wide Finance Ltd. for $3.4 million, reported Press Trust of India. The stake gives Citicorp a significant presence in the consumer durables sector, a company executive said.
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Thursday, March 23 8:55 PM SGT
India Business Briefs:Cheminor Drugs Interim Div INR2.50
BOMBAY (Dow Jones)--Cheminor Drugs Ltd, a division of pharmaceuticals maker, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (REDY.NS), has declared interim cash dividend of 2.50 rupees ($1=INR43.60) a share. Parent Dr. Reddy's had earlier declared an interim dividend of INR2.50 a share.
Complete Business Solutions India Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.-based CBS Inc. (CBSI), will receive $200 million from Clayton, Dubilier and Rice Inc. (X.CBR) to expand its e-business venture says the Press Trust of India quoting a company executive.
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Thursday, March 23 9:10 PM SGT
India Drug Cos Can Buy Foreign Cos Upto $100M ViaADR-GDR
NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--India raised to $100 million the ceiling for domestic companies seeking to acquire firms abroad through American Depositary Receipts and Global Depositary Receipts stock swaps, the government said Thursday.
Sectors affected include information technology, pharmaceuticals and entertainment software, the government said.
The government also raised the cap for overseas investment allowable through simple notification to the Reserve Bank to $50 million from $15 million.
However, the move is subject to a condition that firms investing abroad should have a track record of making a profit in the previous three years.
Both measures, which take effect Thursday, were approved in the budget presented Feb. 29 for the next fiscal year beginning April 1.
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Thursday, March 23 9:14 PM SGT
India BSE Cuts Trading Hours Friday For Clinton Visit
BOMBAY (Dow Jones)--The Bombay Stock Exchange said Thursday that it has shortened Friday's trading day in preparation for U.S. President Clinton's visit to the BSE in the evening.
Clinton will speak at a function organized by the Federation of India Chambers of Commerce & Industry at the BSE Friday evening.
Friday's trading hours will be 0400 GMT to 0610 GMT, instead of the usual 0430 GMT to 1000 GMT.
The National Stock Exchange will trade as usual from 0430 GMT to 1000 GMT.
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Maheshwar Power Signs Agreement
BOMBAY (Dow Jones)--Maheshwar Hydel Power Corp. said it has signed a escrow agreement with the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board. This is the first power project to achieve financial closure in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, it added.
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Dr.Reddy's to raise $200mn through ADS issue
The board of directors of Pharmaceuticals firm Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories Ltd today passed a resolution to make an issue of American Depositary Shares (ADS) to raise up to $200mn. The firm also said an interim dividend of Rs2.50 per share had been set for FY2000. The size of the proposed ADS issue is inclusive of a green shoe option, Dr.Reddy`s said in a statement...
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Cheminor Drugs commences production of Rantidine.
Cheminor Drugs Ltd (CHL) has commenced the production of Rantidine (75 mg).The production is mainly targeted for the North American markets. It has also had inspection of its Vizag. facility for manufacture of bulk drugs Nizatidine and Domperidone as well as the facility for finished dosage to manufacture Generics inspected by USFDA.
With this, all its bulk drug plants as well as finished dosage have been inspected by USFDA. The list of drugs include Fluoxetine and Omeprazole, which are among the top 10 selling molecules in the US. In fact, Omeprazole was the largest selling compound in 1999. MCA of UK has also inspected the facilities for Rantidine, Fluoxetine and Ciproflaxin. Meanwhile, CHL has also announced an interim dividend of Rs2.5 per share for FY2000....
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Mitsubishi's PTA plant to start production on April 1
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation's Purified Terephthalic Acid Plant at Haldia will start commercial production on April 1. "Commercial production will start on April 1," Hiroshi Sano, managing director of MCC PTA India Corp Pvt Ltd told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference.
MCC PTA India was incorporated to implement the 350,000 tons-a-year plant at Haldia, south of Calcutta. Sano said the company would export 20-30% of the output. The plant was completed in 28 months after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the provincial government of West Bengal and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC). WBIDC holds a 5% stake in the venture and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp holds 66%. The balance is held by several Japanese companies, a WBIDC official said....
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Pentasoft Tech to spend $60mn for expansion
Pentasoft Technologies Ltd is planning to spend over $60mn for acquisitions and business expansion, the firm's chairman said today. "We are looking at needing about $60mn to $75mn for the acquisitions and expansions within the next 18 months," V. Chandrasekharan told reporters in Chennai. The software services, training and engineering firm said it was currently setting up two specialist portals focused at automobile engineering software services, which would be operational by October, 2000.
"One portal will be for automobile engineering suppliers to enable business to business transactions in this area and the other a specialist portal site for rotor dynamics," the firm`s vice president, A.S. Ramaseshan said. He said the firm`s CAD/CAM division currently had an order book for business worth about Rs250mn ($5.73mn), with a sizeable portion coming from Ford Motor Co. "We have orders worth about $5mn from the Ford Motor Co. which will be billed by December 2000." Ramaseshan said the firm also had orders valued totally at about $3mn from U.S.-based firms Eaton Corp and Rousch Industries. Ramaseshan said the CAD/CAM division, which contributed about 30% of Pentasoft`s total revenues was expected to end the year FY2000 with sales of about Rs250mn.
"We expect the division to grow by about 100% to 120% next year and do close to Rs700mn in sales," he added. He said the firm was in the process of setting up a dedicated offshore development unit for meeting Ford`s requirements, which would be finalized after a visit in May by a Ford technical team. "We`ve moved up the value chain in the work we do for Ford and now we`re even working on engine design for Ford cars that are going to roll out in the near future and so we are looking at setting up an offshore unit with about 20-25 people."
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Maars Software to acquire 2 firms abroad
Maars Software International Ltd is set to acquire two software firms, one in the UK and the other in Belgium, for a total cost of about $6mn.
"Maars Software has signed MOUs with Technical Direct, UK and Company Benelux, Belgium towards acquiring these organizations through its UK subsidiary," the firm said in a statement.
It said it expected to complete the acquisitions over the next four to six weeks. The firm said the Belgian company`s business was in the area of client server development, with a strong base in the government sector, while the UK firm was engaged in developing applications and products for the telecom sector. "The promoters (founders) of both organizations will be investing around $1mn each in the Maars UK subsidiary," the firm added.
The acquisition will provide Maars with greater reach in these markets with strong local presence. The combined turnover of the new entity will be US $10mn for the year 2000. Out of this, Maars India will be executing orders of around US $5mn including off-shore projects of around 2mn during the current year. Maars is also discussing with leading SCM vendors in US towards setting up offshore development centers. The company has set-up a 50000 sq. ft. STP facility in Padur near Chennai which has become operational during the current month.
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Sterlite to consider a two-way business split
Sterlite is considering separating its metal businesses from its telecom business. The business split would be considered by the company's board when its meets on March 27. Earlier Sterlite had in January appointed Arthur Andersen to review its operations following shareholders` perception that the company`s inherent strengths are not reflected in its market capitalization. Currently the nonferrous metal business of copper and aluminium constitutes nearly 65% of the company's total sales turnover whereas the rest is accounted for by the telecom businesses of Jelly filed & optic fiber cable and optic fiber.
Currently the non ferrous division has a capacity to produce 0.1 mtpa of copper cathodes and 20,000 ton of aluminium rolled products. The telecom division has a capacity to produce 9,3000,000 ckm of JFTC and 300,000 fkm of OFC. In the second quarter the company posted a 65% increase in net profits to Rs685.4mn backed by an improvement in realization in the nonferrous metal business and volume growth in the telecom business.
Given that institutional investors have a high appetite for telecom stocks the split of the telecom and non-ferrous businesses will unlock significant shareholder value. Over the last two months the share price of Sterlite has doubled to Rs1050/share.
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Godrej Soaps considers to join web exchange
According to the Financial Express, Godrej Soaps, the manufacturer of soaps and other consumer products such as hair colour and shaving creams is considering the option of being part of a Web exchange for packed FMCG goods. The company, which started working on B2B options late last year has been approached by a Web based firm with the offer to become a part of a net based exchange. The FMCG based web exchange will be quite similar to yellow pages on the net, providing a list of buyers and sellers of various raw materials and packaging materials. This will facilitate the development of the industry by improving the margins of companies. Raw materials and packaging materials forming almost 20% of the total cost will be available at reasonable prices to the manufacturers, as the best possible supplier could be located through the web exchange.
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Associated Breweries and Distilleries to offer minority stake to a foreign partner
The decision of the company to go for a possible tie- up with international players came in the wake of the emerging global scenario. It is felt that the traditional domestic players will have to take the route of strategic alliances to penetrate new markets on the global scene. ABD as yet has not disclosed the names of any possible international partners. But since the company has a existing marketing arrangement with the global beer major San Miguel Corporation, a strategic tie-up between both the parties have been widely speculated in the industry. The company already has a global existence as it exports Maharaja Premium Lager Beer to countries like Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Therefore the possible alliance is expected to further strengthen its position internationally.
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PSI Data to take 10% stake in Advisor Technology
Group Bull subsidiary, PSI Data Systems is reportedly acquiring a 10% stake in the UK-based Advisor Technology. PSI currently holds 20% stake in Accelerex, a UK based start up, which in turn holds 50% of the equity in Advisor Technology. According to Nagendra Venkaswamy, CEO, PSI Data Systems, Advisor will promote a product called 'security advisor', developed by PSI. "With the dependence on the internet increasing, corportes cannot afford to ignore the threat from hackers and others with malicious intent. This is why a product like security advisor becomes very vital to them. Apart from PSI there are barely few others who provide such an intrusion detection system," says Mr Venkaswamy. PSI is currently considering various options for Accelerex, he said. Security Advisor is a product that provides security on the internet. It is said to be a cyber equivalent to a burglar alarm. It takes logs from firewall, correlates them and alerts network administrators in case of any attack on their company website. It also performs a threat detection process by searching incoming text for known attacks. Source: Economic Times
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Caltiger calls off private placement talks
According to the Business Standard this morning, Caltiger.com, the free ISP service provider, has called off the plans for private placement of equity with global fund managers George Soros Fund and the Jhawars of the Usha Martin group The deal with the Soros fund was expected to be finalised by the end of February this year. Recently the company sold 20% stake to Spanish venture capitalist, Transatlantic Corporation, and garnered a sum of Rs1.2bn. The equity structure thus underwent a change with the promoters and employees holding 70 per cent and Smifs Capital Markets holding the balance 10 per cent. It is believed that the 20 per cent, which has been bought by Transatlantic, was earlier to be picked up by the George Soros. According to plans, the company will offload a maximum of 29 per cent equity to individuals and companies between May 2000 and the end of this year before it goes in for NASDAQ listing. The promoters hope to hold 51 per cent before going in for the initial public offering at the end of the year. The company is talking to KPMG, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers for lead managing the IPO for NASDAQ listing. The company is working on setting up an Internet gateway in collaboration with a US-based firm. The project cost is pegged at Rs 250 crore. The project entails laying down a sub-sea optic fibre cable, which would be main infrastructure lane for the gateway. |
