Daily News -03/02/2008

Two wheelers sales dip

The two leading bike makers in the country, Bajaj Auto and Hero Honda, have reported a dip in February sales on the back of falling demand for the entry-level models and restricted finance availability. Bajaj Auto saw a decline of 8 per cent in motorcycles sales at 158,662 units in February as against 171,780 units sold in February 2007. A de-growth of about 13 per cent in the 100cc segment has offset stable sales in the 125cc plus segment, resulting in an overall de-growth for the company.
Hero Honda had its biggest fall in monthly sales in FY08, as it slipped by more than 5 per cent at 265,431 units as against 280,515 units in the corresponding month of the previous year. The company has blamed lack of finances as the reason for diminishing growth in the two-wheeler market. Hero Honda sells 13 models in the market compared with 9 models of Bajaj Auto including scooters.
Maruti posts a meagre 0.4% growth in Feb sales
India’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) registered a paltry rise in the domestic sales at 0.4 per cent at 59,311 units in February. The company had sold 59,095 units in the same month of the previous year. The growth driving A2 segment, comprising cars such as Swift and Alto, grew by a mere 2.7 per cent during the month. The total sales in the segment stood at 44,059 units. The SX4 segment grew by 8.9 per cent at 1,958 units compared with the corresponding month of the previous year. Exports grew by a healthy 15.5 per cent at 4511 units during the reporting period.

Shipping Corporation in talks with Korea’s STX for shipbuilding JV
State-run Shipping Corp. of India Ltd (SCI), the county’s biggest shipping firm by fleet size and revenues, is in talks with South Korean shipbuilder STX Shipbuilding Co. Ltd for a joint venture even as India looks to scale up its shipbuilding capacity to tap the global shipbuilding boom.

Ruchi Soya in tech deal with US company
Edible oil and soya foods maker Ruchi Soya Industries (RSIL) is planning to expand its flagship brand Nutrela to functional foods and beverages. As part of its growth strategy, it has signed an exclusive technology licensing agreement with NutriJoy, a US-based firm with key business of commercialisation of patented research technology for functional foods and beverages.
Ruchi Soya has drawn up business plans to introduce a new product range of food enriched with vital nutritional additives and cooking oils in the premium segment. This product range will provide consumers health benefits through foods beyond basic nutrition. The health food space in India is still at a very nascent stage. Hence, we will be looking into the specific needs of the Indian consumer before going ahead with the development for the products.

GTC set to demerge realty business, list it separately

Cigarette manufacturer GTC Industries in the board meeting has granted an in-principle approval to demerge the tobacco and the real estate business into two separate entities. The de-merged entities would be listed separately on the stock exchanges in India.
GTC Industries will demerge its real estate assets spread across Mumbai, Baroda and Hyderabad into a separate company. The demerged entity would then become a real estate development company while GTC would remain the cigarette manufacturer with brands
like Panama and Chancellor. The de-merged company would form joint ventures and develop real estate assets.

Daily Coorporate News-26/02/2008

L&T to set up power equipment manufacturing plant in Hazira

Larsen & Toubro has zeroed in on Hazira, Gujarat, to set up its Rs 1,500-crore power equipment manufacturing plant. The engineering major would make turbines and boilers at the Hazira plant, For this purpose, it has floated two companies, L&T Turbines and L&T Boilers. Last year, L&T had signed a joint venture agreement with Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for setting up a manufacturing facility for super-critical boilers, super steam turbine and generator.

W.S. Ind Vizag plant to go on stream by June 08

The second plant of the Chennai-based W.S. Industries Ltd (WSIL), coming up in the multi-product special economic zone in Visakhapatnam at a cost of Rs 107 crore, will be production-ready by June. The plant will add 10,000 tonnes to W.S. Industries’ present capacity of 16,000 tonnes. The company will then be among the world’s top 10
manufacturers of insulators for power transmission

Daily News-25/02/2008

R-Power sets bonus at 3:5

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power (R-Power) will offer three bonus shares for every five held in order to reduce the cost of acquisition for investors who had bought at the time of its record Rs 12,000-crore IPO. The bonus shares will be issued to all shareholders, except the promoter groups, Reliance Energy (REL) and Anil Ambani’s personal investment vehicles. Mr Ambani also announced that he will transfer 2.6% of his personal stake in R-Power worth Rs 4,700 crore to REL in order to compensate the company for the dilution of its stake in R-Power. The move is to ensure that REL’s shareholding remains unchanged at 45% in R-Power even though it has declined to accept the bonus issue.The dual move is expected to reduce the cost of acquisition of R-Power stock substantially — 40% for retail shareholders to Rs 269 per share and 37% to Rs 281 for others. It will also bring down Mr Ambani’s shareholding in R-Power by 5% to 40%.

BHEL, NPCIL plan JV for nuclear power plants

Power equipment major Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) are planning to float a joint venture to take up construction activities for nuclear power plants. The plan is to have a special company for undertaking equipment, procurement and construction (EPC) business for power plants. However details of the new company’s operations have not been finalised. At present, NPCIL generates about 3,900 MW of electricity from its 16 power plants. The company plans to more than double its capacity to 10,000 MW over the next six years. NPCIL plans to add 2,660 MW over the next two years, taking the total number of reactors to 23 with a capacity of 7,280 MW.

Daily News - 22/02/2008

RCom goes global, buys Uganda co

Reliance Communication’ (RCom), the country’s second largest wireless operator, has acquired Anupam Global Soft Ltd a telecom firm in Uganda and will spend Rs 2,000 crore($500 million) over the next five years in establishing a high quality, fully-IP enabled integrated telecom network to capture the significant growth potential in this emerging African market. This marks RCom’s foray in the international mobile services market. RCom, through the target firm’s licences, would offer mobile, fixed line, Internet, long distance, Wimax and Wi-Fi services in Uganda. Financial details were not provided as of now, but, according to industry sources, the total deal size is likely to be higher than the $211 million for FLAG and $300 million for Yipes.

Alstom Projects India Ltd (APIL), a subsidiary of Alstom SA France, has bagged exports orders worth Rs 592 crore. The company has received two orders -- a Rs 242-crore order for Fujairah independent water and power plant, Fujairah, UAE, and Rs 350-crore order for Bujagali hydro electric power station at Jinja in Uganda. Alstom Projects will supply heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) for Fujairah plant, one of the largest desalination plants in the world.

Larsen and Toubro Ltd has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services contract by Cairn India for crude oil insulated pipeline and gas pipeline from Barmer (Rajasthan) to Salaya (Gujarat). The work involves laying across-country 24-inch skin heat traced pipeline from the Mangala terminal at Barmer (Rajasthan) to Salaya Oil Export terminal, near Jamnagar. However the amount of order could not be ascertained. • Simplex Infrastructures Ltd has bagged orders worth Rs 302 crore for the construction of six flyovers on Seeb Corniche Road in Muscat. The project is to be completed in 24 months. The company after spreading its wings to construction business in Qatar and the UAE has now bagged its first order from Oman. The order book now stands at Rs 9,500 crore.