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Betapharm won by Dr Reddy’s for $480 m
Kalam vows to remove hurdles in growth
Reliance to invest $6 billion in refinery
PM, Chirac may discuss Mittal issue
Guy Dolle, Chief Executive Officer of Arcelor, speaks at a press conference to announce his company’s results for 2005 on Thursday in Luxembourg. The European steelmaker reported a 66 per cent rise in net profit in 2005 and said the hostile takeover bid launched by Mittal Steel for the company “seriously undervalues” its business. — AFP
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Car, two-wheeler sales buoyant
PHDCCI submits wish-list to HP
Parker Hannifin eyes Rs 200-cr turnover
Nahar raises $45 m
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Betapharm won by Dr Reddy’s for $480 m
Hyderabad, February 16 The transaction will be funded using a combination of Dr. Reddy’s internal cash reserves and committed credit facilities, a company press note here today said. Commenting on the acquisition, Dr Anji Reddy, Chairman, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said: “We see our investment in Betapharm as a key strategic initiative become a mid-sized global pharmaceutical company with strong presence in all key pharmaceutical markets. Betapharm has created a strong growth platform and is well positioned for the future and we are looking forward to partner with them in building a strategic presence in Europe.” Commenting on the strategic partnership with Dr Reddy’s, Dr Wolfgang Niedermaier, CEO, Betapharm, said: “Dr Reddy‘s impressive pipeline of generic and innovative products and high-quality standards combined with competitive manufacturing infrastructure will help further develop our position in the German market and offer an entry platform for the European market”. Its extensive and well-recognised corporate social responsibility activities perfectly fit with our successful corporate philosophy and business model, he said.
— UNI
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Kalam vows to remove hurdles in growth
New Delhi, February 16 Allaying aside fears of investors on the impact of inadequate ports and airports and severe power shortages on the Indian economy, now growing at 8 per cent, the President said: “The government is committed to developing a world-class infrastructure to make our economy more competitive.” He promised the government would push ahead with the modernisation of India’s airports and ports, and ease conditions to attract long-term private sector investment in the country’s infrastructure. “Plans are being made for the modernisation and development of Kolkata and Chennai airports,” adding that a comprehensive plan for the planned development of other regional airports was under finalisation. India’s spectacular growth in the past few years has been concentrated around its sprawling urban centres and has left untouched the lives of tens of millions of people living in the country’s villages and remote hamlets. It has also sparked a debate on the need to ensure that the benefits of economic growth trickle down to the poorer sections of Indian society. Dr Kalam said the government had set a deadline of 2009 to provide electricity, safe drinking water and telephone access to every village in the country and construct six million new homes in the rural areas. In a significant move aimed at taking forward Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s path-breaking administrative
reforms, the President announced the government would introduce new systems to ensure efficiency in the bureaucracy. He said: “Steps have been initiated for setting up the sixth Pay Commission for government employees.”
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Reliance to invest $6 billion in refinery
New Delhi, February 16 The company has also decided to go ahead with a domestic IPO of approximately $ 1.1 to $1.3 billion to finance the project. The funds, raised to part-finance the project, is a syndicated loan facility considered to be the single largest limited recourse financing mandated in the Asian markets in recent years, excluding China ,and the fourth largest single mandate in Asia in the past five years. The facility will be used to finance the setting up of a new refinery having an installed capacity of approximately 27 million tonnes (580,000 bpd) and a 0.9 mtpa polypropylene complex. On a stand-alone basis, the new refinery is expected to be the sixth largest at any single location in the world and together with RIL’s existing 33 MTPA refinery at Jamnagar this will be the largest concentration of refinery assets at a single location globally. The new refinery, with a Nelson Complexity Index of 14.5, would be one of the most complex refineries globally. High complexity enables the refinery to process a wide variety of crude with a flexible output. The total cost of the project is expected to be $6 billion, making it by far the single largest single petrochemical, refinery project investment ever in Asia.
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PM, Chirac may discuss Mittal issue
New Delhi, February 16 “EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson spoke to me yesterday after my letter to him on the issue and he (Mandelson) said he will take up the issue with the European Commission,” Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters. Taking up the matter with Mr Mandelson, Mr Nath had written a letter saying this issue was really a question of providing cross-border investment a national treatment, a commitment EU has given in the WTO negotiations. Meanwhile, Luxembourg authorities have indicated that merchant banker Morgan Stanley has been appointed to go into the $22.3 billion offer to buy Arcelor. Mr Nath had taken up the issue particularly after the manner in which French authorities reacted on the issue. French Government should not have intervened in the matter, which should have been dealt appropriately by shareholders and industry analysts, Mr Nath said on the sidelines of the inauguration of Handicraft and Gifts Fair, 2006. The issue is also likely to figure when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets French President Jacques Chirac. The French President is likely to visit India on February 19. The bid has sparked objections from the Governments of France, Luxembourg and Spain and from labour unions, which are worried about job losses, even though Mr Mittal has assured that no worker will lose job and cited all his operations in various countries had not resulted in retrenchment. A report from Paris said French foreign minister stepped in to a row over Mittal Steel’s $23 billion bid for Arcelor on
Thursday, saying France wanted to save jobs and asking why Europe could not have its own steel champion. Mittal says it will uphold Arcelor’s job commitments.
— Agencies
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Car, two-wheeler sales buoyant
New Delhi, February 16 According to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Maruti, Tata Motors, Ford and Honda pushed the sales up, despite six of the 11 carmakers witnessing slackening demand. In fact, Hyundai’s monthly sales fell from 14,540 units in January 2005 to 11,631 units last month. Car sales in the 10 months of this fiscal have been relatively subdued at 7,07,901 units, a single-digit growth of 5.9 per cent over 6,68,382 units in the corresponding period last fiscal, SIAM said. On the two-wheeler side, motorcycles continued their strong run in 2006 as sales jumped 14.6 per cent in January at 4,99,333 units against 4,35,665 units in the same month last year. The charge was led by segment heavyweights Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto, the latter witnessing a whopping 31 per cent growth in numbers. Motor cycle sales in the April, 2005, January 2006, period have grown by 16.5 per cent at 47,81,917 units against 41,02,939 units in the 10 months of past fiscal, SIAM said. On the other hand, scooter/scooterettee sales, which rose 11.9 per cent in January at 78,933 units (70,490), are down by 3.4 per cent in the 10 months, ending January 31, 2006, at 7,53,770 units. Overall two-wheeler sales, comprising bikes, scooters and mopeds, were up by 12.8 per cent in the domestic market in the 10 months of this fiscal at 58,08,258 units against 51,49,313 units in the corresponding period last fiscal. Commercial vehicle sales, which dipped by 6 per cent in December, rebounded strongly in January, rising by 14.8 per cent at 34,037 units against 29,634 units in the corresponding month last year.
— PTI
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PHDCCI submits wish-list to HP
Shimla, February 16 In its pre-Budget memorandum to the government, the PHDCCI suggested that the opening of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and Agriculture Technical Institutes would be the first step in this direction. The PHDCCI suggested that the government should give priority to improving quality of link roads joining onto the highways as roads play a crucial role in development. “Good roads reduce the transportation cost and boost access for farming and rural enterprise leading to an increased rural income and economic growth,” it pointed out. The government should have a focused strategy for guiding industrialisation so as to make industry sustainable even beyond the package. “The government needs to look beyond agriculture, horticulture towards agribusiness by investing in cold storage, pack houses, logistics, processing facilities and marketing of the produce,” they suggested. It also suggested that improving air connectivity by having helicopter service would go a long sway in tourism promotion. “Since Himachal is a land- locked state there is need to have helicopter service to the remote and tribal areas which are becoming popular with visitors,” they suggested. It also suggested that the government must make efforts to eliminate revenue deficit so that borrowings are not used to finance revenue expenditure but are utilised for generating capital assets. The financial position of the state continues to be grim with over Rs 2,600 crore per annum being spent by the government on debt servicing alone.
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Parker Hannifin eyes Rs 200-cr turnover
Chandigarh, February 16 This was stated by the Parker Hannifin MD Viren A
Joshi, who was in the city to inaugurate a retail Parker Store today The company focussed equally on organic growth (expansion of dealer network) and on acquisition. Last year, they acquired the Hyderabad-based Morkwell. Negotiations are on for the acquisition of another fluid energy major in the domestic market,” he revealed. The company hike its turnover from Rs 120 crore last year to over Rs 200 crore by the end of this fiscal. The company plans to add eight more by next year, including one in Ludhiana. An extension counter of the Chandigarh store will be opened at Baddi soon.
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Nahar raises $45 m
Chandigarh, February 16 These five-year FCCBs will be convertible at a conversion price of Rs 200 per share. On conversion, the underlying equity shares will be listed on BSE and NSE. The FCCBs will mature on February 16, 2011. The company is also set to embarked upon the second phase of expansion plan in textile with a total capital outlay of Rs. 400 crore.
— TNS
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India pressurised European Union (EU) to take up the issue of Laxmi Niwas Mittal’s takeover bid of rival steel company of Luxembourg-based Arcelor after New Delhi warned that attempts to thwart the acquisition violated WTO rules.
