The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Kraft buys Cadbury for £11.9 b London, January 19 Cadbury Plc has agreed to a higher takeover bid worth 11.9 billion pounds from US giant Kraft Foods, ending months of bitter wrangling to create a global leader in food and confectionery. The combined group, with dominant presence in markets, including India, will have over 40 confectionery brands each with annual sales of more than $100 million. Kraft today said the Cadbury board has "unanimously" recommended the revised offer to its shareholders. The deal worth about 11.9 billion pounds will offer Cadbury stakeholders 840 pence for each share. The US major's increased bid came after the initial offer -- worth about 10.5 billion pounds -- was rejected by Cadbury which had termed it as "derisory". "The combined group will have a leading position in developing markets, including in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Mexico," the statement said. Interestingly, Kraft's bid, which was announced in September last year, turned hostile after being rebuffed by the Cadbury management.— PTI ‘India to remain a key market’ New Delhi: Cadbury, which has agreed to be acquired by US-based Kraft Foods, today said India will remain a key market for its business. Kraft will take over Cadbury Plc in a cash-and-stock deal worth about 11.9 billion pounds. Declining to comment on the implications of the takeover on the Indian business, a Cadbury spokesperson said India would continue to be a key market. "It is too early to talk its implications it will have but India will be a key market and focus will definitely be there. It (Indian market) is already a significant contributor of Cadbury's global business," the spokesperson told PTI. Having a presence in India for the last 60 years, Cadbury sells popular chocolate brands like Dairy Milk, 5-Star and Perk, among others. Apart from chocolates, the firm sells products in the snacks, beverages, candy and gums categories. Cadbury has almost doubled its turnover to Rs 2,000 crore in the last four years, growing at 20 per cent annually. The combination of Cadbury and Kraft will have more than 40 confectionery brands across many countries. — PTI
	Corporate Results Zee, MRPL put up good show Mumbai/New Delhi, January 19 Zee Entertainment today posted a 74.49 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 146.4 crore for the December quarter, and said it will consolidate its stake in Ten Sports at 95 per cent. However, the total income of the company has declined to Rs 563.2 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2009, from Rs 585.7 crore in the same period the previous year, Zee said. On the standalone basis, the firm posted a net profit of Rs 147.9 crore for the Q3, nearly a three-fold jump from the same period last year. With the acquisition, Zee's stake in Ten Sports will rise to 95 per cent from 50 per cent it currently holds in the company. MRPL MRPL today reported a net profit of Rs 259.54 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, on the back of healthy refinery margin. MRPL had in October-December quarter of 2008-09 fiscal reported a net loss of Rs 285.41 crore as refinery margins (the revenue earned on processing every barrel of crude oil) had turned negative. Kajaria Ceramics Kajaria Ceramics today said its net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2009, jumped over 43 times at Rs 8.27 crore. The company had a net profit of Rs 19 lakh during the corresponding quarter of last fiscal, Kajaria Ceramics said. SRF SRF Ltd today said its net profit rose marginally by 0.32 per cent to Rs 37.60 crore for the quarter ended December 31, against the same period last fiscal. The total income rose to Rs 490.07 crore for the latest quarter against Rs 418.62 crore for the same period previous fiscal, SRF said. Religare Enterprises Religare Enterprises today said its consolidated net profit declined by 51.80 per cent to Rs 21.4 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, over the same period last year. The total income decreased to Rs 413.5 crore for the third quarter ended December, against Rs 424 crore in the same period previous fiscal, Religare Enterprises said. Novartis Novartis India Ltd today reported a marginal fall of about 4 per cent in its net profit for the third quarter ended December, 2009, at Rs 23.15 crore, over the corresponding period a year ago. However, the net sales of the company rose to Rs 160.46 crore in the latest quarter of current financial year from Rs 156.93 crore of the same period previous fiscal. Tata Power Tata Power today said its net profit rose by 40.39 per cent to Rs 141.8 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. The total income decreased to Rs 1,611.60 crore for the third quarter ended December compared to Rs 1,822.8 crore in the same period previous fiscal. Subex Subex Ltd today said its net profit stood at Rs 41 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, while it had a net loss of Rs 15.7 crore in the same period last year. Income from operations declined to Rs 126.5 crore for the third quarter ended December, against Rs 160 crore in the same period last year, Subex Ltd said. MindTree MindTree Ltd today said its net profit rose by 4.53 per cent to Rs 50.47 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2009, over the same period last year. Revenues of the company declined to Rs 309.55 crore for the latest quarter against Rs 311.62 crore for the same period in the corresponding fiscal, MindTree said. JK Lakshmi Cement JK Lakshmi Cement today said its net profit declined by 23.57 per cent to Rs 45.35 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, over the same period in the previous fiscal. — PTI
	Japan Airlines files for bankruptcy Tokyo, January 19 Japan Airlines, once a proud international flag carrier, now crippled by massive debts, today filed for bankruptcy in one of the biggest failures in the country's corporate history. With its debt running into an estimated $ 22 billion, JAL's management formally decided to begin bankruptcy proceedings, making the company the biggest failure outside the financial sector since World War II, Kyodo news agency reported. Asia's biggest airline's shares plunged to an all-time low of just three yens, reducing the market value of the company to just about $ 90 million, even less than the cost of a single new A-380 jumbo jet. But the airline is said to keep flying with an injection of billions of dollars from public funds, de-listing of its shares from the stock exchange from the next month and slashing more than 15,000 jobs. The company has filed for court protection from creditors, which will be followed up by a restructuring plan crafted by the government. Kyodo said the airline's entire top management has resigned and the company is being handed over to Kazou Inamori, a Buddhist monk-turned Japan's leading management guru. — PTI
	Ranbaxy to grab Biovel Life sciences New Delhi, January 19 Ranbaxy Laboratories today said it will acquire Bangalore-based Biovel Lifesciences for an undisclosed amount. "The proposed transaction will give Ranbaxy access to all of Biovel’s products, pipeline, intellectual property know-how and manufacturing facility," Ranbaxy said in a statement. The products that are part of the transaction are Typhoid Viantigen and Hib conjugate vaccines for which Ranbaxy also has the regulatory approvals in India. It will also give Ranbaxy an access to Biovel’s future product pipeline comprising a range of vaccines, biotherapeutics and other products, it added. "This transaction with Biovel provides us an entry platform to manufacture vaccines as well as biotherapeutics," Ranbaxy CEO and MD Atul Sobti said. “The vaccine and biotherapeutics business will be an important part of our growth strategy”, Sobti said. "We are sure that Ranbaxy, with its global market reach, quality and manufacturing expertise, will be able to leverage this to its full potential, and create a business of scale," Biovel Chairman Pratap Reddy said. According to industry experts, the proposed acquisition will give a strong product pipeline to Ranbaxy in the Rs 3,600 crore domestic vaccine market, which is growing at the rate of 10 per cent. The global market for vaccines in around $21 billion and estimated to grow at a rate of 9 per cent per annum to reach $34 billion by 2014. Biovel, which started operations in 2007, is a biotechnology firm focused on research, manufacturing and marketing of biogenerics, bio-superiors and bio-pharmaceuticals. Ranbaxy Laboratories is India's largest pharmaceutical company in which Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo has over 63 per cent stake. — PTI
	Africa on MTNL radar Tibune News Service New Delhi, January 19 The MTNL, which has services in Delhi and Mumbai, today said it was keen on expanding its operations abroad and was looking to enter Africa either by getting a new licence or buying out an existing operator. Kuldip Singh, CMD, MTNL, said, "We have already earmarked Rs 500 crore last year for the purpose. Funds are not an issue, but we had bid for a company in Saudi Arabia at over $3.5 billion". "We are looking for a right opportunity at a right price," he said, adding that whenever any opportunity arose the company would explore it. "Africa is a good opportunity. Most of the private players are also expanding their footprint there," he said, adding that getting a licence in Africa was a big challenge and in private deals, the bidding could sometimes be very irrational. Last year, the MTNL's revenue stood at over Rs 4,460 crore and like other telecom firms, the MTNL too is under pressure amid fierce competition on the tariff front.
	3G auction process to be over by March-end Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 19 The government today said the process for the auction of the radio waves for third generation mobile phone services 3G spectrum would be completed by March-end. "The government is keen to complete the 3G auction process well within the financial year," Telecom and IT Minister A Raja told reporters on the sidelines of an event. He said the notice inviting application for the 3G auction was likely to come out this week. The auction process for four slots of spectrum was to start on January 14, but differences with the Finance Ministry over payment schedule and the Defence Ministry over spectrum release has delayed the process. The Finance Ministry is expecting to rake in Rs 25,000 crore from the 3G spectrum auction and the proceeds will be used to bridge the fiscal deficit. Although the minister sounded optimistic, but reports have said the auction can be further delayed as there are still some differences in the EGoM on the issue. The EGoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, at its last meeting ended up without any consensus on how many slots are to be auctioned. While the government is in favour of auctioning two slots each besides the ones already with the BSNL and the MTNL, some of the EGoM members were of the view that three slots should be auctioned to private players.
	Haryana gets Rs 4,000 cr more from Nabard Ruchika M. Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 19 Haryana today got an additional allocation of Rs 4000 crore from Nabard under its proposed linked plan for priority sector lending. With this, Haryana will now get Rs 38,915 crore as credit flow from Nabard for the next financial year. Though a credit flow of Rs 34,915 crore was initially proposed for the state, state government representatives demanded a higher allocation so as to meet the long-term and short-term credit needs of the state. Haryana also demanded that the refinance target of the Haryana State Cooperative Agricultural Rural Development Bank (HSCARDB) be increased from Rs 355 crore to Rs 450 crore, so that maximum finance can be provided to farmers in Haryana. U C Sarangi, chairman of Nabard, who was present during the state credit seminar for Haryana today, agreed to enhance the credit allocation, but asked the state government to ensure that the recovery from the loanees’ improved. Already, the HSCARDB is facing a liquidity crunch because of poor recovery from the borrowers. The recovery from district primary cooperative agricultural rural development bank was just 13.33 per cent (till December, 2009). The banks repayment liabilities towards Nabard is around Rs 217.42 crore. During the state credit seminar, it was projected that a major share of 54 per cent (Rs 18,760 crore) would be kept aside for crop loan, followed by term loan for agriculture and allied activities (like dairy development, farm mechanization, irrigation sector, animal husbandary, horticulture poultry etc ) at Rs 3930 crore, for non-farm sector at Rs 5785 crore and Rs 6640 crore for other priority sector. Earlier, Paramvir Singh, agriculture and cooperation minister, urged Nabard to provide uninterrupted refinance to short and long term structure financial institutions. He requested it to made refinancing at liberal rates to micro credit schemes and also to co-operative banks and Regional Rural Banks.