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| Saturday, September 16, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Haryana Tourism favoured
Pepsico: CAG HPMC signs MoU
with Wockhardt IOB public issue
opens on Sept 25 Escorts Mutual Fund
to launch 2 schemes Hudco raises $ 20m |
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‘Price war may create Press monopolies’ Textile exports
to go up Ford says
bye to Daewoo
Haryana Tourism favoured
Pepsico: CAG CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — The cola war between the Pepsi and Coke is well known. What is not so well known is the erstwhile Haryana Government’s tilt in favour of the former. It was the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report, tabled in the recently concluded session of the Assembly, which brought out how the state government went out of its way in 1998 to award contracts relating to exclusive selling rights of soft drinks in its tourist resorts to Pepsico. According to the report, the contract for exclusive selling rights of soft drinks awarded to Pepsi Food Limited (PFL) was going to expire on August 31, 1998. However, for awarding such rights from September 1998, Haryana Tourism Corporation Ltd belatedly issued (on August 27, 1998) a tender notice inviting offers up to August 31, 1998. Only PFL submitted its tender before the deadline for an amount of Rs 23 lakh out of which Rs 10 lakh was to be spent on advertisements. On September 8, 1998, the Board of Directors of the Tourism Corporation approved the sole selling rights to Pepsico once again. However, in course of the audit it was found that the Tourism Corporation had received another offer on September 8, 1998 from Coca Cola India (CCI) for Rs 44 lakh. The CCI had proposed that out Rs 44 lakh, Rs 24 lakh would be spent for sponsorship of marketing activities of the corporation and Rs 20 lakh would be spent on advertisements. The offer was not considered by the corporation apparently because it was received after the closing date of the tenders. The CAG’s report, however, indicates that the matter may not as simple as the Tourism Corporation would like anyone to believe. First, it was observed in the report that the action of the corporation in awarding contract to the PFL lacked justification because it had a better offer in hand on the date of decision making (September 8, 1998) requiring rejection of the only other offer which was from the PFL. Allowing only five days time for submission of tenders was also inappropriate, the report stated. In response to queries from the auditors, the state government tried to justify the awarding of the contract to the PFL by saying that accepting the offer of the CCI would have restricted sponsorship from other organisations. This explanation, though, was not convincing as the CCI did not propose any restrictions on sponsorship from other organisations, the report said. Also, the expenditure on promotional activities would have reduced the expenses of the state government-run corporation on publicity and would have also ensured long term benefits through the publicity on international TV channels. Though the decision to award contract to the PFL was taken on September 8 , it was communicated to the PFL on September 18, 1998. In view of financial prudence the contract of the CCI, which was better, should have been considered by the corporation the CAG felt.  |
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HPMC signs MoU
with Wockhardt SHIMLA,
Sept 15 — The Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Markeeting and Processing Corporation Limited (HPMC) today signed a memorandum of understanding with a multinational company, Wockhardt, Mumbai, for marketing of its products including jams, tomato ketchup, juices and pickles etc. Presiding over the meeting of the Board of directors of HPMC, Mr Narinder Bragta, Minister of State (Horticulture) and Chairman, HPMC, said that Wockhardt has a milk processing plant at Ambala in Haryana. To start with, Wockhardt would market HPMC products in bulk in the 9 selected prominent towns of Northern India i.e. Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Mandi, Udaypur, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Hardwar etc. |
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IOB public issue
opens on Sept 25 CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 — Indian Overseas Bank’s Rs 111.2 crore public issue opening on September 25 will result in dilution of the Union Government’s holding in the bank to 75 per cent from 100 per cent. The initial public offering (IPO) of 11.12 crore shares of Rs 10 each at par will help the bank meet future capital adequacy requirements and for healthy asset expansion and profitability, the bank’s General Manager, Mr S.S. Madan, told newsmen here today. The issue, for which the earliest closing date is September 29, will increase the present capital base of the bank to Rs 444.8 crore from the present level of Rs 333.6 crore. The bank, which posted a net profit of Rs 40.34 crore during 1999-2000, has brought down its net non—performing assets (NPAs) to 7.65 per cent from 8.65 per cent in 1996, he said. The main strength of the bank is that it is technology-driven and it is planning to put in place Internet banking and e-commerce enabling systems by the year-end. The bank will set aside about Rs 75 crore for offering a voluntary retirement service (VRS) package to about 1,500 of its employees. Between 1,000 and 1,500 employees could opt for the scheme, Mr Madan said. |
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Escorts Mutual Fund
to launch 2 schemes CHANDIGARH,Sept 15 —Escorts Mutual Fund will be launching two open-ended schemes, an equity fund and a balanced fund scheme in October this year.The company which was ranked as number one for it’s Income Bond scheme and number two for among all debt funds on the basis of returns generated, expects to raise nearly Rs 50 crores from each of the new schemes. Stating this at a press conference here, Mr. Lalit K.Khanna, Director of Escorts Mutual Funds, said that the decision to launch these schemes in October has been taken since stock markets are at their relative bottom . Escorts Mutual Funds, currently is managing three schemes — Escorts Income Bond, Escorts Income Plan and Escorts Tax Plan. |
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Hudco raises $ 20m NEW DELHI, Sept 15 — The Housing and Urban Development Corporation has raised $ 20 million from the US capital markets under the Urban and Environmental Credit Programme of USAID. The funds have been raised in the form of promissory notes having a maturity of 30 years with a moratorium of 10 years for principal repayments. The promissory notes are backed by the guarantee of the Government of USA issued through the US Agency for International Development. Hudco will utilise the fund to expand water supply and sanitation service for a million low income households and increase access to municipal urban services in many cities of India. |
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‘Price war may create Press monopolies’ BANGALORE, Sept 15 (PTI) — Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said today the government was not in favour of controlling the newspaper industry, but voiced caution against “extensive price war” among dailies leading to “monopolies”. “We are not in favour of controlling the newspaper industry which should find its own level. In the price competition among newspapers, the state ought to keep away”, Jaitley told reporters here. He said an extensive price war would lead to the elimination of small newspapers and creation of monopolies. “The country cannot afford monopolies in the print or electronic medium”, he said. “So the answer to the issue of price competition should be found by newspapers themselves”, Jaitley said. He said a draft legislation on competition law was being prepared now but said he was not clear about whether it had to be applied to the newspaper industry or not. Earlier, INS President Shobha Subramanyan said 300 top professionals representing every segment of the print medium were attending the day-long convention and it would hammer out a strategy to ‘reinvent ourselves (the print medium) in the new economy’. The INS President said for the past 20 years, the newspaper industry had been hearing that the print medium would die but it has not happened. Language papers in particular have witnessed a good growth, she said. But, Subramanyan said, the newspaper industry was “under siege what with newsprint cost skyrocketing, burdened with heavy arrears of wageboard and advertising revenues under pressure”. She emphasised the need for the print medium to redefine and reposition itself in the internet era and adopt strategies to retain its competitive advantage in the new media world. Echoing her sentiments, Jaitley said commercial survival was going to be an important challenge for the print medium in the coming years.”Economics of newspapers is going to be a serious concern in the next few years”. But, with the Indian economy expected to grow by 8 to 9 per cent, the size of the advertising market would increase substantially. “Though there has been a substantial expansion of the electronic media and web, circulation of most of the newspapers has not come down”, he said. Multimedia competition, Jaitley said, was driving newspapers to change character and content, adding the electronic media, barring cable channels, were not satisfying the appetite for local news. According to INS, the convention, with the theme “reinventing the print medium in the New Economy”, is focussed on three broad areas: readership, advertising and the impact of the Internet and media convergence, on the print medium. Delivering the key-note address, President of the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Roger Parkinson, said the global newspaper industry was “robust and clearly in renaissance”. “The comeback of newspapers continues. In many countries, newspapers have started winning back advertising revenues. Newspapers may have lost slightly but it’s more than compensated by readership on their websites”, he said. Television, according to him, is the biggest loser from internet and not newspapers. The advent of the Internet has acted as “wakeup calls” for dailies, who have now started reinventing themselves. Protection and guarantee of copyrights of newspapers were going to be one of the major challenges in future, Parkinson said.
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Textile
exports to go up NEW DELHI, Sept 15 — The European Union has released 3,500 tonnes of exceptional flexibilities for several Indian textile products, which is expected to increase the country’s textiles exports to the EU by as much as Rs 300 crore during the current fiscal. The release of exceptional flexibilities (which refers to using quota of one category in some other category) decided by the EU has been possible due to the concerted efforts made by New Delhi over the last one year. The EU decision will enable Indian exporters to export an additional 50 lakh pieces of T-shirts, 10 lakh pieces of jerseys and pullovers, 20 lakh pieces of trousers and shorts and 33 lakh pieces of lady dresses besides substantial quantities of yarn and fabric. The export of additional quantities will result in an increase in exports by approximately Rs 300 crore. According to Textiles Minister, Kashi Ram Rana the successful settlement of tariff binding issue with the EU will also result in the release of balance 4,500 tonnes of exceptional flexibilities this year. |
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SEOUL, Sept 15 (AFP) — Ford Motor Co. today dramatically withdrew from talks to takeover bankrupt Daewoo Motor Co. pulling the country’s second largest automaker into new uncertainty. Analysts said Ford appeared to want to bring the price down from the $ 6.9 billion it offered in June when it was chosen as the preferred bidder. But South Korean officials said no new talks with he world number two car-maker wre likely. W. Wayne Booker, Vice-Chairman of Ford, released a statement saying “Ford Motor Company has decided not to make a final offer for the acquisition of Daewoo Motor. We believe that a proposal was not possible that would be in the best interest of Daewoo and Ford and their respective stakeholders. The decision was taken at a Ford board meeting on Wednesday, industry officials said. |
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Print versus Internet BANGALORE: Can print readership grow in the Internet era? The answer was a resounding yes from leading figures in the newspaper industry on Friday at an Indian Newspaper Society (INS) convention here, where they told “robust Internet optimists” “not to be in a hurry to write the epitaph of the print medium”. While acknowledging that the Internet did pose challenges, they said both the print medium and Internet could complement each other to achieve higher growth. “Portable, touchable and visually aesthetic, newspapers have advantages over computers and television,” Malayala Manorama Managing Director Mammen Mathew said. Microsoft chief Bill Gates had pronounced the demise of the print medium by December 1999, but Bill “has to guard his own gate”, Mr Mathew said, noting that one of his own webs which charged $ 19 had few takers and was now offering it free. The print medium, he said, was steadily attracting readers, but added “we must not disregard the Internet as a serious threat”. Ms Shobhana Bhartia, Vice-Chairman of The Hindustan Times, said: “Print and Internet will complement each other for achieving higher growth.” “The Internet is not a threat but an opportunity which the print companies must take,” she told the convention with the theme “Reinventing the Print Medium in the New Economy”. Citing the us example, where despite significant penetration by the Internet, newspapers “are not only alive but vibrant”, Mr Abhay Chhajlani, Managing Director, Nai Duniya, said: “Internet can never replace newspapers in many areas”. He said as against the pc penetration of 1.1 per 1,000 population in India, the combined circulation of 44,000 publications was 13 crore. Mr MJ Akbar, Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of The Asian Age, said the Internet should be seen as the “first serious opportunity to get rid of the serious burden called the newsprint industry”. Mr Akbar said the Internet industry had been built on hype and it had eaten up more money than it could bring in any conventional business model. Noting that the Net business was now being controlled by those in charge of technology, he said in future it would be controlled by those who “control content”. “Only fear is stopping us”, he said, adding that media companies “will become Microsofts in the next 20 years if they overcame fear.” — PTI Blind girl tries for bank job NEW DELHI: Moved by the plight of a blind girl refused permission to compete for the post of a bank Probationary Officer in the general category, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to inform it about posts for blind persons in the banking division of the Ministry of Finance. A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice A S Anand Justice Santosh N Hegde and Justice K G Balakrishnan gave three weeks time to the Centre to furnish necessary information. Amita, through advocate Neeru Vaid, approached the Supreme Court when she was denied opportunity by the Banking Services Recruitment Board to appear in a written test for the post of Probationary Officer on the ground that she was visually handicapped.
— PTI |
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Computer price cut to Rs 15,990 NEW DELHI, Sept 15 (PTI) — Computech International today announced it has slashed the personal computer (PC) price barrier in the country, by introducing a computer priced at Rs 15,990. “The new Compubell system is aimed at making computers available to the common man and accelerating the growth of the market by cutting through the high price barrier,” Santosh K Retaria, Chairman of Computech International said here. The computer, sporting an Intel Pentium processor P 233 MMX, however, comes without pre-loaded software. Elaborating on the company’s strategy with respect to affordable PCs, he said that with the launch of the system Computech planned to eat into 58 per cent market share of the unorganised sector. “The system would be targeted at users in government, corporate and educational sector who utilise the system for low-end applications. The PC would be marketed through about 300 channel partners, 150 of which are already in place,” he said. In a price sensitive market like India where well-known brands are fighting each other to tap the home user PC segment Computech’s computers have been positioned as one of the cheapest branded systems competing against the dominant unorganised sector. The price advantage of Compubell PCs, bank on the fact that the company is using 233 MMX processors which have been phased out of the market, following the introduction of more powerful Intel processors. “There is, however, a big market for the processors in India, as the common man here is looking for low-end system at an affordable price,” Retaria said. Secondly, the absence of any pre-loaded software offers the company a minimum cost advantage of about Rs 3000. Also Computech which has a tie-up with US based Bell Technologies, is assembling the system at its facility in Silvasa, thus availing the various tax advantages. Computech, also launched other models of affordable PC the Pentium II 266 system at Rs 19,900 and the high end Pentium III Internet ready systems with multimedia facility at Rs 38.990. The new range of system would be supported by the company’s sales offices in eight metros, he added. IT, pharma firms can issue ESOPs NEW DELHI, Sept 15 (PTI) — The government today allowed knowledge-based industries, including information technology, to issue adr/gdr-linked employees stock option (esops) to enable them to retain highly skilled personnel. Besides IT, entertainment software, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology will be allowed to issue adr/gdr-linked Esops. A press release said this liberalised norms would be available to multi-product diversified companies which do not conform to the criteria of 80 per cent of its turnover from these sectors provided their annual average export earnings was at least Rs 100 crore from knowledge-based products in the three previous years. This will come into force with immediate effect. Adr/gdr-linked esops were allowed for the first time in the country in June, 1998 to Indian software companies. It was later extended to include it services companies. The guidelines were further liberalised in June this year. Rupee fall fuelled IT stocks’ rise CHENNAI, Sept 15 (PTI) — The drop in rupee value had a positive effect on the IT and pharma share prices in August as a major chunk of their revenue came from exports, Kothari Pioneer Mutual Funds (KPMF) has said. Also, a recent U.S. court decision to uphold the patent of Barr Laboratories for generic variant of the popular drug “prozac” augurs well for domestic pharma companies as some of them have filed for patents of generic variants, KPMF said in its performance report for August. The prospects of large IT companies remain very good as many of them were moving up the value chain with high sophistication into high margin services. Apart from this, the quality of Indian software had resulted in client-referrals by Fortune-500 companies, which augured well for the industry. Net time from Swatch CHANDIGARH, Sept 15 —Swatch, a part of 3.6 billion Swiss francs Swatch group engaged in manufacture of watches today opened a Swatch store at Sector 17 here.This Swatch store is the third one in the country while the other two are at Delhi and Mumbai. The store will display varied kind of watches in categories-Originals, Skin and Irony collection. It will also have the Olympic collection and beat watches showing Internet time, a concept developed by Swatch. In India, Swatch is having 60 retail outlets .The company has tied up with Priya Exhibitors , a part of the Bijli group of companies for the North -East region. |
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Morgan to advise L&T on demerger DURGAPUR (WB), Sept 15 (PTI) — Larsen and Toubro Limited (L & T) has appointed investment bankers J. P. Morgan and DSP Merill Lynch to advise them on the proposed demerger of its cement division. L & T President and whole-time Director Mohan Karnani said here today that the new company would be known as L & T Cement Limited after the demerger. The cement division of L & T, a major engineering company, contributes roughly 26 per cent of the total revenue of Rs 8000 crore. Karnani said the demerger would be made to enhance shareholder value of L & T. Thermax net down 15 per cent PUNE, Sept 15 (PTI) — The Chairperson of Thermax Limited Anu Aga today admitted that the performance of the company has been far from satisfactory and that revenues have declined by 1.9 per cent from Rs 507.63 crore to Rs 498.07 crore. Addressing the 19th Annual General meeting of Thermax Limited here, she said net profits have come down by 15 per cent from Rs 38.3 crore to rs 32.3 crore. “Though the company has posted a profit, there is an operational loss during the year. Aga said one of the major factors was that several of the company’s cogen orders could not be executed for want of financial closure and the projects could not take off. This coupled with the continuing lull in greenfield projects has put severe pressure on the revenues. Gulf Oil pays 40 per cent final MUMBAI, Sept 15 (UNI) — The Directors of Gulf Oil India Ltd today declared and paid an interim dividend of 40 per cent (Rs 4 per equity share) for the year 1999-2000. The directors recommended that this interim dividend be treated as final dividend for the financial year 1999-2000. Speaking at the 19th annual general meeting (AGM) held here today, the company Chairman, Mr K.N. Venkatasubramanian said that the company has 17.3 per cent growth in volumes with sales registering 21,600 KL against 18,400 KL in the corresponding period of the previous year. Honeywell sets 25 pc growth target NEW DELHI, Sept 15 (UNI) — Honeywell, the $ 24 billion diversified technology and manufacturing major, today chalked out an aggressive growth strategy for its Indian subsidiary touching 25 per cent a year with a thrust on its software development. “We are interested in acquisitions apart from funding our service network’’, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell International Inc, Michael R. Bonsignore today said at a press conference. The Honeywell India Software Operations (HISO) which was set up in 1994, today specialises in software development solutions for the entire Honeywell product portfolio. Computech plans pvt placement NEW
DELHI, Sept 15 (PTI) — Computech International Ltd today said it would go in for a private placement of equity to raise Rs 33 crore for expanding its hardware and software operations in India and abroad. “The company is currently in the process of raising Rs 33 crore through private placement. It is expected to be completed by end of September,” Santosh K. Retaria, Chairman of Computech International said here. |
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PNB Daewoo founder Naphtha CII office Cycle Indus Spectrum Paints |
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