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Friday,
June 13, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Drug
supply not to be hit: Ranbaxy
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Oxford to
source apparels of $30 m Industrial
output up 4.9 pc SCO group
to sue IBM for $ 1b PeopleSoft
rejects offer
Grant
for new units in border areas
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Drug supply not to be hit: Ranbaxy
SAS Nagar, June 12 Technical experts of the company are making assessment of the damages, but there will be no material impact on the business as the fire was localised and was brought under control within two hours, said Mr Pushpinder Bindra, Senior Vice-President, Global Manufacturing, Ranbaxy, here today. Talking to TNS, he disclosed that the Mohali plant was one of the two major plants of the company in Punjab, engaged in bulk drug
manufacturing. There were seven plants of the company in the country. There is another plant of the company at Tonsa village near Ropar. There would be no impact on the total production of Ranbaxy Laboratories. He claimed there were 17 plants at different places in the world. The company was using about 95 per cent of production from this plant, for other plants for drug manufacturing. These drugs were supplied to the major international markets like the USA, Germany and other European countries. However, efforts were on to start the unit at the earliest, he said, by taking the required solvents from the market. Allaying fears on the stock market, he said,‘‘We want to assure employees, shareholders and the public that it is one of the highly safe plants in the company. The speculative share market may show some impact in the short run, but we are confident that it will not affect the long-term standing of the company.’’ According to reports from the Bombay Stock Exchange, the price of the Ranbaxy share, that had increased from Rs 625.10 on May 11 to Rs 700.30 on June 11, did witness a fall to Rs 624 during the early trading hours today. But it bounced back later and closed at around Rs 703. Mr Tarvinder Dhingra, a leading stock market analyst at Ludhiana Stock Exchange, said,‘‘After the news of fire incident, some of the ‘day’ traders might have sold shares in the market in panic, but after watching no change in the market sentiment, they had to square their position by evening.’’ He claimed that the news regarding the delay in announcement of New Drug Policy by the Centre had also affected the share prices to some extent. Interestingly, the plant is using highly inflammable chemicals but due to timely action by the fire fighting teams of the company and the execution of Emergency Disaster Control Plan effectively, only one of the distilling units at the plant was destroyed and other solvent plants were intact. Mr S.K. Sandhu, Director, Department of Industry, Punjab, claimed that under the Industry Safety Act, the experts had visited the plant just few days ago and had found everything in order. Mr Bindra made it clear that like any big company, Ranbaxy had taken adequate insurance cover for the equipments and machinery for this plant as well. The incident would not have any major effect on the financial results of the company.
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Maruti IPO oversubscribed
New Delhi, June 12 Sources in the disinvestment ministry said although the exact percentage of oversubscription could not be known but by the close this evening the issue would possibly be oversubscribed by a large percentage. The issue would remain open till June 19. The response to the shares of Rs 5 each with a floor price of Rs 115 a share prompted officials associated with the process to speculate that the oversubscription could be as high as 10 times by the time the issue, being done through book building route, closed. At the press meet to announce the IPO, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries, Mr Naresh Narad, had said in the event of the issue being oversubscribed, the government would have the option open for offering another 10 per cent of its 25 per cent which had been put on sale now. This would mean that a total of 27.5 per cent shares could finally go on sale.
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Oxford to source apparels of $30 m
New Delhi, June 12 Mr James Pressley, President of Oxford Collections, said India had the potential of emerging as a major apparel outsourcing hub after the multi-fibre agreement (MFA) on textiles is dismantled next year-end. “The growth of garment exports from India has been hampered by the quota regime. All that could change now.’’ Mr Pressley was talking to UNI on the sidelines of a business seminar held here on quality management for garment exporters. Oxford imports garments worth $ 170 million from various countries every year for Wal-Mart and Target. It is the fifth largest importer of readymade garments in the world. Indian apparels worth $ 20 million — mostly cotton and rayon wovens — were sourced by the New York-based conglomerate last year. Mr Pressley said India was doing a much better job in complying with global manufacturing standards than any other country. He said though there had not been much investment in expanding the country’s textiles base, India must capitalise on availability of cheap labour and design heritage. Of India’s textile exports of $ 13 billion, apparels account for nearly $ 5.6 billion. Several exporters had set up dedicated facilities for international brands which gave them a benefit in terms of price and volume besides a commitment. Industry experts say Wal-Mart sources $ 200 million of apparels from the country in a year. That figure may go up to $ 1 billion by 2007. GAP’s Indian sourcing bill totals about $ 400 million and Tommy Hilfiger adds another $ 100 million.
UNI
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Industrial output up 4.9 pc New Delhi, June 12 Experts commenting on the quick estimates of the Index for Industrial Production observed that growth in the manufacturing sector is a “positive” signal that the economy is entering a phase of recovery. The growth data, along with the indications of rising stock index and the positive signals of good monsoon, although late by a week, gives good signals that the economy is on a recovery phase, they added. They, however, warned that the data sample is too small to firmly conclude anything and is only an indication of the trend, which appears to be positive. The mining sector with 8.3 per cent contributed to the industrial growth during the period. The mining sector grew at 5.7 per cent during the 2002-03 fiscal. The manufacturing sector grew by 5 per cent during April, 2003, as against 4 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. However, production in the electricity sector fell to 1.9 per cent during the first month of the current fiscal from 5.2 per cent in the period last year. According to the use-based index of industrial production, the capital goods sector, while witnessing a turnaround, posted a robust growth of 9 per cent during April, 2003, as against the fall of 0.6 per cent in the year-ago period. Production in the consumer goods sector declined to 5.8 per cent during April, 2003, from 8.9 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago. The consumer durables sector witnessed a negative growth of 2.2 per cent during the month as against a growth of 3.6 per cent in April, 2002.
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SCO group to sue IBM for $ 1b
Seattle, June 12 SCO is suing IBM for more than $1 billion and warned 1,500 other companies last month that they may be violating SCO’s intellectual property rights because parts of its Unix software code are being used in Linux. Unix is a widely-used operating system for networked computers that was first developed by AT&T Corp. Various versions of Unix are now used to run corporate and government computer systems for serving up Web pages, accounting, manufacturing and storing information. Linux, unlike proprietary versions of Unix and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows programs, is a version of Unix that can be copied and modified freely. IBM, which had licensed Unix code to develop its own Unix-based system called AIX, is also one of the biggest champions of Linux, which it supports to sell its hardware and services to corporations. SCO claims that IBM transferred some AIX code over to Linux. “If we don’t have a resolution by midnight on Friday (June 13th) the AIX world will be a different place,’’ SCO President and Chief Executive Darl McBride told Reuters. “We’ve basically mapped out what we will do. People will be running AIX without a valid licence,’’ said McBride, who offered no specific details on what action SCO would take. IBM declined to say whether it was in negotiations with SCO to meet Friday’s deadline. “IBM believes that our contract with regard to AIX is irrevocable and perpetual and there is nothing further to discuss,’’ said IBM spokeswoman Trink Guarino. Some industry experts see SCO’s campaign as an attempt to gain a windfall settlement, most likely by selling itself to IBM or another industry heavyweight. SCO, formerly known as Caldera Systems Inc, owns the intellectual property rights to Unix but also makes versions of Unix that run on Intel Corp.’s microprocessors, which also serves as the main platform for Windows and Linux. Intel-based computers are generally considered cheaper than other high-end systems offered by IBM or Sun Microsystems Inc. and are gaining ground in corporations. SCO also won a licence from Microsoft, which agreed to pay SCO to ensure that it would not violate intellectual property rights when developing software that works with Unix. But Microsoft’s move was widely seen as an attempt to lend weight to SCO’s attack on Linux, which Microsoft views as a threat to its Windows franchise.
Reuters
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PeopleSoft rejects offer
New York, June 12 PeopleSoft said in a statement that the multi-billion dollar offer would face lengthy anti-trust scrutiny, with a significant likelihood that it would not receive the required regulatory approval. The Pleasanton, California company, also said the $16-a-share bid, announced last Friday, undervalued PeopleSoft, whose stock was trading above $16.
Reuters
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The I-T Department on Wednesday filed
an affidavit in the Mumbai High Court against Sterlite Industries' proposed demerger as it has attached 54 per cent of the company's shareholding belonging to the Twin Star Holdings. Essar Steel has recorded a net profit of Rs 67.42 crore for the second quarter ended March 31, 2003 compared to a net loss of Rs 186.39 crore in the corresponding period last year. Ramco Systems has decided to raise capital up to Rs 75
crore. The board has decided to constitute and empower the committee of the board to decide about the size of issue and timing. Bombay Dyeing is back in the black by registering a net profit of Rs 32.31 crore for the year ended March 31, 2003, compared to a net loss of Rs 29.66 cr for the previous year. The Board of Directors has proposed to pay a dividend of Rs 3 per share. Nicholas Piramal has raised $ 10 million through External Commercial Borrowing for replacing high cost debt.. Larsen and Toubro Board will meet on Saturday to discuss the restructuring of its cement business.
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Maruti Finance PNB ‘help desk’ Spice contest HPCL ‘best’ Syndicate Bank IBM awarded |
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In video: Arun Shourie says public offer of Maruti Udyog's
shares would help the sale of other state-owned companies. (
