| Etcetra
Eye on realty
Man Industries has major real estate plans
Pipemaker Man Industries Ltd said its unit plans to invest
Rs 100 crore over three years to develop seven real-estate
projects in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Indore. The company expects
realisation of Rs 400 crore from these projects, which will
have a total built-up space of 10 million square feet. In
the first phase, Man Infraprojects Ltd plans to develop two
commercial projects in Mumbai and one 'mixed-use township'
in Navi Mumbai, with a total built-up area of over a million
square feet. The township with a five-star hotel, an IT-cum-commercial
centre and a luxury residential block, would be completed
in the next two years.
L&T to invest $ 6 billion
Engineering and construction giant Larsen and Toubro would
invest Rs 250 billion ($ 6.25 billion) in the power generation
business, including nuclear energy, over the next five years.
"Power is going to be one of our focus areas in the coming
years," L&T Chairman and Managing Director A M Naik
told. "It's an area we are looking at in a big way,"
he said, while ruling out the equity route to raise funds
for the company's renewed focus on power. He said while the
immediate focus will be on thermal power, the company will
also go for nuclear energy eventually - an area that has been
on the company's radar for several years now. This won't be
the company's first exposure to the power sector. It already
sets up power plants on a turnkey basis, including those using
thermal, hydro and nuclear technologies.
PS group to set up IT park
City-based realtor PS Group would set up an IT park on public-private
partnership basis in Sri Lanka at an investment of USD 80.44
million. Chairman and Managing Director of P S Group Pradip
Chopra said that the IT park would be developed on an area
of 1.6 million square metres and would provide direct employment
to 20,000 and indirect employment to 80,000 people. Nationally,
the group flagged off its Chennai operations with a shopping
mall and premium residential project next to InfoTech park
at Siruseri in Tamil Nadu. Chopra said the group was also
setting up similar projects at Coimbatore and Chandigarh.
Indian companies to invest in Iran
A consortium of public sector oil companies - ONGC Videsh
(OVL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Oil India (OIL) -
proposes to invest
$ 3 billion to develop Farsi block in Iran where they have
found 12.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf)
of gas. The block also has over 1 billion barrel of in-place
oil reserves. The consortium is yet to submit a commerciality
proposal for the development of the oil asset. The commerciality
report for gas development though had been submitted to Iranian
authorities in December 2007. The consortium partners have
invested around $ 90 million in exploration of the asset,
which includes drilling of four wells. It found gas in two
wells and oil in one.
McDonald’s to add 60 chains
With an aim to clock 30-35 per growth per annum, the US fast
food chain McDonald's plans to open around 60 more restaurants
across the country annually and pump in Rs 400 crore in the
next three years. "India has a huge market potential
for McDonald's," Connaught Plaza Restaurants Managing
Director Vikram Bakshi told. To tap this potential the fast
food major plans to open 40-60 outlets each year nationally
and also intends to invest Rs 400 crore over the next three
years.
Subhkam increases stake
Private equity player, Subhkam Ventures has increased its
stake in Shakti Pumps to 12.05 per cent by conversion of warrants
allotted on preferential basis. Shakti Pumps, makers of stainless
steel submersible pumps, has a strong foothold in the exports
market catering to 40 countries across the globe. With two
state-of-the-art facilities in Indore, the company has been
able to compete with industry major Grundfos in international
market.
CCC, Dubai firm in JV
Consolidated Construction Consortium (CCC) has entered into
a partnership with Dubai-based Innotech Construction for expanding
its engineering operations in UAE. It has entered into a strategic
and investment partnership with Innotech Constructions LLC
to enhance their engineering excellence and on-time project
execution skills, the company said.
R-ADAG bids lowest
The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) looks set
to be awarded two major power projects with a combined capacity
of 3,250 megawatt (MW) at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The
group's Reliance Energy had made the bid for the 1,950 MW
Bara project and the 1,300 MW Karchna power project of the
Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), quoting Rs 2.64
and Rs 2.60 per unit for the Bara and Karchana power plants
respectively. The Bara project will have three units and Karchna
two, each unit with a capacity to generate 650 megawatts.
Philips sets up HDMI ATC
Royal Philips Electronics announced the inauguration of India's
first High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) authorised
testing centre (ATC) in its Bangalore-based Philips Innovation
Campus. The test centre would facilitate HDMI compliance testing
services as per HDMI compliance test specification 1.3b. The
centre is Philips' only HDMI authorised testing centre in
the country and the eighth to be opened worldwide. Philips
has increased the global testing capacity for HDMI compliant
solutions with the inauguration of this testing facility in
India.
Bafna plans expansion
Bafna Pharmaceuticals, an emerging pharma company in Chennai,
is coming up with a Rs 25.6 crore initial public offer (IPO)
to fund its expansion plans. Bafna will be the second pharmaceutical
company from south India to tap the capital markets this month.
The Rs 75-80 crore IPO of Hyderabad-based Anu's Laboratories
closed this week. The Bafna Pharmaceuticals IPO is to part-fund
a new manufacturing facility for entering contract manufacturing
business and for expanding the marketing set-up, said Mahaveer
Bafna, the Chairman and Managing Director of the company.
The company will soon start commercial production of tablets
and capsules at the Rs 32-crore, export-oriented unit in Grandyon,
Chennai. The facility is built according to global standards
and is awaiting the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory
Agency (MHRA) approval. The Rs 40-crore company plans to position
the new facility for contract manufacturing for multinational
companies. At present, Bafna has a manufacturing facility
in Madhavaram, Chennai, and markets over 120 products in the
anti-infective, cardio-vascular, diabetes and pain management
segments.
Allen Solly eyes kidswear
Allen Solly, a brand of Madura Garments, is foraying into
kidswear segment later this year. The company is currently
test marketing children's garments targeted at the children
in the age group of 4 years to 12 years and will launch them
in six months from now through select company outlets. According
to R Satyajit, Chief Operating Officer, Allen Solly, the kidswear
market is among the fastest-growing segments of the apparel
industry and the company aims to play a key role in the branded
kidswear market. Currently, the organised kidswear market
is pegged at Rs 5,000-6,000 crore and growing at around 20-30
per cent. “We have taken a new initiative to grow this
market further. At present, we are test marketing the kidswear
in two of our outlets in Delhi and Bangalore. Based on the
market response, we will extend it to other company-owned
outlets, franchisee showrooms and multi brand outlets in a
phased manner,” he told Business Standard. The kidswear
range includes t-shirts and jeans among others.
Platinum to invest Rs 160 cr
Ahmedabad-based Platinum Corporation plans to pump in around
Rs 160 crore for its agri-biotechnology ventures. The company
has chalked out plans to set up ultra modern agri-biotech
research centre, model farm and nurseries. Platinum is also
considering to get into contract and corporate farming in
near future. As part of its efforts to venture into agri-biotech
sector in a big way, the city-based company has acquired 200
acres of land for model farm and nurseries at Surendranagar
district in Gujarat. “The prime focus of the model farm
and nurseries will be on genetic engineered plants, aromatic
and medicinal plants with seed hybridisation, seed multiplication
and system for soil analysis,” said Anindo Banerjee,
Director, Platinum Corporation. Platinum is strategically
going for a complete in-house activity right from the grass
root with value additions.
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