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Business News - July to December 2009
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Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big
Entertainment inks $825 million deal with Hollywood filmmaker Steven
Spielberg to fund Dreamworks Studios to make six films a year.
At a time when the economic
crisis is forcing companies to reduce costs and cut jobs, retail giant
Wal-Mart has emerged as the biggest employer in the world with a
whopping 2.1 million people working for it in 2008, according to Fortune
magazine. After Wal-Mart, China National Petroleum is the second
biggest employer with 1.61 million employees in 2008, followed by the
State Grid with 1.53 million employees in the third place, the US Postal
Service with 765,088 employees in the fourth place, Sinopec with
639,690 employees in the fifth place. Other companies ranking amongst
the top 10 employers in the list are China Telecommunications in the
sixth place, France's Carrefour in the seventh place, Taiwan-based Hon
Hai Precision Industry in the eighth place, Russian Gazprom in the ninth
and German Deutsche Post at the 10th place.
India origin Indra Nooyi is
among the 13 women who are at the helm of companies featured in Fortune
500 list compiled by the US magazine. The number of women CEOs in the
list for 2009 has increased by one from last year's list with a new
entrant Lynn Elsenhans of US-based firm Sunoco. The other women CEOs in
the list include Angela F Braly of WellPoint, Ellen Kullman of DuPont,
Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft Foods, Carol Meyrowitz of TJX, and Gail P Kelly
of Westpack Banking. Patricia Woertz's agricultural processing company
Archer Daniels Midland is top among the firms managed by women.
India’s largest private equity player, ICICI Venture has hired Prashant Purker as its President.
INTEL, the world’s biggest chip-maker has awarded a pilot outsourcing contract to Infosys Technologies.
Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc
have inked a 10-year Web search deal to better compete against market
leader Google Inc. The deal will boost Yahoo's annual operating income
by about $500 million and yield capital expenditure savings of $200
million. Microsoft's Bing search engine will be the exclusive
algorithmic search and paid search technology for Yahoo's sites, while
Yahoo will be responsible for selling premium search ads for both
companies.
Nissan has rolled out a new
electric car, Leaf, capable of running 160 km on single battery charge.
It will go into mass-production in 2012 as a global model.
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the
foreign arm of ONGC, has received approval of Indian government to pick
up 25% stake in the Satpayev oil block on Kazakhstan, along with its
partner LN Mittal group. The block has an estimated oil reserve of 1.85
billion barrels.
Public sector telephone operator
BSNL has started a marketing drive called Operation Vijay to increase
its market reach and capture a larger share of cellular (GSM) market.
Shiv Nadar of HCL has completed
his succession planning by elevating his daughter Roshni Nadar as the
Executive Director and CEO of HCL Corporation, the holding company of
HCL Tech and HCL Info.
Sony India has appointed Keki B. Dadiseth, former Director of HUL, as its Chairman.
The $2.8 billion GE India, the
Indian arm of US conglomerate General Electric Company, will be
investing $6 billion in medical systems, services and IT services for
rural India. GE also proposes to make India as the sourcing hub for its
aerospace parts and healthcare products business.
The Tata group, in collaboration
with US-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, is setting up a Rs 1000
crore plant in Hyderabad to manufacture helicopters. This is the first
helicopter manufacturing unit of India.
The vaccine division of French pharma major Sanofi-Aventis, Sanofi Pasteur, has acquired 80% stake in Shantha Biotechnics for about Rs 3,000 crore.
The world's most trade-friendly
economy is Singapore, according to the World Economic Forum. The WEF's
Global Enabling Trade Report 2009 measures and analyses factors enabling
trade in 121 industrialised and emerging economies around the world.
The report covers four areas: market access, border administration,
transport and communications infrastructure, and business environment.
India occupies the 76th position, reflecting a mixed performance on the
four pillars. Although the country has a fairly good border
administration and business environment, domestic and foreign market
access continues to be significantly restricted. The United States comes
in at 16th position overall. China ranks 49th among the countries
covered. Switzerland is placed 3rd overall.
UAE’s Etisalat’s Indian joint
venture Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd, formerly Swan Telecom, has signed a
Rs 10,000 crore, 10-year tower sharing deal with Reliance
Communications (RCom).
Global probiotic leader, Yakult
Danone India (P) Ltd has signed hindi film actress Kajol as its brand
ambassador for promoting its probiotic health drink Yakult in the Indian
market.
India Hospitality Corp, a
London-listed firm with interest in the consumer and hospitality space
in India, has taken operating control of its Indian subsidiary Mars
Restaurants, the hotel and restaurant company that manages Not Just Jazz
By The Bay and Pizzeria chains, from high-profile restaurateur and
current president Sanjay Narang. India Hospitality has also taken
operating control of airline catering business Sky Gourmet Pvt Ltd and
Mars Catering Services from Mr Narang.
Bharti Airtel has bagged top
honours in the Voice and Data 100 survey, with its CEO Manoj Kohli
being named the Telecom Person of the Year 2009. Airtel was named the
Top Telecom Services Provider of the Year 2009.
After years of negotiation,
Petronet LNG, a privately registered company promoted by State-run oil
firms for importing gas in ships, has signed a multi-billion dollar
agreement with ExxonMobil to source 1.5 million tonnes per year of gas
for 20 years from a field the US major's Australian subsidiary is
developing in partnership with Chevron.
Online recruitment company
Monster.com has partnered with ITC e-Choupal to launch Rozgarduniya.com,
a website that will allow job seekers in rural India to access and
apply for jobs. ITC e-Choupal is a rural digital infrastructure set up
by hospitality major ITC.
IT bellwether Infosys Technologies
has been adjudged as most admired Indian company, ahead of Tata
Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel, according to the survey
conducted by The Wall Street Journal Asia. Engineering major Larsen
& Toubro has cornered the fourth place and IT firm Wipro is at the
fifth position. Others on the list are Tata Steel (sixth), FMCG major
Hindustan Unilever (seventh), HDFC Bank (eighth), State Bank of India
(9th) and ITC (10th).
Tata Coffee’s $220-million
buyout of Eight O’Clock Coffee, a US brand of Colombian origin, three
years back, is rocking consumer senses in a recession. Eight O’Clock’s
instant coffee sales soared 30% in the first half of 2009 after a
reputed and independent product endorsement council, Consumer Reports
USA, recommended the brand over other celebrated peers such as Starbucks
and Maxwell House to the consumers in the American mainland.
Blackberry-maker Research In
Motion (RIM) tops Fortune magazine’s list of the world’s 100
fastest-growing companies. It is the first time that Fortune has opened
its list of the top 100 fastest growing companies to businesses from
around the world. Apple, which is BlackBerry makers’ main rival in the
global smart phone market, is way down the list at 39th spot. Potash
Corporation of Saskatchewan, which is the world’s biggest fertiliser
company, is another Canadian firm among the top 10 in the Fortune list.
Among the top 10 are also two companies from China, Sohu.com and Shanda
Interactive Entertainment. Others in the top 10 are: California-based
Sigma Designs, Ebix of Atlanta, Texas-based DG Fastchannel, CF
Industries of Illinois, Arena Resources of Oklahoma and
Massachusetts-based Bruker Corp.
The publisher of the world’s largest-circulated magazine, Readers Digest, has filed for bankruptcy in the US.
Fortis Healthcare Ltd today
has bought 10 hospitals from the troubled Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd for Rs
909 crore. The hospitals, located in Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore,
have a capacity of 1,902 beds. The Khorakiwalas, promoters of Wockhardt,
will use the proceeds to reduce their debt. With the acquisition,
Fortis will have a capacity of 5,180 beds. Fortis already operates 28
hospitals across the country and had bought Escorts in 2005 for over Rs
585 crore.
Tech Mahindra has bagged around $500 million outsourcing contract from new telecom entrant Swan Telecom.
British Petroleum has signed
with India’s leading technology companies a $1.5 billion outsourcing
deal. Though shared between Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro
and IBM, analysts expect the five-year deal to pep up the morale of the
industry that has been reeling under the global recession. BP, one of
the world's largest integrated oil and gas companies with operations in
over 100 geographies, has been busy consolidating its IT vendors in the
last one year.
The Times of India Group has
won the first Spikes Asia ’09 ad festival’s ‘‘Advertiser of the Year’’
award for it’s ‘‘Lead India’’ campaign. The Lead India initiative, which
evaluated applicants on their ability to lead the country while still
being able to work within the constraints of the current political
system, was launched on August 14, 2007.
After losing Satyam to the
Mahindras, the Rajus have lost Maytas Infra to Infrastructure Leasing
and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS). The change of guard was
announced by Company Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid after a Company
Law Board (CLB) order to that effect.
IDFC Private Equity, India’s
largest infrastructure-focused PE fund, has decided to buy out energy
giant BP Plc’s wind power assets in India, signalling the latter’s exit
from the country’s renewable energy market and underscoring its renewed
focus on the US market. BP owns 100 MW of wind energy generating
capacity in India, consisting of a 40 MW plant in Maharashtra and a 60
mw one in Karnataka.
Former Novartis senior
vice-president Yugal Sikri will be the new India CEO of Ranbaxy
Laboratories, the country’s largest drug maker by sales which was taken
over by Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo in 2008.
L.N. Mittal-controlled
Arcelor-Mittal, the world’s largest steel company, will make entry into
India by becoming a co-promoter of Uttam Galva Steel, a Mumbai-based
steel firm promoted by the Miglani family.
James Gorman will succeed John Mack as CEO of Morgan Stanley in January 2010. John Mack will, however, continue to remain as the Chairman.
World's second largest PC
maker Dell Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire computer
services firm Perot Systems for approximately $3.9 billion, making it
one of the biggest deals in the IT space since global financial turmoil
hit the sector.
Max New York Life has
appointed Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador for Max Vijay that
offers low-income investors stable investment returns along with
insurance and savings.
Infosys' Global Education
Centre in Mysore is the largest corporate education centre in the world.
Located in the 337 acre Infosys Mysore campus, the total capacity of
the Centre has been enhanced to educate 14,000 employees. Infosys' total
investment in the Mysore campus is Rs 2,055 crore, of which Rs 350
crore has been invested in construction of software development blocks
and related services and Rs 1,705 crore on education and
training-related infrastructure.
Adobe Systems Inc has
decided to acquire Omniture, an online business optimisation software
provider, for about $1.8 billion (at around Rs 8,600 crore).
Tata Docomo is the mobile service from Tata Teleservices on GSM platform.
Computer maker Dell Inc. has
struck a deal to acquire technology services provider Perot Systems
Corp, giving it a way to diversify beyond business of selling hardware,
which is now a commodity business with very thin margins.
General Motors has decided to partner with Reva Electric Car Company to develop an electric car for India, based on the Spark model.
Tata Teleservices has joined
BSNL for sharing infrastructure across India, in a first such
partnership between the government-owned BSNL and a private firm. The
arrangement will help Tata Tele expand its GSM network expeditiously.
US auto major Ford has launched Ford Figo, its first small car, in India.
Montblanc has launched a set
of premium pens costing Rs 11.30 lakh under its limited edition series
commemorating 241 miles travelled by Mahatma Gandhi during the Salt
March. Each pen in the series is made of white gold and the entire
series is called the 'Mahatma Gandhi Limited Edition-241'. The distance
of 241 miles, which Mahatma Gandhi and his followers travelled by foot
during the famous Salt March, has inspired the name and limited edition
quantity. Only 241 pens have been produced in the Mahatma Gandhi Limited
Edition-241 series.
Telecom giant Bharti Airtel
has called off the discussions with MTN of South Africa for the
$23-billion merger deal as the South African government rejected the
proposed structure.
Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has awarded Delhi’s first slum re-development project worth Rs 500 crore to Raheja Developers.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved
disinvestment in NTPC and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam as part of a
conscious policy to unlock value and make the public partners of
national assets.
General Electric (GE) has appointed John Flannery as the new President and CEO of Indian operations.
Tata Motors has launched a new version of its Indigo sedan under brand name Indigo Manza.
General Motors India has launched a new model by the name of Cruze. The
model is placed below competitors like Honda Civiv, Skoda Laura and
Volkswagen Jetta.
Jet Airways has appointed Nikos Kardassis as its CEO, replacing Wofgang Prock-Schauer.
Arun Sarin, the former India-origin chief executive officer of British
telecom giant Vodafone has been appointed as a senior advisor to global
fund house Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Sarin, who retired as
Vodafone CEO last year, had also served as a senior advisor to KKR
earlier.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran has taken over as the CEO of TCS.
The Union government has decided to disinvest 20% of its equity in SAIL that will fetch it around Rs 8,000 crore.
Apparel major Oswal Knit has tied-up with Italy’s fashion brand Gadoni
for exclusive marketing and distribution rights of its garments in
India.
General Motors Co. and Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery
Corp of China have signed a deal for GM to sell the Hummer, the
off-road vehicle, to the Chinese company.
Bharti Airtel and Cisco, Asia’s leading integrated telecom service
provider, have announced a strategic alliance to help drive growth of
Indian enterprises.
Reliance Industries has been named among the top 25 global champions
for 2009 which managed to outperform the competition in midst of
meltdown in the financial markets. RIL is the only Indian company in
the 25 AT Kearney Global Champions for 2009 list that has been topped
by Japanese firm Nintendo, followed by US-based Google and Apple at the
second and the third positions, respectively.
India has been named among the top 10 Asian countries that are paying
an increasing importance towards corporate social responsibility (CSR)
disclosure norms, according to social enterprise CSR Asia’s Asian
Sustainability Ranking (ASR). India was ranked fourth in the list,
which was topped by Australia. The other countries in the list include
China (second), Hong Kong (third), Japan (fifth), Malaysia (sixth),
Pakistan (seventh), Philippines (eighth), Singapore (ninth) and
Thailand (tenth).
Mahindra & Mahindra has launched a new compact truck under brand name ‘Gio’.
The century-old American lender
CIT Group has filed for bankruptcy. CIT is the fifth largest financial
institute in USA’s corporate history, with assets at $71 billion.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)
is the first private refiner in India to process domestic crude. RIL
has entered into an agreement with Cairn India to buy oil from its
fields in Barmer, Rajasthan.
Wipro’s consumer care division
has acquired personal care brand Yardley’s business in Asia, Middle
East, Australia and North & West Africa. The business was owned by
UK-based Lornamead Group.
GVK Airport Developers has acquired 12% stake in Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) from Zurich Airport.
The four shareholders of UTI
Mutual Fund—State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda
and LIC—have decided to sell combined 26% stake to T. Row Price Group
for $140 million.
Internet giant Google Inc. Has acquired ad-technology provider AdMob for $ 750 million.
SAP India and NIIT, Asia’s
largest IT trainer, have entered into a strategic alliance to offer
training to future SAP consultants in business software, enterprise
resource planning and related applications provided by SAP.
India’s largest sugar refiner
Shree Renuka Sugars has bought distressed Brazilian sugar and ethanol
producer Vale Do Ivavi. This is the first time that an Indian sugar
company has bought an overseas firm.
India’s first special economic
zone exclusively for a port will be developed by the Jawaharlal Nehru
Port Trust (JNPT) near Belpada-Karal villages on the Panvel-Uran road
in Maharashtra.
Infosys Technologies has
acquired US-based back-office firm McCamish Systems in order to tap
into the over $5-billion insurance services market in USA.
India exports 60 million mobile
handsets every year to around 60 countries, which is about half of
country’s production. In 2009, 1.1 billion handsets were manufactured
across the world with every 10th unit coming from Nokia’s plant in
Sriperumbudur or Samsung’s plant in Noida or LG’s factory in Pune.
Real estate major DLF has sold-off its cinema exhibition business, DT cinemas, to PVR cinemas.
British Airways and Spanish
carrier Iberia have agreed to merge. Under the terms of agreement,
British Airways will hold 55 per cent in the new entity, TopCo, which
will be registered in Spain but will have its financial headquarters in
London.
Michelin of France, one of the
world’s leading tyre manufacturer with 69 production sites in 19
countries, has decided to set up a Rs 4000-crore plant at Thervoy
Kandigai village in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu.
The Tata group has 98 companies
with combined annual revenues of $71 billlion (about Rs 350,000 crore).
Set up in 1868, it has only once been headed by a non-Tata—Sor Nowroji
Saklatvala, who joined the group as a clerk in 1899 and rose through
the ranks to eventually head it. The single-largest share-holder in
Tata Sons, the group’s holding company, is Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry,
who has an over 18% stake.
Suzlon Energy, the world’s
third-largest maker of wind turbines, has sold 35.22% of its stake in
subsidiary Hansen Transmissions for $370 million as part of its efforts
to reduce its debt.
Reliance Industries is bidding to buy a controlling stake in world’s third-largest petrochemical company Lyondell Basell.
Europe's auto major Volkswagen
is set to become the world's number one, pushing Japan's Toyota to the
second place, by taking over sports car manufacturer Porsche. The
boards of directors of Volkswagen and Porsche have endorsed the
acquisition, ending years of takeover struggle between the two German
automobile giants, partly owned by two estranged family clans. Porsche
would now become the 10th brand of the VW family.
Horlicks is for the first time
tapping the bottom-of-the-pyramid with a new sub-brand, Horlicks Asha.
With Asha Horlicks is gunning for the price-sensitive, mass consumer.
Horlicks Asha is priced about 40% cheaper than the mainstream brand.
Maruti Suzuki has launched a new
multi-purpose vehicle Eeco that has a 1.2-litre petrol engine and is a
replacement of the Versa model that had failed to impress the market
since its launch in 2001.
India has emerged the leader
in small cars, overtaking Japan, as declining sales in Western markets
coupled with robust growth in Asia redraws the global map of the auto
industry faster than many expected. More than 892,000 basic cars—the
smallest category of passenger vehicle—were sold in India in 2009, up
14% from 2008 and surpassing the 708,034 forecast for Japan.
Reliance Industries (RIL)
CMD Mukesh Ambani has been ranked fifth among the top 50 best performing
CEOs in the world by Harvard Business Review (HBR). Ambani, the only
Indian to figure among the top 50 CEOs, is in the same league as Steve
Jobs of Apple, Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung, Alexey Miller of Gazprom and
John Chambers of Cisco. He has also been ranked No. 2 among top 10
emerging market CEOs with Miller at the top.
Mahindra Satyam has appointed Vineet Nayyar as the chairman of the company.
Keki Mistry has taken-over as the CEO of HDFC after Deepak Parekh relinquished the position after being for 16 years at the helm.
Mistubishi Motors has sold its stake in Eicher Motors to the company founders, ending 27-year partnership.
Ramesh Chauhan has decided
to extend his Bisleri packaged water business to premium segment with
the launch of Vedica, the first water brand in four decades from the
pioneer in the industry.
Shriram Group’s commercial
vehicle a construction financing company, Shriram Transport Finance
Company (STFC), has acquired assets of GE Transportation Financial
Services, a unit of GE Capital, India, for Rs 1,200 crore in a bi to
access a new set of customers.
US-based MGM Mirage is set
to enter India through its non-gaming hotel arm, MGM Mirage Hospitality.
It plans to bring luxury hotel brands Bellagio, MGM Grand and Skylofts
to India.
Germany’s Siemens, one of
the world’s leading players in medical devices and diagnostic space, now
plans to manufacture nuclear medicine in India. It plans to manufacture
positron emission tomography (PET) biomarkers, which are used along
with PET CT scanners, to diagnose and treat cancer, heart problems and
neurology disorders. Siemens plans to set up five such cyclotron
facilities across India over the next five year. Each facility will
entail an investment of about $3-5 million.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has decided to launch its first truck under a JV with Navistar, largest commercial truck maker of USA.
In a nationwide survey,
which premier research agency IMRB conducted on behalf of Brand Equity,
Vodafone emerged as the most admired marketer in India. HUL was ranked
number two, while Bharti Airtel, Nokia and PepsiCo occupied the next
three slots. In deciding on the most admired marketers, IMRB surveyed
550 senior marketing and advertising executives across Mumbai, Delhi,
Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad on five parameters—innovation,
quick response, 360-degree media spread, visibility and effective use
of brand ambassadors.
Mega public sector undertakings
of the country have now got greater financial and operational autonomy
after the government accorded the “maharatna” status to these firms to
help them emerge as global giants. The PSUs that would benefit from the
decision include ONGC, SAIL and NTPC.
Europe's Volkswagen will buy
19.9 per cent stake in Indian carmaker Maruti's Japanese parent Suzuki
for about $2.5 billion, a move aimed at enhancing its presence in small
car segment in Asia.
European auto giant Volkswagen
Aktiengesellschaft has bought 49.9 per cent stake in luxury car maker
Porsche AG for 3.9 billion euros ($5.8 billion).
US media giant Turner will
acquire Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV's entertainment channel Imagine for
about Rs 546 crore, a deal that will help the Indian media group turn
debt-free.
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