Arvind Jadhav is new CMD of Nacil

Arvind Jadhav, a 1978 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, has been appointed the chairman and managing director (CMD) of National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs the Air India branded airlines. The appointment has been approved by the Prime Minister’s Office late on Thursday evening, a senior government official told Mint. Jadhav’s candidature was suggested by a committee headed by cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar last week after the government decided to replace the incumbent CMD Raghu Menon. Jadhav is likely to take office on Monday

Source: Livemint

Air India gets new interim chief

Unhappy with the performance of state-run carrier Air India, the government has decided to appoint an interim chairman and managing director for the carrier in place of incumbent Raghu Menon, officials said. A simultaneous talent search has also been launched to find a regular chief to run the National Aviation Company of India Ltd, that was formed last year after Indian Airlines was merged into Air India. Menon, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), is being replaced by another officer from the service, E.K. Bharat Bhushan, who currently serves as joint secretary and financial adviser in the civil aviation ministry. The decision was taken after a high-power meeting here Friday chaired by Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar and also attended by Principal Secretary in Prime Minister's Office T K A Nair and Civil Aviation Secretary M Madhavan Nambiar. "Mr. Menon may be considered for the new regulatory authority for the sector. He is currently on leave," a senior official in the ministry said, referring to the proposed Airports Economic Regulatory Authority. Bharat Bhushan will continue to serve as joint secretary and financial adviser. The change has come in the backdrop of falling market share of the state-run carrier even though it is going through a major fleet expansion programme to induct 111 new Boeing and Airbus aircraft over the next few years. The company has already sought Rs.2,500 crore from the government in the form of equity and soft loan to finance the fleet expansion - 68 aircraft from the US manufacturer and 43 aircraft from the European consortium. Officials said the merger between Air India and Indian Airlines, with the stated objective of greater operational synergies, has also not been smooth, delaying the carrier's bid to join the Star Alliance, the leading global interline pact. A new role for Menon will be decided soon, even though his immediate predecessor at Air India, V Thulasidas, is also said to be in contention for the top post at the new aviation regulatory.

Source: Economic Times

Government to replace AI-IA CMD Raghu Menon

In a surprise move, the government has started the hunt for a new Air India -Indian Airlines CMD to replace Raghu Menon, the current CMD, who has still two years to go. Menon, an IAS officer of 1974 batch, was appointed CMD last April.Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar is scheduled to have a meeting of search committee with heads of other ministries on Friday to finalise the chairman of Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) and now finding Menon's successor has also been added to this meeting's agenda.The move to begin search for a new AI CMD has been kept secret as the mega airline is struggling to get over merger issues, especially with distrust running deep between former AI and IA employees. "The merger has been only on paper. At a time like this, the news that the government is trying to get a new head for AI would just send a message to worried employees that the owner (the state) is struggling to find someone to run the airline," said sources.Aviation secretary M M Nambiar will also attend Friday's meeting with the cabinet secretary. According to sources, Menon might be appointed head of AERA. While he had applied for the post first time round, the government had called for applications for the post again and that time he did not reapply.

Source: Times of India

Infosys linked to buyout talks for UK's Sage

Infosys Technologies is in the thick of yet another European buy-out rumour --this time involving the UK-based Sage Group

British publications have reported that Sage's stock price on the London Stock Exchange went up on Tuesday on talk that Infosys, CapGemini orsoftware giant Microsoft may be interested in acquiring the company

The 13,000-strong Sage Group posted a turnover of £936 million during the last calendar year. It is estimated to have a market capitalisation of over £3 billion

source: timesofindia

Essar Steel bidding for Stelco

Essar Global, the overseas investment arm of the Essar Group, has been shortlisted along with two other bidders for the acquisition of North American steel maker Stelco. The other two companies in the race are Metinvest of Ukraine and Russian steel maker OAO Severstal.

Going by its stock price, the acquisition of Stelco could cost over $700 million (Rs 2,800 crore).

Stelco is one of the largest Canadian steel producers with 4,300-odd employees and an estimated 16 per cent share of the domestic market. It has two steel making units with 4.8 million tonnes of raw steel production capacity, four steel processing facilities and ownership in three iron ore mines which have combined reserves of 480 million tonnes for a reserve life of over 25 years.

Industry experts said a Stelco acquisition would help the Essar Group cater to the North American automotive industry better as more than half of Stelco’s shipments are meant for the automotive industry. An auto capacity of nearly 3 million vehicles a year is located in the vicinity of Stelco units.

A successful acquisition of Stelco would mean the third purchase by the Essar Group. It recently acquired Canadian steel maker Algoma, which supplies sheets to US car makers, including General Motors and Ford, in an all-cash deal of $1.6 billion (Rs 6,400 crore).

It also purchased Minnesota Steel, a US-based privately held company, for Rs 200 crore. The group is also investing $1.65 billion to develop the foreign company’s iron ore reserves of 1.4 billion tonne.

(Source: Business Standard )

Vivimed Labs close to buying European firm

Vivimed Labs, a specialty chemicals and home & personal care (HPC) product company, has firmed up plans to acquire a mid-sized company in Europe to expand its global reach and product portfolio.

The Hyderabad-based company has raised $12 million through foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB). It intends to use the funds along with internal accruals for acquiring a specialty chemicals company abroad this fiscal, according to Mr Sunil Arab, Vice-President (Corporate Strategy & Business Development).

"We have identified a couple of European companies and are confident of completing the buy, after due diligence. The target companies typically should have sound product line, marketing network and regulatory expertise," he told Business Line here.

The acquisition is to get market and regulatory advantages in Europe. We will shift the acquired company's manufacturing base to India, where Vivimed Labs has four units in Hyderabad, Bidar (Karnataka), Hardwar (UP) and Kashipur (Uttaranchal) to manufacture specialty chemicals. It is a major supplier of these active ingredients to global majors.

Vivimed has a robust pipeline of at least 23 products such as Triclosan (oral care), Avo Benzone (sunscreen), and skin, hair care, etc. It is the country's top producer of the active ingredients that are necessary to manufacture these H&PC as well as industrial care products. With the market for these products growing substantially in the country, the company has set itself on a consolidation and expansion mode, Mr Sunil said.

The global market for active ingredients in H&PC is estimated to be about $25 billion, out of the total cosmetic care industry size of about $250 billion. Vivimed plans to expand its presence to 50 countries by 2010 from the existing 25-30. Japan, China, Korea and the Gulf countries are new destinations contemplated.

Marico still hungry for acquisitions

After acquiring a slew of brands recently, Marico is in restructuring mode even as it hunts for more buys in its segment.

"Marico would always be looking out for acquisitions. Some proposals are under active consideration," Mr Milind Sarwate, chief for HR and strategy, told Business Line.

He added that most of the recent acquisitions have already started yielding results.

After restructuring, Marico now comprises three strategic business units (SBUs): consumer products business, Kaya business and international business, all of which are profit centres, and three support units - technology, finance and IT and HR and strategy.

This has been carried out as a proactive measure and to accelerate growth.

Mr Sarwate said that certain segments have been modified and the business units have now become more cohesive.

He added that Marico expects growth in sales of its domestic business to be led by flagships Parachute (coconut hair oil) and Saffola (edible oil).

"We believe that growth in one business unit does not come at the cost of growth in another unit. Thus, we can keep firing on all cylinders, be it domestic or international business."

He added that the company's recent acquisition, Nihar (an oil brand), boasted of a turnover of about Rs 120 crore during 2006-07.

The two brands which the company acquired from a company in Egypt, Fiancee and HairCode, have been integrated into its portfolio completely.

The company expects to generate a turnover of about Rs 90 crore during 2007-08 from these two brands.

However, the growth of the recently acquired soap brands, Manjal in India and Aromatic and Camelia in Bangladesh, have been moderate.

"We expect that the soap brands will take some time to perform because we are still new to the soap category," Mr Sarwate said.

During the fourth quarter of 2006-07, the Group recorded net sales (plus services) of Rs 397 crore, posting a 33 per cent rise over the same period last year, 21 per cent of which came organically and 12 per cent inorganically.

Mr Sarwate said with the company raising equity through the qualified institutional placement route, Marico expects the funds situation to be under control, "such that a further equity issue may not be required."

Marico raised funds worth Rs 150 crore through private placement of 29 lakh equity shares at Rs 522 a share in December 2006.

Mr Sarwate also said that the interest costs went up in 2006-07 and may go up further during the current fiscal with the increase in the average level of debt.

SFC buys stake in Deccan Chronicle

Foreign brokerage firm Swiss Finance Corp has acquired 5.41 lakh shares of the Deccan Chronicle Holdings, publishers of Deccan Chronicle, through the conversion of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) into equity shares.

In a communique to BSE, Deccan Chronicle said its Share Allotment Committee in a meeting on Friday approved the allotment of 5,41,410 equity shares of Rs 2 each (face-value) as per the terms of the bonds.

TVS Electronics sells contract mfg unit to Finnish co

Printer-manufacturer TVS Electronics has sold off its contract manufacturing services business at Tumkur for Rs41.12 crore to Incap Contract Manufacturing Services, a 100% subsidiary of Finland based Incap Corporation.

TVS Electronics, a leading contract manufacturing service provider in the country, through it CMS business served global original equipment manufacturers by making box assemblies as well as PCB assemblies in its QS 9000-certified facility at Tumkur (near Bangalore).

Air India eyeing Serbian airline

After surviving all bids at privatisation, Air India and Indian, the two merging state-run carriers, are bidding to buy controlling stakes in Jat Airways, Serbia’s national airline.

This is the first time in its history that Air India is looking at buying another airline , let alone an international flagship. The only other contender for acquiring Jat Airways—formerly called Yugoslav Airlines—is Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot, which has already made a competitive bid for the offer.