Daimler buys Hero's stake In truck JV For $21.2 Million

Daimler will pay 16 million euros ($21.2 million) for the remaining 40 percent in its Indian heavy truck joint venture after dwindling finances forced local partner Hero Group to focus on its core business of motorcycles. Referring to the significance of India as "a key to a completely new generation of products," Daimler Trucks said on Wednesday it would invest more than 700 million euros over four years to enter and eventually use the subcontinent as a bridgehead to other emerging markets. The two partners had originally planned to divide the investment in proportion to the size of their stakes. "I really regret the Hero Group's decision, but Daimler Trucks will nonetheless enter the truck volume market in India," said Daimler Trucks chief Andreas Renschler in a statement on Wednesday. "Nothing has changed regarding our plans to manufacture trucks in Chennai. I'm counting on continued good relations with the Hero Group, whose expertise regarding the Indian market is very important for us." Daimler, the world's largest commercial vehicle maker, had hoped its JV with Hero would allow it to compete better against rivals like Volvo, which has a deal with India's Eicher Motors, as well as Tata Motors Ltd, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra & Mahindra. Daimler agreed in December 2007 to locally produce light, medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles with the Hero Group, which controls 26 percent of India's leading motorcycle maker Hero Honda. The German group had forecast market potential of 500,000 units by 2018, translating to annual growth rates of 7 percent on average versus 2006 -- almost twice as much as the global truck market. Demand for heavy duty vehicles weighing over 16 tonnes would rise by an even faster 10 percent per year. Daimler plans to use to low cost base to export a type of premium commercial vehicles tailored for emerging markets.

Hero group acquires Scotland's TSC for 40 mn pounds

Hero Group has acquired Scotland’s largest call centre company, Telecom Service Centres (TSC), in a deal worth £40 million. TSC, which employs around 3,000 people, would be merged with the group’s call centre subsidiary, HeroITeS. The new entity will be christened TSC Hero and will offer customers a multi-site solution, increasing market potential and growth prospects in the core markets of Europe, Asia and the US.

The Hero move marks another deal by Indian ITeS firms in mainland UK. It also makes Hero UK's third big Indian-owned call centre player after HCL and First Source. This is besides TSC’s big operations in Peterboro.

The development is also in keeping with the trend of Indian ITeS companies getting around the ‘UK only’ call centre syndrome that many UK–based clients have started to insist on recently. TSC chief executive Ken Hills told reporters that the move will not result in jobs shifting to India. “This is not about taking UK jobs to India. In the last three years, we have created 1,500 jobs in the UK and the growth rate will probably continue,” he said. There will also be no change in the management.

Mr Hills said TSC’s clients have all made ‘positive’ decisions to locate their operations in the UK despite higher costs—while searching for additional services that complement existing arrangements. TSC’s clients include Vodafone, T-mobile, Hewlett-Packard and HSBC. TSC was established at Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, in 1994. The company has ten ‘contact centres’, nine of which are in Scotland.

Incidentally, the deal gives an exit option for Lloyd’s Capital Development, the private equity arm of Lloyds TSB Group, which backed a £28-million management buyout in 2003. TSC made pre-tax profits of nearly £3 million last year, up from £2.5 million in 2005 while turnover rose from £43.5 million to just under £50 million. Gurgaon-based HeroITeS offers outsourcing services in the voice support, email services, technical support, finance and accounting BPO.

(source: Economic Times)