The Indian Hotels Company, the Tata Group firm which runs the Taj Group of Hotels in the country, is set to expand its offerings by getting into serviced apartments business and by widening the portfolio of its wildlife resorts.
UB Group's other businesses are being aggressively being ramped up. The group recently entered apparel exports to add to its leather exports business. These are in addition to a sturdy fertiliser arm, an engineering construction firm and a property development business which is getting into building high-end apartments.
The world goes on a shopping spree and urbanised Indians simply set out to have a good time. But there is bleakness in the air this yearend, marked not so much by muted shopping as the foreboding that the next year will be worse than the terrible one just gone by.
A sea change sweeping the sector, signalling it has come of age. As much as this is a cause for celebration, it is also necessary to ask if all is well with the sector, which way it is going and, most importantly, which way it ought to go, says Subir Roy.
The US-based global financial company is understood to have shown a "keen interest" in helping the hospital, which has 140 acres in its land bank, to unlock the value of its real estate assets.
A lot more people should buy stocks, they should be guided far more by fundamentals and their expectation of returns should be far more modest
While the company does not report segment results for the foods business until a specific vertical reaches a threshold limit, its entire FMCG business during the last financial year has reported revenues of Rs 2,523 crore. The food segment, which is still in the investment mode, crossed the Rs 1,000 crore revenue mark in FY 08 and is losing on an average close to Rs 60 crore on a yearly basis, accumulated losses of Rs 700 crore over the past seven years.
The deal values the stock exchange at $3.3 billion.
The rupee has given the economy a roller coaster ride for nearly two years now, relegating the stability of 2006 to a distant dream.
As I have got to know a wider world, I have often wondered how something as material as sweets can have such a strong, almost emotional, link with those who have grown up with it.
According to sources in the company, a review of the JV is under way and a decision to separate is likely to be taken soon. Sanyo wants to focus on LCD and plasma televisions and other industrial equipment such as heavy-duty air conditioners, coolers and the like, while not being saddled with the conventional colour television segment, which is the strong point of BPL.
"It is challenging and difficult. But one or two challenging years are not a big deal. This too will come to an end. We are not running the business on a month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter basis. Yes, it is hard to actually generate consistently high margins, but this is what leadership is all about. To manage and deliver when things aren't going too smoothly," says Bali.
Nine years ago McKinsey, on behalf of Nasscom, projected that India's software and services exports would touch $50 billion by 2008
Canara Bank, India's second largest public sector bank, is all set for an aggressive play in the venture capital business.
The Ranbaxy sale marks the end of a phase for Indian pharma, with the need to evolve the next.
D E Shaw, a global private equity firm with $36 billion in assets, is understood to be planning around $200 million investment in the Indian education sector by taking up strategic positions in companies offering e-learning, distant learning, vocational training and the like.
Blackstone Group, a global private equity player, is set to increase its focus on India. After setting the ball rolling on its corporate private equity and recently starting off its real estate opportunity focus, the company during the past week has set up Blackstone Altius Advisors, an event-driven strategy focusing on opportunities in the Asia Pacific region. Event-driven strategies are those where PEs fund merger and acquisitions or bankruptcies scenario.
KPMG, the $20-billion global advisory and audit firm, is set to broaden its basket of operations in India as it sees annual growth of 40 per cent in the coming years as well. At present, a significant chunk of KPMG's global client service support is being outsourced to Outsource Partners International, a strategic partner, in India. Going forward, the outsourcing volumes are expected to double.
STAR India, a wholly owned subsidiary of STAR Hong Kong, is exploring the possibilities of getting into the print media business in India. Last week, top STAR executives including STAR Hong Kong CEO Paul Aiello, STAR India CEO Uday Shankar and COO Jagdish Kumar were in Bangalore for meetings with possible joint venture partners for the print foray. The company is said to be in talks with Vijay Mallya's UB Group.
This is as definitive as it can get. Dutch global beer major Heineken is understood to have outlined its intent to Vijay Mallya's United Breweries that it does not want to have any conflicting presence in India.
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