Nutraceuticals, consisting of dietary supplements and functional foods with curative or nutritional benefits, are estimated to have a sales of $190 billion globally by 2010. India's food supplement and health food market is estimated currently at about $400 million. The country already has a clutch of established players focussing in this segment such as Avesthagen, Himalaya and Sami Labs.
The figure is expected to rise to over Rs 4,600 crore (Rs 46 billion) by 2010 - a compounded annual growth rate of 44 per cent. Retail has been one of the largest growth sectors for all the top IT firms. For instance, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, Wipro Technologies and Satyam Computer Services saw their retail business grow by 33.6, 45.3, 38.5 and 117 per cent respectively on a year-on-year basis.
The regulator has also cancelled the licences of three packagers providing services to Subhiksha for violating the packaging rules. The warehouses are based in Bhiwandi, which is on the outskirts of Mumbai.
The negotiations were shelved following a difference of opinion on prices. "We intend to close both the deals by September," said a highly-placed source with MCorp, the holding company for B K Modi's group of companies.
Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain), the third largest telecom operator in West Asia and a leading operator in Africa, has initiated talks with several Indian telecom service providers to buy stakes.
India Inc is seeing yet another family feud - this time between Gujarat NRE Coke founder Girdhari Lal Jagatramka and his son-law, Ratan Lal Tamakhuwala, who owns Austral Coke.
"Levi & Korsinsky usually investigates a deal when any of the clients complain about chances of fraud in the transaction. In Aegis's acquisition of PeopleSupport, we received a complaint from a client who is a shareholder of PeopleSupport. After our investigation, if we find any fraud, we will take up the issue before the court. At this point of time, we can not disclose the name of the client," said Juan E Monteverde, associate, Levi & Korsinsky.
The recent pullout by ICICI Venture and Citigroup Venture from a three-year-old drug discovery partnership with Dr Reddy's Laboratories points to angel investors' growing aversion to risk in pharma and biotech firms, say experts.
Indian IT firms have started mining smaller clients with more fervour given that the revenue accruring from their top clients has been declining due to the US slowdown and the sub-prime crisis. Consider this. Revenue accruing from the top clients of the five leading IT firms by revenue - Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, Wipro Technologies, Satyam Computer Services and HCL Technologies - dropped by anywhere between 0.2 per cent and 4 per cent
Pharmaceutical majors like Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's Lab, Wockhardt, Glenmark and Sun Pharma are now treading a careful patent litigation path in the US market to expand their generic business instead of the aggressive patent challenges they pursued until a few years ago.
Lines up investments in steel, power sectors to profit from booming demand.
Reliance Power (R-Power), the Reliance-ADAG group company, which plans to set up 28,000 mw of power plants in India, has secured $1 billion (or around Rs 4,200 crore) funding from three Chinese banks for the Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Madhya Pradesh.
In partnership with different US firms, two companies belonging to Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) have submitted competing bids for a single project floated by the Ministry of Coal.
Indian companies led by Anil Ambani's Reliance Power (RPower), Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) plan to invest over Rs 100,000 crore in the next five years to expand their presence in the nuclear energy sector after the country signs the nuclear agreement with the US, paving the way for import of fuel and transfer of technology.
Pharmaceutical companies in the country offering any financial incentive to doctors to prescribe particular drugs may become a thing of the past if the drug manufacturers decide to follow the strict code of conduct being implemented by a US industry trade group.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (Glenmark), which reorganised its speciality and generics businesses recently, is looking to acquire a medium to large-scale speciality pharmaceutical company in the US.
Naresh Nayyar, MD & CEO, Essar Oil, tells Business Standard that a windfall profit tax on private oil companies will only worsen the situation.
Ruias-controlled Essar Oil is close to acquiring two oil and gas blocks in Australia. The company has emerged as the preferred bidder for developing the blocks amidst international competition. The ruias will hold 100 per cent equity in the blocks.
May opt for PE funds or debt to finance capital expenditure.
Amid reports of a US Congress probe against India's largest drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories, data show that many leading multinational companies such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Merck are also under the scanner of the US drug regulator, for more or less similar violations as Ranbaxy is alleged to have committed.
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