Corporate Moves

Dabur India Ltd plans to tie-up with the international major, Allianz group, in its foray into life insurance in India. Allianz will hold 26 per cent, while Dabur is likely to hold the remaining stake.

Finolex Industries Ltd is considering a proposal to buy back up to 10 per cent of the existing equity shares of the company at a price not exceeding Rs 40 per share.

Glaxo India Ltd has sold its `Livogen' brand (which is valued at Rs 3-4 crore) to E Merck India Ltd, as a part of its strategy to sell all tail-end brands.

Grasim Industries Ltd has decided to spin-off its software division, Birla Consultancy and Software Services, into a separate entity, Birla Technologies Ltd, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.

ICICI Infotech Services, a subsidiary of ICICI Ltd, has acquired 100 per cent equity of Ajax Software Solutions Ltd in all-cash deal valued at over Rs 18.75 crore.

Ind-Swift Laboratories has entered into exclusive marketing agreements with some major international pharma companies. The agreements would come into effect on the expiry of the product patent in those countries.

ING Insurance, Vysya Bank and the Damani group have formed a joint venture to provide life insurance services in India, with Vysya Bank taking a 49 per cent stake in the venture.

ITC Ltd has proposed an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP), where ordinary shares up to 5 per cent of the issued and subscribed capital will be issued to employees.

Jindal Vijayanagar Steel has decided to approach the lenders to convert a part of the existing equity base into redeemable preference shares and restructure rupee loans of Indian financial institutions/banks by converting part of the loan into equity/quasi equity and link the recovery of interest on part of the loans to steel prices.

Mascot Systems Ltd has indicated that it has entered the BEA Professional Service Provider program of BEA Systems Inc, a leading e-commerce transactions company. As a BEA partner, Mascot's engineering team will receive BEA product training and maintain a level of competency of BEA's technology throughout Mascot's operation.

ONGC Ltd has proposed to invest Rs 4,162 crore for exploration of crude oil and natural gas for the two-year period ending March 2002.

Reliance has formed a joint venture with Andhra Pradesh Technological Services to set up 7,500 Internet kiosks across Andhra Pradesh to provide electronic governance to rural areas.

Satyam Computer Services has formed a strategic alliance with Ariba Inc to provide scalable, B2B (Business-to-Business) e-commerce applications.

Srei International Finance has announced that its proposed merger with Apple Credit, Apple Finance and Alpic Finance has been called off.