Corporate Moves

Cadbury Schweppes Plc has announced an open offer to acquire 1,74,98,880 shares or 49 per cent stake in its Indian subsidiary, Cadbury India, at Rs 500 a share. The acquirer which already holds a 51 per cent majority stake in Cadbury India, may proceed to delist the shares of the latter from the stock exchanges after the offer ends. Starting on January 24, 2002, the offer will run through to February 22, 2002.

German collaborator, Zimmer AG, will acquire a 6.7 per cent stake in the 190-crore equity capital of South Asian Petrochem, which plans to come out with a public issue of fully convertible debentures this month.

Shareholders of Hindustan Lever (HLL) have approved an increase of equity holding in the company by FIIs to 49 per cent and the company's Rs 1,320-crore bonus debenture issue. The debentures are to be listed for trading within four-six weeks from the date of issue and HLL has agreed to buy them back from their holders subject to a maximum outgo of up to Rs 100 crore a year.

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) has signed a long-term technical agreement with NKK Corporation of Japan to produce the world's longest rails of 120 metre finished length and larger sizes of universal beams, columns and U-type sheet piles.

Citing uncertainty in the market, US-based power major, Mirant Corporation, has opted out of its joint venture with Reliance Power to set up a 3,960 MW coal-fired Hirma power project in Orissa.

The Board of Mascon Global has decided to issue equity shares at a premium and on a preferential basis to US-based ISC Holdings aggregating to Rs 75 crore.

Sandvik AB, a Swedish hi-tech engineering firm will make an open offer to acquire 2,12,960 shares or 10.70 per cent equity of its Indian subsidiary Sandvik Asia (SAL) at a price of Rs 850 per share. With the conclusion of this offer, Sandvik AB's stake in its subsidiary will climb to 99.61 per cent.

Tractebel Energy has pulled out of its joint power generation venture with the Jindal Group, leaving the latter to buy about 12 per cent stake in the venture. The remaining stake of 38 per cent would be jointly held by IDBI and ICICI.

Wipro Infotech has tied up with Apollo Health Street, a software and technology arm of the Apollo Group, to jointly cater to the healthcare segment in 5555India, Asia Pacific and the Caribbean. Solutions offered will be in the form of Systems integration, data warehousing, CRM, security solutions, call centre services and disaster recovery systems, among others.

Zee Telefilms and Turner International (India), an AOL-Time Warner company, have announced a joint venture agreement for their operations in India. Called Zee Turner Pvt Ltd, it will manage the distribution and trade marketing for all the 17 channels belonging to both the companies, in addition to third- party channels in India and South Asia.