Daily News Roundup - Aug 3 2011

Wockhardt Ltd has agreed to sell its nutrition business to Danone for about US$356 million. more than double the amount at which it had signed a similar deal with US pharmaceutical giant Abbott a year ago. (BS)

In a bid to boost sagging sales of passenger vehicles, Tata Motors has firmed up plans to restructure its local dealership network in the course of this financial year. (BS)



Tata Motors said it is looking to set up assembly operations for its small car Nano in overseas locations, including ASEAN region and Latin America. (ET)

Tube Investments of India has lined up capacity expansion to the tune of over Rs5bn. The proposed investments include setting up of greenfield facility for bicycles in east India and for tubes in north India. (BS)

Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd announced the expansion of business in Mexico to maximise their hybrid business model. The two companies will launch Daiichi Sankyo's Olmesartan Medoxomil, used to treat high blood pressure, in Mexico before the year-end. (BL)

Claris Lifesciences Ltd has said that its Ahmedabad plant has been approved by the UK's regulatory authority, the Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory Agency (MHRA). (BL)

Jyoti Ltd announced an exclusive collaboration agreement with Japan's DMW Corporation for manufacturing cooling water (CW) pumps for large irrigation and power projects at the Vadodara plant. (BL)

Bharat Electronics Ltd has developed a tablet PC that would cost US$70-75 (around Rs 3,000) apiece for the Ministry of Rural Development's poverty survey. (BL)

Wema Bank Plc, a mid-size commercial bank in Nigeria, has selected Infosys' Finacle as its banking solution for offering retail banking services through its 150 branches. (BL)

Gitanjali Group said it is expecting to double sales during the 5-day India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) starting on August 4, amounting to Rs8bn. (ET)

Monnet Ispat & Energy is carrying out due diligience on a coal asset each in Mozambique and South Africa and expects to close a deal in six months (ET)

NALCO has raised aluminium prices by 5,000 rupees (US$113) per tonne across all products. (ET)

Fortis Healthcare is in talks to buy a controlling stake in Hoan My Medical Corp, the Vietnamese hospital operator backed by Deutsche BankAG. Shareholders of privately held Hoan My plan to sell more than 50% of the company in a deal that may value it at about US$100 million. (ET)

Cognizant for the first time, overtook its closest rival Wipro in terms of revenues to become the third largest IT services player in India. (BS)

MIC Electronics Limited, a Hyderabad-based manufacturer of LED lighting and display systems, is readying itself to take a plunge into the fast-growing LED lighting retail segment, though in a small way to start with. (BS)
Economy Snippets

The Reserve Bank of India is exploring the option of not appointing its serving officers on the boards of government-owned banks and financial institutions. (BS)

After losing out an investment of Rs.40bn by Ford to Gujarat, the Maharashtra government has now woken up to revisit modifications made since April on claiming value added tax (VAT) set off by the automobile industry. (BS)

Days after the Supreme Court temporarily banned mining in Bellary, the suspended miners want the state's forest department to share responsibility for the environmental degradation. (ET)

Shahid Usman Balwa Tuesday accused the CBI of covering up the role of Datacom and Tata Teleservices in the 2G spectrum scam and told a special court here that Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot got the licence through forgery. (ET)