Bizbits

ABN Amro launches `Strip’ debenture

MUMBAI: GE Capital Services India has successfully launched India’s first Strip debentures. Strip stands for separately trade able interest and principal. ABN Amro is sole manager for this Rs 25 crore issue. This unique financial instrument has been jointly developed by ABN Amro with GE Capital Services. The debenture Strips are being offered for a tenor of three years with a coupon rate of 13.25 per cent semi annual which works out to a quarterly yield of 13.04%.

LML net profit up 39 pc in first half

NEW DELHI: Scooter manufacturer LML Ltd hasreported nearly 39 per cent increase in net profit (provisional) on a higher turnover of Rs 839.86 crore for the year ended September 30, 1998. The company’s net profit stood at Rs 20.36 crore and turnover of Rs 753 crore for the year ended September 1997. The company’s gross profit at Rs 19.79 for the quarter and has gone down to Rs 86.54 crore for the year ended September 30, 1998 (Rs 86.71 crore).

Ad Club’s Solus

MUMBAI: `Solus’, the house journal of the Advertising Club Bombay was recently adjudged the Best House Journal (non-profit organisations) by the Hyderabad-based Public Relations Voice. Solus has been adited for the last four years by Ramesh Narayan, who has been credited in advertising circles, for its turnaround, imparting the magazine every passing year with additional creative and technical excellence. " The award shall inspire us to take Solus to even greater heights", says Ramesh Narayan, who in addition to being the chairman of the Solus sub-committee (and its Editor) is alsocurrently the president of the Ad Club.

Investment limit for FIIs

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised that no further purchases of shares of Bharti Telecom Ltd and Madras Aluminium Company should be made on behalf of non-resident Indians, Overseas Corporate Bodies and persons of Indian origin. The overall ceiling of 10 per cent of paid up equity capital permitted to be held by NRIs, OCBs and PIO under the portfolio investment scheme has already been reached in the case of these companies. The RBI also identified several others such as NIIT, Software Solutions, HDFC, Ion Exchange, Garware Shipping and Baroda Rayon where FIIs investments have reached the stipulated limits.

Cheese powder

MUMBAI: Amul has once again demonstrated its innovativeness by launching Amul cheese powder in the country. At its cheese plant in Khatraj, it has mastered the art of preparing cheese powder, using the vacuum-drying process. This technology enables manufacture of cheese powder withrelatively larger granules, that facilitate better flavour absorbtion, when mixed with any food preparation.

Pennzoil India

MUMBAI: Pennzoil India announced the launch of Purebase 97 per cent pure, hydro-cracked base oil. Purebase has recently been launched in the US and is now available in India, says a company statement.

ONGC pipeline

MUMBAI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) would take on lease the 78-KM Koyali-Navagam pipeline of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for speedy evacuation of petroleum products from the expanded Koyali refinery in Gujarat.

A 116-km pipeline of IOC from Koyali to the Sabarmati terminal at Ahmedabad, which currently moves about 1.1 million tonnes of petroleum products annually, is already saturated. To expand market infrastructure and for speedy evacuation of additional products produced by Koyali refinery after expansion, the Koyali-Navagam pipeline of ONGC would be converted from a crude oil carrier to a product carrier.