Bizbits

J&K Bank

MUMBAI: Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd has exceeded the targeted business turnover for 1998-99. The bank has on March 1999 registered a business turnover of Rs 9,400 crore. This is against the stipulated target of Rs 9,000 crore set earlier. The deposits of the bank have also registered a 32 per cent growth to stand at Rs 6,450 crore against Rs 4,882 crore. The advances have also increased by 33 per cent to Rs 2862 crore from Rs 2158crore. The bank has also recorded a 43 per cent growth in investments to stand at Rs 2966 crore from the corresponding figure of Rs 2060 crore. The forex business of the bank increased by 105 per cent.

VMC Software

MUMBAI: VMC Software has recommended a bonus issue in the ratio of one share for every two shares held. The company has already declared an interim dividend of 50 per cent for 1998-98 along with the second quarter results.

MRPL chief

MUMBAI: M A Tankiwala has been nominated by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) as the managing director (Technical) of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals consequent to the withdrawal of the nomination of SK Mukherjee. Tankiwala, a mechanical engineer, has started his career with HPCL in 1974 and has worked in various capacities for more than 24 years.

HFCL gets ISO

MUMBAI: Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd’s state-of-the-art optical fibre cable plant in Goa has been accredited with prestigious ISO 9001 from NQA ofHolland. The company has thus become the second company in the country to achieve this. The Goa plant was supplied by world renowned Swisscab of Switzerland. The plant has Siemens Plc based process monitoring and control system which not only ensures the final product of utmost quality but also monitors and controls process and manufacturing parameters at stage.

Bharat Pumps

MUMBAI: The leading manufacturer of special purpose process pumps and compressors, Bharat Pumps & Compressors Ltd, Allahahad has added another feather to its cap by delivering almost all the orders during the past two years ahead of contractual dates of deliveries. During the year 1994-95 to 1997-98, it has increased its turnover/production from Rs 40 crore per annum to around Rs 80 crore and earned a net profit on its current operations despite increased competition.

Corporation Bank

MUMBAI: Corporation Bank has been conferred with the Asian Banking Award 1999 for its excellence in the social responsibility projectof its self-help groups-bank linkage programme. Bank chairman and managing director R S Hugar received the award from the Asian Bankers Association and the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific during the Asia Pacific Bankers Congress ’99 in Manila.

Tata MF

MUMBAI: Tata Mutual Fund (TMF) has shown an increase of about 60 per cent in the net assets from Rs 205 crore to Rs 328 crore during the year ended March 1999. Against a decline of about 5-6 per cent in the BSE Sensex and Nifty share market index, all the four equity funds and one balanced fund (Tata Young Citizens’ Fund) outperformed and recorded an NAV growth ranging between 31 per cent and 82 per cent.

The top performer during the year was Tata Tax Saving fund-1996 which has grown at the rate of 82.60 per cent since inception over the last three years with NAV of Rs 18.12. The fund is now made open ended from April 1999 for sale to benefit under Section 88 and provides easy instalment payment system of Rs500 to Rs 1000 per month. The fund has considered to declare tax free dividend in 1999-2000 instead of bonus unit after the new budget proposals are passed.

Choksey group

MUMBAI: Amit Choksey of the Choksey group, earlier associated with Asian Paints has acquired through his group company, Mazda Dye-Chem Ltd, the business and the technical know-how of Goodlass Nerolac Paints in the field of phthalocyanine pigments, both Alpha and Beta and their deriavatives/intermediates as also it full range of colorants including colorants for detergents.

Morepen Lab

MUMBAI: Morepen Laboratories Ltd has achieved the distinction of becoming the youngest Indian company to get the USFDA approval for its bulk drug plant at Parwanoo (H P) for the manufacture of Loratadine, a non-sedative anti-allergic drug.The inspection by the FDA authorities were conducted in November 1998 and the approval was finally communicated in March 1999.

Satyam Computers

MUMBAI: The restrictions placed on the purchasesof equity shares of Satyam Computers by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were lifted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday consequent upon their holding going down below 28 per cent of the paid up capital of the company. The RBI said in a statement here that the aggregate net purchases by FIIs in Satyam computers had gone down below the ceiling of 28 per cent and FIIs can now purchase the company’s equity shares from the secondary market under the portfolio investment scheme subject to existing ceilings and guidelines.

Advani-Oerlikon

MUMBAI: Advani-Oerlikon Ltd has reported a drop in its net profit to Rs 9.10 crore in the fiscal 1998-99 from Rs 9.77 crore in the previous financial year. The company recorded net sales of Rs 205.04 crore in the fiscal 1998-99, up 5.45 per cent from Rs 194.44 crore in the financial year 1997-98, a company statement said. The decline in net profit was mainly due to the additional burden of payments on account of voluntary retirement schemes as well as ahigher provision for depreciation in 1998.

Onida series

MUMBAI: Mirc Electronics Ltd (MIL), the makers of Onida Televisions, on Saturday launched a new series of premium colour televisions (CTVs), including the `Webcruiser’, a CTV with in-built Internet facilities. "With the new launches, we hope to achieve a 50 per cent growth in our market share in this fiscal, which ranges around 13 per cent at present," Mirc CMD, GL Mirchandani told reporters.

GSFC output

MUMBAI: Baroda-based Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals (GSFC) has produced a record 7.66 lakh tonnes of fertiliser at its Baroda plant during 1998-99, which was 22,000 tonnes higher than the previous fiscal. The production of urea was up by 19,000 tonnes to 3.57 lakh tonnes.