Bizbits

There were apprehensions whether Skoda would agree for Aurangabad as another car giant, Fiat, after inspecting the site here had opted to set up its plant at Ranjangaon, near Pune recently.

The plant is expected to bring in a sea change for the economy of the region, generating employment for over 5,000 people directly, something which had never happened here since the arrival of the Bajaj Auto Plant in the early 8217;80s.

The State Government has agreed to most of the pre-conditions set by Skoda and those that lie in the preview of the Union Government would be soon cleared after a joint meeting of Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and himself, Munde said. While Guardian Minister Chandrakant Khaire had trained his gun on bringing the Fiat plant to Aurangabad,Munde was all along behind the Skoda plant, so much so that it had become a prestige point for the two leaders.

Electrolux rules out merger

NEW DELHI: AB Electrolux, the Stockholm-based white goods manufacturer, has ruled out the merger of its two subsidiaries Maharaja International and Intron Ltd in the immediate future. Quelling speculations of a possible merger of the two companies doing rounds in certain quarters of the market, Maharaja International managing director and Intron president Ram S Ramsundar said, quot;We have not thought about it.quot;

UTI wants more money from HLL

MUMBAI: Unit Trust of India UTI has appealed to the Appellate Authority of the Finance Ministry to order Hindustan Lever Ltd to pay a compensation of Rs 7.04 crore as against the SEBI order which has granted Rs 3.04 crore to the Unit Trust of India.

The Appellate Authority is scheduled to take up the SEBI verdict which has held HLL guilty of insider trading. The SEBI has charged HLL for having bought achunk of eight lakh shares of Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd from UTI without informing it about an impending merger between the two companies.