Good year already

Anand Mahindra was recently given the ‘‘Ordre National du Merite’’ by France, an acknowledgement of his distinguished co...

Anand Mahindra was recently given the ‘‘Ordre National du Merite’’ by France, an acknowledgement of his distinguished contribution to the corporate world. To add to that, his company Mahindra & Mahindra also became the first Indian tractor company to achieve sales of 1 million. So the tycoon’s year has probably already been made. But that’s not all: Mahindra’s setting up his joint venture company in China, which will give M&M the much-needed toehold in China. The tycoon has ambitious overseas plans. Hard work made M&M the largest independent tractor dealer in the US recently. Again here the reason his tractors sell like hot cakes is that they not only give better performances but their costs too are lower than other tractors.

Now after gathering 270 dealers in the US, the tycoon is heading for Canada. But he doesn’t have everything going easy for him. He has to worry about input costs due to the surge in steel prices and the ever-increasing oil prices. Those are things he doesn’t quite find so easy to tackle.

Complex issues ahead

The Nambiar family courtroom drama refuses to die down. Nambiar’s petition against son-in-law Rajiv Chandrashekhar for trying to acquire control of BPL Communications fraudulently still remains unresolved even after months of litigation. Unfortunately for the BPL patriarch, early part of the legal battle remained preoccupied with trivialities like whether the case should be heard by the principal bench or the southern bench of Company Law Board (CLB).

Story continues below this ad

The CLB currently seems to have given some relief to the son-in-law by upholding his contention that the case be tried by the Additional Principal Bench (Southern Region) as the companies in question belong to the region.

The core issue of illegal transfer of shares by the son-in-law however still remains unresolved. Chandrashekhar’s lawyers have submitted that their client has no relationship with France Telecom as alleged by Nambiar. Interestingly, France Telecom had transferred 26 pzer cent stake in BPL Communications to Essar Teleholdings and other companies based in Mauritius during the period between vacation of stay on transfer of shares by the Karnataka High Court and the grant of stay by Supreme Court later in December. The events and other straws in the wind clearly suggest that not everything on the share transfer issue is likely to be resolved very easily yet, as also this family battle.

LNG dreams

THE shipping ministry’s refusal to grant license to foreign-chartered LNG vessels to carry LNG to Shell’s LNG terminal at Hazira has popped up as an opportunity for Indian shipping tycoons. K M Seth’s Great Eastern Shipping seems to be taking the lead. The shipping tycoon is all set to form a consortium with the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and Varun Shipping to bid for the contract to carry LNG to Hazira.

In fact the shipping ministry norm spells out that LNG carriers for Indian projects need to be either directly under the Indian flag or be chartered by an Indian consortium. The tycoon’s consortium incidentally would definitely end up having to charter a foreign carrier for the purpose. No Indian shipping company after all currently owns an LNG ship nor is a new acquisition a feasible option as delivery of any new LNG vessel against a fresh purchase order would take at least 4 years to materialise.

Story continues below this ad

Seth seems upbeat about the shipping opportunities that would emerge as a result of the new LNG projects that are being conceived of by Indian petro majors. An early move in LNG shipping would definitely give the tycoon an edge.

dilipcherian@hotmail.com

Premji said that Wipro would partner with the Government "to find a lasting solution for Bengaluru's mobility challenges".

Wipro rejects Karnataka Govt request to allow public vehicles inside Sarjapur campus

Cities6 hr ago

Wipro, a leading company in Bengaluru, has refused to allow public vehicles inside its Sarjapur campus to ease traffic congestion. However, they have agreed to finance a study to find a solution for the traffic problem. The founder, Azim Premji, believes that the issue is complex and requires expert analysis. Wipro has also committed to funding a significant portion of the study's cost.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS