The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has rescinded approvals given to Ranbaxy Laboratories
for two drugs in 2008. The tentative nod given to Ranbaxy to
manufacture and sell esomeprazole magnesium delayed-release capsules (20
mg and 40 mg) for heartburn and for anti-viral valganciclovir
hydrochloride tablets (450 mg), in February and June of 2008,
respectively, have been withdrawn since the regulator felt its decisions
to grant approval were in error. The company had received approval from
USFDA to launch the first generic versions of AstraZeneca’s heartburn
medicine Nexium and Roche’s antiviral Valcyte. Ranbaxy had, as a result,
a six-month period of exclusivity for launching the generic equivalent
of Valcyte, which now stands cancelled.
Wind energy major Suzlon Energy
has developed a new hybrid wind turbine generator that is nearly
one-and-a-half times taller than the conventional wind turbine. The
first of the 120 m tall hybrid tower was launched at a wind farm at
Naniber in Kutch district of Gujarat. The wind farm currently has an
installed capacity of 1,100 MW and Suzlon expects to take this to 2,000
MW in the next 3-4 years. The new turbine, whose cost is around 5
percent higher, can produce around 56 lakh units per annum against 50
lakh units for the 90 m turbine.
Pune-based PVC pipe manufacturer Finolex Industries
is planning to expand its product portfolio by entering into the water
supply and water equipment business. Also, as a part of this, the
company is planning to increase its capacity of the PVC pipes and
fittings plants by 40 percent to 320,000 tonnes through an additional
capital expenditure of Rs 90 crore spread over three years. Finolex is
eying $1 billion approximately Rs 6,000 crore turnover in the next five
years. Finolex is also planning to launch new technology products
related to water.
Financial Technologies (India)
(FTIL) has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) for sale of
25.64% equity stake on a fully diluted basis in Indian Energy Exchange
(IEX) for an aggregate consideration of Rs 576.84 crore. Post completion
of the above said transaction, the company would have completely exited
IEX. The company has entered into SPA with TVS Shriram Growth Fund 1,
S. Gopalkrishnan, Lakshmi Narayanan, Rajeev Gupta, Dalmia Cement Bharat
Power Ventures, Kiran Vyapar, TVS Capital Funds and Agri Power and
Engineering Solutions. The said transaction is subject to fulfillment of
certain condition precedents including buyout of the application
software and other technology for its own use only by IEX and regulatory
approvals, if any. As per the SPA, the transaction will close within 30
days, unless extended by all the parties.
Bharti Airtel,
the country’s largest mobile operator by revenue and subscribers, has
called off its plans to acquire Loop Mobile, as the deal failed to
secure regulatory approvals. With Loop Mobile’s licence expiring on
November 29, and the company has no plans to extend it, this is the end
of the road for the service provider. The approval for the transaction
is still awaited from the relevant authorities, as a result of which
Bharti Airtel has withdrawn from the proposed transaction causing huge
loss to the company. Therefore Loop Mobile will not be able to migrate
its subscribers to Airtel as originally envisaged.
Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering,
the country's largest shipbuilding and heavy industry company, is
expected to have its Rs 7,000 crore debt restructured by December. Apart
from the debt restructuring, Pipavav Defence also has a working capital
requirement of Rs 1,355 crore, which remains untied despite being
sanctioned by lenders. Pipavav Defence's debt was the same as its Rs
7,000 crore order book on September 30. The company builds naval and
commercial ships and offshore infrastructure for the oil and gas
industry. Nearly 50 percent of its orders are from the military. The
company is bidding for defence projects cleared by the government.
Tata Communications,
a leading provider of a new world of communications, has become a
Google Cloud Platform Authorized Services Partner. Under the terms of
this agreement, Google’s new service, Google Cloud Interconnect will
connect with Tata Communications’ IZO Public, a cloud enablement service
that provides a dedicated and deterministic route, for businesses, into
Google’s cloud. Through the IZO Public cloud enablement service, Tata
Communications and Google will be collaborating to provide businesses
with a simple and future-proof way to connect and build their cloud over
the public Internet - providing unparalleled performance, reach, and
capacity ensuring a consistently good user experience for enterprise
end-customers.
Jet Airways has
started new services from Mumbai to Doha (Qatar), Colombo (Sri Lanka)
and Bangkok (Thailand). Doha is currently linked with one flight each
from Mumbai, Delhi and Kochi. The new flight on this ‘high demand route’
will not only cater to the growing Indian expatriate traffic, but also
boost tourism and trade between the two cities. Besides, the company
will not operate low-cost flights ‘JetLite’ from December 1, as the
carrier is closing a service it started six years ago to now focus
exclusively on full-service operations.
Maruti Suzuki India
aims to design and develop its own car, without much support from its
Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), by 2017. India’s largest
carmaker, which draws much of its technical know-how from SMC, is keen
on its 2,000-strong research and development (R&D) team making a
car. Presently, SMC looks after the design, engineering, valuation,
validation and testing for Maruti’s vehicles. It holds 56 percent
equity in the Japanese-dominated board of Maruti. But the Indian firm
says with every launch, it is getting more confident to develop products
on its own. The recent launch of the automatic-transmission Alto and
its variants showed that.
