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PM announces Dual citizenship but cutoff year 1950

8th January 2005: Dual citizenship would be extended to all overseas Indians who migrated from India after January 26, 1950, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced. In his inaugural address at the third Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) summit organized by the ministry of overseas Indian affairs and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) in Mumbai, Dr Singh said, “I am happy to announce that we have decided to extend the facility of dual citizenship to all overseas Indians who migrated from India after January 26, 1950 as long as their home countries allow dual citizenship under their local laws.” Singh said his government would simplify the citizenship application form for overseas Indians. A new user-friendly form, combining the three forms prescribed earlier, had also been evolved and would be notified soon, he added.

The prime minister said his government would simplify the format of the certificate of registration of overseas citizens of India. Various options, including the possibility of introducing a smart card, were being considered, he added. Similarly, he said, his government had unveiled a civil aviation policy to meet the requirements of the overseas Indians by allowing Indian private airlines to fly abroad. Singh said the government was building new international airports in major metros and would soon modernise 30 other airports across the country.



BCCL takes stakes in Pantaloon

7 January, 2005: Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd has struck deals to acquire stakes in Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd and Celebrity Fashions (P) Ltd, makers of the Indian Terrain clothing brand. In Pantaloon, BCCL will acquire 4.53%, while in Celebrity Fashions it’ll be 12%. The Pantaloon deal is aimed at raising funds for the purpose of expansion, a company official said on Thursday. Pantaloon, which started operations in 1987 as a menswear maker, is now a leading retailer running stores, hypermarkets and food bazaars. It plans to increase its space capacity to 3 million sq. feet (278,700 sq. meters) from one million over the next 18 months, CP Toshniwal, head of corporate planning at Pantaloon, said. The share sale will raise about Rs 70 crore, he said. The company said it would issue 9,53,653 fresh shares at Rs 734 each to the media group. The media group was making a purely financial investment, Toshniwal said. Pantaloon will also issue 408,165 convertible warrants to its founders at Rs 735 each, he said. After the conversion of these warrants, Bennett, Coleman will hold 4.26% in the expanded equity. A shareholders meeting will be held on February 4 to seek their approval.

In the tie-up between BCCL and Celebrity Fashions — the first of its kind — the Rs 150-crore Chennai-based company sees a “perfect fit”, in the words of managing director V Rajgopal. While Celebrity, which owns the popular Indian Terrain brand of men’s casual wear, is eager to imprint its brand on the minds of middle-class urban consumers, BCCL has the right medium to reach the message. The four-year-old Indian Terrain brand, growing at a fast 15%, is set to cross Rs 35 crore in sales in 2004-05, and competes directly with brands like Raymond’s ColorPlus and Allen Solly.

Speaking about how the brand partnership with BCCL would help Indian Terrain, Rajgopal said, “This partnership will help us establish Indian Terrain as a brand for the global Indian, and for all the values it stands for, such as style, design and relevance of fashion. If you can’t take the brand message across in sufficient velocity, the brand will never get built.” Currently operating through nine manufacturing facilities in Chennai, Celebrity Fashions supplies apparel to iconic American and UK-based fashion brands like Timberland, JC Penney, Diesel, Banana Republic, Quicksilver, Nautica and Marlboro. Celebrity has independent design studios to cater to foreign brands. “We give up to 35-40% of design inputs to our customers,” said Rajgopal. Detailing the firm’s expansion plans, Rajgopal said Indian Terrain proposes to become an Rs 100-crore brand by 2007, while Celebrity has projected to become a Rs 400-crore firm by then. The company is also looking at a minimum equity infusion of about Rs 30 crore from SBI Caps for infrastructure development, which includes plant and machinery. The firm plans to float an IPO three to four years down the line. In addition to its existing portfolio of men’s casual wear; Indian Terrain plans to expand to knitwear and womenswear in the near future. The Indian menswear market is estimated at about Rs 800 crore.



Sponsored ADR/GDRs can bypass FIPB

5th January 2005: The government is planning to allow sponsored American depository receipts (ADR)/ global depository receipts (GDR) issues of companies through the automatic route. This means that companies would no longer need the approval of the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) for issuing sponsored ADR/GDRs. Instead, they can go ahead with such offers after informing the RBI about their respective proposals. Sources said that the two departments concerned with ADR/GDR issue and FDI policy - the department of economic affairs and the department of industrial policy and promotion - would first review the existing policy guidelines regarding the issue of sponsored ADR/GDRs and then make the changes required to bring it under the RBI’s automatic route. Also, the proposal may have to go to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for final approval. This move comes in the wake of companies joining the sponsored ADR/GDR bandwagon. Though the issue of fresh shares through the ADR/GDR route is currently automatic, companies going for sponsored ADR/GDRs have to seek FIPB approval. This is because such an issue amounts to secondary market transactions, where existing shares are offered for sale via sponsored issues instead of fresh shares.

Matrix Labs agrees to issue of 1:1 bonus

17th December 2004: The board of directors of Matrix Laboratories Ltd (MLL) at its meeting held here on Thursday has fixed January 20 as record date for sub-division of equity shares and bonus issue. In a statement to stock exchanges, the company said its board has also constituted a compensation committee for administration and superintendence of ESOP 2004 with three of its directors -Puneet Bhatia as Chairman, and C. Ramakrishna and N. Prasad as members. Earlier, the shareholders of Matrix Labs at the 19th annual general meeting approved the resolutions for the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 and sub-division of equity shares (stock split) into a face value of Rs 2 from the present face value of Rs 10. Addressing the shareholders at the AGM, the MLL Chairman and CEO, N. Prasad, said the stock split would improve the liquidity of the equity shares of the company, besides being more accessible to the retail investors. He said for sustainable growth, the company would focus on intellectual property (IP) value creation both in active pharmaceutical ingredients and dosage forms, cost-effective and quality manufacturing strengths, strong marketing and contract manufacturing of formulations for regulated markets.

A-I issues tenders for leasing 6 Boeings

13th December 2004: Air-India has issued global tenders for dry-leasing six Boeings 747-400s for delivery between April and October next year. According to the tender of documents, three of these aircraft are 747-400 combis, with a seating capacity between 220 and 300; three others are passenger aircraft with 389 seats in a three-class configuration. These passenger planes would be leased for a period of one to there years. A-I has sought delivery of two of the combi aircraft between April 15 and June 15, ’05, while the third combi is required to be delivered in October.

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