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Malaysian gaint joins handswith Indian company

Westport, the promoter and developer of South East Asia’s leading landmark infrastructure projects, has acquired 10% stake in New Delhi-based Feedback Ventures.

Tan Sri Datuk G.Gnanalingam, the Executive Chairman of Westport will be one of the directors of Feedaback Ventures. Tan Sri G who joined Malaysian giant in 1994 has been instrumental in shaping up the port business and introducing new concepts of Fastport Standards, Gardenport and Flexiport.

Chairman of Feedback Ventures, Vinayak Chatterjee is confident that entry of Mr. Tan Sri will revolutionized the Indian company by opening up vast opportunities for infrastructure business. “With Tan Sri Gnanalingam, Westport and the Hutchison connection, the Group is poised to be an even more significant and impactful player in the country - particularly in port and port-related projects in the country” Chatterjee added.

The Malaysian company is sure that The Feedback Ventures offers a well-recognised, professional and energetic platform for exploring investment options and creating various project opportunities for port-related infrastructure of international quality. The venture will focus on India’s coastline focusing on Container Terminals in the first phase. Incidentally, Malaysia is one of the top three investors in India in infrastructure area. Malaysia has mainly interested in the current National and the State Highway Development programme. With yet another tie-up with Malaysian company the Malaysian participation in Indian infrastructure is bound to increase.

L&T forms alliance with Intellectual Embryo

L&T Capital Company Limited (LTCC), the capital market arm of Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) has formed a strategic alliance with Emirates Intellectual Embryo (EIE). EIE is Dubai-based incubation and venture capital fund which has entered into a strategic alliance in the area of venture capital and business incubation.

As per the deal, LTCC will generate and process the deal flows by working closely with Indian technical institutes, research institutions, universities and corporate entities that are engaged in technological research and product development for funding by EIE.

LTCC has been an active player in consulting, project advisory, debt placement, equity placement and money market and has plans to grow in the financial services arena.

EIE, which is a Dubai Internet City (DIC)-based venture capital fund, is seeking to fund new technology start-ups. EIE is a technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) business accelerator and a venture capital fund giving embryonic stage companies global reach, presence and visibility.

EIE ispromoted by global investors such as Viking Investment AMC, Net Cradle - UK and Techsoft Venture Inc. Viking is a listed venture capital company on Johannesburg Stock Exchange, South Africa. The group has consistently delivered an IRR (Internal Rate of Return) of 60% per annum ($ based) for the past 4 years.

Dr. M. Pushpangadan, Chief Executive of LTCC, and Mr. Arif Khan, Chief Executive Officer of EIE, in a joint statement mentioned that the proposed arrangement would focus on the following areas:

* Deal flow and due diligence for new investments in India
* Co-funding opportunities
* Business development advice and co-branding
* Joint corporate advisory mandates
* Setting up Indian incubator
* Sales and marketing of incubated technologies

Dr. Pushpangadan also added “that the alliance with EIE will add a new dimension to the existing service offered by LTCC, allowing it to become a key player in the field of venture capital and business Incubation in India”.

Mr. Khan also added, “We at EIE are very pleased to have this strategic alliance with LTCC, which has a proven professional competence and market penetration in India.”

Orient Cement wins TPM Excellency Award

Orient Cement has received the TPM excellency award from the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM). JIPM which is the only authority worldwide for assessing TPM efforts ofcompanies is approved by Ministry of International Trade and Industry , Government of Japan.

Orient Cement, a division of Orient Paper Industries and of the C.K. Birla Group of companies is the first cement company in South India and sixth in allindustries categories to have received this award. The company adopted TPM management system in 1997 for meeting new challenges and competitiveness as well as continuous growth.

Orient produces 2.0 million tonnes cement annually with a turnover of Rs. 2430 million during 2000-01.

Due to the positive results from the implementation, the company will continue working with JIPM to maintain its excellence through TPM. awards.