Ratan Jindal-led Jindal Stainless has entered into an agreement with Indonesian mining and metals firm PT Antam to form a $700-million joint venture to develop a nickel smelting and stainless steel facility in North Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi (Indonesia). While PT Antam will have a 55% stake in the JV, Jindal Stainless will hold the balance 45%.
The new venture would entail an investment of $700 million (Rs 2,900 crore approx), of which 30% would be raised through equity and the balance would be in the form of debt. The new plant will have a capacity of close to 20,000 tonne per annum (tpa) of contained nickel in the form of ferro-nickel and 2.5 lakh tpa of stainless steel. The facility will also have its own coal-based captive power plant and water-treatment plant, besides residential facilities for its employees.
While the construction work would begin from early next year, the plant would be commissioned by mid-2011. Under the terms of the agreement, while PT Antam will share its expertise in mining and nickel processing, Jindal Stainless will provide expertise in stainless steel processing and marketing. With Jindal Stainless already having a stainless steel plant in Indonesia, the new venture would strengthen its presence in the global stainless steel industry.
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Ranbaxy Laboratories has signed a strategic product development agreement with German pharma major Merck for drug discovery and clinical development collaboration in the anti-infectives field. As per the deal, the two partners will work together to develop clinically validated anti-bacterial and anti-fungal drug candidates. The agreement is in line with Ranbaxy’s recent overtures for collaborative research in various segments with other pharma companies both in India and abroad.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ranbaxy will receive an undisclosed upfront payment, in addition to potential payments totalling more than $100 million associated with the achievement of various research, development and regulatory approval milestones for each target included in the collaboration. This apart, Ranbaxy will also be eligible to receive significant royalties on worldwide net sales of any products commercialised under the agreement.
Ranbaxy will carry out drug discovery and clinical development through Phase II of clinical trials. Merck will then develop and commercialise the drug candidates. The collaboration, beginning this year, will have an initial term of five years and can be extended mutually. This deal could be similar in nature to Ranbaxy’s existing relationship with GlaxoSmithKline. The two had struck an alliance in 2003 under which Ranbaxy conducted the optimisation chemistry required to progress drug leads to the stage of candidate selection.
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Reliance Communications (RCom) has entered into a joint venture pact with global infrastructure provider Alcatel-Lucent to provide managed network services (MNS) to telecom service providers in the country. This is the first time two major firms have come together to jointly tap the emerging potential of MNS, a nascent sector in the country. The companies will float a new entity, which will kick off operations by providing services to RCom's CDMA and GSM networks. The new entity will initially focus on providing services to 12 circles in northern and western India. The JV firm will also help RCom's expansion plans outside the country and provide services to other firms across the world.
An MNS provider installs the infrastructure and equipment and manages it for the telecom service provider. Though data pertaining to the size of the MNS industry is not available, industry experts expect the sector to grow to about Rs 100 crore in the next couple of years. The JV will help RCom concentrate on its core competencies i.e. telecom services, while Alcatel-Lucent takes care of the infrastructure. After hiving off its passive infrastructure business of telecom towers this is a second move by Reliance Communications Ltd to outsource a core activity.
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