MMTC subsidiary plans float: The MMTC-promoted Neelachal Ispat Nigam is planning an initial public offer of Rs 250 crore in December or January, a company official said. IDBI has been appointed lead managers for the public issue as it had earlier done the project appraisal and lead arranged the term loans worth Rs 1,248 crore.

Smithkline Beecham net up 31%: SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare has registered a 31 per cent increase in its net profit for the year ended December 31, 1998, to Rs 81.35 crore, against Rs 32.68 crore posted in the previous year. Sales grew by 15 per cent to touch Rs 645.62 crore, from Rs 562.30 crore in the previous year. The provision for taxation stood at Rs 35.16 crore.

Whirlpool profit up a tad: Whirlpool of India has reported a small operating profit of Rs 6.71 crore on a sales income of Rs 635.35 crore for the nine-month accounting year ended December 31, 1998. This is the first time the company has posted a positive operating result after three consecutive accounting years of operating losses.

Tamilnadu Petroproducts Q3 net rises to Rs 11 cr: Tamilnadu Petroproducts has shown a slight increase in sales for the third quarter ended December 1998 to Rs 87.87 crore (Rs 84.87 crore). For the quarter ended December 1998, the net profit was Rs 10.70 crore (Rs 5.81 crore), up 84.2 per cent.

Court stay on action against drug firms: The Delhi high court has extended the stay against initiating any punitive action against pharmaceutical companies with respect to a list of eight drugs following a writ petition filed by the Bulk Drug Manufacturers' Association). The stay will now continue till April 8, the expected date of the next hearing.

Motorola hives off networking arm: Motorola India has hived off its Bangalore-based Internet and networking group division, which had posted a revenue of Rs 25-30 crore last year. The staff strength of the division has come down by 80-90 per cent.

NHK Spring, Allevard Resorts up stake in venture: NHK Spring Company of Japan and Allevard Resorts Automobile of France have hiked their equity stakes in Jamna NHK Allevard Suspension Components to 82 per cent. In two other similar cases, Mattel Inc of the US hiked its equity holding in Mattel Toys (India) from 40 per cent to 100 per cent, buying out the Indian partners,

Gammon India bags contract: The state-owned Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation on Friday awarded a contract for the Rs 60-crore flyover between JJ Hospital square and Crawford market in south central Mumbai to Gammon India. The 2.5km flyover will be completed in one-and-a-half years.

Sensex down 21 points: As local operators continued to exit their long positions where dematerialised trading would soon be made compulsory, the 30-share Sensex moved in a narrow range between 3,204.50 points and 3,246.76 points, the intra-day's low and high respectively, on Friday to finally close at 3,215.35 points, registering a net loss of 21.07 points.

Primary dealers: The Reserve Bank on Friday gave final clearance to four entities to set up primary dealerships in the Government securities market. The central bank gave the clearances to JP Morgan Securities, ABN-Amro Investment, Ceat Financial Services and Tata Finance.

Crisil downgrades Lupin Lab: Rating agency Crisil has downgraded the non-convertible debenture (NCD) programmes of Lupin Laboratories Ltd and Lupin Chemicals Ltd to default category. The Rs 34.2-crore issue of Lupin Chemicals and the Rs 101.4-crore issue of Lupin Laboratories have been downgraded from BB+ to D.

Prasar Bharati cadres: Within hours of the Government announcing pay hike for subordinate engineering and programme staff of AIR and Doordarshan, several other cadres of Prasar Bharati on Friday threatened a nationwide mass agitation if their demands for pay parity were not met within 15 days. "We have noted with great concern that other categories of staff have totally been isolated ignoring the legitimate demands for bringing in pay parity among all the association cadres of AIR and DD," Jagdhishwar Prasad, chief executive of United Forum of Prasar Bharati Employees said.