1. Presentation on ET News Presented By:- Harjeet Kaur MBA 2C

2. PepsiCo to set up low-cost foods unit. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to buy out Gujarat-based snacks majors such as Balaji Wafers and A-Top Foods Products, beverage and snacks maker PepsiCo India is in the process of creating its own low-cost foods business and increasing manufacturing capacities across its plants. While Frito-Lay remains category leader in the Rs 3,000-crore salty snacks market with four local brands—Lehar, Uncle Chipps, Aliva and Kurkure—which hold a combined 55-60% share, the multinational has been consistently losing share to local strongholds like Balaji and A-Top in the West and Haldiram and Bikanervala in the North.

3. The division will be separate from PepsiCo’s joint venture with Tata Tea announced in April this year for healthy non-carbonated beverages, and which is expected to roll out its first product later this year. Details of the new foods value division are yet to be finalised, a PepsiCo spokesman said in response to an email query by ET seeking information about the new division. The efforts to hike capacity come after Frito-Lay’s talks with the Rajkot-based Balaji Wafers failed about a month back. Owned by local entrepreneur ChandubhaiVirani and his family, Balaji has an estimated turnover of Rs 350 crore. Virani, who started his venture in early 1980s by selling sandwiches in a cinema hall near Rajkot and then diversified to home-made chips, has been keenly sought-after by Frito-Lay.

4. GTL Infra calls off $11 bn merger with Rcom. On June 27, 2010, RCom and GTL Infra had signed a Non-Binding Term Sheet for a merger that would see a combined tower strength of over 80,000 towers, with an enterprise value of $11bn, which would have made it the largest telecom infrastructure firm in the world. However, as the deed expired on August 31, 2010, with no efforts by either party to extend the agreement deadline or enter into a new contract, the deal has been officially called off, with a notice to that effect being sent by GTL to the BSE, after a meeting of the Board of Directors of GTL on September 6.

5. According to an official statement by an RCom spokesperson, "Following the expiry of the non-binding Term Sheet with GTL Infrastructure Ltd., Reliance Communications Ltd. is now engaged in discussions with certain other strategic and financial investors, to pursue a similar transaction aimed at significant reduction in the Company's debt and unlocking of value for RCOM shareholders from the passive infrastructure and related assets in its 95% owned subsidiary, Reliance Infratel Ltd.” This statement comes after previous reports that RCom and GTL Infra would convert around Rs 6,000 cr of loans from promoters into equity, to issue fresh shares worth $1 bn to investors to aid the merger.

6. Maruti to invest in third Manesar plant Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), the country's largest carmaker, plans to invest around Rs 1,925 crore for setting up a third plant at its second facility in Manesar. This will be Maruti's largest investment in a single plant in the country Osama Suzuki, director, MSIL, and chief executive officer of Suzuki Motor Corporation, said, "We had not estimated the pace at which demand for cars would grow in India. We are investing 35 billion yen for constructing a new plant at Manesar to meet the increase in demand."

7. With automobile sales reporting record growth in the first half of the year, Maruti Suzuki has been facing supply constraints in delivering some models. The need for capacity, greater than anticipated earlier, has come about because of the unexpected surge in demand for the multi-seaterEeco and also for the Swift. Company executives said sales of the recently-launched Eeco were three times more than the initial target of 6,000 units a month.

8. ESPN STAR to spend 45 cr on CLT20 promotion ESPN Star Sports, which will telecast the Champions League Twenty20, will spend more than Rs 45 crore, or four times what it spend during the inaugural season, for promoting the international club tournament being held in South Africa next month, industry officials familiar with the development said. The sports channel hopes to pocket $18-20 million (about Rs 90 crore) from this tournament, said officials requesting anonymity. It is charging between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3.25 lakh per ten seconds of ad time, media-buying executives said.

9. ESPN Star will soon roll out a high decibel campaign, created by McCann Erickson and featuring AmitabhBachchan as the brand ambassador. The campaign will promote the tournament as “AbHogaAsliMuqabala” . The channel had appointed international brand consultants Saffron to arrive at the positioning strategy for the CLT20. “The study shows that the tournament was perceived as quality cricket,” said a spokesman of ESPN STAR. “But because of the newness of the concept viewers were not as tuned in as one would expect,” he added.

10. HC says Vodafone must pay tax on Hutch buy Decision by the Bombay High Court in the landmark Vodafone tax case has tipped the equation in favour of the Indian taxman, as the court has accepted its jurisdiction over Vodafone’s India acquisition. On Wednesday, the high court ruled that Vodafone must pay capital gains tax on its $11-billion acquisition of a controlling stake in mobile phone operator Hutchison Essar that was completed in 2007. Estimates published prior to the judgement assign a $2-billion tax liability on Vodafone.

11. Vodafone will appeal to the Supreme Court in the next two-to-four weeks, said senior lawyer Harish Salve, who is representing Vodafone. The court has given the company eight weeks. “Vodafone remains confident that there is no tax to pay on the transaction,” said a company statement. The final outcome of the case may influence valuations and structuring of M&A transactions between offshore entities with underlying assets in India.

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