German wholesale major Metro Cash & Carry has finally received the license on Friday from West Bengal agri marketing board, to operate on a business-to-business model, but under certain conditions.

Under the arrangement, the German major has directed to sell commodities only to traders having a wholesale trade licence, or the Regulated Market Committee (RMC) licence and in case of agri products, an APMC license.

In addition, the WB agri-marketing board has also instructed the company to furnish the list of traders it is dealing with to the marketing board for scrutiny.  

Alkali Metals has decided to extend the last date for its initial public offer (IPO) to October 15, 2008 in the price band of Rs 86 to Rs 103 per equity share of Rs 10 each due to global meltdown.

According to the company, the IPO of Alkali Metals remains undersubscribed on the third day of its opening. The issue received total bids for 8.63 lakh shares as against 25.50 lakh shares on offer, as on 10 October 2008.

Alkali Metals is a Hyderabad-based manufacturer of fine chemicals. The Company proposes to utilize the net proceeds of the Issue to part finance its expansion plan involving setting up of an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) plant at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City, Visakhapatnam, with an installed capacity of 672 MTPA.

Luminous Power Technologies, a leading packaged electrical power and power conditioning products company, intends to launch its electric scooter 'Lectrix' next month.

Recently, the company has completed test runs of its e-scooter, the research for which took about two years.

At the beginning, the company would target its business in North India only. The company plans to open around 50 exclusive showrooms this year, of which 36 are already complete.

According to sources, the products would be priced between Rs 22,000 and Rs 35,000.

Proctor & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd plans to launch personal health care and feminine care products developed by its parent company, Proctor & Gamble in the Indian market shortly.

Super luxury carmaker Bentley announced the launch of its new model, Continental Flying Spur, which can make 100kmph in 4.2 seconds and reach its top speed at 322kmph.

The new model is priced at Rs. 2.5 crores (ex-showroom Delhi).

Though the economy is slowing down rapidly, Bentley plans to increase its focus on emerging markets, such as India to boost sales. The company sees India as a ‘key market’, and remains bullish on the market.  

With the launch of the new Speed variant, the company is targeting about 10 units of the Flying Spur family in the domestic market.

Besides the new car, Bentley sells four other cars in the Indian market. The company hopes to sell at least 10 models in India.

An interest has been shown by the world’s two leading steel companies Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal and India’s Tata Steel, in mining coal in partnership with Coal India Ltd from the latter’s 18 forsaken underground mines with the aim to secure reserves of coking coal, a key input needed to make steel. 

In less than six months, the price of the coking coal in international market has more than doubled to $300-350 per tonne, and this has motivated the steelmakers worldwide to scout for reserves across the globe.