MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Ltd will consider the issue of splitting its equity shares into smaller denominations at a board meeting on July 28, the BSE said on Monday. "In the company's board meeting to be held on July 28, 1999, the board of directors of the company will also consider sub-division of the company's equity share of 10 Rupees each into smaller denominations," it said. According to market sources, the company is likely to go in for a share split of five shares for every one share held which would result in the equity's face value coming down from Rs 10 to Rs 2 per share. There has been some speculation about the company's plan of going in for a stock split. Expectations of a bonus and share split has already driven the stock northwards from Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,870 in the past few sessions.

Bates Clarion,Bates Worldwide merge

MUMBAI: Bates Worldwide, well known for the coining now universally used phrases like Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and"Think global but act local" has merged with itself Bates Clarion, India's oldest advertising agency with the intention of beefing up Bates operation in India. Jean de Yturbe, chairman of the newly constituted board of Bates Clarion, said ``the time is right to complement the pool of local talent with Bates cutting edge competence in traditional as well as new media and best practices proven around the world. We feel India is a market strategically critical to the Bates' network, which has annual billing of about 7.1 billion dollars, to provide integrated advertising services to its global clients.''

Nova Granites declared sick by BIFR

MUMBAI: The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has declared Nova Granites (India) Ltd as a sick company as its accumulated losses have completely eroded the net worth.

The board noted that the accumulated losses of the Karnataka-based export oriented unit stood at Rs 8.29 crore as against the net worth of Rs 7.6 crore as on March 31, 1998 andappointed the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) as the operating agency.

The company's unit, with an investment of Rs 11.37 crore, was engaged in the manufacture and export of tiles of granite, marble and coloured stones as well as wall and stone panels.