India Briefs

* Bharti Tele-Ventures, one of India's largest private-sector telecoms companies, has decided to fix the floor price of its mega equity offering at Rs 45 a share. The company plans to launch its initial public offering on January 28.

* The BG Group said it had renegotiated its agreement to buy Enron Oil and Gas India from Enron Corp for 10 per cent less than its original offer. BG had announced in October that it would pay $388 mn for the Enron subsidiary; it says it will now pay $350 mn.

* Britain's top brewer, Scottish and Newcastle, has agreed to buy a 26 per cent stake in BrewCo, the demerged beer business of India's top brewer, United Breweries, for Rs 250 crore.

* The government might decide to do away with the ad valorem duty structure and levy specific excise duty and countervailing duty on all petroleum products from fiscal 2003. The announcement may be made, media reports say, during the presentation of the forthcoming federal budget.

* Satyam Computer Services posted a 36 per cent rise in net profit, to Rs 119.43 crore, slightly beating analyst expectations. Total income rose 34 per cent to Rs 446 crore.

* A sharp fall in steel prices took its toll on the country's largest private-sector steel company -- Tisco. Net profits declined 73 per cent to Rs 35 crore in the third quarter.

* Higher volumes and a sharp reduction in interest charges helped Gujarat Ambuja Cements report a 75.6 per cent rise in net profit for the quarter ended December 2001. It posted a net profit of Rs 57.2 crore, compared with Rs 32.6 crore a year-ago.