By Prasun Sonwalkar
London, Oct 22 (IANS) Several ambitious Indian companies are stalking British business with takeover plans even as Indian enterprise is increasingly seen as creating jobs in Britain rather than just taking away jobs through large-scale outsourcing.
As several British hospitals and companies continue to mull over outsourcing work to India, the media here is devoting more column centimetres to takeover bids by Indian companies and to the many economic opportunities in India.
Tata Steel's successful four-billion pounds bid to take over the Anglo-Dutch Corus has evoked much interest as yet another example of 'Indian takeaway' of key sectors of British business.
But there are several other Indian companies hovering around the British isles.
Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant chairman of United Breweries, spent a week in Scotland this month visiting the distillery of the 162-year-old whisky major Whyte & Mackay and meeting its officials with an offer of 400 million pounds in his pocket.
Its South African owner Vivian Imerman claims that CitiBank has valued the company at 600 million pounds. But Mallya has refused to budge from his offer of 400 million pounds.
Imerman has confirmed that he is evaluating more than one unsolicited bid that could lead to the sale of part of the business, the whole of the business, or a strategic alliance.
The talks have stalled over the company's valuation and Mallya has returned to India.
But industry experts believe that it is a matter of time before Mallya gains a foothold in the Scotch industry with which he has had a running battle over the sale of whisky produced by his company in India.
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) and Mallya have been at loggerheads over the contentious issue: the SWA believes that Mallya's whisky products are not entitled to be called Scotch as per definition accepted by the European Union, and thus cannot be sold in the European Union.
Mallya, a member of the Indian parliament, is accused by the SWA of preventing the lowering of import duties by the Indian government on Scotch whiskies. The equations will change if and when Mallya acquires Whyte & Mackay or any other such major distillery.
Meanwhile, shares of the Aberdeen-based oil services major Wood Group rose more than three percent following reports in India that it is a takeover target for Reliance Industries Ltd.
Both companies have strenuously denied any contact or plans for takeover, but media reports to this effect in India sent Wood's share prices soaring in yet another indication of the growing influence of Indian enterprise.
The Wood Group, which ranks among the UK's largest 350 companies by market value, is worth about 1.26 billion pounds at current share prices. Wood Group chairman and chief executive Sir Ian Wood and his family own around 25 percent of the group's shares, either directly or through various trusts.
An unnamed oil and gas industry expert told the Scottish press: "Reliance would have to pay a premium on Wood's current market value, which would mean an offer of around 1.6-1.7 billion pounds.
"But you can understand the logic of it. There is a big appetite in India just now for oil and gas-related business and for bringing in skill sets internally."
On Friday, The Daily Telegraph carried a 1,000-word piece on 'the sari-wearing boss' of HSBC in India, Naina Lal Kidwai.
In a background paper during the recent UK-India Business Summit attended by Indian and British prime ministers, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) listed several British acquisitions by Indian co