Godfrey Q3 net rises 22.75%
Mumbai: Godfrey Phillips India Ltd has posted a 22.75 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 13.11 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001, compared to Rs 10.68 crore in same period of previous fiscal.

Net sales/income from operations was lower at Rs 127.8 crore in the period under review as against Rs 152.97 crore in Q3 of last year.
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Tata Infomedia Q3 net down 17.62%
Mumbai: Tata Infomedia Ltd has posted 17.62 per cent drop in its net profit at Rs 2.65 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 compared to Rs 3.22 crore in same period last fiscal.

Net sales for the period under review grew marginally at Rs 23.04 crore as against Rs 22.28 crore in third quarter of previous fiscal.

The sales growth has been adversely impacted by the general slowdown in the economy and consequent to slump in the advertising.

The net profit and net sales for the nine months ended December 2001 stood at Rs 10.45 crore and Rs 87.13 crore respectively.
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UTI to offload 4% stake in UTI Bank
New Delhi: UTI will offload 4 per cent equity stake in UTI Bank by the end of this fiscal as part of its efforts to bring down promoter's stake to 40 per cent.

As per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, UTI will offload 4 per cent equity in UTI Bank by March this year.

The bank had held initial talks with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for a preferential allotment to financial institutions.

Recently, Commonwealth Development Corporation bought 27 per cent equity in UTI Bank which lowered the promoter's holding in its Bank to 44 per cent from 60 per cent.

FIs, including mutual funds, hold 57.22 per cent in the UTI Bank, while foreign financial institutions had 9.99 per cent, other corporates had 15.65 per cent equity and the rest was held by individuals.
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NIIT profits plunge
New Delhi: NIITs October-December net profit plunged 88.4 per cent from a year earlier.

NIITs first-quarter net profit fell to Rs3.46 crore or 0.9 rupees per share, from Rs 29.83 core or 7.72 rupees a share in the same quarter last year.

Net sales declined 30.2 per cent -- to Rs 109 core from Rs 156 crore.
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Infosys inks pact with Citadon
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies and Citadown CW have formed a server-side development partnership which is designed to meet the needs of enterprises with capital works programmes involving complex engineering and construction projects.

Citadon introduced the new product at the 'DaratechPlant 2002 Conference' in Houston, the largest international forum focused on communicating, predicting and validating new developments in process plant and power industry Information Technology.

Infosys role in developing the new product consisted of architecture definition, implementation and product selection, all phases made easier due to the team's clear understanding of Citadon's business requirements.
Citadon is a leading provider of online software solutions for collaboration on the design, construction and operation of large, complex capital projects.
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Satyam commences China operations
Shanghai: Satyam Computer Services Ltd opened its Chinese arm and a software development centre here to bolster its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The company will not only utilise the abundance of software personnel in China to serve its clients regionally and globally but also help bring the Chinese software industry to a new and higher level.

Satyam, in close association with the Pudong Software Park, also established Satyam's software development centre in the software park here.
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Air-India to add flights to Bangkok
Kolkata: Air-India will start twice-weekly flights between Guwahati and Bangkok from the first week of April.

Air-India currently has three flights a week to Bangkok, none of which originate from the North-East.
A310 aircraft, with seats for 200 passengers, would operate on the Guwahati-Bangkok sector.
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Reliance Petros export income up 27%
Mumbai: Reliance Petroleum earned $1.26 billion in revenue from exports of petroleum products in the nine months to December, up 27 per cent from the same period a year ago.

Gasoline and diesel account for the bulk of exports.
A large portion of the products were exported to the United States and Europe.

Falling local demand for diesel, which accounts for 40 per cent of all petroleum products sold in India by quantity, has encouraged Reliance Petroleum to look to overseas markets to sell products from its 27-million-tonnes-a-year refinery in western India.
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DRL posts Rs 162cr Q3 profit
Mumbai: Dr Reddy's Laboratories reported a 70 per cent jump in its sales at Rs 400.6 crore in the third quarter ended December 2001 as against Rs 235 crore for the same period last year.

The net profit too grew sharply at Rs 161.5 crore as against Rs 34.4 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The sharp sales jump has been primarily driven by sales of fluoxetine and international sales of branded formulations.

International sales in the quarter shot up to Rs 250.6 crore as against Rs 111 crore during the same period last year, contributing more than 60 per cent to the total turnover.

The total income from operations for the quarter was at Rs 411.9 crore, including net sales of Rs 400.6 crore, milestone payment of Rs 10.8 crore from Novo Nordisk and contract research service fees of Rs 50 lakh. The EPS for the quarter was at Rs 21.29.
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Jindal Steel plans expansion
Kolkata: Jindal Steel & Power Ltd plans to invest Rs 750-crore by December 2002 on its expansion plan.

Jindal Steel will soon commission a rails mill at Raigarh, to make 120 metre rails for Indian Railways. The total cost of the project will be Rs 450 crore.

These long rails will reduce the frequency of joints on tracks and minimise the chances of accidents. The rails mill will begin commercial production in March.

Another major investment will be a 55mw captive power plant that will cost Rs 200 crore.

JSPL will also set a mini blast furnace at a cost of Rs 100 crore during the year 2002.
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Gesco launches housing project in Gurgaon
New Delhi: Gesco Corporation has launched a Rs 125 crore residential project in Gurgaon and is holding talks with Greater Noida authorities for an integrated township development.

The project will involve about 14 acres of land, which belongs to Bakshi Enterprises. The two partners will jointly finance the project.

The project will target high-end customers who would pay about Rs 33-35 lakh for a three-bedroom apartment with floor size of 1,900 square feet. The two-bedroom apartments with 1,500 square feet floor size will cost about Rs 24 lakh.
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SET to produce movies
Mumbai: Sony Entertainment Television is raising Rs 100 crore to form a fund for producing movies. The fund will be owned by an asset management company.

The company plans to produce around 10 movies a year. SET India has given the mandate to Ambit to organise road shows to raise funds.

The film fund will have a variety of investors including institutional investors and persons from the film industry.
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Videocon overtakes Onida as No 2 in CTVs
New Delhi: Videocon has taken the second slot in the cololour televion segment for the calendar year 2001, displacing Onida, according tothe latest ORG figures.

The CTV industry, which recorded 8 per cent growth in volume terms over the year 2000, also witnessed consolidation of shares by the Korean players as Samsung held on to its third slot for December. BPL has managed to retain its numero uno position.

For the calendar year 2001, Videocon increased its share of the pie marginally from 10.5 per cent to 10.7 per cent. However, this was enough to cross Onida's 10.4 per cent which marked a decline from 11.9 per cent (Jan-Dec 2000).

BPL, still the market leader, has witnessed a decline in its share from 18.7 per cent to 17.6 per cent in the same period.
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Weak tractor sales hit M&M net profit
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra has said its net profit in October-December fell 36 per cent to Rs 28.04 crore largely on weak tractor sales.

After accounting for extraordinary items of Rs 3.72 crore the company posted a net profit of Rs 2.32 crore for the quarter ended December 2001.

Net sales and income from operations rose marginally Rs 917 crore for from Rs 904 crore. The company said net operating profit grew 12 percent due to fall in material costs, decrease in staff costs resulting from restructuring and gains in marketshares in both automotive and farm equipment sectors.

For the nine month period, net profit fell Rs 2.52 crore from Rs 91.26 crore in the year-ago period. Net sales for the same period rose Rs 2,364 crore compared 2,593 crore.

In the automotive sector, utility vehicle sales grew nine per cent to 14,947 vehicles in the three months ended December and market share also rose to 51 per cent from 47 per cent. The company attributed the improvement to the launch of a new model called Maxx.
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Mahindras amalgamate subsidiaries
Mumbai: The board of directors of Mahindra and Mahindra has approved the amalgamation of e-Mahindra Solutions, Mahindra Auto Specialities and Mahindra Alternative Technologies with the company with effect from 31 March 2001.

Investments held by the amalgamating companies, would be restated at their respective net asset values and the surplus would be retained to create a provision for diminution in value of the investments of the company.
M&M also proposes to net off balance of its deferred revenue expenditure against the share premium account of the company.

While e-Mahindra deals in incubation of e-businesses, technology start up ventures, MASL distributes auto accessories and MATL studies and undertakes projects to harness alternative technologies.
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Sterlite Q2 net down 3%
Mumbai: Sterlite Industries reported a 3.4 per cent drop in its net profit for the second quarter ended December 2001 to Rs 36.3 crore from the Rs 38 crore earned in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.
The company attributed the fall in profits to weak metal prices at the LME.

Sales of the company grew 15 per cent in the second quarter to Rs 843 crore, as against Rs 736 crore in the same period last year. Domestic sales contributed a major chunk at Rs 761 crore (Rs 652 crore), while exports registered Rs 82 crore (Rs 84 crore).

The company said that copper prices will continue to remain weak and sluggish in the quarter and that they will stabilise only at $1,500 to $1,600 levels.

For the half-yearly period, Sterlite sales stood at Rs 1,561 crore compared to Rs 1,500 crore last year.
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ICICI merger approved
Mumbai: ICICI Bank shareholders have approved the merger of ICICI, ICICI Capital Services and ICICI Personal Finance with the bank.

In the meeting of equity shareholders of the Bank, an overwhelming majority of 99 per cent of the votes cast were in favour of the merger resolution.

ICICI said the scheme was subject to approval of the shareholders of ICICI at their meeting to be held on 30 January, the approval of the High Courts at Ahmedabad and Mumbai, RBI and such other authorities as may be required.
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Silverlink highest bidder for Lodhi hotel
Mumbai: Sinapore-based Silverlink Holdings has emerged as the highest bidder for the Lodhi hotel in New Delhi.

Lodhi hotel is being privatised as part of disinvestment of Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). Silverlink Holdings will pay Rs 70 crore for the 200 room three star hotel in the first week of February.

The 90-room Qutab Hotel in New Delhi, also a part of the ITDC divestment in tranche II, was bagged by Sushil Gupta of Asian Hotels for Rs 40 crore. Sunil Mittal of Bharti Telecom had also bid for Qutab Hotel. Qutab Hotel is likely to be positioned as part of the three-star hotel brand, called the Choice group of hotels, owned by Gupta.
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Essar Oil Q3 net profit at Rs 7.68cr
Mumbai: Essar Oil has posted a higher net profit at Rs 7.68 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 as compared to Rs 3.52 crore in the same period last year.

Net sales/income from operations in the period under review increased to Rs 48.97 crore as against Rs 39.30 crore in Q3 2000.

For the nine months ended December net profit stood at Rs 17.85 crore (Rs 14.28 crore) while the net sales were at Rs 144.04 crore (Rs 129.51 crore).
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Sundaram Finance profits down
Chennai: The net profit of Sundaram Finance was down by around 15 per cent in the third quarter of the current fiscal, touching Rs 7.30 crore as against Rs 8.59 crore in the same quarter of the last fiscal.

Profits stood at Rs 28.45 crore compared to Rs 30.21 crore in the same period of the last fiscal.
The total revenues during the third quarter ended December was down at Rs 110.47 crore as against Rs 113.49 crore in the same quarter of the last fiscal.

During the nine months period ended December 2001, the revenues stood at Rs 340.54 crore as compared to Rs 336.68 crore.
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BSES Q3 up 12.9%
Mumbai: BSES has posted a 12.9 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 86.79 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 as compared to Rs 76.87 crore in the same period last year.

Net sales from electrical energy in the quarter under review were at Rs 601.25 crore as against Rs 550.80 crore in same period last year.

The company's interest and other finances stood higher at 19.69 crore in Q3 2001 as compared to Rs 14.51 crore in the same period last year.

For the nine months ended December 2001, net profit stood at Rs 248.82 crore as compared to Rs 223.29 crore in the same period last year.
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BPL Q3 net slumps
Bangalore: BPL's net profit slumped to Rs 11.50 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 compared Rs 20.05 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Gross sales fell to Rs 401.29 crore from Rs 508.29 crore.

However, the operating profit went up to Rs 46.42 crore from Rs 42.30 crore even as the earning per share declined substantially to Rs 16.61 from Rs 28.95.

The company achieved a record colour television sale of 1,30,777 units in November 2001.

CTV sales turnover grew from Rs 292.58 crore in Q3 of 2000-01 to Rs 304.84 crore in Q3 of current year, a 4.2 per cent growth.
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Sail Q3 loss more than triples
New Delhi: Steel Authority of Indias third quarter loss more than tripled to Rs 585 crore from Rs 178 crore a year ago, due to higher costs and falling prices.

Sail, the country's largest steel maker, said its net sales fell 1.6 per cent to Rs 3,966 crore from Rs 4031 crore.
Sail sold 6.3 million tonnes of steel in the nine months to December, 3.6 per cent more than the year-ago period. This included exports of 0.42 million tonnes.
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Berger Paints Q3 profit up 40.32%
Kolkata: Berger Paints Indias profit after tax during the third quarter of current financial year stood at Rs 11.52 crore which was 40.32 per cent higher than Rs 8.21 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

Net sales during the quarter increased by 10.74 per cent to Rs 145.43 crore from Rs 131.33 crore last year, but other income came down to Rs 0.40 crore from Rs 0.54 crore.

Operating profit during the quarter stood higher at Rs 16.50 crore from Rs 14.61 crore last year.
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Supreme Indus Q2 net at Rs 1.34cr
Mumbai: Supreme Industries has posted a net profit of Rs 1.34 crore for second quarter ended December 2001, compared to Rs 21.8 lakh in same period of previous fiscal.

Total income in the period under review was higher at Rs 119.52 crore as against Rs 117.29 crore in Q2 of last year.
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Pharmacia to buy Abbott stake
Mumbai: Pharmacia has agreed to buy the 51.5 per cent stake held by Abbott Laboratories in an Indian subsidiary for Rs 60 crore.

Pharmacia will buy out Abbott from Abbott Laboratories India and make an open offer to minority shareholders for a further 20 per cent stake in Abbott India as per stockmarket rules.
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Nilkamal Plastics Q3 net up 94.85%
Mumbai: Nilkamal Plastics posted a 94.85 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 2.96 crore in third quarter ended December 2001, compared to Rs 1.52 crore in same period of previous fiscal.

Total income in the period under review decreased at Rs 59.41 crore as against Rs 59.92 crore in Q3 of last year.
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Sony ties up with Rashi Peripherals
New Delhi: Sony Electronics has tied up with Rashi Peripherals to distribute its entire range of storage devices in the country.

Sony, which was earlier marketing a few computer peripheral products here from its Singapore Electronics devices division, will distribute CD writers, CD, DVD and floppy disk drives through Rashi.

The company is in the process of putting in place a three-member sales and marekting team for these products.
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Shipping Corp Q3 net profit down 70.60%
Mumbai: Shipping Corporation of India has posted a net profit of Rs 37.970 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 as compared to Rs 129.180 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Total Income for the quarter ended December 2001 is at Rs 726.82 crore as compared to Rs 868.91 crore in the quarter ended December 2000.
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BEL Q3 net up 8.97%
New Delhi: Bharat Electronics has posted a net profit of Rs 25.750 crore in the quarter ended December 2001 as compared to Rs 23.630 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Net Sales/Income from operations has increased from Rs 308.020 crore in the quarter ended December 2000 to Rs 396.720 crore in the quarter ended December 2001.

Other income is higher at Rs 6.68 crore in DQ-01 as compared to Rs 6.05 million in DQ-00.
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Bhel Q3 net profit at Rs 80.15cr
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals has turned the corner with Rs 80.15 crore net profit for the quarter ended December 2001 against a net loss of Rs 197.96 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Sales turnover was also higher, by 16 per cent at Rs 1609.80 crore against Rs 1388.78 crore in the previous fiscal.

For the nine month period ending December 2001, BHEL's net profit grew to Rs 101.41 crore against a net loss of Rs 184.04 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Sales turnover has shown marked improvement over this nine-month period, to Rs 4167.30 crore against Rs 3586.49 crore in the first nine months of 2000-01.
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Pfizer India net up 20.32%
Mumbai: Pfizer India has registered a 20.32 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 47.49 crore for the financial year ended 30 November 2001 as compared to Rs 39.47 crore in the corresponding period of previous year.

The company has also declared a 50 per cent dividend for the year ended 30 November.

Total income for the year under review stood at Rs 382.09 crore as compared to Rs 339.4 crore in the same period last year.

For the fourth quarter ended 30 November the company recorded a 6.64 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 11.39 crore as compared to Rs 10.68 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, while total income was at Rs 104.69 crore as against Rs 95.42 crore.
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E Merck Q3 net up at Rs 44.71
Mumbai: E Merck (India) posted a net profit of Rs 44.71 crore for the year ended December 2001, compared to Rs 38.54 crore for the year ended December 2000.

The company achieved a turnover of Rs 338.46 crore for the year ended December 2001, reflecting a growth of 8 per cent over last year's turnover.

The pharma segment of the company recorded a turnover of Rs 205.95 crore, reflecting a growth of 5 per cent, while the chemicals segment record a turnover of Rs 132.52 crore, reflecting a growth of 14 per cent over last year's performance.

Other income for the current period stood at Rs 8.47 crore compared to Rs 6.16 crore in the period ended December 2000.
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IDBI Q3 net plunges 77 pc
Mumbai: Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has taken a hard knock on its bottomline with net profit for the third quarter plunging to less than a fourth compared year on year. The institution's total assets have also contracted three per cent year on year.

The net profit for the quarter ended December 2001 has fallen 77 per cent to Rs 35.2 crore compared to Rs 154.8 crore for the quarter ended December 2000.

IDBI's total assets stood at Rs 70,130.2 crore as on 31 December 2001 compared to Rs 72,523 crore on 31 December 2000.
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Disney to come to India
New Delhi: Walt Disney has been allowed by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary for the launch of the Walt Disney channel.

Currently, Walt Disney is the minority partner in WD India while the majority 51 per cent stake is held by the K.K. Modi group with management control.

According to the approval conditions laid down by the FIPB, the new wholly-owned subsidiary will not be permitted to undertake activities that are already being undertaken by the joint venture company.

This leaves Walt Disney with very limited alternatives. For now, it has to restrict its operations only to channel launching and will not be able to develop and market products using the Walt Disney characters, concepts, ideas, cassettes, toys, education help and video products.

The new subsidiary has also been barred from undertaking distribution of television rights and purchase and sale of commercial air time.
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Titan Broadband services in Delhi
New Delhi: Titan Broadband, a global broadband communications service provider, has launched its services in New Delhi.

Customers in the city will now be able to avail of Titan's services that include high-speed Internet access, virtual private networks and secure international connectivity solutions. They can choose IP or frame relay as their transmission protocol with these services.
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VSNL, Mithi to start multi-lingual email service
Chennai: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has tied up with the Pune-based Mithi Software Technologies Pvt Ltd for offering regional language Webmail solutions to VSNL users. VSNL Webmail service now offers e-mailing in eleven Indian languages along with English.

The e-mail service works in Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu besides English.

Sources said the service could be accessed from any PC connected to the Internet using a browser.
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