AOL posts record loss
Washington: AOL Time Warner Inc. has reported a record loss of 54.24 billion dollars for the first quarter.

Losses for the quarter were 12.25 per basic share.

The company said it had subscription revenues increases of 14 per cent in the quarter, from subscriber fee growth in AOL and its cable television businesses.

However, advertising and commerce revenues for the media company's other properties dropped 13 per cent to 1.8 billion dollars.
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Gujarat Gas Q1 net zooms 56%
Mumbai: Gujarat Gas has reported a 56% increase in net profit to Rs 21.15 crore for the first quarter ended 31 March 2002 when compared with Rs 13.57 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Net sales rose 13% to Rs 94.12 crore from Rs 82.62 crore.
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Geometric Q4 net down 41%
Mumbai: Geometric Software has reported a 41% decline in net profit to Rs 3.81 crore for the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2002 when compared with Rs 6.45 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Total income has increased 8% to Rs 18.13 crore from Rs 16.74 crore.

The company has posted a 43% increase in net profit to Rs 12.60 crore in the fiscal 2002 as against Rs 8.85 crore in 2001. Total income rose 40% to Rs 65.55 crore from Rs 46.69 crore.

The board has recommended a dividend of 30% - up from 3% last year.
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IOC willing to bid Rs 1,000 cr for IPCL
Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation is willing to bid as high as Rs 1,000 crore for the 26% government stake in IPCL. The price bids for IPCL will be opened on 29 April.

Assessing IPCL's Vadodara plant at Rs 300 crore, IOC's annual plan for 2002-03 states that if the government decides to divest its equity in IPCL to IOC, the estimated cost may increase to more than Rs 1,000 crore.

IOC is likely to bid upward of Rs 155 per share for the acquisition of 6.45 crore shares.
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Bharat Electronics Q4 net up 29%
Mumbai: Bharat Electronics (BEL) has reported a 29% increase in net profit to Rs 125.69 crore for the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2002 when compared with Rs 97.49 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Total income rose one per cent to Rs 1,018.77 crore from Rs 1,005.02 crore.

The company has posted a 20% growth in net profit to Rs 187.79 crore for the fiscal 2002 as against Rs 155.21 crore in 2001. Total income increased 11% to Rs 1,975.64 crore from Rs 1767.77 crore.
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Pentamedia Q4 net down 69%
Chennai: Pentamedia Graphics has reported a 68.87% fall in net profit to Rs 10.51 crore for the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2002 when compared to Rs 33.76 crore for the corresponding period last fiscal. Total income decreased 55% to Rs 64.13 crore from Rs 145.27 crore.

The company has posted a 35.75% decline in net profit to Rs 98.74 crore for the fiscal 2002 when compared to Rs 153.55 crore in 2001. Total income fell 18% to Rs 461.88 crore from Rs 570.16 crore.

Pentamedia posted a net profit of Rs 131.45 crore and total income of Rs 661.17 crore in the fiscal 2002. The company has reported a net profit of Rs 15.25 crore and total income of Rs 125.93 crore for the quarter.

The board, which has recommended a dividend of 50 paise per share, also approved the issue of bonus shares at the rate of 1 equity share for every 10 equity shares held.
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Wipro arm records Rs 200cr turnover
Mumbai: Wipro's 01 markets division, an e-procurement platform, has registered a four fold rise in its turnover at over Rs 200 crore for the financial year ended March 2002 compared to Rs 55 crore in the previous year.

The e-procurement platform has broke even and earned an income of Rs two crore from over 100 reverse auctions conducted for segments like steel and freight in 2001-02.

The reverse auctions had helped clients to save 8 to 10 per cent in terms of costs on procurements.

The company added 50 clients in 2001-02 and many corporates were planning to use e-procurement to reduce costs in times of economic slowdown.

The total addressable market for e-procurement was pegged at Rs 2,000 crore and 01 markets has targetted to double the turnover and income in 2002-03.

The company would now offer procurement consultancy and expand business in Asia Pacific and middle east.
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Volkswagen eyes production base
New Delhi: The Volkswagen group is planning to set up a base in India to produce its range of passenger cars.

The top advisory board of Volkswagen AG is currently on a mission to assess the feasibility of setting up a production site in the country.

The team has already held talks with several northern and western state governments, including Rajasthan.

The plans include initially commencing operations by marketing imported cars and then moving into assembling vehicles in India.
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Sasken plans Net terminals
New Delhi: Sasken Communications Technologies will soon be launching a simple terminal that can be used to access the Internet and send mails.

The Internet appliance which has been branded as Aparate will be launched in August-September. The pricing of the device would be between Rs 10,000-15,000 depending on the features available.

Sasken is in talks with large manufacturing outsourcing companies like Solectron and Flextronics for manufacturing of its Aparate device.
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SKF Bearings net down 77%
New Delhi: SKF Bearings India reported a 77 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 1.7 crore in the first quarter ended March 2002 as compared to Rs 7.47 crore in the year-ago period.

The company's sales went up by 12 per cent to 94.29 crore during January-March 2002 from Rs 84.16 crore in the year-ago period.

Last fiscal, profits were higher on account of income from sale of property and investments.
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Patel Roadways in pact with German freight major
Mumbai: Patel Roadways Ltd has tied up with Schenker AG of Germany, one of the leading freight forwarding firms to extend freight and forwarding business in each others territories.

The alliance is expected to bring an average annual growth of around 15 per cent for PRL, whose turnover in 2001-02 stood at Rs 130 crore.

Schenker AG claims to be the largest surface and rail transporter providers mainly in Germany and Europe.

PRL will provide all distribution and logistics support in India to Schenker AGs overseas customers and in turn, Schenker AG too will provide PRL similar support to its domestic customers in F&F and transport-related services in the global market.

PRL has over 50,000 customers, over 600 stations and is serviced by around 1,000 trucks carrying cargo worth Rs 6,000 crore annually.
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Tupperware to double production
Kolkata: Tupperware India Pvt Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based Tupperware Corporation, has decided to double production at its unit located in Hyderabad.

Tupperware started its Indian operations in 1996. Worldwide, it is one of the leading direct selling companies. Currently, Tupperware India has 62 distributors, 2,000 managers and 45,000 dealers.

Tupperware has joined hands with Hindustan Lever for a two-month joint marketing programme. Lever's Vanaspati brand Dalda is sold in Tupperware jars.

The company is talking with other leading FMCG companies for similar programmes.

Tupperware has decided to introduce in July or August a new product targeted mostly at the middle class population. Called Classics, this range will be priced approximately 15-20 per cent lower than the existing products.
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Apollo to foray into medical data processing
New Delhi: The Apollo Hospitals group is looking to enter the medical data processing segment and is poised to kick-off its first project with a New York-based group of hospitals.

Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals group, told media persons that the medical business process outsourcing would be done by its subsidiary company, Apollo HealthStreet, through its technology implementation division.

He said that the company had already invested Rs 10 crore in the new business venture and would have about 100 people working on the unit.
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Tata Elxsi declares 20 pc profit rise
Bangalore: Tata Elxsi, the technical computing arm of the Tata Group, has reported a rise of 20.77 per cent in net profits for the year-ending 31 March 2002 while its sales revenue declined by 5 per cent for the same period.

The company registered a net profit of Rs 16.74 crore on a sales turnover Rs 129.8 crore for year 2001-02 as against a net of Rs 13.86 crore on a turnover of Rs 136.74 crore reported the previous year. The board of directors of the company has declared a dividend of Rs 3.50 per share for the year.
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Bru launches new promo
Chennai: Brooke Bond Bru has launched a multimedia promotional campaign across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where six specially designed canters with a huge Bru jar filled with packs of Bru will do the rounds.

All those who make on the spot purchase of Bru can participate in a contest in which they will be asked to guess the number of packs in the jar.

The response closest to the correct number will get a gift voucher worth Rs 50,000, followed by three second prizes worth Rs 3,000 each and 10 third prizes worth Rs 1,000 each, according to a press release. The campaign will be on till 15 May.
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Canara Bank logs 37% rise in profits
Bangalore: Canara Bank has reported a rise of 37 per cent in its operating profits for the fiscal 2001-02.

Operating profit stood at Rs 1,550 crore against Rs 1,131 crore, with the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 11.5 per cent against 9.84 per cent as on 31 March 2001.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) were placed at less than 7 per cent while the net NPAs were around 4 per cent. These figures were 7.80 per cent and 4.84 per cent for 2000-01 respectively.

The bank is also targeting a total global business of Rs 1,12,000 crore, representing a 15 per cent rise against the Rs 97,000 crore which was achieved during 2001-02, according to a bank Press release.
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S&P eyes Crisil
Mumbai: International rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) wants to increase its stake in its Indian affiliate, Credit Rating & Information Services of India Ltd (Crisil).

Crisil posted a total income of Rs 44.33 crore and a net profit of Rs 10.6 crore for the nine months ended 31 December 2001. On a paid-up equity capital of Rs 6.2 crore, the company posted earning per share of Rs 17.10.

ICICI was the largest shareholder of the company with 11.03 per cent stake followed by Unit Trust of India with 9.96 per cent stake as on 31 March 2002.

S&P with a 9.68 per cent stake was the third-largest shareholder in the company, closely followed by the Mauritius-based overseas corporate body Pacific Strategic Mauritius.
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VST net up 34%
Hyderabad: VST Industries has improved its net profit by 34 per cent at Rs 36.98 crore (Rs 27.50 crore) for the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2002, despite a decline in sales by 10 per cent at Rs 680 crore.

The board of directors has declared a dividend of 45 per cent on the share capital of Rs 15.44 crore.

The company had, however, embarked on a drastic cost-cutting drive including a reduction in staff cost at Rs 44.67 crore (Rs 66.89 crore) and a reduction in consumption of raw materials at Rs 107.76 crore (Rs 131.71 crore).

VSTs bottomline was also strengthened on account of a decrease in stock-in-trade at Rs 4.53 crore (Rs 15.59 crore), decline in rates and taxes at Rs 22.18 crore (Rs 25.89 crore) and a surge in Other Income to Rs 4.60 crore as against a loss of Rs 4 lakh in Q4 during the year before.
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Allahabad Bank plans Rs 100-cr IPO
Kolkata: The Allahabad Bank is planning to raise Rs 100 crore through initial public offer (IPO).

The bank has already received in principle clearance from the ministry of finance to go ahead with the IPO.

Likely to be issued at par around September next, the Rs 100 crore IPO would bring down the government holding in Allahabad Bank from 100 per cent to about 70 per cent.
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Bill Junction to rope in investor
Mumbai: Bill Junction Payments, a 95 per cent subsidiary of ICICI Venture, is looking at roping in an additional strategic investor into the company.

Currently, the company consists of two main shareholders, with Rediff.com holding the balance 5 per cent.

Bill Junction Payments was started as a division of ICICI in September 2000. It was then spun off into a separate company with ICICI Venture holding the total equity. Rediff.com was inducted as a strategic partner subsequently.

The equity capital of Bill Junctions currently stands at Rs 11.75 crore. The company is an electronic bill presentation and payment service provider in India. It has a user base of over 1 lakh spanning the country.
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