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Bajaj
Auto profit at Rs 538 cr in ’02-03
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Ltd has posted a net profit
of Rs 538.4 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, 2003,
as against a net profit of Rs 521.1 crore in the previous
fiscal. The figures are not comparable as the company
had an extra-ordinary income of Rs 117 crore from the
premium received from the insurance venture in the previous
fiscal. The company in the fiscal 2002-03, has recorded
the highest ever turnover of Rs 5,070.5 crore, up 15 per
cent compared to the turnover of Rs 4,402.7 crore in the
previous fiscal.
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Pharma
R&D fund to offer higher flexibility
New Delhi: While the Department of Science &
Technology (DST) is yet to draft the blueprint for using
the Rs 150 crore pharma R&D fund, it is learnt that
the concept of a corpus fund will offer more flexibility
in terms of fund utilisation. Under the existing programme
of DST, the DPRP (Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Research
Programme), the fund is required to be used up in the
same financial year. In case of a lack of appropriate
projects, the secretary could redirect only up to 30 per
cent of the surplus for other programmes and the rest
would not be available for next year.
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Usha
Martin net profit up 36 per cent
Kolkata: Usha Martin Ltd has reported a net profit
of Rs 8.22 crore for 2002-03 as against Rs 6.03 crore
in 2001-02, which amounts to an increase of 36 per cent.
Its core steel business did well but the market for fibre
optic and jelly-filled copper cables in the telecom industry
suffered a sharp downturn. A press release issued here
by ‘the country’s largest and the world’s
fourth largest wire rope manufacturer’ said that
revenues from its core steel business (including wire
and wire ropes) rose 13 per cent to Rs 669 crore in 2002-03
over Rs 592 crore previous fiscal. However, revenue from
the cables segment plunged to Rs 27 crore from Rs 173
crore in 2001-02. As a result, the company’s net
sales declined to Rs 734 crore from Rs 823 crore in 2001-02.
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FACT
may resume operations next week
Koch: Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT)
which had shut down all its plants since February 20 is
likely to resume operations next week, following Kochi
Refineries Ltd (KRL) agreeing to accept post-dated cheques
(PDC) for the due amount of Rs 103 crore. FACT sources
said furnace oil supply was resumed on Wednesday and ammonia
and naphtha would start coming in soon. FACT had to go
in for a shut down under the pretext of maintenance of
all its plants on February 20, following a lack of working
capital coupled with the credit squeeze by the major hydrocarbon
raw material supplier KRL. It was also preparing for a
layoff and had sought the Centre’s nod for such a
move.
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RIL
initiates action plans to look into BSES tangle
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has initiated
detailed action plans to address issues concerning BSES
Ltd, that require urgent attention. RIL intends to consolidate
operations in all its existing licensed areas and to look
at opportunities to enter new distribution areas, BSES
chairman and managing director Anil Ambani said in a letter
to shareholders in the company’s 74th annual report
for 2002-03. “We are deeply conscious of the several
aspects of BSES’ existing business that require urgent
attention,” Ambani said. These include the competitive
threat in the supply area in Mumbai; the large financial
claims made on BSES by its existing supplier of power
in Mumbai; the difficult state of affairs in the three
distribution companies in Orissa; the issues constraining
optimal performance of the power-generating plants in
Andhra Pradesh and Kerala; and the need to modernise the
company’s distribution infrastructure in Mumbai and
Delhi.
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IA
awaiting govt’s green signal to resume flights to
Kabul, Karachi
Mumbai: Indian Airlines (IA) is all set to operate
flights from Delhi to Kabul and from Mumbai to Karachi
as and when the Pakistani government reopens its airspace
but this is subject to the necessary clearances that will
be given by the Indian government.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, IA chairman and managing
director Sunil Arora said: “We are ready to resume
two flights a week from Delhi to Kabul and three services
a week from Mumbai to Karachi when the airspace is reopened,
and this is only after the Indian government gives the
clearances.”
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IBM
to merge Indian arms, to hire more staff
Ahmedabad: IT major IBM is merging its two Indian
arms — IBM Global Services India (IGSI) and IBM India.
The merged entity will be called IGSI. According to sources,
as a result of the merger, the entire business of IMB
India would be transferred to IGSI and in consideration
of the same IGSI would issue shares to the shareholders
of IBM India. The number of shares to be issued is yet
to be determined as the swap ratio has not been finalised.
In India, IBM employs about 4,700 people, of which about
3,700 are with IGSI. This is expected to go up substantially
in the near future. Revenues for the year ended March
‘03 are estimated at nearly Rs 1,778 crore.
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Satyam
ends 1-yr sabbatical, visits institutes again
Hyderabad: After maintaining an absence of over
a year Satyam Computer Services is taking a fresh guard
at campuses for recruitment this year. The company aims
to pick up at least a fourth of the required 2,000 professionals
from engineering institutes this fiscal. Satyam had withdrawn
from campus recruitment in fiscal ’02 when they didn’t
require additional resources due to the then prevailing
market conditions. But with good tidings round the corner,
the company looks to visit engineering schools in Tier-II
category, comprising the likes of Roorkee, BITS-Pilani,
beginning mid-’03
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Daimler
set to relaunch Mercedes `C' class soon
Bangalore: Daimler Chrysler's largest selling
Mercedes Benz car in India — the `C' class —
will be relaunched soon with a new powerful engine both
in the petrol and the diesel variants. A top Daimler Chrysler
official said that the diesel variant would be relaunched
first and will be followed by the petrol variant later.
He said the C-class diesel engine C-200CDi will be replaced
with a new engine, which will be more powerful than the
existing one. Daimler Chrysler India Ltd (DCIL) sold a
total of 620 `C' class Mercedes Benz cars in 2002 with
both diesel and petrol versions selling equally. The `C'
class carries a price tag of over Rs 20 lakh.
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NTPC
sounds Govt on ADRs — `5 per cent of equity would
net Rs 1,500 cr'
New Delhi: AS part of the resource mobilisation
options, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has
suggested to the Government that floating an American
depository receipts (ADR) issue amounting to 5 per cent
of its equity could net around Rs 1,500 crore. The power
major is facing a shortage of funds to meet its generation
capacity target set by the Government for the Tenth Plan
period. The company had recently said that the ADR could
follow the domestic offering of 5 per cent equity, slated
for later this year, which would raise an equal amount.
The equity offerings in the domestic and American markets
together would raise around Rs 3,000 crore. The offerings
would reduce the resource crunch from Rs 9,000 crore to
Rs 6,000 crore. According to estimates, NTPC would require
Rs 60,000 crore to commission its target of 9,370 MW generation
capacity during the Tenth Plan period. This requires an
equity contribution of Rs 20,000 crore against NTPC's
projected internal reserves of only Rs 11,000 crore.
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ASPET
ties up with German cos for export
Haldia: South Asian Petrochem Ltd (ASPET) has tied
up with two German companies Helm AG and Polytrade GmbH
for marketing its product — bottle-grade PET resin
— globally. The 100 per cent export-oriented unit,
inaugurated here on Wednesday, plans to sell about 75
per cent of its product in the international market and
the rest in domestic market. The Rs 450-crore project
with a debt-equity ratio of 1:1.37 has been set up by
the Dhunseri Group, controlled by S.L. Dhanuka and C.K.
Dhanuka. For the Dhanukas, who own tea gardens in Assam
and West Bengal, this is their second diversification
move, the first being a foray into the blended yarn industry.
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Infy
unveils ethics code to check financial frauds
Bangalore: With the accounting frauds rocking the
world, Infosys Technologies has unveiled a code of ethics
for its finance professionals and a whistleblower's policy
to encourage and protect employees willing to share information
on frauds but who choose to remain anonymous. In a letter
addressed to finance professionals in the company, the
Chairman and Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, said though
wider application is not required by the law, the company
chose to apply this code "because we believe we should
raise the bar for compliance".
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Minors
drag major cos to court
Kolkata: A petition submitted on behalf of two
minors, Mihir and Kushaal Khemka, in the Calcutta High
Court, concerning, inter alia, Sun F&C Mutual Fund,
has identified a number of corporates based in various
countries, including those in Russia, Italy and the US,
as defendants. Perhaps the most prominent among them is
Goldman Sachs, the US financial powerhouse. The minors
are represented by their mother, Ms Shubhra Khemka, a
Kolkata resident. The Indian defendants include what seems
to be a host of family members, all of them bearing the
Khemka surname, as well as corporates such as Indag Rubber
and Sun Securities (India).
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Binny
plea for Chennai land sale dismissed
New Delhi: The Appellate Authority for Industrial
and Financial Reconstruction has dismissed the appeal
filed by Binny Ltd against the order passed by BIFR declining
the plea of the company for sale of 1,260 grounds of land
situated at Perambur (Chennai) by private negotiations
at Rs 60 crore. In its order passed on May 9, 2003 here,
the Authority has pointed out that Binny Ltd became sick
within the meaning of the Act at the end of the financial
year on March 31, 1993 and by now after ten years lapse,
the company could not be revived by the BIFR which is
required to formulate a rehabilitation proposal.
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Philips
Glass to replace ECBs with domestic loans
New Delhi: At a time when most companies are busy
replacing their high interest rupee debts with low interest
forex loans, Philips Glass India Ltd is all set to do
exactly the opposite. The company has finalised plans
to substitute its high-cost foreign borrowings and replace
them with low-cost domestic loans. Philips Glass is a
subsidiary of the Netherlands-based Koninklijke Philips
Electronics NV (KPENV). According to the company's plan,
cumulative redeemable preference shares held by the Netherlands-based
parent company in Philips Glass
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Taylor
Nelson buys NFO of US for $425 mn
Mumbai: Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), a leading Europe-based
market research network, has announced its acquisition
of US-based NFO WorldGroup for $425m. TNS will be buying
NFO, which includes McCann-Ericksen and Lowe advertising
networks, from the Interpublic group of companies. In
India, the acquisition will bring together Kolkata-based
TNS MODE and Hyderabad-based NFO India (formerly MBL-RCG).
Precise figures aren’t available for the market research
industry, but the combine would probably rank third after
the VNU-owned AC Nielsen India (formed from the merger
of AC Nielsen and ORG-MARG) and the WPP-owned Indian Market
Research Bureau (IMRB).
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iDreams
heads westward with Bollywood masala
MumbaiI: iDreams, the film production house floated by
stock broker Sripal Morakhia, is going global. As the
company relocates its HQ to London, iDreams hopes to generate
80% of its revenues from international markets. Sripal
Morakhia, chairman of iDreams and head of broking house
SSKI, said that low returns in India and the popularity
of crossover movies from Bollywood in international markets
had prompted the company to revise its business strategy.
Domestic sales of iDreams products will only account for
20-30% of the company’s revenues henceforth, Mr Morakhia
said, adding that the relocation to London should be complete
by August, this year.
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Bharti
offers 20 per cent free ISD calls
New Delhi: Bharti is offering free ISD calls, amounting
to 20 per cent discount on its fixed line service in Delhi.
Its customers will get ISD calls worth Rs 40 on making
ISD calls worth Rs 200. Touchtel offers unlimited internet
access with all its Talk plans with off-peak (2230 - 0630
hrs) pulse duration of 360 seconds. For heavy users, Touchtel
has existing DSL combo plans for Rs 995 & Rs 2,000
where in users can surf for 50 hours a month and talk
for 200 or 1,500 pulses free depending upon the plan chosen.
It has announced four Talk plans with the entry-level
rental being Rs 250, where it provides 60 free pulses
and charges 80 paise for the rest of 300 pulses. For a
rental of Rs 750, it offers 600 free pulses, with Rs 1.10
for the rest of the first 2,000 pulses.
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