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Cosmo
Films net profit rises to Rs 9.2 crore in Q1
New Delhi: For the quarter ended 30 June 2003,
Cosmo Films posted a net profit of Rs 9.21 crore as against
Rs 8.42 crore during the same quarter of 2002-03. During
the first quarter, the company made a turnover of Rs 86.77
crore, growing 22 per cent against the 71.99 crore made
for the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Exports
grew to Rs 32.03 crore during the quarter, up from Rs
12.53 crore made in the first quarter last year. Says
Cosmo CEO S K Mittal: "Physical work is progressing
as schedule and we are quite confident of commissioning
the next production line in the fourth quarter."
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Elbee,
Phoenix ink pack for business growth rejig
Mumbai: Elbee Services Ltd (ESL) has signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU), subject to obtaining necessary
approvals, with Phoenix Resurgency Management Services
Ltd (PRMS), to provide professional management services
for implementing the growth plans of the company. With
the signing of the MoU, the entire board of directors
and the management team are being restructured. The company
has also recast the board with four new directors. Company
officials say with the sale of the Santacruz property,
approximately Rs 90 crore of the company's debt will be
reduced. PRMS, which specialises in turnaround strategy
and management, will not only offer strategic support
but will be responsible for the day-to-day operations
of the company. The company's CMD S Shah will continue
on the new board and P Chandrashekhar, Hormuzda Davar,
Sunil Mehdiratta and Harvansh Chawla have joined the board.
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Fiat
to infuse more funds into Indian subsidiary
New Delhi: Italian auto giant Fiat SpA plans to
infuse more funds into its loss-making Indian subsidiary
to restructure capital and reduce losses. Fiat India managing
director Alberto Montanari says this move can facilitate
the local unit to break even on its investments of Rs
2,000 crore next year and turn profitable by 2005. "During
my recent Italy visit, it has been decided to bring in
fresh money into India. We should break even next year,
even if we sell just 20,000 cars. After that, we will
become profitable." He, however, did not disclose
the total accumulated losses of Fiat India or whether
the parent company would wipe out the losses, since it
started operations in 1997. Fiat SpA had last month announced
a massive restructuring plan, which involved slashing
12,300 jobs and closing 12 factories to tide over two
successive years of losses. Fiat Italy earlier reaffirmed
its commitment to the Indian market saying that India,
China, Brazil and Turkey were its most important markets.
The company had reduced its total losses by 65 per cent
in 2002 as compared to 2001 through improved sales of
its car Palio. Besides the Palio, Fiat India makes the
Uno compact car, Siena, Siena Weekend and Adventure diesel
sedans at its Mumbai plant which can produce 50,000 cars
annually. It also has a greenfield facility in Ranjangaon
near Pune. Despite the launch of the Palio in September
2001, Fiat India's car sales failed to pick up strongly
due to intense competition from rival models. The sales
have now picked up after the recent launch of a diesel
engine model of the car.
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Amara
Raja eyes UPS, power sector
Hyderabad: Amara Raja Batteries Ltd (ARBL), the
Rs 202-crore manufacturer of a slew of batteries with
a foothold in the telecom sector, plans to change its
focus on developing business in other sub-sectors such
as industry, power and UPS batteries. The company says
its expectations that a combination of responsible governance
and the balance of market forces would sustain the telecom
growth were proven wrong. With orders largely still dependent
on network expansion, slowdown in capacity additions by
BSNL and lately by VSNL as well as many cellular operators
who were seeking even to share infrastructure, battery
demand was likely to remain depressed in the short to
medium term, the company said. "Significantly, we
are re-orienting our manufacturer's representative programme
to focus on identified high volume accounts to optimise
effort and restrict product portfolio to those that we
can support well and grow in the future like the `Brute'
VRLA traction batteries and `Powerstack' for substation
and generating station back up," the company said.
And, aimed at capitalising on the explosive growth in
the UPS sector, the company took a significant step in
participating in the market by launching `Quanta', an
indigenously designed high-performance UPS battery range
built to JIS standards. "This fills a long-felt gap
in our product range and takes us significantly closer
to our goal of being a full-range supplier of quality
VRLA batteries. The growth in this sector can partially
offset the loss in revenue from the telecom sector."
Saying the industrial exports have picked up and stabilised
at a higher level, the company said it would like to broaden
the width of distribution to more markets in the current
fiscal to diversify risks and act as a bulwark to demand
fluctuations in the domestic market. "Here, our primary
focus has been to develop confidence in utilities that
they can specify `Powerstack' as an alternative."
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Infosys
reports 7.8% rise in PAT
Hyderabad: Infosys has reported a 7.8-per cent
rise in profits after tax in the quarter ended June 2003
compared with the quarter ended March 2003. A combination
of improved volume growth, shift in revenue mix to offshore,
higher capacity utilisation and importantly, contribution
from factors such as lower depreciation and other income
has helped Infosys report higher profit growth. At the
operating profit level, growth was a meagre 2.3 per cent.
Even this however is against expectations. Infosys had
said in April 2003 that its earnings for the quarter ended
June 2003 would be lower than its earnings for the quarter
ended March 2003. Two factors have helped Infosys beat
its own estimates: Higher than expected revenue growth;
Marginally higher margins than estimated. Revenue growth
for the June quarter was about 6 per cent. Infosys had
anticipated revenue growth of a mere 1.8 per cent for
this quarter in April 2003. This robustness in volume,
especially in offshore volumes, has been the major factor
in boosting profits. Infosys has also had some success
in combating with rising costs. Cost optimisation along
with improvement in capacity utilisation - that is the
number of billed employees - helped the company restrict
the decline in profit per employee. This led to the 2.3
per cent growth in operating profits. With depreciation
declining and other income growing, Infosys managed to
convert this 2.3 per cent growth in operating profit to
a 7.8 per cent growth in net profits.
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Granules
India new granulation facility goes on line
Hyderabad: Granules India Ltd (GIL), the Hyderabad-based
Rs 64-crore active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and
pharmaceutical formulations intermediates (PFIs) company,
has completed the implementation of the modern granulation
facility at Gagillapur near Hyderabad. In a communiqué
to stock exchanges, it said the process validations and
trial productions have begun and commercial production
would commence shortly.
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M&M
seeks shareholders' agreement for
engineering business
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) is
seeking shareholders' agreement to formalise an engineering
services business in the area of design and product development
for manufacture of industrial products. The company is
also well placed to take up servicing third-party customers,
it said in a notice to shareholders. According to the
company, with its proficiency in the areas of robust data
security system and ERP/SAP, intranet and Internet connectivity
and having acquired specialised skills through managing
IT-enabled internal business processes, it is well positioned
to take on third party customers' servicing needs. "The
company aims to build an engineering services business
by leveraging the strong engineering capability of the
company and intends to develop and maintain high quality
skills by working on a variety of projects,'' M&M
said. The company had earlier announced that the division
aims to offer high-end engineering services, including
prototyping, testing and tool making. Its mandate would
go beyond the automotive business and cover inputs required
for sectors such as aerospace and ship-building. During
the current fiscal, M&M will focus on exports and
cost leadership. "Poor yields in FY 2003 and the
initiative of disciplining tractor advancing will cast
their shadows over the coming year,'' the company said
in its annual report of 2002/2003. Enumerating its risks
and concerns, M&M said there has been an upward movement
in input prices of major material including steel, plastic
and rubber. "A continuation of this trend could impact
demand or margins,'' it said.
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Dr
Reddy's gets tentative FDA endorsement for generic drug
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, the Hyderabad-based
pharmaceutical major listed on the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE), has obtained a tentative endorsement from the
US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market the
generic form of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company's antidepressant
drug - Serzone, according to industry sources. When contacted,
the company's spokesperson confirmed the development and
said the company obtained the approval on June 7 for sale
of 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg, 200 mg and 250 mg dosages of
the nefazodone hydrocholoride tablets. He said Serzone
had sales of $261 million in the US during last year.
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Tata
Indicom extends Rs 999 CDMA handset offer
New Delhi: Tata Teleservices, the basic telephony
operator, has announced the extension of its Rs 999 CDMA
handset offer to the entry level Rs 295 plan, positioning
it as the 'best value package' offer. "We came out
with the 999 offer in June which allowed the customer
to go mobile with a CDMA handset at an initial cost of
Rs 999. The response to the scheme has been amazing and
has encouraged us to extend the offer to entry level plan
of Rs 295 as well," Rajiv Burman, chief operating
officer of Tata Teleservices Delhi circle said. "This
will enable more and more people to go mobile at not only
lower entry cost but also at lower monthly bills."
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Progeon
registers Rs 72-lakh net profit in Q1
Bangalore: Progeon, the business processing outsourcing
(BPO) arm of Infosys, has ended the first quarter (Q1),
with a modest post-tax profit of Rs 72 lakh on a total
income of Rs 12.7 crore, says Akshaya Bhargava, CEO of
Progeon. The company has projected revenues of Rs 13 crore
to Rs 13.9 crore for the second quarter (Q2) ending 30
September 2003, and revenues of Rs 75.8 crore to Rs 85.30
crore for the year ending 31 March 2004. During the quarter
ended 30 June, Progeon added two new customers taking
the total to seven, which includes five active customers.
In Q2, the arm expects to recruit as many as 250-300 professionals.
The firm's total headcount stands at 882 as of 30 June
2003, after adding 343 jobs in Q1. Quizzed by an analyst
at a post-results conference, on how the arm was building
its middle-management cadre, Bhargava said that the company
has been able to draw experienced professionals, including
the head of its transition business who had stints with
Bank of America and Credit Lyonnaise. For its securities
practice, the company hired a person from international
broking firm Morgan Stanley, and for the finance and accounting
domain, it recruited a professional from audit major KPMG/PwC.
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