Infosys is top scorer in survey on corporate governance
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies Ltd have said that they have been voted in a survey conducted by CLSA as having the highest corporate governance score among all the Asian large-cap corporations (excluding Japan).

The survey covered the corporate governance developments across 450 companies in the Asian markets. Infosys had a score of 87 per cent against an average of 81 per cent for the top ten corporations, the company said in a release.

As per the report, Infosys continues to be the highest scorer in India and the Asia Pacific, having maintained its top ranking since 2001.
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NCCL bags orders for Rs.138 crore
Hyderabad: Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd (NCCL) has bagged three orders worth Rs138 crore, including an order from Singareni Collieries Company Ltd for the construction of 1,050 residential units which is valued at Rs45.52 crore.

The other two orders are for the construction of houses at Bangalore for the Karnataka Housing Board worth Rs66.34 crore and from State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal for the development of infrastructural works at an industrial estate in Haridwar worth Rs26.05 crore, according to a company release.
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Wockhardt to raise $100 million through FCCBs
Mumbai: Wockhardt Ltd. will be going in for a $100 m foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) issue with a greenshoe option of $10 million. However, this is subject to the final approval of the shareholders, said a company press release.

Wockhardt will utilise the funds for overseas expansion. It had earlier announced its intention to acquire a company in Europe. Wockhardt has made two acquisitions in Europe and established its own sales and marketing organisation in the US. More than 60 per cent of Wockhardt's sales come from international markets, the company said.

The proposed issue is for a zero coupon, with a 50 per cent premium, five-year paper with a yield of 5.25 per cent compounded semi-annually.
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BCCI cancels tender for telecast rights
Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has told the Bombay High Court that it is cancelling the tender process for the telecast of cricket matches to be played in India between October 2004 and September 2008.

Following this submission, ESPN-Star Sports withdrew its petition against BCCI for awarding the telecast rights to Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL).

Subhash Chandra, Chairman and Managing Director, ZTL, told journalists that he suspected a conspiracy between BCCI and ESPN-Star Sports. ZTL plans to file a petition against BCCI in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It is likely to be filed under Article 32 of the Constitution.

BCCI Counsel, K.K. Venugopal, told the division bench of Chief Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud that there was no concluding contractual agreement between the cricket board and ZTL.

A draft letter of intent (LoI) was offered to ZTL; however, the latter did not accept it, as it wanted to renegotiate on some of the conditions, Venugopal said. BCCI is, therefore, exercising its power to cancel the tender process. As there is urgency to finalise the arrangements for production and telecast of the India-Australia series, the Board is looking at producing and telecasting on its own, Venugopal said.

The Board is also examining the option of going in for two sets of bids - one for the first three series (India-Australia; India-South Africa and India-Pakistan) and the second for cricket matches played in India for a period of four years commencing May 2005.

However, Rafique Dada appearing for Zee, argued that the network was ready to produce the India-Australia series. It has already initiated discussions with a couple of production companies. ZTL has also submitted an initial surety amount of $20 million (around Rs92 crore). To this point, the BCCI lawyer said that the Board would return the money to the company.

In the first tender for telecast floated by BCCI, Zee had emerged the highest bidder at $260 million (around Rs1,194 crore) and later hiked the amount to $308 million (around Rs1,415 crore) during subsequent rounds of negotiations. BCCI had selected ZTL as the broadcaster for these telecast rights.

ESPN-Star Sports, which was the second highest bidder at $230 million (around Rs1,056 crore), then filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against BCCI's decision.
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Valvoline Cummins targets Rs250 crore revenue
Bangalore: Valvoline Cummins, a leading producer of diesel engine and automotive engine oils in the private sector, has focused on the new segments such as CNG, filters and care products such as perfumes to consolidate its position in the Indian market.

It has a 3 per cent share in the Rs6,500-crore lubricant oil market dominated by the public sector oil companies. With its annual compounded growth of 30 per cent in the last few years, Valvoline
Cummins has projected revenue earning of Rs250 crore this year.

Valvoline Cummins, a 50:50 joint venture between US-based Valvoline International and Cummins Diesel Sales and Service India Ltd, has identified India as an emerging market.
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Avaya to continue as service hub in India
Mumbai: Avaya Global Connect, earlier Tata Telecom,in which Avaya Inc. has a majority stake, will continue to act as a strong service support hub in the country, as well as continue as a powerful distributor channel serving globally, with plans of expanding to Australia very soon.

Avaya, a communications solutions company, has a 51-per cent share of the contact centre market in India, which itself is growing at 20 per cent. Avaya also has a 64.4 per cent share of the Internet Protocol-PBX market in the country.

Avaya's addressable market growth rate in India is in double digits. The country is also one of Avaya's top five global markets , where its strong infrastructure investments are continuing. The Indian IP-PBX market, for instance, is rising to well over 50 per cent in the next two years , from a growth rate of 25 per cent in 2004, according to Mr Peterson.

Avaya Global Connect has strategic alliances with systems integrators such as IBM, HP, Netsol, HCL Infosystems and Servion. It has a distribution network of 58 business partners consisting of systems integrators, value added resellers and channel partners.
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Mastek to go for hike in FII limit
Bangalore: The annual general meeting of Mastek Ltd has approved increasing the limit of investment by FIIs/NRIs from 30 per cent up to 49 per cent of the paid-up equity capital of the company under the portfolio investment scheme.

According to a company notification to the exchange, at the AGM meeting held on September 20, the members also approved an equity dividend of Rs3 per share. Other decisions that were ratified include the allocation of 7 lakh stock options to be issued as ESOP to employees and identified employees of the company and subsidiaries.
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Wipro sets up Content Management and Portal practice
Bangalore: Wipro Infotech has said that it has set up an enterprise content management (ECM) and portal practice to address the growing requirements of customers in India, Asia Pacific and West Asia.

According to industry analyst firm Ovum, Asia Pacific will account for 12 per cent of the global revenues for content management or $241 million by 2007. They also estimate that India and China will evidence a growth of more than 20 per cent in ECM over the next few years.
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iGate to expand in Chennai
Chennai: IGate Global Solutions will hire about 500 IT professionals in Chennai in the next 6-12 months, thus doubling its employee base in the city. It currently has a 65,000 sq. ft. facility in Guindy and plans to add 35,000 sq. ft. in three months.

With this infrastructure expansion, Chennai will become iGate's second largest facility in India. The company also plans to have a large campus in Chennai in the future. iGate is set to complete its 14-acre Bangalore campus. Earlier this year, it expanded its presence in Hyderabad by setting up a development centre.

The funding for infrastructure expansion in India will be through the company's internal accruals.

iGate plans to issue capital on a preferential basis to the promoters of Quintant Services, which iGate acquired last year. This will generate Rs39 crore for iGate.

Part of the US-based iGate Corporation, iGate Global has over 3,500 employees in 12 countries and development centres in Canada, China, India, Malaysia and the UK. Forty one per cent of its revenue comes from GE.

Business volume from GE for iGate will continue to grow. However, iGate would like to reduce the percentage and ensure that contributions from non-GE clients are also significant, he said. iGate reported a net profit of Rs4.9 crore on revenues of Rs570 crore for the fiscal ending March 31, 2004.
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HCL Tech to buy out Deutsche Bank stake in DSL
New Delhi: HCL Technologies plans to buy out Deutsche Bank's 49 per cent stake in joint venture company DSL Software, with the valuation process expected to commence by the end of the month.

"As per the agreement announced in September, 2001, HCL Tech would acquire the remaining 49-per cent stake in the joint venture at the end of three years, through issuance of HCL Technologies equity shares to Deutsche Bank," an HCL spokesperson said here. The spokesperson said that the valuation process would start after September 26, 2004, and the transaction would take about two months to close.
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Reliance ties up connectivity with Intel-PCs
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm has announced an agreement with Intel to offer instant and high speed Internet connectivity with Intel-powered personal computers (PCs) and laptops sold across eight cities.

Under this initiative, users purchasing systems from select dealers will be offered Intel-powered PCs or laptops with Reliance wireless products such as mobiles or fixed wireless phones along with data cable, for Internet connectivity at download speeds of up to 144 kbps. Under the bundling offer, the base price of the PC and Reliance phone will be about Rs21,789.

The programme would initially be rolled out in eight cities —Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. The offer will be available only to new Reliance customers. Commenting on the data tariffs, he said the user would have to pay Rs200 as monthly rental and Rs0.40 per minute as usage charge.

Reliance would expand its wireless and wireline services to 5,000 cities and towns by the end of this financial year, while the subscriber base is expected touch 10 million by early 2005. By the first quarter of the calendar year 2005, the company would be able to cover the entire country except Jammu and Kashmir. It has applied for clearances to start mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir.
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Hungama TV to go on air from Sept. 26
Mumbai: Hungama TV, the children's channel from the UTV stable, will go on air from September 26.

According to Ronnie Screwvala, CEO, UTV, Hungama is the country's first channel with content and programming designed by the consumers themselves, i.e. the children.

Hungama will be telecast as part of the Star bouquet and hopes to reach 30 million homes. It will be a pay channel and from the ninetieth day, it will be also available in Tamil as south India is being perceived as a major market.

Screwvala holds 51 per cent of the channel's equity and the balance is with UTV.
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Canon India launches digicam products
New Delhi: Digital imaging company, Canon India has launched 11 digicam products and says it expects to notch Rs180 crore from sale of digital cameras by 2007.

Canon India, says the company is targeting sale of 2,70,000 units valued at Rs180 crore in 2007 from 10,000 units valued at Rs10 crore in 2004.

The company launched seven digital cameras, three Digital Video (DV) camcorders and one Single Lens Reflex (SLR) wide-angle zoom lens. It has launched a digital camera targeted at the youth - Canon PowerShot A400, which is available in four colours. The Canon PowerShot A400 is a 3.2 megapixel camera with a 2.2X optical zoom and DIGIC processor for strong image quality.

Terming A400 as a strategically important model, he said it would emerge as a major contributor to Canon's India digicam sales. The digicam category, which contributed 1 per cent to Canon India's total revenues in 2003, is expected to contribute 25 per cent of the turnover by 2007.

The company would invest Rs4 crore to promote the new range of digicam products. It is also expanding its dealer network to 500 sales outlets by December. Canon Digital camera products are currently available across 350 dealers in India. These include 200 photo dealers, 125 IT dealers and 25 consumer electronic stores.

The company is also putting in place its service network to support digital cameras. Apart from the national service centre in Delhi, expansion plans include 14 service centres in top 14 cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai amongst others.
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LG launches new fridge range
New Delhi: LG Electronics has announced the launch of a new range of refrigerators called 'Sense-I' in the frost-free segment. The new range comes with `inox' finished body, a memory backup function, a bacteria-free zone and the ice-beam cooling technology.

The range is available in 280 litres and 310 litre capacities and would be targeted at metros and A class cities, being premium priced.
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