TCS Q3 net at Rs.643 crore
Mumbai: Better prices, better realisations, more offshoring and robust other income of Rs141 crore (consolidated, under Indian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles - GAAP), largely from foreign exchange hedging gains, has led to Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) reporting increased revenues and profits for the third quarter ended December 31, 2004.

The board of directors of TCS will be meeting next week to consider a second interim dividend for the year, as the company had already announced an interim dividend in October last year.

The company has reported a net profit of Rs643 crore for the third quarter ending December 31, 2004, while income from operations amounted to Rs2,096 crore, with other income at Rs123 crore. On a consolidated basis, net profit for the quarter amounted to Rs718 crore, with total income at Rs2,691 crore.

According to the comparative figures available under US GAAP, the company has reported a 54 per cent growth in net income after tax at Rs709 crore, up from Rs460 crore reported for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Revenues were up 38.2 per cent at Rs2,578 crore from Rs1,866 crore. The company expects to cross the $2-billion mark in the current fiscal.

Gross margin stood at 47.55 per cent, up from 45 per cent during the immediate previous quarter. This was due to cost of revenues at Rs 1154 crore coming down to 54.09 per cent of revenues from 55 per cent over the last three months. Additionally, there was an offshore shift in revenues by 2.5 percentage points, with this component accounting for 40 per cent of revenues, up from 37.5 per cent as of September-end, 2004.

Income before taxes amounted to Rs 842 crore (Rs 538 crore). The contribution of General Electric, the company's largest client, has been coming down steadily every quarter, and has accounted for 14.8 per cent of international revenues, down by 1.1 percentage points from the second quarter, said Mr Mahalingam.

However, the top client still contributes 5.1 per cent to total revenues; the top five clients contribute 20 per cent and the top ten 31.8 per cent. The US accounted for 59.5 per cent of revenues, and Europe 23.5 per cent. The revenue from repeat business was down to 94.2 per cent from 96.1 per cent in the second quarter.
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Skoda to roll out Fabia and Octavia II by October
New Delhi: Skoda Auto India has said that it plans to roll out two new offerings - Fabia and Octavia II - and start exporting its Octavia range to the neighbouring countries this year.

"Both Skoda Fabia and Octavia II are expected to hit the Indian roads around October 2005," the Skoda Auto India Managing Director Imran Hassen, said here at the launch of the turbo version of Skoda Octavia Rider, sporting a price tag of Rs11.03 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Hassen said that the Octavia II would be based on the A5 platform against the existing Octavia, which is on the A4 platform. "It will be a bigger car than the present Octavia and will consequently be priced higher. In addition, we plan launches of new technology in the Indian market every 2-3 months."

The new models/variants that Skoda India plans to introduce this year includes a station wagon variant of the Octavia, and a diesel variant of the Superb.

"To cope with this increased demand we are planning to expand the production capacity from the current 15,000 vehicles. The amount of new capacity will depend on which technologies we finally decide to introduce in the market. We could look at expanding capacity to a level of about 25,000-30,000 units, " he added.
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Tata Power plans to hive off Tata Petrodyne
Mumbai: The Tata Power Company (TPC) has said its board of directors will discuss selling its wholly-owned oil and gas exploration subsidiary Tata Petrodyne, at its board meeting on January 20.

As Tata Power has decided to focus on coal-based power, it made sense to move out of oil and gas exploration, which was not a core business segment, said a senior company official.

Tata Power's board will discuss the Petrodyne sale and also the company's third quarter results next Thursday, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange. TPC shares closed six per cent higher at Rs358.30 on the BSE yesterday.

TPC, which produces 2,300 MW of power, has been selling some of its holdings in telephone and Internet subsidiaries in a bid to focus on expanding its power generation business outside Mumbai.
Tata Power had bought Petrodyne in 2000 for Rs145 crore.

Petrodyne has made four oil and gas discoveries at its three blocks that it owns with Cairn Energy Plc and ONGC.
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TDSAT allows Tata Tele to continue with 'Walky' ad
New Delhi: The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Thursday allowed Tata Teleservices to continue with the advertisement for its fixed wireless service `Walky'.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had earlier asked the operator to withdraw the advertisements on grounds that it was `misleading'

TDSAT, however, asked TRAI to issue a show-cause notice to the company for `Walky', which was being advertised as `Freedom of mobility at landline rates'.

During the hearing, TRAI argued that positioning a fixed wireless phone as mobile phone was misleading and there was a separate treatment for different calls. Tata Teleservices said there had been no notice from TRAI and there was nothing `misleading' in its advertisement. The company said that it had invested Rs 16-18 crore in building the brand name `Walky' and any move to withdraw the said advertisement would hurt the company.
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BSNL and MTNL launch broadband services today
New Delhi: Consumers will get access to high-speed Internet services from Friday onwards for as low Rs500 a month, with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd launching their broadband services across the country.

The Communications and IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, will inaugurate the service in Chennai on Friday, an official statement said here.

While BSNL would provide broadband services starting at 256 kbps in 198 cities spread across 24 telecom circles progressively by the end of March 2005, in Delhi and Mumbai, the services would be provided by MTNL.

BSNL, under its brand name `Data One,' will provide eight tariff plans, four each under Home Plan and Business Plan. The minimum monthly charges under the Home Plan range from Rs500 to Rs3,300, and from Rs1,200 to Rs9,000 under the Business Plan, depending on the bandwidth.

MTNL will offer the services under 'Tri Band' in eight tariff plans, monthly charges for which will range from Rs749 to Rs42,999, with bandwidth between 256 kbps and 2 Mbps with unlimited hour-free monthly usages.

BSNL and MTNL have decided to provide 1.5 million connections by 2005-end.
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Tata Tele to expand in three more circles
Hyderabad: Tata Teleservices Ltd , the private telecom services provider, is on a major expansion drive that would see it roll out services in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kolkata shortly.

This expansion would give it a truly pan-India presence covering 20 circles, excluding Jammu and Kashmir and the North East region.

The company said that with the addition of new circles, it would effectively cover 20 out of 23 circles and invest about Rs4,000 crore in the expansion that would take the coverage to 1,000 cities across these circles.

From barely 49 towns with 809 cell sites and a capacity of 1.3 million in December 2003 the coverage has gone up to 525 towns with over 2200 cell sites and a capacity of 4.04 million, reflecting over a ten-fold growth in towns.

Tata Teleservices also announced the completion of four corridors providing continuous coverage across a 1400-km stretch in Andhra Pradesh. These corridors cover Hyderabad-Warangal, Hyderabad-Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada and Vijayawada-Tirupathi.

The company had announced a total investment of Rs 445 crore in the AP circle earlier in 2004 and expects to top the one-million subscriber mark before the end of this fiscal.
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TRAI introduces three categories of licensing
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reiterated an across the board reduction in the annual licence fee from a high of 15 per cent to 6 per cent.

The TRAI has also proposed an entry fee of Rs180 crore for an all India unified licence that will enable a new operator to roll out any communication and broadcasting services, except cellular.

An additional charge would be levied on those wanting to provide cellular services, which will be equivalent to what the existing operators paid.

The regulator has, however, suggested that operators with unified access licence will have the option to remain in the existing regime for another two years. This will enable smaller operators such as Shyam Telecom to pick up licences for various circles if they do not wish to cough up Rs107 crore for the long distance licence.

The regulator has also proposed that companies with common promoter having a minimum of 10 per cent equity in each of the subsidiaries to migrate into the new regime as a single entity.
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Micro Inks posts Rs. 18 crore net
Mumbai: Micro Inks Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs18.4 crore for the quarter ended December 2004 against Rs12.7 crore in the year-ago period. Revenues increased by 15 per cent to Rs233.9 crore for the corresponding period.

The company said it has entered a fresh agreement renewing its long-term supply agreement with world's largest printers R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co in the US. The new contract for three years effective from April 1, 2005, involving additional volumes and new locations, at lower than earlier prices amidst highly competitive pricing, is estimated to be in the range of $22 million (about Rs94 crore) to $25 million (about Rs 107 crore) per annum.
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iGate growth flat for Q3
Bangalore: The appreciating rupee against the dollar has resulted in flat growth rates for software services firm iGate Global Solutions Ltd. The company recorded a 0.4 per cent increase in revenues at Rs143.4 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2004 as against Rs142.8 crore in the same period the previous year.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, it recorded a 4 per cent dip from Rs149.3 crore in revenue for Q2. Attributing the dip to the appreciating rupee value, the company has said that the sequential fall is due to the impact of foreign exchange translation charge as a result of a weak dollar. However, it expects to show growth over the coming quarters when some of its project realisations will commence.
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Indiabulls Q3 net up 174 per cent
Mumbai: Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs18.4 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2004 as against Rs6.7 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The total income for the reporting quarter rose by 116 per cent to Rs47.1 crore from Rs21.8 crore in October-December 2003, the company said in a release.

The strong growth was achieved amidst tepid market turnover, as overall trading volumes were approximately flat, the company has said.
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Reliance picks up SM Dyechem's glycol unit
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd has said that it has bought assets of SM Dyechem's glycol division from IDBI. The company did not say what price it paid for acquiring the assets of the 80,000 tpa glycol plant. Reliance Industries plans to get the plant re-commissioned shortly, a news release said.

The acquisition will make RIL the world's fifth largest mono ethylene glycol (MEG) producer.

This will take up RIL's MEG capacity to 8.32 lakh tonnes a year from 7.52 lakh tonnes a year at six locations across Gujarat and Maharashtra.

IDBI sold the glycol division of SM Dyechem, which has been shut since 1996, under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002. The company had stopped paying its secured creditors.

Reliance will produce MEG from alcohol for the first time at its newly acquired glycol plant.
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Aztec net up at Rs. 4.65crore
Bangalore: Software product engineering company Aztec Software and Technology Services reported a 2,210 per cent jump in year-on-year net profits, clocking Rs4.65 crore during the third quarter of the fiscal over revenues of Rs25.59 crore on a consolidated basis.

On a stand-alone basis, the company's revenues were Rs21.89 crore and net profit was Rs5.23 crore. Sequentially, revenues grew 26 per cent, while profits grew 21 per cent over Rs3.85 crore in the second quarter.
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Volvo starts exports to South East Asia
Bangalore: Truck maker Volvo has despatched the first lot of 150 trucks to South Korea kick-starting its exports to South-East Asia.

In Korea, Volvo has around 10 per cent market share and sells about 1,000 trucks. The trucks have been customised to the needs of the Korean customers, the company said.

Volvo already exports buses to Bangladesh and a few trucks to Sri Lanka. Volvo has taken advantage of the free trade agreement between India and other countries by sourcing the components from other countries and using India as a hub for exports. Volvo already exports auto components to other countries. In 2004, it exported about 26 million euro (about Rs148 crore) worth of auto components and expected to export 40 million euro (about Rs228 crore) worth of components this year.

In 2003, Volvo posted revenues of around Rs 360 crore compared with Rs 280 crore in 2002. In 2004, Volvo sold around 350 trucks, 300 buses, 200 engines and 350 construction equipment in the domestic market.

Volvo launched two new trucks towards the end of 2003, the FM 12 and FM9, which are part of the new global product portfolio, the group's biggest product overhaul in a decade, created at an investment of over Rs2,900 crore. The new trucks are built on a new driveline and fitted with a new Volvo Euro III compliant engine.
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Honda targets sales of 65,000 units of 'Unicorn' for fiscal
New Delhi: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) said it aimed to sell 65,000 units of 'Unicorn' this fiscal and launched a self-start variant of the 150cc motorcycle.

The new version was priced at Rs55,982 (on-road, Delhi), about Rs3,000 more than the existing model, HMSI said in a release. HMSI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honda Motor Company of Japan, said 'Unicorn' sales had already touched 10,000 units per month and it expected to further build on that with the new variant.
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CNBC-TV 18 launch Hindi channel
New Delhi: CNBC-TV 18 has launched its Hindi channel, Awaaz. Pitted as a consumer channel with mass appeal, Awaaz will focus on programmes related to personal finance, markets, careers, education and other such shows.

It will be available on the Zee-Turner as well as Dish TV.
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