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Ratan
Tata: CEO's forum to define areas concern,
provide feedback
Washington, DC, USA: Non-exec chairman of Tata Sons,
Ratan Tata, the newly appointed Indian chair of the high-
powered CEO forum accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh during his US visit, says that the forum's mandate
is to create a sense of greater understanding between
the two countries.
In an interview to a television channel, Ratan Tata said
that there is also a desire, that at the business level,
the forum should define areas that will enhance that understanding,
which can then be provided as a feedback to the respective
governments.
As
for the very first meeting held by the two sides, Ratan
Tata said that though it was only a first meeting both
sides got an opportunity to hear certain views and apprehensions.
In
his opinion, the meetings went beyond their expectations
and he felt that this was a view with which the American
side would also concur.
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BMW
to open assembly plant in Tamil Nadu
New Delhi: BMW, the German luxury car manufacturer,
has decided to set up a plant in Chenglepet, Tamil Nadu,
through a wholly-owned subsidiary at an investment of
Rs100 crore.
According to sources the Chenglepet plant will assemble
automobiles using completely knocked down car parts kits
imported as well as sourced in India. The plant will import
completely-built units from the German parent and its
group companies. The Indian subsidiary will also market
and distribute the automobiles in India and overseas,
in addition to providing after-sales service.
India recorded a million in car sales last year, and has
the largest growth potential after China but remains relatively
untapped, especially at the premium end.
BMW, the sources said, had told the government that it
wanted to convert BMW India, incorporated in 1997 with
a paid-up capital of Rs1 lakh, into a wholly-owned subsidiary
by acquiring all its 10,000 shares from the company's
existing shareholders, Ravinder Nath and Satish Kumar
Narula, at a face value of Rs10 a share.
Besides, BMW will infuse fresh capital into the company
at a face value amounting to Rs73 crore.
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Infosys
and Oracle developing financial services platform
Bangalore: IT services firm Infosys Technologies and
relational databases maker Oracle will address, with greater
focus, business needs of customers in the hi-tech, manufacturing
and financial services sectors in the Asia Pacific region,
Infosys has said in a statement.
Both organisations have experience helping Asia Pacific
customers in the hi-tech, manufacturing and financial
services sectors, especially in Japan, China and Australia,
to effectively manage IT and business systems.
The two companies are working together to provide a solution
based on Oracle 10g technology for banks and financial
institutions in Japan, as an alternative to mainframe
technology, the statement said.
The partnership will address the business needs of global
hi-tech and manufacturing companies in China through solutions
based on the Oracle E-Business Suite. One such joint initiative
is a solution based on Oracle E-Business Suite to address
the financial and manufacturing process needs of US- based
company, RAE Systems. RAE Systems is a leading global
developer and manufacturer of rapidly deployable chemical
and radiation detection monitors, as well as multi-sensor
networks for homeland security and Industrial applications,
the statement said.
In Australia, the two organisations will jointly offer
solutions based on the latest financial services applications.
In the Oracle E-Business Suite, including lease management
and Oracle Financial Services Applications (OFSA), the
statement said.
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Tata
Steel outsources IT functions to TCS
Jamshedpur:
Tata Steel will outsource its information technology (IT)
department to Tata Consultancy Services in the next few
of days.
Tata Steel sources said outsourcing of the info-tech department
is part of an overall plan to concentrate more on its
core business of making steel and also to reduce costs.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, the official
said Tata Steel felt that IT should be handled by a concern,
which has expertise in the field. TCS is the global leader
in information technology consulting, services, and business
process outsourcing.
The company commenced operations in 1968 and is now present
in 33 countries across five continents and offers a comprehensive
range of services for diverse industries. Six of the Fortune
Top 10 companies are among its customers.
Tata Steel already has an understanding with IBM for maintenance
of its hardware in its IT department.
After the outsourcing of the department, IBM will continue
to look after hardware maintenance while TCS will be responsible
for the software. The current workforce of the company
would be gradually transferred to the rolls of TCS.
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Sena
leaders pick up mill property for Rs.421 crore
Mumbai:
Prices of Mumbai mill properties have gone through the
roof, with the latest two properties on the block going
for a total of Rs862 crore.
Indiabulls Real Estate Company Pvt Ltd, part of Indiabulls
Financial Services, was the highest bidder at Rs 441.75
crore for the NTC South Maharashtra Elphinstone Mill.
There were five bids in all for the eight-acre property.
Kohinoor CTN Ltd was the highest bidder at Rs421 crore
for the Kohinoor Mills No 3, NTC North Maharashtra property,
located opposite Sena Bhavan in Dadar. The other bidders
were Varun Industries with a bid of Rs411 crore and Akruti
Nirmaan with a bid of Rs 289 crore.
The Elphinstone Mill has been under litigation since 1983.
The sale will depend on the outcome of the court judgement.
The original writ petition initiated by the owner had
challenged the nationalisation of the mill. The mill is
closed and its machinery has been sold off. Employees
were given VRS packages.
The bids on the current properties have exceeded expectations,
according to real estate consultants, with the current
bid price of Rs421 crore for Kohinoor mill pushing the
per sq foot price to Rs15,000 from the previous price
of Rs7,600 per sq foot. The Kohinoor property represents
a built-up space of 2.70 lakh sq ft.
For the Elphinstone Mill property, the Rs 441-crore bid
places the per sq ft price at Rs5,500-6,000, as against
expectations of Rs3,500-4,000 per sq ft.
Meanwhile in an interesting revelation two of Maharashtra's
most prominent politicians, both belonging to a party
that has traditionally opposed sale of defunct mill land,
are revealed to be linked to the record deal for the Kohinoor
mill land. The winning bid for National Textile Corporation's
(NTC) Kohinoor Mill No 3 at Dadar was made by developers
closely associated with Sena leaders Manohar Joshi and
Raj Thackeray.
Matoshree Realty, in which Raj Thackeray is a director,
and the Kohinoor Group, which is headed by Manohar Joshi's
son Umesh Joshi, are the successful bidders for the property.
The deal has now brought the Sena's politics into question
considering the party has attacked the government saying
Vilasrao Deshmukh's policy to allow the sale of Mumbai's
600 acres of erstwhile mill land favouring the developers'
interests over that of the city.
According to Matoshree Realty MD Rajan Shirodkar, a longtime
business aide of Raj Thackeray, his firm will build an
exclusive shopping complex, residences or perhaps hotel
apartments. Raj Thackeray meanwhile refused to comment
on how he reconciled his company's bid for the mill with
his party's opposition to the private development of mill
lands.
Party colleague Manohar Joshi also distanced himself from
his company's joint bid saying that his son Umesh handled
everything. As Maharashtra's Chief Minister in 1995, Joshi
had commissioned a master plan by a team of planners under
noted architect Charles Correa for the holistic development
of 600 acres of land in central Mumbai on which 58 cotton
mills are located.
As with NTC's previous three mills that have fetched Rs1158
crore over the past three months, yesterday's bids have
also out shot the corporation's internal estimates of
proceeds accruing from the sale of its properties.
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ADAE
to pump in Rs2,300 crore in Reliance Capital
Mumbai:
Anil
Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises (ADAE) will be infusing fresh
equity capital to the tune of Rs2,300 crore in Reliance
Capital Ltd (RCL). The proposal for preferential allotment
got the shareholders' approval at an extra-ordinary general
meeting of RCL recently.
The shareholders also approved the raising of foreign
investment limit in the company from the existing level
of 24 per cent to 49 per cent. As much as 15 per cent
of the RCL equity will come from Dipender Bhatia of Ironbound
Capital and Sam Gupta of Passport Capital. The allotment
is being made at Rs228 a share.
With this, the equity capital of RCL will go up to Rs4,500
crore from the existing Rs1,500 crore.
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HCL
& Trend Micro launch antivirus management solution
New Delhi:
HCL Comnet, India's leading IT services management company
and Trend Micro, a global leading provider of network
antivirus and Internet content security software and services,
on Thursday introduced India's first remote antivirus
management solution called Expert Service Offering (ESO).
This is an end-to-end expert service delivered remotely,
which will proactively fortify enterprises from malicious
virus attacks that have a potential to bring operations
to a halt. Approximately 1 million enterprise users are
expected to benefit from this service in the first year
alone.
The ESO Services aim to improve a company's security posture
through 24x7 proactive antivirus monitoring and management,
timely response to any potential outbreak and incorporates
process enforcement procedures, thus building a more robust
and secure environment.
HCL has recently created a special Anti Virus Expert Service
Centre in its Security Operating Centre (SOC) to render
this service.
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ACC
modernizes India's first indigenously designed cement
plant at Chaibasa
Kolkata: The Associated Cement Companies Ltd (ACC)
has started capacity expansion and modernisation of its
Chaibasa plant, the first cement unit in the country built
entirely by Indian engineers in 1947.
Arjun Munda, the chief minister of Jharkhand, inaugurated
the modernisation and expansion project Chaibasa on July
21.
ACC officials said that the project comprised replacement
of the earlier plant, which was based on the old wet process
technology with a new state-of-the-art clinkering unit
of 1.2 million tonne per annum (MTPA) together with a
captive power plant of 15 MW.
The Chaibasa Cement Works were located in West Singhbhum
district of Jharkhand. According to the officials, ACC
would invest around Rs300 crore for the expansion and
modernisation of the plant.
"The new Plant will be India's most modem cement
plant using state-of-the-art technology, fully automated
and equipped with the latest instrumentation and control
system," an official said.
ACC stated in a communiqué to the stock exchanges
that the Chaibasa plant was India's first wholly indigenous
cement plant designed and built by engineers of the company
in 1947, the year of India's Independence.
"It was the first Indian plant to produce Portland
Slag Cement and has maintained the tradition of environment
friendly practices," the communiqué added.
ACC's cement capacity will cross 5 million tons from the
present level of 4.3 million tons in the eastern region
after the expansion in Chaibasa. The capacity at the unit
was likely to be expanded further after this phase of
expansion.
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ONGC
proposes new refinery in Rajasthan
New
Delhi:
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has proposed setting up
a 7.5-million-tonne refinery at Kausaria in the Barmer
district of Rajasthan, with an investment of Rs7,967 crore.
In its proposal to the ministry of petroleum and natural
gas, ONGC said it would like to set up the refinery as
a joint venture with its subsidiary Mangalore Refinery
and Petrochemicals Ltd and UK-based Cairn Energy.
Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation
have also sought the ministry's approval for setting up
the refinery. The ministry would grant one of the companies
the right over the Cairn crude. ONGC has proposed that
its refinery would be designed to handle the crude available
locally and also the Arab mix in equal quantities.
Cairn
Energy has discovered 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves
in the Barmer district but considering its quality a blend
ratio of 50 per cent is considered appropriate.
In a joint proposal submitted along with Cairn, the company
said since the fields would start producing oil from end-2007,
the oil could be moved through a pipeline to the Mundra
port and processed at MRPL's existing refinery. Once the
proposed refinery is commissioned, the same pipeline could
be used to transport imported crude oil for processing
at the refinery.
The proposal said the refinery would produce 904,000 tonnes
per annum of LPG, 211,000 tonnes of naphtha, 1.739 million
tonnes of gasoline of Euro-III grade, 525,000 tonnes of
kerosene, 120,000 tonnes of aviation turbine fuel, 2.469
million tonnes of diesel of Euro-III grade, 681,000 tonnes
of coke and 71,000 tonnes of sulphur.
The ONGC board on April 12 approved a joint venture with
equities shared among the three companies.
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Corporate
Results: Tata Chem, Crisil, Satyam, Mastek, Infotech
Tata Chem net jumps 42%
Tata Chemicals has reported a 42% increase in net
profit to Rs64.9 crore for the first quarter ended June
30, 2005 as compared to Rs 45.64 crore for the corresponding
quarter last year. Total income grew to Rs520.42 crore
from Rs509.9 crore last year, a Tata Chemicals release
said.
The quarter under review was the first complete financial
quarter wherein the company did not use naptha as a fuel
in the manufacture of urea. This was achieved through
the combined use of APM, RLNG and PMT gas, the release
said.
During the quarter under review, profit from operations
went up by 9% to Rs122 crore from Rs111 crore last year.
This was attributed to improved realisations from the
chemicals segment on the back of price increases announced
in previous year.
In the soda ash segment, Tata Chemicals continued its
dominance amongst domestic manufacturers with a market
share of 32.4%. On an overall market basis, including
imports, the company's market share was 30%, the release
said.
Production of soda ash during the quarter amounted to
1,60,530 tonne translating to a capacity utilisation of
73%.
In food additives, Tata Salt's market share stood at 37%
in the first two months of the quarter after it hiked
its prices to Rs 9.25 per kg, the release said.
Crisil
Q1 net up 72 per cent
Rating agency Crisil Ltd on Thursday reported a 72 per
cent rise in its net profit for the first quarter ended
June 2005 at Rs5.57 crore as compared to Rs3.24 crore
in the same period last fiscal.
Consolidated total income during the reporting fiscal
rose to Rs37.47 crore as against Rs25.29 crore in the
corresponding period of 2004-05, the company said in a
release.
The first quarter results were the first one after international
rating agency Standard and Poor's acquired management
control of Crisil.
Satyam Q1 net climbs 16%
Software major Satyam Computer Services Ltd (SCCL)
has reported a 16.15% growth in net profit in Q1 this
fiscal to Rs190.19 crore over Q1 of last fiscal.
Sequentially, there was a 7.98% drop in Satyam's net profit
over Q4 of last fiscal. The company's revenues grew 9%
sequentially and 35.76% quarter on quarter to Rs1,058.71
crore. Though the margins reduced, its EPS was maintained
at Rs5.95.
Satyam also announced that it has acquired Singapore-based
Knowledge Dynamics Pte Ltd, a high-end consulting solutions
provider in the Business Intelligence area, in an $3.30
million all-cash deal.
The company has upped the guidance for the fiscal 2006
estimating a growth of 21.5% - 22.5% in the EPS.
Satyam has added 31 new customers in Q1, including four
Fortune 500 Global and Fortune 500 US corporations. Satyam's
attrition is at 16.5%.
Mastek
Q4 net spurts 83 per cent
Mastek
Ltd has reported substantial growth in net profit for
both the fourth quarter as well as the year ended June
30, 2005. While net profit for the quarter amounted to
Rs12.63 crore against Rs6.87 crore reported during the
corresponding quarter of the previous year, showing a
growth of 83 per cent.
Total income rose by 125 per cent, to Rs85.63 crore up
from Rs37.96 crore.
The company's net profit for the year ended June 30, 2005,
rose by 288 per cent, to Rs47.37 crore up from Rs12.2
crore; total income rose 112 per cent, to Rs263.63 crore
(Rs123.83 crore).
The Mastek Group reported an 84 per cent increase in net
profit for the year at Rs53.4 crore (Rs29.1 crore).
Total income rose by 27 per cent, and was recorded at
Rs576.7 crore against Rs453.5 crore the previous fiscal.
The company has announced a total dividend of 150 per
cent, including the interim dividend of 40 per cent for
2004-2005.
Based on the current exchange rate, the company expects
the group income to be in the range of Rs142 crore to
Rs147 crore, and net profit after tax and minority interest
to be in the range of Rs14.5 crore to Rs15.5 crore for
the July-September 2005 quarter.
Infotech
net revenue up
Infotech Enterprises Ltd has recorded consolidated operating
revenues of Rs78.22 crore and a net profit of Rs9.74 crore
for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, reflecting an increase
of 35 per cent in revenues (Rs57.92 crore) and 9.2 per
cent (Rs4.75 crore) in profit over the corresponding quarter
last year.
Last fiscal, the company recorded a total income of Rs257.13
crore and a net profit of Rs24.92 crore.
The company has also acquired 10 new clients.
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