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Vodafone picks up 10 per cent of Bharti Tele for Rs.6,700 crore
New Delhi: In the largest single foreign investment ever in India, global mobile company Vodafone, on Friday, announced that it is picking up 10.05 per cent stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd (BTVL) at a cost of approximately US$1.5bn (Rs6,700 crore).

While 4.4 per cent of the stake has been picked up through Vodafone Mauritius Ltd, which has bought 106 million shares at an average price of Rs351, the remaining 5.65 per cent, held by global private equity investor Warburg Pincus, has been picked up through Vodafone International Holdings BV.

Vodafone Group Plc CEO Arun Sarin and Bharti chairman & managing director Sunil Mittal called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after signing the agreement leading to what is the largest-ever investment in the Indian telecom sector yet.

Bharti Enterprises will continue to maintain a controlling interest of 45.9 per cent in BTVL through its subsidiary Bharti Telecom Ltd, while SingTel will hold its earlier share of 15.5 per cent, Mittal said after the agreement was signed.

Mittal said that the amount of Rs6,700 crore, accrued from the deal would be " used for new opportunities as and when they arise. No clear plans can be announced as yet (about it). At the moment, the idea was to secure the deal."

Sarin said that Vodafone will have a representative in the BTVL board.
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Stand-alone refiners to provide discounts of Rs.1,500 crore
New Delhi: The chairman of Indian Oil, S. Behuria, has said that stand-alone refiners, Reliance, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Chennai Refinery, Kochi Refinery, BPRL and NRL, will give a discount of Rs1,875 per tonne of LPG and kerosene, that they sell to public sector retailing firms. The discount is towards partly compensating the public sector units for the losses that they suffer on selling these fuels below cost price.

On an annualised basis, it amounts to Rs1,500 crore for all the stand-alone refiners, the IOC Chairman said.

"We have finalised the discounts stand-alone refiners (like Reliance) are to give to us. We have signed an agreement for discounts Reliance will give in 2005-06,'' Behuria said.
For Reliance, the largest manufacturer of LPG, this would amount to Rs750 crore in the current fiscal, he added.
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DoT eases infrastructure sharing norms for BPOs
New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has relaxed the conditions for sharing of infrastructure between domestic and international call centers.

With the easing of these norms, any ITES-BPO company with more than 50 seats can now use its infrastructure for both domestic and international call centre operations. Companies that were using their facilities primarily in the night shifts to service overseas customers can now use the same facilities in the day to serve the domestic market.

The move is in line with the industry demands, and will provide significant relief to small companies and captive units.
Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, said, "The Indian ITES - BPO industry has registered a phenomenal growth over the last few years. The decision by DoT will now enable the industry to accelerate its growth in the domestic market, even as it enhances its cost-effectiveness in the global marketplace."

Some of the other major changes that DoT has carried through in the present amendment, which will benefit operations within the industry are — removing turnover restrictions and flexibility to choose either independent EPABX or logically partitioned EPABX.

"The Indian ITES-BPO sector has led the services revolution and helped India emerge as one of the most favoured destinations, globally. Decisions like this one boost the industry's performance and help India sustain its advantages, while continuously enabling the Indian ITES-BPO industry to move up the value chain," Nasscom said.
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Ford to invest US$75mn in India
Mumbai: A Ford Motor Co. statement says that the company would invest a further US$75mn in India in order to support its future growth plans in what is Asia's third-largest economy.

"Ford India has received approval from Ford Motor Company for an additional equity infusion of US$75mn to meet the needs of our future plans," Arvind Mathew, managing director and president of Ford India, said in a statement.

Ford has already invested US$375mn in its manufacturing facility near the southern city of Chennai and other operations in India.
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Merged entity VisualSoft eyeing US$100mn turnover for 2006-07
Hyderabad: Consequent to the merger of AppLabs Technologies, eSolutions Pvt Ltd and VisualSoft Technologies Ltd the combined entity expects its turnover to touch the US$100mn mark in 2006-07.

The company plans to end the current fiscal with a turnover of US$70mn.

Addressing the media, Sashi Reddi, CEO of AppLabs, who will now head VisualSoft, said, "This synergy will help us focus on niche areas like software testing and product development besides gathering domain expertise in areas like supply chain management and retail. The combined entity is targeting to end this fiscal with $70 million followed by $100 million in 2006-07."

Reddi added that the combined entity, with an employee strength of 1,800, will be going on a recruitment drive. The new entity will be serving more than 400 active customers globally. According to Reddi, VisualSoft does not rule out further inorganic growth possibilities in the near future.

The merger is subject to regulatory approvals from the Indian stock exchanges and the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu High Courts, and the company expects the amalgamation process to be completed in the next six months.
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GM to hike plant capacity — Tavera, Optra prices to hiked marginally
New Delhi: General Motors India has said that it will increase the price of its multi-utility vehicle Tavera and premium sedan Optra by upto 2 per cent and will invest an additional Rs100 crore to hike capacity at its Halol plant.

The investment will hike the plant's capacity to 80,000 units by next year.

''There has been pressure on margins due to which we will be hiking the prices of Tavera and Optra by 1 to 2 per cent,'' General Motors India president and managing director Rajeev Chaba told reporters on the sidelines of conference organised by CII here.
With this investment, GM's total investments in India will reach Rs1,400 crore.

Chaba also said that GM was planning to launch 2 to 3 new models in India next year, including a small car.

These decisions are expected to be made in the next few months, he said. The company has said it hopes to sell 32,000 units in India this year against 24,000 units last year.
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RPG Group to invest Rs.5,000 crore in West Bengal - to set up B-school at Kolkata
Kolkata: The RPG Group will set up a business school in the city, at a cost of Rs40 crore. This investment will be part of a total investment of over Rs 5,000 crore earmarked by the company for West Bengal.

After receiving the Outstanding Young Achievers Award 2005 from the Young Leaders Forum of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Sanjiv Goenka, vice- chairman, RPG Group, said the group had not made any investments in the last few years.
Apart from the management school, all investments would be in the power sector through its flagship outfit, CESC Ltd. The company is setting up a greenfield 1,000 MW power plant at Haldia at a cost of Rs4,000 crore.

CESC is also adding another 250 MW power unit in Budge Budge and a 40 MW power at Asansol in Burdwan district.
"This is the largest investment that the RPG Group is making anywhere in the country," Goenka said.

The business management school would be affiliated to All India Management Association. According to Goenka, three acres plot has been identified and the State government has given some of the necessary clearances.

The institute is likely to be ready in 18 months, and the first batch of students are expected to be inducted in the 2007-08 session, Goenka said.
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Chanel to formally launch operations in the country
New Delhi: French fashion brand Chanel is all set to formally launch its operations in the country. With one boutique in operation in the Capital, the company is planning to set up a second one in Mumbai next year.

"We would also be setting up 10-15 fragrance/beauty product counters in major department stores across the country in 2006. The boutiques meanwhile will be showcasing almost all the categories including our watches, bags, eyewear," Xavier Bertrand, general manager, India, Chanel, said.

Chanel would be rolling out its products in India at the same time that they are launched internationally and would keep the pricing the same as in overseas markets, despite the high import duties in the country.

Meanwhile, in order to increase brand awareness in the country, Chanel would be rolling its famous ad film featuring Nicole Kidman in cinema theatres. The ad film may also be launched on Indian television in a few months.
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Bajaj Auto's electric 3-wheeler Ecorick to hit roads next year
Chennai: Bajaj Auto's battery-powered 3-wheeler, `ECORICK', is likely to hit the roads next year.

The vehicle is expected to cost around Rs1.25 lakh, which will be around Rs35,000 more than the conventional, petrol-driven 3-wheeler. The cost of running the vehicle would work out to 50 paise per kilometre, as compared with Rs1.50-2 per km for petrol vehicles.

A 12-volt lead-acid rechargeable battery will power the EcoRick. The on-board battery charger can be plugged into any household electrical outlet. Once fully charged, which takes about 8 hours, the battery can power the vehicle up to 130 km.
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IA introduces Delhi-Singapore flight from Sunday
New Delhi: The Indian Airlines will introduce a new Delhi-Singapore flight for the winter schedule, effective from Sunday.
An IA spokesperson said that the airline will also introduce a bi-weekly service between Pune and Singapore from December 13. The service will operate via Hyderabad.

For the first time, Jaipur would be linked with two Southeast Asian cities, Bangkok and Singapore, through bi-weekly flights, which would operate on Wednesday and Sunday.

The Delhi-Singapore flight would depart at 0005 hours and reach Singapore at 0755 hours and, on return, start at 0915 hours reaching here at 1240 hours.
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Wipro best suited for large-scale SAP projects: Forrester
Bangalore: Forrester Research Inc, in an independent survey, has ranked Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Ltd as the "leader best suited for large-scale, global SAP projects."

Forrester evaluated Wipro's current offering and strategy against eight other Indian vendors providing SAP services and reported that Wipro emerged impressive in terms of the number and complexity of global rollouts and implementations, as well as its approach to and investment in SAP centres of excellence (COEs), said a Wipro press release.

It recommended Wipro for buyers who require global rollout skills, or those looking for innovation or SAP-sponsored customisation.
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GAIL, PowerGrid, RailTel come together for telecom operations
New Delhi: State-owned GAIL (India) Ltd, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd and RailTel have announced plans to launch joint telecom operations by pooling their telecom infrastructure. The joint venture will make them the country's second largest broadband service provider.

The three companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a consortium for jointly offering bandwidth for e-entertainment, e-education and e-medicine.

While gas major GAIL owns around 13,000 km of optic fibre cable network, Power Grid Corp has laid around 19,000 km of cables linking 60 major cities. RailTel has networked 2,200 towns with a 27,500-km cable network.

The consortium, which will provide connectivity to Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern States, will be second only to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's 400,000-km network.

"We are coming together to offer reliable, quality and affordable services," the Power Grid chairman and managing director, R.P. Singh, said at the MoU signing ceremony. The consortium, which will co-ordinate marketing and future OFC development plans to get a pan-India footprint, will primarily focus on the entertainment sector and is targeting Rs1,000 crore revenue from the business by 2008.

The GAIL Chairman and Managing Director, Proshanto Banerjee, said the consortium would take shape over the next three months and a viable business model will be worked out on the basis of revenue sharing. The consortium aims to target the enterprise segment by providing a virtual private network, broadband and managed services. The integrated network of the three companies will be ramped up to a 75,000-route km in two to three years.

The total broadband business in the country is projected to be about Rs9,000 crore, and the consortium is looking to get at least 10 per cent or about Rs1,000 crore in three to four years, Bajpayee said.

At present, RailTel earns revenues of about Rs65 crore from its telecom venture, while Power Grid and GAILTEL - the telecom arm of GAIL (India) - earn about Rs25 crore each.
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Corporate results: Maruti, L&T, IOC, BPCL, Bharat Electronics, Jaiprakash Associates, Amara Raja, Sasken, NIIT Technologies, i-Flex Solutions

Maruti in top gear, profit jumps 43 per cent
Maruti Udyog Ltd has reported better than expected results with a 43% rise in Q2 net profit to Rs262.6 crore, its 10th straight quarter of profits.

Net revenue from sales and service, at Rs3,039.9 crore, was up 15.7% over Q2 of 2004-05. The company sold 1.4 lakh vehicles in July-September, up 8.24% over the 1.29 lakh units. This also represents a rebound from Q1, when volumes had slipped 1.42% to 1.21 lakh units.

Maruti's revenue growth is lower than Mahindra & Mahindra's 22.1% but slightly better than Tata Motors' 15%, though much of Tata's and M&M's income growth was due to commercial vehicle and tractors segments, respectively.

For Maruti, operating margins are under pressure, falling 47 basis points to 11.51% as against 11.98% due to the cost-inflationary impact of inputs and increase in staff costs by 44% to Rs 57.6 crore.

L&T Q2 net profit drops 67 per cent
Larsen & Toubro has reported a 67 per cent decrease in its net profit for the second quarter of the current fiscal, on account of a one-time profit of Rs353 crore from sale of shares in its cement division last year, that had boosted its year-ago second quarter results.

Its net profit for the quarter amounted to Rs143 crore, as against Rs437 crore last year. Net sales rose by 12.8 per cent, to Rs3,345 crore (Rs2,965 crore); while total expenditure rose by 14.8 per cent, to Rs3,296 crore (Rs2,869 crore).

Under the various heads of expenditure, staff expenses at Rs268.54 (Rs 200 crore) crore showed a significant increase of 34 per cent. Sales and administration expenses showed a hefty increase, of over 50 per cent, at Rs417.18 crore (Rs276.84 crore). So did cost of construction materials at Rs679.51 crore (Rs448.69 crore).

Net interest costs amounted to Rs14.67 crore (Rs13.31 crore). Depreciation, amortisation accounted for Rs26 crore (Rs22 crore).

Operating margins across segments rose, the E&C segment reporting an operating margin of 6 per cent, and the electricals segment, an operating margin of 16 per cent. Operating margins of the E&C segment, which contributes to the bulk of revenues, are expected to improve during the second half of the fiscal, Naik said.
Revenues from the company's international operations accounted for 21 per cent of total sales, which is in keeping with the company's target, Naik said.

IOC net down 23 per cent
State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said on Friday net profit for July-September dropped 23% to Rs950 crore, mainly due to a freeze on retail fuel prices imposed by the government.

The company's total income was 26% higher Rs40,647 crore in the second quarter.

IOC chairman and managing director Sarthak Behuria said the fuel price subsidies had cost it Rs5,627 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal, up 46% compared to the corresponding period in 2004-05.

This was after the discounts it received from state-run explorer Oil and Natural Corporation and natural gas transporter GAIL (India) Ltd to help make up for the subsidies. Average gross refining margin for the April-September period fell to US$6.05 a barrel from US$7.15 per barrel a year ago.

Petroleum secretary SC Tripathi, had told reporters on Thursday that Indian Oil was expected to become profitable again because of lower crude prices and increased domestic fuel prices.

BPCL net loss at Rs.20 crore
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd posted a net loss of Rs20.3 crore for the quarter ended September 30. The company had registered a net profit of Rs32.14 crore in the corresponding period last year.

BPCL's net sale during the second quarter stood at Rs1,620.78 crore as against Rs1,337.41 crore a year ago.

However, the company fared better compared to the first quarter of the fiscal when it had suffered a net loss of Rs 43.14 crore on a net sale of Rs 1,601.56 crore.

For the first six months, the net loss for BPCL climbed to Rs63.44 crore on net sale of Rs3,222.34 crore; the company had made a net profit of Rs46.87 crore on a sale of Rs2,643.49 crore in the year-ago period.

BPCL said profit for the half year was adversely affected on account of high crude oil and product purchase prices which could not be fully passed on to the consumers. The under-recovery on high speed diesel (HSD), motor spirit (MS), superior kerosene oil (SKO) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was partially compensated by the upstream oil companies as advised by the Union Government. . Accordingly, during the half year, Rs 1,375 crore was accounted towards discount received for purchase of crude oil, LPG and SKO from ONGC and GAIL, the company said.

Further, under arrangement for sharing of under-recovery on SKO and LPG by refineries, Rs 151.69 crore has been accounted during the quarter as discount on purchase from the refineries for the half year.

Bharat Electronics declares 40 pc interim dividend
Bharat Electronics Ltd, for the second year in a row, has declared 40 per cent interim dividend for 2005-06.

The company has said it has fixed November 3 as the record date for payment of the interim dividend.

Last year, BEL also announced a final dividend of 72 per cent, amounting to a total of 112 per cent.

Jaiprakash Associates Q2 net profit doubles at Rs 86 cr
Jaiprakash Associates Ltd has posted a 100 per cent increase in net profit at Rs86 crore during the second quarter ended September 30, 2005, as compared with Rs43 crore in the same period last year.

Total income increased to Rs738 crore (Rs667 crore) during period, the company informed the BSE.

Amara Raja Q2 net profit up 21 per cent - announces Rs11.60-cr expansion
Amara Raja Batteries has said that in the second quarter of the current year, the company achieved a turnover of Rs87 crore, compared with Rs51.6 crore in the same period last year — a growth of 68 per cent.

Net profit increased to Rs4.58 crore from Rs3.76 crore.
Amara Raja Batteries Ltd has announced capacity expansion of its automotive range of batteries from 2.4 million units a year to 3 million. The Rs11.60-crore project is expected to be completed by the second quarter of next year.

In January, the company announced capacity expansion from 1.5 million units to 2.4 million. This is expected to cost Rs38 crore and should be completed by December.

According to a press release from Amara Raja Batteries, lead prices and depreciation of the rupee were the main areas of concern. The company imports lead for its lead-acid batteries.

Sasken Q2 net up 78 per cent
Sasken Communications Technologies Ltd has reported a 78-per cent rise in net profit at Rs11.67 crore on total revenues of Rs86.39 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 over the corresponding quarter last year.

Revenues from software services stood at Rs70.8 crore while the products business accounted for Rs 15.5 crore.

For the first half of the current fiscal, net profits were at Rs16.44 crore on revenues of Rs154.13 crore, compared to a net of Rs10.39 crore on revenues of Rs109.21 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The second quarter in FY06 was also important for Sasken as it entered the capital markets through an initial public offer that was oversubscribed 78 times. The company took in 474 people during the quarter, taking the total employee strength to 2,466 as on September 30, 2005.

NIIT Tech Q2 net marginally down
NIIT Technologies Ltd has reported 2.5 per cent drop in net profit in the second quarter ended September 2005 to Rs15.1 crore compared to Rs15.5 crore clocked during the corresponding period previous year.

During the quarter, revenues jumped 7.6 per cent to Rs147.5 crore from Rs137 crore in the year-ago period. The operating margin stands at 18 per cent.

Of the overall revenues of Rs147.5 crore, about 44 per cent was contributed by Europe, 38 per cent by the Americas and 18 per cent by Asia-Pacific, including India. The IT solutions business contributed Rs137.4 crore to the revenues while BPO accounted for the remaining Rs10.1 crore.

"In addition to achieving revenues and profit growth of eight per cent quarter-on-quarter, the company bagged fresh orders of US$34mn," Arvind Thakur, CEO of NIIT Technologies, said.

The company added six new customers during the July-September quarter, which helped take the pending order book executable over the next 12 months to US$78mn.

i-flex net in Q2 impacted through investments
i-Flex Solutions Ltd has reported a 42.5 per cent increase in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2005; however the consolidated net profit for the quarter showed a marginal decline.

The company's standalone net profit for the quarter was Rs53.1 crore as against Rs37.3 crore reported for the corresponding year-ago quarter. Total revenues rose by 35 per cent to Rs272.8 crore (Rs201.87 crore).
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