TCS Q4 profit up 72% on fresh orders
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., India's biggest software maker, said fourth-quarter profit rose 72 per cent with new clients and increased orders from existing customers. The company also plans to hire 30,500 people this year.

Net income rose to 8.09 billion rupees ($179 million), or 16.54 rupees a share, in the three months ended March 31, from 4.7 billion rupees, or 9.78 rupees, a year ago, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement today. Sales were up 44 per cent.
Fourth-quarter sales rose to 37.3 billion rupees from 25.8 billion rupees, under U.S. accounting standards. For the full year, the company posted profit of 28.97 billion rupees on sales of 132.6 billion rupees.

Tata Consultancy will also give one free share for each held to investors and pay 4.5 rupees a share as final dividend.

Tata Consultancy added 3,571 employees in the fourth quarter, taking its total to more than 62,832.

Tata Consultancy's operating margin, the percentage of net sales left after subtracting production, marketing and some other costs, fell to 24.9 percent in the fourth quarter compared with 26.3 percent in the year ago on the merger of the less profitable Tata Infotech Ltd. and the appreciation of the Indian currency against the dollar. The operating margin declined 1.25 percentage point from the third quarter.

In the three months ended March 31, the Indian rupee gained about 1 percent against the dollar from the preceding quarter.

Tata Consultancy secured orders valued at $860 million from the Pearl Group after taking over the insurance transaction-processing unit.

The contribution of revenue from Europe, the company's fastest-growing market, rose to 24.3 per cent in the fourth quarter from 22.1 percent in the preceding three months, on the back of a 200 million euro ($244 million) order from ABN Amro Holding NV won in September.
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Flextronics sells India based software business for $900mn
New Delhi: Global electronics manufacturing services provider Flextronics has announced an agreement to sell its largely India based software development and solutions business to an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) for $900 million, or about Rs4,400 crore.

Flextronics, the world's largest producer of custom made electronics, will sell 85 per cent of its stake in subsidiary FSS (Flextronic Software Systems) to the US-based firm and retain the remaining 15 per cent.

The leveraged buyout, is the biggest ever in India, beating the $500 million GECIS deal.

According to the agreement, Flextronics will receive over $600 million in cash and hold a $250 million face value note to be paid over eight years. FSS CEO Ash Bhardwaj said that the company expects to receive $175 million gain on the sale transaction after tax.

Flextronics, which has factories across Asia, will operate as an independent entity and the existing team of management will continue to lead the software business.
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Punjab to seek 1,000mw power from Anil Ambani's Ghaziabad project
Ludhiana: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has said that his government would soon approach Anil Ambani to buy power from his Ghaziabad based 3,000 mw power project in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Singh said Ambani was already committed to supplying 1,000 mw power to UP and 500 mw to Haryana and so he would request him to provide 1,000 mw of power to the state.

The state needed more power to meet the ever increasing demand of energy in view of new mega projects coming up there.

Singh said that the Punjab government was making a concerted effort to augment power supply to the state and that it had spent 24% of the last budget on power generation and planned to spend 25% of the annual budget 2006-07 on it as well.

He added that he was due to meet Tata Motors chairman, Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani next week at Mumbai by way of attracting investments in the state.
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Car exports run out of gas
Mumbai: Export growth of cars, and medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) from India has come down to a single digit figure in 2005-06, even as motorcycle exports continued to grow steadily, according to the latest figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

According to SIAM, car exports from India witnessed a dismal 5.9 % growth in 2005-06 against a solid 28.2 % rise in 2004-05.
Maruti, India's top carmaker, saw its exports slump 28.87% to 34,781 units during fiscal 2005-06 from 48,899 units in 2004-05. Even Ford India witnessed a similar drop where its exports fell 29.6% at 15,925 units (22,625).

Hyundai saw exports rise 24.3% closing the fiscal 2005-06 at 1,02,092 units. Tata Motors also saw its exports skyrocketing at 128% with 18,531 units.

On the two-wheeler front, motorcycles continued the robust growth as exports rose 39.3% at 3,86,202 units against 2,77,123 units in 2004-05. While Bajaj Auto grew 33% at 1,65,288units, exports rose 44.7% for Hero Honda at 92,666 units (64,015).
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BEL posts net profit of Rs.5.81bn
Bangalore: Defence sector PSU, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), has posted a net profit of Rs5.81 billion for fiscal 2005-06, registering an impressive 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth over 2004-05.

According to the company's provisional figures announced here Monday, the sales turnover for 2005-06 under review was at Rs35.61billion, with the year-on-year increase of 11 percent from Rs32.12billion in 2004-05.

Though the company had an order book of Rs61billion for the year, sales from the defence sector accounted for Rs30 billion, with the balance coming from its civilian business.

The gross profit has shot up to Rs8.48 billion, from Rs6.86 billion a year ago.

For the new fiscal (2006-07), the company has an order book of Rs66 billion, and expects to achieve a turnover of Rs42 billion by the end of this fiscal, with higher contribution from exports and civilian sector, company officials said.

On the export front, BEL achieved a nine per cent increase to earn $13.6mn (Rs6.11 billion) as against $12.5 million (Rs5.6 billion) in the last fiscal.

BEL rolled out a combat net radio (CNR) for the Indian army, an ATM based integrated ship-borne data network and a ship-borne electronic warfare system for the navy, surveillance radar element and low flying detection radar for the air force and Edusat equipment for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

In the communication space, the army awarded a Rs.1.26 billion order to the company to install a CDMA-based communication network in the forward areas to provide full mobility with high quality speech and high speed data.
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Gujarat Ambuja Q3 net doubles to Rs.299-cr
Mumbai: Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd has reported a doubling of its net profit for the third quarter ended March 31, 2006.

The surge in profits was aided by higher demand as well as higher prices for cement, a cooling off in coal prices internationally, as well as one-time gains on the sale of stake in various subsidiaries, said Jayesh Doshi, vice-president, Treasury, Gujarat Ambuja Cements.

Net profit for the quarter amounted to Rs298.59 crore as against Rs143.11 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Net sales, at Rs924.29 crore (Rs667.24 crore), rose by 39 per cent.

Volumes rose 14 per cent during the quarter, with the company selling 3.19 million tonnes, while realisation was 12 per cent higher, at Rs2,520 per tonne of cement. Operating profits rose by 81 per cent to Rs375 crore (Rs207.57 crore) while operating margins rose to 37 per cent.

Total expenditure amounted to Rs602.99 crore (Rs468.13 crore).

Interest costs nearly halved year-on-year, and accounted for Rs10.54 crore (Rs20.79 crore) during the quarter. Depreciation was almost unchanged, at Rs50.86 crore (Rs 49.22 crore). Taxes accounted for Rs15.15 crore (a negative Rs5.55 crore).

Exports accounted for 12 per cent of sales, rising by about 15 per cent, to 4.6 lakh tonnes. The company has announced an interim dividend of 50 per cent, or Re 1 per share of face value Rs2.
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Oracle raises stake in i-flex to 50.6 per cent
Bangalore: Oracle Corp has progressively acquired a majority stake of 50.6 per cent in i-flex Solutions Ltd, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

Oracle Corp, along with holding company Oracle Global (Mauritius) Ltd, have mopped up 7.52 per cent of i-flex Solutions' equity in two tranches from the open market between March 13 and April 13.

In the latest open market acquisition, Oracle Global acquired 24,24,632 shares aggregating to 3.2 per cent of i-flex's total paid-up capital between March 27 and April 13. With this, the equity holding of Oracle Corp and Oracle Global has increased to 3,86,28,148 shares aggregating to 50.6 per cent of the total capital of i-flex.

Earlier, between March 13 and 24, Oracle had paid a premium of between 37 per cent and 58 per cent for acquiring 4.5 per cent stake from the open market over its open offer price.

Oracle may still pick up another 1.8 per cent of i-flex's equity from the open market this financial year to consolidate its holding. According to the take-over guidelines, a company can buy up to 5 per cent equity through the creeping acquisition limit in any financial year.
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Goldman Sachs invests $17mn in JK Paper
New Delhi: Goldman Sachs, through its investment arm in Mauritius, has invested $17mn (around Rs76 crore) in JK Paper Ltd.

The investment through JK Paper's recently concluded $12 million GDR issue and $5 million unsecured foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) issue, which have been entirely subscribed to by the US-based investment banking firm.

The FCCBs and GDRs have been listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

According to a company release, 7.7 million GDRs were placed at a price of Rs69 per share, representing a premium of 16 per cent over the BSE closing price on the date of issue.

The FCCBs with a coupon of 1.25 per cent, due in 2011, have a conversion price of Rs95 per share, representing a premium of 60 per cent over the BSE closing price.

Funds from the proposed issue would be used to part finance the 60,000-tonne per annum multiplayer packaging board project commissioned at the company's central paper mill unit in Gujarat.

The GDR issue, the company stated, would result in a lowering of the debt to equity ratio.
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L&T bags Rs.581-cr project in Kuwait
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro Ltd has bagged an Engineer-Procure-Construct contract of Rs581 crore (37.98 million Kuwait Dinar) from Kuwait Aviation Fuelling Company (KAFCO) for its new fuel depot project at Kuwait International Airport.

The project, which has been won by the company through international competitive bidding, is to be completed in 24 months.

KAFCO is a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation that provides aviation fuel to Kuwait International Airport and maintains the fuel storage facilities in the vicinity of the airport. The project involves pumping fuel through underground pipelines from Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery to the storage depot.
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Monnet Ispat changes name
New Delhi: In line with its expansion plans in the power sector, Monnet Ispat has announced a change in name to Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd.

"The name will ideally reflect the business of the company in sponge, steel in the steel segment and coal and power in the energy segment," a company release said.

The company has obtained shareholder approval as well as that of the Central Government for the change.
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Charles Schwab picks up SumTotal tool
Hyderabad: SumTotal Systems has announced that Charles Schwab & Co Inc has purchased SumTotal's LMS 7.1, an enterprise platform solution for analysing, storing and delivering learning.

Schwab will use the software, among other things, to instruct 14,000 employees on job skills as well as compliance and regulatory issues. SumTotal will help align training with corporate strategy and business goals.

According to SumTotal, financial organisations use its solution to reduce not only the time it takes to develop a workforce but also the costs associated with learning and development.
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Norwest Venture Partners $650mn fund to focus heavily on India
Mumbai: US-based global technology venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) has raised $650 million through its recent fund `Norwest Venture Partners X'.

Tenth in a series by NVP, the $650 million fund is targeted at early, mid and late stage investments with a concentration on emerging growth opportunities in global information technology sector, with a "heavy focus" on India.

Over the past three years alone, NVP's portfolio companies have generated more than $1.7 billion in exit values.

"This latest fund will enable NVP to enter a new phase of growth. The size of NVP X is a testament to our belief in the potential of emerging markets in the US and India," said Promod Haque, Managing Partner at NVP.

"The convergence of such trends as globalisation, consumer driven technology, mobility and increased broadband penetration in emerging markets such as India, makes this a diverse and vibrant investing climate."

On the outlook for India, NVP said it has invested in more than 20 `hybrid' or `cross border' companies (companies that are headquartered in the US, but have a significant presence in India). The firm has also made two direct investments in India during the last five months, and will be announcing additional investments in the first half of 2006.

"The fund will continue to concentrate on the broad investment opportunities in the consumer, mobile and media sectors in India," the release said.
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