Maruti Q4 net up 39 pc
New Delhi: India's largest car company Maruti Udyog has reported a 39.1 per cent jump in net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2006, at Rs360.9 crore, and has announced a 70 per cent dividend for 2005-06.

The company's total income increased by 8.04 per cent to Rs3,392.2 crore (Rs3,139.7 crore).

The company, which saw exports dip by 29 per cent last fiscal, also plans to launch a new export model during 2008-09. The model while being sold in the Indian market would be mainly for export to Europe. The company is target to export 1,00,000 units of the model annually.

Jagdish Khattar, managing director, Maruti Udyog, said that the company would soon launch the Swift in a diesel model, which will benefit from the excise concessions announced in the Budget for small cars. The company plans to reduce the total number of vehicle platforms from 7-8 to about 4-5.

Net profit for the year ended March 31, 2006, rose by 39.3 per cent to Rs1,189 crore against Rs853.6 crore a year ago. Total income for 2005-06 was up 10 per cent at Rs12,481.4 crore (Rs11,346.5 crore). The company's board recommended a 70 per cent dividend for 2005-06 against 40 per cent last year. The outgo due to dividend payment would be about Rs 100 crore.

Maruti's stock price closed at Rs923.45 today, up 6.45 per cent over yesterday's closing of Rs867.50.
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Chevron, Reliance sign JV for natural gas
New Delhi: US petroleum giant Chevron and Indian petrochemicals major Reliance plan to float a joint venture company to market natural gas from exploration blocks that they will jointly operate.

Chevron is also likely to pick up about 30-40 per cent participating interest in Reliance's KG basin though its participation in Reliance's upstream venture is not limited to the KG basin alone.

This JV will also look at the possibility of importing LNG from Chevron's overseas assets where Reliance will acquire participating interest.

The agreement between the two companies specifies that Chevron will be considered as a partner for participating in other offshore fields previously acquired by Reliance.

Metro starts operations in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Metro, the Indian arm of the German cash and carry services company, has opened a branch in Hyderabad. Based at Kukatpally a suburb of the city, the facility would help retailers who handle a variety of businesses as it would offer a one-stop solution for all their business requirements. The company said Metro acts as a warehouse for the small and medium retailers.," it said.
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NTPC into big capex plans
New Delhi: Public sector power generation company, NTPC, has made a significant increase in its capital expenditure plan for FY07. It has hiked its capital expenditure to Rs11,325 crore on projects, which is 58 per cent higher than its spend in FY06. If it succeeds in completing the projects this it will add about 3,700 MW of capacity during the year, apart from funding other ongoing projects. The capital expenditure during FY06 was to the tune of Rs7,188 crore, a rise of 34 per cent over last year.

NTPC currently generates more than 25 per cent of the total electricity produced in the country and operates about 20 per cent of the total installed capacity.

The capacity added so far in the current plan is 4,000 MW and a total of 3,700 MW of capacity is expected to be commissioned in '06-07. Including this, construction works are on for a total capacity of 9,470 MW, involving an expenditure of about Rs38,000 crore.
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Dabur looks at acquiring cos abroad
New Delhi: Having earmarked up to Rs500 crore for making acquisitions abroad, Dabur India is planning to acquire cos overseas. At present Dabur is conducting due diligence to acquire a vitamins/supplements company in the US, an FMCG brand in Egypt and an FMCG company in Malaysia.

The company expects overseas sales to contribute about 20 per cent of sales in the next few years as compared to the existing nine per cent.

Dabur has six plants abroad including in Egypt, Nigeria, Dubai, Bangladesh and Nepal and is also planning to commence manufacturing in Pakistan and Russia.

After acquiring Balsara, Dabur is said to be stepping up focus on contract manufacturing for foreign firms/institutions based in the US and the European Union.
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IA employees threaten indefinite strike
New Delhi: Employees of Indian Airlines say they will go on an indefinite strike throughout the country from 8 May in support of their demands which includes revision of wages. Besides wage revision, the charter of demands includes career progression and an inquiry into pension fund.

Air Corporations Employees Union (ACEU) general secretary Arun Kumar said that the ongoing demonstrations by the employees would continue till 5th May. The employees would demonstrate outside the Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, housing the Civil Aviation Ministry.
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Essel Propack profit at Rs.18.70-cr
Mumbai: Speciality packaging company Essel Propack has registered a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs18.70 crore in the first quarter of 2006, down 4.5 per cent over the figures of 2005.

The net global sales in the quarter, however, rose to Rs212.1 crore as against Rs190.5 crore in the same period in 2005.

The company said it had anticipated the seasonal and cyclical swing in volumes and revenue in a release. The company said its revenues in 2006 are expected to grow at 15-18 per cent along with PAT on similar lines.

Essel Propack's turnaround operations at the acquired units of Arista Tubes, UK and Essel Propack (UK), formerly Telcon Packaging are on schedule. The expansion at Arista UK is expected to be completed by the end of April 2006, the release said, adding that these units will reach break even by June.
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Volvo to source more components from India
Bangalore: Swedish truck major Volvo plans to increase sourcing of auto components from India by nearly 40 per cent to around 70 million euros this year. India has has become a single sourcing unit for a truck model sold in South Korea.

Company officials said that Volvo's component sourcing from India has increased steadily and stood at just over 20 million euros two years ago. Globally the company sources over $10 billion worth of components from various countries. Some of the components it sources out of India include machine and painted castings, forgings, gearbox and engine components.

In 2005 Volvo India supplied a batch of 150 tippers (FM12 8 X 4 - 420 HP) to South Korea and following its success in this, India has become a single sourcing base for all such tippers being sold in South Korea. The company's product development unit, 3P (production, purchase and planning) is already focusing on building India as a base for truck development aimed at supporting strategic expansion in Asia. Volvo has sold over a 1,000 tippers in India. About 70 per cent of last year's sales have come from repeat purchase.
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Hyderabad Ind in Rs.100-cr expansion plans
Hyderabad: Hyderabad Industries, the fibre cement sheets major, has embarked upon a Rs100-crore expansion programme involving setting up of two fibre cement sheet units and one autoclaved aerated concrete blocks manufacturing facility.
The company board has also recommended a dividend of 50 per cent (Rs5 per equity share of Rs10 each) for the fiscal ended March 2006.
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DLF, Indiabulls sign JV to develop properties
Mumbai: The Delhi-based real estate company DLF Universal has signed a joint venture with Indiabulls Financial Services to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) called Kenneth Builders & Developers to develop residential and commercial properties across India.
The JV would develop high-end residential properties in the NCR.

Kenneth Builders & Developers has acquired 35.8 acres of land from Delhi Development Authority (DDA) through a competitive bidding process for Rs450 crore. DDA had called for bids to develop residential projects under its public-private partnership project. Emaar-MGF and Agarwal group were the other bidders for the DDA plot. The Indiabulls-DLF JV has floated a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to acquire the DDA property.

Depending upon projects, the scope of the JV will be expanded to various parts of India. The real estate major is in the process of mobilising around Rs5,000-10,000 crore though a public issue to spread its wing across India. DLF is also aggressively pursuing the developments of SEZs across the country with over half a dozen projects secured or identified in northern India, including Punjab and Haryana.
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Mitsubishi has high hopes from Indian elevators market
Hyderabad: Mitsubishi Electric has big hopes from the growing market opportunities for high-end elevators and escalators. The company is projecting projecting 20-25 per cent growth in the coming years in the Indian market.

The vice-president and senior manager of Mitsubishi Electric facility in Thailand, Hisao Izumi, and Takeshi Arai, respectively, said the company expects to post a business volume of close to Rs300 crore this year in Indian operations against Rs250 crore in last year.

H. N. Sadaqathullah, general manager, India, ETA Melco Elevators, the marketing joint venture between Mitsubishi Electric and ETA-Melco of Dubai, said Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore were currently contributing close to 40 per cent of company's Indian sales.
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Posco to invest $200mn in Indian facility this year
Hannover: South Korean company Posco plans to invest $200 million this year for its upcoming 12-million-tonne manufacturing plant in India. The company says it is open to allotting preferential equity shares to the workers displaced by the steel plant in the State, if any rehabilitation and resettlement policy calls for it.
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