Reliance Industries declares 9 per cent rise in Q4 net
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has posted a net profit of Rs2,502 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2006, up 9.2 per cent from Rs2,292 crore in the year-ago period. The company's net turnover rise by over 37 per cent during the quarter to Rs24,542 crore from Rs17,839 crore a year back. The results were better than the market expected and were mostly due to a gross refining margin of $10.3 a barrel higher than last year's margin of $ 9.1 a barrel.

The company's board of directors has declared a 100 per cent dividend (Rs10 a share) that entails a payout of Rs1,394 crore.

Reliance net profit for the full fiscal reflected a 19.5 per cent rise at Rs9,069 crore (Rs7,572 crore) even as its net turnover went up by nearly 23 per cent to Rs81,211 crore (Rs66,051 crore).

In line with RIL's strategy to enhance its export portfolio, sale of manufactured products were up 28 per cent at Rs32,691 crore from Rs25,532 crore.

RIL's refining segment accounted for revenue to the tune of Rs21,248 crore during the quarter, while Rs 10,608 crore came from its petrochemicals business.

During the day's trade on the BSE, the RIL share touched an all-time high of Rs1,013 but settled lower at Rs996.50, up 1.91 per cent from previous close of Rs977.85.
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ONGC offers Petrobras stake in refining ventures
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has offered Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil company a stake in its refining ventures.

The chairman and managing director of ONGC, Subir Raha, said, "We invite Petrobras to take equity in our new refining ventures. We feel co-operation with Petrobras will enhance our technical ability, as they have recognised excellence in ethanol technology.''

Raha, however, did not comment on which projects would be offered to Petrobras for investment but only said opportunities were available for exploitation.

ONGC has plans to increase its refining capacity to 45.9 million tonnes (mt) a year from the current 10 mt by the fiscal ending March 2010. For this, the company is building new refineries and expanding the capacity of its Mangalore refinery. It has also proposed building a refinery in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
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Global rise in oil price impacts domestic airfares
New Delhi: Rising global oil prices are beginning to impact domestic air travel. Jet Airways has announced a fuel surcharge of Rs 300 on all domestic fares from May 1, other airlines, including the low-cost airline Air Deccan, have also hinted at either in increase in fares or the applicable fuel surcharge soon.

Jet Airways said, "The fuel surcharge, which has been necessitated by the continued escalation in prices of aviation turbine fuel, will be levied on all tickets purchased within India and abroad whether they are issued against the rupee or dollar tariff," the statement added.

The surcharge will also apply to the local leg of an international journey being undertaken by the passenger, which means that if a passenger travels Delhi-Chennai-Singapore then he would have to pay the surcharge for travel between Delhi and Chennai. The surcharge, however, will not be applicable on tickets sold before April 30, although any changes made in the ticket would attract payment of the additional surcharge.

Kingfisher Airlines has also hinted at a fare hike. Vijay Mallya chairman of Kingfisher Airlines said, "The cost of fuel is going up. We have not yet taken a decision on what we should do. But all airlines pass on the increase to passengers," said Mallya.
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Grasim Q4 net up 14.5 per cent
Mumbai: Grasim Industries has reported a 14.5 per cent increase in net profit and a 10.5 per cent rise in net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. Net profit, after extraordinary items, amounted to Rs262.74 crore up from Rs229.5 crore in the corresponding year-ago quarter. The bottomline would have been more robust if not for the dent caused by the sponge iron business which reported a segmental loss of Rs13.54 crore against a positive Rs96.46 crore during the corresponding year-ago quarter.

Net sales rose by 10.5 per cent to Rs1,815 crore (Rs1,642 crore). Other income was higher at Rs111.56 crore (Rs57.51 crore).

Total expenditure rose by 12.9 per cent to Rs1,408 crore (Rs1,246 crore), largely due to higher fuel, power and freight costs. Interest costs at Rs24 crore were lower by a third.

On a consolidated basis, the company's net revenues stood at Rs2,901 crore (Rs2,475 crore), a growth of 17.2 per cent.
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IOC receives Rs.3,225-cr for offloading stake in ONGC
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation has made a gain of over Rs3,225 crore on the sale of 20 per cent of its 9.6 per cent share in ONGC through a bulk deal.

Indian Oil on Thursday sold 2.74 crore shares or 1.92 per cent of the total equity capital in ONGC at Rs1,340 per share, amounting to Rs3,669.73 crore. Its gain there therefore quite hefty as it had picked up these shares in 1999 at Rs162.34 per share.

The company would use the amount for improving the overall liquidity position and working-capital requirement of the company, sources said. The company has a committed capital expenditure of Rs6,500-Rs 7,000 crore during the current fiscal.

The company offered ONGC shares in the price band of Rs1,330-1,399 per share. Indications are that about 50 Indian and foreign institutional investors, including LIC and HSBC Franklin Templeton, participated in the sale, which was done through the book-building route.

The company had on March 2 sold 50 per cent of its 4.8 per cent stake in GAIL for Rs561 crore to repay some of its debt and to fund expansion plans.
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Petronet LNG Q4 net jumps
New Delhi: Petronet LNG has reported a net profit of Rs66.14 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2006 against a profit of Rs7.61 crore reported during same period last year. The company also said it would raise $100 million through a foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) issue.

PLL reported a net profit of Rs194.92 crore in 2005-06 fiscal as against a loss of Rs28.4 crore in the previous year.
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Suprajit Engg to acquire UK co's cable biz
Bangalore: Suprajit Engineering will acquire the business of CTP Gills Cables, a Birmingham-based automotive cable manufacturer, from Carclo plc for Rs25 crore. The company will also acquire the balance 50 per cent stake held by Carclo in the Indian joint venture, CTP Suprajit Automotive Pvt Ltd set up as a 100 per cent export-oriented unit in 2004.

Suprajit has incorporated a subsidiary in the UK, Gills Cables - which would acquire the assets and business of CTP Gills Cables. On completion of the acquisitions, the company will have two wholly-owned subsidiaries — one in India to manufacture cables exclusively for exports to Europe initially, and the other in the UK which will own the assets and business of CTP Gills Cables.

The acquisition will give Suprajit a foothold in Europe. Gills Cables will act as a major technology centre for the global activities of Suprajit and handle most logistics for the European activities. It will act as a manufacturing base in the UK for speciality and low volume cables.
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Wipro rated `top outsourcing firm'
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies has been rated as the top Indian outsourcing firm in the Global Outsourcing 100 rankings conducted by The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals in an independent global survey, the results of which were released recently in Fortune magazine. The list includes some of the largest IT companies worldwide and Wipro Technologies has been ranked seventh and is the only Indian company in the top 10, Wipro said in a press release.

The ranking has been done based on revenue growth, number of employees, the skills and training of workforce, the number of technical and business certifications secured, the track record of the management team and the quality of customer.
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HFCL becomes profitable again
New Delhi: Himachal Futuristic Communications has posted a profit of Rs13.87 crore for the fourth quarter 2005-06, against a loss of Rs44.78 crore in the corresponding period last year. Profit after tax for the fiscal ended March 31, 2006, rose to Rs42.89 crore against a loss of Rs84.21 crore in the previous fiscal. Sales turnover was also up 295 per cent at Rs256.51 crore, an HFCL official said.

HFCL managing director, Mahendra Nahata, giving the outlook for 2006-07, said the company had an order book at over Rs760 crore, and was targeting sales turnover of Rs1,000-1,500 crore and net profit of Rs170-180 crore.
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Arvind Mills Q4 net profit falls 59.49 per cent
Ahmedabad: Arvind Mills has reported a 59.49 per cent dip in net profit to Rs21 crore for the quarter ended March 2006 compared with Rs53 crore in corresponding quarter of the previous year. Sales were down 19 per cent to Rs358 crore compared with Rs439 crore in the year-ago period.

For the full year ended March 2006, the company posted a flat net profit at Rs127 crore for the financial year ended March 2006. Sales dropped to Rs1,592 crore from Rs1,655 crore last year. However, profit before tax rose 6 per cent to Rs136 crore compared with Rs129 crore.

The company has declared a dividend of 10 per cent for the year, the same as last year.
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Aptech declares Q1 net loss of Rs.3.62-cr
Mumbai: Aptech has posted a net loss at Rs3.62 crore in the first quarter ended March 2006 compared with a net profit of Rs6.62 crore recorded in the corresponding period last year. Total revenue dipped to Rs17.34 crore from Rs30.74 crore recorded during the same period a year ago. On a consolidated basis, the company's net profit remained flat at Rs2 crore over the corresponding last quarter. However, total revenues dropped to Rs36.39 crore from Rs37.40 crore.

Its operations in China were the sole beacon of light for the company where it recorded a turnover of $6.41 million for the quarter, up 56 per cent from $6.41 million in the year-ago period. Aptech is the market leader with over 215 centres in China.
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Hind Motors declares net loss of Rs.10.74-cr
New Delhi: Hindustan Motors has reported higher net loss of Rs10.74 crore for the quarter ended March 2006. In the corresponding quarter net loss was Rs2.97 crore.

Net sales for the quarter fell by almost 30 per cent to Rs190.32 crore during the quarter.
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Nestle Q1 net up 14 per cent
Mumbai: Nestle India has reported a 14 per cent increase in net profit for the first quarter ended March 2006, at Rs88.61 crore as against Rs78.05 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company said its total income (net of excise) stood at Rs680.96 crore during the quarter as against Rs620.38 crore, up 9.7 per cent. The company had earlier announced final dividend for 2005 of Rs 2 per equity share.

Martial Rolland chairman and managing director of the company said the performance of the company in the first quarter was "satisfactory".

"We are well poised to benefit from the sustained economic expansion in India by leveraging our privileged access to Nestle groups continuous research and food for various consumer segments, expertise in science based nutrition, as also the large reservoir of best practice available for countries in different phases of economic development," he added.
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