Reliance Comm registers Rs.440-cr net profit
Mumbai: Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications Ventures has registered a 42 per cent sequential increase in consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2006. This was despite a flat growth in revenues. Net profit (before extraordinary items) for the quarter amounted to Rs440 crore, up from Rs310 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005. The net profit was Rs403 crore, including extraordinary items, namely, employee restructuring costs of Rs37 crore.

Service revenues amounted to Rs3,089 crore, up 3 per cent sequentially, but flat after a deduction of Rs119 crore towards deferment of revenues from Lifetime Free incoming plans.

The company has reported good profits on the back of cutting costs significantly. Expenditure was pruned by 10 per cent to Rs1,928 crore (Rs2,143 crore); the company reported decreased access charges and network charges, as well as decreased employee costs and selling and general expenses.

EBITDA increased by 23 per cent, to Rs1,042 crore (Rs848 crore), while EBITDA margins rose to 35 per cent, from 28 per cent.

EBITDA margins of the wireless business, which acquired 3.2 million customers in the quarter, rose to 36 per cent (32 per cent); that of the international voice and data business to 19 per cent (15 per cent) and that of the broadband business to 31 per cent (20 per cent).

Interest costs, at Rs42 crore (Rs128 crore) were down by two-thirds, while depreciation and amortisation costs rose to Rs546 crore from Rs398 crore.

The Board of RCVL in March this year approved a reorganisation including the merger into RCVL of Reliance Infocomm. The formalities are expected to be completed by the third quarter of the current fiscal.
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Cipla against patent on bird-flu drug
Mumbai: Cipla is opposing the patent application on Oseltamivir, the drug used to treat bird flu. The company filed its pre-grant opposition at the Patent Office in New Delhi earlier this month. Cipla officials said that the pre-grant application had been "filed on the grounds of known prior-art, invalid claim, lack of novelty and inventive step." Prior-art is when knowledge of the drug already exists before the cut-off date — of 1995, in this case — and, hence, a patent cannot be claimed, explained an expert on Intellectual Property (IP). There is already another pre-grant opposition on Oseltamivir, filed by Meditab Specialities. A pre-grant opposition allows people to contest a patent application filed by a company at the Patent Office.

Oseltamivir developed by Gilead Sciences is sold globally by Roche under the Tamiflu brand name. On hearing the patent-holder and the opposition, the Patent Office eventually grants or rejects the drug firm's application for a patent.

The Indian Patent Office had rejected Novartis' claim for a patent on imatinib mesylate, its cancer drug sold under the brand name Gleevec.
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PSI Data turns around
Bangalore: The infotech services arm of the AV Birla Group has again become profitable and is poised for a new phase of growth. The company's consolidated revenues for FY06 were almost flat at Rs85.78 crore as compared to previous year's Rs82.13 crore. The company posted a net profit of Rs1.83 crore for FY06 as against a net loss of Rs2.43 crore in the previous year. Higher net profits by its wholly owned subsidiary, Birla Technologies Ltd, has helped PSI Data to get into the black for FY06. The AV Birla Group owns 70.4 per cent stake in the company.

The company expects to grow in line with industry estimates for FY07 at between 28-30 per cent for the current year. Post-acquisition by the AV Birla Group in 2001 from Groupe Bull, PSI had slipped into the red and remained there for almost four years.

Bolstered by the turnaround, the stock hit a 52-week high of Rs195, a week ago on April 24. The stock has gained 18.5 per cent over the past one month; it closed at Rs171 on Friday, a gain of five per cent over the previous close.

Officials said the company is targeting three specific verticals of banking and financial services, hi-tech manufacturing and life insurance.
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Siemens signs pact with BHEL
Mumbai: Siemens and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) have signed a pact for cooperation in the field of advanced power plant technology in India. According to the agreement BHEL and Siemens will jointly offer and install steam turbines for power plant projects in India that involve supercritical steam conditions.

Klaus Voges, group president, power generation, Siemens AG, said, "Currently, India has an installed power plant capacity of 124,000 MW and by 2012, new coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of over 38,000 MW are to be built. To fulfil this plan, large coal-fired units of varying output, including 800 MW need to be constructed."
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Hinduja group plans to set up LCV plant in AP
Hyderabad: The Hinduja group is considering setting up a light commercial vehicle (LCV) plant and reviving its 1,000-MW coal-based projects in Andhra Pradesh. The LCV plant will be in the form of an assembling facility at Tada in Nellore. The revival of the 1000-MW power plant could mean an investment of Rs4,000 crore to Rs5,000 crore, and an LCV unit could mean an investment of about Rs1,000 crore.

The Hinduja team had proposed a plan to locate a LCV plant near Tada, which would be an ideal location and closer to their existing plant in Chennai. According to sources, the Hinduja representatives had come up with a proposal to set up a special economic zone (SEZ) in the State for manufacturing units, and this vehicle plant could be one such in the proposed SEZ. The Hinduja power project was witness to price revision and was later done away since the project cost was much higher compared to the NTPC Simhadri plant.

The Rs6,053-crore Hinduja group-owned Ashok Leyland Ltd had earlier this year indicated its interest for capacity expansion at its existing plant and the move to set up a LCV unit to tap into the growing market in that segment.
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Maruti posts higher sales in April
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog has reported a 12.9 per cent increase in total sales for April at 43,127 units against 38,190 units in the corresponding month a year ago. The company's domestic sales in the month were up 12.4 per cent at 41,574 units against 36,972 units in April 2005. MUL said its exports grew 27.5 per cent at 1,553 units during the month as against 1,218 units. The company's growth driver remains the A2 segment, which comprises cars like Alto, WagonR, Zen and Swift. The segment, benefiting the most by the eight per cent cut on excise duty on small cars, grew 26.4 per cent at 28,156 units (22,280 units).
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Hero Honda bike sales rise 3.5 pc in April
New Delhi: Hero Honda has reported a 3.5-per cent increase in motorcycle sales during April at 2, 43,879 units against 2, 35, 422 units in the same month last year. The company said its overall two-wheeler sales, including scooters, grew by 6.34 per cent at 2, 50, 366 units during April. It sold 6487 scooters in the month. The cumulative sales of motorcycles for the period January to April stood at 9, 97, 871 compared to 9, 20, 841 units during the same period last year, registering a growth of 8.37 per cent. During the same period, the overall two-wheeler sales stood at 10, 22,823 units, up 11.1 per cent from the corresponding period a year ago.

Hero Honda's production was hit at its Gurgaon plant due to a flash strike by contract workers last month. The five-day strike, however, ended on April 15, and the company said it would make up for the loss of production by having higher output at the plant.
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Dabhol plant starts again
Mumbai: The Dabhol plant ha started operations again and the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company received 30 MW power from the former on Monday according to a company official. The full commitment from the plant is about 650 MW, generation which is expected to take sometime, he said. According to sources, one turbine in the block-II of the plant commenced operation on Monday.

Government officials in Delhi said the project is still in various stages of trials and re-runs and that it was being run for less than an hour a day. The plant is expected to take about a week or more for the station to achieve the three-hour run on naptha as fuel, as per plans firmed up earlier.
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Emirates to start 450-seat call centre in India
Mumbai: Emirates Airlines is expanding its back office operations in India to lower its costs. The carrier has firmed up plans to start a new 450-seat call centre in Mumbai. The airline has four other such centres in New York, Manchester, Australia and Dubai, but the centre in Mumbai will be the largest.

The new centre will begin operations in a year. The airline is also drawing up plans to start a training college in India. The institute will service the airline's staff training requirement for its employees in functions ranging from ticketing to fares and management. Though the airline has a similar college in Dubai that caters to its training needs it is trying to move such activities from the Western Asian region to India.

Emirates operates 63 flights a week to eight cities in India.

The airline closed the year with a 5 per cent increase in net profit of $762m. The sub-continent contributes to about 8 per cent of its total revenue and 17 per cent of the total passenger numbers.
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HSCI registers 27 per cent increase in sales
New Delhi: Honda Siel Cars India has reported a 27.3 per cent increase in sales in April over the corresponding month in 2005. The company sold a total of 4,551 units in April as against 3,575 units in the same month last year.

Cumulative sales for the calendar year period January-April 2006, also registered an increase of 22 per cent, at 17,430 units as against 14,275 units in the corresponding period a year ago.

Honda City registered sales of 4,007 units in April while Honda Accord sold 231 units and the CR-V sales were 313 units, a company release said.
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