L&T acquires majority stake in dredging company
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has entered the dredging business with its acquisition of a majority stake in International Seaport Dredging Pvt Ltd, an India-based company. The announcement comes only two weeks after L&T's entry into the shipbuilding business with a contract of Rs440 crore from a Netherlands-based company.

L&T has acquired 61 per cent stake in the company for an undisclosed amount from Belgium headquartered Dredging International NV, which holds the remaining 39 per cent stake.

L&T's entry into the dredging business is also in synergy with its ports construction business, where the company is a major construction partner in several Indian public and private ports.
"This acquisition (of the dredging company) is in line with L&T's strategy to strengthen its position in ports and harbours," said a statement from the company.

The current dredging capacity in India is unable to meet the demands of ports and harbours, which have to contract for dredging with foreign flag vessels.
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Infosys values HR resources at Rs.46,637-cr
Bangalore: Software major Infosys Technologies has estimated the value of its 52,715 employees, including delivery and support staff, at Rs46,637 crore for fiscal 2006. The figure represents a growth of 65 per cent over the previous year's Rs28,334 crore, when the company had a total headcount of 36,750.

Infosys used the Lev and Schwartz model to compute the value of its human resources, the company said in its latest annual report. Infosys, which is in a people-oriented business, reported a substantial jump in the education index of its employees for fiscal 2006 at 1,48,499, up from 1,00,351 in the previous year. The average age of the Infoscians stood at 26 years in FY06, same as in previous years.

The company also reported that its Economic Value Added (EVA) for fiscal 2006 shot up 36 per cent to Rs1540 crore as compared with Rs1,132 crore in fiscal 2005. The EVA measures the profitability of the company after taking into account the cost of all capital.
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Brand Infosys valued at Rs.23,000-cr
Bangalore: The value of brand Infosys has shot up 62 per cent to Rs22,915 crore in fiscal 2006, against Rs14,153 crore in fiscal 2005.

Similarly, the market capitalisation of country's second largest software exporter grew by 35 per cent to Rs82,154 crore during the year from Rs61,073 crore, the company said in its annual report for 2005-06. The value of the Infosys brand was at 27.9 per cent of its market cap during fiscal 2006 against 23.2 per cent in 2005.

Infosys had adopted the generic brand earnings-multiple model to value its corporate brand, the company said.

Using the brand earnings-multiple model, Infosys based its valuation on the following assumptions, among others the total revenues excluding other income after adjusting the cost of earnings, the annual inflation at five per cent and five per cent of the average capital employed used for purposes other than promotion of the brand and a tax rate of 33.66 per cent.
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ONGC despatches first crude oil cargo from a marginal field
New Delhi: The first crude oil cargo from ONGC's marginal field was despatched to Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). According to a statement issued here on Wednesday, ONGC said the cargo of 57,337 tonnes of crude oil from marginal field D-1 located at the Mumbai offshore, was despatched to MRPL.

The D-1 field of Bassein and Satellite Asset, the farthest oil field in Western Offshore (200 km south-west of Mumbai city, and 80 km south-west of Mumbai High), was put on production in February.

D1 field has a resource estimate of 19 million tonnes of in-place oil. The company has evolved a phase-wise exploitation plan with water-injection, and integrated schemes to make the project feasible. The field has the potential to yield over 4.57 million tonnes of oil.

With a marginal base price of $50 a barrel, the produce is worth over Rs7,500 crore. Currently, the field has two producing wells. The present average rate of oil production from D-1 field is over 7,000 barrels of oil per day, the statement said.
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BSNL rationalises call rate tariffs
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has slashed the rates for calls that its customers make to other fixed-line networks by 75 per cent to Rs1.20 per 3-minute call. Earlier, calls to these networks were charged at a 45-second pulse which placed the cost of a 3-minute call at Rs4.80.

The rate cut corrects one of the major discrepancies in call tariffs. BSNL also reduced call charges within the circle to other networks by 25 per cent, by reducing the rates from Rs1.60 a minute to Rs1.20 a minute. For calls from BSNL fixed phones to other fixed networks over 50 km, pulse rates were increased from 45 seconds to 60 seconds. The wireless-in-local-loop (WiLL) service of BSNL has been made cheaper and tariffs brought on a par with the BSNL landline rates.

The BSNL rates will now be among the cheapest in the country and easily top Reliance lowest call rate of 75 paise per minute, or Rs2.25 per 3-minute call, for calls to other networks.

The pulse rate for calls made over distances greater than 50 km has been increased to 60 seconds from 45 seconds.
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Khaitan's to build up Powercell as another Eveready
Kolkata: The Brij Mohan Khaitan Group is planning to make Powercell Battery India, which owns brands acquired from BPL, into another distribution giant like Eveready Industries India.

Powercell Battery India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eveready Industries India.

Powercell Battery India would have its own identity and could become a distribution company like Eveready, Deepak Khaitan, executive vice chairman and managing director of Eveready Industries India (EIIL), said.

"We are looking at increasing distribution of the company. It could take on other products, as well" Khaitan said. The company is planning to introduce torches under the Powercell brand by 2007-08.

Currently, Powercell Battery India has two brands, Powercell and Shakti under the BPL umbrella brand. According to the acquisition agreement the BPL brand could be used for 30 months from last October.

The manufacturing capacity under Eveready would be 2.1 billion batteries by March 2008. Powercell Battery sold around 200 million batteries last year and the company is eyeing a 20% growth this year. Powercell has a 7% market share and Eveready 48%.
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Louis Vuitton, Lladro seek permission for retail foray
New Delhi: International apparel company Louis Vuitton Malletier of France, Lladro Commercial SA of Spain, and Haryana-based Moja Shoes have sought Government permission to bring in FDI in retail trade.

The application by these companies is in pursuance of the government's decision to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment in single brand retailing in February this year.

So far these three companies are the only ones to have approached the Government for permission. Moja Shoes of Sonepat has sought permission to bring in FDI from Mauritiusbased Tano India Private Equity Fund-1, the minister for commerce and industry, Kamal Nath, has informed the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile the FDI inflow during fiscal 2005-06 has been estimated at around $8.3 billion, up 50 per cent from $5.53 billion the previous fiscal. This includes equity as well as reinvested earnings and other capital.

According to the Minister, based on current trends, FDI inflow into India would touch $10 billion annually from the current financial year.

FDI in the equity alone stood at $5.13 billion, which is the highest ever FDI equity inflow in the country during any year and is 60 per cent more than the previous year.
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Nagarjuna Const. bags first overseas order of Rs.116-cr
Hyderabad: Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd (NCC) has secured new orders aggregating Rs362 crore.

The company informed the stock exchanges that these orders include a pipeline project, Sohar Water Network phase-I, valued at Rs116 crore awarded by the Muscat Municipality, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. The company said this is its first international project.

The other orders totalling Rs246 crore have been procured from various agencies in India, the company said.
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Berger to hike prices of paints
Calcutta: Berger Paints India Ltd is set to raise the price of its solvent-based paints by 3-4 per cent by the end of this month. Solvent-based paints contributed nearly 55 per cent of Berger Paints' turnover of Rs1,100 crore as in 2005-06.

"That's the impact of increased crude oil and petroleum product prices on our bottomline. We have decided to pass it on to the customers," managing director Subir Bose said.

Berger Paints has entered into the do-it-yourself paints segment by launching the Galaxy paint kit, priced at Rs800 a pack. Berger is planning to tie-up with schools, gift and toy stores to sell Galaxy paint kits.

Berger Paints is planning to introduce a number of do-it-yourself and other innovative products like spatter-free paints in the next 3-4 months.
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HCL Tech in marketing pact with Microsoft
Mumbai: HCL Technologies Ltd. has said that it is in a marketing tie-up with Microsoft Corp. to sell Microsoft Dynamics, its supply chain management product, in the Asia-Pacific region. The focus of the marketing alliance will be India and South-East Asia, HCL said in a statement.

The alliance is expected to provide the Indian software services company access to a larger customer base in the mid-market segment.
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Everest bags Hyundai account
New Delhi: Everest Public Relations, an arm of Everest Brand Solutions, has announced that it has bagged the account of Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) - the second largest passenger car manufacturer in India - following a competitive multi-agency pitch.
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TVSICS bags Hyderabad Intl. airport deal
Hyderabad: TVS Interconnected Systems Ltd (TVSICS), part of the $3-billion diversified TVS Group, will partner with Siemens Information Systems consortium to develop a structured telecom backbone network for Hyderabad International airport.

While the nature of job for the new airport is being finalised, the deal could typically be valued at about 10 per cent of the airport cost.

As for the company's network solutions offering, the company has launched a slew of products under TVSnet and plans to invest about Rs200 crore in build-operate-and-lease (BOL) based telecom outsourced managed services. The company has recorded revenues of Rs 120 crore and expects to more than double its revenues to Rs250 crore, with a significant part coming from the rapidly expanding managed services business. The company has embarked on a phased roll-out of its networking products and solutions offered through TVSnet.

It plans to garner a significant share (about 25 per cent of the market) for these products from small and medium-sized enterprises.
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