Tata Motors reports 40 pc rise in Q1 net
Mumbai: Tata Motors has reported a 40 per cent rise in net profit for the first quarter ended June 30 at Rs381.85 crore, against Rs272.67 crore in the year-ago period.

The company's revenues (net of excise) were up by 48 per cent at Rs5,783.41 crore (Rs3,907.50 crore).

The company sold a total of 1, 26,394 vehicles (including exports)a growth of 44 per cent over 87,492 vehicles sold in the corresponding period last year. Exports contributed to 16 per cent of the total turnover with 45 per cent growth (9,073 units). Though there has been a growth in exports (Rs14.5 crore), EBITDA margins were affected through forex loss of Rs78 crore. During the quarter, the company has reversed export incentive of Rs35.57 crore that accrued during the previous year in view of reduction with retrospective effect in the incentive rate under Target Plus Export Incentive Scheme.

Domestic sales for passenger cars grew by 22 per cent with 50,151 units though commercial vehicles sales were significantly impacted due to delay in vehicle certifications and procurement of some critical components. During the quarter, commercial vehicles sales stood at 74,761 units.

The company said margins are under pressure due to unstable market conditions, hike in material costs and lending rates.
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Ambani Bros in fresh spat
New Delhi: A spat has broken out between the Ambani brothers again. This time the Anil Ambani group (ADAG) has alleged that the Mukesh group (RIL) was "systematically violating every major commitment of the June 2005 settlement."

An RIL spokesperson said the allegation was false.

Sources in ADAG said the Mukesh group wanted to dishonour the June 2005 agreement on gas supply to Reliance Energy at agreed prices and the commitment to NTPC to supply gas at the agreed price.

Gas supply to Reliance Energy's proposed power plant in Uttar Pradesh is supposed to be linked to the price charged from NTPC by RIL.

RIL's agreement with NTPC for supply of gas for the Kawas and Gandhar projects has run into trouble with the matter in court.

Government sources said an out-of-court settlement seemed unlikely, as RIL was unwilling to sell gas at the agreed price since gas prices have gone up considerably since the pact was signed.
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Wipro Tech, Motorola float JV to offer managed services
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies, the global IT services arm of Wipro, is floating a joint venture called WMNetServ with Motorola to manage telecommunication networks and services for operators.

Wipro will hold a majority stake in WMNetServ that will focus on offering services such as network planning and deployment, network optimisation, security, operations and support among others.

The joint venture will have a core team drawn from both companies. The joint venture will also leverage the large resource pool of Wipro.

WNNetServ will be headquartered in Europe and have a branch office in London with development centres in Bangalore and New Delhi. WMNetServ would host a Global Network Operation Center (GNOC) platform that would integrate with Motorola's existing NOCs in North America and Europe to provide network monitoring capabilities to customers.

The location for GNOC would be located in India but has not yet been finalized.

The market for managed services is expected to double to $48 billion by 2010, from $26 billion last year, according to a Mercer Management Consulting report.
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Satyam allies with GigaSpaces for grid solutions
Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services has formed an alliance with GigaSpaces Technologies to provide solutions for service-oriented architecture and grid environments. GigaSpaces will provide software and Satyam will offer implementation and IT services expertise, particularly useful for companies that rely on high-volume transactional applications.

Two years ago, Satyam invested in a dedicated Grid Computing practice. Based out of Chennai, the Centre of Excellence will provide professional services.

According to the company, GigaSpaces provides the infrastructure software that enables rapid construction of such applications, reducing time to market and cost.

GigaSpaces, which is affiliated with Israeli company Formula Group, has offices in New York, London and Israel.
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Earlier this year the company closed down its Thai subsidiary while it had closed down its South African subsidiary last year.

Lupin Hong Kong is a wholly-owned subsidiary started about four years ago, essentially as a trading company to support Lupin's business in China. According to company sources, with the company selling its active pharmaceutical ingredients directly into the Chinese market, the subsidiary became dormant.

Lupin has posted a 17.4 per cent growth in net profit at Rs50.65 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2006, compared to Rs43.15 crore in the corresponding period for the previous year. Total income (net of excise) increased from Rs365 crore to Rs495.16 crore, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company's shares were marginally down at Rs851 on the BSE.
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Walt Disney to take majority stake in Hungama TV
Mumbai: The Walt Disney Company is acquiring UTV Group Company Hungama TV for $30.5 million. It will also acquire a minority stake of 14.9 per cent in the media company, UTV Software communications for an additional $14 million.

Hungama TV is a 24-hour entertainment channel for kids with localised content in Hindi. It is positioned as a general entertainment channel targeting kids in the 4-14 age group with multi-genre programming. The channel operates under the name of United Home Entertainment - a joint venture company between Ronnie Screwvala and UTV.

Andy Bird, president, Walt Disney International, said: "India is a long-term strategic priority for the Walt Disney Company. The acquisition of Hungama TV and the investment in UTV will significantly advance our presence in India and allow us to develop a strategic relationship with one of the country's leading integrated media companies."

The pact between the two media companies is an open-ended one, whereby UTV's diversified media interests would lead Disney to strengthen its local presence in the country.

UTV said it would focus on growing its content and going up the value chain. It would get into distribution in future and plans to build a long term partnership with Disney in animation, movies and television content.
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Gitanjali acquires Desire Lifestyle
Mumbai: Gitanjali Gems has acquired a 100 per cent stake in Mumbai-based jewellery retailer Desire Lifestyle Pvt Ltd. in line with its policy of strategic acquisitions and further expansion in retail operations. Gitanjali Gems owns a number of jewellery brands including D'damas, Nakshatra, Sangini and Asmi.
Shares of the company rose by 1.48 per cent to close at Rs112.80 on BSE.
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Jindals hikes stake in JSW Steel
Mumbai: The Mittal factor is leading promoters of steel companies to consolidate their holdings. After Tata Steel, the promoters of JSW Steel have hiked their holdings in the company to 50 per cent in order to ward off any threat of takeovers. The promoter holding in the company was 45.15 per cent as on June 30, 2006.

The company board, which met on Tuesday, approved allotment of 1.5 crore warrants to the promoter group, subject to the approval of shareholders, for which an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders has been scheduled on September 8.

The warrant holder has the option to convert 70 lakh warrants into equity shares of the company on or before March 31, and the balance 80 lakh warrants between April 1, 2007 and March 22, 2008. The pricing and other terms of the issue will be as per SEBI guidelines.

On conversion of 70 lakh warrants, the promoter holding will increase to 47.49 per cent, which will further go up to 49.93 per cent on conversion of the balance 80 lakh warrants. The proposed preferential allotment is an upshot of the present environment of mergers, acquisitions and takeovers in the steel industry world over.

JSW has also embarked upon a 1.3-mt crude steel expansion project, which will be fully operational by September. The converter shop, coke oven and sinter plant have already been commissioned, while the blast furnace will begin production by the end of this month.

The company has reported a drop in net profit at Rs170.30 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, as against Rs200.36 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal.
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3i Infotech looks at doubling growth in 2 years
Chennai: Mumbai-based 3i Infotech, an IT solutions provider for banking, finance, insurance and mutual fund, plans to achieve an annual turnover of Rs1,000 crore within two years. The company achieved a total turnover of Rs430 crore in the 2005-06 financial year, is aiming at a 30 per cent growth in turnover in the current fiscal. It achieved Rs130 crore business in Q1.

The company is planning to grow both organically and inorganically and had already earmarked Rs230 crore for acquisition of companies in similar line of business within the country and abroad.
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Tata Motors Fiat in pact to manufacture vehicles
Mumbai: Tata Motors and Fiat Group have signed an agreement to establish an industrial joint venture in the country to manufacture passenger vehicles, engines and transmissions for domestic and overseas markets.

Both Fiat and Tata vehicles are expected to be manufactured in the industrial facility at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra which is expected to exceed an overall output of 100,000 cars and 250,000 engines and transmissions.

Fiat and Tata have also started a 60-day study aimed at exploring commercial viability in Latin America. The study will focus on different vehicles, especially utility vehicles and pick-ups and exploring business opportunities with Fiat's existing facilities in Cordoba, Argentina. Products manufactured here would be sold in Latin America and overseas market under both Fiat and Tata brands.
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UB Holdings shows profits
Bangalore: UB Holdings, the holding company of Kingfisher Airlines, has shown profits during the first quarter of 2006-07 with total income recording over 900 per cent growth to Rs50.23 crore.

The company said net profit for the quarter was Rs1.08 crore and during the same period last year, it posted a loss of Rs12.34 crore. During the quarter, the company executed guarantees in favour of banks aggregating Rs327 crore (cumulative Rs942 crore) on behalf of Kingfisher Airlines. Consequent to the increase in the paid-up capital of the airline, the company's current holding in the airline stands at 83.35 per cent. The statement said its real estate project, UB city, is expected to be ready for occupation in the next few months. It said the company's other income includes, trade marks licence fee of Rs4.5 crore from three group companies and profit on sale of certain investments of Rs1.64 crore to a wholly-owned subsidiary.
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United Breweries net doubles
Bangalore: United Breweries has posted a net profit of Rs27.53 crore for the first quarter-ended June 30, 2006 a rise of almost 100 per cent from Rs13.83 crore during the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Net sales rose 19 per cent to Rs193.34 crore.

According to the company, there was a 23 pc volume growth during the quarter as a result of regulatory changes in north Indian states which resulted in an explosive growth in demand in the region. Opening of new outlets and pipeline filling has resulted in a one-off growth of 77 per cent.

Growth in strong beer continues to be the key driver with an industry growth of 28.8 per cent as compared to that of last year. Kingfisher Strong grew at 41 per cent, while Kingfisher Mild grew at 18 per cent against an industry growth of 20.4 per cent.
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