Cost savings, price hikes lift Hind Lever net 35 per cent
Bangalore: Hindustan Lever's (HLL) net profit rose 35 per cent to Rs380.59 crore on sales of Rs3,083.23 crore which grew 8.7 per cent during the second quarter (April-June).

The chairman of HLL, Harish Manwani said that there was a 140 basis points increase in margins because of cost saving initiatives along with increased buying efficiency which partially neutralised the impact of escalating costs.

The company redeployed this margin increase in supporting the brands for driving sales growth. Hence, advertisement and promotion spend for the quarter was higher by 20.5 per cent.

He said HLL witnessed a broad-based increase in all categories except tea business which was due to sluggish market growth. He, however, declined to comment about the fate of Modern Foods.
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RNRL accuses RIL of 'misleading govt'
New Delhi: Anil Ambani Group company, Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL), has accused Mukesh Ambani led RIL of misleading the ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas with the aim to renege from its binding gas supply arrangement.

The RNRL spokesperson alleged that the RIL was not divulging the full facts to the ministry with "malafide and dishonest intentions." The RIL spokesperson, however, declined to comment.

An RNRL statement said, "The gas supply arrangement between the RIL and RNRL was finalised as early as the first half of 2004 — ie, more than two years ago — but the RIL chose not to communicate the same to the ministry till recently," RNRL said in a statement.

It also said "RIL's attempt to mislead the ministry is solely motivated by its selfish desire to secure a higher price for gas to primarily enrich itself with minimal, if any, benefit ultimately going to the ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
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HM to launch small car
Mumbai: Hindustan Motors is planning to launch the small sized Mitsubishi Icar in India by end of 2007. The plan, according to company sources, is to introduce the new model through the SKD (semi-knocked down) route and assemble the vehicle at the company's plant at Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu.

HM manufactures the Mitsubishi Lancer in a tie-up with Mitsubishi Motor Corporation Japan since 1998. Sources said the company would be expanding its existing manufacturing facility at Tiruvallur to assemble the new car. The facility has an annual production capacity of 25,000 units.

The Icar is a 600cc, 12-valve, 3-cylinder car with a 4-speed auto gearbox. The Icar will compete against the Alto, and Maruti 800. The Icar is currently available only in Japan, though there are feasibility studies being carried out in the UK. If feasible, the model would be introduced at £8,999 (Rs7.81 lakh) in the UK market also.
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Jet Airways declares loss on higher fuel costs
Mumbai: Jet Airways has reported a net loss of Rs45 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2006 against a net profit of Rs95 crore in the first quarter of the previous fiscal. The company cites the reasons as pre-tax losses on its start-up international operations and increase in fuel and other input costs.

This is the first time Jet Airways has reported losses since the start of operations.

Net income for the quarter under consideration rose 25.6 per cent to Rs1,647 crore (Rs1,311 crore). Total expenditure was higher by 54 per cent at Rs1,585 crore (Rs1,031 crore).

The overall financial performance in the quarter was impacted by factors including continuing yield pressure in domestic and international operations and an increase in fuel and other input costs, said a statement from the company. Employee remuneration and benefits rose 106 per cent to Rs229 crore, while and fuel expenses rose by 68 per cent to Rs585 crore.

Operating costs were higher by 54.5 per cent at Rs564 crore (Rs365 crore). International operations logged a pre-tax loss of Rs71.3 crore, overriding the profits of its domestic operations that stood at Rs11.8 crore. The airline carried 25 per cent more passengers during the quarter. The company also said domestic passenger yield (average revenue per passenger) for the period was nine per cent lower than the figures of the year-ago quarter. The company said rising fuel cost was becoming a cause for concern. Shares of Jet Airways closed at Rs513.50, up by Rs6.50 or 1.28 per cent on the BSE on Friday.
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Infy distributes Rs126-cr among 56,000 employees
Bangalore: IT major Infosys has begun celebrations of its silver jubilee by announcing a cash bonanza of Rs126 crore for its 58,000 employees worldwide.

Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said, "I would like to announce that the trustees of Infosys Employees Welfare Trust, an independent body, has decided and communicated to us that they will distribute a part of the corpus of the trust amount - Rs126 crore- to all of its beneficiaries so that the employees of Infosys commemorate the silver jubilee celebrations of the company."

Murthy was speaking to a gathering of the company's employees in the presence of Union finance minister P Chidambaram, Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, Infosys president & MD Nandan Nilekani and COO Kris Gopalakrishnan.
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Century Textiles' board approves Rs790-cr capex
New Delhi: Century Textiles & Industries has begun a Rs790 crore expansion plan that will raise cement capacity at its existing plant in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra by 2 million tonnes, according to a statement given to the BSE by the company.

The plant is operated by the company's Manikgarh Cement Division at Gadchandur. The expansion will also include a 35 MW captive thermal power plant. The decision was taken at the meeting of the company's board of directors today, the release said.

The company's board also approved the earlier proposal to set up a new textile mill as a green-field project under a separate division of the company. The mill's manufacturing capacity will be 30 million metres of fabric a year and it will come up at Jhagadia in Bharuch district of Gujarat. The unit will also have a 30 MW captive thermal power plant. The capital expenditure is pegged at Rs600 crore.

Another proposal cleared was to set up a new cement grinding unit, with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes a year, under the name 'Sonar Bangla Cement' as a division of the company, at Sagardighi in Murshidabad district of West Bengal with a capital expenditure of Rs175 crore.
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Bharat Forge to invest Rs350-cr in non-auto biz
Mumbai: Indian auto component maker Bharat Forge plans to invest Rs350 crore ($75 million) in its non-automotive business, a senior company official said. The company expects to earn an incremental revenue of Rs1000 crore over the next five years from its non-automotive business.

The company is focusing on non-auto sectors such as energy exploration, aerospace, mining and metals.

Bharat Forge has said it expects its non-automotive business to make up a quarter of its total revenue by the fiscal year March 2008. The business accounted for 17 per cent of consolidated group revenue of $678 million in 2005/06.

Bharat Forge is the world's second-largest forging company behind Germany's ThyssenKrupp.
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Radico Khaitan scouts for acquisitions in India and abroad
New Delhi: Domestic liquor company Radico Khaitan has registered a 17 per cent rise in sales turnover for the fiscal 2005-06 at Rs1,135.39 crore against Rs973.59 crore in the previous fiscal. Profit after tax stood at Rs45.16 crore, up 26 per cent from Rs35.85 crore in the previous year.

The company is scouting for acquisitions in India and abroad and is in talks with three-four companies as part of its inorganic growth strategy.

The company has decided to raise as much as 125 million dollars by way of FCCBs/GDRs, and has chalked out an aggressive growth path as it strives to achieve a 20-25 per cent growth in topline and bottomline annually for the next three years.

The company has appointed Rabo India Securities to look for opportunities for acquisition of brands and production facilities.
Apart from efforts in the domestic market, the company is also focussing on foreign markets. Exports contributed Rs10 crore to revenues in 2004-05 and rose to Rs40 crore last fiscal and are expected to contribute Rs150 crore this fiscal. The company is exporting brands like '8PM Whisky', 'Contessa Rum' and 'Old Admiral Brandy'.

The company is exporting to UAE, Africa and South-East Asia in a big way while also selling in Australia, New Zealand and the US.

Radico Khaitan recently entered into joint ventures in the UK and Africa to own production lines overseas. These partnerships will help the company roll out its brands in the UK and African markets and while it would handle sales, marketing and distribution functions, the manufacturing would be outsourced to the local partner.

In the domestic market, the company has launched a vodka brand 'Magic Moments Vodka' which it has targeted as a semi-premium product.
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27 PSEs show improved performance in 2005-06
New Delhi: About 27 loss-making public enterprises showed a turnaround in the last fiscal, with 17 of them coming into black and others improving their profitability or cutting losses.

The Board for Reconstruction of Public Enterprises (BRPSE) could achieve a turnaround of 27 loss-making public enterprises in last year or so, said its Chairman Prahlad K Basu.

Of the 27 PSEs, which have shown a turnaround, 17 posted profit last year while five PSEs examined by the board has reduced their losses. The rest have improved their profits. Due to delay in approval NEPA and Madras Fertilizers, which were expected to post a profit after implementation of revival scheme last fiscal, showed losses.

The net profit earned by the 32 PSEs has gone up to Rs60 65 crores in 2005-06 from Rs553 crore in 2004-05 said Basu.

The biggest turnaround story has been Cement Corporation of India (CCI) and Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC).

CCI, which was expected to make a net loss of Rs216 crore in 2005-06, posted net profit of Rs4.83 crore. HEC on the other hand is expected rake in a profit of Rs6.07 crore in calender year 2006 as against loss of Rs284 crore in 2004-05.
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Nestle net dips marginally
New Delhi: Despite a rise in overall sales, FMCG firm Nestle India Ltd reported a marginal dip in net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2006. The company's net profit declined by 2.1 per cent to Rs81.03 crore, as against Rs82.77 crore in the same quarter last year. Net sales rose by 10.2 per cent to Rs681.2 crore as compared with the same period last year. The company's margins were impacted primarily by steep increase in prices of commodities and growing prices of fuels/energies. The company also said there were higher operating costs associated with upgraded formulations and manufacturing processes of the infant nutrition products to further enhance their quality.
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Dalmia Cement net rises four times
New Delhi: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has a more than four-fold increase in net profit at Rs50.28 crore for the April-June quarter this fiscal as compared to Rs10.72 crore in the year-ago period. Sales for the first quarter grew 53.8 per cent at Rs232.48 crore over the corresponding quarter in 2005-06, the company said in a release. The cement capacity of the company grew from 1.5 million metric tonnes to 3.5 million metric tonnes, after it implemented and commissioned the brown field expansion at its plant in Dalmiapuram, the company's township near Trichy, it said. With the current expansion, the company hopes to double its turnover to Rs1,200 crore in the current fiscal, it added.
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