TCS gets $140 million deal from Banco Pichincha
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has entered into a $140 million deal with Ecuador's largest private bank, Banco Pichincha, to provide a comprehensive outsourcing solution over a period of five years.

According to TCS, Banco Pichincha has over 1.5 million clients, a loan portfolio of over $1.5 billion and over 232 branches spanning Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Spain and the United States.

The comprehensive solution being developed for the bank will include a complete renewal of the bank's core banking solution with a TCS' BANCS solution followed by IT outsourcing of the bank's operational processes.

TCS will set up a new company in Ecuador, having over 500 personnel supported by its offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) center in Chile and global delivery centers across the world.
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TCS reports net at Rs950.52 crore
Tata Consultancy Services has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs1,116.10 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2006 when compared with Rs753.08 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005.

According to a release issued to the BSE today, total income moved up to Rs4,911.62 crore from Rs3,247.58 crore in Q3FY06.

The company, on a stand-alone basis, posted a net profit of Rs950.52 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 as against Rs679.65 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005. Total income moved up to Rs3,849.69 crore from Rs2,676.85 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005.

The board has declared the third interim dividend of 300 per cent i.e Rs3 per share of Re 1 each.

S. Ramadorai, CEO and MD, TCS, speaking on the performance said: "TCS has become the first Indian IT Company to clock $1 billion in revenues in a single quarter, and has crossed the $3 billion mark in the first three quarters alone."

The company hired 5,562 employees (gross addition of 7,835 employees) during the quarter ended December 31, 2006.

At the end of Q3, the total employee strength of the company was 83,500 with staff coming from 60 nationalities. Non-Indian nationals formed 8.8 per cent of the total employee base.

TCS added 88 clients in the third quarter and the number of active clients stood at 766.
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Mahindra Intl plans Rs2,000 crore unit in Pune
Mumbai: Mahindra International, a 51:49 joint venture between M&M and US-based ITEC and the commercial vehicle arm of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), plans to set up a greenfield plant in Pune at an investment of over Rs2,000 crore.

The company has already commenced manufacturing light commercial vehicles (LCV) under a contract manufacturing arrangement with M&M at the Zaheerabad plant in Andhra Pradesh.
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Bharti-Wal-Mart deal in accordance with FDI norms: Government
New Delhi: The government has said Wal-Mart's plan to set up shop in India in collaboration with the Bharti Group is in conformity with foreign direct investment norms.

The government was under pressure to go through the much-discussed collaboration due to strong protests from the Left parties.

Wal-Mart also plans to enter into an franchisee agreement with the Bharti group for the retail business. Wal-Mart would also provide back-end technology to spruce up Bharti's proposed retail network.

The government permits 100 per cent FDI in wholesale cash-and-carry trade through the automatic route. In effect, the companies do not need to apply to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to get a final approval.
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Tatas plans to separate tele tower business
Mumbai: The Tata group is planning to separate its telecom tower business into a separate company to monetise assets valued at over Rs1,000 crore and is in talks with private equity firms, tower companies as well as some operators to hive off its 5,600 towers across India.

TTSL is looking at setting up a tower venture where PE firms or tower companies could have a stake.

TTSL is also talking to other telecom companies keen to come together for hiving off their towers.

Company sources said its towers were robust and could accommodate three to four operators.
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US PE firms buy Vertex for $426 million
New Delhi: A group of US-based private equity firms, led by Oak Hill Capital Partners, has acquired United Utilities' business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary Vertex Data Science for $426 million.

The other investors in the group are GenNx360 and Knox Lawrence International. The $426 million consideration includes cash, the repayment of intra-group debt and certain liabilities of Vertex.

The sale is expected to be completed by the end of March 2007. Vertex is UK's third largest BPO and currently employs 1600 people in its offshore centre in India, which is the company's only offshore base. Its Indian operations house 20 per cent of the company's global workforce.
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LG registers Rs8,250 crore turnover in 06
New Delhi: Korean consumer electronics major LG has clocked a turnover of Rs8,250 crore in 2006 and expects to grow at an overall growth rate of 15 per cent this year. It has identified panel flat displays and GSM phones as focus products.

Having achieved leadership position in plasma display panels and flat TVs, the company is expecting to become the market leader in LCD TVs as well, it said adding, the other focus category would be GSM, in which the company is aiming to be amongst the top 3 players.

The company is targeting to achieve 300 per cent growth to become one of the top 3 players in the GSM segment and was targeting to achieve sales of 10 million handsets by year 2009.
The company is also eyeing a growth of 19 per cent in the exports market, which is expected to contribute Rs950 crore to the total turnover in 2007.

Of the company's total turnover in 2006, home appliances contributed 43 per cent, consumer electronics 39 per cent, IT products 13 per cent and GSM 5 per cent.
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HCL Tech Q3 net up 58 pc
New Delhi: HCL Technologies' net profit for the quarter ended December 31 was up 58 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 14.4 pc sequentially to Rs286 crore. Revenue for the quarter went up 39 pc YoY and 6.2 per cent sequentially to Rs1,465 crore. HCL will also pay Rs4 a share as mid-year dividend.

HCL's revenue was propped up by a larger number of orders to write software and manage computer networks the company said. The last quarter also saw HCL win its second largest order of $200 million from Skandia UK. Besides, the company added 1,865 employees, taking the staff strength to 38,317 on December 31.

The firm said it had added 23 new customers, to bring the total number to 230, compared with 24 added in the last quarter.
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