FM asks industry to hold price line
New Delhi: After proposing several anti-inflationary measures like ban on futures trading in wheat and rice, the Finance Minister, P Chidambaram speech asked the industry on Thursday to hold the price line to help the government contain rising inflation.

He said the price line augmentation is the area where he needs industry support.

Inflation, which touched over a two-year high of 6.73 per cent for the week ended February 3, fell back to 6.63 per cent the following week but still remains far above the RBI's tolerance level of five to 5.5 per cent.
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Steel, cement companies hike prices
New Delhi: Within 24 hours after the Government announced a series of duty concessions on steel-making inputs, to keep prices stable and despite the FM's exhortations to the industry to hold the price line, domestic steel and cement manufacturers have announced price hikes in the two products.

On Thursday, primary steel manufacturers raised hot-rolled steel prices across the board, the increase ranging from Rs700 to Rs1,200 per tonne.

Cement manufacturers too increased prices by Rs12 per 50 kg a bag. Also a few days ago, the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, had announced freight cuts for inputs that go into steel and cement making.

The average price of hot-rolled coils, which has been Rs27,500 per tonne till Wednesday, has gone up to Rs28,500 per tonne from Thursday. Adding a 16 per cent excise duty and four per cent sales tax, the price that the consumer will have to pay has gone up from Rs33,176 per tonne to Rs34,382 per tonne (assuming an average increase of Rs1,000 per tonne).

Public sector SAIL has increased prices of hot-rolled steel in the range of Rs700-800 per tonne, while Tata Steel has increased prices by Rs1,000. The largest producer of flat steel, Essar Steel, has increased prices by Rs1,000-1,200 per tonne. Ispat Industries and JSW Steel have increased prices by Rs1,000-1,200 a tonne, industry sources said.
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Budget leads to mix of price announcements by car companies
New Delhi: The tax initiatives announced in the Union Budget 2007-08 has led to premium cars with large export component becoming a bit cheaper while volume carmakers are raising prices. While Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors have announced their intention to increase prices of their vehicles, Czech carmaker Skoda announced a reduction of up to Rs24,000 across its various models.

Hyundai Motors is increasing prices of all its models on account of the rise in education cess. Though Hyundai did not give an indication on the exact quantum of increase, it said the company was working on it and a hike could be expected by the middle of March 2007.

The company says it would increase the prices after it clears all existing bookings and would absorb the additional costs till then. It is not certain whether the price increase would also be applicable on its models (such as the Sonata), which have a high import content.

Maruti has also announced its decision to hike prices from March 15, while other companies such as Ford were taking stock of the situation to review prices.

Skoda India's price cut is due the peak rate of customs duty declining from 12.5 per cent to 10 per cent. This would impact car models with high import content.

Honda Siel which had indicated a price increase of Rs10,000 on its fully imported model, the CR-V, says that it is still working out the exact impact on other models which are assembled locally, but carry a high import content. These include the Civic, Accord and City.
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Hutch-Essar may head towards the courts
Mumbai: Hutchison Telecom International (HTIL) has filed a caveat before the Bombay High Court to ensure that its plea is heard in case Essar moves the court, challenging the foreign partner's decision to sell stake to Vodafone.

Essar, the 33 pc shareholder in the mobile joint venture Hutch-Essar, has been claiming that it has the first right of refusal (RoFR) for HTIL's stake.

HTIL had recently agreed to sell its 67 pc stake in the Indian business to UK's Vodafone, side-stepping Essar.

HTIL's shareholders will on March 9 vote on Vodafone's offer to buyout the Hong Kong company's 67 pc stake for $11.1 billion.

HTIL has said that Essar does not have RoFR in the event of sale to Vodafone, which is also of the same view.

However, Essar thinks otherwise and is believed to have raised the issue when Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin was in India last month.
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GM India Feb sales rise 81 per cent
New Delhi: General Motors India on has reported an 81 per cent increase in domestic vehicle sales during February at 3,087 units as against 1,709 units in the same month a year ago.

The company sold 1,801 units of its MPV Chevrolet Tavera, 1,085 units of mid-size sedan Chevrolet Aveo and hatchback Aveo U-VA and 201 units of luxury sedan Optra, GM said in a statement.
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Hyundai domestic sales up 74 per cent in Feb
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India on Thursday has reported a 74 per cent increase in domestic vehicle sales during February at 15,459 units compared to the same month last year.

The company said its total vehicle sales (including exports) in the month stood at 25,026 units with 22,223 units in the A2 segment (Santro and Getz), 2,683 units in the A3 segment comprising (Accent and Verna), 48 units units in the A4 (Elantra), 45 units in the A5 (Sonata Embera) and 27 units of its SUV Tuscon.

The company's flagship model Santro saw a growth of 118 per cent with a sale of 11,811 units in February 2007 as compared to 5,407 units in the same month last year.

Export of Santro increased 12.7 per cent from 8,484 units in February 2006.
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Fortis opens drug stores
New Delhi: Pharmacy chain Fortis Healthworld has opened ten drug retail outlets in the National Capital Region, in keeping with its target to set up 1,000 such stores in the country by 2012.

The company, a subsidiary of healthcare chain Fortis Group, is planning to invest Rs800 crore in the next five years for the 1,000 retail pharmacy stores in the country.

The pharmacy chain says it aims at providing genuine drugs at MRP rates and would cater to all healthcare needs of the consumer.

The shops would function round the clock and provide value added services like prescription reminders and free home delivery.
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Oil retailers incurring Rs100 crore loss per day
New Delhi: State-run oil retailers are losing about Rs100 crore a day on petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene sales even after a cut in excise duty on auto fuels.

Indian Oil Corp officials said the company was losing Rs1.24 a litre on petrol, Rs1.52 per litre on diesel, Rs173 on sale of every 14.2-kg LPG cylinder and Rs12.73 per litre on kerosene sold through PDS.

He said IOC was losing Rs52 crore per day on fuel sale and the figure for the industry would be Rs100 crore.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram Budget proposal to reduce excise duty on petrol and diesel from eight to six per cent, would benefit the retailiers by Rs2,500 crore and would bring down the loss on auto fuel sales by Rs1,250 crore for IOC (industry Rs2,500 crore) but would not be sufficient to cover for cost of production, the official said.
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Airtel cuts Blackberry rental to Rs249 per month
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel has slashed the monthly rental for its services on business phone Blackerry by up to 75 per cent to Rs249 per month.

The company previously had a fixed monthly rental of Rs1099 per month.

The new plan, which will be effective from today, is expected to reduce the average monthly bill of the users by 40-45 per cent as the BlackBerry utilizes a high level of data compression, a Bharti Airtel statement said here.

The users would now be charged only 15 paise per KB of usage, it said.

It said existing Airtel BlackBerry users have the option of continuing with the old plan with a rental of Rs1,099 per month for unlimited usage.

Airtel has also reduced the price of the BlackBerry 7100g handset to Rs10,999, the statement added.
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Bajaj Auto to spend Rs300 crore on retail plans
Kolkata: Bajaj Auto plans to invest Rs300 crore for showroom retailing of premium bikes across the country by March 2008. The company is rolling out Probiking Showrooms at different locations in the country. The eProbiking Showrooms would be owned by the company and would only sell premium bikes in the 200cc category.

The company would open 55 such showrooms across the country by March 2008. At present, the company has 6 Probiking Showrooms.

The company is selling 3500 units of premium bikes per month and targets to double that, for which such high-end retail showrooms are being put up.

The company sells 2 lakh bike units per month and it's all-India market share is 34 pc.
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TVS Motor two-wheeler sales rise 10 per cent
Mumbai: Two-wheeler maker, TVS Motor Co's February two-wheeler sales rose 10 per cent to 1,20,110 units from 1,08,923 units a year ago. Motorcycle sales rose 6 per cent to 70,155 units from 66,391 units, and scooterettes rose 24 per cent to 19,937 units from 16,052 units. The company said exports rose 33 per cent to 8,017 units. TVS said it would launch a new motorbike in March.
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Himatsingka picks up 70 per cent equity stake in Italian firm
Mumbai: Himatsingka Seide has completed the acquisition of 70 per cent equity stake in Italian firm, Guiseppe Bellora.

Himatsinghka acquired a 59.74 per cent stake at an enterprise value of Euro 20 million (including Euro 7 million of long-term debt). The stake was acquired from a private equity firm and the promoter family. Apart from this Indian textile company says it has infused an incremental Euro 3.75 million as fresh equity to increase its stake.

Guiseppe Bellora would continue to function as the managing director in the Italian company and hold 30 per cent equity in the firm. Himatsingka said it funded the acquisition out of the GDR proceeds of 60 million dollar it raised in December 2005. This acquisition is in line with Himatsingka's strategy to invest in luxury brands and distribution networks in the home textile space.
Giuseppe's 'Bellora' brand has a strong presence in Europe through exclusive stores, departmental stores and multi-brand outlets.
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