i-flex' Q4 net falls 5.4 pc Mumbai: For the quarter ended March 31, 2007, i-flex reported a 5.4 pc drop in net profit at Rs132.40 crore as against Rs140 crore reported in Q4FY06. The total income increased 27.7 pc to Rs601.10 crore from Rs470.60 crore. However for the entire year i-flex Solutions registered a 56.6 pc rise in consolidated FY07 net profit, as per Indian GAPP, at Rs372.30 crore against Rs237.70 crore in FY06.

The company's total income grew 39 pc to Rs2,060.90 crore from Rs1,482.30 crore. Back to News Review index page  

Maruti April car sales up 17 pc New Delhi: Maruti Udyog registered a 17 pc increase in domestic car sales for the April month, and sold 48,652 vehicles compared to 41,574 vehicles sold in the same period last year.

The company sold 50,352 vehicles in the Indian and export markets in April, compared to 43,127 in the year-ago period, a company release said.

Maruti's sales in the A2 segment in India, which includes models like Zen, Swift, Alto, sales grew by 20.3 pc and in the C segment grew by 21.1 pc last month compared to the same period in 2006. However in the A3 segment which has cars like Baleno, Esteem the company reported a fall in sales of 12.7 pc. Back to News Review index page  

Taj Hotels acquires San Francisco hotel for $58mn New York: Tata Group company Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, said it acquired a 110-room, European style luxury hotel Campton Place in San Francisco for $58 million.

This is the first hotel the Taj group company has acquired in the East Coast and the third in the US. The company earlier entered into a lease to operate the The Pierre in New York's Fifth Avenue and full ownership of Taj Boston earlier this year.

Taj owns and manages 77 hotels worldwide, and the acquisition will enhance the Campton Place's original reputation for quiet elegance, unrivalled service and style, said Raymond Bickson, chief executive of Indian Hotels.

Campton Place has a 98-year heritage and re-opened in 1984 when two buildings that date back to 1909 and 1910 were combined into one. Today, it has 101 rooms, nine suites, a restaurant, bar, fitness centre and broadband access.

Vikram Aditya Singh has been appointed the new general manager for the hotel. He has previously worked for the Taj Exotica Resort and Spa in the Maldives and Taj Safari Lodges in India. Back to News Review index page  

Vodafone, Airtel enter into agreement to offer int'l services New Delhi: Vodafone has signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel to offer global products like cheaper roaming, multimedia, and other high-end voice and data packages in the Channel Islands in Europe, where Bharti will start mobile services soon.

The services would be under the dual brand name of both the companies, Airtel-Vodafone in Jersey and Guernsey Islands and would offer 2G (voice) and 3G (Advanced voice and data) services. Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel are subsidiaries of Bharti Enterprises and this agreement is a pre-launch pact.

Vodafone and Bharti Airtel have also signed a pact to share infrastructure in India.

This agreement will see the UK major's leading global products and services available on the island for the very first time.

Customers of Airtel-Vodafone will be able to benefit from a range of Vodafone services, tailored to the needs of Jersey customers, both at home and when travelling in the UK and across the world, including Vodafone Passport, a simple roaming price plan, a Vodafone release said. Back to News Review index page  

Bharat Forge to set up non automotive unit for Rs350-cr Baramati: The world's biggest forgings maker Bharat Forge plans to set up a Rs 350 crore greenfield non-automotive parts manufacturing unit here, that will enable it to enter the US$ 20 billion global high technology components market.

The company will manufacture critical components for aircraft and helicopters, railway and locomotive sector, construction machinery, large diesel power generating plants and other products at the proposed unit in Pune district.

The facility will have a capacity of 30,000 tonnes and will manufacture one lakh cranckshafts in the first phase. The unit will go on stream by May next year.

Bharat Forge would employ about 1,000-1,200 engineers at the plant. Back to News Review index page  

P&G Health Care Q3 net falls 19.2 pc Mumbai: Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care has reported a 19.2-per-cent fall in net profit for its quarter ended March 31, 2007 despite its feminine hygiene business doing well. The net profit was Rs. 21.4 crore during the quarter against Rs26.5 crore for the same quarter in the previous fiscal.

The company's total income for the quarter stood at Rs126.30 crore (Rs124.10 crore).

The company said its sales were led by a strong performance of the feminine hygiene business, which had sales of Rs71.3 crore during the quarter, reflecting a 20 per cent growth.

The health care business of the company at Rs51.1 crore, was however, lower during the quarter.

In the nine-month period ended March 31, 2007, sales at Rs414 crore grew by 15 per cent over the corresponding period last year, excluding the manufacturing business sales. This growth was driven by 22 per cent growth in feminine hygiene sales and 8 per cent in healthcare.

In a statement to the BSE, the company said its financial results for the nine-month period were "not strictly comparable" as the corresponding period ended March 31, 2006 included sales and expenditure of detergent business, which was transferred with effect from October 1, 2005 to Procter & Gamble Home Products Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Procter & Gamble Company of the US. Back to News Review index page  

Moser Baer Q4 net soars New Delhi: Optical disc maker Moser Baer's net profit increased to Rs39.72 crore for the quarter ended March 31 against Rs35 lakh for the corresponding previous period mainly due to reduction in raw material cost, enhanced productivity and increase in the price of recordable CDs. The company reported 3.45 per cent increase in fourth-quarter net sales to Rs525.01 crore (Rs507.49 crore). EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs172.58 crore (Rs107.34 crore), an increase of 60.75 per cent.

Net profit for the year rose to Rs109.79 crore (Rs4.67 crore). Net sales were up 19.09 per cent to Rs1,981.91 crore (Rs1,664.12 crore). EBITDA increased to Rs602.21 crore (Rs413.60 crore), up 45.50 per cent. The company said it incurred a loss of Rs8 crore and Rs13 crore for the entire year, on the home entertainment business. Back to News Review index page  

Reliance Comm plans capex of Rs10,000-cr Mumbai: Reliance Communications plans to invest Rs10,000 crore in capital expenditure across the breadth of its businesses in 2007-08 according to the chairman of company Anil Ambani. The company has big plans in GSM and a national rollout is on the anvil one year from the time of release of spectrum, at a cost of $1 billion or Rs4,500 crore. The company has a debt equity ratio of 0.08, and is in a position to raise up to Rs40,000 crore.

Future shareholder value will come from Reliance Telecom Infrastructure (the company to which the passive tower infrastructure of RCom has been transferred) and FLAG, its international undersea cable company.

Reliance Comm is also looking at getting a financial investor, a strategic partner or even listing its infrastructure company, which has 12,000 towers and will add 20,000 more this fiscal. Back to News Review index page  

MTNL to spend Rs1.80-cr New Delhi: State run MTNL plans to get an external agency to verify its cellular as well as WLL subscribers in Delhi as the Government has threatened to impose a minimum fine of Rs1000 on telecom companies for every unchecked user.

MTNL: is floating a tender of Rs1.80 crore and will select an agency to verify its Dophin, Trump and Garuda subscribers of Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. The verification process starts on May 5 and MTNL will begin sell tender documents, while on May 21 the bids will open. A sample survey conducted by the Ministry of Telecom revealed that Reliance and Hutch stood at 93 per cent, BSNL at 86 per cent, Bharti Airtel at 90 per cent, Tata Teleservices 73 per cent and Spice at 52 per cent on subscriber verification.

MTNL's subscriber verification levels after the March 31 deadline has not been revealed but is expected to be around 65-70 per cent against 100 per cent sought by DoT. Back to News Review index page