Daily Excelsior...Business

Sadhotra inaugurates
‘Indraprasth’

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 3: The Minister of State for Food and Supplies, Mr Ajay Sadhotra inaugurating "Indraprasth" a fancy Light.....more

Indonesia names respected career banker to head
restructuring agency

JAKARTA, Nov 3: Indonesia today named a widely respected career banker to head its crucial bank restructuring...more

Indian Oil taps mkts
for 150 mln dollars

HONG KONG, Nov 3: The sub-underwriting phase for a 150 million dollars, 3.5-year revolving credit facility for Indian Oil Corp is underway....more

JMC bags contracts
worth Rs 50 crore

MUMBAI, Nov 3: Ahmedabad based JMC Projects (India) Limited has made a break through in the Delhi region by securing two projects worth Rs 50 .....more

UP CS issues direction to review progress of PPC

LUCKNOW, Nov 3: The Uttar Pradesh Government has ordered that action be taken against officials who turn away farmers bringing paddy with high moisture content from the Paddy Purchase Centres (PPC)........more

Eskay posts strong
45.53 pc growth

MUMBAI, Nov 3: Eskay K N IT (India) Ltd. (formerly Shree Krishna Petro Yarns), the flagship company of the Rs 2255 crore Tayal group, has posted . .....more

Committee on SFCs’ restructuring invites suggestions

VADODARA, Nov 3: The committee on restructuring of State Financial Corporations (SFCs) has invited suggestion from the individual, professional, ......more

India eyeing global
tuna fish market

BEIJING, Nov 3: India is eyeing the global tuna fish market by proposing to undertake largescale harvesting of the fish around the Lakshwadeweep...more

Sadhotra inaugurates ‘Indraprasth’

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 3: The Minister of State for Food and Supplies, Mr Ajay Sadhotra inaugurating "Indraprasth" a fancy Light Show Room at Shastri Nagar, here today.

The Showroom has been established by S Surinder Singh after taking a loan of Rs one lakh from the Bank under PMRY Self Employment Scheme.

Appreciating the venture of the owner, Mr Ajay Sadhotra said that the Government has launched various state and centrally schemes for providing self employment opportunities to youth for setting up their units. He urged the youth to take benefits of these schemes and set up their own units instead of hankering after the Government jobs.

Indraprasth traders are the sole distributors of Ankura Lighting India Pvt Ltd and S R Lites for J&K State.

In his address Mr Surinder Singh said Indraprasth is a house of unique collection of fancy lights which introduces new range of wall brackets, chandeliers, children lights, uplights, gate lights, garden lights, concealed, ceiling, table lamps, pedestals etc.

He said Indraprasth with a slogan "the lights to light up your dreams" has tried to give a new concept of beautiful fancy lights. A revolutionary change in light fittings it has brought a unique presentation in lights confirming to international quality standards, versatile in use, elegant in design, grace in presentation and variety which can adopt itself to any form, he added.

Indonesia names respected career banker to head restructuring agency

JAKARTA, Nov 3: Indonesia today named a widely respected career banker to head its crucial bank restructuring agency, whose dawdling efforts are blamed for slowing the country’s drive to recover from devastating economic woes.

The announcement comes as mounting opposition to President Abdurrahman Wahid’s barely year-old rule has further undermined local share prices and the currency, and triggered fears the Muslim cleric may be losing his brief grip on power.

Wahid’s increasingly vocal opponents have largely focused on his failure to revive the economy and Indonesia’s slumping financial markets, among the world’s worst performers this year.

Edwin Gerungan is expected to formally take over the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) next week.

The agency has come under sharp attack for moving too slowly to resolve the huge problems facing the shattered banking sector.

The choice of Gerungan, Executive Vice President for Treasury and International Coordination at state-owned bank Mandiri, has been greeted mainly with relief by financial markets which feared a different state banker would replace ousted IBRA chief Cacuk Sudarijanto.

"I expect a good reaction from the markets on the new IBRA chief, especially on the (share) index and the rupiah," Wahid told Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Jakarta.

Gerungan worked at Citibank in Jakarta for some 15 years, where he reached the level of Vice President. He then had a short stint with US oil company Atlantic Richfield before joining bank Mandiri.

"He is a respected career banker with years of experience in treasury before he moved to arco...," said one banker who knows Gerungan well.

However, bankers added that Gerungan he did not have much experience in asset sales or corporate restructuring.

One presidential palace source conceded the widely-tipped candidate for the IBRA job, Widigdo Sukarman, former head of troubled state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), was in the end overlooked because of market fears.

"There was concern he would not be accepted by the market," the source told Reuters.

IBRA is responsible for resurrecting the banking industry, brought to its knees by a three-year-long economic and political crisis, and for raising money to help plug a big budget deficit.

The agency is under pressure from donors to speed up the sale of more than 600 trillion rupiah ( 65.93 billion) in assets it grabbed from failed banks and their related firms so Jakarta gets the money and the private sector gets back in business. (REUTERS)

Indian Oil taps mkts for 150 mln dollars

HONG KONG, Nov 3: The sub-underwriting phase for a 150 million dollars, 3.5-year revolving credit facility for Indian Oil Corp is underway with general syndication set to launch Nov 13, bankers said today.

Arranged by ABN Amro, the deal is offering a margin of 55 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

In July, Bank of America (BA) completed a 245 million dollars refinancing facility for IOC.

Syndication on that deal, which was divided into two-year and 2.5-year tranches, was reportedly difficult. Indian banks, already overexposed to IOC, were said to be reluctant to take on more IOC debt at pricing deemed to be wafer-thin. (REUTERS)

UP CS issues direction to review progress of PPC

State Chief Secretary Bhola Nath Tiwari issued the direction during a high-level meeting here yesterday to review the progress of the PPC and purchase of paddy.

He said instruments to measure moisture content would be provided in all the collection centres in the state.

Uttar Pradesh had a record production of 213 lakh metric tonnes of paddy this year, 19 more then last year. So far, 5374 metric tonnes had been purchased by the Government.

In view of the record production, the Government had decided to open 1420 PCC this year as against 1320 last year.

The State Government had sanctioned Rs five crore to purchase around one lakh metric tonne of paddy this year. (UNI)

Eskay posts strong 45.53 pc growth

MUMBAI, Nov 3: Eskay K N IT (India) Ltd. (formerly Shree Krishna Petro Yarns), the flagship company of the Rs 2255 crore Tayal group, has posted a strong 45.53 per cent growth for the half year ended September 30. Domestic sales for the six month was at Rs 455.40 crore, up from Rs 312.90 crore for the corresponding period last year.

A lower interest charge at Rs 6.72 crore, compared to Rs 10.48 crore for the corresponding period last year, has helped buoying carnings as net profit at Rs 34.18 crore was up 5.3 per cent, compared to Rs 32.46 crore last year.

The revenue growth of 45.03 per cent in the second quarter has been inline with the growth achieved in the first quarter of the current financial year. The net profit figure in the second quarter was also buoyant with net profit up 6.27 per cent at Rs 17.28 crore for the quarter ended September 2000. The company’s total income has grown at a CAGR of 25.36 per cent over the past 5 years.

Eskay K N IT (India) Ltd. is a composite cotton spinning, processing and specialty fabrics manufacturer. It is a multi-locational and multi project enterprise employing more than 11,400 people.

The company has plans to expand its spinning and processing capacities, by setting up two new spinning units with a capacity of 50,400 spindles each for the manufacture of cotton yarn at Bonta (Silvassa) and Bhilad (Gujarat). All of which should reflect in a combined additional capacity of 17,000 tpa, raising the total yarn capacity of the company to an impressive 41,000 tpa. Eskay K N IT also plans to increase the processing facilities by 25,000 tpa at Navi Mumbai, taking the combined processing capabilities of the company to 43,00 tpa. The company has estimated the total fund requirement for the proposed project at Rs 317 crores. (UNI)

Committee on SFCs’ restructuring invites suggestions

VADODARA, Nov 3: The committee on restructuring of State Financial Corporations (SFCs) has invited suggestion from the individual, professional, SSI units and industry associations by November 15 , to improve their viability and competitive position in the emerging financial systems.

The committee which was constituted by the Union Ministry of Finance under the chairmanship of Mr G P Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) to enable SFCs to adapt themselves to the emerging environment and promote the growth of the small scale and tiny industries sector in the desire manner.

The Central Gujarat Chamber of Commerce (CGCC) general secretary Mr C D Gandhi will be sending their suggestion in which he has suggested to appoint a professional as higher authority instead of IAS Officer in the SFCs.

The terms of reference of the committee are : Identification of the role and status of SFCs on the emerging Indian financial system, suggestion for operational, financial and organisational restructuring of SFCs to provide them with grater functional automony and operational flexibility, composition and adequacy of capital structure, particularly with reference to capital adequacy ratio of SFCs, financial restructuring, recapitalisation and revitalisation of SFCs, identification of sources through, which restructuring and recapitalisation shall be funded and others. (UNI)

India eyeing global tuna fish market

BEIJING, Nov 3: India is eyeing the global tuna fish market by proposing to undertake largescale harvesting of the fish around the Lakshwadeweep islands which could rake in millions of dollars in exports.

"We are working on a plan to exploit the availability of tuna fish around Lakshadweep islands so as to expand our marine export basket," chairman of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), K Jose Cyriac, told PTI here.

The global demand for tuna, a high-value export item, is comparable to shrimp but India has only a .001 per cent share in the world market, Cyriac, Fisheries and Seafood Expo 2000,’ Asia’s largest fisheries exhibition, said.

MPEDA is launching a plan to popularise tuna fishing by offering to take on about 50 per cent of the cost of deep sea fishing which requires imported technology known as ‘monofilament technique.’

"We hope to make a small dent in the world market for tuna," he said and added that the indot depend on shrimp alone for foreign exchange.

MPEDA has succeeded in getting the trawlers’ associations involved in the venture by permitting trawlers fitted with imported nets to harvest tuna fish, Cyriac said.

He said MPEDA is scouting for foreign trainers who could teach Indian trawler operators the complicated technique of operating it.

On the performance of India’s marine exports, he said the sector was doing extremely well thanks to the high demands for the products, especially shrimp.

In 1999-2000, India’s marine exports was worth 1.19 billion US dollars, up seven per cent over the corresponding figure in 1998-99. During April-September this year, the exports hit 673 million dollars, up 27 per cent over the same period last year.

The US market warmed up to Indian marine exports with the six-month figure rising by a 65 per cent in value. Indian exports to US alone was worth 85 million dollars during April-September this year compared to 85 million during the corresponding period in 1999, Cyriac said.

Exports to Japan and Europe were up by 17 per cent in the first six months of last year.

While the sea and acquaculture farms remains the main source of marine food products, the latter made up to 72 per cent while the yield from the sea accounted for only 28 per cent of the total volume, Cyriac said.

Acquaculture farms produce high value and better quality shrimps, he said while noting that India’s black tiger shrimp was highly acclaimed the world over.

However, he said India’s marine industry was lagging behind when it comes to value addition.

He said lack of adequate processing and marketing facilities also resulted in the country’s poor showing as less than 15 per cent of India’s marine exports are in the form of value added products while only 15 to 20 per cent is ready for the consumer for immediate use.

He said that it was a cause for concern that countries like China, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam were importing marine products from India in block-frozen form and re-exporting them after value addition.

"We need big players and well-known brands" to promote products internationally, Cyriac said. (PTI)