Daily Excelsior...Business

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 5: The Jammu City final of "Tycoons", the all India hunt for future business personalities being organized by ......more'

Prakash Ind to set
up thermal power plant
in Chhattisgarh

MUMBAI, Jan 5: Steel maker Prakash Industries today said it will set up a 600 MW thermal power station in ....more

Subex bags order from
Slovenia-based telecom firm

MUMBAI, Feb 5: Revenue management solutions provider Subex Ltd today said it has bagged a contract from Slovenia-based telecom operator ......more

MESCO plans over
Rs 1,000 cr investment

KALINGANAGAR, ORISSA, Feb 5: MESCO Steel Group plans to invest USD 2.8 billion (over Rs 1,000 crore) to expand its existing steel making capacity and set up a greenfield project that would together take its total capacity to 6.5 , .....more

REC in consortium
with IIFCL, Hudco to fund
power projects

NEW DELHI, Feb 5: State-run Rural Electrification Corporation has entered into agreement with two other PSUs, .....more

ICICI Bank assessing
market on possibility
of rate cut

MUMBAI, Feb 5: Country's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank today kept its cards close to the chest on the possibility ......more

Instanex Skindia DR Index
reacts downwards

MUMBAI, Feb 5: The Instanex Skindia DR Index reacted downwards by 56.24 points or 1.75 per cent to 3,149.63 on February 4 from 3,205.87 previously.....more

Govt holding talks with
industry on
re-manufactured goods

NEW DELHI, Feb 5: The Government has initiated consultations with industry stakeholders to formulate a policy on import of re-manufactured goods as well as seek clarity on ....more

VKL mulls Rs 100 cr capex, receives USD 7.5 mn PE funding..............

Top 500 firms log Rs 19,000 bn income in FY07...........

Lack of engineers force Bose to shut India R & D ops..........

Canara Bank-OBC life insurance venture to come up by June..........

City final of "Tycoon" held

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 5: The Jammu City final of "Tycoons", the all India hunt for future business personalities being organized by Career Launchers throughout country, held today.

A total of 10 colleges from Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur participated in the event. Out of the 83 participants shortlisted participants were called for a written quiz followed by an oral quiz of 12 toppers. Later, extempore held for five participants. Dr Alka Sharma was the judge in extempore.

Finally, two participants were selected, who will take part in regional finals.

Prof Keshav Sharma, Director ‘The Business School’, University of Jammu was the chief guest on the occasion.

However, the winners were given prizes sponsored by Luxar, Reebok and Outlook. HCL was one of the sponsors of the event.

Prakash Ind to set up thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh

MUMBAI, Jan 5: Steel maker Prakash Industries today said it will set up a 600 MW thermal power station in Chhattisgarh with an investment of about Rs 2,400 crore.

The company has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the state government in this regard.

As per the MoU, the company or its special purpose vehicle, formed for this purpose, could carry out the project, Prakash Industries said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The said project would be operational within a period of three to four years and would be financed through a mix of equity and debt.

Prakash Industries would benefit from this project as the state government would facilitate in the allotment of captive coal block for the project and Prakash Industries would be entitled to distribute the power through Power Grid Corp, any other grid lines or its own dedicated lines.

Further the company said that it has established an integrated steel plant in Janjgir district of Chhattisgarh.

(PTI)

Subex bags order from Slovenia-based telecom firm

MUMBAI, Feb 5: Revenue management solutions provider Subex Ltd today said it has bagged a contract from Slovenia-based telecom operator Telekom Slovenije for implementing its fraud management system, Nikira.

The Nikira V6.1 solution would help safeguard the company from a range of potential risks including subscription fraud and network fraud, Subex said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"The Nikira V6.1 fraud management suite is designed to safeguard operators who are rapidly expanding their subscriber numbers and new service bundles," Subex Ltd COO Sudeesh Yezhuvath said.

Pursuant to the implementation, Telekom Slovenije would benefit from the early detection of fraud as well as productivity improvement through reduction of false alarms and efficient workflow that are built in to Nikira.

"Telekom Slovenije will benefit from a reduction in business risk and an increase in productivity, enabling it to deliver quick services to its customers," Yezhuvath said.

(PTI)

MESCO plans over Rs 1,000 cr investment

MESCO, which owns Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd (MISL), would enhance its existing pig iron plant here into a 3.5 million tonnes steel plant with an investment of USD 1.2 billion, company's Managing Director Rita Singh told reporters here.

Singh said that the company would pump in 1.5-1.6 billion dollars through joint venture route in setting up a greenfield steel plant here. The project is expected to be finalised within 2-3 months.

"We have already acquired 800 acres of land for this greenfield steel plant," she said, adding that this project would be set up by MESCO Kalinga Steel.

Both these projects would be completed by 2010-11, she said. The funds for these projects would be arranged through suppliers credit and cash equity.

"We are working towards financial strength and have cleared the dues of almost 90 per cent of our secured creditors. Embarking on an aggressive expansion strategy, we intend to ensure that MESCO takes a strong and successful leap in the steel industry," Singh said.

MESCO, which has became debt free recently, is also planning to ramp up its pig iron production from the current 4,00,000 tonnes to 7,00,000 tonnes by 2008-09. The products would be utilised by its own steel plants, she said. (PTI)

REC in consortium with IIFCL, Hudco to fund power projects

NEW DELHI, Feb 5: State-run Rural Electrification Corporation has entered into agreement with two other PSUs, IIFCL and Hudco, for lending funds to greenfield power projects of over 1,000 MW, proposed to be set up under public-private partnership.

Sources said the consortium would provide up to Rs 4,000 crore to each project.

"The move is to ensure that REC is well positioned to provide speedy consortium refinancing for large power infrastructure projects," they said.

The Power Ministry is believed to have asked REC and Power Finance Corporation to mobilise resources to ensure viable projects do not suffer for want of funds. The total fund requirement for the power sector has been assessed at around Rs 10,00,000 crore for the 11th Plan.

India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) has earlier said it provided Rs 1,800 crore loan to the Tata Group-promoted Mundra ultra mega power project.

The government targets to add 78,577 MW in the 11th five year plan to the existing installed capacity of over 1,30,000 MW. Of the over 78,000 MW, about 39,500 MW is required to be added by the Centre, while an additional 10,700 MW is expected to come from private players. States are likely to add 27,900 MW power in the 11th plan.

The Working Group on power for the 11th Plan based on certain government has estimated that the fund requirement for creation of projected capacity expansion alone will be about Rs 4,10,000 crore.

REC, a lending institution to power sector, is likely to hit the capital market with an initial public offer to raise about Rs 1,200 crore.

The company expects to raise 15.61 crore shares, including about 39 lakh shares reserved for the employees. REC proposes the issue would constitute an 18.18 per cent stake of the company's fully-diluted post-issue capital.

In FY07, the company made loan sanctions of over Rs 32,925 crore and disbursements of Rs 10,732 crore. As on March 31, 2007, REC had total assets of Rs 36,200 crore and net worth of Rs 3,800 crore. (PTI)

ICICI Bank assessing market on possibility of rate cut

MUMBAI, Feb 5: Country's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank today kept its cards close to the chest on the possibility of an interest rate cut, saying it was still assessing the demand-supply position for credit.

"Let's wait see what happens. This is the last quarter of the year where rates normally tends to increase. It would be unwise to say how rates will move in the next six weeks. We have also to see the demand-supply gap," Chairman K V Kamath, told reporters here.

Asked about the slow-down in the bank's credit offtake during the fiscal, Kamath said there has been a slow-down in automobile and mortgage portfolios.

"There was a slow-down in segments like automobile. There was an impact in the mortgage business also, due to high cost of property prices," Kamath said, adding,"there was no serious impact across the board."

On the issue of the bank's holding company, Kamath said it will wait for the new draft policy from the Reserve Bank before taking any decision in this regard.

Noting that the domestic economy is expected to continue the current growth momentum, Kamath said that he expects the economy to grow in double-digits in the next 10-25 years.

"A growth at 10 per cent is already happening. I believe that the country is able to sustain this (growth) and may even move to a double digit growth in the next 10-25 years,"Kamath said. (PTI)

Govt holding talks with industry
on re-manufactured goods

NEW DELHI, Feb 5: The Government has initiated consultations with industry stakeholders to formulate a policy on import of re-manufactured goods as well as seek clarity on the definition of such goods and their impact on the domestic industry.

"There is need for a definition and clarity on the scope of re-manufactured goods as also the impact these would have on

the domestic industry," Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Amarendra Khatua said today at a Ficci seminar on "Re-manufactured goods and WTO negotiations" here.

Under the current Foreign Trade Policy, import of re-manufactured goods is allowed only against licences. However, the goods have not been defined in the policy.

Khatua said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry would also hold consultations with industry bodies of the automotive components, hardware and engineering to seek views on domestic sensitivity to re-manufactured goods, export potential to markets with low purchasing power and enforceability of standards and regulations on the goods.

"We would also be discussing issues like customs valuation, IPR and misclassification and identification of industry spread," he said. (PTI)

VKL mulls Rs 100 cr capex, receives
USD 7.5 mn PE funding

MUMBAI, Feb 5: Kochi-based Vallabhdas Kanji Ltd (VKL) has drawn up capital expenditure plan of Rs 100 crore over the next three years to finance organic as well as inorganic growth plans.

"We are focusing on organic as well as inorganic growth over the next three years, which includes acquisitions in India and abroad," VKL Managing Director Ajay Mariwala said.

The company would also part-finance its expansion programme in existing as well as new facilities.

"We are setting up a new facility near Mumbai, for blending and packaging of spices, having capacity of 20 crore bottles per annum," Mariwala said.

The company is also looking at units for acquisitions in India and abroad.

The project will be financed through initial public offer (IPO) of around Rs 120 crore in FY 09, Mariwala said.

US-based Global Private Equity Fund, Argonaut Private Equity, which manages more than 3.5 billion dollars of capital has already invested 7.5 million dollars in VKL.

Argonaut funding will allow VKL to expand its global sales and marketing for private label business, further strengthen manufacturing capability and leverage synergistic inorganic growth opportunities in India and abroad, Mariwala said. (PTI)

Top 500 firms log Rs 19,000 bn income in FY07.

NEW DELHI, Feb 5: Continuing on high growth path, corporate India posted an over Rs 19,000 billion of total income in fiscal 2007, reflecting strong fundamentals and positive outlook for the economy.

As many as four state-run oil firms have emerged among the top five companies in the country in terms of total income for fiscal 2007. Reliance Industries is the sole representative of the private sector among first five.

The aggregate total income of all the Top 500 companies has grown 28.4 per cent to Rs 19,335 billion in FY07 as compared to the previous fiscal, a report by leading global business information provider Dun & Bradstreet said.

State-run Indian Oil Corporation is at the top with a total income of Rs 21,63,97.85 crore, which grew 22.5 per cent followed by Reliance Industries with Rs 1,12,171 crore in fiscal 2006-07.

The other state-run firms in the top five include - Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation reporting Rs 98,293.4 crore, Rs 89,725.7 crore and Rs 60,870.61 crore total incomes respectively in the last fiscal.

"Reflecting the growth opportunity inherent in the Indian economy and the ability of India Inc to capitalise on that, we saw over 20 per cent new companies make it to the top 500 list this year. These 103 new companies that debuted on the list witnessed a 58 per cent increase in their cumulative total income," Dun & Bradstreet (India) Chief Operating Officer Kaushal Sampat said.

Besides, public sector companies rule the roost in terms of market capitalisation with 54 of them featuring in the top 500 list, commanding a higher share of 25.2 per cent in the combined market cap of the Top 500 companies.

The report revealed that almost 51 per cent of cumulative total income came from four sectors, namely oil-refining & marketing, banks, software & ITes and automobiles.

Interestingly, mid-cap companies dominate the list with a share of 46.8 per cent or 234 firms. However, large cap firms account for 87 per cent of the aggregate market cap, the D&B report added.

ONGC was the top company in terms of market cap in 2006-07 with a valuation of Rs 1.74 lakh crore followed by corporate behemoth Reliance Industries with Rs 1.60 lakh crore, NTPC (Rs 1.07 lakh crore), IT major Infosys (Rs 1.045 lakh crore) and Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 1.040 lakh crore).

The 8th edition of its annual publication ‘India’s Top 500 Companies 2007’ covers 53 diverse sectors and captures the underlying transformation witnessed in the Indian corporate segment during the past year. (PTI)

Lack of engineers force Bose to shut India R & D ops

NEW DELHI, Feb 5: Acoustics management products maker Bose Corporation India today said lack of skilled engineers forced the company to shut down its research and development operations in the country last year.

The company, which used to operate an R & D centre in Bangalore, was looking for engineers specialising in embedded software and was also finding it difficult to synergise operations with its head office in New Delhi.

"Bose started off with an R&D centre but had to shut down as it could not deliver the maximum benefits as envisaged. We could not find talented skilled engineers trained in embedded software," Bose India General Manager Ratish Pandey told reporters here.

He said the Bangalore centre started with five engineers who were later relocated to the US due to shutdown of R&D operations in India.

The company is still aggressive on its India strategy and continues to outsource IT services to the country.

"All IT outsourcing that our parent in US does is to India. We continue to be bullish on India," Pandey said.

The company today unveiled two models of its Lifestyle home theatre systems V20 and V30 in the country priced at Rs 1,29,263 and Rs 1,91,138 respectively.

The high-end lifestyle home theatre systems would be retailed through the company’s sixteen exclusive outlets spread across nine cities in the country.

Speaking on expansion of retail outlets, Pandey said, the company was looking at right opportunities but real estate still has been a cause of concern.

"Challenge for opening stores is finding real estate on time. We are looking at right opportunities, where it is there we would definitely open more stores," he said. (PTI)

Canara Bank-OBC life insurance venture
to come up by June

NEW DELHI, Feb 5: Looking to derive strength from their huge customer base and branch network, two PSU lenders Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, along with the insurance arm of UK-based HSBC Group, are likely to start a life insurance venture in the next four months.

The venture will have an initial paid-up capital of Rs 200 crore, besides Rs 125 crore of premium that HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) will pay.

"The R1 (preliminary approval) stage from IRDA is clear. IRDA is currently looking at the R2 application. I think by May-June the joint venture will be able to launch its first policy," OBC Executive Director Allen C A Pereira said.

The new life insurance entity will have exclusive access to customer bases of both the state-owned banks and HSBC in India, thus, giving them a headstart in targeting potential customers.

At present, Canara Bank and OBC have over 40 million customers and a nation-wide network of 3,600 branches.

However, to start with the JV will sell its products through selected branches, Pereira said, adding partners are currently identifying and working out the strategy for the launch.

In the three-way JV, HSBC’s stake would be 26 per cent, which is the maximum permissible limit for FDI in the sector, under the current regulation.

HSBC will contribute over Rs 170 crore, which includes premium for accessing the vast branch network of both the PSU banks.

While the majority stake holder Canara Bank, with 51 per cent share, invest Rs 102 crore, OBC will contribute Rs 46 crore to the JV. (PTI)