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Ahluwalia: Economy likely to grow 9% in FY12The economy is likely to return to an annual growth rate of 9 percent by the fiscal year ending in March 2012.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Jan 2010 | 8:00 am Bank of America to pay bonuses close to \'07 levelsBank of America Corp will pay its investment bankers bonuses close to the levels of 2007, as it tries to reduce defections following its takeover of Merrill Lynch Co.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Jan 2010 | 8:00 am FY10 outlook: LT sees 30% growth in order inflowEngineering and construction major, Larsen Toubro\'s current orderbook is at Rs 900 billion, says company\'s Chairman and Managing Director, AM Naik, reports CNBCTV18, quoting NewsWire18. He sees order inflow growth at 30% in FY10.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Jan 2010 | 7:44 am Experts discuss entrepreneurial mantra for 2010As we start the New Year and a new decade its time to draw up the entrepreneurial agenda for 2010. What are the new imperatives in a post Lehman world for young startups? What are the lessons to be learnt and is there any India specific entrepreneurial mantra.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am Microsoft petitions for review of Word case!Microsoft Friday filed a petition with the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals seeking review of the ruling against it for stealing a patent held by a small Toronto software company.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Jan 2010 | 4:59 am US regulators shut first bank, first in 2010!Regulators shut Horizon Bank in Bellingham, Washington on Friday, the first bank closing of 2010.The 18 branches of Horizon Bank will reopen Saturday as branches of Washington Federal Savings and Loan.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Jan 2010 | 4:59 am India`s vice president goes to Botswana in search of diamonds!India is a on a diamond search in the southern African state of Botswana from where it hopes to increase the direct access of Indian companies to rough diamonds, rather than through middlemen.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Jan 2010 | 4:59 am Venezuela devalues currency for 1st time since `05!Venezuela devalued its currency on Friday for the first time since 2005, and set a two-tiered exchange rate designed to help Venezuela`s oil earnings go farther domestically while holding down prices of priority imports.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Jan 2010 | 4:59 am Rel Foundation to set up worldclass university in IndiaMukesh Ambani says there is need for overhauling the method of education in India. \"Access to world class education is a prerequisite for a strong India.\" Reliance Foundation, he added, plans to set up worldclass university in India.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Jan 2010 | 4:35 am Stocks fight off losses. dollar softensWorld stocks teetered near 15month highs and the US dollar fell on Friday after a soft US employment report tempered expectations for a global economic recovery.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Jan 2010 | 3:30 am Govt approves $1.35 billion road projectsThe cabinet on Saturday approved projects worth Rs61.5 billion ($1.35 billon) to widen highways in the west of the country.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 3:21 am Twitter hiring workers to turn Tweets into moneyTwitter, the popular but moneylosing microblogging service, is hiring engineers and specialists who can help turn it into a moneymaker.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Jan 2010 | 3:19 am Malawi for joint uranium exploration with IndiaWhile India has proposed a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of coal resources, Malawi has suggested that the scope of the MoU should be expanded to include development of other mineral resources.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 3:09 am Vintage cars showcased at Delhi Auto ExpoSome of the cars exhibited in the show were vintage BMW Isetta 300, Buick Series 90L, Jaguar XK120, Mercedes 180 Pontoon, and even a 1966 Mustang.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 2:35 am Govt approves $1.35 bln road projectsNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The cabinet on Saturday approved projects worth 61.5 billion rupees ($1.35 billon) to widen highways in the west of the country, a government statement said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 2:16 am Union Budget likely to be presented on February 26The annual budget date is being advanced from the normal practice of being presented on February 28, as because February 27 is a government holiday and February 28 is a Sunday.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 2:06 am Union Budget likely on Feb 26The Union budget for 2010-11 is likely to be presented on February 26, two days ahead of the conventional date.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 9 Jan 2010 | 2:02 am Sensex hits 22-month high; mid-, small-caps shine - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Jan 2010 | 1:31 am Govt to ease education sector norms to clock 10% growth: Montek New Delhi: The government on Saturday assured the NRIs it would remove regulatory constraints to encourage their participation in the education sector as skill development was necessary to achieve 10% economic growth in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17). “It is quite logical to enable NRIs to play part in expansion of education and to improve quality of skill development. There are regulatory constraints, which may come in the way, we are working to relax them,” Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here. He further said skill development was necessary to achieve the 10% economic growth rate as desired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “We will run into skill constraints to achieve high growth rate, one of the critical factors is massive expansion of education system in India,” he said. Ahluwalia further said that efforts would be made to achieve 9% growth trajectory by the end of the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) and 10% growth rate in the next five-year plan. Indian economy was expanding by 9% before the global financial meltdown hit the world and pulled down the country’s GDP growth rate to 6.7% 2008-09. Ahluwalia said: “By the end of the XIth plan (2007-12), we will restore back to the 9% growth trajectory.” About the Prime Minister’s intent to achieve over 10% economic growth he said: “I am not saying that it is easy. But the question arises which are the areas, which need to be focused on. These are infrastructure and skill development.” On the potential of the education sector in India, he said: “Every year 8 million people are added to the workforce in India and in the next 25 years, 250 to 300 million people would be added to the workforce.” Besides he also pointed out the need for upgrading skills of the existing 200 million workforce. For the purpose, the government has created a National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for funding education institutes built under the public-private partnership model (PPP) with a corpus of Rs1,000 crore last year. According to the labour ministry estimates there is a huge skill deficit in the 20 high-growth industry sectors and the unorganised sector. The NSDC, funded by government and industries in the ratio of 51:49, will train about 150 million people by 2022 to meet the growing demand for skilled workforce. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Jan 2010 | 1:15 am Economy likely to grow 9 pct in FY12 - AhluwaliaNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The economy is likely to return to an annual growth rate of 9 percent by the fiscal year ending in March 2012, a top policy adviser said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:58 am Japan Airlines' main banks to agree to bankruptcy plan: SourcesA state-backed turnaround fund is considering putting about 300 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in fresh capital into JAL, provided it files for bankruptcy and creditors agree to waive debt.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:41 am JAL lenders to cave in to bankruptcy plan - sourcesTOKYO (Reuters) - The main lenders to Japan Airlines plan to accept a restructuring package that would require the carrier to file for bankruptcy, sources said, increasing the likelihood of a state bailout this month.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:14 am Karnataka to give farmers say in fixing land price for steel projectThe Karnataka Government will take the "consent value" based on consensus between farmers and the Government for arriving at the price for acquiring land for ArcelorMittal's Rs 30,000-crore steel project in theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am SEBI standardises lot size for equity derivativesSEBI has standardised the lot size for derivative contracts on individual securities onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am Credit growth tentative still, rate hikes unlikely: BhattInterest rates are unlikely to rise in the next few months as credit pick-up is still tentative in the banking system, said the State Bank of India Chairman, Mr O. P.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am Models raise Expo's glamour quotientThey are gorgeous and the crowds can't seem to get enough of these models at the Auto-Expo, and, no, it's not the cars. The glam-quotient is running high at the country's largest auto-show with the beautiful hostess often managing to overshadowSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am FII offloads small-cap IT stocksThe rising rupee seems to have been a trigger for foreign institutional investors to sell many small-cap information technology stocks, going by the data on bulk and block deals available with theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am NRI investments far short of potential: PMThe Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Friday urged overseas Indians to take a careful look at the long-term investment opportunities now on the horizon pointing out that the Government is optimistic of returning to and sustaining annualSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am More time for Nifty futures trading on SGXOn the heels of the NSE and BSE extending their trading time by one hour, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) is planning to increase its trading window by one hour for trade in derivatives including the S&P CNXSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am Aggressive competition to prune profits of telecom cosTop telecom companies may report a net profit dip in the range of 25 per cent for the third quarter ended December 31 largely due to aggressive pricing measures dragging down margins, higher network expansion costs and tepid revenue growth, saySource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am Demand, cheaper loans drive Dec car sales up 40%Boosted by a high demand and the availability of cheaper finance options, passenger car sales in December posted a growth of 40 per cent, over the same month lastSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am Early trading fails to bring in more volumesOne week of extended trading hours has not translated into any significant increase in traded volumes on the stock exchanges.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am Were the Mahindras sold a lemon?Anand Mahindra begs to disagree. "Nobody realises that we bought the company very cheap. So it does not matter to us what the restatement of accounts of Satyam would throw up," he says.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:26 pm A year after the Satyam fraudExactly a year ago Ramalinga Raju went from owning the country's fourth largest IT company, the $2-billion Satyam Computers, to the Hyderabad jail.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:18 pm Twitter hiring workers to turn Tweets into moneyAmong the 26 job openings listed on Twitter's site, four are specifically identified as being devoted to 'monetization'.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:53 pm Honda Motor to boost annual world production by 6%: ReportThe world's 7th-biggest automaker expects to see sales grow in emerging nations such as China, as well as a recovery in sales in the United States, Asahi said without citing a source.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:47 pm Twitter hiring workers to turn Tweets into moneySAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter, the popular but money-losing microblogging service, is hiring engineers and specialists who can help turn it into a money-maker.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:34 pm Next version of Nexus will be enterprise phoneLAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Google Inc executive Andy Rubin said on Friday that the next version of the Nexus One phone, which was made by HTC Corp, will be for enterprise users and might have a physical keyboard.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:29 pm Honda to boost annual world production by 6 pct - reportTOKYO (Reuters) - Automaker Honda Motor Co plans to produce 3.59 million units in the world next financial year to start in April, up 6 percent from this financial year's outlook on rising sales, Asahi newspaper reported on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:21 pm Panasonic envisions 3D TV sales surgePanasonic Corp looks to sell one million units or more of its 3D TVs in the first year of their launch.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:58 pm United States stocks gain despite disappointing jobs dataThe Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.33 points (0.11 per cent) to close at 10,618.19, getting a boost in a late-session snapback.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:54 pm Next version of Nexus will be enterprise phoneSuch a device could potentially pose a competitive threat to BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:52 pm Next Bill Gates could be from India or China surveyA sizeable number of Americans believe that the next Bill Gates would come from India or China - as the two Asian giants are fast marching ahead on the global platform, a new US survey has revealed.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 8:26 pm RIL arm to set up universityReliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries Ltd to be headed by Nita Ambani, plans to set up a multi-disciplinary university in the country on the lines of reputed American universities.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 6:02 pm Kamal Nath pitches for infra bonds for NRIs - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 5:44 pm Centre-state meet on GST fails - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 5:15 pm Wall St Week Ahead - Earnings, outlooks hold key for stocksNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks could be in for a bumpy ride next week as three Dow components kick off the quarterly earnings reporting season, with investors clamouring for reassurances on future profits.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 5:12 pm Prime Minister sees 9%-plus growth - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 5:08 pm Lending rates to remain stable till June: SBIThe country\'s largest banker OP Bhatt said credit growth this financial year will be only 16%, lower than the Reserve Bank target.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 4:31 pm Zydus scores 10 on terra pharmaThe New Year has begun with a bang for Ahmedabad-based pharma group, Zydus Cadila. For the first time, market capitalisation of Zydus group has crossed Rs 10,000 crore, or $2 billion on Friday catapulting the group into the list of top 10 pharma companies in the country.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 4:26 pm Attack on Ambanis' outlets may be result of Congress feud - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 4:24 pm Auto ind posts 20% YoY growth in AprDec \'09Overall auto production for the last nine months of 2009 came in 20% higher than in the year ago period, all thanks to some healthy growth in domestic salesSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 4:18 pm Subscriber additions at 3 million/month: Bharti AirtelBharti Airtel may be close to finalising its acquisition in Bangadesh but it\'s not counting its chickens before they hatch. Akhil Gupta, Group Deputy CEO, Bharti Enterprises, is still circumspect.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 3:55 pm GLOBAL MARKETS - Stocks fight off losses. dollar softensNEW YORK (Reuters) - World stocks teetered near 15-month highs and the U.S. dollar fell on Friday after a soft U.S. employment report tempered expectations for a global economic recovery.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 3:39 pm RIL sweetens Lyondell offer by 13% to $13.5 bn - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 1:06 pm Mukherjee asks taxmen to achieve revised mop-up target - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 12:57 pm Norway's Telenor acquires additional 11% stake in Uninor for Rs 1493 cr - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 12:52 pm Tata Motors scores 6, bags top honourTata Motors walked away with top honours as the Tata Nano bagged the 2009 ET-ZigWheels car of the year award. The Nano also walked away with the ZigWheels.com viewers choice car of the year, best design and best value for money car awards as well.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 12:31 pm RBI may not hike CRR: SBIState Bank of India chairman O P Bhatt does not expect interest rates to go up in the next six months. He also said that while there is a slow recovery on the loan front, bad loan provisioning could rise due to the change in provisioning rules.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 12:30 pm Mittals worry valid in miningRoad transport and highways minister Kamal Nath on Friday said L N Mittal has a valid point when he says delays in mining approvals are choking mega investments in country.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 12:29 pm Fast & furious: Auto sales surge 68% in DecCar sales in the domestic market zoomed 40% in December, led by revival in economic growth and easier retail financing and also due to a low base of last year.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 12:28 pm Sugar exports capped, steel imports allowedThe Centre on Friday took a twin step of putting a virtual cap on sugar exports and allowed unrestricted steel imports to arrest their spiraling prices.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 8 Jan 2010 | 12:24 pm Film producer's fund eludes real IdiotsThe makers of 3 Idiots may be smiling their way to the banks with box-office records in Bollywood, but the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) awaits funds promised by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the films producer. NIF sourced the innovations for the film.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:58 am HP unveils cloud-based Internet techBangalore: More than two years after Prith Banerjee took charge of HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, to overhaul the 44-year-old research organization of the world’s largest IT company—a move initially seen by many as yet another cost-cutting measure by chief executive Mark Hurd—the 20 research labs in seven locations seem to be buzzing with activity and imminent commercial roll-outs of technology.  Innovative wave: HP Labs director Prith Banerjee. Hemant Mishra / Mint “The idea is to extend the information and service available to 45 million Internet users to 450 million mobile phone users,” says Banerjee. The service, which is currently being tested with three customers, will soon be launched with a revenue-sharing model where HP (Hewlett-Packard Co.) will seek its share just as Apple Inc. does through its AppStore. This aligns well with HP’s gradual, strategic march up the stack—from a hardware to a software to a services company. Recently, it signed up a multi-billion dollar deal with retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for “managed print services” to handle its entire document work flow. A key technology there is from HP Labs India—trusted hard copy solution—that secures documents with two-dimensional bar codes. But Banerjee and Sudhir Dixit, HP Labs India’s director, are placing higher bets on the “intuitive interactive multimodal” technologies that the Bangalore lab is developing that, if successful, will allow access to computing devices intuitively—via gesture, speech and touch. For the India unit, which has contributed significantly to HP’s latest range of smart touch products, Banerjee says this is the grandest project ever. Dixit says bits of these technologies such as gesture-based command and control, gesture recognition, gesture and speech patterns are already developed and will gradually find their way into products that the parent company brings out. Ironically, one of the products from this stable, a gesture-based keyboard, which was launched in Karnataka in 2006, didn’t quite take off. Admitting its lack of public acceptance, Banerjee says: “It was not developed as a commercial product and that’s exactly the kind of research we want to avoid.” Under the new regime, all research ideas are also vetted by business units so that commercialization issues are sorted out early on. Most corporate research labs work in silos, disconnected from business realities. This disconnect was probably greater for HP Labs in the last few years when it wasn’t seen in the mainstream market as launching any breakthrough technology. Banerjee agrees. “In the last five years there’s been no breakthrough, but you will see some game changing technologies by 2016.” Digital commercial printing (DCP), which HP Labs intends to transfer by 2012 to the business group for a planned launch in 2017, is one such technology. It’s neither inkjet nor laserjet, but a completely new technology that allows custom digital printing at the cost and speed of today’s analog/offset printing. “Today, all copies of Mint in Bangalore are the same. With DCP, I can have news of some Kolkata-based companies, somebody else would want something on Nokia…we could custom print our newspaper. It could change publishing,” says Banerjee.  Cautious move: Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd. HP is seeking to move from a hardware to a software to a services company. Chris Kleponis / Bloomberg But before that it’s the new device that it is working on in India, to go with its packaged solution—device, platform, service—in the multimodal segment that could whip curiosity in the technology market. Refusing to divulge the details, Banerjee says, “We are cooking something here which will be completely amazing. It’s not iPhone, not Nexus One…we cannot give you more details at this point.” Banerjee doesn’t want Google Inc. to get a whiff of it. After all, lagging behind nimble technology movers such as Google is what HP is internally battling with. “That’s our charter from Mark Hurd—not to do incremental things for business units, but to move into new areas. We have identified eight of them, some will succeed, and some won’t.” seema.s@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:56 am HP unveils cloud-based Internet techBangalore: More than two years after Prith Banerjee took charge of HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, to overhaul the 44-year-old research organization of the world’s largest IT company—a move initially seen by many as yet another cost-cutting measure by chief executive Mark Hurd—the 20 research labs in seven locations seem to be buzzing with activity and imminent commercial roll-outs of technology. Innovative wave: HP Labs director Prith Banerjee. Hemant Mishra / Mint “The idea is to extend the information and service available to 45 million Internet users to 450 million mobile phone users,” says Banerjee. The service, which is currently being tested with three customers, will soon be launched with a revenue-sharing model where HP (Hewlett-Packard Co.) will seek its share just as Apple Inc. does through its AppStore. This aligns well with HP’s gradual, strategic march up the stack—from a hardware to a software to a services company. Recently, it signed up a multi-billion dollar deal with retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for “managed print services” to handle its entire document work flow. A key technology there is from HP Labs India—trusted hard copy solution—that secures documents with two-dimensional bar codes. But Banerjee and Sudhir Dixit, HP Labs India’s director, are placing higher bets on the “intuitive interactive multimodal” technologies that the Bangalore lab is developing that, if successful, will allow access to computing devices intuitively—via gesture, speech and touch. For the India unit, which has contributed significantly to HP’s latest range of smart touch products, Banerjee says this is the grandest project ever. Dixit says bits of these technologies such as gesture-based command and control, gesture recognition, gesture and speech patterns are already developed and will gradually find their way into products that the parent company brings out. Ironically, one of the products from this stable, a gesture-based keyboard, which was launched in Karnataka in 2006, didn’t quite take off. Admitting its lack of public acceptance, Banerjee says: “It was not developed as a commercial product and that’s exactly the kind of research we want to avoid.” Under the new regime, all research ideas are also vetted by business units so that commercialization issues are sorted out early on. Most corporate research labs work in silos, disconnected from business realities. This disconnect was probably greater for HP Labs in the last few years when it wasn’t seen in the mainstream market as launching any breakthrough technology. Banerjee agrees. “In the last five years there’s been no breakthrough, but you will see some game changing technologies by 2016.” Digital commercial printing (DCP), which HP Labs intends to transfer by 2012 to the business group for a planned launch in 2017, is one such technology. It’s neither inkjet nor laserjet, but a completely new technology that allows custom digital printing at the cost and speed of today’s analog/offset printing. “Today, all copies of Mint in Bangalore are the same. With DCP, I can have news of some Kolkata-based companies, somebody else would want something on Nokia…we could custom print our newspaper. It could change publishing,” says Banerjee. Cautious move: Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd. HP is seeking to move from a hardware to a software to a services company. Chris Kleponis / Bloomberg But before that it’s the new device that it is working on in India, to go with its packaged solution—device, platform, service—in the multimodal segment that could whip curiosity in the technology market. Refusing to divulge the details, Banerjee says, “We are cooking something here which will be completely amazing. It’s not iPhone, not Nexus One…we cannot give you more details at this point.” Banerjee doesn’t want Google Inc. to get a whiff of it. After all, lagging behind nimble technology movers such as Google is what HP is internally battling with. “That’s our charter from Mark Hurd—not to do incremental things for business units, but to move into new areas. We have identified eight of them, some will succeed, and some won’t.” seema.s@livemint.com Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:56 am FM refuses to blink, GST talks hit hurdleNew Delhi: Union finance minister (FM) Pranab Mukherjee on Friday did not give in to pressure mounted by state governments, setting the stage for tough negotiations ahead of the introduction of a single goods and services tax (GST). As a result, the two sides were not able to announce a fresh date for the GST roll-out, which originally was supposed to be kicked off on 1 April.  Stalemate: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s compensation formula for FY10 involved states absorbing Rs4,500 crore loss in their books. Pankaj Nangia / Bloomberg Mukherjee on Friday met with finance ministers of some states to finalize the deadline to the transition to GST and also resolve outstanding issues between the Centre and the states on compensation for Central sales tax (CST). Mukherjee’s proposal to resolve the dispute on CST compensation entailed states having to absorb some of the loss in revenue on account of gradual reduction of the CST rate from 4% to 2% as part of indirect tax reform. According to the finance minister of a state present at the meeting, but who did not want to be named, the situation remains fluid. A satisfactory compensation package on account of CST reduction was the key to bridging the trust deficit between the Centre and the states, but Mukherjee’s proposal was inadequate, the minister said. When merchandise manufactured in one state is sold in another state, CST accrues to the state where the manufacturing centre is located. Manufacturing states have, in phases, reduced CST to the current level of 2%, for which the Centre compensates them to offset tax revenue foregone. CST would be scrapped in a GST regime. GST is India’s most ambitious indirect tax reform, which seeks to stitch together a common market and reduce costs to replace the current fragmented regime. Ahead of Friday’s meeting, the two critical issues that appeared to adversely affect the roll-out of GST were the states’ growing distrust of the Central government on account of unresolved CST compensation issues and differences over the GST rate. “We have a philosophy document, we don’t have a blueprint right now,” said Rajiv Dimri, leader (indirect tax practice) at consultancy firm BMR Advisors, while reacting to the existing working paper put out by the states. Mukherjee’s CST compensation formula for the ongoing fiscal involved the states absorbing a total Rs4,500 crore loss in their books, Asim Dasgupta, West Bengal’s finance minister said. The residual amount of revenue foregone by the states, Rs9,500 crore, would be borne by the Centre. Mukherjee also ruled out compensation to the states on CST in the next fiscal year, Dasgupta said. Arriving at an acceptable GST rate has been bogged down by differences among the states and also between the states and other entities such as the TFC task force on GST architecture. The thumb rule is that the larger the number of taxes subsumed in GST, the lower will be the revenue neutral rate. The states have been reluctant to subsume all taxes into GST as it would mean a loss of power to unilaterally change some taxes. sanjiv.s@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:55 am Telenor ups stake in UnitechNorway-based telecom company Telenor has raised its stake in its Indian joint venture with Unitech Wireless to 60.1 per cent from 49 per cent at an investment of Rs 1,493 crore.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:55 am Fog blind airports hit Delhi runwaysCAT I system in rest of India fails to tackle low visibility.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:54 am Quick Edit | A problem with teaser ratesIndian banks are picking up a discredited idea from global peers: teaser rates. Are they playing with fire? Many of our banks have been busy offering borrowers mortgages that start with very low interest rates and then become more expensive. This was a strategy used by many US banks in the bubble years, making it attractive for people to buy homes just before real estate prices crashed in that country. Many of these home loans will be reset in 2010. In other words, millions of US borrowers will suddenly have to keep aside a bigger share of their monthly incomes for interest payments, a move that increases the risk of more defaults and a further shock to bank balance sheets. Innovations such as teaser rates are inevitably invitations to trouble. South Korea had a mess with bullet mortgages: Borrowers paid interest at first and the principal was only repaid on maturity. Indian families are better placed to handle a payments shock. They have less debt and salaries here are growing so that higher interest rates later are less of a problem. Yet, this is a dangerous game. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:54 am RIL to file criminal complaint against Telugu TV channelHyderabad: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said on Friday it will lodge a criminal complaint against TV5, a Telugu language television channel that on Thursday evening aired a news story indicating that the company could have been behind the death of the then chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) in a helicopter crash. The channel said it based its sabotage story on a 3 September report by a Russian online bi-weekly tabloid, The Exiled. Mark Ames, the author of the tabloid story, had said in the article he was speculating on a hypothesis that RIL could be behind Reddy’s death as the leader had demanded a share of the earnings for Andhra Pradesh from the company’s natural gas fields off the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin. Mukesh Ambani-led RIL, India’s largest company by market value, plans to produce 80 million cu. m of gas from the country’s largest field, KG-D6, this year. In December, RIL had found more natural gas in the KG basin. Soon after TV5 aired the story, Reliance outlets across Andhra Pradesh were attacked by mobs. TV5 is promoted by B. Rajagopal Naidu, a businessman from Chittoor. Sakshi TV, owned by Rajasekhara Reddy’s son and Kadapa legislator Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, and another channel NTV, owned by real estate businessman Narendra Chowdary, too, aired the sabotage theory soon after. “We are shocked and outraged at the false, malicious, motivated and libelous news on TV5 channel concerning the fatal mishap of Shri Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s helicopter,” a company spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. RIL has asked the Central and state governments to investigate into the incidents. N. Chandrababu Naidu, president of the Telugu Desam Party, the main Opposition in the state, said the attacks on Reliance outlets were a conspiracy by some Congress party leaders to destabilize the state government. The state government is run by the Congress, but local party members have been split over some issues in recent months, including the proposed carving out of a new Telangana state and Jagan Mohan Reddy not being named the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh after his father’s death. “I have evidence that SMS messages were sent to Congress cadres and YSR (Rajasekhara Reddy) fans to get ready for attacks on Reliance outlets, some minutes before the news was actually aired on the TV channels,” Naidu claimed. Andhra Pradesh director general of police Girish Kumar said law enforcers will book cases against TV5. State home minister Sabitha Indra Reddy said the police have booked 96 cases and arrested 187 people since Thursday night over the attacks on Reliance outlets. c.sukumar@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:54 am Chinese premier may visit Malawi this yearLilongwe, Malawi: Chinese premier Wen Jiabao may visit Malawi this year, just as India is stepping up efforts to woo African nations. China, which established diplomatic ties with Malawi in December 2007, is building Malawi’s Parliament building in Lilongwe. Jiabao is expected to visit the capital city for the inauguration. “We are working out the details of the visit and trying to finalize the plans,” said Zhou Haihong, first secretary and deputy head of mission at the Chinese embassy in Malawi. “The Parliament building will be ready this year.” India has in recent years scrambled to boost economic diplomacy in Africa, where it has lost ground to China. India’s trade with the continent stands at around $39 billion (around Rs1.8 trillion) compared with China’s $100 billion. Malawi, home to 13.57 million people, grew at 9.7% in 2008. Besides hydropower potential, it is rich in uranium, coal and bauxite deposits. Trade between India and Malawi is about $2.4 billion. Indian vice-president Hamid Ansari, who is visiting Zambia, Malawi and Botswana, on Thursday announced a line of credit worth $50 million for Malawi. In a related development, India’s state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) is eyeing engineering, procurement and construction contracts worth around $555 million in Malawi for two hydropower projects—the Songwe river hydroelectric scheme (320MW) and the Kapichu phase-II (64MW) project. “We had earlier quoted for a sub-station order in Malawi and are currently looking at these two orders,” said a Bhel executive, who declined to be named. “We are inviting India to look at several areas such as hydropower generation,” Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika told a banquet held to honour Ansari. In another development, Coal India Ltd (CIL) is interested in buying coal mines in Malawi, said Ashok Kumar, India’s high commissioner to Zambia. “Coal India has expressed interest in Malawi,” Kumar said. “However, data on coal deposits is not readily available and anyone who is interested in the coal mining sector in Malawi will have to conduct its own survey work.” CIL could not be immediately contacted. utpal.b@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:54 am NRIs likely to get voting rights, says PMNew Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday revived the debate on voting rights for non-resident Indians (NRIs) by signalling that they would get a chance to cast their votes in the next general election. The number of people of Indian origin is estimated to be around 25 million and Mint could not independently ascertain how many of these were NRIs and hence eligible to vote. The voting population in the 15th general election that concluded in May was estimated at 714 million.  Revived hopes: PM Manmohan Singh (2nd from left) releases an investment tool kit for Indian diaspora as chief guest Lord Khalid Hameed of Hampstead looks on, during the inaugural session of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Subhav Shukla / PTI Addressing the inaugural session of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the annual Indian diaspora event, Singh said: “I recognize the legitimate desire of Indians living abroad to exercise their franchise and to have a say in who governs India. We are working on this issue and I sincerely hope that they will get a chance to vote by the time of the next regular general elections.” Singh also appealed to overseas Indians to return home to join politics and public life. Around 1,500 delegates from 50-plus nations are attending the conclave that the Centre hosts annually to connect with its diaspora in 130 countries. The United Progressive Alliance government had earlier cleared amendments to Section 20 of the Representation of the People Act under which NRIs could get voting rights; this would have enabled them to get their names registered in the electoral roll of the constituency of their place of residence in India, the first step ahead of casting their vote. Subsequently, a Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in February 2006 and was referred to the parliamentary standing committee on law and justice, which presented its report in August that year. Replying to a question in Parliament in the just concluded winter session, overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi disclosed that the law ministry was examining the Bill. According to an official in the Election Commission of India (ECI), the autonomous body that conducts polls in the country, no concrete decision on the proposal has been taken yet. “The present rules suggest that one has to be a resident of India for enrolling his/her name in the voters’ list. NRIs, by the very definition of their name, are not eligible for this. The residential qualification (clause) needs to be amended for providing them the rights. But it can’t do away with that with a blind amendment,” the official said, adding that such a move would lead to a situation in which people get their names registered in multiple places. “There has to be exception in the case of NRIs and it has to be specified where they are going to register their names for voting rights,” he said. The ECI official as well as political analysts said the implementation would involve a lot of complexities—both in enrolment and in balloting. “The NRIs can either do postal balloting or can cast their votes in embassies,” the official said. “It is inevitable as they are Indian citizens too. But one has to see how it will get implemented. If it is postal balloting, it would have to include those inside the country too. One cannot be denied voting rights if he is working somewhere else in India, not in the US or other outstations,” political analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta said. As of now, postal balloting is permitted for personnel of the armed/paramilitary forces and state armed police forces who are on outstation posting, people employed in embassies and those who are put on election duty in places other than their territories. The ECI official said the poll panel had taken an “informal decision” that NRIs could be allowed to enroll their names in the address shown in their passports. Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said: “It is a political decision. Constitutionally, it is feasible and you just have to amend the law and all the difficulties can be resolved too.” liz.m@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:53 am Dollar revenue of large firms may rise 3-5%Bangalore / Mumbai: India’s top software firms will next week begin reporting quarterly results that may show improving business from Western markets, but analysts will be more keenly watching their commentary on client budgets for 2010 to gauge the sector’s growth trajectory. Customers in the US, the largest technology spenders, are expected to finalize their annual budgets in January, which would indicate how much they plan to spend on buying computers or software and on building applications. Indian software firms earn two-thirds of their revenue from the US. Also See Waiting For Growth (Graphics) Globally, spending on information technology (IT) is expected to be $3.3 trillion (around Rs150 trillion) in 2010, a 3.3% increase over the previous year, technology researcher Gartner Inc. had said in a note on 20 October. Of this, spending on IT services, in which Indian firms are dominant, is expected to grow 4.5% to $816.14 billion. “While the IT industry will return to growth in 2010, the market will not recover to 2008 revenue levels before 2012,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice-president and global head of research at Gartner. In other words, while the global economy may be looking up, it may be too early for clients to hike their IT budgets yet. “It is not going to be like somebody turning the switch back on,” said Kumar Parakala, global head of sourcing and IT advisory services at audit and consulting firm KPMG. Investors will be looking forward to the “direction of IT budgets—initial expectations are flattish IT budgets year-on-year; timing of the budgets—expectations of budgets closing on time; and revival in discretionary spends—most companies are hoping for some revival, but too early to take a call and pricing”, analysts Surendra Goyal and Vishal Agarwal of Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt. Ltd wrote in a report on 5 January. Discretionary spending is the optional money clients have to spend over their planned budget. For October-December, analysts see a 3-5% growth in dollar revenue over the preceding quarter for most large IT firms. During the downturn, as clients pared IT budgets, firms such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd cut costs, became more efficient and began moving more to the so-called fixed price projects that de-linked revenue to the number of people deployed. These firms are strengthening their sales staff in anticipation of a rebound in the economy and hiring people to beef up their delivery teams. Infosys, India’s second largest software exporter, will hire 13,000 people in fiscal 2011. The Bangalore-based firm will report its third quarter (Q3) results on 12 January, TCS on 15 January and Wipro on 20 January. Brokerage Anand Rathi Financial Services Ltd expects the top six IT companies to report “sequentially flattish rupee revenue and a 2.5-5% growth in dollar revenue, with net profit sliding 2.3%”. “While 2010 IT budgets are likely to be flat with a positive bias, managements might not provide significant clarity on them,” Anand Rathi said in a 5 January report. “We expect Wipro to post the best results within the top-tier universe...with US dollar revenue growth of 5%.” Wipro had forecast a revenue of $1.09-1.1 billion from its global IT revenue in Q3, marginally higher than the $1.06 billion in the preceding three months. Infosys’ revenue outlook of Rs5,429-5,476 crore for Q3, on the other hand, is 2-2.8% lower than in the July-September period. TCS, Infosys and Wipro, India’s top three IT firms, had grown at around 30% every quarter in 2007-08, before the slowdown started hurting. The December quarter is traditionally weak because of fewer billing days during the holiday season in the West. According to a Mint poll of eight brokerages, Infosys’ revenue for the latest quarter is seen flat over the preceding three months at Rs5,585 crore. Its net profit is expected 4.7% lower at Rs1,471 crore. TCS, too, is expected to show a 4.2% fall in profit at Rs1,596 crore over the previous quarter, with revenue flat at Rs7,437 crore. Wipro is likely to report a 2% dip in profit and revenue to Rs1,137 crore and Rs6,802 crore, respectively. raghu.k@livemint.com Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:52 am Karnataka to give farmers say in fixing land price for steel project - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:19 am Credit growth tentative still, rate hikes unlikely: Bhatt - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Jan 2010 | 11:19 am IOC to pay in euro for imports via Iran shipNEW DELHI (Reuters) - State-run Indian Oil Corp has introduced a clause in its latest crude buy tender, shifting away from U.S. dollar in favour of the euro in paying for imports through Iranian vessels, oil sources said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:42 am Nexus One Google s new phoneGoogle sure does love shaking up the system. Remember the original Google search page? It made news because your search results popped up fast and weren’t cluttered with ads.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:35 am Week in Review for 08 January 2010It’s now been a year since the Satyam accounting scandal broke out and the company’s new management is now making a push to return Satyam back to its glory days. Company employees have received a document that says Satyam plans to become one of India’s top five IT companies by 2012. And the company has created dedicated teams that will work to increase the business from existing customers and also win back old clients. Tech Mahindra took over Satyam in April last year, just months after the Satyam accounting fraud became public. Steel giant ArcelorMittal is forging new plans for its Indian operations. ArcelorMittal Netherlands, which controls the world’s biggest steel company, ArcelorMittal, plans to set up a new plant in Satarda in Maharashtra. The plant will be built as part of a joint venture with Uttam Galva Steels. Reliance Industries Limited came a step closer towards a possible acquisition of LyondellBasell this week. On Monday the company raised Rs2,675 crore, after it sold what it calls treasury stock, to various institutional investors. And on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that RIL had increased its bid for LyondellBasell to $13.5 dollars. Its original bid was for $12 billion. RIL wants to buy LyondellBasell so it can access markets in the US and Europe. The Auto Expo in Delhi revved up to full throttle this week, with top carmakers riding in with brand new models. Maruti Suzuki unveiled a multi-purpose vehicle, the Eeco, which it designed specifically for the Indian market. The car comes in five and seven seat versions and costs just over Rs250,000. Toyota also designed a new low-cost compact car specifically for India called Etios. Also created for the Indian market is Chevrolet’s compact car offering, the Beat, with a standard model costing less than Rs350,000. And the Auto Expo also gave car companies a chance to show off their new concept models as well. Honda unveiled a compact concept car, which it says it will release in 2011. And Maruti Suzuki revealed its R-3 concept, the first car of its kind to be designed entirely in India. Automakers also launched several global models in India for the first time. Volkswagen displayed its hatchback car, the Polo, which it will begin selling in India in March. And Maruti Suzuki launched the Kizashi sedan, which it will put on the market by the end of the year. Toyota rolled out its highly successful hybrid car the Prius; and Skoda unveiled its Yeti, a new entrant in India’s compact SUV market. Bangladesh’s telecom regulator gave the green light to Bharti Airtel’s initial investment of $300 million in local phone company Warid Telecom. India’s manufacturing output rose the most it has in seven months. The Purchasing Managers’ Index reached 55.6 in December compared to 53 in November. December is the ninth straight month of the index going over 50, which indicates a rise in output. Food prices have increased again, but at a slower rate. The food price index rose 18.22% in the week ending the 26 December. That’s a slight fall from the previous week, when food inflation stood at 19.83%. Finance secretary Ashok Chawla has hinted the government could withdraw stimulus packages put in place after 2008’s downturn. Chawla said too much of a stimulus could be a bad, especially when things are picking up. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:25 am Work, machines and happiness The first thing to note is the striking increase in productivity for all the four countries between 1890 and 2006.  Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint Interestingly, much of the change can be attributed to the changes in the economic structure. For instance, despite the famed efficiency of the Japanese, their total factor productivity stopped at around 60% of the level of the US in the early 1970s and hourly productivity came to a halt in the early 1990s. Part of the reason is certainly the deflation in Japan since 1990. The authors point out another reason—the fact that “low productivity activities, such as agriculture, construction, trade and catering account for a larger share of the economy than in the other three countries.” During a period of industrialization, however, capital deepening may be more important than other factors. In Japan between 1913 and 1950, it accounted for 70% of the growth in hourly productivity growth. Between 1950 and 1973 productivity growth was very high in France as a result of a significant decline in the share of agriculture in the economy. Finally, the authors point out that the French worked 1,540 hours per head in 2006, compared with 1,710 hours for Americans, 1,610 hours for the British and 1,784 hours for the Japanese. Yet labour productivity per hour was the highest in France, followed by the US, the British and lastly the Japanese. All work and no play make Jack less productive than Jacques. Years of Schooling, Human Capital and the Body Mass Index of European Females, by Giorgio Brunello, University of Padova, Danile Fabbri and Margherita Fort, University of Bologna. Paper published by Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn Life is not just about productivity but also about looking and feeling good. Giorgio Brunello, Daniele Fabbri and Margherita Fort in their paper for the Institute of Study for Labour, Bonn, Years of Schooling, Human Capital and the Body Mass Index of European Females try to figure out whether education can help reduce obesity.  Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint Their conclusion: “We find that a 10% increase in the years of schooling—which corresponds in our sample to slightly more than one additional year at school—reduces the average BMI of females by 1.65 to 2.27%, and the incidence of overweight and obese females by 10% to 16% and by nearly 11% to 16% respectively.” The authors say that since overweight and obese females in Europe have increased substantially between 1990 and now, their findings have a practical use. Adding one year of compulsory schooling is almost equivalent to rolling back the percentage of overweight females to its value in the early 1990s. They also say that the impact of an extra year of education is highest among overweight females rather than obese ones. In other words, higher education may be a good way of ensuring that you don’t become overweight later on in life. Forget jogging, read that book instead. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:22 am Noughties: decade of the conglomeratesThe beginning of a decade is an opportune time to look at what has passed and what lies ahead.  In the Indian business world, the first decade of the 21st century definitely belonged to so-called old economy companies and groups. The 1990s saw the emergence of several new faces in Indian business, among them Infosys Technologies Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. Many of these companies were founded earlier but the 1990s was when they really registered their presence. In contrast, most large conglomerates were going through a period of painful and wrenching change in the 1990s. Some of them faced significant financial problems, and in some cases it seemed just a matter of time before they went under altogether. The Bhartis and the Infosyses didn’t exactly do badly in the 2000s—many of these companies grew rapidly during the decade—but it was the large diversified companies and groups that really got their act together, restructuring existing businesses, becoming more efficient and competitive, acquiring companies in other parts of the world, and entering new businesses.  Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint The two Reliance groups have grown in size and also entered new businesses such as retail, life sciences, telecom and entertainment. The Aditya Birla Group is a far more global entity than it was in the 1990s and it, too, entered some new businesses, notably retail. The Mahindra Group went global, launched one of the country’s best-selling utility vehicles and, towards the end of the decade, acquired India’s fourth largest IT services company. And the Tata group became India’s most global business entity with significant acquisitions in steel and automobiles and also launched a small low-priced car that made the world’s car makers reassess the way they made cars. Apart from what the conglomerates themselves did, there are also other factors that contributed to their showing in the past decade —including global business and commodity cycles. And to be sure, for every one of these that succeeded in the 2000s, there are probably two that failed. Still, the decade that has just ended was, at least from a business journalist’s perspective, more about old companies and conglomerates, than about new ones (unlike the second half of the previous decade, the 1990s, which was all about new companies). From a microeconomic, corporate perspective, this perhaps explains India’s superior economic performance in the 2000s. New firms that emerged in the 1990s grew in size and scope. And old ones, many of which were floundering in the 1990s, really seemed to get into the groove of things (and how). Between 2000 and 2009, the Indian economy expanded at an average of 7.19%; between 1990 and 1999 it did so at 5.69%. If business operates in cycles—and more often than not it does—this decade, then, could see the emergence of new companies. There are enough areas where this can happen: life sciences, infrastructure, entertainment and consumer technology, green technology, even financial services. The conglomerates, as well as the stars of the 1990s, are likely to go from strength to strength—and will probably hog the headlines—but at a personal level, it is the new ones that I am really looking forward to. Write to acuteangle@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:19 am Taj Television, Zee plan Ten Sports brand expansionMumbai: Dubai-based Taj Television Ltd, which runs the Ten Sports channel, is firming plans to expand its brand in India, along with part-owner Zee Telefilms Ltd. Taj Television and Zee are working on launching a 24-hour golf channel, likely to be named Ten Golf, two media buyers familiar with the development said. The firms will also rebrand Zee Sports as Ten Action, with a focus on adventure sports and non-cricket content such as football and tennis. The media buyers, who didn’t want to be identified, added that Taj and Zee may either rebrand Ten Sports as Ten Cricket or launch a separate channel to track India’s most popular game. These plans would be finalized in a month, they said. Taj Television, established in 2001, is owned by United Arab Emirates-based Bukhatir Investments Ltd and Zee Telefilms, part of the Mumbai-based Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL). Peter Hutton, chief operating officer of Ten Sports, said the company was not in a position to confirm any development. A Zee Entertainment spokesperson did not revert to Mint’s emails and phone calls for the story. There are many reasons for why Zee would be looking to leverage the Ten Sports brand. TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd’s data show that while Zee Sports has been losing its already dismal channel share, Ten Sports has been on the rise. Zee Sports’ channel share fell from 3% in 2007 to 1% in 2009. Ten Sports, on the other hand, had a channel share of 28% in 2007 and 30% in 2009. L.S. Krishnan, president of media specialist Radar, Mudra Group, says ad revenues for sports channels have always been sporadic. “When the cricket season is on, sports channels account for as much as 8% of the overall advertising pie while in other seasons, they account for barely 1% of the overall pie.” On the potential for a channel dedicated to golf, Krishnan said it is a “high profile sport and a lot of premium luxury brands may want to partner with the channel for sponsorships... It will bring in big international golfing tournaments to India and spark off interest for the game”. Other experts don’t believe India is ready yet for such focus on sports that is not cricket. “India’s mainly a cricket country and the television rights to most of the big cricketing events (even the Ranji Trophy) are aligned with certain television networks,” said R. Gowthaman, leader, Mindshare, the media agency of GroupM India Pvt. Ltd. “The market’s open for other television-based niche verticals such as travel and health and wellness but not sports.” Advertisers with a clear slant to sports, such as Hero Honda Motors Ltd, have already committed their budgets to key cricketing events, he added. Cricket-related advertising budgets exceeded Rs1,200 crore in 2009, said Shashi Sinha, chief executive of media agency Lodestar Universal Pvt. Ltd. According to Sinha, the success of new sports channels would depend on how well they popularize international sports such as football. anushree.c@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:07 am India boosts ties with Africa, expands credit linesLILONGWE (Reuters) - India will increase credit lines to Africa to $5.4 billion until 2012 from the current $2.15 billion, and will also boost technical and economic support to the continent, it said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:05 am Vimal Kaushik is new Maytas Infra CEOHyderabad: Maytas Infra Ltd on Friday said that it has named Vimal Kaushik, former managing director of infrastructure firm Punj Lloyd Ltd, as its new managing director and chief executive officer (CEO). The post had been vacant since January, after previous CEO P.K. Madhav was arrested on charges of cheating depositors of Nagarjuna Finance Ltd. Maytas Infra, promoted by the family of B. Ramalinga Raju, the jailed founder of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, has been in trouble ever since Raju confessed to an accounting fraud at the firm last January. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 10:05 am Siam wants emission norms postponedNew Delhi: The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) on Friday said implementation of the new emission norms scheduled to be effective from 1 April should be postponed by up to six months if there is no clarity on availability of upgraded fuels latest by January-end.  In limbo: There’s no clarity on whether upgraded fuel, necessary for switching to the new norms, will be available by the 1 April deadline. Ramesh Pathania / Mint “Siam has already made representations to the government that if fuel is not available, then implementation of the new emission norms should be postponed by three-six months in those regions where fuel is not available or across the country,” he added. Starting April, 11 cities across India, where the Bharat Stage (BS) III norms are currently in place, are supposed to upgrade to BS-IV, and the rest of the country where BS-II norms are followed are to move towards BS-III norms. There should be a clarity latest by January-end on the fuel availability, otherwise it would be difficult for the industry to revert to the old emission norms standards, Goenka said. “After 31 January, it will be difficult for us to revert, although it is not impossible,” he said, while not elaborating what additional costs the industry would bear if it has to go back to the old norms. “The industry is ready to meet the new emission norms deadline and many companies have already started putting in toolings for the purpose,” he said. Siam had asked the Centre to give a clear picture by 31 December 2009. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:55 am Non-ferrous, fertilizer stocks may give best returns in ’10Mumbai: Prices of many commodities—food, precious metals, industrial raw materials such as steel, crude oil—are ruling at a year’s high as the global economy shows signs of recovery and liquidity sloshes around in the economic system. Mint spoke with Pankaj Gupta, who manages a commodity fund at SBI Asset Management Ltd, to discuss whether this rise is sustainable and the sectors that would deliver the best returns. Edited excerpts: What’s driving up the prices of commodities? Is this sustainable?  Investment ideas: Commodities have become an important asset class. Roland Magunia / Bloomberg Secondly, there has been a lot of fiscal and monetary stimulus that has been announced by all major countries. That led to an improvement in sentiments. Also, with the financial crisis people started having concerns on the dollar as a base currency. So, some sort of loss in confidence in the dollar has led to (people chasing) physical assets and hence the rise (in prices). But above all, we have seen in the last five years that commodities have become an important asset class. This has made them more volatile. Earlier, prices were a function of fundamentals, of demand and supply, but over the last five years it has also become a function of fund movement and liquidity. Now that China has tightened a key interest rate, how do you think commodity markets will react? First of all, China is a very difficult market to comprehend. But having said that, an increase in interest rates may affect the prices of commodities in the short term. But prices won’t go down by much since they are also a function of global fund movements. (Still), they (China) can’t afford to backtrack on their growth. So there would be a lot of deliberations that would happen before any drastic step is taken to reverse the monetary or fiscal stimulus in China. Do you expect local prices to rise significantly once excise sops that were part of the fiscal stimulus package are withdrawn? India may not be a very large market which can affect commodity prices. In metals, most of the Indian companies price their products based on import-parity prices. So it is more of a function of global prices and global demand and supply rather than local fiscal policy. Among commodity-based companies, which sector is poised to deliver the best returns? Which are the ones you are buying now? In the case of metals, stock prices invariably tend to move ahead of the rise in commodity prices. We have seen that metal stocks have given the best return of 230% in 2009. Given that, we would tend to balance our exposure between various sub-sectors. We need to have a balance between risk and reward. Among metals, we are most positive on non-ferrous (such as zinc and copper) companies since Indian companies are the most cost-competitive. On others, we are positive on the agri-related space. Given the limitations of (stock-picking) ideas in India in this space, we favour fertilizer companies. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:46 am Nostalgia appealREVIEWER: TITUS UPPUTURU Over a career spanning over 15 years, Titus Upputuru, executive creative director, Dentsu Marcom, has worked with brands such as Sprite, KFC, Afghan Telecom, Electrolux. He has also worked with agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Grey Worldwide and Publicis. CAMPAIGN  Jaded but lemony fresh: The ad stands out with its format and cast What did you think of the ad? As a toddler in dark blue shorts and sky blue shirt with the school bag over my shoulders, I remember sitting in the school bus and watching a white abandoned house painted with smoke. Everyday. Twice. Someone told me it belonged to Komal G.B. Singh. A victim of the 1984 riots. Years later, as I see her on the same small screen, I am transported to those times. I used to look at her long flowing hair which went hiding behind her shoulders (how did she manage to carry her school bag I used to wonder). She was gentle, soft-spoken. The doctor, on the other hand, used to give us daily prescriptions of how to play fine cricket. Minus the stethoscope, of course. The eBay commercials surely reverse the clock and bring back childhood memories. And surprises of surprises, the TV screens remain black and white. Save the logo in the centre. Like old Madhubala pictures. The ad stands out in the clutter for several reasons. The casting. The black and white look. And the format of having two television stars from 1980s, answering calls and being black and white messiahs of almost everything. Retail therapy, someone said. To me, it is lemony fresh despite its jaded look. The biggest challenge of advertising an e-commerce site? The toughest challenge for any e-commerce site today is today itself. It’s the times we are living in. Of mega malls and not-so-mega malls. With international fashion brands setting up shop in every corner, giant posters staring down from every glass wall, people are thronging into malls with a feverish restlessness. They are stopping by to catch a bite at the newly opened KFC, slurping up the cheese from the hot and crispy Zinger burger. Compare this to sitting at home and touching and feeling the mouse. Now, how’s that for a shopping experience? Then again, coffee wasn’t the favourite pastime of this nation before Barista came in. So anything is possible, provided we market it wisely. Which is your favourite online portal ad? There are many good ones. But one of the best I had really liked was Monster.co.uk’s “Beware of the voices” campaign. It was outstanding. Very compelling. Very sharp. Very insightful. I would assume one would remember the campaign and surely check out the site. As told to Gouri Shah gouri.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:41 am Impossible geekdomIn the new film from the Yash Raj Films stable, the empire’s second scion Uday Chopra has a script tailor-made for him to show some histrionics. He himself has written the story of Pyaar Impossible and Jugal Hansraj has directed it. It is a desperate attempt to prove that he can be an actor, nay, a star.  Not so funny: Too many flaws in this no-brainer movie Neither of these happened to me while watching Pyaar Impossible. Abhay left me cold. Chopra has tried very hard to be the likeable geek—the thick-rimmed, semi-circled 1950s’ spectacles, the dental braces, and the clothes that hang from his body don’t help, believe me—but the character is written with not an iota of imagination. If you were the lonely guy in college who gets the best grades, but is ignored—and exploited—by everyone, especially the cool people of the other sex, would you be a normal, functional, even good person? Abhay doesn’t have even a moment of anger or bitterness in the film. He has reconciled to his fate and acquired a kind of zen that suits only old Buddhist monks. There is some redemption at the end of course, when his talent for creating a software that unites all the existing softwares of the world—yes, all of them—in one neat package and his good heart are rewarded, but that’s not redemption enough for the film itself. Pyaar Impossible begins in a college campus somewhere on the American West Coast. The college resembles the sets of an American soap for teenagers—you get the drift; after all, we have seen before colleges which look like recreation clubs painted in all possible florescent hues of pink, orange and yellow. Alisha Merchant (Priyanka Chopra) is the hottest girl in college—an impetuous, fun-loving teenager who is expelled from college at her father’s insistence because she is too wild. Abhay is secretly in love with her and one night, he saves her from dying. The story then moves forward. Seven years later, in Mumbai, Abhay lives with his father (Anupam Kher, who is equally geeky). He invents Unity, that mother of all softwares, which is stolen from his computer by a person that he tries to sell it to (Dino Morea). It is then sold to a company in Singapore. Abhay reaches Singapore to claim his invention from the software company, where Alisha heads the public relations department. I can’t fathom what the makers thought public relations was all about. Alisha not only moderates every corporate meeting, she also has a lot to do with the deals that the company signs. She is her boss’ favourite, and has to solve his every problem. For once, in our eyes, the PRO is a multi-tasking goddess. Alisha’s is a chunky role: She got married early and is now a divorced single mother—mother of the devil incarnate (why do children in all Hindi films have to be so unbelievably grown-up and animated? Hansraj can’t control this little whiny, preposterous brat at all). But Alisha is much more animated than the role requires—she never quite recovers from being the bubbly teenager in short skirts, even while making million-dollar deals possible and coping with the trials of being a single mother. She is impeccably dressed by Manish Malhotra, perhaps one of the film’s best things—the Barbie doll-gorgeous heroine. Thanks to Hansraj, the script, which has way too many flaws and unnecessary situations, has a few saving grace moments. Some scenes ring with emotional honesty. Uday Chopra’s earnestness to make a convincing Abhay shines through. There are moments when I pitied the utter lack of bad or grey in him, but pity is different from sympathy. Empathy, of course, is out of the question when you’re watching a caricature. I wouldn’t even categorize Pyaar Impossible as a “family entertainer”—a generic label that passes off as a yardstick for many successful Hindi movies. It is a candy-floss no-brainer; watch only if Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes doesn’t appeal to you. Pyaar Impossible released in theatres on Friday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:41 am The first learning was very simple. Our customers don’t drive the cars themselvesNew Delhi: Benoit Tiers, managing director of Audi India, has just come of stellar year for his company. The global slowdown had no effect on his company’s sales, which surged in excess of 50%.  Road to success: Audi’s Tiers says the economic crisis did not hurt the car maker too much. He expects 2010 to give a thrust to the brand.Ramesh Pathania/Mint 2009 was a very good year for Audi as your sales crossed 1,500 units in only your first full year of operations. Were you surprised by the growth? Yes, a little bit because the (financial) crisis hit worldwide and we believed it would take more time for India to recover but the Indian market is unbelievable. It has recovered faster. I think in India, we have found the right way. We have established a factory. We have established dealerships. We’re in 12 locations in India. We’re going to open more dealerships. We have imported our cars as soon as we could. Overall, it’s a good start but it’s just a start. The story for Audi in India is just beginning. We do see a bright future. The market will grow. Most of your dealerships are in the metros and the larger tier II cities. You spoke about expanding them. Will you push deeper into smaller towns? First, we’re set to open dealerships in a few cities—Chennai, Ludhiana, Jaipur as well as a second dealership in Mumbai and a second dealership in Delhi. On top of that, we’re starting discussions in Lucknow, Coimbatore, Nagpur, where the demand is beginning. Customers come to us and say I’m living here, I already have an Audi, I would like to have some support. There’s no rush as the dealerships have to be profitable for our dealers. But, definitely, we will go to these cities. What peculiarities of the Indian luxury car market have you noticed in your time here? What have you learnt from this? The first learning was very simple. Our customers don’t drive the cars themselves. It may sound very normal to you but coming from Europe we had to adapt very fast. The first thing we did was increase the equipment in the car so that our customers have a better image of the car. The second learning is that the infrastructure is different. So we have adapted our cars to the road quality here. Indian luxury buyers are generally willing to pay what you ask for a car but they must truly believe they are getting their money’s worth… How price conscious are Indian buyers? They’re price conscious but they’re also passionate. I think the good thing about the brand now in India is that people recognize the brand as it is. When we started in 2007, the brand awareness of Audi in India was 2%, that is 2% of new car buyers in India knew Audi as a brand. In 2008, we did the same study and it moved to 13%, which is a huge step. We don’t have a result for 2009 as yet but I know it has increased again. Audi assembles the A4, A6 and also plans to start assembling the Q5 model in India. As the cars get more and more popular, do you plan to assemble any more models in India? So far, we haven’t taken any decision on this but if there is a potential and the product can be assembled in our Aurangabad facility, we will try to do it. There usually comes an inflection point after which sales of luxury cars in any particular country zoom. It happened in China and again in Russia. When do you see that happening here? Unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball but I have a feeling, and this is just my feeling, that India will grow faster than China. It took 20 years in China to go from zero cars to 150,000 cars in 2009. I have a feeling that could happen faster here. Audi has showcased the Sportsback concept car at the Auto Expo. Why did you choose to bring that car to India? India is such an important market for us that we wanted to showcase the Sportsback concept for the first time in Delhi to get customer feedback on what we’re preparing. I’m here also to listen to what customers say about this car. That will help us decide on our future developments in India with the car. I have very positive feedback on the car. I’m sending the feedback to Germany so that, hopefully, we can get the car to India. What changes have you made to Audi cars in India? We learnt when we arrived that customers would like some changes to the car and we have made a few changes. The suspension systems were adapted to the road conditions. This makes them more comfortable than the same cars in Europe. We have a remote control at the rear of the car so that they can use audio system from the back. But when customers buy an Audi, what they want is an Audi. So we don’t change what the brand is about; we just make slight adjustments. The luxury car segment was also hit by a lack of financing options that were available to customers during the slowdown. What is the situation now? To be frank, I cannot say we have been hit by the slowdown. But despite that more than 50% of the customers are financing the cars. We are established in India and our subsidiaries Volkswagen Financial Services, which provides EMI (equated monthly instalment) options to our customers. I must say this is working well. We will expand this to extended warranty packages, insurance programmes, and management packages. The crisis did not hit us too much and I think 2010 will definitely be a very, very big boost for the brand. We are heading towards 2,200-2,500 cars in 2010. That could be bigger but that’s the target we have set for ourselves first. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:38 am India interested in buying 10 heavy transport aircraft BoeingUS aircraft manufacturer Boeing Friday said that the Indian Air Force has shown its interest in acquiring 10 heavy transport aircraft C-17 Globemaster.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:26 am Lord of the roadIn his heart-rending 1958 film, Ajantrik, film-maker Ritwik Ghatak depicts a man’s love and dependence on a machine—his taxi. Kolkata-based photographer Swapan Nayak finds this being replicated, as movingly, in the hills of the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. The difference being, the 1920 Chevrolet in Ghatak’s film has been replaced by Land Rovers dating back to the 1950s. And Bihar, the film’s locale, is now the forbidding inclines leading up to Sandakphu, West Bengal’s highest peak. The humanizing of the machine, the zealous sense of possession and the doggedness against change in an era of easy-EMI consumerism, are traits that anchor the Land Rover community in this difficult-to-access region of the country. It was to serve a functional need that we took our first ride in one of these Land Rovers. Having arrived in the little village of Maneybhanjang—the gateway for the trek to Sandakphu—after two weeks of intense travelling, we were spent on energy to undergo the 21km trek to the windswept pinnacle of West Bengal at an altitude of 12,000ft. But in a local driver Sukman Tamang’s 1958-built Land Rover—one from the fleet of Land Rovers that British tea planters introduced to the Darjeeling Hills in the 1950s—we had our answer. With no other transport with the wherewithal to service the route, the four-wheel drives respond positively to the needs of camera-toting tourists as well as local villagers. In the Land Rovers, the entire region finds an answer. It’s a monopoly that has earned the Darjeeling hills the sobriquet of being the last outpost for the commercial use of the vintage vehicles of the iconic once-British, now-Tata Motors-owned brand. Since their colonial-era introduction, these vehicles have been bought and inherited across generations of local transporters. Over the years, the Land Rover’s hardiness and off-roading flexibility has survived the elements, ominously rough dirt tracks and the hazards of time. As Tamang carefully arranges the supply of essentials that he is transporting to high-flung villages, we find ourselves surrounded by an elderly Nepali couple, sacks of rice and sugar, packs of biscuits and Wai Wai noodles, cartons of mineral water and rum, and a wicker basket full of chirping chicks. It’s cramped inside, which is just as well for once the vehicle starts climbing a cruel gravel-strewn incline near the wonderfully bleak hamlet of Meghma at 2,900m, rations and chicks, all seem to head for us at the back but can’t for lack of space to manoeuvre. The Land Rover huffs, pants and bellows. It disengages hundreds of pebbles into deep gorges. Metal rattles against metal as the machine negotiates hairpin bends to finally reach its destination. Like it always does. The next dawn, at frosty Sandakphu, Tamang diligently points out the spectral outlines of four of the world’s five tallest peaks—Everest, Kanchendzonga, Lhotse and Makalu catching the first light of the sun according to their hierarchy of heights. And there it stands behind us—the Land Rover, as much a part of the Sandakphu landscape as any of these. Photographs by Swapan Nayak Swapan Nayak, recently quit his 15-year career as a photojournalist to work as a freelance photographer. In 2009, he was awarded a two-year senior fellowship for photography from the Union ministry of culture. He is currently working on communities and landscapes in West Bengal. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:23 am GST saga drags on as states quibbleThe much-awaited timeline for rolling out a nation-wide goods and services tax (GST) will not be known before the month-end. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:04 am Fake auto parts are a big businessCounterfeit auto parts are a big business in India, says a study commissioned by the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA). Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 9:02 am Auto sales zoom 68 warm up cold DecemberIndian automobile industry recorded an impressive 68 per cent growth in sales in December last year, thereby continuing with the push it had received from two stimulus packages since 2008-end and successfully beating the year-end blues.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 8:59 am Fertiliser shortage should not hamper farm output PMPrime Minister Manmohan Singh has instructed key government functionaries to ensure that a shortage of fertiliser does not come in the way of food grain production. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 8:57 am Reliance betters offer for LyondellBasellMukesh Ambani-led RIL is understood to have increased its offer to buy a controlling a stake in LyondellBasell Industries AF, valuing the US-Dutch bankrupt petrochemical firm at Rs 61,830 cr against the its earlier bid offer of Rs 54,960 crore made last November.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 8:54 am Dubai based DM aims high slot in healthcareDubai-based DM Healthcare is planning to set up a 35-acre medical complex in Kochi on the lines of the upcoming Medanta Medicity in Gurgaon, and also plans to take majority stakes in prominent multi-specialty hospitals in smaller “tier-II” cities.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 8:51 am Real growth still has not gained momentumHarsh Pati Singhania, president of Ficci and managing director of JK Paper, says that though the new year will be better than the last, certain steps of caution must be taken as this is just the beginning of the recovery. He told Hindustan Times that the revival is due to the fiscal stimulus package and easy monetary policy and therefore “real” growth could still be some distance away. Excerpts.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 8 Jan 2010 | 8:44 am Rupee down on choppy stocks, firm dollarMumbai: The rupee pulled back from 15-month high on Friday as a stronger dollar and choppy equities raised concerns whether foreign investors would maintain the pace of portfolio investments this year. The partially convertible rupee ended at 45.75/76 per dollar, about 0.2% below its close of 45.68/69 on Thursday when it rose during trade to 45.55, its strongest since 23 September 2008. Foreign fund investments in local shares are a key driver for the rupee. In 2009, inflows of more than $17 billion helped the rupee surge 12.2% from a record low of 52.2. The unit gained 4.7% on the year. The BSE benchmark Sensex dropped 0.4% on Friday, falling for a second session, as forecast for a strengthening rupee spooked export-focused outsourcers. “There’s uncertainty whether the fall in stocks may be the beginning of a fresh round of correction,” said a trader with a private bank. The dollar’s rise also hit sentiment for the rupee. The US currency rose ahead of an expected upbeat US payroll data, which would suggest more recovery for the world’s biggest economy. However, a Reuters poll on currencies in Brazil, Russia, India and China on Thursday showed the rupee was expected to appreciate about 4% in 2010 to around 44 per dollar. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts was at 45.70/80, little changed from the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX ended at 45.8350 and 45.8375 respectively. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 5:35 am Panasonic aims to expand sales in green tech pushTokyo: Panasonic Corp. said Friday it aims to catapult sales by more than a third in three years in an aggressive bid to become the dominant electronics company in green technologies. The Japanese electronics giant is targeting revenue of ¥9.5 trillion ($101.7 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2013, up from the ¥7 trillion ($74.9 billion) it estimates this year. In the year through March 2019, it wants to expand sales above ¥10 trillion, with its battery and energy systems operations accounting for a third. Panasonic, the world’s biggest maker of plasma TVs, said it intends to transform its energy systems division into its flagship business — a goal made possible by its recent $4.6 billion takeover of Sanyo Electric Co. Panasonic can now draw upon Sanyo’s expertise in solar panels and rechargeable batteries, bolstering its resources in the race to dominate the green electronics market. “The two brands will work closely to learn from each other and bring together the wisdom of each company,” Panasonic said in a statement. The Osaka-based company said it will invest about ¥100 billion ($1.1 billion) over six years to expand production of Sanyo’s solar cells. It seeks top market share in Japan in three years, and aims for top-three status globally by fiscal 2016. It also wants at least 40% global market share of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries by 2016. Panasonic posted a profit for the first time in a year in the July-September quarter and narrowed its forecast for annual losses to ¥140 billion. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 4:23 am RBS sells non-core fund operations to AberdeenLondon: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has agreed to sell non-core asset management businesses to fund firm Aberdeen as it attempts to recover from a bruising financial crisis. Aberdeen Asset Management will pay £84.7 million ($135 million) to acquire fund of hedge fund and multi-management businesses from the 84% state-owned bank. “This transaction represents another step in our plan to restructure RBS around its core customer franchises,” chief financial officer Bruce Van Saun said in a statement. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter. The deal is further evidence that RBS chief executive Stephen Hester is reversing the decade-long acquisition spree of his predecessor, Fred Goodwin, which ended with the biggest rescue bailout for any bank in the world. RBS is also looking to sell its 51% stake in commodities joint venture RBS Sempra and together with its partner Sempra Energy has received bids from a trio of banks worth nearly $4 billion, according to sources. Aberdeen is taking over £13.5 billion ($21.53 billion) worth of assets and will keep on the 65-strong RBS teams at the divisions. The fund management company said it would place about 84 million new shares, representing about 8.3% of its current share capital to raise the full amount needed to take over the businesses in a 100% cash deal. Coutts Link Aberdeen said it had also entered into a distribution agreement with RBS Wealth Management for a minimum of five years. The deal gives Aberdeen a sales route through RBS’ private client franchise, including RBS’s private banking arm Coutts in the United Kingdom. “Our client base are the Coutts of this world, the family offices of this world,” Aberdeen CEO Martin Gilbert said. The deal also makes good on a long search by Aberdeen for exposure to hedge funds, a sector that Gilbert reckons is once again appealing to investors. “What happened last year was exceptional and I think the long term trend of investing in hedge funds is going to continue,” Gilbert told Reuters. Analysts at Singer Capital Markets said they expected the deal, and particularly the Coutts link, to add about 2 to 3% to published earnings estimates. Altium Securities said the transaction was “strategically important” for Aberdeen, while Noble said the valuation was “attractive”, but the scope for cost synergies looked limited. Aberdeen said in a separate statement on Friday that it had assets totalling £144.1 billion at 31 December 2009. The figure was dampened by net outflows in the first quarter of 2.6 billion, which the company said had mostly come from lower margin products. The shares were down 2.89% by 1052 GMT, RBS shares were up 0.50% while the FTSE 100 was flat. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 8 Jan 2010 | 4:05 am
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