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States keep off New Pension Scheme on account squaring delayOf the 11 States that had signed MoUs with the pension fund regulator PFRDA for joining the New Pension Scheme for managing their employees' contributions, only three have so far transferred the money to the designated fundSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am United Bank fixes IPO price band at Rs 60-66United Bank of India (UBI) on Wednesday said that it will raise between Rs 330 crore and Rs 350 crore from its initial public offering which will open on February 23. Through the IPO, the Government will dilute 15.8 per cent stake in the bank andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideNote: In a buy recommendation, the resistances would be the targets and the nearest support would be the stop loss; In a sell recommendation, the supports would be the targets and the nearest resistance would be the stop loss; The recommendationSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am Delinquencies in commercial vehicle segment may rise: FitchSome of the factors which could lead to a rise in delinquencies in the commercial vehicle (CV) segment are increased competitiveness of rail freight, implementation of Goods and Services Tax and changes in the vehicle age norms, said a reportSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am Rising inflation is disturbing, says PranabThe Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has expressed concern over the rising inflation in the economy and hoped that headline inflation would moderate in the next few months, as supply enhancing measures begin to yieldSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am Omax Autos (Rs 51.05): BuyInvestors with a short-term trading perspective can buy the stock of Omax Auto. The stock formed a medium-term peak at Rs 71 on January 11 and is in a medium term downtrend since then. This downtrend halted above the long-term 200-day movingSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am ArcelorMittal project: Karnataka farmers want equity for landFarmers in Karnataka whose land is expected to be acquired for setting up the six-million-tonne steel plant of ArcelorMittal have come out with a unique demand for selling their land to the promoters: They want equity in theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am Govt offers Bharti all help in Zain buyoutThe Government said it will provide all help possible to aid Bharti Airtel complete the acquisition of Kuwait-based Zain's telecom operations inSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am Uncomfortable truths for the EUThe US investment bank used some $10-billion worth of cross-currency swaps to help Greece cover up the extent of its debt, it has emerged over the past fewSource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am India-made telecom gear will not need security okayIn a move that could boost local manufacturing, the Department of Telecom plans to exempt telecom equipment and software made in India from taking mandatory security clearance before operators deploySource: Business Line - Home Page | 18 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am Corus steel workers braced for mass redundancies - BBC News
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 5:35 pm Nikkei claws higher, exporters up after yen's dipTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average edged up 0.1 percent on Thursday with exporters such as Canon getting a lift in the wake of the dollar's rise to a one-month high against the yen on the back of upbeat U.S. data.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 5:35 pm Lehman led trading in bankruptcy claims in 2009NEW YORK (Reuters) - Creditors of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc traded some $4.4 billion of claims in 2009, leading an increasingly active market for creditors last year, according to a study on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 5:27 pm FEATURE - Does Congo mean business with rush of reforms?KINSHASA (Reuters) - PricewaterhouseCoopers' Congo office was winding down for the weekend one Friday when a call came through from an international mining firm hit with a $10 million tax bill.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 5:24 pm Toyota faces new probe on Corolla steeringDETROIT/TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. regulators launched a preliminary investigation into reported steering problems on the Corolla sedan on Wednesday as Toyota Motor Corp faced questions from U.S. lawmakers on whether it had ignored red flags on safety before a wave of vehicle recalls.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 5:16 pm Rajaratnam, Chiesi face Oct. 25 criminal trialNEW YORK (Reuters) - Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam can expect to go on trial on criminal charges of insider trading on Oct. 25, a U.S. judge said on Wednesday, a ruling that complicates a civil trial on similar charges.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 4:30 pm Wrong lessons from NTPC issue - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 4:29 pm Fed thinking of selling debt to withdraw stimulusWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several Federal Reserve policy makers want to begin selling securities relatively soon to cut back the U.S. central bank's massive help to the financial system as the economy finds a footing, the Fed said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 4:09 pm Rupee rises to 2-week high, ends at 46.12 vs dollar - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 4:07 pm February 18: Events to watch out forFebruary 18: Events to watch out forSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 3:43 pm Gold drops after IMF says to sell remaining reservesSYDNEY (Reuters) - Spot gold dropped about 1 percent on Thursday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would sell its remaining gold reserves, but settled in a narrow trading band as the market absorbed the news.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 3:42 pm JSW dusts up $500 million QIP planJSW Steel is seriously looking at a qualified institutional placement (QIP) to raise money for its upcoming projects.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 3:16 pm Union Budget is unlikely to spring any major surprisesFinance minister may announce the implementation of GST and direct tax code from April 2011.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 3:10 pm 'Outsourcing market in China does not exist'It would be a while before Indian software companies who have set up operations in China can realise the growth envisaged by them. Blame it on cultural issues and the lack of an outsourcing mindset, Ning Wright, partner, performance & technology at KPMG Advisory (China) told DNA.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 3:07 pm Stumbling blockNHAI earlier this week poured cold water on the hopes of certain developers with the announcement that no company with three or more projects to be financially closed can bid for a new project.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 3:04 pm NID designs expertise to uplift small enterprises - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:57 pm RBI must ensure daily interest on savings a/cs from April 1Onus is squarely on the regulator. Not enforcing it would mean banks continue to thrive at account holder's expense.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:53 pm On anniversary, Obama defends economic stimulusWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vigorously defended his $787 billion stimulus on Wednesday, insisting it rescued Americans from the worst of the economic calamity and ripping Republican critics who called it a waste.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:52 pm Miner NMDC's topline getting steel-heavyOver 73% of its revenues by 2015 will come from selling steel.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:51 pm Japan has max US debt as China cutsData released by the US treasury department established that China cut back on its Treasury holdings to $755.4 billion in December, down $34 billion from November.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:49 pm U.S. stocks, dollar up on upbeat economic outlookNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose and the U.S. dollar appreciated against other major currencies on Wednesday helped by stronger U.S. economic data and minutes from the Federal Reserve that suggested the U.S. central bank will soon begin withdrawing its huge monetary stimulus.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:44 pm Greece says not seeking EU taxpayers' moneyATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said on Wednesday his debt-stricken country was not seeking European taxpayers' money but needed a breathing space to cut its budget deficit and borrow "on normal conditions".Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:42 pm Panel discusses Minister's volte-face on Bt brinjal - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:39 pm The road aheadNHAI, a nodal agency of the Government of India, has propelled the growth of road sector in India, which is aided by a host of private investments from within and outside the country.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:37 pm Year that transformed highway tenderingThe Chaturvedi committee has sought to make the model concession agreement investor friendly.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:36 pm UBI pads up for maiden float - Calcutta Telegraph
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:35 pm Go beyond roadmapsThe govt needs to ensure faster delivery on a number of issues to ensure road-building happens in earnest. Among them are expediting take-out financing deals and helping the NHAI access larger funds.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:34 pm Wipro fraud may involve more than one person: ExpertWipro plans to undertake internal restructuring of its finance department, reports CNBCTV18, quoting sources. In an interview with CNBCTV18, Vijay Mukhi, Consultant Cyber Law, DSK Legal gave an insight into how such embezzlement could have gone undetected, and what companies can do to strengthen their security systems.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 2:16 pm Reliance Industries may have to raise its offer for LyondellBasell - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 1:52 pm Tele talk: Is Bharti overpaying for Zain\'s assets?Bharti is unlikely to dilute equity to finance the Zain deal, CNBCTV18 learns it is likely to borrow USD 6 billion for the deal. In an interview with CNBCTV18, Sanju Verma, CEO Institutional Business, Proactive Universal Group, gave her perspective on the deals valuations.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 1:31 pm Airtel may replicate its 'minute factory model' at Zain after takeover - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 1:03 pm Pranab sees special role for transfer pricing regulations - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:53 pm KFs Delhi-London flights from Mar 28Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday said it will start daily non-stop flights on New Delhi-London route from March 28.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:30 pm Govt removes cap on port bidsThe government has removed cap on the number of players who can participate in financial bidding for port expansion projects under public private partnership (PPP) to minimise litigations and get better returns.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:28 pm MNIK faces near-empty hallsTheatre occupancy for My Name is Khan dipped to 30 to 35 per cent in weekdays after 90 to 100 per cent occupancy over its release weekend.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:28 pm Fuel price rise likely after budget, says finance ministryThe finance ministry has advocated an increase in auto and cooking fuel prices only after the Budget is tabled in Parliament on February 26 in an effort to avert possible united protests from the United Progressive Alliances non-Congress allies and opposition parties ahead of a busy opening week of Parliament.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:25 pm Motorolas Jha to get $38m if co doesnt splitMobile phone maker Motorolas India-born chief Sanjay Jhas compensation has been increased to $38 million if the plans to split the company into two do not occur by 2011.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:24 pm Bhel to hire 8,000 in next two yearsState-run Bhel is on a hiring spree, and would add 8,000 employees to its workforce in the next two years to meet the growing domestic demand for power equipment.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:21 pm ArcelorMittal, NMDC eye Rs 10,000cr JVNRI billionaire L N Mittal-led ArcelorMittal and state-owned NMDC are exploring opportunities to join hands for a Rs 10,000-crore mining project in Africa, and may soon look at partnerships in other counties as well.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:19 pm NHAI ups eligibility norms for road sub-contractors - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:18 pm Mutual fund distributors chase retail HNIsEver heard of the term retail HNIs? Well, its a new class of investors with a little large purse' that mutual fund distributors are busy chasing these days.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:17 pm Govt mulls making CSR tradeableThe government is looking at making corporate social responsibility (CSR) more than mere lip service, toying with the idea of converting it into a tradeable commodity just like carbon credits.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:15 pm Abbott eyes 20% in India biz of SolvayUS-based drugmaker Abbott Laboratories has announced the completion of its acquisition of the drug unit of Solvay SA, after which it also made an offer to acquire 20% of Solvay's India business.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:12 pm SingTel supporting Zain deal, says Sunil MittalSingTel, the largest foreign shareholder in Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday said that it is actively involved in the negotiations to take over the African assets of Kuwait-based Zain group by Bharti Airtel.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:08 pm Toyoda set to skip US hearing over recallsToyota's president signalled on Wednesday that he would skip a hearing by US lawmakers next week over the auto giant's mass vehicle recalls as Washington steps up its investigation into the crisis.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:07 pm Games logistics behind scheduleNew Delhi: With less than 230 days left for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), an internal audit by the organizing committee in the first week of February revealed that none of the key logistics such as security, accommodation and transport to move officials as well as athletes have been completed by the 16 February deadline.  A status report on the logistics, reviewed by Mint, indicate none of the 13 tasks associated with eight areas—security, ceremonies, sports, coordination, venue development, accommodation, technology and accreditation—have been completed. There had been no progress on any of the logistics since that assessment as of Wednesday, said a top government official familiar with the situation. The official did not want to be identified. In all, there are 36 such areas that come under logistics. Mint could not independently review the status of the remaining areas. Separately, another internal audit has found a similar slippage in developing the catering logistics for the CWG. Alarmed by the slow pace, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed a three-member official panel in November to the organizing committee to hasten work on the projects. Mint reported Singh’s decision on 4 November to get involved in ensuring that the infrastructure is ready in time for the CWG, the country’s biggest sporting event in 28 years, scheduled for 3-14 October. According to the official cited above, much of the delay is due to the organizing committee’s failure to take timely decisions. Also Read Commonwealth Games, Delhi “The cancellation of tenders at the last minute, delay in clearing the request for proposals in various projects and too much confusion in who does what led to the delay in implementing the tasks,” said the official. “We are still in the danger zone.” An official of the urban development ministry, which is assisting in the coordination for the CWG, concurred. “There are so many things that are not defined,” he said, on condition of anonymity. “It is not clear as of now.” The same official maintained that while physical infrastructure such as bridges and stadiums would be ready, support facilities such as scoreboards, camera positions and other sports-related issues may not be ready in time. The ministry will undertake a review of infrastructure projects with officials from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi Development Authority on Thursday, the official added. A separate audit reveals a similar slip-up in organizing the catering for the CWG. In November last year, the organizing committee decided to award the catering service for the Games Village to Australia-based Delaware North, the only international company that had qualified in the global tender. Nearly a month later, the organizing committee found that there were “technical gaps” in the bidding and decided to disqualify the company, which had teamed with the Taj Group. Officials of Indian Hotels, which runs the Taj catering businesses, were not immediately available for comment, when called on the mobile phone. Following an exchange of communication between officials in the organizing committee, on 3 February it once again issued a request for proposal (RFP) for catering service in the Games Village, where 36,000 meals would have to be dispensed for 12 days. The fresh RFPs are expected to be opened only after 24 February. “It took almost three months for the organizing committee to disqualify the chosen company and re-tender for a new one,” said the first government official cited above. “There is no surety that we would get the fresh bids on similar or lower amount. Even if we do, it’s a high risk as importing the utensils and equipment for setting up such a large kitchen itself will take more than three months.” Setting up a multi-cuisine kitchen for an international event takes time and involves several security issues as well, the official said. However, Jarnail Singh, chief executive officer, organizing committee, told Mint that all the work would be completed and the venues handed over to Delhi police by 30 June. The lock down date for security is expected to be 1 September. Rahul Chandran contributed to this story. liz.m@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:51 am Corus restructuring showing results The firm incurred a loss of $150 million due to the Teesside Cast Products (TCP) plant in the September quarter, but even after adjusting for this, the improvement in profitability is impressive. This was owing to cost controls, higher realizations and improved volumes, with each of these factors contributing in almost equal measure.  Graphic: Yogesh Kumar / Mint The company’s domestic operations had benefited from higher volumes and realizations as well. The improvement in the performance of the company’s Europe and Indian operations compensated for a sequential drop in Ebitda in its other overseas subsidiaries. Tata Steel’s consolidated Ebitda jumped to $731 million from $86 million in the previous quarter. That caused its share price to jump 6% on Wednesday as shareholders could finally see some benefits arising from the mega acquisition of Corus. The European business is expected to benefit from its ongoing cost reduction programmes. But its capacity utilization will remain steady at current levels of around 80%. So sales and profit growth will depend more on steel prices, continued improvements in efficiency and lowering of costs. Tata Steel’s European business has saved around $1.2 billion in costs till December, with another $400 million of savings expected in the current quarter. The mothballing of the TCP plant will result in one-time severance-related costs, but then it will also lead to a drop in employee costs. In addition, a planned $114 million investment to improve its supply chain will see annual savings of $100 million. The operating environment for its European and Indian operations thus looks quite positive. The company does not expect demand in Europe to alter dramatically in the near future. While steel prices have been moving up, they have been rising partly on the expectation of higher raw material prices. When this actually happens after new contracts with raw material suppliers are negotiated, the ability to pass on actual cost increases to customers will be a key factor to watch for. Write to us at marktomarket@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:49 am Telangana stir worsens outlook for realty sector in HyderabadHyderabad: Dotted with the sprawling campuses of information technology (IT) firms such as Microsoft Corp. and Wipro Ltd, Hyderabad’s fast-moving growth corridor—the Gachibowli area—looks skeletal with half-done buildings, yellow construction cranes and giant billboards that promise delivery of homes on time.  Skeletal buildings: One of the many incomplete realty projects in Hyderabad’s Gachibowli area. Bangalore is gaining from Hyderabad’s loss. Many real estate investors consider the Karnataka capital a safer bet. Madhurima Nandy / Mint Hyderabad was hailed some years ago as one of India’s hottest property destinations, with firms such as US-based Tishman Speyer Properties and Malaysia’s Sunway City Bhd coming in to launch their maiden projects in the country. In its present condition, Andhra Pradesh’s capital city remains the lone realty victim of the slowdown. “Other cities are already on the recovery route. But Hyderabad has been in the news for all the wrong reasons,” said George Johnson, city head (firm management), Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a property advisory. The downturn perhaps shook Hyderabad more than it did other large cities due to certain disturbing events. The first was the unravelling of a multi-crore accounting fraud at Hyderabad-headquartered Satyam Computer Services Ltd last January, followed by the death of chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash in September. And just as the sector was beginning to recover, the struggle for a separate Telangana state that includes Hyderabad, intensified. “Whether the market bounces back depends on if they can control the Telangana agitation,” said N.R. Aluri, managing director, NCC Urban Infrastructure Ltd. “The residential segment particularly looks uncertain though we are expecting some demand in the budget category.” City-based NCC Urban, a subsidiary of Nagarjuna Construction Co. Ltd, has moved its focus to Bangalore, where it is building four projects, compared with one in Hyderabad. NCC’s signature project, a 400-acre mixed development on Hyderabad’s outskirts in Tellapur, in a joint venture with Tishman Speyer India, has been put on hold. Its only ongoing project in the city, Nagarjuna Residency in Gachibowli, has been cropped from 12 blocks to six. Following the 1990s’ IT boom in the city, Hyderabad’s realty market reached its peak between 2005 and 2007, with rising land prices triggering a wave of speculative buying. Property consultants say the key problems with Hyderabad have always been its unplanned real estate growth, demand-supply mismatch and steep land prices. In 2007, for example, a consortium of developers bought 5.8 acres in the city’s posh Jubilee Hills area for Rs58 crore an acre. The project, which hasn’t been launched yet, would need to sell at Rs15,000 per sq. ft at least to be viable, said a property consultant, who didn’t want to be named. “Everyone was buying large land tracts and planning big projects. Most projects launched in the last two years are nowhere near completion,” said P. Premkumar, member, AP Real Estate Developers Association. Premkumar’s firm, Doyel and Co., part of Opus Developers and Builders Pvt. Ltd, is building Sunway Opus Grand with Malaysia’s Sunway City. The Rs1,700 crore township in Hitec City, a technology hub in Hyderabad, was announced in 2007 but construction hasn’t started yet though bookings have begun. It will have luxury homes and is Sunway City’s maiden project in India. Yap Chun Hua, chief operating office of Sunway Opus, refused to talk about the project citing company policy. According to Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, around 5 million sq. ft of commercial space in the city is expected to come into the market in 2010, of which a little more than 3 million sq. ft is likely to be absorbed. Many buildings that were supposed to be operational in 2009 are still under construction, it added. S. Pochender, director and chief executive of Lanco Hills Technology Park Pvt. Ltd, a mixed-use project in Hyderabad, said the Telangana struggle ripped apart the local property market in December, just when the city was seeing green shoots of a revival. Around 400,000 sq. ft earmarked for office space in the Lanco Hills project is yet to find takers, after five-six nearly-finalized deals fell through in December, he said. Around 2 million sq. ft of retail space, including a 14-screen multiplex, is also going slow. “We have closed 60% of bookings for the homes, the rest is still there.” Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj’s report says only 0.72 million sq. ft of retail space in the city will be launched in 2010, and demand will be dormant. Bangalore, some 550km from Hyderabad, has been gaining from Hyderabad’s loss. Not surprisingly, many investors want to exit projects in Hyderabad or delay investment commitments. Nervous of getting stuck, Naresh C. Reddy, an independent investor, who also runs his own pharmaceutical business in Hyderabad, exited from three premium housing projects in the Madhapur area in the last week of November, when the Telangana movement was gathering steam. “I made a loss compared to the initial investment that I had made in mid-2008. But I am now talking to builders in Bangalore because I think the city is safer to invest in,” said Reddy. Irfan Razak, promoter of Bangalore-based Prestige Estates Projects Pvt. Ltd, said he, too, has put on hold a villa project in Hyderabad, originally planned for a 2009 launch. madhurima.n@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:32 am Sensex lifeline: high beeps and pratfallsHindalco (5.06% up) Shares of Hindalco Industries Ltd ended 5.06% up as Novelis reported profit after three loss-making quarters. Novelis’ third quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization at $199 million flat quarter-on-quarter but 55% higher year-on-year. Tata Steel (6.23% up) The Tata Steel Ltd stock rose 6.23% after Corus turned earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBTIDA) positive. Corus reported positive EBTIDA of $142 million led by an impact of increased steel realizations of $131 million, cost-reduction initiatives of $104 million and better volume/mix of $105 million. Bharti Airtel (2.78% up) Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd, provider of telecommunication services, closed 2.78% up after falling nearly 15% for last 2 days. Bharti Airtel said the total payout in Zain deal is at $9 billion, which includes any loans payable by the operating companies to Zain Group. Zain Africa has net debt of $1.7 billion. Birla Shloka (9.90% up) Shares of Birla Shloka Edutech Ltd rose 9.90% after the board approved raising up to Rs75 crore through American Depository Receipt/Global Depository Receipt. The move comes after the firm raised Rs35 crore through a follow-on public offer in January which was subscribed 1.43 times. Indo Tech (15.77% up) Shares of Indo Tech Transformers Ltd, manufacturer of power and distribution transformers, surged 15.77% to Rs320 on speculation that a venture partly owned by General Electric Co. may make a second open offer for the company, which may lead to the delisting of the stock. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:32 am We are taken by surprise with NHAI’s directiveMumbai: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) rider, barring contractors from bidding for more projects if they have three in hand that haven’t achieved financial closure, seems to have split the infrastructure industry. Praveen Sood, chief financial officer of Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd (HCC), said in an interview the new condition was unfair on firms like his. Amitabh Mundhra, director of Simplex Infrastructure Ltd, said it would help weed out the not-so-serious firms from the field. Edited excerpts:  Seeking fair play: Hindustan Construction Co. CFO Praveen Sood (left) and Simplex Infrastructure director Amitabh Mundhra. How does HCC view NHAI’s new directive? Sood: We recently won three projects under NHAI and all these three projects are less than 10 days old. So obviously we fall into this line. We are taken by surprise with this move...these kinds of moves have to be taken in consultation with involved parties. You cannot change the rules of the game in between... Do you see this significantly affecting road development? Sood: ...Not more than 10-15 parties are putting the bid for these kinds of projects. (But) NHAI has got some ambitious plans. From July onwards they have put on block roughly 30 projects and they have plans to put out another 20-30 projects in the next few months...So these 50 projects between 15 parties means almost three projects to each party will be bagged and you will completely block the road, so how will you go forward. Can Simplex still apply for the next tranche of roads? It will mean reduced competition for you. Mundhra: There are two views to this. Firstly, Simplex hasn’t ventured into the build, operate and transfer space as of now, so we are happily placed at the moment. But this (NHAI’s) move could be taken with a slight amount of seriousness because a lot of parties (that) have started bidding or earlier bid...were not so financially prudent. Therefore, in NHAI’s mind...the idea was to maybe keep only good parties in the fray... Does this mean it is a good time for you to enter the fray? Mundhra: The time has come to take a view on these projects again. Some of the contractual conditions have been looked at pragmatically (by the government) and have been changed... Earlier, some very onerous conditions had made project risk quite high and therefore we stayed away... Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:31 am Budget excitement eludes the StreetTill a few years ago, dealing rooms used to bustle with activity on the day the Union Budget was presented. Dealers and analysts had to report to work early and those who were part of the institutional desk were flooded with calls from Hong Kong and Singapore-based deep pocketed clients.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am Temps have to jump through hoops to land a jobBangalore: Chastened by the economic downturn, India’s organized temporary hiring industry, or temping, has made the screening of employees more rigorous. Candidates on the rolls of temping companies such as Teamlease Services Pvt. Ltd and the Indian arms of foreign staffing firms such as Manpower Inc. and Adecco SA have to go through multiple rounds of assessment to land jobs that last just a few months. These staffing firms provide employees on a short-term basis to companies in sectors as varied as telecom, retail, consumer durables, banking, insurance, financial services and manufacturing. Industry experts said the economic slowdown not only gave companies time to rethink their hiring process, but also made them realize the need for better skilled personnel even in temporary positions. Karthik Raithatha of Teamlease, for instance, went through four levels of screening in December to get a six-month contract with a Goa-based copper manufacturer. The 24-year-old chemical engineer first took a 45-minute online aptitude test, which included logical and mathematical problems, vocabulary and situational tests. This was followed by a 30-minute technical test, in which he was quizzed on chemistry, fluid mechanics and machinery. The metal firm’s managing director then grilled Raithatha for 20 minutes on his industrial project. Finally came a 10-minute interview with a human resource executive at the firm, who asked how he would deal with a recalcitrant factory worker, among other things. “The job screening was on a par with the screening for a permanent job,” said Raithatha, who joined the firm, which he did not want to be named, as a factory production supervisor. He speaks from experience; he had landed a permanent job offer in 2009 while in his final year of studies at DY Patil College of Engineering and Technology, Kolhapur. But the company later refused to honour the offer as business prospects dimmed. Before the downturn, there would have been just an interview to select a temp, said Rajesh A.R., vice-president of Teamlease, which has 65,000 temps such as Raithatha on its rolls. “Now, companies want to test candidates and know how does he stand on aptitude, behaviour, skills etc.” Of course, permanent hiring, too, involves more rounds of interview than before, as companies want to be doubly sure about who they hire. “Earlier, companies just wanted a set of hands and legs. Today, they want a brain along with it,” said Rajesh. Abhinav Dhawan, joint director (staffing) at the Indian arm of Manpower, which has 18,000 temps on its rolls, agreed with Rajesh. There was a mad rush to hire when the markets were going up, he said. But companies now feel it is better to hire the right people than just fill in positions. This is helping the 10-year-old, 400,000-strong temping industry in India become more mature, said Dhawan, who estimates at least 30% of the market is getting screened more closely than before. Indeed, an intensive selection process could be even more crucial for temps than for permanent employees. Temporary hiring is short term in nature, and companies want immediate results, said Sudhakar Balakrishnan, managing director of the Indian arm of Swiss staffing firm Adecco. “These companies are now looking to hire people who can be productive from day one.” With 76,000 temps on its rolls and clients such as telecom operator Reliance Communications Ltd and the Indian arm of German pharma Bayer AG, Adecco claims to be the leader in India’s organized temping market. Dhawan of Manpower now plans to bring more assessment tools from its global suite of products to India over the course of this year. Balakrishnan of Adecco said he hopes to earn revenues from assessment tools in the next one to two years as the market matures further. poornima.m@livement.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am Spinach withers in economic slowdownMumbai: Grocery supermarket chain Spinach appears to be caught up in a slide that has seen a number of Indian retailers, particularly from low-margin food and grocery industry, down shutters in the wake of the economic slowdown. Empty shelves and aisles greet you at the chain’s flagship store in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex. Its branch in Juhu, known for its prime location and suburban Mumbai clientele, presents a similarly dismal picture. Fresh stock hasn’t arrived for past three months at any of the Spinach stores, owned by Wadhawan Food Retail Pvt. Ltd, a Wadhawan Group company. “We don’t have any official communication on when the fresh stocks will come,” said Ganesh Thyagarajan, a manager at the Juhu store. Outlets in Versova and Kalyan have already downed shutters. Another employee said on condition of anonymity that the firm was thinking of closing down more branches in coming weeks. A spokesman for Wadhawan Food said, “The company is in the process of cost-cutting and consolidation, and looking at store-level profitability across the chain, which could entail some store closures.” Wadhawan Food runs food and grocery supermarket stores under the brand names of Spinach in western and eastern India, Sabka Bazaar in the north and Smart Retail in the south. Mumbai also has stores under the brand Maratha Cooperative. The group has close to 180 supermarkets under various formats and has closed nearly 50 stores across the formats in the past year, according to people close to the company. Mint reported on 6 September that Sabka Bazaar outlets had stopped receiving supplies. They are yet to resume. Wadhawan Group is not the only one to have taken a hit. Over the past year, the sector has seen 1,600 supermarket of Subhiksha Trading Services Ltd down shutters nationwide after defaulting on loans, vendor payments and staff salaries. Vishal Retail Ltd, with 170 outlets countrywide, is seeking to reschedule debt of around Rs730 crore. The correction, which started last year with retailers such as Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, which has food and grocery stores under the brand name More, RPG Group’s Spencers, Reliance Retail Ltd, Future Group’s Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, is still claiming new victims. The Wadhawan Group has businesses spread across real estate, retail, food and beverage, education, financial services and hospitality sectors. “Following collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing liquidity squeeze, the group has prioritized its funds for investments in core businesses and retail lacked the investments,” said Narayanan Ramaswamy, executive director, retail advisory service, KPMG Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd. Industry watchers agreed organized food and grocery retail was yet to find its feet in India. “Other retail formats saw one store closing for every 20 that have opened. In food and grocery retail, the number of closures versus the opening of new outlets is higher,” said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of property advisory Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of consultancy Third Eyesight, said retailers were still finding out the right size, positioning, demand and supply equation for stores. “There is no stigma attached to store closures,” Dutta said. “If a location is unprofitable, companies take a call on rationalization and profitability and decide on store locations.” But Ramesh Viswanathan, executive director, CavinKare Group, put the onus on retailers and said they needed to grow out of the “neighbourhood store” mindset. “The principal challenge for modern retailers is to innovate to drive footfall and increase consumption,” he said. sapna.a@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am Forex dealers, bankers seek to oppose court order on CBI probeMumbai: A national body of foreign exchange and bond dealers is to join hands with bankers to stop a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged mis-selling of derivatives contracts in 2007 and 2008. The Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association, or Fimmda, is planning to challenge a Orissa high court order directing an inquiry into the contracts sold by some Indian banks to buyers who sought to use them as a hedge against currency fluctuations. The derivatives holders were caught on the wrong side of a surprise appreciation of the rupee during the period. The Indian Banks Association (IBA), the national bankers’ body, is also backing Fimmda and the lenders, which say the appropriate investigating authority is the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and not the CBI. Many private banks including ICICI Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd, Yes Bank Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd were sued by corporations for what they claimed was the mis-selling of derivative products dating to that period. Many of these cases have been settled out of court. The Orissa order, following a public interest litigation filed by tax consultant Pravanjan Patra, calls on the government and others to hand over the “investigation of offences committed for erosion of forex reserve of the nation to an independent agency preferably the Central Bureau of Investigation.” Top Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve has assured Fimmda and the banks that they have a strong case, according to a senior official of IBA who spoke on condition of anonymity. Fimmda chief executive officer C.E.S. Azariah declined to make any comment. “At the moment, we are unable to comment anything in the matter you are enquiring about,” he said in an email response. An email to Salve’s office did not elicit any response. The treasury head of a private sector bank, which is also fighting a case against a company over the issue, said Fimmda was seeking support from lenders in challenging the court order. “They have approached us also,” he said. “Fimmda’s board of directors will have to ratify the decision” to appeal against the Orissa high court order. The CBI had told the court in Cuttack in an interim inquiry report that the central bank had conducted an inquiry into 22 banks active in derivative transactions and concluded that it was not a systemic issue. Based on information gathered during discussions with the chief executives of the banks, RBI decided to monitor the exposure of all banks, strengthen the prudential framework for derivatives and also constitute an inter-departmental group to review transactions in such instruments by lenders and recommend appropriate supervisory action, said the high court judgement. RBI also pointed out irregularities pertaining to Foreign Exchange Management Act, or Fema, guidelines. These included selling contracts structured in a way that violated the law and led to an increase in risks besides the net inflow of premiums to the company buying the contract. This, the CBI contended, was in violation of rules which permit use of derivatives for mitigation of foreign exchange losses but don’t allow the inflow of premiums to the buyer of the contract. The CBI also said there were instances of false declarations made to enter into the contracts, pointed the high court order. Some of the products themselves, especially cross-currency derivative instruments, also violated Fema, according to the central bank. As part of its ongoing investigation, CBI had sought information from eight banks—State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd, India (HSBC India), Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank NA, ICICI Bank, ABN Amro Bank NV and Axis Bank. anita.b@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:29 am Banks want RBI to relax some base rate guidelinesNew Delhi: Bankers want the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to relax some of the guidelines that it issued as part of a shift towards the freeing of loan rates starting 1 April. The concessions were sought with regard to the central bank’s bar on lending below a “base rate” at a meeting organized by the Indian Banks’ Association, or IBA, the apex lobby group.  Dealing with change: Bankers urged RBI to ease norms regarding loans against deposits and priority sector obligations of foreign banks. Harikrishna Katragadda/Mint When banks give loans against deposits, the rate of interest is about 1 percentage point more than the deposit rate. With three-year fixed deposit rates hovering around 7%, the borrowing rate translates to 8% in the case of such loans. That would be lower than the present hypothetical base rate of 9-9.5% for most the banks, which are seeking the concession fearing a backlash from depositors. They also sought a relaxation in the case of loans to their own employees, which are made at a concessional rate and will be lower than the base rate. Foreign banks are worried about meeting their priority sector obligations, which is presently at 32% of their total advances. To meet their quarterly and yearly targets, foreign banks adjust the rates drastically and lend at a much cheaper rate to the medium and small enterprises and exporters. This, they are concerned, will not be possible when the base rate comes into effect and they have asked for special concessions on this issue, lest they be penalized for not meeting their targets. anita.b@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:24 am Farmville maker Zynga sets up office in BangaloreBangalore: Zynga Game Network Inc., the maker of popular games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars, has set up its first office outside the US in Bangalore to support its fast increasing user base. The two-and-a-half-year-old San Francisco-based technology company prides itself with as many as 235 million monthly active gamers globally.  Graphic: Yogesh Kumar/Mint Zynga has about 20 games hosted across social networking web sites such as Facebook and Apple Inc.’s iPhone. “We will hire 100 engineers and computer scientists over the next year in Bangalore,” said Shan Kadavil, country manager of Zynga’s Indian arm. The India staff will build back-end infrastructure and store data. The company also plans to set up a game studio in Bangalore that will develop games from scratch. Kadavil says the company choose Bangalore due to its high-quality talent and a growing online population. “Five years back (gaming) companies came to India because of cost (advantage) followed by talent (availability), but now they come because of talent available at good cost,” said Manoj Dawane, chief executive of People Infocom Pvt. Ltd, a mobile gaming and Internet company. Online social games are a throw back to the card and board games of yesteryears where multiple players play as a means of social interaction, as opposed to console or video games that test players’ reflexes and hand-eye coordination. This industry is about two years old and grew on the back of social networking sites such as Facebook, which opened its portals to application developers in 2007. Zynga, which has funding from venture capital investors such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, declined to reveal its revenue but said it has broken even from the first year itself, with users paying to buy virtual cows and tractors. poornima.m@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:17 am Sahara skips public issue norms on housing bondsMumbai: Sahara India Pariwar, the diversified business group owned by Subrata Roy Sahara, is raising money from retail investors through housing bonds sold by two of its group firms without seeking approval from the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) that is required for any public issue. Sahara Housing Investment Corp. Ltd and Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd had filed a so-called red herring prospectuses with the registrar of companies (RoC) to raise money through a private placement of instruments known as optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs).  Private placement? 1) A pamphlet used by Sahara agents showing bonds sale. Agents selling these bonds earn between 5.94% and 12% as commission. 2) and 3) The front and reverse of Isharawati Devi’s bond certificate for Rs10,000. The housing bonds are open for subscription until 31 March. A registered non-banking finance company (NBFC) needs the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval before selling bonds to the public, while others need clearance from the capital market regulator, said a senior Sebi official on condition of anonymity. “The issue of OFCD is by way of closely held invitation by a non-listed company,” Sahara India’s head of corporate communications Abhijet Sarckar said in an email response to queries from Mint. “It does not intend to list the security in any stock exchange. The issue is as per the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956.” Any issue of debt or equity to 50 persons or more qualifies as a public issue and requires disclosures by the issuer in accordance with Sebi (issue and listing of debt instruments) regulations, 2008. According to these rules, a “private placement” means an offer or invitation to less than 50 persons to subscribe to debt securities in terms of sub-section (3) of section 67 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956). The same rules define “public issue” as an offer or invitation by an issuer to the public to subscribe to debt securities that are not in the nature of a private placement. “The proviso (3) of section 67 of the companies Act clearly states that in reference to offering shares or debentures, when an invitation is made to 50 or more people, it is deemed as an invitation to public. This section is the basis of how to construe a public offering and it doesn’t make any distinction as to whether a debenture is convertible or not. It covers all kinds of debentures,” said a leading corporate lawyer, who did not want to be identified. Using their agent network, Sahara Housing and Sahara India Real Estate are selling the bonds across the country, promising returns that could be as much as six times the investment. Rajesh Gupta, 35, owner of a photocopy shop in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, bought 10 Sahara Housing Corp. bonds in the last week of January for Rs10,000. “It is like a fixed deposit,” said Gupta, adding, “aur dus saal mein mujhe teen guna paisa dene ka vada kiya hai (they have promised 300% returns over a 10-year period).” Isharawati Devi, a daily wage earner in Gorakhpur, said she also bought 10 Sahara housing bonds of Rs1,000 each. The total redemption value promised to Devi was Rs63,000 in 15 years. Another investor from Gorakhpur, who did not want to be named, said the scheme was inaugurated “with full publicity” by R.L. Patel, zonal chief of Sahara, who also heads its parabanking division in Gorakhpur. “Sahara India, soon after the launch, carried a news article in its Hindi daily Rashtriya Sahara, which explained the housing bond scheme along with the options available for investors,” he said. Mint couldn’t independently confirm this claim. It also couldn’t confirm whether the issue has been restricted to these three investors, and 46 others, which would mean that it meets Sebi’s definition of private placement. The housing bonds are open for subscription until 31 March, Patel told Mint. “I can’t give more details on phone,” he said. “You can talk to Mumbai office for further clarity.” Sahara Housing Investment is owned by Subrata Roy Sahara and his associates. According to the documents filed with RoC and reviewed by Mint, the primary shareholders in Sahara Housing Investment are Roy, his wife Swapna Roy and J.B. Roy. The three of them collectively hold around 60% and Kumar Pandey “for and on behalf of Sahara India Financial Corp. Ltd holds 40%”. Subrata Roy Sahara owns 30% in Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd and Sahara India Commercial Corp. Ltd owns 45%, according to the draft offer document of Sahara Prime City Ltd filed with Sebi ahead of an initial public offer (IPO). Sahara Prime City and Sahara India Finance and Investment Ltd hold 5% each in the company. The rest is held by Roy, Om Prakash Srivastava and Ashok Roy Choudhary. To be sure, the housing bond issues are not linked to the proposed IPO of Sahara Prime City. Mint reported on 2 February that Sebi is looking into a housing bond issue by Sahara Housing Investment Corp. as part of its examination of the offer document for Sahara Prime City’s share sale. In an extraordinary general meeting on 9 March 2009, shareholders of Sahara India Real Estate authorized the board of directors to borrow up to Rs14,500 crore, 145 times the company’s authorized share capital of Rs100 crore. On the same day, the directors were also given powers to invest up to Rs13,000 crore in market instruments. While Sahara Housing filed a red herring prospectus with RoC in Mumbai in October 2009, Sahara India Real Estate did so in Lucknow in March 2008. Both are issuing OFCDs. In such instruments, the investor has the option to convert these debentures into shares at a price decided by the issuer/agreed upon at the time of issue. Both said in their prospectus that these instruments would be “privately placed”. “According to Companies Act provisions, any issue that is made to more than 49 investors will qualify as public issue and (the company making the issue) has to file offer documents with Sebi,” said Prithvi Haldea, head of Prime Database Ltd, a New-Delhi-based primary market investment tracking firm. “The nature of the securities, convertible or not, does not make any difference as long as it comes under the term securities.” Haldea added: “It could be a different case if the so-called housing bonds come with an accompanying offer for a piece of land. Since in this case it is a convertible bond with no other attachments, it is totally illegal to issue it to public without proper disclosures and filings.” Banks and companies raise thousands of crores of rupees through bond issues, but these are done as private placements and involve a few institutional investors. According to P.K. Chaudhary, vice-chairman and chief executive officer of rating agency Icra Ltd, any public issue should be accompanied by proper disclosures as mandated by Sebi. Chaudhary’s company rates corporate debt issues. Public issues of debt need to be compulsorily rated by rating agencies. “A private placement is to be made to certain qualified institutions and should not involve ordinary retail investor,” Chaudhary said. Further, according to rules of private placement, the forms for subscription should be marked “private and confidential” and no public advertisement of the issue is to be made to the general public. Mint has a copy of the pamphlet used by Sahara agents to sell these bonds. The application forms for housing bonds reviewed by Mint do not show any distinct markings setting them apart as private placement. Further they are being sold to retail investors who do not clearly understand the implications of an instrument such as an OFCD. These bonds are not rated by any agency. No investment banker is involved in hawking these bonds. Due to the stringent procedures and disclosure norms, even the biggest corporate names avoid coming to the public equity and debt markets. “Many companies do not go for public issues because it is cumbersome and one needs to take care of the market conditions while pricing and marketing the issue. One also needs to make sure that other sources of fund-raising do not get cannibalized,” said an official at Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd, India’s largest mortgage lender. The agents selling these bonds are earning between 5.94% and 12% as commission depending on their hierarchy. For example, if one invests through the last-mile agent, then the commission is a maximum 12%. If the same investment is made through a higher official in the hierarchy, the agents’ commission goes down. The amount of commission is proportionate to the number of middlemen involved in the transaction Tapash Baidya, a Sahara India Pariwar agent from Sibsagar district in Assam, said that he had so far collected investments of around Rs40 lakh in the bonds. “There are investors who can invest only Rs5,000 and there are those who won’t talk anything less than Rs5 lakh. I have both kinds of investors,” said Baidya, who gets up to a 12% commission; if the amount of investment is big enough he would do it for a lesser commission. Sahara has a presence in at least 1,400 centres with several agents such as Baidya working for it in each. In 2008, RBI banned Sahara India Financial, the country’s biggest residuary non-banking finance company, from taking deposits from the public and asked it to wind down its operations by 2011. After several meetings with Sahara, RBI set a three-year sunset window on Sahara India Financial, allowing it to accept fresh deposits maturing until 30 June 2011. The central bank is in favour of the winding down of Sahara India’s close to Rs20,000 crore public deposit base. It has directed Sahara India to repay the deposits as and when they mature and bring down the aggregate liability to depositors to zero on or before 30 June 2015. According to RBI’s order, Sahara India’s deposit liability should not exceed Rs15,000 crore as of 30 June 2009; Rs12,600 crore as of 30 June 2010; and Rs9,000 crore as of 30 June 2011. Sahara group’s business interests include finance, entertainment, real estate and media. Its Hindi-language newspaper competes in some markets with Hindustan, published by HT Media Ltd, which also publishes Mint. n.subramanian@livemint.com Anirudh Laskar contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:10 am Quick Edit | The masters of inflationIf a minister comments in Parliament that the price of a commodity was expected to rise, one can be sure that such an observation will fuel inflationary expectations. What about a situation where ministers say they expect prices to come down? Could that lead to a decline in prices? Are ministerial statements magic devices that command prices? Not really. On Wednesday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said they expect prices to moderate in the next few months. Inflationary expectations are based on inflation that exists in one time period and influences that economic agents feel can fuel or dampen inflation. When Pawar made his statement about sugar prices going up, he did so when inflation was already high. That fuelled inflationary expectations. His statement on inflation moderating comes at a time when food price inflation is still going north. Currently, prices tell people a different story and the ministers’ statements will be discounted against the background of rising prices. Sorry, this ain’t no magic flute. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:09 am SpiceJet seeks to raise $75 millionMumbai: India’s second largest low fare carrier SpiceJet Ltd is seeking to raise $75 million (Rs345 crore) by selling new shares, according to two senior company executives, as the company prepares to start international services. SpiceJet’s chief executive officer Sanjay Aggarwal confirmed the development, without divulging details. “We are in the process of raising capital anywhere between $50 and $75 million,” Aggarwal said. “But it is too premature to comment about the fund raising details.” The top management of the airline, from which anchor investor and Dubai government’s investment arm Istithmar PJSC exited early this month, has met a clutch of domestic funds including Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd, and Axis Asset Management Co. Ltd, said one of the executives, who asked not to be identified as he’s not authorized to speak to the media. Executives at the three funds confirmed the meetings. IDFC-SSKI Securities Ltd and Edelweiss Capital Ltd are helping SpiceJet find an investor, he added. The carrier will become eligible to offer overseas flights as it completes five years of operations—a prerequisite for flying internationally according to Indian rules—in May this year. On 5 February, Istithmar sold most of its 13.39% stake to domestic funds and foreign institutional investors, providing room for another foreign investor to come in. The current foreign holding in SpiceJet is around 30%, less than the 49% limit prescribed for Indian airlines. However, the cap would be breached if all of its foreign currency convertible bond (FCCBs) holders decide to convert the instruments. Aggarwal said the carrier has some limitations in bringing in another overseas investor and did not elaborate whether the firm is in talks with foreign funds in the context of Istithmar’s exit. Istithmar sold its stake through bulk deals in the open market, to DWS Invest BRIC Plus Fund, Reliance Mutual Fund and Birla Mutual Fund, according to data provided to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The Istithmar stake sale comes in the wake of the debt repayment crisis faced by its parent company Dubai World. Tata Group and Wilbur Ross remain invested in the airline, which has a 12.2% share of the Indian domestic market. Tata Group holds about 6% while Ross, a master of distress buyouts, holds 32% worth equity, if he converts his FCCBs. Ross injected $80 million into SpiceJet in July 2008 through his New York-based private equity fund WL Ross and Co. Llc and persuaded private equity firm Goldman Sachs to invest $20 million in the carrier at the same time. It is not clear whether the new shares will go to a new investor or be picked up by existing shareholders. “Domestic funds have already gobbled up SpiceJet’s equity when Istithmar sold in the open market. An investment decision at this point looks unlikely from the domestic funds as they would ideally wait for the Union Budget” on 26 February, said Mahantesh Sabarad, senior analyst at domestic brokerage Centrum Broking Pvt. Ltd. “Moreover, other carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher, along with SpiceJet are in the market for raising funds totalling up to $500 million. I don’t think there is an appetite for such large amounts to be invested in aviation stocks at this point of time.” Shares of SpiceJet fell 3.67% on BSE on Wednesday to close at Rs53.85 apiece. Other domestic airlines are also pitching shares to domestic funds as Indian aviation recovers from a slump. The country’s largest airline, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, is in the process of selling new shares to large investors through a qualified institutional placement for $200 million in the first phase of a fund-raising plan. Kingfisher Airlines Ltd is considering a plan to raise as much as $175 million selling shares and global depository receipts to repay debt. pr.sanjai@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:09 am Investors don’t buy big deals any moreMumbai: Investors cheered the increasing possibility of Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) bid to acquire Dutch company LyondellBasell Industries AF failing. Reinforcing a growing trend among shareholders sceptical about big-ticket cross-border buys, they drove up the share price of India’s most valuable company by 1.4% on Wednesday.  In what still remains a recent phenomenon in India, investors have started buying stocks when the buyout bids fail; conversely, a company that makes a successful cross-border buy often sees its stock head south. That presents a sharp contrast to the period between 2004 and 2007 when buzz of a possible large or midsize acquisition, even an unnamed one, was enough to send stocks into orbit. “It’s a case of once bitten, twice shy,” said Dara Kalyaniwala, vice-president of investment banking at Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd. “Investors have seen that not all past mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have done well.” In a late evening announcement on Tuesday, Lyondell said it had reached a settlement with its “unsecured creditors”—the principal group that was supporting and pitching for RIL’s “preliminary, non-binding” bid, in the hope that this would ensure they got at least some of their money back—for $450 million (Rs2,070 crore today), forking out a 50% higher sum than offered earlier. RIL’s shares rose 1.44% on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at Rs1,032 each on Wednesday, a day after the event. The exchange’s bellwether index Sensex rose 1.25% to 16,428.91 points. Goldman Sachs’ sector analysts Nilesh Banerjee and Nishant Baranwal, who “believe RIL’s chances of acquiring LB (Lyondell) have diminished following this agreement”, said in a note to clients on Wednesday: “While we think the LB acquisition does have strategic merit for RIL, we believe the bid not going through would be a better outcome than RIL getting drawn into a bidding war and eventually over-paying for the assets.” The same sentiment is echoed by most of their peers. “RIL will have to significantly raise the valuation and that doesn’t seem likely. It was a good deal at $12-13 billion, beyond that status quo (not adding the asset) is better,” said another analyst at a foreign brokerage who did not want to be identified. “Investors probably see Reliance not buying Lyondell as a positive,” said Vikas Pershad, Chicago-based chief executive at hedge fund Veda Investments Llc. “They probably want to see them putting all this money into oil-producing assets.” An RIL spokesman declined comment on whether the conglomerate remains interested in the target or the latest development implies the RIL bid will be ignored by Lyondell’s management, which has consistently preferred its own reorganization plan over every other alternative. Speaking to Mint late night on Tuesday, Lyondell’s key spokesman David Harpole said the path was clear for the firm to emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing after the latest settlement. On being asked about the continuing relevance of RIL’s bid, he said: “Any competing, alternative plan will have to be a definitively higher and better offer that maximizes the value for our creditors.” While RIL has never confirmed its valuation estimates for Lyondell, it had reportedly raised it to $13.5 billion from $12 billion a few weeks ago, but failed to woo the existing Lyondell management. “It seems like Reliance is effectively out of the race for now,” Deepak Pareek, an oil and gas analyst at Angel Broking Ltd said. Analysts, however, are convinced there will be more buyout action from RIL as it tries to deploy the cash pile it is sitting on and will generate in the future. Banerjee and Baranwal of Goldman Sachs, in their note, call this likely since there are “no major projects lined up to consume excess cash (after committed capex) of $25 billion that RIL will likely generate between FY11E-14E”. Indian M&As The rise in RIL’s stock on Wednesday is not the only example of increasing investor scepticism on cross-border deals. After Bharti Airtel Ltd announced its bid for the African telecom assets of the Zain group on Sunday, investors hammered the scrip for two straight days. Bharti’s share price slid 9.22% on Monday and 4.45% on Tuesday, before pulling back 2.44% on the third day after the company sought to quell doubts surrounding its $10.7 billion valuation for the target. According to Bloomberg data, between 2005 and 2009 Indian companies went on an acquisition spree, spending $61.3 billion on 631 overseas buys. For much of the 2004-07 bull run, the stock markets played cheerleader to the M&A plans of the companies. For example, the scrip of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd rose 37% in the three months to the final signing of its deal to acquire German firm Betapharma Arzneimittel GmbH in February 2006. Similarly, shares of Suzlon Energy Ltd gained 20% ahead of its deal to buy a stake in REpower Systems AG in early 2007. “Everyone was excited those days on foreign acquisitions,” said C.G. Srividya, partner and specialist (advisory services) in consultancy firm Grant Thornton India. “Even if they were completely debt-funded, and were not long-term value accretive, share prices significantly shot up.” But with the economic environment changing and stock market turning volatile, shareholders have become more sceptical. Nor are people willing to blindly believe all foreign M&As are good. For instance, Dr Reddy’s had to write off a notional Rs1,400 crore on account of Betapharma last fiscal. Similarly, Hindalco Industries Ltd had to write off some Rs7,000 crore on account of its buy of Novelis AG. To be sure, the trend need not apply to all companies. To give just one example, while Bharti Airtel’s shares had risen by 4% soon after its talks with South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd were called off, the relief rally was short-lived after investors woke up to the reality that there was no near-term triggers for a price rise and that, in the long-term, an overseas acquisition was just what the telco needed. bhuma.s@livemint.com Ashwin Ramarathinam of Mint, Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:08 am Sahara to pay Rs1,120 cr to Siva Ventures by MarMumbai: Maverick investor C. Sivasankaran has completed the first leg of yet another profitable exit, with the Sahara group repaying around Rs1,680 crore to Siva Ventures Ltd even as it has to repay an additional Rs1,120 crore by March if it wants to regain complete control over Aamby Valley Ltd, which has built an eponymous luxury township spread over 10,600 acres an hour’s drive from Mumbai. Sahara India Commercial Corp. Ltd, a housing subsidiary of the group, owns 51% stake in the project.  Profitable exit: Siva Ventures’ C. Sivasankaran. India Today Siva Ventures bought this stake for Rs1,000 crore. In addition to that, it has lent Rs1,200 crore to Aamby Valley. Going by the arrangement, Sahara needs to pay Rs1,600 crore for the 49% stake and pay interest on the debt apart from the principal amount of Rs1,200 crore. In other words, its total liability is Rs2,800 crore, besides the interest on debt. Siva Ventures is free to sell its stake in the residential township after March 2010 if the Sahara group does not clear its dues. Siva Ventures is the investment arm of the Sterling group that invests in a range of activities from wind mills to real estate. “Sahara has already repaid nearly 60% of the money and will have to repay the remaining amount—Rs1,120 crore by March 2010, according to the agreement,” a Siva Ventures official familiar with the development said. “Sahara has been paying interest for the loan,” the person added but declined to specify the rate of interest. He did not want to be identified as he is not the official spokesperson of the firm. “We will release the shares once they repay the entire amount,” he said. According to this person, the group has informed Siva Ventures that it would sell shares to foreign and domestic institutional investors and repay the remaining amount. For this, the group is seeking services of legal firms that advise Siva Ventures for various transactions. When contacted, Vaidyanathan Srinivasan, director, Siva Ventures, said the company holds 49% stake in Aamby Valley but declined to comment on the transactions—“a private deal between the two unlisted companies”. Sahara group spokesperson did not respond to an email questionnaire sent last Friday. The Business Standard on 5 February reported that the Sahara group is set to buy out Sivasankaran from its flagship project Aamby Valley City near Lonavala. Sivasankaran is known for buying companies cheap and selling them at a high valuation and making money on such deals. He has sold his stake in Aircel Cellular Ltd, India’s sixth largest cellular service provider, to Maxis Communications Bhd of Malaysia and Pratap Reddy of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd for $1.09 billion (Rs5,014 crore) in 2005 and Barista coffee chain to Luigi Lavazza SpA of Italy in 2007. Siva Ventures has now 6% stake in Tata Teleservices Ltd, Tata group’s mobile telephony company in which NTT DoCoMo Inc. purchased 26% stake; 100% in Siva Projects Engineering Ltd that builds telecom towers for mobile firms; and owns real estate in Chennai, Pune and the Secheyelles. Siva Ventures has also purchased a 49% stake in Hindoostan Spinning and Weaving Mills Ltd. The Sahara group has interests in businesses such as finance, entertainment, real estate and media, and publishes a Hindi-language paper that competes in some markets with Hindustan, published by HT Media Ltd, which also publishes Mint. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:06 am Draft PRB Bill issuedNew Delhi: The information and broadcasting ministry has issued draft amendments to the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, aimed at updating the law and strengthening the Registrar of Newspapers. The proposed Press and Registration of Books and Publications Bill, 2009, published by the ministry on its website in consultation with the department of legal affairs, empowers the Press Registrar General to conduct verification with reference to claimed circulation figures as projected in the annual statement of a publisher through any authorized agent. The expenses of the circulation verification would be borne by the publication. The proposed legislation lays down penalties for breaches of the law. According to the proposal, the first offence is liable for suspension of publication for up to 30 days, or a fine of up to Rs5,000, or both. The new Act has proposed to replace the word “newspaper” as prescribed by the Act of 1867 to “publication” to include a wider array of media including “newspapers, magazines, journals or newsletters printed periodically including and published in India, or any syndication, facsimile edition, and Indian edition of foreign periodicals”. To avoid any conflict with relation to the title rights of any publication, the ministry has proposed the insertion of a new section defining the conditions for title verification. The owner of any proposed publication may make an application for title verification and propose upto five titles in order of preference. ishita.r@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:06 am Wipro says employee embezzles funds probe onIT major Wipro Technologies on Wednesday said it has detected embezzlement by one of its employees and the probe is on. The company did not give details of the fraud, but speculation was that it was around $4 million.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 11:05 am Fast-track court begins Satyam trialHyderabad: A fast-track court has begun trial in the multi-crore accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services Ltd, said M. Vijaya Lakshmi, metropolitan sessions magistrate at the Nampally courts complex in Hyderabad. All cases pertaining to Satyam are being transferred to the special court, where senior civil judge B.V.L.M. Chakravarthy has assumed charge, she said on Wednesday. The magistrate ordered jail authorities to produce the accused before the special court on 25 February and extended judicial remand for eight out of the 10 accused in the case till then. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 10:58 am REC FPO floor price fixed at 8% discountMumbai: The floor price for the follow-on public offering (FPO) of Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd (REC) has been fixed at Rs203 per share, following a meeting of an empowered group of ministers. The REC issue that opens on Friday will be the second FPO under the government’s disinvestment road map. The floor price is at a discount of nearly 8% to REC’s Wednesday closing price of Rs220.15 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. This is in sharp contrast to the FPO of NTPC Ltd, which was the first FPO under the French auction norms, laid down by the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India last year. Under such norms, retail investors are allowed to buy at a fixed floor price, while institutional investors bid at prices above that. In the NTPC issue, the floor price of Rs201 a share for retail investors was fixed at a discount of 4.8% to the closing price of NTPC at Rs211.25 on 1 February, when the issue floor price was announced. The discount further declined to about 2% on 3 February when the NTPC issue opened. The poor response to the NTPC issue forced the disinvestment ministry to tweak auction rules and provide a higher discount for retail investors. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 10:53 am China’s Unicom bids for Nigerian telecom firmAbuja: China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd and its bidding partners may buy 75% of Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd for $2.5 billion (Rs11,600 crore) to enter the fastest growing phone market in Africa. New Generation Telecom Ltd, the group made up of Unicom, Minerva Group and GiCell Wireless Ltd, was selected as the preferred bidder for the state-owned phone company. Unicom, is China’s second biggest mobile phone company. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 10:40 am Lufthansa pilots vote to go on four-day strikeFrankfurt/New Delhi: Pilots at German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG voted Wednesday to go on a four-day strike over wages and potential plans to move jobs to lower-paying subsidiaries, the union said. It is unclear if the India operations will be hit as a result. Lufthansa India said could not offer any immediate comments. Lufthansa is one of the largest European carriers flying into India with 52 weekly flights to seven Indian destinations. The pilots’ Vereinigung Cockpit union said the strike will begin midnight Monday and that at least 90% of the members from Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and the airline’s subsidiary Germanwings voted to strike. Lufthansa in a statement said the strike is unreasonable and would greatly hurt the company, workers and customers.“In the interest of the company and its customers, Vereinigung Cockpit is requested back to the negotiation table to work out a constructive solution. Lufthansa will do everything to keep the effects as minimal as possible for customers and passengers.”A strike could affect 4,500 Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and subsidiary Germanwings’ pilots. It could potentially cause massive disruptions in delays and cancellations across the country, Europe and internationally. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 10:26 am DIAL to project Terminal 3 as premium shopping destinationNew Delhi: A massive marketing campaign will precede the July opening of New Delhi airport’s third terminal, inviting travellers to its sprawling shopping and food sections. The retail area at Terminal 3 (T3) is nearly the size of three football fields and will be pitched through television and print advertisements as a shopping destination, rivalling the spread at the Dubai and Singapore airports. “We have to excite the consumers that T3 is an alternative choice for retail,” said Suredj Autar, chief of commercial and strategic development at Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd (DIAL). “You don’t have to fly to Dubai or go to Bangkok or Singapore.”  Inviting travelers: The under-constrcution Terminal 3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. Ramesh Pathania/Mint DIAL, which runs Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), has forged four retail joint ventures, including one with Dublin-based duty-free operator Aer Rianta International. Branded Explore, the retail space at T3 will stock some 20,000 kinds of products and nearly 1,000 brands. It will have stores by fashion and jewellery companies such as Versace Group, Marks and Spencer Group Plc, WH Smith Plc and Swarovski Group. DIAL also hopes to create an Explore India theme park on the lines of Butterflies Garden at Singapore’s Changi International Airport and Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport. The airport operator expects sales at T3 to be around Rs1,000 crore in the first year of operations, and to treble over the next three years. Like DIAL, the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports that opened in 2008, too, were pinning hopes on retail but sales haven’t been good, experts said. Airport retail consultant Rakesh Chopra said most of the flights at these two airports are from or headed to West Asia, which means many of the travellers are Indians working in those countries and would not be inclined to shop at the terminals. On the other hand, the profile of passengers travelling to and out of New Delhi, he said, is “upmarket”. DIAL’s Autar said the airport will be pitching its advertisements for the T3 retail space primarily to European, Australian, Chinese and West Asian passengers. New Delhi accounts for a quarter of the international travellers visiting India. “Delhi’s experience should be different (from the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports) as Delhi gets the international travellers who have the genuine spending capabilities,” said Chopra. A passenger currently spends less than $3 (Rs138) on average while shopping at Indian airports, according to retail industry estimates. The global average is $15. Although Indians are compulsive duty-free shoppers outside, they are shy of buying at terminals in India. “The idea is to make consumers spend more at T3,” said Autar. IGIA is being developed by a consortium led by GMR Infrastructure Ltd on a 30-year contract, with a deal to share 46% of the revenue with Airports Authority of India, the country’s airports regulator. rasul.b@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 10:10 am SPA Sec\'s expectations for fertiliser cos from Budget \'10In an interview with CNBCTV18, Tarun Surana, Research Analyst at SPA Securities, spoke about his outlook on the fertilizer sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am Toyota to boost brakes Toyoda sidesteps CongressToyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it would install a system to ensure braking trumped acceleration in all new car models as it seeks to limit the damage from its vast recall woes.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am Israeli company Rafael plans JV for missile systemsNew Delhi: Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd plans to start a joint venture in India with state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to develop advanced missile systems. Since the Kargil conflict in 1999, Israel has emerged as the second largest defence supplier to India, with annual sales estimated at $1 billion (Rs4,600 crore). The state-owned firm plans to use its India joint venture facility to source some locally made materials, mandatory for all overseas defence supplies and known as offsets. “This is will be our first joint venture. Part of the offsets that we have to provide in India will be in this joint venture,” said Lova Drori, executive vice-president, marketing, Rafael, on the sidelines of the sixth land and naval defence systems DefExpo 2010 show in the Capital.  Aiming high: Visitors at the DefExpo. Israel has emerged as India’s second largest defence supplier, with estimated annual sales of $1 billion. Gurinder Osan/AP A BEL executive said his firm is in discussions with Rafael regarding the joint venture. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak with the media. “Missiles developed here use command guidance. You can have a radar that can send signals for command guidance. At present that is what is done in Akash,” the official said. “Seekers have been tried in India for Nag missiles. But (more) mature technologies will be helpful as well.” The executive was referring to a seeker, which is a missile guidance device aboard an interceptor missile that searches for and homes in on a target. BEL will hold a 74% stake in the venture and Rafael will own the rest, Drori said, adding that the companies would soon seek government approval on this. He also said that the proposed facility will eventually be scaled up to develop new technologies in missile seekers depending on the projects it can secure from India. Once approved, the factory will be located near an existing campus of BEL, which has facilities in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. Drori said his firm is not looking at a 49% participation in the joint venture as it feels the Indian government may not allow that. “We do not want to do that. Its unachievable. The government will not approve. We will be happy with 26%,” he said. tarun.s@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:51 am Promoter Grp did not buy 10% stake in block deal: CamlinIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Dilip Dandekar, CMD, Camlin Limited, gave his perspective on the block deal and the company\'s business plans.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:45 am Mukesh Premji in team accompanying PM to SaudiHeads of private and PSU refiners, including Mukesh Ambani of RIL and Essar's Shashi Ruia, and IT poster boys Azim Premji and S Ramadorai figure in the business delegation accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his maiden visit to Saudi Arabia next week.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:42 am Lyondell creditor deal jeopardises Reliance bidReliance Industries may be forced to raise its offer for LyondellBasell or abandon its bid all together after the target settled a dispute with creditorsSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am Government tightens rules for bidders of highway projectsThe government has barred firms from bidding for new highway projects if they have over two projects awaiting financial closure.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am Spiritual elders of Wall Street favour more regulation for profit oriented bankersPut aside for a moment the populist pressure to regulate banking and trading. Ask the elder statesmen of these industries — giants like George Soros, Nicholas F Brady, John S Reed, William H Donaldson and John C Bogle — where they stand on regulation, and they will bowl you over with their populism.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:21 am Demand amid price surge India bought more gold in Q4While gold prices firmed up worldwide last year, Indians spent more on gold in the festive season of 2009. Domestic demand for the commodity rose 13 per cent year-on-year to 180.7 tonnes in October-December.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:16 am Pharmas seek aid for M amp A exportThe country’s pharmaceutical industry is looking to the budget later this month for incentives that could help industry consolidation to stop small firms from undercutting large ones, and also an export boost to help it bear the cost of developing new drugs or copycat generic versions of medicines going off-patent.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:14 am Low floor buses plea to end dutyTo give a fillip to public transport in the country, the Union Urban Development (UD) Ministry has sought a complete waiver on excise duty in procurement of modern low-floor buses in the coming budget. At present, excise duty on these buses is eight per cent.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:07 am Toyota considers recall of Corolla to idle 2 US unitsToyota’s safety crisis deepened on Wednesday as the embattled Japanese giant said it was considering a recall of its Corolla, the world’s best-selling car, because of possible steering problems.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:06 am Tyre units auto makers at oddsTyre makers are at loggerheads with automobile firms, with auto makers crying foul over the imposition of anti-dumping duty on Chinese radial tyres last month.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:04 am Lyondell creditor deal jeopardises Reliance bidThe settlement of a dispute between Dutch-based LyondellBassell with creditors paving way for the company to come out of bankruptcy may force Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to either raise its offer to acquire the petrochemical firm or abandon its bid all together.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 9:01 am Clutch Auto expects Rs 15cr revenue this yrIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Vijay Kishan Mehta, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Clutch Auto, spoke about his outlook for the company.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 8:51 am Cement prices in UP to be hiked by Rs 15/bag: SourcesCement prices in Uttar Pradesh are likely to be hiked by Rs 15 a bag from February 18, reports CNBCTV18, quoting sources. Also, at least till May 2010, cement companies are unlikely to see pressure on margins.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 7:29 am NHAI\'s revised norms takes infra cos by surprisePravin Sood, CFO of HCC and Amitabh Mundhra, Director of Simplex Infrastructure spoke about the road ahead for infra sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Feb 2010 | 7:21 am Asian airports world`s favourites, H`bad airport enters list!Asian airports, with Seoul`s Incheon top of the list for the fifth year in a row, have been voted by travellers the world`s top five for passenger service, the global airports body ACI said on Tuesday.Source: Zee News : Business | 17 Feb 2010 | 5:14 am Microsoft develops security system to respond to threats Hyderabad: Software giant Microsoft has developed an integrated a global security system that allows security workers to respond to threats. The company is willing to share its resources with security agencies in case of emergencies like violence in its campus, safety of its employees after a natural disaster or respond to overheating data centres. “The security system is co-ordinated from centres located in Redmond, Washington, England and Hyderabad. Each one of these centres is responsible for certain geographical area. Hyderabad is for Asia. We can access the gravity of the situation sitting at one the centres,” Srini Koppolu, vice-president and managing director of Microsoft India Development Centre said. “About 30 Microsoft employees, who were in Thailand on official duty in November 2008, were rescued when the anti-government protestors had taken over the airport at Bangkok,” Koppulu said. Thousands of travelers from around the world were stranded at the airport. The senior officials of the company reacted to the situation fast and swung in to action to make sure that the employees were safely shipped out of the country. The quick response from Microsoft, which was part of the integrated global security operations center was successfully, carried out the operation with the coordination among all three centres. “Even in situations like tsunami, we continuously monitor and analyse the conditions,” he added. The company was also willing to share the system with governmental agencies like police and security personnel. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 1:51 am Smartphones a growing problem for networksBarcelona: The chief executive of Vodafone Group Plc, the world’s largest mobile network operator, expressed the fears of many on Tuesday when he said Google Inc should not be allowed to dominate the mobile space. Vittorio Colao, speaking ahead of a keynote speech by Google’s chief executive, told the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona that, instead of letting one group dominate, new business models needed to be created to cope with the demand operators are facing for data services. The comments added to the impression at the annual gathering that, while handset makers, chipmakers and service providers are all flourishing from the rapid growth of smartphones such as Apple Inc’s iPhone, operators are being left to fund the related improvements needed in network capabilities, while pondering how to make a profit. Later, Google responded to say the mobile industry needed to rise to the challenge and work with the Internet giant to meet the insatiable consumer demand. In his first speech at the fair, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt told a packed auditorium he relied upon the successful delivery of services from operators and said the two sides needed to work together. “Find a way to say yes, not no is our thesis,” he later told journalists. “We need them to go ahead and invest these enormous amounts of money at great risk and in return they need us to continue to build powerful new reasons to upgrade the connections and get a new phone.” BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd said it was well aware of the data problem, saying smartphone manufacturers must develop less bandwidth-guzzling products or risk choking already congested airwaves. As users abandon traditional cellphones for netbooks, wireless modems and feature-rich smartphones, wireless data traffic has exploded and is threatening to saturate network capacity, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis told Reuters in Vancouver before setting off for the trade fair in Barcelona. “If we don’t start conserving that bandwidth, in the next few years we are going to run into a capacity crunch,” Lazaridis said. “You are already experiencing the capacity crunch in the United States.” Turning point Colao said the industry was at a key point in its development, as it adapts to the new economic realities of the smartphone and the ever-increasing amounts of data that consumers wish to consume. In order to succeed the industry needs to allow operators, content owners, application developers, search and operating system owners to develop new business models, to enable the operators to continue to invest in new and faster networks. Within the search and advertising market, Colao said one player, Google, dominated the industry and held around 70 to 80 percent of the market, which should be “looked at.” Spain’s Telefonica SA said last week it was considering charging search engines and a source at the Spanish company told Reuters they had previously discussed the proposal with other European operators. But Verizon Wireless — the biggest operator in the United States and which is owned by Vodafone and Verizon Communications Inc — said they were taking a more considered view. “I recognize like everybody else there is the scary aspect of Google which is similar to the scary aspect of Microsoft 10 years ago,” Verizon Wireless chief marketing Officer John Stratton said. “Who knows where this Google thing is going to go. I do think there is a bit of a knee jerk response to anything that Google does.” Vodafone’s call for a different approach stands in contrast to the makers of operating systems and those involved in the production of the handsets. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Sony Ericsson unveiled new high-end smartphone models on Sunday aimed at improving their positions in the more lucrative part of the phone market. Texas Instruments Inc said at the fair on Tuesday it was enjoying strong demand for its wireless chips due to the continuing rise of smartphones. “That’s what’s driving the industry,” Greg Delagi, the head of TI’s mobile operations said. “It’s the place where there’s opportunities for differentiation.” And he also gave an indication things may only get tougher for the operators, explaining that TI was working on new capabilities such as filming and sharing three-dimensional video on smartphones which are even more data intensive. Cisco expects data traffic to more than double each year over the next five years, with video making two thirds of mobile data. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:36 am Toyota sales outlook eyed as output cutbacks plannedTokyo: Toyota Motor Corp said it would scale back production in the crucial US market further, as investors sought guidance from management on how long the sales fallout from an escalating recall crisis would last. Barely a week after resuming production of eight recalled models at six North American plants, Toyota said on Tuesday it would shut production down at two US factories for a total of at least 11 days to match slowing sales. Not long ago the envy of the auto industry, Toyota has recalled more than 8.5 million cars worldwide over problems with braking and unintended acceleration in a devastating blow to its reputation built on quality, safety and reliability. US safety regulators say fatalities alleged by consumers from Toyota’s unintended acceleration problems have risen to 34, dating back to 2000. The latest production cutbacks throw further doubt on the pace of Toyota’s earnings recovery after the company had only two weeks ago estimated the recalls to hit global sales by 100,000 units in the financial year to the end of March. Analysts said they would be looking for any guidance on Toyota’s outlook for sales as President Akio Toyoda prepares to brief the media on Wednesday on the progress of the recall of Prius and other hybrid models for braking problems. “There’s no question that sales are suffering (in the US),” said Mamoru Kato, analyst at Tokai-Tokyo Securities. “They’ve estimated a 100,000-unit impact for this financial year. If this multiplies to several hundred thousands next (financial) year, that could lead to a year-on-year fall in sales, and a big hit to earnings,” he said. The production stoppages are planned on select days between late February and April at its Kentucky and Texas plants. US Investigation Opens US regulators added to Toyota’s woes on Tuesday by opening an investigation into whether it had acted in a timely fashion to recall cars for acceleration problems. Toyoda, the grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda, faces one of Toyota’s deepest crises just seven months into his job as the massive recalls dent confidence in the automaker. Toyota is already suffering from declining sales in the US, its biggest and usually most profitable market, after it suspended sales of about half its inventory of vehicles including the popular Camry and Corolla sedans due to potentially sticky accelerator pedals. In January, its US sales dropped 16% to the lowest level in more than a decade, and another sharp decline is expected for February since Toyota dealers expect that repairs to inventory will take most of the month to complete. Some said they saw limited direct damage from the US production cuts announced on Tuesday, and that the bigger concern was to Toyota’s image as US regulators address the possibility of any wrongdoing by the automaker. “Reduction of estimated output of a little over 10,000 vehicles would have only a limited impact, while the move shows Toyota’s careful efforts to minimise the impact of a drop in sales and a rise in incentives,” said Nomura Securities analyst Shotaro Noguchi. Like most automakers, Toyota books revenue when it produces vehicles and ships them to dealers. By cutting output, it is choosing to take a sales hit to keep inventories of unsold vehicles from rising. “I can at least say that the news conference today by Toyoda following his first public explanation on recalls last week shows that Toyota has finally begun trying to address the concerns of its stakeholders,” Noguchi added. Toyota had suspended production of the Sai and Lexus HS250h hybrid models, which carry the same software glitch that delays braking on the Prius, but is set to resume output on 22 February, unit Toyota Motor Kyushu said. Lost production, from 13 February to 22 February, would amount to 2,500 units. Fines, Lawsuits The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could lay the groundwork for officials to fine Toyota if they determine the manufacturer violated its legal obligations. It also sets the stage for a congressional review of Toyota’s safety crisis set for next week, at which President Toyoda may be called to testify. Shares of Toyota ended flat at ¥3,380 in Tokyo on Wednesday, while rivals Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co gained more than 3% as the dollar recovered to above ¥90. Toyota shares have fallen a fifth from a recent peak on 21 January, wiping out more than $25 billion in market capitalisation. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 17 Feb 2010 | 12:34 am
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