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Tata, Chevron bid for Indonesian geothermal projectTata Power Co Ltd and Chevron Corp\'s Indonesian unit are among several firms which have submitted bids for a geothermal power project in Indonesia.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 7:56 am Alok Industries to launch $100 million share saleTextiles maker Alok Industries Ltd is planning to launch a USD 100 million share sale to institutions by the monthend.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 7:56 am India may export wheat as stocks bulgeIndia, the world\'s second biggest grains producer, could export 23 million tonnes of wheat this year.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 7:56 am Parsvnath to sell Mumbai land for Rs 307cr: SourcesParsvnath Developers are in talks to sell its Mumbai land for Rs 180 crore, reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources. It is said the management of the realty company is in advanced stage of talks with an unlisted company to sell off the 30,820 square metre land in Kurla.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 7:52 am No discrepancy found in special audit report: Idea CellularThe special audit report for mobile services operator Idea Cellular, commissioned by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was submitted by auditors to the department on Tuesday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 7:11 am Getting cheaper loan from PSBs vs REC: Neyveli LigniteNeyveli Lignite\'s Director of Finance K Sekar said they were getting cheaper loan from public sector baks versus REC. \"Banka of Baroda and Bank of India consortium is offering loan at 9.75% interest, which will save us Rs 7580 crore in interest costs.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 6:46 am Cement prices may rise 23% in a yr: Jaiprakash AssociatesJaiprakash Associates has commissioned 21 MT extra capacity and expects to clock in a growth of 42% in FY10. Executive chairman of Jaiprakash Associates Manoj Gaur said he expects to see a growth of 37% in FY11. Gaur said in all liklihood, cement prices will go up by 23% in a year\'s timeSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 6:16 am Large deals making a comeback, Q4 looks strong: TCSThe good times seem to be creeping back for India\'s IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). CFO S Mahalingam said in an interview to CNBCTV18 that Q4 was likely to be significantly stronger than the last quarter.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am Qualcomm to bid for broadband wireless licenseQualcomm is likely to bid for the broadband wireless license in India, sources told CNBCTV18. This move represents a big step for the BWA (broadband wireless access) auction in India.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 5:46 am Driedup project finance returning, driven by AsiaProject financing is recovering from the fallaway seen in early 2009, buoyed by growth in Asia, but developers have to look at a mix of funding options for their schemes, industry experts say.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 5:25 am GLOBAL MARKETS - Fed lifts equities with outlook on rates, growthLONDON (Reuters) - World stocks climbed on Wednesday in response to a relatively optimistic outlook from the U.S. Federal Reserve combined with a pledge to keep interest rates low.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:37 am Religare Tech buys healthcare biz of Sobha RenaissanceMUMBAI (Reuters) - Healthcare and IT solutions provider Religare Technologies Ltd has acquired the healthcare business of Sobha Renaissance Information Technology Private Ltd.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:34 am Sensex up 100 pts Maruti HUL BPCL underperform - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:34 am Hiring in Indian firms up 17% in FebruaryNew Delhi: India Inc’s hiring activity was up 17% in February with telecom and auto sectors leading the rebound, a report by leading job portal Naukri.com said. The naukri.com’s monthly Job Speak survey reflected renewed optimism among recruiters, with the new job index moving up to 947 in February compared to 808 in January. This time the portal has introduced its new and expanded job index, which takes into account not only the jobs posted online by its clients but also those made by them with the help of the website’s tele-calling team. A year-on-year comparison of the job index shows a 14% growth in February this year compared to the same month last year. “Recruitment activity accelerated in February, reflecting underlying strength and positive momentum in the job market. The ‘cautious optimism’ that pervaded throughout the last year and a half has evaporated as most industry sectors are now looking to hire,” Info Edge COO Hitesh Oberoi said. Hiring activity for the top 10 industry sectors saw positive growth last month with telecom registering a 27% growth in the reviewed month compared to same month last year. The recruitment in IT-software and auto sectors moved up by 24% and banking and insurance rose 14% in February, it said. The IT sector has been witnessing a rapid growth in hiring and this trend is also reflected in the demand for IT software professionals, where the functional area job index moved up 24% in February. Professionals in sales and accounts also witnessed an increase in hiring by 18-19% in February over January, the Naukri.com report said. Overall, the index seems to be moving in a robust manner with hiring moving up across all industry verticals, functional areas and cities. Among cities, Hyderabad emerged most bullish on hiring, with the city-wise job index moving up 25% in the last month. Chennai witnessed a growth of 21%, Delhi 12% and Bangalore 11% in February. While, hiring activity for Kolkata picked up 21% last month, after two successive months of dip in the index. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:23 am India Inc's hiring activity up 17% in FebIndia Inc's hiring activity was up 17% in February with telecom and auto sectors leading the rebound, a report by job portal Naukri.com said.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:16 am Reliance Comm, Polycom in video conferencing pactMUMBAI (Reuters) - Reliance Communications, India's No. 2 mobile services provider, has formed a partnership with Polycom Inc to launch video conferencing services in India.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:15 am BMW sees significant rise in 2010 pretax profitMUNICH (Reuters) - BMW, the world's biggest premium carmaker by sales, expects a significant rise in pretax profit this year helped by demand for new models like its 5 Series sedan and better results in all three businesses.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:14 am RBI should carefully normalise policy: AhluwaliaNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India should consider carefully returning to normal monetary policy, with growth firmly on track and inflation rising beyond its comfort zone, top policy adviser said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:10 am CBSE set to become international board from next session New Delhi: After deciding to make class X board exam optional, India’s premier school board Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is set to go global by introducing a new syllabus for international students and would affiliate any school from any country from the next academic session. The CBSE would introduce a new syllabus to make it on par with international boards like International Baccalaureate (IB). The new syllabus will be only meant for international students and will be taught in the interested affiliated schools from abroad. “From next session, the CBSE will introduce a separate curriculum for international students. This will help the board to become an international board like IB,” a HRD ministry official said. However, CBSE will continue its existing curriculum for domestic students. The new curriculum will be of international standards and give a global perspective to the subjects of study. Citing an example, the official said: “While the subject of history in the existing syllabus mainly deals with Indian history, the new syllabus will focus on world history. Similarly, the syllabus of all subjects would be made keeping in view the curriculum of international boards.” The CBSE would introduce the new syllabus in Class I and Class IX in the next session. Then every year, the new syllabus would be introduced in a new class. “Over a few years, CBSE will have international standard syllabus for all classes,” he said. The board at present has affiliated schools in a number of Gulf countries and Singapore. However, such schools are mainly started by the Indian diaspora there. The new curriculum will help even other schools in any country to opt for the CBSE system and get affiliated to it. “CBSE, in the process, will be an alternative to any international school boards,” the official said adding: “This will help the students of those schools better compete at international level. It will be easier for them to study any where in the world.” “The new curriculum will give more importance to activity-based teaching. More project works and practical experiences will be the thrust,” the official said. CBSE has set up a committee which is working on the new syllabus. The syllabus will be ready within a month. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:10 am Alok Industries to launch $100 mn share sale by March endMumbai: Textiles maker Alok Industries Ltd is planning to launch a $100-million share sale to institutions by the month-end, a senior official said on Wednesday. “We are contemplating (the share sale) before the end of March, its about $100 million,” Alok’s chief financial officer Sunil Khandelwal told Reuters. “The pricing is yet to be finalised,” Khandelwal said. Alok Industries will use the proceeds for capital expenditure and working capital requirements, he said. The firm is planning a Rs600 crore capex over the next two fiscals to streamline operations and augment capacity in the wake of rising demand for textile products, he said. Textile makers are on a recovery track after battling a slowdown in consumer spending for much of 2008-09, partly due to a demand rebound in the developed economies of the US and Europe. Alok’s net sales for the December quarter increased by a third to Rs1,082 crore year on year reflecting the rise in demand. Alok Industries has also announced a plan to sell its real estate portfolios and get a net inflow of Rs700 crore over two years to cut down its debt. State Bank of India, Axis Bank and IDBI Bank are among arrangers for the issue. At 2:18 pm, shares of Alok Industries were down 0.21% at Rs23.55 in a firm Mumbai market. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:10 am Dow Jones in pact with Airtel for news distribution Mumbai: Media conglomerate, Dow Jones on Wednesday entered into a pact with leading telecom services provider, Bharti Airtel to make financial news available to the latter’s clients. “Under the the pact, the media firm will provide financial news from The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones News wires to Airtel customers,” DJ India’s managing director Mitya New said. “Our partnership with Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile phone operator, significantly enhances our ability to reach mobile users across India,” New said. The product, named as The Wall Street Journal India Mobile application, is free of charge for customers. However, those who choose to access premium financial market news and data there will be a monthly charge of Rs99. Both companies declined to divulge the revenue sharing pattern or the period of contract. As at end-January, Bharti Airtel has a customer-base of 121.7-million mobile customers in India. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:01 am Consider Persistent IPO for long term: RR Financial - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:00 am Gold demand retreats; prices up on festival buyingMumbai: India gold demand retreated on Wednesday afternoon as prices touched a one-week high on the back of festival-related buying, traders said. This was a reversal of the buying by stockists seen in the previous two sessions as they prepared for the upcoming wedding season, they added. “Today it (gold buying) is dull as gold prices have gone up with the euro,” said Pinakin Vyas, assistant vice-president treasury with IndusInd Bank. Overseas gold also extended gains as a US Federal Reserve decision to hold interest rates unchanged hit the US dollar and burnished the metal’s investment appeal. International gold was trading at $1,130.75/1,131.75, up from its previous close of $1,124.70/1,126.70 an ounce. “Any corrections to sub $1,100 an ounce level would be bought as weddings are around the corner,” said another dealer with a state-run bank. “While sales jumped noticeably on Monday, and our current five-day moving average of sales is more than 30 percent greater than the year-to-date average,” said UBS, one of the gold suppliers to India, in a note. India celebrated Gudi Padwa and Ugadi in Maharastra and Karnataka on Tuesday, both of which are auspicious days to buy gold, while the next wedding season will start from April. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:58 am StanChart mulls $1 bn IDR issue by JuneNew Delhi: Global banking giant Standard Chartered Bank on Wednesday said it is planning to raise up to $1 billion (over Rs4,500 crore) by June through Indian depository receipts (IDR). “We remain keen to pursue our intent to have an IDR offering ... we are looking at quarter two (April-June 2010) and we are looking at $500 million to $1 billion,” Standard Chartered Bank (South Asia) chief executive Neeraj Swaroop said on the sidelines of an event on microfinance. The offering is subject to the market conditions and the bank will have to take the final decision on it, he said. The IDR would be issued by parent entity Standard Chartered PLC. Like American or Global Depository Receipts (ADRs), where Indian companies raise resources overseas, IDRs enable foreign companies to do the same from India. ADRs or IDRs are derivative instruments that derive their value from the shares deposited with custodians. The foreign companies deposit shares with a custodian, who in turn issues depository receipts based on these shares. The receipts are based on ratio of shares equivalent to depository receipt. The government notified the IDR rules in 2004. The market regulator Sebi norms too are in place for number of years now. Sebi guidelines permit only those companies listed in their home market for at least three years and have been profitable for three of the preceding five years for IDR issues. Standard Chartered Bank plans to file the draft red herring prospectus with Sebi towards the end of March, Swaroop had earlier said. The bank has appointed a host of investment bankers including Goldman Sachs, UBS, JM, Kotak Mahindra, SBI Capital and DSP Merril Lynch, to advise it on the proposed IDR issue. In November last year, StanChart Global CEO, Peter Sands said that the proposed IDR issue would enhance the lenders commitment to the local market. StanChart has over 94 branches in 37 cities in the country and a combined customer base of around 20 lakh retail customers among others. The bank has operations in an array of verticals, including consumer and wholesale banking, private banking and SME banking. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:58 am Dubai allows Hindujas to offer full range of banking servicesThe Dubai Financial Services Authority has upgraded the Hinduja Bank's licence, a move that will allow it to provide a whole range of financial services to clients in Europe, Middle East and South Asia.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:48 am Injury elbows Dhoni out of IPL for 10 daysKolkata: Chennai Super Kings’ Indian Premier League campaign received a huge blow on Wednesday with its in-form skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni being ruled out of action for the next 10 days because of an elbow injury. “Dhoni has been diagnosed with an elbow injury and has been advised 10 days rest,” team manager Russell Radhakrishnan said. Dhoni underwent an x-ray test after being hit by a rising Shane Bond delivery in Tuesday’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. He, however, continued to play and led from the front with a 33-ball 66 not out to lay the platform for his team’s comprehensive 55-run win over the hosts. Later while keeping the wickets, Dhoni took a diving catch only to aggravate the bruise and had an x-ray in the evening. “Dhoni will be out of action for the next 10 days and the exact nature of his injury is being examined by the doctors at a private hospitals here,” said a member of the team management. He said Dhoni will be travelling with the team to Delhi, where the Chennai side will take on Delhi Daredevils at Ferozeshah Kotla on Friday. Apart from the match against the Daredevils, the injury also rules Dhoni out of Chennai Super Kings’ matches against Kings XI Punjab (21 March), Royal Challengers Bangalore (23 March) and Mumbai Indians (25 March). Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:48 am IMF chief says more unity needed to overcome crisisBRUSSELS (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday he was worried countries were not working together closely enough to overcome the global economic crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:45 am Porsche SE's net debt drops ahead of 2011 cap hikeMUNICH (Reuters) - Porsche SE's debt pile shrank, but not far enough to ensure that next year's 5 billion euro ($6.8 billion) capital increase would leave the troubled holding free of debt and ready to merge with Volkswagen .Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:44 am Mayawati accepts second cash garland Lucknow: In a show of defiance ignoring all criticism, BSP chief and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday got herself garlanded with currency notes said to be of the value of Rs18 lakh. The garland comprising notes of various denominations was put around her neck at a meeting of party leaders despite an opposition outcry over her being presented a similar garland of value estimated between Rs21 lakh and Rs15 crore at a massive rally here on Monday. “Wherever she goes, she will henceforth be greeted with garland of notes and not with garland of flowers,” state PWD minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui said after the meeting. The Bahujan Samaj Party supremo has came under sharp attack inside and outside Parliament after she got the multi crore currency garland comprising notes of Rs1000. The IT department has decided to investigate the source of the money for the garland presented to her at the maha-rally. The Congress, BJP and Samajwadi Party have also demanded a CBI probe. Siddiqui had yesterday rejected speculation that the value of notes in the garland ran into crores of rupees, saying that the money totalled only Rs21 lakh. “We today presented another garland of Rs18 lakh to the party supremo collected by party units in all 18 divisions in the state,” Siddiqui, who is also the BSP national general secretary, said. “In future, where ever her programmes are held, we will welcome her with currency notes, but the final decision rest on the party supremo,” he said. Siddiqui alleged that the opposition parties attempted to foil the party’s Lucknow rally organised on the occasion of party’s silver jubilee and also its founder Kanshiram’s birth anniversary. “When they were left with no other issue, they then unnecessarily raked up the garland issue,” he alleged. “The Opposition’s cheap attempt has resulted in resentment among party workers,” he said. Siddiqui said that to give a reply to the opposition parties, party workers from all divisions in the state decided to present another garland to Mayawati. Siddiqui said the workers had expressed their wish to collect money and give it to the BSP supremo in form of a garland as a contribution towards the party funds. He claimed that the party had reached the position it was in only through small contributions made by party workers. “Since the inception of the party, we have been organising programmes of Kanshiram and Mayawati where financial contributions were made either according to their age or their weight,” he claimed. Siddiqui said that BSP was not like other opponents, who secretly collect funds from capitalists and industrialists to run the party and contest elections. “Contribution made by the BSP workers has not gone well with the opposition parties, because they know that if a person gives money, he will also be giving his vote to the party,” he said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:37 am Global FX reserve system needs reforms: ADB chiefThe current dollar-denominated global reserve system needs to be reformed to better fit economic reality and ensure global financial stability, the head of Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:34 am AI Express to fly on Abu Dhabi-Amritsar route thrice a weekIndia's national carrier Air India has said its subsidiary Air India Express will ply three flights a week between Abu Dhabi and Amritsar.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:31 am Unique ID number will help bring in transparency: Nilekani New Delhi: The Unique Identification Number will bring in mobility, choice, transparency and accountability at the doorsteps of the common man, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani has said. The Infosys co-founder, who now heads the government’s ambitious Unique Identification Authority of India, said that the UID is a scheme for the marginalised people of the country. He said that the slogan of ‘bijli, sadak, pani´ which talks about the need for development would now be taken over by a new catch phrase seeking bank account, mobile numbers and Unique Identification Number. “The 16-digit unique number, which is likely to be rolled out by next year, would be a fundamental part of the next decade,” he said. Nilekani, who was speaking at a summit here organised by the Skoch foundation, said that the talks are already on with various government departments and all state governments for bringing them on board on the project which aims to give a unique number to all residents of the country. Talking about public partnership in the project, he said that it was very crucial and the public can volunteer for the project and can even work with it on a sabbatical. “We are in talks with everyone including major industries like mobile companies, banks and everyone interested,” he said. Nilekani said from the slogan of ‘roti, kapada, makaan’ (food, clothing, shelter) in the 1960s and 1970s, India grew to the slogan of ‘bijli, sadak, pani’ (electricity, roads, water) in the last 8-10 years. “I think, in the next ten years, it would be bank account, mobile number and UID. All these are abstract ideas but they are tools for empowerment, access and opportunity,” he said. He said that the UID number would give hundreds of millions of Indians, who have no means to prove their identity in the absence of birth certificates and education certificates, an opportunity to access services and benefits that they are entitled to. Nilekani also said that the UID number would enable the Government to target its rural employment, food and education programmes to their beneficiaries by identifying them in a robust way and remove duplication. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:19 am Qualcomm to bid for broadband wireless license - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:02 am Register new home before April 1 in Ahmedabad, save taxService tax will be levied on new residential properties from the next financial year.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:57 am Ban on nitroglycerine won’t impact revenues adversely: Glenmark New Delhi: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday said that the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) order asking it to stop selling unapproved nitroglycerine tablets, used to relieve chest pain, will not have a significant bearing on earnings in the next fiscal. We believe that the sales from nitroglycerin tablets will not have a significant bearing on our FY 2010-11 financial numbers, the company said in a statement without disclosing the revenues from the tablets. The company said that it is evaluating the situation and will take appropriate measures. USFDA on Tuesday issued warning letters to Glenmark Generics (the US subsidiary of Glenmark) and Konec Inc to stop marketing unapproved nitroglycerin tablets, stating they have not been proven safe and effective. The tablets are placed under the tongue to relieve chest pain or to stop a heart attack and are marketed in 0.3 mg, 0.4 mg, and 0.6 mg dosages, the agency said. Glenmark shares were trading at Rs240.15, up 2.08% from previous close at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) during mid-day trade. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:57 am India may export wheat as stocks bulgeNew Delhi: India, the world’s second biggest grains producer, could export 2-3 million tonnes of wheat this year, a top government planning official said on Wednesday, cautioning that domestic inflation would be a key consideration. India’s grain holdings are double from year ago with wheat stocks at 18.4 million tonnes, sharply higher than a target of 8.2 million tonnes, while rice stocks were at 26.9 million tonnes compared with a target 11.8 million tones. Traders say India could subsidise wheat exports to shed the massive stocks of wheat and rice and reduce storage costs — a strategy adopted six years ago when India last exported significant quantities. But Abhijit Sen, a member of the Planning Commission, said this would be foolhardy. “It would be silly to export wheat with subsidy,” Sen, who holds the rank of a minister and is involved in formulating farm policies, said at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit. “Domestically people are complaining about high prices. You can be absolutely sure there will be huge protests if the government allows subsidised exports,” he said. Indian wheat is not competitive on the international market as local prices have risen on high government payments while Chicago wheat prices are down nearly a third from last year’s peak. Sen said the government should wait until this year’s harvest was completed in May and see how much grain is purchased by official agencies before taking a decision on exports. “I don’t see more than 2-3 million tonnes of exports, even if it is allowed ... Whether to allow export or not has to be a political call,” he said. A cabinet panel, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, is expected to discuss the issue of lifting of grain export ban on Thursday. Stocks not on the agenda Sen said trimming grain stocks was not on top of India’s agenda. “Stocks are not so unmanageable. Reducing stocks should not be the No. 1 priority for India.” Domestic stocks are also be needed for the government’s welfare programmes such as the planned food security law, which will provide wheat and rice to the poor at very low prices, he said. India stopped exports of wheat in early 2007 and common rice in 2008 to ensure supplies and keep prices under control. India’s headline price inflation rose to 9.89% in February, the highest since October 2008, mainly because of rising food prices, which climbed nearly 18% from a year earlier. Rising food prices have triggered widespread protests and stalled Parliament, mounting pressure on the government and the Reserve Bank of India to act against inflation. India has produced more wheat than it consumes for the past three years and expects a record output 82 million from the harvest that begins in March. But rice output has suffered because monsoon rains in 2009 were the worst in 37 years. India’s government however recently approved the sale of small quantities of wheat and rice from government stocks to neighbouring countries. “There is talk of possible wheat exports, even on private accounts,” Sen said, adding that the ban on rice exports would likely continue. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:52 am Tata, Chevron bid for Indonesian geothermal project Jakarta: “Tata Power Co Ltd and Chevron Corp’s Indonesian unit are among several firms which have submitted bids for a geothermal power project in Indonesia,” a ministry official said on Wednesday. Indonesia’s PT Medco Energi Internasional is part of a consortium with Ormat Technologies, and several other local firms made separate bids for the project. Tata, India’s largest private-sector utility, is part of a consortium with Indonesian firm PT Supraco Energy. The bids are to build a geothermal power plant in Sorik Merapi, North Sumatra, with initial capacity of 55 megawatts (MW) gradually increasing to 200 MW. “This is a preliminary bid, the government will look carefully at the capabilities of the firms before deciding on the winner,” said the official at the energy and mines ministry, who declined to be quoted by name. Indonesia has launched the first phase of the programme to add 10,000 MW of generating capacity from 35 new coal-fired power plants, which are mostly still under construction. The government is still finalising the second phase of the crash programme to add another 10,000 MW using coal, geothermal and renewable energy resources. Indonesia, with hundreds of active and extinct volcanoes, has the potential to produce an estimated 27,000 MW of electricity from geothermal sources. However, that potential remains largely untapped because the high cost of geothermal energy makes the price of electricity generated this way expensive. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:48 am L&T bags Rs 1000 crore project from ONGC - NDTV.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:45 am Qualcomm to bid for India broadband airwavesNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc said on Wednesday it had applied to bid for radio waves in India's Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) auction to help launch next-generation technologies.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:33 am Asia shares at 2-month high, yen sags on BOJSingapore: Technology stocks pushed Asian shares to a two-month high on Wednesday, powered by hopes of strong earnings for Intel, while the yen faltered after the Bank of Japan loosened policy in a bid to spur the flagging economy. The yen reversed direction and fell against the dollar and euro after the BOJ doubled the amount of low-cost money it was making available to banks to encourage them to write more loans. European equities were also set to rise, tracking gains in Asia and in the United States. Financial spreadbetters expected Britain’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 to open as much as 0.4% higher. The MSCI index of Asian shares excluding Japan jumped 1.9% to its highest in two months, tracking US shares which hit a 17-month high. Wall Street indexes jumped after the US Federal Reserve on Tuesday maintained its pledge to keep interest rates near zero for an extended period and pointed to increased momentum in the recovery of the world’s largest economy. Gains in the US and Asia were also fueled by expectations that Intel Corp would beat current-quarter earnings estimates, thanks in part to robust Asian sales and a rebound in corporate spending on tech products. Tech stocks in Asia have lagged other sectors so far this year and are seen playing catch-up as global demand recovers. Shares in South Korea rallied 2.1%, with Hynix Semiconductor up 2.3%. Taiwan stocks rose nearly 2% as investors snapped up tech exporters such as AU Optronics, which are riding on growing demand for new computers, flat-screen TVs and other consumer gadgets. AU jumped 3.6%. Intel’s lone China factory and two of China’s top chipmakers are already running at or near full capacity, senior executives told Reuters on Tuesday. “Big tech shares are pushing the market higher because prices of DRAMs and (flat) panels are rising and we also see foreign investors coming back,” said Tom Tang, a vice president at Masterlink Investment Advisory. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index climbed 1.2% to an eight-week high as chip shares rose, with Elpida Memory also rising on a media report of upbeat earnings. Global stocks were already on a firm note before the Fed’s widely expected announcement, buoyed by Standard & Poor’s move to affirm Greece’s BBB-plus credit rating. S&P’s decision to end its review for a ratings downgrade removed a potential blow to Greece’s efforts to raise capital in international markets to plug a gaping fiscal shortfall. However, the credit rating agency did say Athens was still at risk of a rating cut in the next 18-24 months if if failed to implement a deficit cutting plan. The yen gave up early gains and fell to 90.60 to the dollar after the Bank of Japan loosened policy, bucking the general trend in Asia where central banks are tightening or close to tightening policy to curb inflationary pressures. The BOJ’s decision to double to ¥20 trillion ($221 billion) the funds available to banks for three-month loans was in line with expectations and marked only a modest relaxation in policy that would have limited impact on the economy or markets, analysts said. As expected, the BOJ also left its policy rate unchanged at 0.1 percent. Although the world’s second-biggest economy emerged from recession in the second quarter of 2009, it is suffering from persistent deflation that some lawmakers fears could tip the economy back into a downturn. The dollar hovered near one-month lows against a basket of currencies as ultra-low US interest rates diminished its yield appeal of the dollar against higher-yielding currencies. Many economists do not see a US rate rise until late in the year. Meanwhile, the yuan hit a one-month low against the dollar in three-month offshore non-deliverable forwards on easing market expectations of yuan appreciation as China stood firm in the face of hightened US pressures for a yuan rise. China said on Wednesday it “could not be any clearer” in its repeated commitment to a stable exchange rate after the US Congress threatened to levy duties on some Chinese exports if it fails to revalue its currency. Gold rose a fifth of a percent to $1,126.50 per ounce, extending its gains of more than 1 percent the previous day as a US Federal Reserve decision to hold interest rates unchanged burnished the metal’s investment appeal. US crude futures gained 59 cents to $82.29 a barrel after rising $1.90 the previous day, supported by weakness in the dollar and expectations that producer group OPEC will keep oil output cuts in place. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:20 am Rupee at 2-month high on share gains; weak dlrMUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee strengthened past 45.3450 per dollar on Wednesday to its highest level in more than two months, tracking weakness in the dollar versus major units and gains in the local sharemarket.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:13 am Qualcomm to bid for broadband airwavesNew Delhi: Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday said that it had applied to bid for radio waves in India’s broadband wireless access (BWA) auction to help launch next-generation technologies. India, the world’s fastest-growing mobile services market, plans to conduct auctions of 3G and BWA spectrum in April that is expected to fetch the government a combined $7.7 billion. While 3G systems allow high-speed internet access and data transfer on mobile phones, BWA technologies enable high-speed data communication over wireless links and provide better coverage than fixed-line broadband systems. The 3G spectrum auction starts from 9 April and two days after it closes, the BWA auction will kick off, the government has said. Global players such as Vodafone and Telenor are also expected to participate in the 3G auction, while nedia reports have said Google could be interested in the BWA auction. The last day for applications for both is on Friday. New Delhi has set a base price of $385 million for the BWA spectrum in all of India, but bids are expected to come at higher levels. Qualcomm has a history of participating in spectrum auctions to expedite the commercialization of new wireless technologies, the company said in a statement. “By participating in India’s BWA spectrum auction, Qualcomm can foster the accelerated deployment of TD-LTE,” it said, referring to the fourth-generation (4G) long-term evolution technology. India restricts foreign direct investment at 74 percent in telecoms service providers, and Qualcomm said it would have Indian partners if successful in winning spectrum. The company will hold a news conference at 3.00 pm to answer questions related to the announcement, it said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:03 am Cost push forces JSW Steel to hike prices - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:35 am Honda recalls more than 400,000 cars in USHonda is recalling 412,000 vehicles in the US over a problem with brake pedals, the Japanese carmaker announced on Tuesday. Honda said it would recall 344,000 Odyssey and 68,000 Element models after receiving complaints from customers that their brake pedals felt "soft before the car stopped.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:21 am Snag in ore supply forces sponge iron units to cut outputNearly 100 sponge iron manufacturing units spread across Raipur, Bilaspur, Raigarh and Champa in Chhattisgarh face uncertainty due to non-availability of ironSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Shorter NFO window to force MFs redraw strategiesMutual fund companies would need to rework their marketing strategies and speed up distribution mechanism to factor in the reduced New Fund Offer (NFO) period of 15 days, industry experts haveSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Commodities continue to attract investor interestInvestors view sovereign default as the greatest risk to global economic recovery while their main concern when investing in commodities is deterioration in commoditySource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am SBI pips ONGC to become top advance taxpayerThe advance tax payout of the top 10 advance taxpayers' league recorded 9 per cent increase in 2009-10 to Rs 32,946 crore (Rs 30,138Source: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Genpact unveils secondary offering in the USBPO major Genpact has announced its secondary public offering of 28 million shares in the US market, in a move that would see certain large investors (affiliates of General Electric Company, General Atlantic, Oak Hill Capital Partners and WellsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Nissan-Leyland car to target the mass marketThe car that could come out of a joint venture between Nissan and Ashok Leyland would be positioned to address the mass market — below the ‘Micra', but above the ultra low-cost car that Renault (Nissan's partner) is expected toSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Indian varsities demand level-playing fieldIndian universities want a level playing field if foreign universities are permitted to open campuses inSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Kale Consultants (Rs 94.4): BuyTraders with short-term trading perspective can consider buying the stock of Kale Consultants. The stock found long-term significant support at Rs 20 in late 2009 and has reversed direction shaping an inverse head and shoulders pattern, a bottomSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Strong support at 45 for USD-INR futureThe rupee's rally against the dollar was checked at 45.3 and the Indian currency traded in a very narrow range over the past four sessions. Similar indecisive movement in the equity market hindered the up-move though foreign institutionalSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideThe stock gained in line with our expectations in the last trading session. We re-affirm our buySource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Sensex surges 118 points in opening trade on global cuesThe Sensex shot up by over 118 points, 0.68%, to cross 17,500 points for the first time since January 20 in opening trade today on a flurry of buying by funds driven by rallies in global markets.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 11:55 pm US Senate bill would penalize China over yuanMembers of the US Congress on Tuesday threatened Beijing with duties on some of its exports if it fails to revalue its currency.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 11:32 pm Sensex surges 118 points in opening trade on global cuesThe Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex shot up by over 118 points, 0.68 per cent, to cross 17,500 points for the first time since January 20 in opening trade today on a flurry of buying by funds driven by rallies in global markets.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 11:18 pm Intel, global chip shares jump on talk of strong Q1San Francisco: Shares of Intel Corp jumped 4% to their highest in more than a year on expectations that robust Asian sales and a rebound in corporate spending will help the chipmaker beat current-quarter earnings estimates. The rally propelled gains in other semiconductor stocks, with Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp both rising more than 3%, while technology shares in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea followed the gains in Wednesday trading. In January, Intel forecast first-quarter revenue and margins above Wall Street expectations as demand for personal computers from corporations rebounded after years of stretched budgets and belt-tightening. Now, analysts say, there is talk in the market the company could pre-announce strong results soon. “There’s speculation Intel will have a positive pre-(announcement),” Auriga analyst Daniel Berenbaum said. Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy declined to comment and said that the company was in a quiet period ahead of its first-quarter earnings announcement due on 13 April. Analysts also cite the Chinese New Year in February—a season of high spending in China—as a reason for robust sales, especially in computers, in the world’s no.3 economy. The Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, accounts for roughly three-fifths of Intel’s revenue. Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang said that there had been concerns about inventory build up and poor sales leading up to the Chinese holiday. But sales remained strong, pushed in part by Chinese government programs to spur consumption of everything from cars to household appliances. Beijing is encouraging scores of technology upgrading projects as part of an effort to spur spending on electronics, among other initiatives. Analysts on average expect Intel to report a current-quarter profit of 37 cents per share on sales of $9.79 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Optimism over a strong outlook helped lift technology shares across Asia, with Samsung Electronics, the world’s no.1 memory chip maker, up 2.1% and 2nd-ranked Hynix Semiconductor gaining 1.7%. In Japan, chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose 1.2% and Advantest, which supplies testers to chip makers such as Intel, gained 1%. Taiwan’s electronics sub-index gained 1.4%, with AU Optronics, a supplier of LCDs for computers and flat-screen TVs, jumping 2.9%, and PC memory chip maker Inotera up 1.2%. “Demand is very strong right now, and we’re also seeing signs of a recovery in chip demand in the US and Europe,” said Tiffany Chen, a Taipei-based analyst with KGI Securities. “The second quarter is usually the quiet season for most tech companies, with revenues down about 10% sequentially, but this year we’re likely to see it drop less than that because of returning consumer demand,” Tiffany added. Worries unfounded? Some worried that margins may have peaked in the current cycle, but analysts say strengthening demand may help propel Intel’s earnings power further. Broadpoint AmTech analyst Doug Freedman said that if Intel’s revenues and margins are better than expected, the bottom line of estimates could be pushed up by as much as 10%. Intel’s share rally was accompanied by unusually high volume in the options market. Options traders exchanged about 244,000 contracts in Intel—three times the normal level, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert. The volume was led by the trading of 204,000 call contracts, as many traders rolled their bullish positions from soon-to-expire March options to the April options. March options expire on Friday after the close. Intel shares have steadily risen this year, by nearly 4% as of Monday. Tuesday’s rally sent the stock to the highest level since September 2008, when markets began spiraling downward during the financial crisis. “Our contacts roundly hailed the PC sector as likely to be robust for the remainder of the year,” FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger said in a recent note to investors. Many industry executives and analysts say that there were signals early in the year of a strong return of spending by companies to upgrade equipment and software, though some expect growth to sharpen only in the latter half of 2010. Robert W. Baird analyst Tristan Gerra said that he was seeing strong sales of corporate notebooks. That, along with strong forecasts from top-tier manufacturers and strong sales of Intel chips released in January were pushing shares higher even though gross margins may have peaked. Intel launched new, more powerful server chips on Tuesday. “Intel has the strongest product portfolio in years,” Gerra said. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose nearly 3% to 359.87. AMD stock gained 5.4% to $9.40 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), while Nvidia rose 3.5%, Micron Technology Inc rose nearly 5%, and Intel advanced almost 4% on Nasdaq. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 11:08 pm Google partners call for clarity on China plansBEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese firms selling advertising space on Google's search pages have demanded clarity about the Internet company's plans in China, warning they will demand compensation if it shuts its Chinese portal.Source: Reuters: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 10:49 pm Rupee gains 15 paise against dollar in early tradeThe Indian rupee appreciated by 15 paise to 45.43 a dollar in early trade on Wednesday amid increased capital inflows by foreign funds into equities.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 10:30 pm Sensex surges 118 points in opening trade on global cuesSensex shot up by over 118 points, 0.68 per cent, to cross 17,500 points for the first time since January 20.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 10:21 pm RPT-DEALTALK-Nigeria dispute unlikely to thwart Bharti-Zain deal - Reuters
Source: Business - Google News | 16 Mar 2010 | 9:51 pm Google partners call for clarity on China plansChinese firms selling advertising space on Google's search pages have demanded clarity about the Internet company's plans in China, warning they will demand compensation if it shuts its Chinese portal. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 8:00 pm Japan Hot Stocks-DeNA, Nissan, Honda, Aplus, Shinsei Bank - Reuters
Source: Business - Google News | 16 Mar 2010 | 7:20 pm Inflation may eat into growth: FM - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 16 Mar 2010 | 6:07 pm Pranab warns of inflation, signals interest rate hikeChances of RBI signalling higher interest rates in its April policy review grew stronger with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday saying double-digit inflation was a matter of concern but it was not beyond control.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 4:02 pm SBI sets date for rights issue - Calcutta Telegraph
Source: Business - Google News | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:37 pm Unitech to develop 5 msf/yr in MumbaiSees a quarter of its revenues coming from the city from next fiscal.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:59 pm Marico cuts prices for bigger amla playMarico Ltd has slashed prices of its Shanti Badam Amla hair oil by as much as 25% in a bid to boost volumes.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:58 pm Integrated steel companies can ride stormRise in steel prices would be more than increase in raw material costs.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:57 pm Wretched run ahead for gilt fundsNAV decline to continue, may pick up after September.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:55 pm 'Data demand could be higher in India'William Davidson, senior vice-president, global marketing and investor relations, Qualcomm, spoke to DNA on several issues related to 3G and BWA auction.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:52 pm Lanco Amarkantak, MP Power case adjournedCounsel seeks referral of dispute to a single arbitration bench to enable hearing two cases.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:51 pm Media and entertainment industry grew 1.4% in 2009Projected to see CAGR of 13% till 2014.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:49 pm Legal eagles eye $479m fee pie of India IncAs India Inc looks to satiate its voracious M&A appetite, legal eagles are smelling a big buck opportunity. Top 100 Indian companies will spend $479 million in legal fees in 2010.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:24 pm Tough norms for aviation FDI?Global biggies willing to take the 100% automatic FDI route in strategic aviation areas like airports, helicopters and seaplanes may soon have to pass through stringent background and security checks.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:21 pm India to overtake China in growth by 2018: EIUIndia will overtake China to become world's fastest growing economy by 2018, said the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of London-based Economist magazine.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:21 pm 'Companies likely to give 12% salary hike'Indian companies are expected to give the highest salary hikes of up to 12% in Asian region, driven by rapid economic growth and need for executive talent, a report by global HR consultancy Mercer said.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:20 pm Sensex soars 218 pointsA strong rally in index heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and a relatively strong opening for the European market pushed the BSE sensex to a two-month closing high on Tuesday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:17 pm Tax-saver schemes lag diversified funds"It is no longer a big secret that tax-saving schemes are not being able to live up to their reputation," says an investment adviser.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:16 pm What’s cooking? I like crème brûlée; it’s one of my favourite desserts. But the few times that we—that’s me and the wife—tried to make it at home, it did not set properly. I also like caramel custard (or crème caramel), but I cannot get this right either. It just falls flat. They say it gets better with practice but in our case it hasn’t. There’s always something missing. The recipes were from my wife’s vast collection of cookbooks. It’s an obsession with her: There are recipe books, encyclopaedias and anthologies on food writing. She also collects clippings from newspapers and magazines, and files them subject-wise in many folders (Christmas, Desserts, Curries, etc.). And then there are handwritten family recipes, a culinary inheritance. Ask her for a recipe and she will tell you exactly where to find it. She experiments with recipes: If one doesn’t work, she tries out another from a different book. And when we all say “Wow!” she sticks to that version. Over time she has perfected quite a few desserts—orange cake, lemon cheesecake and brownies—which are now family favourites. Whenever she bakes something, she prefers it if I am around—but not because she wants my opinion. I am not a foodie (give me eggs cooked any which way). She wants me around because I am the techie in the house. My job is to go online and find answers to her queries: What’s the temperature for a moderately hot oven? How much is a stick of butter in grams? What is a substitute for evaporated milk? Baking over, she does the post-mortem: Why didn’t the gelatine set, or the soufflé rise? I am sure her cookbooks and clippings have the answers but she finds it simpler to do a Net search.  Remote cooking: Crème brûlée at just a click of the mouse. The other advantage of going online vis-à-vis opening a book is that if you don’t get it right you can always post a question to the experts (we suspect the soufflé didn’t rise because the egg whites weren’t whisked properly). If still in doubt she looks for a demo on YouTube. There aren’t as many recipe demos as you would expect to find, but I am happy that I stumbled upon a video in which a master chef from the French Culinary Institute takes you through the entire process of making crème brûlée (“remove all air bubbles from the whisked custard”). He does it step by step, and makes it sound quite simple. That’s when I decided to get the blowtorch. I haven’t attempted the crème brûlée since I acquired the gizmo, but purely for fun we sprinkled some sugar on a slice of lemon tart, burnt it golden brown with the torch, and I am happy to report that my new gadget works. We also showed the 8-minute video to our cook. She obviously liked the idea of watching a demo because on another occasion when my wife was reading out to her a recipe for a chicken dish, she asked, “Can’t you show it to me on the computer?” Which makes me wonder, is this the future of the cookbook? The website Cookstr.com has recipes of star chefs and cookbook authors. The Epicurious site has all the recipes from Gourmet, the popular food magazine that Condé Nast was forced to shut down because of falling ad revenues and competition from the Internet. So, why would you buy a cookbook when you can get a recipe free on the Net? My wife says she still would; our son has the recipe apps on his iPhone. Shekhar Bhatia is a former editor, Hindustan Times, a science buff and a geek at heart. Write to Shekhar at thesmartlife@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 1:45 pm De-jargoned | MF face valueWhat is it? Mutual funds (MFs) are marked to market, which means that their net asset value (NAV) is supposed to reflect the market movements of the stocks they hold. But how do you determine the value of a fund when it’s just launched and has no instruments linked to the market? Schemes, therefore, start their life cycle with a hypothetical value, called face value. A fund’s true market value, subsequently, is linked to its face value. Typically, the face value of MFs is Rs10. In liquid funds, it may be as much as Rs1,000. Is it important? If a fund’s NAV goes down soon after its launch, it is generally perceived to be a flop show. At least till the time it crosses the Rs10 mark and shows a good track record. If your fund’s NAV slips below Rs10, it’s considered really bad. This was the case with scores of information technology (IT) schemes soon after they were launched in 2000. Their values fell on account of the IT sector crash. Is Rs10 cheap? No. It doesn’t really matter whether a fund’s NAV is Rs10 or Rs50. Suppose, both these funds with NAVs of Rs10 and Rs50 invest, say, 10% in Infosys Technologies Ltd. If the company’s stock falls by 20%, the NAVs of both the funds will fall by 20% each. Similarly, if it goes up by say 10%, the NAVs of both funds will also go up by 10% each. What really matters is how your fund manager plays his cards and picks investments that work. The dividend significance The only time that the face value of a fund assumes some significance is when your fund declares a dividend. The quantum of dividend is declared as a percentage to the fund’s face value. For instance, if the face value of a fund is Rs10, 20% dividend would mean an income of Rs2 (20% of Rs10) per unit you hold. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 1:45 pm Base rate system may drive firms to commercial paperMumbai: The introduction of the so-called base rate below which no bank can lend from July will give a leg-up to the commercial paper market in India as corporations and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) will prefer them to bank loans for short-term funding needs, bankers and company officials said. Commercial papers are an unsecured money market instrument issued in the form of a promissory note. The cost of commercial paper will be cheaper than bank loans once the base rate system comes into effect as firms will no longer be able to negotiate interest rates with banks. Currently, banks have a benchmark prime lending rate, supposedly reserved for the best customers; in reality, at least 70% of loans are given below this rate. Companies exact fine prices from banks for short-term loans, taking advantage of fierce competition among lenders. The rate of interest for a three-month loan can go as low as 5-6% for well-rated companies.  Graphic: Yogesh Kumar / Mint “Volumes of commercial papers will increase because it will be cheaper for companies to raise money through this route rather than loans from banks,” said Paritosh Kashyap, executive vice-president at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. Companies issue commercial papers for short-term capital requirements ranging from 15 days to 365 days. The interest rate on commercial papers are linked to the yield on the one-year government bond. As of 15 February, the outstanding commercial papers issued by local firms were worth Rs96,152 crore, up from Rs53,615 crore a year ago, data from the website of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows. The interest rate varied between 3.3% and 8.0%, though RBI does not spell out the tenure of the papers. Alpana Dave, assistant vice-president at Edelweiss Securities Ltd, said there is enough demand from investors for commercial papers. She expects NBFCs to raise more money through commercial papers than other companies. “NBFCs backed by big groups such as Tatas, Bajaj and ICICI are likely to issue more paper than companies because they need money for their lending business,” she said. V. Ravi, chief financial officer at vehicle finance company Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd, acknowledged that his firm may have to look to issue more commercial papers once the base rate system takes effect. Bankers say not all firms can raise commercial papers and the market is highly skewed towards better-rated companies. Mutual funds and banks are the biggest investors in commercial papers. Banks, though, have internal limits on how much they can invest in these. Debjiban Basu, general manager, treasury, United Bank of India, said banks may have to tweak internal investment models to accommodate more paper. “If we treat commercial papers as working capital loans, we will be able to invest more in these papers.” Companies will also try to get better ratings because that will help them in raising loans at better rates, said S. Rajendran, general manager, treasury, Union Bank of India. “For companies that don’t have good ratings, commercial papers are not going to make much of a difference.” For smaller firms, the fees for rating papers, stamp duty and other costs could make the cost of commercial papers higher than loans. Large oil marketing firms may also lose out because huge losses have negatively affected their ratings. Currently, they are the biggest users of short-term funds. Even though the cost of commercial papers will depend on the rating of a company, by and large, they will be cheaper than bank loans. O.P. Bhatt, chairman of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India, has hinted that its base rate could be around 8%. For other banks, it is expected to be marginally higher. Currently, the cost of a six-month commercial paper for a well-rated firm is 6.65%. joel.r@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 1:45 pm Airlines cut costs, more flights get cancelledLast week, 180 passengers waited for more than six hours at Mumbai airport before they were told that their Air India flight to Chennai had been cancelled as its air-conditioning unit was not working.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 1:41 pm The Mint Report for 16 March 2010Bhel may have picked up a lucrative contract in Sudan, but that project is under attack from some potential investors. American pension funds like California’s CalPERS and Colorado’s PERA have written to the company asking it to put an end to its operations in Sudan. Many investors want companies to stay away from Sudan, where a civil war has killed 300,000 people and displaced another two million. Bhel has a contract to design and build a 500MW power plant in Sudan worth $457 million. The government is considering new criteria for companies bidding on highway projects. Under the new proposal, companies bidding for projects worth less than Rs2,000 crore will need to have a net worth of at least 25% of the project cost. The net worth requirement reaches 50% of project cost for contracts valued at Rs2,000-3,000 crore. For any project worth more than Rs3,000 crore the bidder will have to show a net worth equal to the project cost. The National Highways Authority of India has long struggled to find a way to judge if companies can actually pull off highway projects. Renault-Nissan will bring a new player to India’s market for small cars. The company says it plans to start selling its Micra hatchbacks in the country from July. Its sales target is 80,000 units in the year ending March 2011. Rajasthan gets the lion’s share of funds from the government’s NREGA programme. The rural development ministry says the state received 19% of the Rs31,149 crore allotted to the programme this fiscal year until 11 March. Uttar Pradesh is next, getting 15% of the total funds so far this fiscal year. The NREGA programme guarantees at least 100 days of work every year to one member of every poor rural family. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 1:17 pm BJP forms new leadership team banking on youth and glamourNew Delhi: The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), revamped its second-tier leadership, bringing in more women and younger members and adding a dash of movie glamour as it seeks to stem its political decline. The party said that the new leadership was more balanced in terms of experience and regional representation. Analysts said that these changes showed that the BJP—after losing two consecutive general elections and a spate of assembly polls in the last six years—is turning to populism. Nitin Gadkari, who took over as party president in December as part of a “generational change” in leadership, has largely retained the BJP parliamentary board, its top-most decision-making body. But leadership tiers below that level have changed dramatically. The new national executive has 121 members, of which 40 are women. It has 11 vice-presidents, 10 general secretaries, 15 secretaries and a treasurer. Actor-turned-politician Hema Malini is on the list of vice-presidents, along with senior party leaders Shanta Kumar, Kalraj Mishra, Vinay Katiyar, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Karuna Shukla, Najma Heptullah, Bijoya Chakravarty, Purushottam Rupala and Kiran Ghai. Lok Sabha member Varun Gandhi, who was embroiled in a controversy over his alleged hate speeches against minorities in the run up to last year’s general election, is one of BJP’s new secretaries. He is joined by television actor Smriti Irani and cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is also a popular television personality. Muralidhar Rao, a nominee of the BJP’s rightist parent organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has been brought in as a secretary, while the V. Satish and Saudan Singh have been appointed joint general secretaries. The BJP list was released after Gadkari held a meeting with the RSS top brass in Nagpur on Monday evening. The number of spokespersons has been raised from three to seven, including the party’s Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussain, RSS ideologue Tarun Vijay, Dalit leader Ramnath Kovind, and former national women’s commission member and activist Nirmala Seetharaman. The team will be led by former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who has been elevated to the position of general secretary.  Graphic: Paras Jain / Mint Piyush Goyal, a chartered accountant, is the new party treasurer, replacing Ramdas Agarwal, who was named in a row over the disappearance of election money from the party office last year. “It is a balanced team with a harmony between the young and old,” said Prasad, the new general secretary. “The team composition has taken care of regional faces, experienced faces and young faces with vigour and enthusiasm. We walk the talk. The team has ensured the 33% reservation for women in (the) party organization,” he added. But Jyotirmaya Sharma, professor of political science at the University of Hyderabad and a BJP-watcher, called the new team “fluffy”, created by taking cues from BJP’s rival, the Congress. “It is a reflection of the fact that both (the) RSS and (the) BJP have reconciled to the fact (that) populism and crowd-pulling faces are the only way ahead,” he said. “It is a step ahead for the ‘Congressification’ of (the) BJP, a party which tried to be different but finally gave up.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 1:11 pm Property prices stable in NCR, soaring elsewhereProperty prices in the National Capital Region (NCR) have remained more or less stable despite rising rapidly elsewhere in the country. Prices of luxury houses — costing more than Rs 75 lakh a unit — have however, begun to rise in Gurgaon.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 1:02 pm Nissan scouts for yet another Indian partnerJapanese auto major Nissan Motor today said it was open to tying up with yet another partner in India to develop a car positioned between the fourth-generation Micra, the compact car that will go on sale in May in India, and its proposed ultra low cost (ULC) car being jointly developed with Bajaj Auto.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:41 pm RIL loses bid for Canadian firmIn a second setback to its global acquisition plans in less than a month, Reliance Industries (RIL), Indias largest company by market capitalisation, has lost out on its $2-billion takeover bid for Calgary-based Value Creation.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:38 pm Tribe readies for battle against Vedanta's mineThe Dongria Kondh tribe who live in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa do not normally go to the top of the bauxite-rich slopes. The hilltop is considered sacred, the place where their presiding deity Niyam Raja (literally, the King of Law), or the Universal Lawgiver, is said to reside, and they leave it undisturbed.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:38 pm Are you born to be a billionaire?Fifty-three billion smackers. That's how much telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, the wealthiest human on the planet, is worth by Forbes' latest exhaustive count. (Actually, the tally was $53.5 billion--when you're dealing in 10 digits, every decimal place counts.)Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 11:57 am We will figure out China at some pointNew Delhi: Patrick Doyle, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Domino’s Pizza Inc., was in India to open the 300th store of the chain run by Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, its Indian master franchisee of 15 years. Doyle, 46, stepped into the role of CEO last week and took the next flight out of the US to reach India, reflecting the importance of the market for the company. (The promoters of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Mint, and promoters of Jubilant FoodWorks are closely related.) Edited excerpts from an interview: India is the first international market you are visiting immediately after becoming CEO of Domino’s. What does it signify?  Market importance: Doyle says growth for the company in the next 10-20 years will be international. Pradeep Gaur/Mint You are taking over as CEO when Domino’s already has 9,000 stores. Where do you take the company from here? So you are giving me no credit for the 9,000 stores so far (laughs). I have been with the company for 13 years. We opened in India in January 1996. Domino’s was a very US-centric company with a vast majority of the stores there. Fast-forward to 2010: We now have 9,000 stores—over 4,000 stores of these are outside the US. We are probably three-four years away from having more stores and more sales outside the US than in the US. If you look at the potential for markets around the world such as India, it is clear the future growth for the company in the next 10-20 years will predominantly be international and there is room for us. Domino’s has been in India for the last 15 years but the real growth in the number of stores has come in the last couple of years. Last year we have opened more stores here than anywhere else. We opened the 200th store in India in August 2008. In March 2010, we opened the 300th. We built a third of our stores in the last 18 months, so the pace of the growth has clearly got faster. It took time. I was here a few times between 1999 and 2001 and at that time we were still learning about how to market the product to the Indian consumer. I think we have got the India story right. Over the last four-five years, we had double-digit same-store growth in India. Any lessons on cracking the Indian market? In the last 10 years, the change has been really getting the value right for the Indian consumers. We saw a lot of growth from the launch of Pizza Mania 18 months ago. Our entry level pizza priced at Rs35 brought new people into the market for us. So a lot of learning has been around value. India allows 51% foreign ownership in single-brand retailing. In view of the growth potential here, do you have any plans to convert the franchisee business into a joint venture? That’s not even needed now as the business is profitable and it’s generating the cash that it needs to grow. It has had a very successful initial public offer and the business is making profits to put back in and reinvest in the business. I hate to say this way, but they (Jubilant FoodWorks) don’t need any help. The capital that they have now is sufficient to grow the market. (Jubilant FoodWorks raised money in a January initial share sale.) Which are the other developing markets you are seriously looking at? The fastest growing markets for us have been the UK, France, Turkey and Australia. Korea has also shown great growth, but they are all led by India. Surprisingly, Domino’s has a limited presence in China. Why? It has been one market for us which is a little bit more difficult and the reason is the delivery side. The convenience of the delivery (format) for a Chinese consumer isn’t enough value. We would need to do enough deliveries per week for us to make money. We are delivering there but we have stores with a lot of seats in them. We have 100-plus seats in these restaurants. It is a very different from the model that we use everywhere else. Why? Their market is dine-in. The consumer in China thinks…“If I am going to spend money for a prepared meal, I am going to go out and be seen.” Even so, Domino’s has very few dine-ins in China compared with other food service brands. Yes, KFC has 3,000 stores. But we have had to adapt the model there more than anywhere else. For 64 out of 65 countries, the convenience of delivery has worked. We will figure out China at some point. shuchi.b@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 11:57 am Aircel ties up with British handset maker - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 16 Mar 2010 | 11:50 am Nissan Micra in June; Logan will stayRenault-Nissan will begin selling its compact car Micra in June this year while its exports are scheduled for September. The company is hoping to sell 80,000 units by March 2011, for which it has so far achieved 85 per cent localisation.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 16 Mar 2010 | 10:58 am Toyota counts rising cost of recall woesTokyo: A massive global recall, mounting legal bills and a battered reputation add up to a very expensive problem for Toyota. How expensive? Depends who you ask. With new developments emerging almost daily, predicting a final pricetag for the Japanese automaker is a daunting calculation that only some analysts have attempted. The sole figure from Toyota itself came on 4 February along with the company’s October-December earnings results. It estimated that the worldwide recall, now involving some 8.5 million cars, could cost up to ¥180 billion ($2 billion), with ¥100 billion for repairs and ¥80 billion in lost sales. It said the recalls may dent global demand for Toyota models by 100,000 vehicles. Analysts with their own estimates say the total is bound to climb higher. JP Morgan’s Kohei Takahashi expects Toyota to take a one-time ¥500 billion ($5.5 billion) hit, including recall-related costs and litigation settlements. He has lowered his estimate for operating profit next fiscal year starting April to ¥540 billion ($5.9 billion) from ¥760 billion, as higher profit margins in emerging markets soften the blow of recall expenses. Deutsche Securities estimates a ¥290 billion ($3.2 billion) impact to earnings in the coming fiscal year, though analyst Kurt Sanger acknowledges that any attempt to quantify the impact involves an almost certain degree of error. “We expect Toyota to respond aggressively to win back much of its lost market share, but it will come at a cost,” he said in a recent report. Usually stingy with incentives, Toyota announced new deals recently to bring shoppers back into its showrooms in the US, a key market and the eye of the current storm. Existing Toyota owners who buy another vehicle from the company will receive two years of free maintenance. The automaker also is offering zero-percent financing and low-priced leases to customers who buy or lease several of the recalled vehicles, including Corollas, Camrys and Avalons. Since the fall, Toyota has recalled more than 6 million vehicles in the US because of acceleration problems and braking flaws. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems, and the recalls were the subject of three recent congressional hearings. At least 89 class-action lawsuits have been filed against the Japanese automaker, which could cost the company $3 billion or more. The bad publicity will likely send Toyota’s market share in the US to about 13% in the January-March quarter from 17% before the recalls began, according to Macquarie Securities. Analyst Clive Wiggins estimates that market share next year will drop 1.2 percentage points from its previous forecast of 17.9%, translating to an implied 144,900 fewer cars sold and $3.3 billion in lost sales. But often forgotten amid the recent bad news is what’s going right for Toyota, analysts say. It has done a good job cutting costs over the past year, and it is still a leader in environmental technologies. Most analysts predict robust profit growth next year as demand grows in emerging markets like China. Toyota’s balance sheet remains strong, with cash assets of $23.6 billion as of 31 December. Noriyuki Matsushima, an auto analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan, gives Toyota stock a “buy/medium risk” rating, describing the issue as “attractive for long-term investors.” “Toyota has announced plans to deal with the recalls, and is working to address the problems promptly,” he said in a report this week. “We think the recall story is likely to die down by April if its quality dealershps can quickly repair the problems while providing reassurance to customers.” For now, the incentives appear to be working, with dealers reporting surging sales in the first week of the month after Toyota’s sales fell 9% in February. Toyota still expects to post a net profit of ¥80 billion ($885 million) in the fiscal year ending 31 March, a massive turnaround from a net loss last year of ¥437 billion. In trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Toyota shares were up 1.7% at ¥3,565, beating a slight decline of the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index. The issue has lost about 14% of its value over the last eight weeks. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 6:23 am Sony, Jackson estate inks $250 million deal: reportsWashington: Sony and the estate of late music legend Michael Jackson have signed a record-breaking $250 million deal fordistribution rights through 2017, US media said Tuesday. The blockbuster deal involving as many as 10 new Jackson projects may include computer video games as well as music and film releases, the Los Angeles Times said. “The audio rights span across different projects,” said Rob Stringer, chairman of the US label Columbia Epic, a division of Sony, reported the Times. “There may be theater. There may be films and movies. There may be computer games — or multimedia platforms that I don’t know about today that will happen in 2015.” Described by Sony and Jackson’s estate as the most lucrative music contract on record, the deal would guarantee the late singer’s heirs at least $200 million, the Wall Street Journal said. The deal would go a long way to easing burdens left behind by Jackson, whose lavish lifestyle and spending sprees marked up hundreds of millions of dollars of debt. After his death, a Los Angeles court named Jackson’s mother, Katherine Jackson, 79, guardian of his three children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11 and Prince Michael II, 7, as well as of his estate, which includes his Neverland ranch and rights he held to songs by The Beatles. Sony’s contract “exceeds all previous industry benchmarks,” entertainment lawyer John Branca, one of the estate’s executors, told the New York Times. The closest comparable contracts would be rapper Jay-Z’s 2008 accord with Live Nation worth $150 million for recordings and concerts. Since his death on June 25 last year, Sony has sold some 31 million Jackson albums worldwide and his estate, by the first anniversary of his death, is expected to have made $250 million from the sale of music, merchandise and tickets to the posthumous concert movie “This Is It,” the Journal said. Jackson died at his rented mansion in Los Angeles after an overdose of powerful prescription drugs, as he was preparing to perform a series of comeback concerts in London. The star’s doctor Conrad Murray last month pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the sudden death, but has admitted administering the drugs to the singer. The first recording under the new contract, according to the New York Times, will be the soundtrack for This Is It — which showed Jackson rehearsing his comeback concerts in the weeks leading up to his death — and by November a new album of unreleased recordings. Branca told the LA Times that a look at other high-earning careers held by dead music legends indicated the value of Jackson’s brand. “If you look at Elvis and the Beatles, and how their brands are thriving, they only hint at what the future holds for Michael,” Branca said. In October, Forbes Magazine named Jackson as number three in its annual Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list, earning $90 million in the months after his death. Fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent topped the list with $350 million in posthumous earnings, while Elvis Presley came just behind Jackson with $55 million. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 6:15 am February inflation surges to 9.89 percent !India`s wholesale price index (WPI) inflation soared to 9.89 percent in February from 8.6 percent a month before, putting the government under pressure to take policy actions to check rising prices.Source: Zee News : Business | 16 Mar 2010 | 6:13 am Kingfisher to launch 7 international routes this summer!Kingfisher Airlines will launch seven international routes this summer, which include a daily non-stop flight between New Delhi and London starting March 28 and one between New Delhi and Hong Kong beginning April 7.Source: Zee News : Business | 16 Mar 2010 | 6:13 am Renault, Daimler tie-up reports boost carmakers’ sharesParis/Stuttgart: Shares in Renault and Daimler rose on Tuesday, lifted by reports the two car makers are in talks about an equity tie-up as part of a possible longer-term partnership to cope with the industry’s recession. France’s Renault and Germany’s Daimler, maker of Mercedes cars, have made no secret that they are in talks over cooperating to cut costs, pool technology resources and build scale as the industry tries to become more efficient exiting the downturn. Renault-Nissan lacks top of the line cars, despite attempts with the Safrane, Vel Satis or Korean-built Samsung models, while Mercedes seeks smaller cars beyond the A-Class and Daimler’s Smart vehicles. Sandford Bernstein analyst Max Warburton in a report published on Monday that he believed the firms were discussing: a “much wider and formal level of co-operation across products and technologies”. “Sources report Ghosh is trying to persuade Zetsche to join the Renault-Nissan Alliance, via an equity investment or swap, while Zetsche would prefer a simple joint venture,” he said. The Financial Times reported in its Tuesday edition that both companies were in talks about taking equity stakes in each other to forge a long-term cooperation, citing two unnamed sources. Shares in Daimler rose 0.9% at 0938 GMT and Renault was up 1.62%. The European auto sector was up 0.9%. “Speculation could already be heard yesterday and is based on a research note from Sanford Bernstein. We don’t think that everybody would like an equity tie ahead of a partnership,” said a Frankfurt-based trader. Renault nor Daimler had any comment on Monday and Tuesday. Bloomberg said on Tuesday, citing two unnamed sources, said that the talks had stumbled on valuation issues — just as such talks between PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi Motors Corp a few weeks ago. Pooling Resources Car groups are on the hunt to cut costs by building scale and spreading out heavy investments in new technologies, such as hybrid and electrical vehicles, over large numbers of cars. Renault-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has often said that the alliance, which also includes Russia’s AvtoVAZ, could be open to a third partner. Daimler’s Dieter Zetsche, after a rocky and costly adventure with Chrysler, is reluctant to dive head first in a new pact. Earlier this month at the Geneva Motor Show Ghosn said the company was talking to many people in the industry. “The name of the game is scale and co-investments and sharing technologies,” he said. “You would be surprised at how many companies we are talking with for collaboration. I think it’s not only Renault-Nissan, I think it’s the whole industry.” Daimler is worth €37 billion on the stock market, while Renault, which owns about a third of Japan’s Nissan Motor, is valued at €9.7 billion, Reuters data shows. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 6:05 am ArcelorMittal plans steel plant in IraqParis: The world’s biggest steel maker ArcelorMittal said Tuesday it plans to build a $130 million steel plant in Kurdish northern Iraq in partnership with the Turkish company Dayen. ArcelorMittal “signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture with Turkish partner Dayen to build a steel mini-mill with electric furnace in Sulaimaniyah,” a city in the Kurdish-administered northern region. The Luxembourg-based steel giant said it and Dayen would invest between 100 million and $130 million (€95 million) in the plant which will aim to produce at least a quarter of a million tons of steel rods a year. ArcelorMittal said it plans to start building the plant in the second quarter of this year and to start producing steel there in late 2011. “There are many opportunities for ArcelorMittal to assist in the development of the country,” company board member Christophe Cornier said in the statement. “There is great demand for steel products for the local construction industry.” Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 5:32 am Bharti issues terms for $8.5 bln Zain loanHong Kong: India’s Bharti Airtel, in talks to buy the African mobile operations of Kuwait’s Zain for $9 billion, has issued a term sheet to banks to raise up to $8.5 billion in offshore loans to fund the deal, banking sources said. The six-year offshore facility has four tranches and carries a blended average life of 4.75 years, with a margin ranging from 176 basis points (bps) to 179 bps over Libor, the sources said. Previously, Bharti was said to be looking for a $9 billion facility, which also included an onshore rupee tranche. Bankers familiar with the deal said that the all-in pricing is below all expectations, which ranged from 200 bps to 250 bps above Libor. Bharti, which is India’s largest cellular carrier, is in talks to buy Zain’s operations in 15 African countries. Exclusive negotiations are scheduled to lapse on 25 March. A banker familiar with the deal said that Bharti opted to drop the onshore tranche of its loan due to the strong response from offshore lenders. By raising the facility all in US dollars, the borrower also minimises execution risks and the time needed to complete the financing, the same banker said. Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank and State Bank of India are expected to underwrite larger amounts than other banks. Banks have until Wednesday to respond to the borrower, while documentation is expected to be completed by Friday. A Bharti spokesman declined comment. Banks have been offered a 60 bps fee to underwrite $650 million or more, one source said. Around 11 other shortlisted banks also received the term sheet, including: ANZ, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 5:09 am Alibaba.com Q4 net up 49%, cautious on investingShanghai: Alibaba.com, China’s largest e-commerce company, posted a 49% rise in quarterly net profit as revenue growth accelerated on the back of strong customer additions. Alibaba, Yahoo’s business partner in China, said last month it would cut basic membership fees for Chinese customers in a bid to boost its subscriber base. Analysts said that would be positive long term, but warned of near-term margin pressure. Alibaba said it saw China export volumes this year at 2007 levels, but did not see it as a key driver of the economy. The company also said it would take a cautious view towards investing this year. “As we continue to see strong growth in our user numbers, we need to invest to improve our service standards and prepare ourselves to handle our anticipated growth,” said chief executive David Wei in a statement. The company, which operates an online site connecting millions of buyers and sellers, forecast in December that this year’s profit would beat last year’s as China’s foreign trade revives and the global economy shows signs of recovering from the sharp downturn. The listed unit of Alibaba Group, in which Yahoo! Inc holds a near-40% stake, competes with Global Sources in China’s 1.5 billion yuan ($220 million) business to business (B2B) industry. October-December profit rose to 281.15 million yuan ($41.19 million) from 189.18 million yuan a year earlier. That lagged an average analyst forecast of 290.6 million yuan, according to Thomson Reuters. The company’s shares more than tripled last year as China launched a massive stimulus plan to prime its economy at the height of the global recession. Alibaba shares closed up 3.6% earlier on Tuesday ahead of the quarterly results, its highest close in nearly two months, and have gained 2% this year, beating the broader Hang Seng Index’s 0.27% decline. Web commerce in China has surged in recent years, as buyers look to the Internet for better deals from more reliable suppliers in the nation’s highly fragmented e-commerce sector. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:50 am Shell eyes return to growth as reserves jumpLondon: Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it was planning a return to robust growth in oil and gas production after seven years of decline and unveiled strong reserves additions that should underpin longer-term growth aims. Europe’s largest oil company by market value said it was targeting output of 3.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2012, up from 3.15 million in 2009 -- equivalent to an annual growth rate of 3.5%. Earlier on Tuesday, Australia’s Arrow Energy Ltd said it was in “active discussions” with Shell and PetroChina over their joint $3 billion takeover offer. Shell’s London-listed “A” shares were up 1.4% at 0936 GMT, outperforming a 0.75% rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index. “It’s a very strong message,” one analyst said, adding the output target was above his forecast. The company previously said it expected production to be flat in 2010 before new projects ramp up in 2011 and 2012. “We are moving into a delivery window across the next five years, and beyond that, we have a tremendous opportunity set for the 2015-2020 timeframe,” chief executive Peter Voser said. Italian rival Eni said on Friday it aimed to grow output by 2.5% per annum to 2013 while European number two BP Plc is targeting annual growth of 1-2%. In its annual strategy statement, Shell also predicted rising production beyond 2012, underpinned by a new focus on exploration. Voser said high-cost, infrastructure-led projects, such as Shell’s $18-19 billion gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar and multi-billion dollar oil sands projects in Canada, would in future only supplement the exploration effort. Shell’s production strategy has been built around such large, technology-driven projects in recent years. Nonetheless, Shell said it will have to spend $25-$30 billion/year out to 2014 to achieve its growth -- the largest capital investment or capex programme in the industry. Reserves replacement success The company said that last year it added new reserves equivalent to almost three times the amount of oil and gas it pumped. Its reserves replacement rate of 288% compares with levels of 133% at industry leader Exxon Mobil and 129% at BP. It is also a turnaround from the 98% Shell achieved in 2008 and the 17% recorded in 2007. “This was the best year for exploration in a decade,” the company said. Shell’s focus on building production will also see it reduce its downstream footprint. The company said it planned to exit 35% of its retail markets, and repeated plans to sell 15% of its world-wide refining portfolio. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:26 am China warns Google to obey rules even if it pulls outBeijing: Google should obey Chinese government rules even if it decides to retreat from the country over hacking and censorship complaints, a Chinese government spokesman said on Tuesday. Investors have sold off Google Inc shares after signs the company could soon shut its Web search site in China, Google.cn, two months after saying it would not abide by Beijing’s censorship rules and was alarmed by hacking from inside China. Google has not unveiled any plans, leaving users to guess whether the company may seek to unilaterally do away with the Chinese-mandated filters that censor content on google.cn or announce it is shutting down the site. In what appeared to be a reminder that China would not welcome any abrupt steps, a spokesman for the ministry of commerce said Google should follow rules even if it decides not to stay in the country. “On entering the Chinese market in 2007, it clearly stated that it would respect Chinese law,” the spokesman, Yao Jian, told reporters in answer to a question about Google. Google opened its Chinese search portal in 2006. “We hope that whether Google Inc continues operating in China or makes other choices, it will respect Chinese legal regulations,” Yao told a regular news conference. “Even if it pulls out, it should handle things according to the rules and appropriately handle remaining issues,” he said. Uncensored Search Engine Yao said those rules included one that a foreign company report to the commerce ministry about plans to pull out. Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said last week he hoped to have an outcome soon from talks with Chinese officials on offering an uncensored search engine in that country of 384 million Internet users. Many experts doubt China’s ruling Communist Party would compromise on censorship. The Financial Times reported at the weekend the talks had reached an impasse and Google was “99.9%” certain to shut Google.cn. A Google spokesperson said on Monday that talks with Chinese authorities had not ended, but added that the company was adamant about not accepting self-censorship. China requires Internet operators to block words and images the ruling Communist Party deems unacceptable. Internationally popular websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are entirely blocked in China, which uses a filtering “firewall” to block Internet users from other overseas website content banned by authorities. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:25 am
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