 |
| Thursday, February 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
|
Govt sells 51 pc stake in BALCO to Sterlite
US Congressman hopes India sanctions will go
America Online to invest $ 100m in India Economy: what next? DCM Financial
Services eyes IT |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Liquidity crunch
at Montari ABB to pay 50 pc dividend, net profit spurts 45 pc
NSE FORECAST Venture fund inflow expected to triple
‘Arm-twisting’ by central excise
|
|
Govt sells 51 pc stake in BALCO to Sterlite New Delhi, February 21 The Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, said the decision to sell the 51 per cent stake in BALCO along with the transfer of management was taken at a meeting following the recommendation of the Inter-Ministerial Group which evaluated the bids of Sterlite, Hindalco and Alcoa. The company has 6,500 employees out of which 250 are based in the headquarters in Delhi. It earned a net profit of about Rs 80 crore on a turnover of Rs 900 crore in the last financial year. PTI: Modern Foods Industries was the first PSU where the government sold its majority stake to HLL last year. Sources said that the transaction may be completed during the current financial year itself. The government has mandated merchant banker Jardine Fleming to act as a global adviser for the disinvestment process. Amongst the various clauses incorporated in the shareholders agreement was a one-year moratorium on the retrenchment of labour except under statutory orders and a mandatory three year lock-in period for the strategic partner. UNI: BALCO, on its part, had taken steps to increase the valuation of the company with the advice of the SBI Caps. In the first stage, it reduced its paid-up capital from Rs 488 crore to Rs 244 crore to arrive at a better earning per share (EPS). It had also written off an equity of Rs 23.80 crore to make up for abandoning the Gandhamardhan bauxite project. The company has 6,500 employees out of which 250 are based in the headquarters in Delhi. It earned a net profit of about Rs 80 crore on a turnover of Rs 900 crore in the last financial year. |
|
US Congressman hopes India sanctions will go New Delhi, February 21 A Confederation of Indian Industry statement quoted Democrat Congressman Jim McDermott as saying India-U.S. relations were important to his country and the State Department was working hard to maintain the momentum of this relationship. McDermott “was optimistic that the present administration would initiate measures to lift these sanctions soon,” the statement said. Although some U.S. sanctions, imposed because of New Delhi’s nuclear programme, have been removed, others remain. They prevent the sale of U.S. nuclear energy producing equipment, rocket motor technology, supercomputers and military equipment to India, as well as restrict 158 specific Indian companies from doing business in the USA. The Congressman said he was hopeful the administration of President George W. Bush would initiate measures to lift economic sanctions since they had an adverse impact on both nations and needed to be reviewed. The Congressional delegation included Republican Edward Royce and Democrat David Bonior. Royce told the chamber that the Caucus on India and Indian Americans, of which he is a part, was trying to convince American business that investing in India was likely to be more profitable in the long run. Despite India’s size and status as the world’s largest democracy, Washington and New Delhi had brittle relations until the Cold War ended. But ties warmed considerably in the past decade as the USA recognised the importance of India as a political counterweight to China in Asia and saw more clearly the potential of its huge market. The relationship gathered new momentum after then president Bill Clinton visited India last year. An American trade group has demanded the Bush Administration to put India on the priority watch list under a special trade law provision, which provides for trade sanctions in the event of violation of international agreements. The International Property Alliance wanted the administration to take the measure to protect the American industry and trade. In the trade field, the US has problems with almost every country in the world. The government usually works in very close cooperation with industry in these matters. The Priority Watch List represents the highest category of alleged violations of international trade agreements. The trade group claimed that at least 70 countries are in violation of various international agreements.
Reuters, PTI |
|
America Online to invest $ 100m in India Bangalore, February 21 By year-end it plans to employ more than 100 engineers in India to develop new generation software products for web-browsing software maker Netscape Communications Corp and its parent AOL. But the company official said it was too premature to comment on whether AOL plans to launch its Internet access service in India. AOL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc, is the world leader in interactive services, web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services. It will provide the Internet services through Netscape Communications India Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned AOL subsidiary based in Bangalore. “We are taking our presence in India very seriously...we are looking at a fairly decent investment,” Maneesh Dhir, managing director of Netscape Communications India, told Reuters by telephone. Netscape India will initially work on projects for iPlanet E-commerce Solutions, a joint venture between Netscape and Sun Microsystems Inc. Planet provides electronic commerce services and software. AOL last year also announced a pact with Satyam Infoway Ltd , India’s largest private Internet access provider, to distribute a co-branded version of AOL’s popular instant messaging service. AOL joins global technology leaders such as networking giant Cisco Systems , Nortel Networks , the world’s No. 1 fibre-optic network supplier, and chipmaker Intel Corp in setting up centres in Bangalore. |
|
Economy: what next? T.V. Lakshminarayan & Gaurav Choudhury seek out views of Raunaq
Singh Q: What should be the focal areas of the Union Budget 2001-02? The Union Budget for 2001-2002 should focus on providing a level-playing field to the Indian Industry, besides measures for improving infrastructural facilities. Q: In the wake of the Gujarat quake, what measures would you suggest for meeting expenditure requirements for disaster management? Every Indian is affected by the ...loss of life and property in Gujarat due to earthquake. A small cess of postal services and railway passengers can be levied. The industry should also rise to the occasion and contribute liberally for rehabilitation. Q: The Prime Minister has talked about achieving 9 per cent growth in the medium term. How realistic is the target? Nine per cent growth can be achieved only if the industry is given fully support by the government by way of easier credit, lower import duties on capital goods and improved infrastructural facilities. Q: What measures would you suggest to reign in the burgeoning fiscal deficit? Fiscal deficit can be reduced only by reducing government expenditure on the exceptionally large bureaucracy and by accelerating the disinvestment process taken up by the government VRS scheme for Government employees will be ideal.  |
|
DCM Financial
Services eyes IT New Delhi, February 21 The restructuring plan has been approved by the secured and unsecured creditors of the company at a meeting presided by a Court appointed Chairpersons. The scheme of arrangement envisages that the company becomes debt free in near future through repayment of principal debt partially in cash and partially through conversion into equity. The restructuring provided for the induction of fresh capital of Rs16 crore by DCM International, the promoter company of DFS. The promoters are subscribing to the equity at the rate of Rs 40 per share. The initial experience of exploiting opportunities in IT has been extremely encouraging with orders of over Rs 50 lakh having been executed. DFS also has some “inherent advantages” in the field of IT education and training. This is because the Bharat Rams, the promoter family, command respect all over the country for their association with the Shriram College of Commerce, a centre of academic excellence apart from other well established educational institutions. The underlying reason for venturing into IT and IT education is to earn sufficient profits leading to progressive reduction in the company’s debts. The diversification into IT has been chosen after careful consideration of all options. According to Nasscom, the country’s software exports in 2000-2001 will grow to Rs 27,500 crore and the export growth in future will continue to be around 60 per cent. The IT education business in India is also growing at a rate of 35 per cent and the revenue this year will be around Rs 1,400 crore. Therefore, DFS will have sufficient room to grow in the two areas. In the meantime, DFS has launched an aggressive recovery of arrears of lease rentals and hire purchase instalments. It also proposes to engage in non-fund based businesses allowed to a non-banking finance company. |
|
|
Liquidity crunch
at Montari Chandigarh, February 21 The company’s problems started 18 months ago when the prices of its products fell significantly in the international markets. Since almost 50 per cent of its turnover was from exports, this resulted in lower generation of cash, leading to a severe liquidity problem. As a result of the liquidity problem, there has been delays in the payment of salaries and in meeting other expenditure of the company, says the management. The promoters claim they have inducted a large sum of money in the last 18 months to ensure that the company keeps running and the jobs of employees are protected. The company says its problems are temporary and likely to be overcome in the next six months. Referring to the employees’ allegation that the management is disposing of the company assets, a company spokesman stated that the management has not sold any of its assets. |
|
|
ABB to pay 50 pc dividend, net profit spurts 45 pc Asea Brown Boveri Ltd (ABB) has reported a 45 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 54.01 crore for the financial year 2000, compared to Rs 37.19 crore in the previous fiscal. The board also recommended a dividend of Rs 5 per equity share of Rs 10 each for the fiscal 2000, subject to the shareholders approval, ABB Managing Director K.K. Kaura told reporters here today after the board meeting. Net sales/income from operations grew marginally at Rs 793.27 crore as against Rs 775.80 crore in same period of last year, he said. However, he said in view of the demerger and transfer of the power generation business to Asea Brown Boveri Management Ltd, now Alstom Power India Ltd, effective from April 1999, the figures were not directly comparable with those of the previous year. The less than proportionate increase in revenues reflects the lead time between order receipt and revenue recognition, he said adding, physical exports of ABB stood at Rs 54 crore. Hind Lever Chem Hind Lever Chemicals has reported a net profit of Rs 31.56 crore during the year ended December 2000, registering a sharp decline by Rs 22.11 crore as against Rs 53.67 crore recorded in the corresponding period in last year. The board has proposed a dividend of Rs 13.50 per share. The company’s sales also recorded a drop of Rs 379.85 crore at Rs 1095.75 crore as against Rs 1475.60 crore reported in the corresponding period a year ago. Sale of own manufactured fertilisers showed a significant growth of 65 per cent following the improved capacity utilisation of the new DAP/NPK and SSP plants. The company continued to maintain its market leadership in the phosphatic and polassic fertilisers business
in the eastern region. However, total sales for the year are lower mainly due to planned reduction of traded DAP which have become unviable due to unremunerative policy on price concessions. Reliance
Industries Reliance Industries, National Iranian Oil Company and BP have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Association to undertake a $ 10 million feasibility study to develop a liquefied natural gas project in southern Iraq, targeting export to India, and other markets in Asia and Europe. The study would look at the viability of a two-train plant with initial capacity of approximately 8 million tonnes per annum. Reliance with a 25 per cent share, would take the lead for conducting a market study, BP with 25 per cent share in the venture would be leading the technical effort as well as evaluating the technical options while NIOC with 40 per cent would be involved in all aspects. The study would examine sourcing gas from Iran’s offshore South Pars field and then piping it to an LNG plant at the Pars Special Energy Economic zone in Assaluyeh on the Persian Gulf. The project would give a big boost to Iran’s LNG industry and to meeting growing energy demand in India and other markets in Asia and Europe. ACC to drop SFO ACC has decided to move out of the synthetic ferric oxide (SFO) business and sell off its Falta plant following sustained downturn in the international SFO market. “The company finds its only SFO plant here to be unviable to run commercially and intends to sell the assets to prospective buyers,” company sources told PTI. With the closure of the plant, the only one of its kind in the country, the cement major has decided to opt out of the SFO business and will now focus on its core areas, the sources said. The Falta plant, set up with an initial investment of Rs 40 crore, failed to break even since its inception in 1995, mainly due to high cost of raw materials including, LPG gas and scrap iron. The crash in the international market since the South East Asian crisis in 1998 had given the final blow to the company’s endeavour. Silverline’s EGM The shareholders of Silverline Technologies have approved the acquisition of US-based SeraNova Inc, an ebusiness consulting and intergration service company. It had signed an agreement to acquire SeraNova Inc in October last, in an all stock deal valued at approximately $ 99 million. The shareholders, at an extraordinary general meeting held here on February 20, approved an increase in Silverline’s authorised share capital to Rs 110 crore through the creation of 25 million shares. The shareholders also gave a nod for increasing the limit for strategic investments by Silverline to Rs 1100 crore up by Rs 250 crore enabling the acquisition of SeraNova. ICI for Astra Zeneca ICI India said today it would give first preference to its technological partner Astra Zeneca while divesting its pharmaceutical business. “Astra Zeneca will obviously be the preferred party for any mutually beneficial partnership,” Daljit Singh, Executive Director of ICI India, told PTI close on the heels of the controversy following Astra Zeneca’s acquisition of 25.75 percent stake of Hindujas-promoted IDL Industries. ICI did not receive Astra Zeneca’s move very warmly and had even threatened to block the change of management in Astra IDL. However, it later gave Astra a clean chit to facilitate the takeover. Earlier, ICI India managing director Aditya Narayan had said the company was planning to exit from non-core businesses like pharmaceutical over a period of time. JCT to hive off unit The Board of Directors of JCT Ltd will seek shareholders’ approval for hiving off the fibre unit of the company to its subsidiary at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) scheduled to be held on February 26. The EGM will also seek shareholders approval to the issue of fresh capital/securities, creation of charge over the assets of residual operations for the secured securities to be issued and reduction in the equity capital. The proposal of hiving off the fibre unit is a part of the company’s restructuring process. Finolex buyback Finolex Industries has called an extraordinary general meeting on April 3 to get the approval of its members for the buy back of equity shares of Rs 600 million. The maximum price at which the buyback will be carried out is Rs 40 per share and is proposed to be implemented through the methodology of open market purchases through the stock exchange in accordance with sebi’s buyback regulations, release said today.
PTI, UNI, TNS |
|
|
NSE FORECAST With the Nasdaq slipping up again, the ICE stocks in India too are feeling
the brunt and their share prices continue to remain depressed. The action, at least for now seems to be focused on the old economy stock counters. With the Union Budget announcement round the corner, it is noteworthy that the normal sense of euphoria that precedes it is missing. This might turn out to be a positive as in the absence of any great expectations from the Budget this time around, the announcements could be better received by the market than otherwise. Thus, it might not be altogether unlikely that a post-Budget rally may materialise. Punters could take advantage of this situation and bull operators could consider taking up positions at the counters of Rhone-Poulence at Rs 749 (square up at Rs 791) and BHEL at Rs 168 (square up at Rs 179). Bear operators could consider taking up positions at the counters of Global Tele at Rs 560 (cover up at Rs 536) and Pentamedia at Rs 236 (cover up at Rs 208). The dark horse pick of the week is Corporation Bank whose share price has retreated marginally after having moved up sharply. Yet another bounce back could be in the offing. |
|
Venture fund inflow expected to triple Bangalore, February 21 That would follow a seven-fold increase to $770 million in 2000, the highest growth ever in a single year for any Asian country, according to data announced the same day by the Hong Kong-based journal “Asia Private Equity Review”. The total venture funding pool in India currently stands at $2.47 billion, the journal said, ranking India for the first time among the five largest venture capital markets in Asia — and the only Asian country focused entirely on tech funds. The other four countries in the top five are Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. India is on course to soon possibly rival Taiwan as a destination for venture capital, the Review data indicated.
rebuff “Currently nine firms are seeking to raise a total of $1.2 billion. If materialised, India’s venture fund could rival that of Taiwan,” the Review said in a statement issued at a private equity investment seminar it organised in India’s technology capital of Bangalore. Native
rainmakers The huge increase in India has been fuelled largely by India-born investors living outside the country, who have played a key role in financing their native land’s booming high-technology industry, particularly the software services sector. Ten funds headed by people of Indian origin accounted for 38 percent of the money raised last year, the data showed. “The return of non-resident Indians has fuelled the growth of the country’s venture capital industry to an unprecedented new height,” the journal said. The list of India-born investors includes Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, K.B. Chandrashekar and B.V. Jagadeesh, co-founders of leading Internet data hosting firm Exodus, and Kanwal Rekhi, former chief technology officer of Novell Inc. A panel of experts set up by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 1999 — and headed by Chandrashekar — forecast that India would attract $10 billion in venture capital by the end of 2005. Asian top five Private equity managers at the conference said that investment in India would continue to be largely in the technology sector and in IT-enabled services, customer relationship management (CRM) firms and embedded software firms within the tech sector. It will also largely flow to successful start-up firms. “The funding during this year will predominantly be in series B (second round)...it will be more qualitative and mature,” Sudhir Sethi, chief representative for Walden-Nikko India Management, told a private equity conference. Sethi said that by 2005 most large global funds would have made investments in India while existing funds would expand their size. “Investing in India will however continue to face currency and political risks,” said Sethi. “There is also the lack of a long-term risk capital development strategy by the government.”
Reuters |
Napster offers $ 1 b if firms drop suit San Francisco, February 21 Pak targets telecom giant sell-off Islamabad, February 21 Bridgestone plays down new Firestone Tokyo, February 21 |
bb
Drop in core sector Kiddy’s Kingdom Kothari Pioneer BHEL bags HP order Rs 1b from Bill
Gates Colour system |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
concerning
the Union Budget and the state of the economy.