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HSBC fuels rally in UTI Bank scrip
US imposes anti-dumping duty on IT firms
cheer as Bill in Indiana blocked 65 pc quota worries
investors in HP
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Cashing in on ‘vanity’ numbers Encashing the craze for a mobile phone connection here, BSNL has managed to net an additional amount of Rs 27 lakh by selling some selected numbers at a premium. An officer of BSNL said why should not the company make some extra money before any private player stepped in. New version of Grand Vitara soon Maruti Udyog Limited will shortly launch an upgraded version of Grand Vitara XL-7, making it the most powerful SUV in the Indian market. The new car will have a 2.7 litre V6 engine, with a maximum output of 166 bhp, making it powerful than all other SUVs in the domestic market. Churchill’s love letters fetch £3 lakh Winston Churchill's love letters written with India as the backdrop have been sold for nearly £300,000. Letters written by Churchill to his first love were avidly bought as collectors competed for mementoes of one of the most romantic episodes in his life. ICICI Bank,
Tisco, Wipro among top 10 in Asia Five Indian companies are among the Top 10 finalist companies, out of the 305 companies which participated in a new study by Hewitt Associates on “Leadership development among companies in Asia Pacific region.”
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HSBC fuels rally in UTI Bank scrip
Mumbai, December 3 The bank’s scrip hit the circuit breaker for the first time after trading commenced on the BSE this morning. Yesterday, the scrip closed at Rs 95.10 per share. With today’s fresh rally, the UTI Bank share prices have risen by 140 per cent from a low of Rs 48 on July 2, 2003. Though foreign banks are allowed to hold 49 per cent in a private sector bank, reports that the government is planning to raise the FDI limit in private banks to 74 per cent also led to a lot of activity at the other banking counters. Along with the UTI Bank scrip, most of the banking stocks were in the limelight today. The BSE Bankex was up by 86.08 points or 3.51 per cent to 2541.74 points. Earlier, HSBC Asia Pacific Holdings (UK) Limited , a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, said it had entered into an agreement to acquire a 14.71 per cent equity stake in UTI Bank from CDC Financial Services (Mauritius) and South Asia Regional Fund, for a consideration of $66.42 million. In addition, HSBC will have the option to acquire an additional 5.37 per cent of UTI Bank from CDC Financial Services (Mauritius) at a consideration of $24.26 million. With some 200 branches and extension counters and over 1,000 ATMs nationwide, UTI Bank has one of the largest retail banking network among the private sector banks in India. It offers a comprehensive range of corporate banking, retail lending and deposit products and an Internet banking service to its one million customers. UTI Bank was established as a private sector bank in 1994 by the Unit Trust of India (UTI), which is India’s first and largest asset management company. UTI Bank is listed on the Mumbai, Ahmedabad and National Stock Exchange and had deposits of $3.6 billion at September 2003. HSBC Chairman David Eldon said, ''This is an investment in a well-managed local
financial institution which allows us to participate more fully in the fast growing financial sector in India. We had a long history in India of over 150 years and with this new investment, we aim to
strengthen our presence in this dramatically growing economy’’. Significantly, the agreement and open offer are subject to regulatory and other approvals and are expected to be completed by April, 2004. The remaining 79.92 per cent interest in UTI Bank is held by a number of entities and shareholders, including government institutions, corporate investors and individual shareholders.
— UNI
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US imposes anti-dumping duty on Indian steel
Washington, December 3 It has also imposed duties on four other countries. In a final ruling yesterday, the department determined that foreign producers are dumping PC strand — as it is commonly known — in the US market at less than fair value and imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 119 per cent on imports from Brazil; 102 per cent on India, 54 per cent on Korea, 77 per cent on Mexico and 13 per cent on Thailand. Dumping is a violation of US and international trade law and occurs when goods are sold in the US market at a lower price than in the home market, the department said. Indian PC strand imports are also subject to a 63 per cent countervailing duty to offset unfair subsidies. The parties involved in the case will testify before the International Trade Commission (ITC), which is the next and final step in the filing of an unfair trade case. The final anti-dumping and countervailing duties go into effect if the ITC concludes that the US industry is being injured by the imports. PC strand is a high strong concrete reinforcement that is used in concrete elements and structures such as parking decks, commercial and institutional construction, slabs on grade, bridges, and concrete pilings. In 2002, the US market for PC strand was approximately $190 million. The US steel industry body, the PC Strand Coalition, said it was also monitoring imports from China and Argentina, whose imports recently had surged into the US market. The Coalition said it intended to aggressively combat efforts by foreign exporters and their US importers to undermine the efficacy of these duties and US law. The unfair trade petition was filed by the Coalition in January.
— UNI
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IT firms cheer as Bill in Indiana blocked
New Delhi, December 3 Local industry officials say the decision comes as a "morale booster" for Indian technology companies that are facing a backlash in the West over outsourcing of jobs. "The blocking of the Bill by a US state is a very good precedent," said Sameer Kochhar, CEO of New Delhi-based IT industry research firm Skoch Consultancy. "It puts things in perspective that outsourcing not only benefits Indian companies but also the economy of the nation that gets work done at a sharply lower cost," Kochhar told IANS. "The decision certainly comes as a morale booster for the Indian IT industry. The local companies should now put their act together and highlight the advantages of outsourcing and clarify some of the doubts." In a major development on Tuesday, lawmakers in Indiana opposed a Bill, introduced by Governor Joe Kernan, to ban non-US citizens from government contract jobs, as they felt it could affect the American state's drive to attract foreign investment. The lawmakers will now try to "limit the scope" of the Bill and find "better ways" to help Indiana companies win government contracts. A modified Bill could be debated in January. Indiana last month dropped a $15.4 million outsourcing contract for IT services with Tata Consultancy. The move was part of an initiative launched by Governor Kernan to protect the local companies and jobs. The deal was agreed upon only a few months earlier by the state with TCS America, a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy. Kernan cancelled it after learning that TCS America planned to import 65 Indian workers to work along side 18 current state employees. The Indiana controversy is only the latest involving states and offshore companies. A New Jersey politician is also rebelling against outsourcing of government jobs to other countries. Senator Shirley Turner is reported to be considering legislation that will ban the outsourcing of state contracts to companies based abroad. India's vast pool of English-speaking and cheap manpower, educational system and training programmes have helped transform the country into a global outsourcing superpower. The rapidly growing BPO industry has virtually turned the country into an electronic housekeeper to the world, taking care of a host of routine activities for multinational giants. More than a quarter of Fortune 500 companies like General Electric, American Express, British Airways, HSBC and Citibank are shifting their back office operations to India. Britain's largest insurer Aviva Plc announced on Tuesday it would create 2,500 back office jobs to India in addition to the 1,200 jobs that had already been transferred here. Nasscom welcomed the latest Indiana move saying outsourcing would benefit the Indian as well as the US economy in the long run. "We hope the decision will also have an impact on protests that are going on in some part of the world against outsourcing. We understand the fact that outsourcing is a win-win situation for all stakeholders," said a Nasscom official.
— IANS
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65 pc quota worries
investors in HP Solan, December 3 As many as 120 units have made preliminary registration with the Industries Department in Solan district and initial estimates of the department have pegged the labour requirement at 20,000. Industrialists opine that merely 10-15 per cent of the work force comprises managerial and technical posts and the rest, 85-90 per cent, are the crucial labour class in any unit. The general secretary of the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association, Mr A.K. Chawla, opined that though some new trades in the industrial training institutes had been introduced across the state, it would take another five to seven years for them to get equipped. Similar sentiments were echoed by a section of new investors, proposing to set up units here. They said the matter would be taken up with the government soon. Asserting that any unit required hard working consistent labour force, especially in its initial years, the investors said it was the migrant labour which dominated most of the adjoining states. Not only was work culture largely amiss in the local youth, they attached little significance in putting in their best effort. This acted as a deterrent in employing them, they observed. It was also being felt that the lure of a government job made many Himachali youth enroll themselves in employment exchanges, despite doing private jobs.
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| Cashing in on ‘vanity’ numbers Jammu, December 3 BSNL, which introduced the mobile phone service in J&K in September, had so far issued about 13,000 SIM cards here and an equal number at Srinagar. The district headquarters were gradually being brought on the cellular map. With its monopoly in mobile telephone here, BSNL had for the first time introduced certain “vanity numbers’ which were being sold at a premium of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5000 each. There were a large number of SIM card takers even at this high premium as the people were not certain whether the capacity of the exchange would be further increased or not. A senior BSNL officer, said it was a takers market here without any competition from any other cellular company so why should not the BSNL make some buck out of it. Another list of vanity numbers might be issued as it was being planned to issue 15,000 SIM cards here against the capacity of 13,000. BSNL had so far identified over 500 numbers under the “vanity” category which were sold in a single day of being advertised. This includes a list of about 230 numbers earlier this week. About 23,000 applications were received for mobile connections in Jammu alone against the capacity of issuing 13,000 SIM cards. The connections were allotted through a lottery system and it had taken almost three months to issue the SIM cards. BSNL had now started picking all sorts of numbers and listing these under the “vanity” category to provide connections to certain left-out persons. Numbers like “91313”, “86600, “80022”, “95577 and “86600”, which would hardly had been of choice in any other state where BSNL was in competition with the private players, had been now put under this category. Interestingly, the idea of the “vanity numbers’ had struck the authorities only after issuing premium numbers to top bureaucrats and politicians. BSNL officials retained the most attractive numbers for themselves. It is learnt that a proposal has been sent for increasing the capacity of the cellular exchange to 1 lakh here. In its zeal to earn an extra amount, BSNL has not introduced any of the new schemes which were operational elsewhere in the country. The connection holders were to satisfy themselves with the basic 225,325 and 525 schemes. The Rs 99 per month scheme for students has not been launched here and neither has been the Rs 140 scheme.
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New version of Grand Vitara soon New Delhi, December 3 The new car will have a 2.7 litre V6 engine, with a maximum output of 166 bhp, making it powerful than all other SUVs in the domestic market. Like the earlier version, the new Grand Vitara XL-7 will also be imported as completely built unit (CBU) from Suzuki Motor Corporation in Japan. Maruti had recently launched a new- look Zen, designed and styled in house. With the new Grand Vitara XL-7, it is trying to establish itself in the power and luxury category as well, sources said. The car will also have some changes externally. The launch in India is a part of an international launch by Suzuki, the sources said. Although the market for SUVs in India is small relative to the total market, these have picked up in recent months with a flurry of new launches. Chevrolet Forester,Mitsubishi Pajero, Hyundai Terracan, Ford Endeavour and Honda CRV have been launched in recent months. Maruti had launched the Grand Vitara XL-7 in India in April 2003. It was not placed in showrooms but was sold through doorstep test drive for select customers. The Grand Vitara XL-7 was the first model launched by Suzuki in India after it took control of Maruti management. Until then, though Suzuki’s global leadership in small cars was well known to Indian customers, many did not know that SMC was also a leading player in 4x4 vehicles and SUVs in the global markets.
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Churchill’s love letters fetch £3 lakh
London, December 3 Letters written by Churchill to his first love were avidly bought as collectors competed for mementoes of one of the most romantic episodes in his life. One passionate note to Pamela Plowden became the most expensive Churchill letter ever auctioned. An anonymous private collector bought it for £77,675. In the letter, Churchill told her: "I have lived all my life seeing the most beautiful women London produces... never have I seen one for whom I would for an hour forgo the business of life. "Then I met you... were I a dreamer of dreams, I would say 'marry me - and I will conquer the world and lay it at your feet'." Churchill wrote constantly to Pamela, the daughter of the Governor of Bengal and acting Viceroy of India, whom he met in 1896 when he was a young army officer. For more than three years she was the most important person in his life and when he escaped from enemy captivity during the Boer War she sent a terse but obviously relieved telegram to him. Although the relationship did not last, they remained friendly long after their respective marriages. The collection of more than 40 letters sold for £291,220.
— IANS
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ICICI Bank,
Tisco, Wipro among top 10 in Asia Mumbai, December 3 The companies are ICICI Bank, ITC Limited, Larsen &
Toubro, Tata Steel and Wipro Ltd. The other five top Hewitt Associates’ companies for Leaders in Asia Pacific-2003 are: Asia Pacific Breweries, CLP Power Hong Kong, Sing Tel, Sinclair Knight Merz and The Australian Gas Light Co. As many as 63 Indian companies took part in the study, which, per se, reveal the extent of interest the Indian industry had in :leadership development”, said Marc
Effron, global practice leader for leadership consulting at Hewitt. —
UNI
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