Bangalore, July 19
Wipro Limited today reported a 45 per cent jump in net profit year-on-year at Rs 620 crore in the first quarter as it continued to ride the outsourcing boom, beating its global IT services revenue guidance.

Revenues for the April-June quarter of 2006-07 increased by 39 per cent to Rs 3,143 crore, compared to the same period last fiscal. Revenue from the New York Stock Exchange-listed firm's global IT services business was $539.3 million (Rs 2,425 crore), ahead of its guidance of $533 million.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji told a media conference the external environment remains buoyant as the company sees offshoring at the centre-stage of IT strategy of global corporations.

"In these exciting times, we are well-positioned to benefit from our diversified service portfolio and deep industry expertise", he said. "Looking ahead, for the quarter ending September 2006, we expect revenue from our global IT services business to be approximately $577 million".

Wipro added 62 new customers, including around 20 from recent acquisitions, during the quarter, which also saw the company taking on board about 2,400 employees on a net basis.

The company said global IT services and products revenue grew 42 per cent to Rs 2,451 crore, while the India, West Asia and Asia business and Wipro Consumer Care and lighting business recorded 35 per cent and 30 per cent revenue growth year-on-year.

A string of acquisitions in the past six months notwithstanding, Wipro seems hungry for more.

Mr Azim Premji said the IT firm’s buy-outs would be bigger going forward as it seeks to build a stronger strategic footprint overseas.

“Going forward, size of the acquisitions will be a little bigger than we have been doing in the past”, he said after announcing company’s results. “But that does not necessarily mean they will be substantially bigger”.

In the last six months, Wipro announced six acquisitions, including that of US-bsaed mechanical design services provider Quantech and European retail solutions provider Enabler.

“While these acquisitions definitely have long-term strategic value, we are equally confident that we will derive significant value from these in the medium term as well”, Mr Premji said.

Wipro's Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty said on the margin front, improved realisations, higher utilisation, continued improvements in BPO profitability helped partially offset additional investments in sales and marketing and acquisition-related pressures on profitability". — PTI

Kolkata, July 18
SK Birla group today decided to divest 51 per cent of its stake in Mysore Cement to German major Heidelberg Cement.

The decision to divest a majority stake in the company was approved by the Board of Mysore Cement here today.

As per the proposal 6.65 crore equity shares would be allotted to Heidelberg (HC AG) by way of a fresh issue on a preferential basis to raise long-term resources of the company subject to the approval of shareholder, according to a statement by the company.

The issue price has been fixed at Rs 54 per equity shares (a premium of over 13 per cent over the BSE closing price of July 18, 2006, and about 23 per cent over the minimum issue price under relevant SEBI rules).

The promoter group will sell 1.34 crore shares (at Rs 58 per share excluding non-compete fees of Rs 14.50 per share) out of its present holdings to the Heidelberg Cement group who will also be making an open offer to shareholders in accordance with regulations at the above price of Rs 58 per share (a premium of over 21 per cent over the BSE closing price of July 18, 2006).

Expressing its joint resolve to work for further bolstering the company’s position in the Indian cement sector, the promoter group said Mr S.K. Birla would continue to get full support at the Board level as the non-executive Chairman and Mr Sidharth Birla as Director, with the composition of the Board remaining compliant with Clause 49 of the listing agreement and Heidelberg to nominate others on the Board as deemed appropriate at the time.

The proposal enables Mysore Cement not only to retain its corporate identity but also raise resources to help address its debt and capital expenditure needs, besides being able to strengthen its presence in both Central and Southern market regions, the release said. — PTI

New Delhi, July 19
Launching the new refurbished model of WagonR here today Suzuki Motor Corporation’s Indian arm, Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL), said that it would hike the prices of all its models by month-end.

When asked specifically about the possibility of a price hike as most of the other car manufacturing companies had raised their prices, MUL’s Managing Director Jagdish Khattar said: “we are in the process of working out a price revision and new prices would be announced by the end of this month”.

However, the newly launched WagonR would presently be available at the existing prices before the new prices were launched.

Higher costs of inputs and freight has seen margins of automobile companies come under severe pressure.

Farnborough (UK), July 19
Wadia Group’s low-cost carrier GoAir has signed an agreement with Airbus Industrie to acquire 10 A-320 aircraft with an option of purchasing 10 more, intending to expand its route network in the next few months.

The agreement was signed at the ongoing airshow by Airbus President and CEO Cristian Streiss and GoAir Managing Director Jeh Wadia on Monday.

These aircraft would be powered by CFM International engines and would have an all economy configuration of 180 seats.

After signing the agreement, Mr Wadia said the aircraft would enable GoAir to develop its domestic network and introduce new routes in India.

“We are delighted to sign this agreement which also expresses our long standing confidence in the A-320 family of aircraft. With these new aircraft we will be able to offer our ‘Fly-Smart’ experience to passengers throughout the country”, Mr Wadia said. — PTI

Mumbai, July 19
Air Deccan has placed a $500 million order with International Aero Engines (IAE) to power the airline’s yet-to-be acquired Airbus fleet.

The deal which was inked at the Faranborough air show in London, will be extended to cover Air Deccan’s existing fleet and an earlier firm order of 30 Airbus A320 family aircraft.

“The latest engine order is valued at more than $500 million and brings the total firm V2500-powered A320 family aircraft on order to 60,” the airline said here.

IAE is a multinational aero-engine consortium between Pratt & Whitney, European conglomerate Rolls-Royce, the Japanese Aero Engines Corporation and MTU Aero Engines.

The “V2500SelectSM” engine is a combined engine upgrade and aftermarket support program which improves fuel burn, reduces operating costs and offers time-on-wing improvements.

Engine upgrades are planned to be released to production in 2008 and will be retrofittable to the in-service fleet.— PTI 

Mumbai, July 19
Reliance Communications has slashed the international call rates by up to 66 per cent. Making a formal announcement in this connection here today, Reliance Communications President (Wireless) S P Shukla said: ‘’We are committed to offering convenient and affordable connectivity solutions to our many million customers.’’ The company had recently launched its ‘One Nation’ and the revolutionary one-net plans.

The new rates would enable Reliance customers to call all numbers in the USA, Canada and South-East Asia at Rs 4.50 per minute.

Similarly, calls to the UK on landline and mobile will cost Rs 6and Rs 8, respectively, and all calls to Gulf countries will cost only Rs 8 per minute. Besides, the calls to countries like Australia and New Zealand have been lowered to Rs 6from Rs 18earlier. The new tariffs would be made available on Reliance Global call card across all denominations.

The subscribers will have the option of using the Reliance Global Call Card on Reliance mobile or Reliance Hello phones, pre-paid as well as post-paid. Also, the company offers the convenience of PIN less dialling, thus making the customers free from paying any security deposit for availing the ILD facilities. — UNI

Bangalore, July 19
Leading biotechnology company, Biocon Limited today maintained a profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 39 crore for the quarter ended June 30 in comparision to the same quarter in 2005-06, due to higher fixed cost on account of Biocon Park.

The total income of the company increased 21.02 per cent to Rs 213 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 as against Rs 176 crore for the corresponding quarter a year ago, Biocon said.

The total sales of the company for the quarter ended June 30 was at Rs 212 crore as compared to Rs 174 crore in the same quarter last fiscal, it added.

The earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization was at Rs 55 crore for the three months ended June 30 as against Rs 52 crore in the same period a year ago.

"Our financial performance for Q1 FY 07 has generated good profitability despite challenges. This underpins our confidence in pursuing discovery-led research programs. We believe that our innovation led business initiatives have the potential to realise exponential growth in the long-term and deliver superior shareholder value in future," Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said.

Meanwhile, the company today announced a licensing agreement with multinational healthcare corporation Bayer HealthCare for exclusive marketing and trademark rights for Insugen, a recombinant human insulin, for the Chinese market. Insugen is expected to be launched within the next two to three years in China, Biocon said.— PTI

Mumbai, July 19
The rupee today grew weaker by 30 paise to close at a four- month high of Rs 47 per dollar compared to the previous close of Rs 46.70, primarily triggered by the stock market decline, a trader in the money market said.

The weak rupee is good for exports and will help the software scrips like Infosys, TCS and Satyam to surge if the situation continues, the trader added.

The rupee earlier opened at Rs 46.75/78 and in the mid- morning session traded at Rs 46.93/95.

The RBI today fixed the reference rate at Rs 46.95.

The rupee’s performance against other currencies also declined. Against Euro it was down at Rs 58.70 (58.47), against Pound Sterling it was down at Rs 85.85 (85.35), and against Yen it was down at Rs 39.95 (39.88).— UNI

Mumbai, July 19
Prices of gold and silver crashed once again on weak global advice, traders at the Bombay Bullion Association said today.

Standard gold (99.5 purity) opened at Rs 9,565 per 10 gm and closed at Rs 9,500 per 10 gm with a huge loss of Rs 335 from its yesterday's close.

Pure gold (99.9 purity) also opened at Rs 9,610 per 10 gm and closed at Rs 9,555 per 10 gm with a huge loss of Rs 330 from its last close.

Similarily, silver .999 fineness variety also opened low at Rs 17,080 per kg. Later, it closed at Rs 17,160 per kg with a massive loss of Rs 780 from its previous close. — UNI

Mumbai, July 19
Associated Cement Companies Ltd today posted a profit after tax at Rs 405.58 crore for the quarter ended June 30 whereas the same was at Rs 142.44 crore for the corresponding quarter in the year 2005-06.

Total income (net of excise) stood at Rs 1477.63 crore in the second quarter in 2006-07 whereas the same was at Rs 1165.43 crore during Q2 FY 05-06, the company said. ACC also said it was investing Rs 537 crore for setting up a 30-MW captive power plant and was taking up expansion of the Bargarh cement works from 0.96 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) to 2.14 MIPA.

The group reported a consolidated profit after provision for taxation & exceptional item of Rs 411.79 crore for the quarter ended June 30 in FY 06-07 whereas the same was at Rs 148.95 crore in the year-ago period.

The consolidated total income of the group (net of excise was Rs 1493.88 crore in Q2 FY 06-07 whereas the same was at Rs 122.61 crore during Q2 FY 05-06.