The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Q3 Results RIL net up 15% at Rs 4,008 cr Tribune News Service Mumbai, January 22 Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) today reported a 15.8 per cent rise in net profit for the third quarter at Rs 4,008 crore as proceeds from the sale of Krishna-Godavari (KG) natural gas kicked in. According to a statement issued by the company, net profit in the October-December quarter of the current financial year stood at Rs 4,008 crore as against Rs 3,462 crore in FY 09. The rise came despite the company earning just $5.9 on every barrel of crude processed at its refineries as against $10 per barrel in the third quarter of last year. RIL revealed that revenues from its exploration and production business more than trebled to Rs 3,530 crore as gas production from the KG gas fields rose to 55-60 million standard cubic meters per day. The merger of Reliance Petroleum also helped boost RIL's revenue by 142.9 per cent to Rs 48,000 crore. However, poor performance in the earlier quarters of the year caused RIL's net profit for the nine-month period to drop 1.33 per cent to Rs 11,526 crore. Earnings before interest and tax dropped 26.7 per cent to Rs 1,379 crore. Petrochemicals business saw 16.9 per cent rise in revenue to Rs 14,756 crore. The company said it had an outstanding debt of Rs 70,008 crore as on December 31 and cash reserve of Rs 15,959 crore. “I am delighted that both our key projects - the new SEZ refinery and KG D6 oil - and gas development have ramped up successfully. This reaffirms our belief in our ability to create truly world-class assets in the integrated energy value chain. Reliance is well poised to benefit from the improving global economic environment and domestic markets opportunities,” RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said in the statement.
	Core sector logs 6 pc growth in Dec New Delhi, January 22 The six core sectors grew by 6 per cent in December which would further drive up industrial growth and make up for any loss of farm production to sustain the India growth story. The six core sectors — crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel — have a weight of over 25 per cent in the industrial production index and may well catapult it to nine per cent growth this fiscal against just 7.6 per cent so far. “It is an indication of further improvement in industrial performance that will contribute to industrial growth rising to about 9 per cent by the end of the current fiscal year,” Icrier director and chief executive Rajiv Kumar said. Finished steel and crude oil turned the table, expanding by 9.6 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively, against 8 per cent and 0.3 per cent contraction last year. Cement remained at top of the chart growing by a stunning 11 per cent, though it was less than 11.6 per cent in December 2008. However, oil production and coal output remained sluggish, which may come in the way of economic activities. All these six sectors expanded by just 0.7 per cent a year ago, when the economy came under the impact of the deepening global crisis. For the first nine months of this fiscal, the sectors grew by 4.8 per cent compared to 3.2 per cent a year ago. When they grew by 5.3 per cent in November, industrial production expanded by more than 11 per cent. As such, in December IIP is expected to be quite high given these numbers and may compensate for any loss in GDP numbers due to expected fall in farm output. “This growth is because of base effect. But I think some momentum is picking up in the economy and also in the core sector,”Crisil principal economist DK Joshi said. Coal output, however, declined by 2.5% at 48.79 million tonne, while crude production expanded by a paltry 1.1% at 2.9 million tonne, and refinery output grew by a meagre 0.9 % at 12.6 million tonne during the month. “It is a welcome growth in steel and cement, recorded mainly due to spurt in construction and other activities. However, the decline in coal production is mainly due to the fact that no new coal deposits could be developed,” Federation of Indian Mineral Industries secretary general RK Sharma said.— PTI
	Bharti Airtel growth stalls as profit dips 2.3% Tribune News Service & PTI New Delhi, January 22 As the country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel reported a low net profit growth of 2.3 per cent at Rs 2,209.80 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2009, it asserted that it was not looking at acquiring US telecom carrier Sprint, but would continue to focus on emerging markets. “No, we are not looking at any such company . We are looking at emerging markets because our business model can be implanted well in these economies. We will continue our focus there,” Bharti Airtel Group CEO Manoj Kohli said, pointing out that the company sees huge potential for penetration in the emerging markets. While Kohli hoped that the process for the auction of the 3G spectrum could be completed in this fiscal itself, the company reported low profits due to low tariff and severe competition. Total revenue, as per the US accounting rules, rose over one per cent to Rs 9,772.2 crore during the December quarter, from Rs 9,633.4 crore in the corresponding period last year, Bharti Airtel said in a statement. “In a hyper competitive situation like we are witnessing now in the industry, we have retained our revenue market share at 32 per cent and have a very strong EBITDA margin at 40 %, which shows our strong performance," Kohli said. He explained that while there was a trend of adding 15-16 million subscribers a month, it was not adding more revenue to the industry as the revenue earnings customers were less. “Real customers addition will be in single digit. We do not see customers holding multiple SIM cards adding to revenue," he said. As per accounting norms, Bharti Airtel posted over 13 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 2,236.90 crore. The total income rose to Rs 10,327.57 crore during the quarter from Rs 9,688.5 crore in the year-ago period. ITC net up 26.7 pc FMCG and agri businesses conglomerate ITC has reported a 26.7 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 1,144.17 crore for the third quarter of current financial year. The company's net sales grew by 18.2 per cent to Rs 4,531.85 crore in the quarter under review. It had sales of Rs 3,833.31 crore in the year-ago period. While its FMCG business grew by 18.7 per cent, registering revenue of Rs 3,221.25 crore during the quarter, the agri business grew by 45.63 per cent to Rs 905.16 crore. Fortis profit up three-fold Hospital chain Fortis Healthcare has reported over three-fold increase in net profit at Rs 21.7 crore for the quarter ended on December 31. The company had a net profit of Rs 6.81 crore for the corresponding quarter previous year, the company said in a statement. During the quarter under consideration, the company's operating income rose by 44.8 per cent to Rs 229.4 crore as against Rs 158.4 crore in the comparable period, an year ago. Neyveli Lignite Corp State-run Neyveli Lignite Corporation has said its net profit rose by 65.48 per cent to Rs 371.11 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, over the same period previous fiscal. Income from operations rose to Rs 863 crore for the latest quarter against Rs 662.04 crore for the same period last fiscal. Hindustan Zinc Vedanta Group company Hindustan Zinc has reported an over three-fold jump in net profit at Rs 1,148.65 crore for the third quarter ended December 31. Net sales of the company doubled to Rs 2,216.73 crore in October-December from Rs 1031.41 crore of the same quarter last fiscal. For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2009, the company posted a net profit of Rs 2,802.42 crore compared to Rs 2,176.14 crore of the same period last financial year.
	Investors turn to small saving schemes Collections up by 298 pc over last year Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 22 The volatile capital markets and falling bank deposit rates have led to a trend reversal, the common man once again looking at various small saving schemes as the best investment option. Thus, after almost five years, the small saving collections have gone up dramatically - by almost 298 per cent over last year. Increasing number of investors are now turning towards the traditional saving schemes like National Savings Certificate, senior citizens scheme, post office term deposits and public provident fund (PPF). The data on both gross and net small saving collection for the country reveals that after many years the deposits in these schemes are more than the withdrawals. As a result, the gross collections are up to Rs 94,239.33 crore, while the net collections are up to Rs 12,192.39 crore (till September 2009). Other than Kerala, Manipur, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu, net collections are up in all other states. Comparatively, net collections in the country last year were in the negative ( - 2169.84 crore), as the withdrawals were more than the deposits. Figures available for Punjab, Haryana, HP, J&K and Chandigarh till November also show that the gross and net collections have seen a significant rise. Figures made available by the National Savings Institute show that while gross collections are up by 29% over the past year, the net collections are also up by 298.46% over the past year. The small savings collection in HP has gone up to Rs 848.80 crore (it was in the negative last year Rs at 447.98 crore) while Haryana has seen a rise to Rs 564.46 crore. In fact, the net collections in Punjab and Chandigarh have exceeded the target set by the government. The collections in Punjab have been recorded at Rs 848. 80 crore ( as against a target of Rs 750 crore) and in Chandigarh at Rs 83.95 crore (as against a target of Rs 60 crore). Officials in National Savings Institute said the bank deposit rates had now fallen from 10.5-11 per cent to just 7-7.5 per cent now. “People have also been weaned away from the stock markets and mutual funds because of the ongoing volatility in capital markets. As a result, investors have once again turned towards risk-free small saving schemes, which offer 8-9 per cent interest,” said Rajiv Sagar, regional director, National Savings Institute.
	Toyota to recall 2 mn vehicles in US New York, January 22 Toyota will recall 2.3 million vehicles in the US to fix defective accelerator pedals that can become stuck, the latest in a series of quality problems that have haunted the world’s biggest automaker. The company’s US division said in a statement that the recall was to correct accelerator pedals on specific Toyota models that become worn and then in some cases get lodged in a partially depressed position. The move comes just months after Toyota recalled about 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles -- its largest-ever measure - to reduce the risk of gas pedals getting stuck under unsecured and causing sudden acceleration. With a series of massive safety recalls, industry observers said Toyota’s sales in the US market could be hit, especially, because the automaker had expanded its presence on the back of a solid reputation for quality.— PTI