Bangalore, October 15
Recording double digit growth in net profit and revenue for the second quarter ended September 30, 2010, Infosys, India’s second largest IT company, has revised its revenue guidance for this fiscal.

The company’s net profit grew 13.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1,737 crore and 16.7 per cent sequentially according to Indian accounting standards. Consolidated revenue grew 24.4 per cent y-o-y and 12 per cent sequentially to Rs 6,947 crore.

Consolidated revenue this fiscal will be around Rs 27,058 crore, an increase of 19 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 1.7 percent higher than the Rs 26,663 crore it projected in July according to the Indian accounting standard.

Under the International Financial Regulatory System (IFRS), revenue is expected to be $6 billion, 25 per cent increase y-o-y and 5 per cent higher than its July projection of $5.8 billion.

Under the IFRS, net income at $374 million is up 18 per cent y-o-y and 14.7 per cent sequentially, while gross income at $1.5 billion is up 29.6 per cent y-o-y and 10.2 per cent from the previous quarter (April-June).

“Though the economic environment continues to be challenging, we have leveraged our client relationships, solutions and investments to grow faster in this (second) quarter,” CEO S Gopalakrishnan said.

Guidance for the third quarter (Oct-Dec) is projected to be Rs 6,919 crore, a y-o-y growth of 21 per cent according to the Indian accounting standard

“There are significant drivers for investment in information technology (IT), as any transformation programme to ‘build tomorrow’s enterprise’ requires these investments to be made. We are partnering with our clients on these initiatives,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Addition of 27 clients during the quarter by the company and its subsidiaries was less sequentially from 38 in the first quarter (April-June) and 35 a year ago.

However, active client base has gone to 592 from 590 in last quarter and 571 a year ago.

“Our portfolio of service and our enhanced focus on solutions as well as new engagement model are providing a compelling value proposition to our clients,” COO SD Shibulal said.

“Our operating margins improved marginally during the quarter, while our cash reserves increased to $3.9 billion from $.3.4 billion in the previous quarter (April-June),” CFO V Balakrishnan said.

The company and its subsidiaries added 14,264 employees for the quarter.

“We have seen record hiring this (second) quarter and attrition has decreased. Our new career architecture is showing positive results,” board member and head of HRD and education and research TV Mohandas Pai said.

Boston, October 15
India's Tata Group has given a whopping $50 million to the prestigious Harvard Business School here to fund a new academic and residential building on its campus, the largest gift received by the institute from an international donor in its 102-year-old history.

The gift comes from Tata Companies, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Tata Education and Development Trust, the philanthropic entities of the Group.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, attended Harvard's Advanced Management Programme - one of three comprehensive leadership programmes offered by the Harvard Business School's (HBS') Executive Education - in 1975.

The School said it will use the gift from the Tata Group to fund a new academic and residential building on its campus for participants in its broad portfolio of Executive Education programmes.

"The Harvard Business School is the preeminent place to be exposed to the world's best thinking on management and leadership and we are pleased that this gift will support the School's educational mission to mold the next generation of global business leaders," Tata said.

"Thanks to this generous gift, HBS will be able to expand its already robust offerings in Executive Education, deepening ties with leaders across the country and around the globe," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. — PTI

New Delhi, October 15
India expects investments of $14 billion in its ninth licensing round for 34 exploration blocks, petroleum minister Murli Deora said on Friday, a big step-up from a year ago when interest was tepid in an economic downturn.

India is offering the oil and gas blocks in its latest exploration round which it launched on Friday after a preview event in London on October 8. In its previous eight rounds of auctions, New Delhi has awarded 235 blocks.

"Forty-eight foreign companies participated (in the preview event) ... the response of the foreign companies was encouraging," the Petroleum and Natural Gas ministry said in a statement. A roadshow will kick off in Mumbai on October 18 and then move to Moscow, Houston, Calgary, Perth and Singapore, the ministry statement said. Deadline for bids is March 18, 2011.

In the ninth round, there are eight deepwater blocks on offer, seven in shallow water and a further 19 blocks are onshore. — Reuters

New Delhi, October 15
In what is being seen as its financing strategy for recent shale gas acquisitions in the USA, Reliance Industries has raised $1.5 billion through dollar denominated bonds, in a transaction which is the largest-ever corporate bond issue from India.

RIL today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Holding USA, Inc. raised $1 billion from 10-year bonds and $500 million from 30-year bonds. The transaction was nearly 7.8 times oversubscribed with an order book aggregating $ 11.6 billion.

This issue marks the return of Reliance's to the Global markets since its last US dollar issuance in 1997. This is the largest ever public market offshore bond offering by Reliance and is the largest such corporate issue in Asia this year.

This is the first US dollar 30-year private corporate issuance out of Asia since 2003, and the largest corporate USD issuance in Asia this year. The 10-year Notes have been priced at 205 basis points or 2.05 per cent over the 10-year US Treasury Note.

According to sources, the funds will be used to finance the recent shale gas acquisitions made by RIL in the USA. RIL has completed three acquisitions in the USA and two in the Marcellus field. In April, it acquired a 40% stake in Atlas Energy Inc.’s core shale acreage in Marcellus for $1.7 billion. In June, it paid $1.35 billion for a 45% stake in Pioneer Natural Resources Co., another US-based energy firm that holds shale gas assets in the Eagle Ford Shale acreage. Shale gas is a potential source of energy and several energy companies are now vying for it. The bonds were subscribed by hedge funds, banks and private banks, and insurance and pension funds.

Alok Agarwal, CFO, Reliance, commented, “This offering is a global benchmark supported by high quality accounts that believe in Reliance’s credit and value creation story.”

New Delhi, October 15
Vodafone said on Friday it had filed a writ with the Bombay High Court defending itself against a new step by Indian tax authorities to treat the company as an agent of the seller in its 2007 purchase of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd’s mobile business in the country.

Vodafone is fighting a tax bill in India, which tax authorities say is more than Rs 12,000 crore ($2.7 billion) including interest, on the $11.1 billion deal.

Tax authorities have said Vodafone’s deal was liable for tax because most of the assets were based in India and buyers must withhold capital gains tax liabilities and pay them to the government. Vodafone has said Indian law did not require it to deduct tax and that the tax is usually paid by the seller.

Vodafone said the tax office has now initiated a ‘different process’, treating Vodafone as an agent of the seller and termed it an ‘unusual development’.

Vodafone has appealed to the Supreme Court over the tax authorities’ jurisdiction to tax the deal, after the Bombay High Court dismissed its petition and ruled that the tax office had jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court will set a date on October 25 for hearing Vodafone's appeal challenging the lower court ruling, the world's largest telecommunications operator by revenue said last month.

”Vodafone contends that the key issue of jurisdiction (as to whether the Indian tax office can tax the transfer of a foreign company's shares between two non-residents) is currently under appeal to the Supreme Court of India,” the company said in Friday’s statement. — Reuters

Mumbai, October 15
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will introduce new mechanisms to check stock price volatility beginning Monday.

As mandated by the market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), both the BSE and the NSE will implement the pre-open call auction from 9 am to 9.15 am on every trading day beginning Monday. Consequently, the market will be open for trading from 9.15 am onwards. According to both exchanges, the first eight minutes of the pre-open call auction session will be reserved for order entry, modification and cancellation, the next four minutes will be kept for order matching and trade confirmation. The rest of the time will be kept as a buffer period to facilitate the transition from pre-open session to the normal market.

According to SEBI, call auctions reduce price volatility due to multiple matching of orders at a single price. This exercise also allows for greater liquidity due to deeper demand supply schedule and better price discovery.

Initially call auction session will be applicable for Sensex 30 and Nifty 50 scrips. Depending on the success of this measure more scrips may be added in the pre-open call auction, officials said.

BRIEFLY

ONGC’s 2 new oil & gas discoveries
New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on Friday announced two new oil and gas discoveries in the country and said one of the discoveries has been put on to production. An oil discovery was made in an onland Cauvery Basin block and a gas find in the offshore Krishna-Godavari Basin, ONGC said. — PTI

ABG Shipyard bags Rs 370 crore order
New Delhi: ABG Shipyard, a domestic ship manufacturing and repairing company, on Friday announced that it has received orders worth Rs 370 crore (approximately $82.5 million) from two different customers. — PTI

HC nod for RPower, RNRL merger
Mumbai: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) today said the Bombay High Court has approved the merger of both entities. According to the scheme of arrangement, Reliance Power (RPower) shall issue and allot one equity share of Rs 10 face value for every four equity shares of Rs 5 face value of RNRL, the companies said in separate filings to the BSE. — PTI

SBI’s Rs 1,000-crore retail bond issue
Mumbai: Days ahead of launch of its Rs-1,000 crore retail bonds issue, the country's largest lender SBI on Friday said it is likely to offer many more such issues every quarter. State Bank of India will launch its up to Rs 1,000 crore retail bond issue on October 18. The issue is a part of its Tier-II offering and will comprise an issue of Rs 500 crore with an option to retain over-subscription up to Rs 500 crore for issuance of additional bonds totalling Rs 1,000 crore. — PTI

Re logs fresh 25-month high
Mumbai: The rupee today breached the 44 level to touch a fresh 25-month high but closed stable at 44.10/11 against the US currency. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit opened lower at 44.22/23 a dollar from its previous close of 44.10/11 and touched the day's low of 44.25. Dealers attributed initial fall in the rupee to dollar demand from some banks and importers. But the rupee later bounced back to a fresh 25-1/2-month high of 43.97 on sustained capital inflows. It, however, concluded at yesterday's level of 44.10/11. — PTI

AMW signs MoU for finance
Shimla: Heavy commercial vehicles maker AMW has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Himachal Gramin Bank to finance purchase of its vehicles. Chief Marketing Officer Rajesh C Mangal said the objective was to ensure easy finance. The conventional six-wheel vehicles were making way for the 10 to 12 wheel haulage segment in Northern India, opening up huge possibilities for 25 and 31-tonne heavy CVs. AMW’s strength was in identifying market needs and providing customised solutions that increased productivity and profitability of our customers. — TNS

Forex reserves swell $1.63 bn
Mumbai: The country's foreign exchange reserves went up by $1.63-billion to $295.79-billion on the back of a healthy jump in foreign currency assets, making it the fourth consecutive weekly rise in the kitty. India's total forex reserves went up by $2.56-billion to $294.16-billion the previous week. — PTI