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Thursday,
May 31, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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ITC net profit leaps 27 per cent
DCA orders against LML directors
Punjabi raises $35 m in funding Pledge-loan scheme for farmers soon JPC on stock scam makes slow progress Punjab Agri Export
to start 5 projects |
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Iraq rejects wheat again HDFC to start general insurance Zap Computers’
managers held
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ITC net profit leaps 27 per cent Kolkata, May 30 “These impressive results were achieved despite sluggish business conditions, through continuous value addition to products and services, quality upgradation, strengthening of the goodwill of the company’s trademarks, improvements in productivity and continuous focus on cost management,” company’s Corporate Manager S.H.Venkatramani said after the Board Meeting convened to consider the audited financial results. As a result of these actions, the company’s net trading margins increased to 40 per cent from 35 per cent recorded last year, Venkatramani said, and the Board has recommended a dividend of Rs 10 per share (last year Rs 7.50 per share). Gross income during the fiscal jumped to Rs 8,816.11 crore from Rs 8,069.37 crore while net income stood at Rs 4,341.59 crore against Rs 3,935.48 crore in 1999-2000. Pre-tax profits grew by 30 per cent to Rs 1,600.30 crore from Rs 1,228.95 crore. Venkatramani said the company continued its conservative approach to income tax provisioning relating to certain state taxes, the collection of which had been stayed by appropriate courts. The leadership position in the cigarette industry, he said, was consolidated by pursuing its strategy of continuous value addition resulting in an enriched product mix, while contribution to the exchequer grew by over ten per cent to nearly Rs 5,100 crore during the year. Venkatramani said ITC continued its policy of debt retirement and completed the repayment of the balance of its foreign currency loan during the year. The full impact of the programme, which began last year, reflected in a further reduction of Rs 28 crore in interest cost during the year, standing at Rs 84.91 crore against Rs 112.55 crore last year. Modi Rubber has revised the open offer price to acquire 35 per cent equity in the company from Rs 80 per share to Rs 81.50 per share. The promoters propose to acquire 8,764,186 shares of Rs 10 each of Modi Rubber through the open offer, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), the advisers to the promoters informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today. The offer will now open on June 2, 2001, and close on July 3, 2001 instead of May 16, 2001 as announced earlier. Ranbaxy Ranbaxy Laboratories animal health division has tied up with leading French poultry vaccine research firm Ceva Sante Animale to foray into the high-growth segment. “Ranbaxy Animal Health, the company’s animal health division also holds exclusive rights for marketing Ceva’s vaccine in the country,” the company said here. Eyeing a growth rate of 30 per cent, Ranbaxy has already restructured its animal health division into three separate strategic business units — poultry, livestock and pets. The company which claims to hold 8 per cent market share of animal health in the country has also entered into a strategic marketing tie-up with Denmark-based Novo Nordisk. Ranbaxy has already initiated marketing of “biofeed phytase” of the leading Danish enzyme maker, the company said in its annual report.
Gujarat Ambuja With its presence in the housing infrastructure sector already established, the Gujarat Ambuja group, is now entering the health sector with a mother-child speciality hospital in Kolkata. “We are setting up a mother-child care hospital in Kolkata which should be open by August this year,” Harshavardhan Neotia, the Director of Gujarat Ambuja Cements told PTI here. The Rs 15 crore 65-bed hospital, he said, is almost complete and will be located in the centre of the city. The company has already been shortlisted by the Punjab Government for a couple of major housing projects under joint venture in Mohali and other places, Neotia said.
L&T Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has recently signed a mandate with three leading foreign banks — Citibank, HSBC and ABN Amro Bank — to raise foreign currency loan of $ 104 million at an interest rate of 65 points basis above the Libor. According to a senior official, the entire borrowings will be used to retire a similar amount of foreign currency loan raised by the company at a much higher 105 basis points above Libor in 1996. “We are going to save at least 40 basis points by refinancing the past loans which has a pre-payment clause,” said the official.
PTI, UNI |
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DCA orders against LML directors New Delhi, May 30 “The company has not made provisions for doubtful debts due from Vespa Car Company Ltd,” DCA said in a statement after inspecting books of accounts and other records of LML. LML Managing Director Deepak Singhania said, “The company has made full and adequate disclosures in its balance sheet at all times relating to VCCL Ltd, known formerly as Vespa Car Company Ltd.” “The dues and outstanding to the company from VCCL Ltd were approximately Rs 28 crore, of which, the company recieved approximately Rs 13 crore during the financial year 1999-2000,” he said. In reply to the query over the DCA order, Singhania said LML did not make provision for a portion of the “doubtful debts” due from Vespa during 1999-2000 on the expectation that it would recover the dues later. “LML expects to recover the balance amount from VCCL by way of purchase of its assets and or lease of assets and or disposal of assets, which are in excess of the dues to the company,” he added.
PTI |
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Punjabi raises $35 m in funding New York, May 30 Jalandhar-born Manpreet Khaira, 35, is now busy building a strong IP portfolio for Mobilian, a wireless systems company that designs and develops analog and digital integrated circuits and host and embedded software for standards-based wireless data communications. Khaira founded Mobilian in 1999, with a vision of what he calls True Connectivity. "It's a very simple idea — if you carry any computing or communication device to a certain place, the device can detect all wireless connectivity and get basically seamless connectivity without your knowing about it. We take all that away from the user and leave it to the device to figure all that out," he told IANS. Khaira won the distinguished President of India Gold Medal for academic excellence when he graduated in computer science and engineering from the IIT, Kharagpur. While at Intel, he became one of the youngest principal engineers in that company's history, the highest technical rank prior to being a Fellow. He earned his master's degree in computer science at Carnegie-Mellon University and has seven patents to his credit and a score of publications. He says he founded Mobilian while trying to figure out his own dilemma—of whether to be a "techy" or a manager. "I decided I wanted to do both. The only way was to run my own show." Khaira is recognised as an expert in VLSI design and management. Prior to founding Mobilian, he was principal engineer and director of an advanced design technology group at Intel. He founded the group in 1994, when he was 28, and is credited with growing it to what he says was one of the largest and most prolific advanced design technology groups in the industry. He invented the Technology Maturity Model and built a management system around it to enable rapid conversion of technology to products. Khaira said he began his career in the Intel super computer systems division where he developed validation and verification technologies to reduce the number of steps for chipsets to get to high-volume manufacture. He is also chairman of the board for TrueDisk.com and an advisor to several other startups. On the cusp of releasing its first product — True Radio — where the device auto detects, selects and connects, Khaira said, "Our first two rounds of financing have allowed us to build an impressive team and develop our first The company believes its unique architecture will enable wireless local area and personal area networking technologies to become pervasive over the next few years. Mobilian investors in the latest round include Bessemer Ventures, Raza Venture Fund A, JAFCO, Dell Ventures, SBV Venture Partners. "Having the opportunity to invest in a strong management team, focused on a value-added solution to a real problem combined with a proven ability to deliver, was very important to us." said Todd Dow, principal, Dell Ventures. Since its founding, Mobilian has raised over $60 million in funding. It boasts a strong management team drawn from Qualcomm and Intel, blending wireless communications innovations with expertise in high volume integrated circuit (IC) design and manufacturing. The company operates out of three sites — Hillsboro, Oregon, San Diego, California, and Yoqne'am,
Israel. IANS
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Pledge-loan scheme for farmers soon New Delhi, May 30 Under the scheme, being given final touches, the farmers will be able to raise loans up to 80 to 90 per cent of value of the farm produce, pledged to a financial institution and banks. Broadly, the scheme will be on lines of one in which the traders are already availing loans from banks against their godowned stocks. The scheme will prevent distress selling and help the farmers to hold their produce till they get better prices. As part of the scheme, the government will also extend soft loans to facilitate the farmers in constructing godowns and storages at their places, Mr Srivastava said. This will also prevent recurring gluts in grain markets like that of Punjab and Haryana where the farmers bring their produce to mandies within two-three weeks after the harvest. The sudden rush of stocks not only deteriorate the quality of the produce but also exerts extra-ordinary pressure on the procurement agencies. The scheme is aimed at solving the acute storage problem, minimising the post-harvest losses, streamlining selling of farm products and ensure
remunerative prices to growers who invariably do not have holding capacity. Punjab is already working on such a scheme wherein the farmers will be offered incentives for storing their produce at their own places and selling them at an opportune time. The state, known as granary of the country, is facing an acute storage problem as around 12 million tonnes of old wheat and rice stocks were found lying in open spaces when fresh stocks of about 10 million tonnes of wheat arrive in mandies in last two weeks of April and first week of the current month.
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JPC on stock scam makes slow progress New Delhi, May 30 JPC Chairman P.M.Tripathi told newspersons after the JPC meeting today that the representatives of three stock related organisations— Stock Holding Corporation of India, National Securities Depository Limited and Central Depository Securities Limited— gave a presentation on the working and other modalities of the organisations during the technical briefing. Admitting that the JPC proceedings have been a "bit slow’’, he said it would be speeded up with long sessions to be held between June 12 and June 15. The JPC, which has been asked to give its report by the monsoon session of Parliament, would try to keep the time schedule given to it, Mr Tripathi said. He, however, added that an extension would be sought if the JPC required it. To a question, the Chairman said the JPC would look into the Action Taken Report on the findings of the previous JPC on the stock markets, constituted to probe the Harshad Mehta-led scam in 1992. "The Committee will scrutinise Action Taken Report on the recommendations of the JPC on the 1992 security scam and will issue note for any non-implementation’’, Mr Tripathi said. He however, refused to make any further comments saying the report is yet to be scrutinised. |
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Punjab Agri Export to start 5 projects Chandigarh, May 30 The projects, which include Rs 30- crore gruten and starch processing unit, are estimated to cost about Rs 60 crore. While financial collaborations have already been finalised, the processing units are likely to be put to operation over a period of around 18 months. At least 50,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables would undergo processing in these units. According to official sources, the state will have processing units in gruten and starch (from wheat) and for the dehydration of vegetables for the first time. Equity participation will be done jointly by the private party and PAECL, with the latter having a larger share. "The step will give a major boost to farming in the state," claimed Mr A.R. Talwar, Managing Director of PAECL. The processing units, he said, would buy the produce from farmers in the region. The farmer would be paid the price prevailing in the market or as fixed under the terms of contract (in case of contract farming). While the processing unit for frozen vegetables is likely to commence operations within two weeks, the kinnoo processing unit would start by December this year and the unit for dehydration of vegetables would be operational by September- October this year. The gruten and starch project would have 15 per cent participation of the PAECL. This unit would be located at Pathankot and the construction would be completed within a year and a half, following which it would commence operations. More than 300 persons are likely to get direct employment in this unit. The capacity of this unit would be around 30,000 tonnes. A processing unit for the dehydration of vegetables would be set up at Derabassi. This project, with an estimated cost of Rs 6.10 crore, will start within four-five months. A processing unit for frozen vegetables, costing about Rs 9.70 crore, will be commencing within two weeks. Another unit for frozen vegetables has already been put to operation at Shambhu. A Rs 6.10-crore kinnoo processing unit would be set up at Rajgarh and is likely to start by the end of this year. "The processed products will not only be sold in the domestic market, but would also be exported to other countries," said Mr Talwar. |
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Iraq rejects wheat again New Delhi, May 30 “Despite adhering to all norms and taking quality control measures our pleas have fallen on deaf ears and a consignment of 23,000 tonnes has been rejected as “dirty” by the Iraqi Grain Board,” an official in LT Overseas told PTI. He said the shipment had met all international regulations regarding moisture, purity and foreign matter but the Iraqi authorities were not prepared to accept it describing it as dirty or unfit to consume. Under the international regulations, around 1.6 per cent of foreign matter was considered acceptable but Iraq refused to accept it under the pretext that they do not have the necessary equipment to segregate it from wheat. The company was prepared to bring the requisite machinery and do the needful if the necessary space was provided but Iraq instead wanted the wheat to be taken back to India for cleaning. According to official sources, Iraq had agreed to extend the delivery schedule of Indian wheat but would not accept any thing less than “zero per cent foreign matter”. But this puts the fate of two more shipments already in Iraq into uncertainty even as LT Overseas is scouting for customers in and around the Gulf region. “However, the prices fetched will be much lower and bringing the wheat back is not feasible given the expenditure of Rs 40 lakh incurred in hiring a ship, demurrage and other charges,” the source added. In retrospect, traders feel that the entire deal of exporting wheat to Iraq was a “blunder” but then they had not discounted for their “capriciousness”. They are, however, of the view that this would not make any difference in the overall export programme which had been carrying on without hassles and actual deliveries since November, 2000 were over 22 lakh tonnes. “With, without or despite Iraq, export of Indian wheat would continue and there should not be any slowdown on the ground of their rejection,” a trader said. Official sources said due to similar reasons, consignments of Argentina and Canada had also been rejected which put the adverse focus more on the buyer rather than the exporters. Another exporter found it paradoxical that while earlier Iraq had created noises on the adverse impact on food security due to the UN sanctions it was now creating unnecessary trouble for exporters. This they said would discourage the exporters from doing business with that country in future. While fate of the shipments which had already been sent was uncertain, those still due would have to reduce their foreign matter content to zero per cent before delivery to avoid future
embarrassment. Till now, no actual delivery of the 3.5 lakh tonne wheat from India to Iraq under the UN-sponsored oil for food deal has taken place. The consignment had to wait for nearly a month for getting a berth and subsequent sampling results and this was attributed to the congestion at the Umm Qassar port. There were only four berths for wheat carrying vessels and at any given time 6-8 ships were in waiting.
PTI |
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HDFC to start general insurance Kolkata, May 30 “Though we have not yet made an application to the IRDA for beginning non-life insurance business, we hope to start it by the end of this year,” HDFC Standard Life Insurance Chairman Deepak Parekh said. He said, “we are still in the discussion stage and talking with a couple of, three to be precise, foreign insurance companies for finalising a joint venture deal.” Without disclosing the names of the foreign companies with whom the company was in talks, Parekh said once the initial nitty-grities were finalised, application would be made before IRDA. Incidentally, HDFC is already in the life insurance business in a joint venture with the Rs 6,00,000 crore Standard Life Insurance of the UK. Parekh said to enter into non-life insurance business the company would have to select another joint venture partner before going to IRDA. “We will offer the full 26 per cent equity to the foreign partner as permitted by the Government.” Asked about marketing strategy, he said it could be through appointment of new agents or through HDFC Bank or HDFC agents or a combination of both. “A team is working on drawing up strategies and the details can be provided by them only,” Parekh said. Pension scheme HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. will come out with a pension scheme tentatively in July this year in addition to its four existing benefits. Deepak Parekh said talks were in an advance stage for introducing a new scheme for the superannuated people as part of a greater customer service plan. Mr Parekh said the company which started insurance business in the country in January last had set a target for 25,000 policies for the first
calendar year. While the company already had a few corporate agents it had signed up memorandum of understanding with a few more and was in the process of tying up with UCO bank, Punjab National Bank and Bank of India for selling its products and increasing the distribution reach fast, he said. The company, which had already started operations in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore will open offices also in Pune, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur and Chandigarh next
month, the Chairman said. To a question, Mr Parekh said as per a recent survey about 5.20 lakh people, constituting 45 per cent in the insurable age group in Kolkata were looking at buying a life insurance policy in the future making the city one of the largest life insurance markets in the country.
PTI, UNI
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Zap Computers’
managers held New Delhi, May 30 Acting on a complaint by 150 students of the Rajouri Garden (West Delhi) centre of Zap Computers that the franchisee had downed its shutters overnight after charging up to Rs 18,000 from each student, the police arrested firm’s Regional Manager Sushil Bhan, Zonal Manager (North) Anshuman Mathur and Media Promotion Executive Deepanjan Lahiri, Deputy Commissioner of Police Kewal Singh said.
PTI |
bb
Silver Smith
Bausch & Lomb JuzzFone
HSIDC complex
Ikon gets award
Loan for ICICI Allahabad Bank
Godrej FairGlow |
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