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Sunday,
April 14, 2002, Chandigarh, India
  
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CORPORATE NEWS
Condonation of delay EIL staff oppose disinvestment
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INVESTMENT PLANNER
TV helps men look more attractive
Roadshows for airport land on Monday
Tourism conference to start today
Rum option for
teetotallers
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CORPORATE NEWS New Delhi, April 13 Turnover also went up by 42 per cent to Rs 4,593.49 crore from Rs 3,191.14 crore in the year-on-year period, Chairman and Managing Director Brijmohan Lall Munjal told reporters after a company Board meeting here. Hero Honda sold 1.42 million units during 2001-02, a 38.4 per cent growth over 1.02 million units a year ago. The Munjals-family promoted Hero group and Japan’s Honda Motor Co. own 26 per cent stake each in Hero Honda. For the quarter ended March 31, 2002, the company’s net profit rose by a whopping 171.84 per cent at Rs 152.56 crore over Rs 56.12 crore in the year-ago quarter. Turnover drove up by 49.54 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,285.69 crore against Rs 859.74 crore. Hero Honda also announced an interim dividend of 350 per cent for 2001-02 and a celebration dividend of 250 per cent which was over and above the special interim dividend of 250 per cent announced last year. Both the interim and celebration dividend will entail a total payment of Rs 340 crore. Motor cycle sales of Hero Honda went up by 45.31 per cent at 3.99 lakh units during the quarter ended March 31, 2002 over 2.74 units sold during the year-ago period. The massive growth in profits and turnover was mainly on account of increased sales, especially from rural areas and rising margins. Satyam pact with US firm Satyam Computer Services yesterday entered into a strategic tie-up with Pronounced Technologies LLC (PTL), a US-based provider of voice-based vehicles navigation systems. The agreement envisages setting up of an Indian Design Centre (IDC) which will act as an offshore software development centre to support PTL’s development needs, the company said in release here. Simultaneously, Satyam will use PTL’s voice interactive technology applied to Satyam’s proprietary content for a car navigation solution (CNS). With the tieup, Satyam will pilot in leading Indian cities a voice interactive CNS. This technology offering takes the help of Global Positioning Satellites, the release added.
PTI, UNI |
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Condonation of delay Q: When application to set aside ex parte decree was rejected, whether condonation of delay granted by Revisional Court, as upheld by H.C. were proper? A: The S.C. was considering this point in Kedarnath v Mohan Lal Kesarwari (2002 (1) RCJ 100) as under: In the case at hand, the application for setting aside ex parte decree was not accompanied by deposit in the court of the amount due and payable by the applicant under the decree. The applicant also did not move any application for dispensing with deposit and seeking leave of the court for furnishing such security for the performance of the decree as the court may have directed. A bare reading of the provision shows that the legislature have chosen to couch the language of the proviso in a mandatory form and there is no reason, said the S.C., to interpret, construe and hold the nature of the proviso as directory. An application seeking to set aside an ex parte decree passed by the court of small causes or for a review of its judgment must be accompanied by a deposit in the court of the amount due from the applicant under the decree. In the instant case, when there was no deposit nor any application naturally the application for setting aside the decree was therefore incompetent. It could not have been entertained and allowed, in the opinion of the S.C. The District Judge in exercise of its revisional jurisdiction could not have interfered with the order of the trial court. The illegality in exercise of jurisdiction by the District Court disposing of the revision petition was brought to notice of the H.C. and it was a fit case where the H.C. ought to have, in exercise of its supervisory jurisdiction set aside the order of the District Court by holding the application filed by the respondent as incompetent and hence not entertainable. The S.C. said, it need not examine the other question whether a sufficient cause for condoning the delay in moving the application for leave of the court to furnish security for performance was made out or not and whether such an application moved at a highly belated stage and hence not being a ‘previous application’ was at all entertainable or not. In that way, the S.C. allowed the appeal and set aside the order of the District Court and the H.C. and restored the order of that of the trial court. |
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EIL staff oppose disinvestment New Delhi, April 13 In a letter signed by 3,300 employees and sent to the Prime Minister, they said the company started with a modest initial investment of Rs 25 lakh had become a national asset of pivotal significance to its economic growth, balance of payments and defence needs. Since its inception 37 years ago, EIL has taken 4000 mega and medium projects worth Rs 175,000 crore and earned its service component of over Rs 7,000 crore. In the absence of EIL, there would have been no option but to award these projects to foreign consultants and incur almost three times of this amount in foreign exchange. The letter said accumulated data pertaining to offshore facilities, major oil refineries, petrochemical and gas processing installations in the country, which is of crucial importance was accomplished by EIL. But for the significant contribution made by EIL in the crucial energy and hydrocarbon sector, India could never have emerged as a major power in the world. EIL today has accumulated reserves of over Rs 656 crore, apart from acquisition of sizeable land, buildings and residential properties in various parts of India. |
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INVESTMENT PLANNER Q: Is Ranbaxy a good buy?
— Pankaj Dhyani, Ferozepur A: Ranbaxy is the largest pharmaceutical company with a product coverage extending to almost 68 per cent of the therapeutic area. Though 90 per cent of its revenues are from the pharma business, Ranbaxy is also into animal health, diagnostics and speciality chemicals. Ranbaxy’s mission is to become a research-based international pharmaceutical company and have a sales turnover of $1 billion by 2004. The company expects to achieve this mission through a slew of initiatives like concentrating on six core markets of the USA, India, the UK, Germany, China and Brazil, increase research and development spend to 6 per cent of total sales and direct about 40 per cent of that amount towards discovery research, create technologies in novel drug delivery system, augment product pipeline and collaborate with other research institutes and merge or acquire brands and technologies. For the fiscal ended December 2001 sales were Rs 2126.7 crore, PBIDT was 15.3 per cent, Net profit was Rs 183.0 crore and the EPS was Rs 15.8. For the quarter ended December 2001 sales were Rs 604.3 crore, PBIDT was 13.7 per cent and Net profit was Rs 50.3 crore. Since the stock has gained after Ranbaxy Laboratories received US Food and Drug Administration approval to launch a generic copy of Glaxo Smith Kline’s Ceftin antibiotic, its biggest US approval yet and expected to provide a major boost to sales and profits in 2002, investors can defer fresh exposures at current levels and buy into the stock on declines. Q: What’s the outlook on the HLL stock? — Rajeev R.K., Amritsar A: Hindustan Lever (HLL) forms around 5.5 per cent of Unilever’s global turnover and a sizeable 32 per cent of Unilever’s Asia Pacific business. Soaps and detergents contribute nearly 48 per cent of HLL’s topline. This segment is one of the worst affected during the slowdown. HLL is following the parent’s strategy of refocusing its efforts on its core business and brands. It has initiated measures to prune the number of brands from 110 down to 40. Apart from this, the company is exiting businesses to lend focus to its business plan. In the last couple of years, HLL has exited the businesses of animal feeds, speciality chemicals and seeds. Leather and marine export business are next in line. These efforts have resulted in margin expansion for the company. Going forward, its foods business is going to be the growth driver. For the fiscal ended December 2001 sales were Rs 10971.9 crore, PBIDT was 19.1 per cent, Net profit was Rs 1541.0 crore and the EPS was Rs 7.0. For the quarter ended December 2001 sales were Rs 2762.9 crore, PBIDT was 23.6 per cent and Net profit was Rs 500 crore. This indicates immense potential for Unilever in India over the long term. HLL is a solid defensive stock to have in one’s portfolio, acquisitions and recovery in demand are the short-term triggers. |
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TV helps men look more attractive
London, April 11 It is a well-known fact that TV cameras have the ability to accentuate different parts of the body, thereby making people look fatter than they really are. The researchers at the University of Liverpool, UK, asked students to analyse 2D and 3D photographs of various models. The vast majority said the models looked 5 per cent fatter in 2D photos. Quirks in the way one perceives images seem to favour men. Lead researcher Dr Bernard Harper told New Scientist magazine that the necks of both men and women appeared thicker in 2D images. But the effect in women was to make them look fatter, he said, adding that in men, it gave the illusion of a stronger jawline.
ANI |
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Roadshows for airport land on Monday New Delhi, April 13 Addressing a meeting organised by Assocham, Mr Paul said the emphasis of the government would be to strengthen public sector airline companies, acquire new aircraft and upgrade airport infrastructure. He expressed confidence that the Finance Ministry will loosen its purse strings and make adequate funds available for aircraft acquisition to enhance air seat capacity from and to India. The Civil Aviation Ministry had suggested simplification immigration rules to facilitate passengers at airports. |
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Tourism conference to start today Tourism — Looking Ahead and Beyond. This is one of the main theme — songs of the five-day 51st Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)
annual conference which will start on April 14. The conference — back to India (Delhi) after 23 years —holds a lot of importance worldwide as twin money-earning industries— tourism and aviation—are assuredly recovering from terrorist onslaughts in the USA, New Delhi and other places. Atal Behari Vajpayee will inaugurate the conference. The Minister for Tourism Jagmohan is at the helm of affairs. He and his team of officials, including Ram Kohli, Secretary-General of PATA, are determined to make a grand success of the conference. About 1000 delegates from different countries will attend the conference which will be addressed by famous persons. India has chosen a team of brilliant orators to sell the country worldwide. The thrust of the speakers will be to dwell upon strategic information about key economic trends, marketing shifts, crisis management, human resources development and sustainable tourism. Rewarding seminar
The seminar on “Emerging Trends in Air Traffic Management,” organised by the Aeronautical Society of India (Delhi branch), provided useful data and information to all those who were associated with aviation. Several personalities, including Lalit B. Shah, Director of Asia and Pacific Regional Office (Bangkok-ICAO), spoke on issues which changing altogether the air traffic management (ATM) scenario. New incumbents
Satendra Singh has become new Director-General of Civil Aviation in place of H.S. Khola. Satendra Singh has been connected with the DGCA for several years. K. Roy Paul of Bihar cadre, is the new secretary of the Civil Aviation. |
Flop show A leading political news content provider whose foray into entertainment programming was hyped in a big way and expected to deliver the goods for the lottery channel seems to have fallen flat on its face. Seems the channel and the content provider will have to reconcile to tougher times ahead. After all, hype is no replacement for content, is it?
Bumper harvest? The grapevine is abuzz with rumours that there might be a fairly significant announcement shortly from the stable of a multinational crop-science company. Could it be a buyback for this company that was separated from its pharma twin not too long ago.
Reliably known The buzz in the capital’s cocktail circuit is that a very reliable private sector giant has all but wrapped up the deal for a to be divested PSU. After all, werent’ they very speedily exonerated from being barred from bidding. Any takers?
No more leverage? A prominent MNC whose fortunes have been dwindling and quite rapidly at that will not be able to hide its ill-health too much longer. Smart accounting and innovative payout packages cannot do the trick always, can it? |
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CII chairman Reliance results Ketan Parekh Foundation Day |
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