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Saturday,
May 24, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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ITC net
grows 15 pc IOB net up
80 pc Exports
growth pegged at 12 pc UTI-I puts
properties on block IRDA asks
for more penal powers |
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i-flex
still awaiting notice of charges against Senthil Rising
rupee hits textile exporters Notification
on listing body soon Pentair
products in Chandigarh
Saffron
complex at Pampore
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ITC net grows 15 pc
Kolkata, May 23 The total income for the period increased by 16 per cent to Rs 6,035.37 crore as against Rs 5,201.60 crore in the same period last year. The profit before charging for taxation jumped up to Rs 2,056.19 crore as against Rs 1,780.26 crore in the same period last year. The total expenditure for the year increased to Rs 3,712 crore from Rs 3,155.96 crore in the same period last year. The earnings per share jacked up to Rs 55.41 from Rs 48.07 in the same period last year. The company declared a dividend of Rs 15 per share. The net profit for the three months from January 1 to March 31, 2003, was Rs 323.42 crore as against Rs 286.37 crore in the same period last year, registering a 13 per cent increase over the corresponding previous period. The profit before taxation for the fourth quarter stood at Rs 463.36 crore from Rs 393.56 crore in the same period last year. Net income during the quarter increased to 1579.93 crore as against Rs 1424.15 crore in the same period last year. The earnings per share of the company during the quarter were at Rs 13.07 from Rs 11.57 in the same period last year. Total expenditure for the three months was at Rs 1,046.45 crore from Rs 965.40 crore in the same period last year.
UNI
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IOB net up 80 pc
New Delhi, May 23 Announcing the results here, Bank Chairman S C Gupta said IOB was looking at a growth of 17 per cent in deposits and advances in 2003-04. Deposits grew to Rs 36,698 crore in 2002-03 from Rs 31,808 crore in March 2001-02, he said, adding the global net investments went up to Rs 18,603 crore in 2002-03 from Rs 15,069 crore in the year-ago period. The global net interest income as a ratio to average working funds went up to 3.06 per cent as of March 2003 from 2.80 per cent on March 2002. The bank issued about 1830 notices under the Securitisation Act for recovery of NPAs of about Rs 499.92 crore till March 2003 and has recovered Rs 23.74 crore involving 645 accounts upto March 2003.
PTI
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Exports growth pegged at 12 pc
New Delhi, May 22 "Taking into account the prevailing global economic and trading environment, the outlook for 2003-04 as projected by the international agencies tracking global economic developments and the perceptions of the exporting community, a target of 12 per cent growth for exports of merchandise goods in 2003-04 in dollar terms has been fixed," the Commerce Ministry said on Thursday. While in value terms this translates into $57.8 billion, as compared to $51.7 billion in 2002-03, in rupee terms this will be around Rs 2.74 trillion, up from Rs. 2.5 trillion in 2002-03. The export target has been finalised after extensive consultations with the export promotion councils and commodity boards. "The prevailing international situation, the robust export performance of 18.05 per cent in 2002-03 against the backdrop of weakening global activity, and appreciation of the rupee vis-a-vis US dollar, the crossing of the $50 billion mark in exports and reaching a share of 0.8 per cent in world exports in 2002 have all been taken into account while finalising the target," the ministry stated. In the mid-term, India is targeting garnering a 1 per cent global market share by 2007 with an annual compound rate of 11.9 per cent growth. Already, during 2002-03, India has been able to raise its share in global trade from around 0.64 per cent to 0.8 per cent.
IANS
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UTI-I puts properties on block
Mumbai, May 23 UTI-I, a government-owned entity which manages US-64 and assured income schemes, would sell the corporate headquarter building with 39,175 square feet area at Marine lines and some office space in adjoining buildings, UTI Mutual Fund sources said today. The valuation of the establishments is complete and organisation has sought bids from the interested
parties, they said. However, it would not pay any brokerage for the transaction, they added.
PTI
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IRDA asks for more penal powers
New Delhi, May 23 “What perhaps Insurance Act of 1938 lacks is sufficient penal machinery to take action against defaulters,” IRDA Chairman N. Rangachary told reporters here, on the sidelines of a launch of Rs 1.5 billion (rpt) Rs 1.5 billion biotechnology venture fund by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation and Dynam Ventureeast. He said the Insurance Act of 1938 had become vintage by 2002 and what IRDA was trying to do was to match the Act of 1938 to come upto the level of 2002. “We have to introduce an appellate forum for purposes of hearing appeals against the orders of the authority,” he said, adding that at present the maximum penalties that could be imposed were a paltry Rs 100-1000 depending on the nature of the offences. “You may laugh at those figures (the penalties) and so we need to have a modern approach,” Rangachary said. Asked about the proposed move to transfer its funds to the public accounts, he asked which regulators’ (SEBI and RBI) funds were with public accounts. “The (Insurance) Act authorises to levy on insurance companies, which is used to maintain the regulator’s office and to carry out the objectives that have been laid out in the Act,” he said, adding, “this money does not belong to anybody other than authority (IRDA).”
PTI
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i-flex still awaiting notice of charges against Senthil
New Delhi, May 23 ‘’We have still not received the formal notice of charges from the Dutch government against the company (under with Mr Kumar was detained in London and 14 other employees were held in Amsterdam),’’ i-flex CEO (International Operations and Technology) R. Ravisankar said today. ‘’We believe that our employees were detained due to some visas and work permit-related problems but we are on a stronger wicket on this,’’ he said. Mr Kumar was arrested and sent to the Brixton prison in London for a week in March following an Interpol alert over a complaint filed against i-flex in Amsterdam that 14 of its employees were working in the Netherlands without proper work permits. Mr Kumar was accused of involvement in providing false references for a number of employees in the Netherlands. He was released by a London court on May 15 after the Netherlands government failed to convince Britain to launch extradition proceedings against him. Mr Ravisankar said the company’s Dutch subsidiary was functioning normally. ‘’We continue to work with our customers in the Netherlands,’’ he said. Move to other markets
i-flex first went with Flexcube to Africa in 1998, followed by Europe in 1999. Now its eyes are firm on the largest market for financial software products, US, which it entered last year, and China. “In products, we have achieved growth without the US market. Now we plan to concentrate on this market, and Latin America, China and Japan. We have acquired four customers in US, including World Bank and American Stock Exchange, since we entered the market in September,” i-flex’s CEO (International Operations and Technology) R Ravisankar said today. Of the company’s last year’s revenue of $ 113 million, US market accounted for 35 per cent. “For China, our strategy will be in place in the next six months,” Mr Ravisankar said. The company plans to enter the Chinese market with local partners which have local language capabilities. i-flex is also open to acquisitions. “We will be looking at companies with strong focus on financial products which can enrich our offering and make things easier for us in the markets we are just entering,” Mr Ravisankar said. He said that rising rupee would not have much impact on the company’s revenues. “Rising rupee is not a good development but as 65 to 70 per cent of our revenues come from products, we are better hedged due to different business model,” he said. For 2002-03, i-flex reported a 48 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 170.88 crore, compared to Rs 115.29 crore in 2001-02.
UNI
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Rising rupee hits textile exporters Chandigarh, May 23 Says Mr Ajit Lakra, President, Ludhiana Knitters Association, ‘‘About 50 per cent traders, who are exporting textiles to the USA, Canada, West Asia and Latin American countries in dollar terms, have been badly hit. Despite low returns, we cannot cancel the orders due to a clause that a supplier will have to compensate in case of cancellation of orders. However, now it is becoming extremely difficult to get new orders.’’ He lamented that due to an agitation against the imposition of excise duty, the industry had already lost two crucial months of production. Now, the appreciation of rupee was giving tough times to exporters. He claimed that condition in the domestic market was not good and the industry was forced to cut down
production. Garment exporters had been forced to cut down their production by 15-25 per cent as buyers were not ready to increase the prices. Mr Lakra claimed if by selling a T-shirt for $5 we were getting Rs 245.50 three months ago, we would realise just Rs 234.30 for the same T-shirt on May 22. Indeed, the appreciation in the rupee value was benefiting those units which import machinery. According to Mr R.K.Singh, Deputy Director, Apparel Export Promotion Council, the garment exports from the state had remained stagnant at about Rs 800 crore to quota and non-quota countries in 2002-03. He admitted though the garment exports during January-March, 2003, had increased to Rs 110 crore as against Rs 88 crore, the margins had declined after rupee got strength. Mr Rajinder Jindal, President, Engineering Exporters Association, claimed that bicycle and bicycle parts, machine and hand tool exporters have burnt their fingers despite government's assurance to stabilise the market. He said,‘‘buyers in West Asia have declined to increase the prices saying the fluctuation in currency is not their problem.’’
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Notification on listing body soon
New Delhi, May 23 ‘’We will issue a notification about the commencement of CLA in a few week’s time,’’ SEBI Chairman G.N. Bajpai told mediapersons after inaugurating a seminar on Securities Laws and Capital Market, organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India here. SEBI had already issued a notification about constitution of the CLA and the new notification would deal with operationalisation of the authority. Mr Bajpai said 11-member CLA would
perform the work of due diligence and ensure that listing requirements remain dynamic as per the changing needs of the markets. To a query as to when would electronic system of initial public offer would commence, he said SEBI was framing guidelines.
UNI
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Pentair products in Chandigarh Verna (Goa), May 23 Chandigarh is one of the major cities chosen by the company for its products in the northern parts of the country. The company having its headquarters in US operates in India through its 100 per cent subsidiary in Goa. It has the latest technology in drinking water segment that is “reverse osmosis”. Till now the Indian market has a ultra violet ( UV) based technology. CEO of Pentair Water India, Mr Gautam Khanna said “though the technology will cost more than the existing UV based one but this is where the future of water treatment is”. Also the UV system has its limitations.” The decision on which unit will be installed is to be based on the requirement of each home and the water quality available. It will not be like the UV based products which have one product for all kinds of water, said Mr Khanna. The Director, Sales and Marketing, Mr Sanjay Sapra said the company will first take water samples and then give the choice to the customer and advice him on the kind of product which is best suited. Pentair’s complete home water solutions products also include a home ultra filtration unit for the treating water at the entry point into the house. A washing machine filter which will treat water and save clothes. This will be priced between Rs 450 and Rs 700. The company will also provide for a home softener which will treat hard water which can clog the water supply lines and bathroom fittings. Pentair has already invested Rs 100 crore in India and by the third quarter the Goa plant will be the world’s largest manufacturer of reverse osmosis pressure vessels which hold the actual filter inside. The filter called the “membrane housing” cleans the water. The company is already supplying equipment for de-salination of water in industrial use.
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