 |
Thursday,
July 24, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Corporate news
Punjab a major market for spurious products
Punjab may readjust PNFC, Punwire staff
WB warns banks, FIs of high NPAs
Rs 29,487 cr realised from disinvestment
TRAI rejects cell operators’ demand |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LML to double
mobike sales
Azim Premji on Fortune’s GRAPHICS:
J&K to introduce air
safari
|
|
Corporate
news
New Delhi, July 23 The net profit stood at Rs 123.2 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 2003, over Rs 11.5 crore during the year ago period, a company statement said. The total income went up by a robust 44.7 per cent to Rs 2,109.9 crore during the review period against Rs 1,457.5 crore during the corresponding period last year. Profit before tax posted a rise of whopping 735.7 per cent to Rs 175.2 crore during the April-June quarter this year over Rs 21 crore during the year ago period, the MUL release said. In view of the listing of the company’s shares, it was mandatory for MUL to publish quarterly results from the quarter ending September 30 this year, but Maruti decided to release unaudited financial results for the first quarter, MUL Managing Director Jagdish Khattar said. Car sales of the company grew by about 47.4 per cent to 1.04 lakh units during the first quarter which includes 12,496 units of exports, a growth of 254.1 per cent over the quarter ended June 30, 2002. MUL’s market share increased to 55 per cent during the quarter under consideration from about 52 per cent during April-June 2002. The company attributed the improved financials to higher sales and successful implementation of measures to enhance productivity and cut costs across the board. Clariant
Clariant (India) Ltd posted a 15.85 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 5.92 crore in first quarter of the year 2002-03, compared to Rs 5.11 crore recorded during the same period of the previous year. Clariant’s sales (net of excise duty) rose to Rs 79.63 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 70.63 crore posted a year ago, a Clariant release said here today. Clariant recorded a 11.6 per cent growth in domestic sales during the period, with a 15.2 per cent rise in export sales, compared to the same period of last fiscal, it said. —
PTI
|
|
Tata Steel net zooms 316 pc
Mumbai, July 23 The net sales for the reporting quarter grew by 27.8 per cent at Rs 2,257.18 crore as compared to Rs 1,764.93 crore in the first quarter of 2002-03, a company release said here today. The steel production and sales in the reporting quarter stood at 9.64 lakh tonnes (8.74 lakh in Apr-June 2002) and 8.79 lakh tonnes (8.26 lakh tonnes), it said. The exports turnover touched the Rs 367.67 core (Rs 208.81 crore), it added. Subex
Subex Systems has registered a profit after tax of Rs 321 lakh during the first quarter ending June 30, 2003. The company’s revenue rose to Rs 1,914 lakh as against Rs 1,450 lakh during the corresponding period last year. The net profit had increased to Rs 321 lakh as against Rs 206 lakh earned during the corresponding period previous year, according to a release here today.
UTI Bank
UTI Bank has posted a 45.02 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 52.18 crore for the first quarter ended June 2003 as against Rs 35.98 crore in same period last fiscal. The total income for the reporting quarter rose to Rs 544.2 crore from Rs 391.8 crore in the Q1 of 2002-03, the bank said in a release here today. The net interest income grew by 109.44 per cent at Rs 120.20 crore in the first quarter. The asset size in the balance sheet stood at Rs 18,585 crore while the deposit base grew to Rs 16,410 crore as on June, 2003, it said. Retail advances registered a significant jump moving to Rs 1,217 crore as on end June compared to Rs 352 crore as on June 30, 2002. The bank is in the process of raising Rs 100 crore as Tier II capital which will further raise the CAR. —
Agencies
|
|
Bharti Tele net profit at Rs 31crore
New Delhi, July 23 The company, which has 3.75 million cellular subscribers with a 24.8 per cent share of the total market, reported a whopping 197 per cent increase in the group’s cash profit from operations at Rs 225.8 crore year-on-year. Total revenue of Bharti, in which 16 per cent is owned by Singapore Telecommunications, stood at Rs 1,036 crore, up 92 per cent. The group also offers basic, long distance and broadband services. “Within last two quarters, Bharti has clocked revenues in excess of Rs 10,000 crore. There are not many companies that have earned such kinds of numbers,’’ Bharti CEO Akhil Gupta said. —
UNI |
|
Punjab a major market for spurious products Chandigarh, July 23 The companies are now hiring the consultancy firms to track down the markets which are producing and selling their spurious products. Interestingly, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Mandi Gobindgarh and even Chandigarh are on the radar of these companies. Apart from conducting raids on retailers, the consultant firms have come with new technologies to protect the brands besides offering consumer awareness programmes as a solution to check the menace. Mr Uday Thakkar, General Manager Sales, PRS Permacel — a Mumbai based company says: “A large number of small scale units have come up in Punjab which have mastered the art of making ‘almost’ same products that are being manufactured by big brands in the pharma, auto parts, textile, seed and other sectors. In fact, the companies are losing from 10 to 40 per cent of their market due to the sale of spurious and duplicate products.’’ Referring to a recently held international study, he said: ‘‘At the national level the companies are losing business volume worth over Rs 34,000 crore annually, which include pharmaceutical (Rs 3,600 crore), auto-parts (Rs 3,500 crore), software (Rs 2,200 crore), music (Rs 350 crore), agro-chemicals (Rs 450 crore), liquor (Rs 900 crore) and software drinks (Rs 650 crore). He disclosed that a team of Tisco raided the premises of a firm in Mandi Gobindgarh last week which was selling steel under the name of the company after processing imported scrap from World Trade Centre. Some other companies have also hired agencies to raid the firms in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar that were manufacturing spurious auto-parts, sports goods, software and other items. The officials of the BIS also admitted that due to lengthy and cumbersome judicial process to punish the guilty, the MNCs and Indian brands were finding it almost impossible to check the ‘duplication’ of their products. A delegation of FICCI had recently met Mr Arun Jaitley, Law Minister to apprise him of the situation. He reportedly assured that the government would soon come up with a new legislation. |
|
Punjab may readjust PNFC, Punwire staff Ropar, July 23 The Chairman of the PSIDC, Mr Harjinder Singh, visited Punjab Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd. (PACL), unit at Nangal gave this information to newsmen. He said the Chief Minister had fixed a meeting on this issue on July 29th. Responding to a query regarding the privatisation of PSUs owned by the PSIDC, Mr Harjinder Singh said the disinvestment would only be carried out after improving their financial viability. Most of the PSUs were making huge losses due to which no bidder was coming forward for their takeover. PACL, which was owned by the
PSIDC, was incurring annual losses worth Rs 20-22 crore. The financial liability of the company was Rs 167 crore. The high power bills were the major reason for PACL losses.
|
|
|
WB warns banks, FIs of high NPAs
New Delhi, July 23 The problems assumes importance in the wake of rising public sector debt at 90 per cent of GDP, the World Bank said in its development policy review report titled ‘India- Sustaining Reform, Reducing Poverty’. “Since 1992-93, varying but relatively small sums of money have been spent to assist nationalised banks, regional rural banks, UTI, IDBI and IFCI. Another 0.8 per cent of GDP was identified in 2002-03 to help UTI, IFCI and IDBI,” the report said. World Bank was alarmed at the gross NPA level of Indian banks at 10.4 per cent of advances and net NPAs at 5.5 per cent till March 2002. Questioning the net NPA figures of banks stated at 1.5 per cent of GDP, the report said, “While some analysts have suggested that NPAs are substantially understated by various ‘evergreening’ methods, a doubling of the gross NPA figure would put the net NPA at less than seven per cent of bank assets or about 4.5 per cent of GDP.” “While these numbers are low in comparison with East Asia and China, this has to be looked at in the context of public sector debt that is over 90 per cent of GDP,” it said. —
PTI
|
|
Rs 29,487 cr realised from disinvestment
New Delhi, July 23 The amount has been credited to the Consolidated Fund of India, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said replying to a question. The annual provisions in the Budget for generating investment and employment, restructuring public sector enterprises and retiring public debt have exceeded the proceeds from disinvestment, he said. The government has decided to set up a Disinvestment Proceeds Fund for financing fresh employment opportunities and investment and for retirement of public debt, Shourie said. On whether government has received complaints from labour unions on working of present management in CMC, VSNL, IBP and IPCL, Shourie said complaints have been received from some labour unions against new managements of Balco, IPCL and VSNL. “Unions have alleged that workers of Balco have been laid off/retrenched without a fair deal and that the VRS is not being implemented according to provisions of the Transaction Agreement. The government has set up a fact finding team to look into this issue,” he said. He said IPCL Employees’ Association had represented against unsatisfactory implementation of the agreement between the government and the
strategic partner; delay in implementation of the terms of long term settlement with local union; and misuse of
powers relating to IPCL properties. — PTI
|
|
TRAI rejects cell operators’ demand
New Delhi, July 23 “The question (of withdrawing the consultation paper) does not arise,” TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal told PTI here when asked about the latest demand by COAI that Unified Licensing regime consultation paper be withdrawn. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had yesterday raised its pitch against TRAI’s consultation paper saying the regulator should withdraw it till the judgement on WLL was pronounced by TDSAT. COAI had also pointed at a recent UBS report of July 8, 2003 which indicated that TRAI would introduce a Universal Licence as a “back-up measure”, if WLL licences were cancelled. Baijal today said although there were “presentations” by UBS and other investment bankers, “there had been no discussions”. “Therefore, there is no question of TRAI giving its views,” Baijal said. —
PTI
|
|
LML to double mobike sales
New Delhi, July 23 The company is investing Rs 125 crore to hike motorcycle production capacity to four lakh units and launch about two new motor cycles by this year-end, LML Managing Director Deepak Singhania told a news conference here. It expects the increasing motor cycle sales to significantly improve its financial condition this fiscal, he said. “We will sell close to 2.4-3 lakh motor cycles this fiscal. Over Rs 125 crore is being invested in the coming months,” Singhania said after the launch of five newly-designed variants of the ‘Freedom’. LML has sold 1.09 lakh motor cycles during 2002-03, the bulk of which comprised the ‘Freedom’, its first indigenously-produced motor cycle. The Kanpur-based firm has a technical alliance with Korea’s Daelim Motors to produce ‘Adreno’ and ‘Energy’ range of motor cycles. “Our financials should be very good this year. We are totally focused to increase profits. The company is performing well,” Singhania said but declined to disclose whether LML would turn black this fiscal. During 2002-03, the company had incurred a net loss of Rs 27.69 crore over a turnover of Rs 574.5 crore. —
PTI
|
|
Azim Premji on Fortune’s Power 25 list
New Delhi, July 23 Premji, “who has turned technology company Wipro into the largest publicly traded company in the most dynamic sector of India’s economy” has been ranked 17th on the list. According to a Fortune statement, “the survey takes a broad look at the world of big business and reveals that the business leaders who rule the global boardrooms work in countries as diverse as Switzerland and South Korea and in industries ranging from food to finance.” The list features eight leaders of Asian companies, four of which are in the top ten, with Sony’s Nobuyuki Idei leading the way at number 2. “Browne is at number 1 for transforming BP into a global oil power with the purchases of Amoco in 1998 and Arco in 2000. He has also managed to become a favourite with Women’s group for his hiring practices, as well as with the green lobby, giving him more clout than his peers,” writes Fortune. —
PTI
|
|
bb
MobileFirst AirTel bonanza FIIs stake in L&T |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
New Delhi, July 23
