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Billion-dollar cartel swells
as Bharti joins it
Infotech gets 10 days to
move HC in Punjab
Infosys chief is IMC
Businessman of the Year
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Lawsuits nibble at Microsoft earnings
Air-India hiring foreign pilots
Airtel, Idea to bleep on Samsung handsets
Mitsubishi left in the lurch
SEZ exports spurt 46 pc
Corporate news
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Billion-dollar cartel swells as Bharti joins it New Delhi, April 23 At the same time, no dividends were announced for its shareholders with the company Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal indicating that the bulk of the revenues would be pumped in to meet fresh roll out obligations. For the year ending March 31, 2004, consolidated revenues of the company stood at Rs 5,002 crore, a staggering year-on-year growth of 64 per cent. The revenue growth appears to have been primarily driven by the volume of additional subscribers with the company adding more than one million customers in the last quarter of 2003-04. This has enabled the mobile operator to attain a market share of 24.9 per cent — ahead of state-owned BSNL (20 per cent) and Idea (19.7 per cent). The net profit of the company reached Rs 619 crore for the financial year 2003-04, and the cash profit from operations Rs 1,430 crore. The earning before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) has more than doubled from Rs 759 crore last year to Rs 1,671 crore this year. During the quarter ended on March 31, 2004, the company had revenues of Rs 1,553 crore and EBITDA of Rs 533 crore, exhibiting a year-on-year growth of 54 per cent and 105 per cent, respectively.
No bonus? Mr Mittal evaded a direct answer on dividends and special bonus for employees and said the company was deferring any announcement in this respect for the time being. The profits will be ploughed back to strengthen its network backbone and other planned infrastructure projects. “We have already offered stock options to the employees, making number of them millionaires. The customers have already been offered lowest tariff rates.” On whether, the company was planning to raise any funds from overseas bourses through the ADR/GDR route, he said it would be taken at an appropriate time and will depend on when the foreign equity cap in telecom industry is raised to 74 per cent. Bharti Televentures said it is ready for foreign listing as soon as government regulations allow. “We are ready to list in the US, Singapore or Europe as soon as we get the headroom,” Mr Mittal said. Of the $700-750 million that the company has set aside for capital expenditure, 66 per cent will be spent on mobile telephony infrastructure and the rest on the fixed line and long-distance business. Regarding the delivery of unwanted election messages to the mobile customers, especially when they were out of circle, he said,” We admit that the customers will have to pay roaming charges to listen to these messages if they were out of circle, but presently there were no instructions from the regulator to check it.”
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Infotech gets 10 days to move HC in Punjab New Delhi, April 23 A Bench, headed by Chief Justice Mr V.N. Khare, allowed Infotech counsel ten days time to move the Punjab and Haryana High Court after the
Calcutta High Court had rejected its plea for refund of the Bank Guarantee on the ground of jurisdiction. Infotech had sought refund of the BG after the bid for the Punjab Government’s online lottery was allocated to highest bidder Jindal Pipes in February 2003 but it had later backed out from the deal. Infotech had filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court because the BG was executed in a bank there. Punjab Government has sought to forfeit the BG on the ground that after withdrawal by Jindal Pipes from the bid, Infotech as second highest bidder was offered the online lottery. As per the terms and condition, if the offer was not acceptable to the company, it would have to withdraw the letter of intent in 30 days, failing which the BG of Rs 2 crore would automatically stand forfeited. After Infotech filed a petition in Calcutta High Court, the Punjab Government moved a SLP in the apex court challenging its territorial jurisdiction. The apex court directed the Calcutta High Court to decide the issue of jurisdiction first and as result, it dismissed Infotech plea holding that the case could only be heard by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
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Infosys chief is IMC Businessman of the Year
Mumbai, April 23 IMC president Shailesh Haribhakti said that a 6-member committee of judges, headed by Justice V. C. Daga, selected Mr Murthy for the award, which would be ceremonially presented to him at a function to be tentatively held in July 2004. “It is indeed a happy coincidence that our selection of Mr Murthy for the award has come at Infosys’ most glorious moment when it has become the first software firm to achieve $1-billion exports. Within 10 years, Rs 100 share of Infosys has acquired a market value of Rs 1 lakh, thanks to the extraordinary vision and business acumen of Mr Murthy.” The list of illustrious winners of the coveted award in the past years includes Ratan Tata (1999), Azim H. Premji (2001) and K.V. Kamath (2002), he said.
— UNI
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BIS conducts nationwide raids
New Delhi, April 23 Ten raids were conducted in Maharashtra along with the State Police. Four raids each were carried out at Nasik and Ulhasnagar and two in Nagpur. Raids in Nasik detected sale of fake ISI certified plywood with ‘Mayur’, ‘Assam Gold’, ‘Premium’, ‘Ruby’, ‘Lotus’, and ‘Supreme’ brand names. Four raids in Ulhasnagar detected manufacturing of fake ISI marked cables for house wiring under the names of ‘Smart’, ‘Suzuki’ ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Mala’. Two raids in Nagpur found ISI marked ‘Lazer’ fan, motor and pumps under ‘Johnson’ brand name. Three raids each were conducted in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Of these, two raids were conducted in Ujjain. Raids in Ujjain found out fake LPG tubes under the brand name ‘Pilot Mann’ and drinking water under ‘Lehar’ brand name. Another raid was conducted in Mhow which found manufacturing of ISI marked packaged drinking water under ‘Rich Aqua’ brand name. The raids in
Ahmedabad found ISI mark being misused on non-stick utensils under ‘Wilson’ brand name and raids unearthed packaged drinking water with ISI mark without obtaining licence from BIS. Two raids each were also conducted in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Out of these, raids were conducted in Chennai and Madurai and found fake ISI marked packaged drinking water under ‘Aqua Power’ and ‘Adhava’, ‘Cascode’, ‘Rainbow’, ‘Neil’, and ‘Bisleri’ brand names. In Andhra Pradesh, the raids were conducted in Guntur and found drinking water and cement under fake ISI certification. One raid each was conducted in the States of
Karnataka, Orissa, Bihar, Delhi and Chandigarh. — UNI
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Lawsuits nibble at Microsoft earnings
Seattle, April 23 Microsoft reported earnings of $1.32 billion, or 12 cents per share, for its fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31. That compares with earnings of $ 2.14 billion, or 20 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue was $ 9.18 billion, up 17 per cent from $ 7.84 billion in the same period a year earlier. The most recent quarterly earnings included a pretax charge of $ 2.53 billion, or 17 cents per share, for costs related to legal issues. During the quarter, the company reached a $ 1.6 billion settlement with Sun Microsystems Inc. and received a $ 610 million fine from the European Commission. Another pre-tax charge of $ 748 million, or 5 cents per share, was for charges related to stock-based compensation. Without the charges, the company would have had earnings of 34 cents per share. Comparable earnings for the year earlier would have been 26 cents per share without a one-time charge related to stock-based compensation. Microsoft switched last year to offering employees’ stock grants rather than stock options. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had been expecting earnings of 29 cents per share.
— AP
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| Air-India hiring foreign pilots
New Delhi, April 23 While 40 of these pilots have already been trained and released for flying duties, another 40 pilots are currently undergoing training. A-I has additionally recruited 28 more trainee pilots earlier this month and they are expected to commence training next month. A-I has inducted 14 aircraft on dry lease — 11 A310s and three B747-400s — in the past three years to expand its network. The national carrier is now in the process of inducting two more B747-400s for introducing flights to Los Angeles from Mumbai via Frankfurt effective June 11. As A-I is the sole operator of wide-bodied B747-400 and A310 aircraft in India, it has no option but to look for pilots in the international market to meet its immediate requirement for commanders. An A-I spokesman said these commanders will be inducted on one-year contract as the airline is hopeful of training to its own pilots during this period.
— UNI
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Airtel, Idea to bleep on Samsung handsets
New Delhi, April 23 “Samsung has entered into operator alliances with Airtel in all circles for its two models and with Idea Cellular for select circles on all models,” Mr Kunal Ahooja, vice-president (Telecom), Samsung India said. While launching four new models of mobile phones, including one with in-built camera and integrated flash, Mr Ahooja said the company plans to launch 25 new models later this year. With the introduction of four new models today, Samsung would have a total of 11 phone models here. “The highlight of the range being introduced is the SGH X600, a bar mobile phone with a rotating camera and integrated flash. This is the only phone with multi-language ‘Display and Input’ in Hindi, Tamil and Marathi. The mobile phones being introduced include SGH-S500, SGH-X100 and SGH-X430 in addition to SGH-X600,” Mr Ahooja said. Mr Ahooja said the company expected 50 per cent of mobile phone sales to come from the colour/camera phone segment by the middle of the year. The company today also announced its Associate Sponsorship status for the forthcoming Lakme India Fashion Week.
— PTI
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Mitsubishi left in the lurch
Stuttgart, April 23 DaimlerChrysler said late on Thursday it would not inject new funds into a proposed capital increase and rescue plan for Mitsubishi Motors Corp after it failed to reach an acceptable deal with other shareholders in the Mitsubishi group. “We couldn’t find a solution that satisfies our own shareholders,” DaimlerChrysler Chief Financial Officer Manfred Gentz told reporters on Friday. “As far as our Asian strategy is concerned, we have to reconsider what has to be changed and what cannot be,” he added.
— Reuters
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SEZ exports spurt 46 pc
New Delhi, April 23 In rupee terms, exports grew by 39 per cent to Rs 14,003.89 crore in the year under review as compared to Rs 10,056,62 crore in 2002-03, an official release said here. The statement attributed the growth to a series of initiatives taken by Department of Commerce including setting up of offshore banking units, operation and maintenance of SEZs and SEZs units, sales from domestic tariff area to SEZs and SEZ units to be
treated as physical exports among others. — PTI
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Corporate news
Chandigarh, April 23 Ericsson
Ericsson AB, the world’s largest maker of wireless networks, posted a second straight quarterly profit after cutting more than half the workforce and boosting sales for the first time in more than three years. First-quarter net income was 3 billion kronor ($ 391 million), compared with a loss of 4.3 billion kronor, a year earlier. Sales rose 9 per cent to 28.1 billion kronor from 25.9 billion kronor a year earlier, Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said in Stockholm, where Ericsson is based.
Exide
Exide Industries Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 21.3-crore for the quarter-ended March 31, 2004 (MQ-04), compared to a net profit of Rs 17.74-crore for the quarter-ended March 31, 2003 (MQ-03), an
increase of 20.06 per cent. The company’s total income (net of excise and sales tax) has increased from Rs 240.65-crore in MQ-03 to Rs 266.61-crore in MQ-04.
Mico
Motor Industries Company Ltd (Mico) has posted a net profit of Rs 112.37 crore for the quarter-ended March 31, 2004 (MQ-04) as compared to a net profit of Rs 52.29-crore for the quarter-ended March 31, 2003 (MQ-03), almost an increase of over 115 per cent.
— Agencies
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