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Too early to measure yuan revaluation impact: Govt
Postal Dept moots banking arm
ONGC plan for 2 jvs with Mittal Group okayed
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Master Card may offer stake to SBI
Govt may review petro prices
RIL Board may shelve buyback midway
Nalco profit surges by 28 pc
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Too early to measure yuan revaluation impact: Govt
New Delhi, July 22 Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said with revaluation of the yuan “the artificiality in the prices of Chinese exports will not be able to last and there would be a level-playing field for our exports.” The actual impact, however, will be known only after observing to which foreign currency basket the yuan is pegged in the next couple of weeks, he said. Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Council for Leather Exports, Mr Nath said that another major determining factor would be the degree to which the Chinese Government continues to artificially manage their domestic currency in the global foreign exchange market. The minister said that the government would not issue any directive to the RBI to execute an appreciation of the rupee in the aftermath of the yuan revaluation. Earlier speaking at the conference organised by the Council for Leather Exports, he said that effort should be to occupy at least 5 per cent of world trade in leather within the next five years, as this would generate over one million additional jobs in the country. “We have identified the leather industry as a `thrust sector’ in view of significant export growth prospects and enormous employment potential, particularly in semi-urban and rural areas.”, he said. To boost textile exports
Meanwhile, Indian exporters competing with Chinese manufacturers, especially the textile industry, are upbeat after the Chinese Government’s decision to end its decade-old currency peg to the dollar, spurring expectation that a stronger Chinese yuan will boost the value of Indian exports. The textile industry is expecting that it would lead to 2-3 per cent additional growth this year itself from the projected growth of 20 per cent. Mr Pritam Goel, General Secretary, Garment Exporters Association, said:“ The new yuan rate will bridge the gap between the price of Indian and Chinese garments from an average of 15 per cent to 11-12 per cent in the international market. The Indian textile exports would gain by 2-3 per cent due to this change, thus helping us increase our share in the US and EU markets.” Indian textile and garment exporters would now be able to quote better prices than their Chinese counterparts for all textile items. In the coming days, the impact would be visible across all major textile production centres, including Ludhiana, Tirupur, Delhi and Mumbai. As per the estimates of the Textile Ministry, textile exports from India are likely to grow by 20 per cent from $ 13.4 billion in 2003-04 to $ 15 billion this fiscal. Exporters are expecting that this development would also have an impact on other export items like leather, steel and other commodities, where India faces competition from China. They said a stronger yuan meant Indian exports could be more competitive in markets abroad. Till yesterday, the rupee gained 0.8 per cent to 43.17 per dollar at the close of trading in Mumbai. Said Mr Mahendra K. Sanghi, President, Assocham, “the unprecedented surge in textile exports orders for winter 2005 from the EU and US markets and the revaluation of yuan will enable India to register excellent export growth in the textiles sector this year.”
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Postal Dept moots banking arm
New Delhi, July 22 At present, the postal network passes on the entire money collected to the Finance Ministry for a fixed commission. “We have the largest network of post offices. Now we would like to go to other areas like credit and investment through our own subsidiary bank,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference. The DoP was also aiming to become the largest insurance player in the rural areas, after the LIC, he said.
— UNI
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ONGC plan for 2 jvs with Mittal Group okayed New Delhi, July 22 Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar made this announcement after the conclusion of a four-hour marathon meeting with ONGC officials. The ONGC will have a majority stake in these JVs to jointly hunt for overseas oil properties and energy business. The ONGC will hold 51 per cent equity while the Mittal Steel Company will hold the rest 49 per cent. The two groups will tomorrow ink a memorandum of understanding for the joint venture for acquisition of oil companies/ fields and energy-related business like energy trading and shipping abroad. “We are signing a broad MoU tomorrow,” said a top ONGC official, who did not want to be named. The ONGC wants to capitalise on the L.N. Mittal Group’s presence in oil and gas-rich countries, especially in the Caspian region, and use its influence in securing lucrative deals. L.N. Mittal’s flagship Mittal Steel has manufacturing units in 14 countries and sales and marketing offices in 11 nations. The “Mittal Group has strong presence in Kazakhstan where the ONGC is seeking the Kurmangazy oilfield, besides interest in the Makhambet and Satpayev exploration blocks. We may use the Mittal Group influence to get these deal through,” the official said. Mittal has a strong presence in several oil-rich regions such as Central Asia, where the ONGC is looking for oil and gas projects. The ONGC is leading India’s hunt for foreign petroleum assets to meet the energy needs of Asia’s third largest economy. The government expects domestic oil demand to grow 4-5 per cent annually for the next 20 years but analysts say growth would slow down if India raises fuel prices. — Agencies
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Master Card may offer stake to SBI
New Delhi, July 22 The exact number of shareholding of the SBI in Mastercard will be known after receipt of quarterly membership reports submitted by all membership banks for the quarter ended June 30. “Based on the bank’s large number of ATM-cum-debit cards and volume of business being handled on their platform, the bank is likely to receive a good number of shares from Master Card,” the SBI informed. The SBI has ties with Master Card for launching the bank deposit access programme from November 13, 2002.
— PTI
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Govt may review petro prices
New Delhi, July 22 Petroleum Minister Mani Shakar Aiyar said: “At the last Cabinet meeting on June 20, it was decided that the prices may be revised if the oil companies make cash losess and are unable to service equity and raise investable funds for future projects.” A senior official of the Petroleum Ministry said: “ If the oil companies are still making cash losses, then we have to review the price situation.” The issue of upward revision in prices was also discussed at yesterday’s meeting between the Finance and Petroleum Ministers. ‘’We met the Finance Minister for some other reason but we also raised the issue of oil prices. He asked us to check if the oil companies were making cash losses even after last month’s price rise,’’ he said.
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RIL Board may shelve buyback midway
New Delhi, July 22 Nearly eights months after it approved the buyback at Rs 570 a share, for which a provision of Rs 2,990 crore was made, RIL’s board would meet on July 27 to consider closing of the offer, the company today informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. “The company’s board, which is scheduled to meet on July 27, will consider the proposal for closing the buyback offer of equity share,” the communiqué said. The move to shelve the offer, for which the investment bankers like JM Morgan Stanley and DSP Merill Lynch were roped in and evoked little response, comes well before its expiry of one year on January 10, 2006. At the board meeting on December 27, which approved the buyback offer, then Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani opposed the move and said instead of buyback, the shareholders should be given bonus shares. However, Anil was isolated with all other directors siding with Mukesh to unanimously approve the buyback. Since the offer opened on January 10, 2005, RIL has so far bought back about 23 lakh shares, shelling out about Rs 117 crore, which is less than five per cent of the proposed outlay. RIL’s weighted average price was over Rs 680 a share at both Bombay and National Stock Exchanges, much higher than the maximum offered price of Rs 570 a share at the buyback. RBI directive on shares
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today notified that FIIs can now purchase under the Portfolio Investment Scheme equity shares and convertible debentures of Adlabs Films Ltd and Reliance Capital Ltd up to 40 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively. The shares and debentures can be purchased through primary markets and stock exchanges as the two companies have passed resolutions to this effect at their board of directors’ and general body meetings, the Reserve
Bank of India said in a statement here. — Agencies
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Wipro bags £ 25 m contract from UK firm
Bangalore, July 22 Wipro said NGN, one of the new independent gas network companies in Britain, has selected Wipro Technologies to implement a complete replacement of its work and asset management systems. Over the next year, Wipro would implement a complete new suite of systems to manage the assets of the gas network in the north of England and to support the staff who operate and maintain the network, the company said in a statement here. Announcing the Q1 result today, the company said during the quarter, it added 29 new clients, including NGN. It reported a net profit of Rs 428 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2005, a 20 per cent jump over the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. The Bangalore-headquartered company reported revenues of Rs 2,262 crore, a 28 per cent rise year-on-year Global IT services and products revenue was Rs 1,732 crore, an increase of 29 per cent, which, the company said in a statement here, was driven by volume growth and improvement in price realisation. The company added 2097 employees in IT services, taking its total headcount to 41,911 as on June 30, 2005. Godrej declares 75 pc dividend
Godrej Consumer Products Ltd today reported a 56.58 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 27.12 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 as compared to Rs 17.32 crore for the corresponding quarter in previous fiscal. Total income has increased 23.21 per cent to Rs 167.96 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs 136.31 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Echange. The Board of Directors has declared an interim dividend of 75 per cent that is, Rs 3 per share on the shares of the face value of Rs 4 each, for the financial year 2005-06, it said. The dividend will be paid on and from August 12, 2005.
Indian Hotels net up by 164 pc
Mumbai-based Indian Hotels Company Ltd today reported a 164 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 16.91 crore for the first quarter this fiscal as compared to Rs 6.40 crore for the year ago period. Total income increased 23 per cent to Rs 207.84 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs 168.86 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year, it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Apollo Tyres’ profit rises
Apollo Tyres Ltd today reported a 6.78 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 16.69 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 as compared to Rs 15.63 crore for the corresponding quarter in previous fiscal. Total income has increased 11.08 per cent to Rs 568.32 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs 511.61 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Tata Elxsi gains
6.59 crore
IT company Tata Elxsi Ltd today reported a 50.11 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 6.59 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 as compared to Rs 4.39 crore for the corresponding quarter in previous fiscal. Total income has increased 33.27 per cent to Rs 51.11 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs 38.35 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Glaxo Smithkline
in black
GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare Ltd today reported a 56.67 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 29.11 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 as compared to Rs 18.58 crore in the year-ago period. Total revenues have increased 15.82 per cent to Rs 248.84 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs 214.85 crore for the corresponding period in previous fiscal, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
OCL India profit surges
OCL India Ltd has announced 21 per cent rise in net profit in the first quarter this fiscal over the corresponding quarter in the previous financial year and 17 per cent in turnover. A leading player in the cement market, under Konark brand, the company registered net profit of Rs 14.55 crore for April-June period as against Rs 12 crore net profit during the corresponding period last fiscal. Total turnover during April-June valued at Rs 164.87 crore against Rs 141.43 crore in the corresponding period in 2004.
— Agencies
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Nalco profit surges by 28 pc
New Delhi, July 22 The public sector behemoth’s net income spiralled to Rs 280.56 crore, or Rs 4.35 a share, in the three months ended June 30, from Rs 219.03 crore, or Rs 3.40 a share, in the last fiscal of 2004-05, Nalco’s chief spokesman D Satapathy told PTI on telephone from Bhubaneswar. He said the company’s gross turnover increased by Rs 180.35 crore to a whopping Rs 1071.70 crore against Rs 891.35 crore in the last fiscal. Profit before tax rose by Rs 82.14 crore to Rs 431.93 crore from Rs 349.79 crore in the last fiscal, he said. ICICI Bank tie-up
ICICI Bank today tied up with Europe’s financial powerhouse Fortis for offering asset and wealth management, estate planning and corporate services to non-resident Indians worldwide. With the non-equity strategic tie up with Fortis’ private banking arm MeesPierson, ICICI Bank became the first Indian bank to offer global wealth management solutions to its clients in India and abroad. — PTI
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