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Vodafone buys Rs 6,700-cr stake in
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Spice Telecom to invest Rs
100 crore in Punjab
GAIL, PowerGrid, RailTel join hands to enter telecom sector
HDFC to woo farmers for home loans
IOC profit declines
Oil firms strike deal
VAT on certain items goes in Haryana, reduced on some
Extend benefits to SSI workers, says Kalam
Connect festival bonanza
Food-processing units for Punjab
Ford to pump in $75 m in India
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Vodafone buys Rs 6,700-cr stake in Bharti Tele
New Delhi, October 28 For its 10 per cent stake, Vodafone picked up 5.65 per cent stake from Warburg Pincus, besides acquiring shares in Bharti Enterprises which gives it an “economic stake” of 4.4 per cent in Bharti Televentures, Sunil Mittal, chairman and group MD, Bharti, told reporters here. Vodafone picked up the stake at Rs 351 per share. With this deal, Warburg Pincus has completed exit from Bharti Televentures. Mr Mittal said promoters (Bharti Enterprises) hold 45.9 per cent controlling stake — SingTel has 15.58 per cent, Vodafone 5.65 per cent (besides 4.4 per cent through Bharti Enterprises) and the remaining with public. “We have given a small stake to Vodafone to ensure the entry of the company into India. We remain the single largest shareholder (Bharti
Enterprises through Bharti Telecom) holds 46 per cent stake in BTVL we have no intention of diluting our stakes any further, not even later on,” Mr Mittal said. “This transaction is consistent with Vodafone’s strategy of developing our global footprint in growth markets,” said Mr Arun Sarin, the British firm’s CEO. “Our buying power with infrastructure, IT suppliers is massive. We hope to bring to bring Bharti that global skill and scope as well,” he said. With this deal, Vodafone has returned to the Indian market after a gap of two years. The company has networks in 27 countries and is a partner in another 14. In June 2003, Vodafone sold its 20.76 per cent stake in RPG Cellular to Indian mobile phone group Aircel, the largest mobile phone company in Tamil Nadu, because it did not give Vodafone a strong enough position in the country. “Lifting of telecom FDI rules have brought us together,” Mr Mittal said. Recently finalisation of FDI in telecom guidelines by Cabinet paved the way for 74 per cent FDI in telcos from the current 49 per cent. Going by today’s transaction, the valuation of Bharti Televentures is about Rs 67,000 crore while the market capitalisation as per today stock prices stands at Rs 58,773 crore. European telecom operators are keen to gain more exposure to fast-expanding Asian regions, as it is increasingly difficult to wring growth from their domestic markets. Vodafone said India is the third largest mobile market in Asia with 65.1 million subscribers, having grown 54 per cent year-on-year. Despite only trailing China and Japan in customer numbers, just 6 per cent of Indians have a mobile phone, and 4.4 per cent have fixed-line telecom. In Western Europe, some markets have mobile penetration rates of 100 per cent or more. Later, Mr Sarin called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and apprised him of the company’s plans for the Indian telecom sector. According to Prime Minister’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru, the Prime Minister welcomed Vodofone investment in the country and said India would like to see a quantum jump in FDI in all sectors. Meanwhile, Vodafone also announced a grant of $12 million to Bharti Foundation for the growth of primary education throughout the country. The money will be spent on providing facilities of primary education at all the 23 circles of Bharti Televentures.
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Spice Telecom to invest Rs 100 crore in Punjab
Chandigarh, October 28 Disclosing this here, the company’s new CEO, Mr Prakash Nanani, said people serviced by Spice can look forward towards drastically improved value-added services soon. During his maiden visit to Chandigarh after taking over as the CEO of the company, Mr Nanani disclosed that the company was ready with its plans for the next three months during which Spice Telecom would invest Rs 100 crore in Punjab to improve the infrastructure. From around 700 cell sites at present, the number would be increased to around 1,000 in the next three to four months. At the same time the company would also invest another Rs 100 crore in Karnataka. Spice has also applied for six more licenses for operations in Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal, Uttar Pradesh (East) and Uttar Pradesh (West) telecom circles, Mr Nanani said. Mr. Nanani also confirmed the exit of Distacom from the Spice mobile service venture. He disclosed that Ashmore Investment Management Ltd., a financial investor, and Deutsche Bank Group had invested in Spice and currently held 21 per cent stakes each in the Rs 553 crore company. Ultimately the two investors would be given another 7 per cent stake in the company. Dr B.K Modi will continue to hold 36 per cent shares and the remaining will be sold to an investment agency.
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GAIL, PowerGrid, RailTel join hands to enter telecom sector
New Delhi, October 28 GAIL, which owns 13,000-km of optic fibre cable network, PowerGrid Corp that has laid 19,000-km of cables joining 60 major cities and RailTel having networked 2,200 towns with a 27,500-km cable network, signed a memorandum of understanding to form a consortium for jointly offering bandwidth for e-entertainment, e-education and e-medicine. The integrated network of three PSUs would be covering more than 60,000 route km and is expected to grow to 75,000 route km in next two to three years with the completion of on-going works. The consortium network, which would provide connectivity to even remote NE and Jammu and Kashmir, would be second only to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s 4,00,000-km network. The total network of three PSUs is spread in 340 districts in the country. The proposed consortium has also network in around 60 major cities. With the presence across the length and breadth of the country, Mr Proshanto Banerjee, Chairman GAIL (India) said the consortium aims to target the enterprises segment by providing virtual private network, broadband and managed services. The consortium planned to provide a liable alternative to the government for its e-learning and e-governance rollout plans. “Our coming together is for offering reliable, quality and affordable services,” PowerGrid Chairman and Managing Director R P Singh said at the MoU signing ceremony. Mr Banerjee said that the consortium also proposes to enter in the national long-distance and international long-distance services to leverage its strength. The consortium, which would coordinate marketing and future OFC development plans so as to get a pan-India footprint, would primarily focus on entertainment sector and is targeting Rs 1,000 crore revenues from the business by 2008. The aim is to target the enterprise segment by providing Virtual Private Network (VPN), broadband and managed services.
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HDFC to woo farmers for home loans
Ludhiana, October 28 "We feel this is a relatively ignored segment by banks and housing companies, despite the potential that it holds," said Ms Renu Sud Karnad, Executive Director, HDFC. She said the company was also upbeat on business in Punjab, which is growing at an average annual rate of 40 per cent. She said the corporation would open offices in Bathinda, Ferozepore and Moga soon. Ms Karnad was in the city today to inaugurate HDFC's new office. She also flagged off a consignment of blankets, condensed milk and pullovers to earthquake victims. Though steep growth in industries like the information technology (IT), that has resulted in high income levels, has also led to a rise in property prices and a "little discomfort" to the housing loan segment, Ms Karnad feels it is not a big problem and is unlikely to be faced by cities like Ludhiana. She said factors like shortage of 22 million houses in the country, and almost 40 per cent of the population is below 18 years of age, are positive indictions for growth in the housing loan sector in the next 10 year at least. The company gets 70 per cent of its business from retail segment whereas the remaining 30 per cent comes from big clients like developers and corporates. "The focus remains equal on both segments," she said, adding, "the recently launched Property Venture Fund, wherein HDFC becomes a shareholder with builders and the bank takes care of funding, is likely to generate large business from builders." Talking about the company's business, she said HDFC’s operations in the region had shown rapid progress during the past few years with loan approvals of over Rs 472 crore to over 8,000 units during the last financial year and approvals of Rs 335 crore for financing about 4,000 units for the half year ended 2005-06. "We are maintaining year-on-year average growth of 30 per cent for almost nine years now," she said. HDFC is also planning to open offices in Canada and the UK.
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IOC profit declines
New Delhi, October 28 The company, which lost Rs 5,627 crore on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene in April-September period, saw its profit fall to Rs 895.49 crore in first six months of current fiscal as opposed to Rs 2,711.70 crore net profit posted in the corresponding period the previous year. The firm had for the first time in its history posted a net loss of Rs 54 crore in April-June quarter on not being allowed to raise fuel prices in line with imported cost. IOC sales rose 24.3 per cent to Rs 43,737.16 crore in July-September quarter. It improved to Rs 86,130.61 crore in first half of 2005-06 from Rs 70,809.25 crore.
NTPC profit up
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) today announced 12.89 per cent higher net sales for the second quarter of the current year ending September, 2005 at Rs 5,925 crore compared to previous year’s same period net sales figure of Rs 5,249 crore. The profit after tax for the half year ended September 30 was Rs 2,472 crore as compared to Rs 2,148 crore in the previous year thus registering an increase of 15.09 per cent. The corporation’s net profit for the quarter ended September 30 has risen to Rs 1,163.50 crore as compared to Rs 1,094 crore in the corresponding period previous year registering an increase of 6.35 per cent.
IGL net up 28.7 pc
Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), the supplier of compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG) in the Capital, has announced an increase in net profit by 28.7 per cent for the 2nd quarter (Jul-Sep) to Rs 27.03 crore.
JK Lakshmi Cement
JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd (formerly known as JK Corp Ltd) has reported Rs 8.53 crore net profit in second quarter ended September 30, showing an increase of 81 per cent. The company’s sale has gone up marginally by 3 per cent, but the sale of its blended cement has gone up by 10 per cent.
— TNS, Agencies
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Oil firms strike deal
New Delhi, October 28 As per the agreement reached between
OMCs, all stand-alone refineries will give a discount for the sale of LPG and kerosene, which is ranging between Rs 1,875 and Rs 2,300 per
tonne. The total discounts for the whole year will be Rs 1,500 crore in which Reliance share will be Rs 750 crore, IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria told reporters. Similarly, the stand-alone refineries will sell their products at a discount of 40 per cent of the import and export prices parity.
— UNI
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VAT on certain items goes in Haryana, reduced on some
Chandigarh, October 28 The decision to reduce entertainment duty was taken following a representation received from the Association of Multiplexes to bring it at par with Delhi. However, the Hooda Government decided to give this benefit to all types of cinema halls thus benefitting them to the tune of Rs 6 crore per year. The Cabinet decision to reduce VAT on certain goods would give relief of about of Rs 10 crore in a year to trade, industry and customers. This decision was taken following the recommendations made by state-level consultative committee on VAT. The items which have been exempted from tax include truthfully-labelled seeds, tyres and tubes of animal-drawn vehicles, animal feed supplements, concentrates and addictives and husk of pulses and deoiled cakes. The items on which tax has been reduced from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent include specific vaccines, medical equipment, devices and implants, syringes, dressings, medicated ointments produced under drug license, light liquid paraffin of IP grade, all processed or preserved fruits and vegetables, including jam, jelly, pickle, squash, juice, drink, paste and powder made of fruits and vegetables, whether sold in a sealed contained or otherwise, wet dates and “khoya”. The tax on guar, agricultural tractor and tyres and tubes, including flaps, would be reduced to 4 per cent. Other commodities on which tax has been slashed to 4 per cent included henna, spectacles, contact lenses and lens cleaners, nuts, bolts, screws and fasteners, rubber rolls and polishers used in making rice and specified chemicals used as industrial inputs. Mithai and namkeen prepared with traditional tools would be exempt from tax. Now only those VAT dealers would have to file their annual commodity tax returns, whose tax liability exceeds Rs 1 lakh in a year. The Cabinet also decided to increase the rate of lump sum tax on brick-kiln owners in lieu of VAT by 10 per cent for the current year over the past year.
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Extend benefits to SSI workers, says Kalam
New Delhi, October 28 "As per the RBI report, nearly 1.4 lakh SSI units are sick. The Ministry of Small-Scale Industries has to initiate mission mode programme of reviving these sick units in a time- bound manner before December 2006," Kalam said after inaugurating national convention of small agro and rural industries and presentation of awards. The President said 10 million of the 12 million small-scale units employing 20 million people were unregistered and there was a need to bring them under registered category so that all 28 million people employed by the sector can be provided benefits as applicable to workers in the organised sector of the economy.
— PTI
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Connect festival bonanza
Chandigarh, October 28 A subscriber can win a Ford Ikon car plus another 10,000 prizes over the next three months by making few calls from their Connect fixed line phone.
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Food-processing units for Punjab
Chandigarh, October 28 While giving approval to these units in a meeting of Project Approval Board here today, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said the plant and the machinery would be procured from Rossi and Catelli in Italy at a cost of Rs 15.25 crore.
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Ford to pump in $75 m in India
New Delhi, October 28 "To support the aggressive growth strategy, Ford India will be augmenting its subscribed capital. Ford India has
received approval from Ford Motor company for an additional equity infusion of $75 million to meet the needs of our future plans," Ford India MD and President Arvind Mathew said. Ford India, which has its plant near Chennai, has invested around $375 million in India so far. The company began operations in 1996 in a joint venture with Mahindra and Mahindra and became a fully-owned subsidiary in 2005. Ford India currently sells four models in India, including the flagship Ikon, SUV Endeavour, premium sedan Mondeo and the recently-launched Fusion.
General Motors
General Motors India today said it would be hiking the price of its multi-purpose vehicle Tavera and premium sedan Optra by 1-2 per cent and would invest Rs 100 crore to hike the capacity at its Halol plant to 80,000 units. "There has been pressure on margins due to which we will be hiking the prices of Tavera and Optra by 1-2 per cent...its a question of few weeks," General Motors India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference. Chaba said the company will also hike the capacity at its plant in Gujarat from the current level of 60,000 units to 80,000 units. Chaba said the company was planning to launch 2-3 new models in India in 2006 and added that plans were also afoot to bring in a small car.
Maruti net up 43.1 pc
Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) today reported a 43.1 per cent jump in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2005 at Rs 262.66 crore against Rs 183.54 crore in the same period last year. Total income also increased 15.9 per cent at Rs 3,149 crore (net of excise) during the second quarter (Q2) of the fiscal over the same period last year. In the first six months of the fiscal, the total income was Rs 5,874.37 crore, a growth of 11.4 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year. Net profit stood at Rs 489.12 crore, up 38 per cent over April-September 2004. The company's domestic sales during Q2 (July - September) grew 8.9 per cent over the same period last fiscal. MUL's market share in the domestic market during Q2 went up to 55.5 per cent from 53.4 per cent in the same period last year. In all, the company sold 140,543 vehicles during the quarter, including 11,880 units of exports.
Skoda Superb
Skoda Auto India today announced the launch of Skoda Superb turbo diesel — the first six-cylinder turbo diesel car in India. A flagship model of Skoda Auto brand, Skoda Superb represents the best mix of luxury, performance, safety, power and inner space and is available at a price of Rs 21.80 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai), Imran Hassen, Managing Director, Skoda Auto India said in Mumbai. The Skoda Superb turbo diesel will be available in four colours, Sahara Beige, Black Magic, Candy White and Diamond Silver.
— Agencies
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