Mumbai, October 31
ICICI Bank, India's no. 2 lender beat street estimates on Monday with a 21.6 per cent rise in second-quarter profit, led by higher income from interest and investments, and lower provisions for bad loans.

The bank said its net profit in the September quarter rose to Rs 1,503.2 crore from Rs 1,236 crore a year ago. Net interest income grew nearly 14% to Rs 2,506 crore from Rs 2,204 crore a year ago, in line with estimates. Net nonperforming assets as a percentage of total loans fell to 0.93% at end-September from 1.62% a year ago.

Nomura has initiated coverage on major Indian lenders — ICICI Bank Ltd, Axis Bank, State Bank of India , HDFC Bank , IndusInd Bank and Bank of Baroda with a 'buy' rating.

Credit at Indian banks has been growing at a slower rate than deposits, with surging interest rates in Asia's second-fastest growing major economy curbing spending on big-ticket purchases like cars and housing.

The Reserve Bank of India, which expects credit to grow by 18 percent in the full fiscal year, raised interest rates on Tuesday for the 13th time in a tightening cycle that began in early 2010 to fight persistently high inflation

Policy interest rates are at their highest since the global financial crisis in 2008, and many investors and corporate officials have been calling on the central bank to halt its policy tightening given the slowdown in growth.

At 1:36 pm the ICICI Bank stock was trading at Rs 946.95, up 1.50% on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The scrip fell by a fifth during the quarter compared with a nearly 13% fall in the benchmark BSE Sensex . The BSE bank index fell 15.4% in the period.

Earlier on Monday, Bank of Baroda also reported a net profit of Rs 1,166 crore for the quarter ended September 2011, up 14.4% as compared to Rs 1,019 crore in the same period a year ago. Net interest income rose to Rs 2,566.5 crore, up 26% against Rs 2,038 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. — Agencies

New Delhi, October 31
Fresh from tasting success in the first-ever Formula One race in India, Italian sports-car maker Ferrari plans to conduct owner training programmes and a challenger series in the country at the Buddh International Circuit.

The company, which officially entered India earlier this year with the appointment of the Shreyans Group as official importer, today launched its four-seater model FF at a price starting from Rs 3.42 crore (ex-showroom, Delhi).

"The idea is why not have our challenger series (a racing competition) and have customer training programmes now that there is a world-class track here in India," Ferrari SpA CEO Amedeo Felisa told reporters here.

With the Formula One race being held in India and a lot of Ferrari fans in India, he said: "We had success yesterday with Alonso... We hope that the popularity of the brand will increase." Ferrari's driver Fernando Alonso came third behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mclaren Mercedes' Jenson Button in the Formula One Indian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Shreyans group chairman Ashish Chordia said by the first quarter of next year, Ferrari might finalise modalities for the challenger series and customer training programmes in India.

Commenting on the latest FF model, which made its global debut earlier this year, Felisa said Ferrari has so far sold 800 units and bookings are already complete for next year, at over 1,000 units.

In India, Ferrari will study the customer response and it might take about 12 months for delivery of vehicles.

"We’ll work closely with Ferrari to see if that period can be shortened whenever we get an order, but as of now, we have just launched the car. We will be assessing customer response first," Chordia said.

Since its formal entry into India in May this year, the company has got bookings for 20 cars so far. It had launched models such as the California, 458 Italia and 599GTB Fiorano, with prices starting from Rs 2.2 crore.

Globally, Ferrari aims to sell about 7,000 cars this year, as against 6,500 cars last year, Felisa said. "Next year we’re looking at around the same level as this year. In 2011, we are having one of our best years despite the economic crises in Europe and the US”, he added. — PTI

Mumbai, October 31
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, India's largest consumer goods maker, posted a 21 percent growth in its quarterly profit helped by price hikes and better-than-expected volume growth, pushing its shares up nearly 8 percent to its lifetime high on Monday.

However, the maker of brands such as Dove soap, Clinic shampoo and Close-Up toothpaste said rupee depreciation posed a challenge even as competitive pressures and input cost inflation showed little signs of easing in the near-term, with input prices rising by 25-40 percent from a year ago.

"Price growth was a larger component relative to volume growth especially in categories like soaps and detergents," Chief Financial Officer R. Sridhar said in an earnings conference call.

The firm's soaps and detergents business which grew ahead of other product categories, registered a strong growth of 21.8 percent, largely led by pricing growth.

Demand for consumer goods in Asia's third-largest economy and the world's second-most populous nation, is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years from annual industry sales of $76 billion now as incomes rise.

Hindustan Unilever, the Indian arm of Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever Plc, said net profit rose 21% to Rs 6.9 billion for the fiscal second quarter ended September from Rs 5.7 billion a year ago. The company, which counts the Indian units of Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive as rivals, beat a Reuters consensus net profit forecast of Rs 5.84 billion. — Reuters

Bangalore, October 31
Bangalore-based IT bellwether Wipro today reported marginal growth over correspondent quarter a year ago (year-on-year) in net profit for the second quarter (July-Sept) and projected a flat sequential revenue growth from its global IT services business for third quarter (October-December) of this fiscal (2011-12).

According to the Indian accounting standard, the company’s net profit rose by a mere one percent YoY to Rs 1,301 crore for the quarter under review (Q2). This marked a decline of 2.5 percent sequentially from the previous quarter (April-June) at Rs 1,335 crore.

Wipro’s total income, however, rose 18% YoY to Rs 9,094 crore resulting in a sequential growth of 6.2%.

Projecting a conservative outlook due to the global economic uncertainty, the software major said revenue from its global IT services would be in the range of $1,500 to 1,530 million in the third quarter (Q3), a sequential growth of 4.6 percent.

New Delhi, October 31
In a move that may hit Air India's international operations, over a hundred pilots have threatened to quit the airline, charging the management with adopting discriminatory attitude against them and stalling their career progression.

Just four days ahead of the launch of a training programme for pilots to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, a letter to Air India chairman & MD Rohit Nandan by pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) said they were “compelled to seek a ‘no objection certificate’ so that we may consider seeking employment elsewhere”.

Claiming they felt "cheated by the management's unfair and discriminatory decisions, leading to a complete stall of our career progression,” the letter said: “These decisions and actions provide a windfall gain to the pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines at the expense of the career progression prospects of the pilots of erstwhile Air India”.

The IPG represents around 200 pilots of the premerger Air India, while the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) that had gone on strike in April represents around 1,400 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

Copies of the letter were also sent to Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi and other officials. Air India officials, meanwhile, said they were holding negotiations with IPG office-bearers to sort out the issue.

Recently ICPA too raised the issue of 80% of their salaries in the form of productivity-linked incentives (PLI) not been paid for four months. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) had sought his intervention to expedite the payment of PLI.

Chandigarh, October 31
The Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Ltd, popularly known as Milkfed Punjab, is looking at increasing the quantum of export of desi ghee (clarified butter) so as to rake in additional moolah. The state milk cooperative will now be tapping new markets besides increasing its total exports to the areas it is servicing now.

This year, the state run milk cooperative is looking at tapping the markets of The Philippines and Australia — two countries that have a sizeable Punjabi population.

Since the brandname is familiar with Punjabis in both the countries, Milkfed is now looking at appointing dealers in those cities of these countries, where there is a large concentration of people from North India.

Talking to The Tribune here on Monday, Milkfed managing director Jeewandeep Singh Kahlon said this year the cooperative was targeting exports of over 550 tonnes of ghee. “We’ve been exporting desi ghee to many Middle Eastern countries. In fact, the Verka ghee brand name is now quite popular in Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Though we’ve earlier exported desi ghee to Australia, it was done only off and on. But this year onwards we intend to have a proper marketing and dealership network there so as to have a sizeable quantity of exports,” he added.

Kahlon said last year, the milk cooperative had exported 375 tonnes of ghee, worth Rs 12 crore. “This year we hope to increase the total quantity to around 550 tonnes, which will help us rake in over Rs 15 crore through exports,” he said.

He, however, added the earlier plan to export sweet lassi (yogurt-based drink) had been stalled for the time being, as its consumption had gone up substantially in the domestic market.

Meanwhile, the milk cooperative is now flush with the flow of milk (it procures 925,000 litres daily), especially after it hiked the procurement price to Rs 410 per kg fat. However, it will not be making skimmed milk powder (SMP) for exports.

“We’ll be making SMP only for our own consumption. Also, we propose not to sell bulk packets of SMP (25 kg) to our regular customers in the domestic market, but will introduce small retail packets (1kg) for these consumers,” said Kahlon. 

New Delhi, October 31
India was “seriously considering” to raise 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in single brand retail, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma informed a business delegation from Italy. "We have 51 per cent (FDI cap) in single brand retail and we are seriously considering how to raise it to a higher level," Sharma said. He was addressing a meeting of the India- Italy Business Forum.

Italy along with France boast of top global fashion labels, many of which are keen to strengthen their interest in the growing Indian market.

At present, global retail firms like Adidas, Nike, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Gucci can invest up to 51 per cent in India and need a local joint venture partner. This limitation has been a dampener for the fashion labels from Europe to increase their investment in India.

Sharma also said there were huge opportunities available for businessmen of India and Italy to deepen their mutual engagement. He added textiles, fashion designing and leather are areas where both the countries can step up cooperation.

The minister said Italian businessmen can also explore infrastructure sector, which needs US $1 trillion between 2012 and 2017.

Italian Economic Development Minister Paolo Romani sought cooperation in sectors like automobile, infrastructure, renewable energy, defence and services. "We’ve to focus more on increasing bilateral trade. Italy can participate in India's infrastructure development. We have knowhow of urban designing and airports," he said. Bilateral trade between the countries stood at $8.8 billion in 2010-11. — Agencies