Mumbai, January 20
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 13.5% drop in net profit at Rs 4,440 crore for the quarter ended December 2011 against market expectations of Rs 4,500-4,700 crore. Net sales were at Rs 85,135 crore and gross refining margins stood at $6.80 per barrel.

The company posted a turnover of Rs 251,958 crore ($47.5 billion), for the nine months ended December 31, 2011, an increase of 37.4% on a year-on-year basis. Increase in volumes accounted for 3.9% growth in revenue and higher prices accounted for 33.5% growth in revenue.

Exports were higher by 55.2% at Rs 156,753 crore ($29.5 billion) as against Rs 100,995 crore in nine months ended FY10-11. Higher crude prices resulted in consumption of raw materials increasing by 50.6% to Rs 203,294 crore ($38.3 billion) on a year-on-year basis.

Employee costs were at Rs 2,265 crore ($427 million) for the nine months ended December 31, 2011 as against Rs 1,938 crore. Other expenditure increased by 13.0% from Rs 11,594 crore to Rs 13,106 crore ($2.5 billion) due to higher power & fuel expenses and exchange differences. Operating profit before other income and depreciation declined by 4.3% from Rs 28,283 crore to Rs 27,055 crore ($5.1 billion).

Commenting on the results, Reliance Industries chairman & MD Mukesh D. Ambani said: "The global nature of our businesses and weakness in economic conditions resulted in reduced earnings in the quarter, particularly in our refining and petrochemicals businesses. Notwithstanding these challenges, Reliance has delivered reasonably robust results with high operating leverage. Our focus remains on enhancing shareholder value by leveraging an exceptionally strong balance sheet, operating top decile assets and investing prudently in future growth engines."

Other income was higher at Rs 3,897 crore as against Rs 2,135 crore on a year-on-year basis primarily due to higher average holdings as well as higher yield on investments.

Depreciation (including depletion and amortization) was lower by 14.5% at Rs 8,734 crore ($1.6 billion) against Rs 10,221 crore in 9M FY 2010-11 due to lower depletion charge in oil & gas as a consequence of the transfer of 30% PI in 21 blocks to BP. — Agencies

New Delhi, January 20
In a major setback to the government, which has been seeking to penalize private telecom operators for entering into third generation 3G roaming pacts, the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Friday dismissed the department of telecommunications’ plea challenging its jurisdiction to decide on the dispute.

In what will come as a relief for the telecom sector, already reeling under intense competition and price wars, a two-member bench headed by justice SB Sinha, while dismissing the DoT application, held the tribunal had power to decide over DoT's direction on intracircle 3G roaming agreements among operators. The bench, however, directed the operators to submit copies of their agreements to DoT.

The bench ruled: “We’re of the opinion that this tribunal has jurisdiction to decide on this matter. Thus, the applications are dismissed".

Five telecom operators —Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Tata Telecom and Aircel — had challenged the government's decision in TDSAT after DoT termed the intercirle roaming pacts among telecom service providers for 3G services in areas where they did not have the designated spectrum as "illegal".

The government had issued notices to the five operators to stop such services immediately and was also seeking to penalize them for entering into such pacts. DoT had on January 3 last moved an application questioning TDSAT’s jurisdiction in deciding on the dispute. It said the tribunal had no power to look into the licence terms and conditions entered among the operators and DoT.

Meanwhile, the tribunal directed the five operators to hand over copies of their 3G roaming agreements to the DoT. It also said DoT, according to its earlier statement, would maintain confidentiality of the agreements.

DoT had requested TDSAT to provide copies of agreements on 3G roaming among private operators, a move that was opposed by them fearing leakage of commercial information to rivals.

There was further relief for the five operators as TDSAT also extended the period of its interim order that restrained DoT from taking any coercive action against them.

The tribunal had on December 24, 2011 restrained DoT and directed it not to take any coercive action against the operators. A day prior to that the government had asked the five service providers to stop their intercircle roaming on 3G bandwidth within 24 hours, a move that was challenged by the operators.

Bangalore, January 20
Software major Wipro Ltd flagged on Friday a growth outlook better than sector bellwether Infosys Ltd's and met expectations with a 10% rise in quarterly net profit, driven by a weaker rupee, sending its shares up 5%. The board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2 per equity share and ADR (100% on an equity share of par value of Rs 2).

Wipro, India's no. 3 software services exporter, is also expected by industry analysts to catch up with its bigger rivals in earnings growth rates in the next few quarters after undertaking a wide-ranging restructuring.

Describing the performance as a robust one, Wipro chairman Azim Premji said the company had also recorded positive trends with regard to attrition, which he stated had come down by 4% during the quarter. The voluntary quarter annualized attrition dropped to 14.2% — the lowest in eight quarters.

Responding to a question, Pratik Kumar, Wipro’s HR head, said the involuntary annualized attrition was 1.6%, only marginally less than the involuntary annualized attrition recorded in 2010-11 (1.9%).

"Wipro's guidance looks better in comparison to Infosys and that has come as a positive surprise given the current economic uncertainty," said Rohit Anand, a sector analyst with brokerage PINC Research.

Wipro shares rose as much as 5.1% after the results to their highest level in more than two weeks, while the main BSE index was up 0.6%. Infosys, the country's no. 2 software exporter, was down 0.2%.

Wipro said it expects $1.52 billion to $1.55 billion revenue in the March quarter from its IT services unit, which contributes three-quarters of total sales, a sequential rise of nearly 1% to 3%.

Infosys last week said it expects its revenue in the March quarter to be in the range of $1.806 bn to $1.810 bn, unchanged from its Oct-Dec revenue of $1.806 billion.

New Delhi, January 20
UK-based Vodafone Group Plc, the parent company of Vodafone Essar and the world’s second largest telecom operator, on Friday welcomed Supreme Court's ruling to set aside the Bombay High Court judgement asking the company to pay income tax of Rs 11,000 crore.

Vodafone, Which is also the second largest operator in India, said the decision could have an impact on some of the other mergers and acquisitions being questioned, adding the judgment underpins its confidence in the country. "We welcome the Supreme Court's decision, which underpins our confidence in India. We will continue to grow our Indian business — including making significant investments in rural areas and in 3G network coverage — for the benefit of Indian consumers," Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said in a statement.

"We’re a committed long-term investor in India and have made clear all along that we have faith in the Indian judicial system," he added.

New Delhi, January 20
Even as shares of listed aviation companies surged following the government's statement earlier this week on allowing foreign airlines to take up to 49 per cent stake in Indian carriers, the move itself has received diverse responses.

While aviation experts welcomed the proposal saying that it would provide much-required relief to ailing Indian carriers, sounding a word of caution skeptics said foreign airlines would dominate Indian skies and may even prove detrimental for the country's strategic interests.

"Sovereignty and national interest are usually the reasons that most countries do not allow fair free open market competition in their respective airline industries," they quoted the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) as saying, clearly favouring the current policy of disallowing foreign airlines to invest.

Concerns, primarily regarding job losses, have also been expressed by labour unions and pilots' bodies.

Aviation experts however believe the move will infuse much needed funds into the country's cash starved carriers.

"Strongly welcoming" the decision, Kapil Kaul, CEO of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Indian sub-continent, said: “This was long overdue and should have happened in the 90s when the Tata-Singapore Airlines alliance was requesting for a license. CAPA believes this will bring in capital and strategic expertise and will lead to long-term capital in these carriers by domestic FIIs."

Kaul opined even though the global scenario in 2012 is not so good, leading international airlines may be keen on India in the very near future. "It’ll also pave the way for majors like the Tatas and Singapore Airlines who have stayed away because of policy flip-flops," he said.

“Leading international airlines like Virgin Atlantic Airways, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa, interested in building a global footprint, will be interested in India”, he added.

KPMG director (aviation) Amber Dubey said the government’s decision on FDI would provide access to global routes, managerial expertise and synergy benefits. "It brings us closer to the vision of making India a global aviation hub à la Dubai and Singapore. The current losses of the airlines make the valuations attractive," he added.

Grappling with huge debts and high ATF prices, domestic airlines are currently struggling to stay airborne due to overall economic weakness. Overseas capital from foreign carriers can therefore provide them the much needed succour.

However, sounding a word of caution, an official said while more funds, technical knowhow and global access could be unlocked by the policy change, some caution needed to be exercised before turning the country's principal earner of foreign exchange into foreign hands.

Fearing hostile takeovers, domestic carriers like Jet Airways and IndiGo are also believed to be not too keen on the move. The official also said apart from Kingfisher Airlines and, to some extend, Spicejet, he was not sure whether others airlines were as enthusiastic about the move.

Even though Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had recently assured there would be enough safeguards in the policy to take care of security issues and concerns of private airlines, the move’s opponents, quoting the FIA note, said "foreign carriers could also use bilateral air service rights to their advantage".

New Delhi, January 20
Tightening the noose around pesky SMS senders further, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday issued a directive to telecom firms to block international SMSes as per the rules applicable to SMSes originating within the country.

"If any source or number from outside the country generates more than 200 SMSes per hour with a similar 'signature', the same should not be delivered through the network. However, such restriction shall not be applicable on blackout days," TRAI said.

It said during implementation of the regulation to stop pesky calls and SMSes, it observed several instances where promotional SMSes were being routed through servers located at international destinations and were getting delivered to customers registered in the National Call Preference Registry (NCPR, formerly the DND list).

"It was observed that generally such SMSes originated from locations within Germany, Sweden, Nauru, Fiji, Cambodia, Bosnia, Albania, Grenada, UK, Jersey, Sint Maarten, Tonga, Vanuatu, Namibia, Panama, Antigua and Barbuda, etc.," TRAI said.

These SMSes contain headers which are alphanumeric or starting with +91 or numbers with international codes.

TRAI said it had detailed discussions with telemarketers, access service providers and IDD operators to evolve measures for addressing the practice of routing SMSes through international locations. — PTI