New Delhi, April 23
The country's largest IT exporter, Tata Consultancy Services on Monday posted a profit after tax of Rs 2,932 crore versus Rs 2,887 crore, up 1.6% on a quarterly basis. With a 31% year-on-year growth in its Q4 FY12 full year revenues, TCS became the first Indian IT company to cross the $10 billion milestone. Its full year revenues stood at Rs 48,894 crore ($10.17 billion).

TCS reported a full year net profit of Rs 10,638 crore ($2.2 billion), up 22% YoY, by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The company generated a revenue of Rs 13,259 crore in the fourth quarter versus Rs 13,204 crore in the previous quarter. This is a growth of 0.4% quarter-on-quarter. The fourth quarter operating margins stood at 27.7% versus 29.2% on a quarterly basis.

The company witnessed a volume growth of 23% during fiscal 2011-12. The infrastructure, enterprise solutions and BPO services clocked over $1 billion in revenues.

TCS also saw an all time high gross addition of employees in FY12. The company however reported an attrition of 12.2% for the fourth quarter. With an addition of 70,400 employees, its total base now stands at 238,583 professionals.

Commenting on the Q4 numbers, CEO, N Chandrasekaran said that the company has carried the strong momentum through fourth quarter to close out a year of strong growth. "We feel pretty good about the overall performance as we have kept our focus on profitability and consolidated our market leadership," he said.

TCS chief financial officer T.V. Mahalingam said: "We have had a 71 basis points reduction in margins as a result of the currency fluctuation."

Chandrasekaran said TCS has signed three large deals in BFSI and holistically done well. He stated growth in North America was good in Q4 as per company average and that in Europe had been phenomenal. "Growth has been flat, but we should grow. The good thing about this quarter is that we have grown on all verticals, on a constant currency basis. BFSI is flat," Chandra added.

Commenting on hiring and bench strength Chandrasekaran said, "We have a huge bench now, training has been completed and ready for deployment. We've made offers to 45,000 freshers."

TCS shares closed down 2.27% at Rs 1059.25 on the BSE. The stock touched an intraday high of Rs 1,102.45 and a low of Rs 1,046.55.

TCS and Infosys are part of India's $100 billion-a-year IT and back-office services sector that earns about 70 per cent of its revenue from exports to the United States and Europe. — Agencies

New Delhi, April 23
The sharp increase proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in the base price for the auction of the 2G spectrum vacated following the cancellation of the 122 licences by the Supreme Court in February last could prove to be another drain on the finances of the telecom companies already reeling under intense competition.

Reports emerging from the market said TRAI has pegged the reserve price for the the 900 megahertz band price at Rs 7,000 crore, which is twice the base price set for a 3G spectrum. For the 700 MHz band, it has been set at Rs 14,000 crore which is four times the 3G reserve price.

While the telcos are already reeling under debts from the loan which they took for paying the cost of the 3G spectrum auction carried out by the government in 2010, another round of auction for the precious 2G spectrum could prove to be a deterrent even for the established operators leave aside some of the start up operators affected by the court ruling but still want to carry on business in India.

Operators like Sistema and Telenor, which have already invested heavily into Indian telecom business, would definitely feel the pinch at this base price. This especially, as they want to carry on with the business investments here and have already sought the Indian government’s protection of their investments.

There were strong reactions from Indian telecom industry which expressed deep dismay on the TRAI’s recommendations on the 2G spectrum auction.

The country’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, said the proposed reserve pricing per MHz for 700 MHz at Rs 14,000 crore, for 800/900 MHz band at Rs 7,244 crore and for 1800 MHz at Rs 3,622 crore, which translates into a reserve price of over Rs 18,100 crore for a block of 5 Mhz in the 1800 Mhz band, seems to be directed towards creating unnecessary constraints for the sector, overlooking the universal rules of sustainability and growth for this sector.

New Delhi, April 23
HDFC Bank and San Francisco, Calif.-based multinational diversified financial services firm Wells Fargo & Co have joined hands to enable NRIs in the United States to quickly remit money to their beneficiary’s HDFC Bank savings account in India.

The new service will significantly enhance remittance opportunities to India given that Wells Fargo has one of the largest number of banking locations among US banks and HDFC Bank has over 2,500 branches in India, a country that has a large and growing number of NRIs based in the US. HDFC Bank is already one of the most preferred remittance channels for NRIs in the Gulf countries.

According to a World Bank report, the officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries are estimated to have reached $351 billion in 2011, up 8% over 2010 and is slated to touch $441 billion by 2014. Worldwide remittance flows, including those to high-income countries, are expected to exceed $590 billion by 2014. India has consistently been the top recipient of remittances with the largest chunks coming from the Gulf region and the US.

“India has one of the highest remittance volumes in the world according to the World Bank,” said Daniel Ayala, executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo's global remittance services. “This is evident by high customer demand as well. We’re glad we can make payout locations even more convenient now by working with HDFC Bank.

New Delhi, April 23
Mobilisation of resources through rights issues recorded a 75% decline in the recently concluded fiscal 2011-12.

According to Prithvi Haldea, chairman & MD of Prime Database, the country’s leading database on the primary capital market, the year saw only Rs 2,375 crore being raised compared to Rs 9,594 crore that was raised in the previous year 2010-11. This was also lower than the Rs.8,321 crore raised in 2009-10 and much lower than the highest ever amount mobilized in a year — Rs 32,519 crore in 2007-08.

By number, according to Prime, the year witnessed 16 firms using the rights route, 33% lower than the previous year that had seen 24 issues. 2009-10 has seen 29 issues.

Dismal market conditions through the year, compounded by firms raising monies through alternative routes like QIP and preferential issues, were the main reasons for the poor utlilization of the rights route. The largest rights issues in the year were from Bajaj Hindusthan (Rs. 1,644 crore) followed by JK Paper (Rs 246 crore) and Gayatri Projects (Rs 144 crore).

Significantly, nearly 69% of the mobilization, at Rs. 1,644 crore, was done by the sugar sector. The manufacturing and services sector preferred increasingly to use the QIP and the preferential issues route.

The new fiscal (2012-13) promises some action on the rights front. According to Prime, 26 companies have already applied for or have obtained SEBI approval for raising Rs 7,775 crore. Some of the major ones include Advanta India (Rs.200 cr), Bhushan Steel (Rs 474 cr), EIH Associated Hotels (Rs 110 cr), Gammon Infrastructure Projects (Rs 200 cr), Hinduja Foundries (Rs 125 cr), Network18 Media & Investments (Rs 2,700 cr), State Bank of Travancore (Rs 500 cr), Sun Pharma Advanced Research (Rs 200 cr) and TV18 Broadcast (Rs 2,700 cr).

In addition, according to Prime, there are at least another 28 companies who have in the last six months announced their plans to tap the rights market and may firm up their plans in the near future. The floatation plans of all these firms are, of course, subject to a stable, if not a buoyant, secondary market. 

Rohtak, April 23
Industrial development in the district received a major boost on Monday with the laying of the foundation stone of Maruti Suzuki India’s research and development facility and inauguration of eight major manufacturing units by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The total investment in these projects is estimated at Rs 4,700 crore. They include a Suzuki Motorcycle India manufacturing facility and plants of Nippon Carbide, Sabarkantha Cooperative (a unit of Amul Dairy), Lakshmi Precision Screws and Aisin Automotive Haryana. Hooda also inaugurated Asian Paints’ second plant.

Speaking at a function organized at the Industrial Model Township here, Hooda said the new projects would usher in a “major industrial transformation” in the state.

The Maruti Suzuki project, to be developed over an area of 600 acres, is part of the company’s plan for a designing and developing facility for its vehicles. This will be the only R&D hub of Suzuki Motors Corp outside Japan and will cater to the Asian markets. Maruti Suzuki is expected to invest Rs 2,000-2,400 crore to set up this world-class facility.

Suzuki Motorcycle will invest about Rs 1,800 crore in its new plant that will be spread over 50 acres and have a manufacturing capacity of 2 million units a year.

The Nippon Carbide plant, which will manufacture functional films used in the automobile and electronics industries, will be set up with an investment of Rs 66 crore.