Mumbai, December 5
State Bank of India, the lead banker in the 17-lender consortium that extended loans worth Rs 7,000 crore to the now grounded Kingfisher Airlines, on Wednesday said the banks are now "trying to do everything to find an amicable solution" to the carrier's financial troubles.

The SBI comment comes a week after the expiry of deadline that the lenders had set to the Kingfisher Airlines management to come up with a revival plan, that includes a US $1 billion capital infusion.

Kingfisher is a good company with a high brand value and lenders are trying to do everything to see that an amicable solution is found, SBI MD & CFO Diwakar Gupta told reporters on the sidelines of a PwC event here.

After the regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation suspended the airline's flying licence on October 19, SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri had set a November 30 deadline to the airline management to infuse at least $1 billion in fresh capital as part of the revival exercise for the banks to consider lending afresh or recasting the existing loans.

SBI has an exposure of Rs 1,500 crore to the Bangalore based airline, which has not been serviced since January this year.

Launched in May 2005, the airline has not reported a single penny in profit and has bank debt over Rs 7,000 crore and unpaid interest thereon since January, apart from over Rs 1,000 crore in vendor and tax arrears. It also has accumulated losses of nearly Rs 10,000 crore, apart from the salary dues of the past seven months.

Labour unrest towards the end of September led to the airline suspending operations from October 1 and on 19th of the same month, the DGCA had suspended its flying licence. — PTI

Bangalore, December 5
India's services sector grew at its weakest pace in over a year during November due to slowing orders, a survey showed on Wednesday, suggesting an economy limping towards its slowest full-year growth in a decade was struggling to refind momentum.

Services make up nearly 60 percent of India's economic output and any sign of deceleration darkens the outlook for Asia's third-largest economy, as the sector has been the lone bright spot for most of this year.

The HSBC services Purchasing Managers' Index, based on a survey of around 400 companies, fell to 52.1 in November from October's 53.8, to register a 13-month low.

The 50 level separates growth from contraction compared to the previous month, and while the November reading marked a second straight month-on-month drop, the index has held above 50 for a year now.

"Business activity expanded at a slower pace in November and new business also grew at a slower clip, which in both cases may partly reflect the fewer working days due to the Diwali," said Leif Eskesen, economist at HSBC.

The vast majority of India's over 1.2 billion people celebrated the festival of Diwali last month which meant many services firms remained shut for a few days.

While there is strong overseas demand for Indian services, a looming budget crisis in the United States, if not averted, could put the brakes on exports and slow new outsourced deals for Indian software firms. Still, firms were more optimistic about the future. The business expectations subindex jumped almost four points to 72.2 in November from 68.3 in the previous month.

"The forward-looking business expectation index improved notably, with some respondents reporting planned business expansion," Eskesen added.

Also encouragingly, a similar survey released on Monday showed the Indian manufacturing sector in November grew at its fastest pace in five months thanks to strong export orders and a surge in output.

The services survey also showed prices rose at a steady pace from last month, and with both the input and output costs rising sharply in the manufacturing survey, the pressure will remain on the headline inflation rate.

Wholesale prices rose 7.5 percent in October, and for three years the inflation rate has stayed well above the Reserve Bank of India's commonly perceived comfort zone of around 5 percent.

Citing price pressures the RBI has held the key repo rate on hold since April, even as many other central banks around the world have cut rates.

The protracted slowdown has led to a clamour from markets for a rate cut, but HSBC's Eskesen said the PMIs suggest the RBI should continue to hold fire.

The Indian economy grew just 5.3 percent from a year earlier in the quarter to September, government data showed last week, extending its slowdown that began at the start of this year. It is now headed for its weakest full year growth in a decade. — Reuters

New York City, December 5
Facebook, which made its stock market debut in May, will replace Infosys on the Nasdaq 100 index of the largest nonfinancial companies listed on the exchange. Facebook's debut on the widely tracked index is set for December 12, 2012.

Nasdaq is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange.

Facebook's entry into the index comes after Infosys' move to shift its American Depositary Shares to the NYSE Euronext. Infosys, the first Indian company to list on Nasdaq, said the move was aimed to increase access to the stock for European investors. India's second largest software services exporter has been listed on the Nasdaq since 1999.

It will trade under the "INFY" symbol on NYSE Euronext starting December 12. Infosys is also seeking listing of its ADS on the Paris and London boards of NYSE Euronext. The moves will not affect its float or capital structure, the company said last week.

Infosys shares closed 2% lower at Rs. 2,399.30 on the NSE while the broader Nifty advanced 0.2% to 5,900 (provisional).

Infosys CEO S.D. Shibulal had earlier said the shift to the NYSE Euronext and its London and Paris bourse will also "broaden the trading window available" for foreign investors.

"Our decision to transfer our American Depository Shares listing to NYSE is motivated by a desire to leverage the NYSE Euronext partnership to empower our investor base, increase access to our stock for European investors and broaden the trading window available for our global investors.

"We thank NASDAQ for the support and partnership we received from them as we took the Infosys brand to the global market. We look forward to a strong and long engagement with NYSE Euronext," Mr Shibulal had earlier said.

Infosys and larger rival Tata Consultancy Services want to boost their business in Europe, as more European companies look to outsource IT services to cut costs.

Europe accounted for nearly 22% of Infosys sales in the quarter ended in September, while North America brought in 64% of its revenue. — Agencies

Chandigarh, December 5
Mobile device users in the region can soon experience high speed data downloads and high definition mobile television on their cellphones. With at least two major service providers —Videocon and Airtel — all set to launch their 4G wireless data services in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, users will get a never-before data experience.

4G is the fourth generation of cellphone mobile communication standards. Typically, a 4G system provides mobile ultra broadband internet access to laptops with USB wireless modems, smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices. The conceivable applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high definition mobile television, video conferencing and 3D television. Both Videocon and Airtel will be launching their 4g services in the region early in 2013.

Videocon Mobile Services CEO Arvind Bali said by bagging liberalized spectrum in six circles in the recently concluded 2G spectrum auction, the firm could offer any service within the spectrum allotted to it. “The spectrum won by Videocon in the recent auction is paired and liberalized and can be used to roll out next-generation networks and services by adapting LTE, a 4G technology. Once the spectrum is allotted to us by January 18, we will be all set to roll out the 4G services in Haryana, UP West, UP East, M.P-Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Bihar and Jharkhand. In Punjab, we have a huge network of optical fibre laid out, and later we could launch 4G either through strong Wi-Fi networks or through other formats,” he said.

While Airtel has a licence to start 4G services in Punjab, it also acquired the rights to launch 4G services in Haryana after Airtel acquired a 49% stake in Qualcomm’s wireless entities earlier this year. The company has already launched 4G services in Kolkata, Bangalore and Pune, Airtel is expected to launch its 4G services in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, by early 2013. Airtel officials said almost 99.2% of the area in the Upper North circle is covered by Edge, which would allow customers to get seamless data connectivity.

With data services on mobile devices expected to be the biggest revenue earners for the telecom service providers, the mobile service providers are now vying with each other to get the maximum share of mobile data users. Officials in both Videocon and Airtel said the firms get almost 10% of their revenues from the broadband services (wireline and wireless). With the roll out of 4G services, both telcos hope to see a sharp jump in their revenues from data services.

New York City, December 5
Nasdaq-listed IT firm Cognizant said Wednesday it would pay its senior executives 100 per cent performance-linked stock options if the company's revenues touch US $8.51 billion in fiscal year 2013.

In a filing to US regulator SEC, Cognizant said it will "award performance units to certain executive officers of the company subject to attainment of certain performance milestones as well as certain continued service requirements". 50% of the performance units would be given upon achieving the target of $8.22 billion in 2013. No such award would be given if the company's revenue in 2013 is less than $8.22 billion.

The senior executives would be eligible for 100% of the performance units if the company achieves revenue of $8.515 billion and 200% in case it touches $9.175 billion.

However, if Cognizant meets the target of $8.515 billion revenue, it would translate into a growth of 16 per cent, lower than its expected growth this year.

These executives include CEO Francisco D'Souza (93,113 performance units), president Gordon J Coburn (49,758), group CEO (industries & markets Rajeev Mehta (43,063), group CEO (technology & operations) Ramakrishnan Chandrasekaran (31,980), CFO Karen McLoughlin (18,590) and senior VP, general counsel & secretary Steven Schwartz (9,376).

One-third of such performance units shall be issued 18 months from December 3 (provided the grantee remains in service). The remaining units will be issued 36 month from the date of grant.

Cognizant, which follows January-December fiscal, has guided its revenue in 2012 to be at least $7.34 billion (up at least 20% compared to 2011). — PTI

New York City, December 5
Citigroup Inc will eliminate 11,000 jobs worldwide, about 4 percent of its total staff, in a move to save as much as US $1.1 billion a year in expenses, the company said on Wednesday.

The move will initially result in pretax charges of $1 billion to fourth-quarter earnings, the company said in a statement.

The move is the first major action to restructure the company since directors named Michael Corbat chief executive officer in October after becoming impatient with former CEO Vikram Pandit.

"We have identified areas and products where our scale does not provide for meaningful returns," Corbat said in a statement from the company. "We will further increase our operating efficiency by reducing excess capacity and expenses," he added.

Besides the job cuts, the reorganization will reduce Citigroup’s annual revenues by "less than $300 million," the statement said.

Analysts have expected an action of this sort since Corbat was introduced as chief executive officer by chairman Michael O'Neill. O'Neill is known in the banking industry for shrinking companies to eliminate businesses that are not earning satisfactory returns. — Reuters