New Delhi/Mumbai, April 26
Maruti Suzuki defied the worst slowdown in 12 years for India's car market with an 80 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit, benefiting from robust sales of its Ertiga multipurpose vehicle and a sharp decline in the yen.

The better product mix, cheaper imports from Japan and a smaller royalty payment to its parent Suzuki Motor Corp also helped India's biggest car maker report higher revenue and profit margins.

Net profit for the quarter was Rs 11.48 billion, excluding the impact of its recent merger with its engine production unit Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd. Analysts on average had expected profit of Rs 7.22 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Its EBITDA margin for the fourth quarter, excluding the powertrain unit, was 10.6%, compared with 7.5% in the same quarter last year, said CFO Ajay Seth.

Maruti Suzuki's profit margins are set to show even stronger gains in the current quarter as India's biggest car maker reaps an even greater windfall from cheaper yen-denominated imports of components.

The yen's dramatic decline since Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe embarked on his campaign for bold monetary easing has proven to be a huge fillip for Japanese and Japan-related firms, and could give Maruti a further leg up over rivals like Tata Motors.

Shares in the carmaker rose as much as 5.3% following the results, compared with a 0.3% decline in the broader market.

Maruti, which accounts for 40% of all of India's passenger vehicle sales, weathered the first fall in annual car sales for a decade after its Ertiga, a family sized multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) hit a sweet spot with consumers.

MPVs and sports-utility vehicles were the only segments to see sales soar last year, on a trend towards more bulky cars for India's often poorly maintained and traffic-clogged roads, and generous government subsidies on diesel, the segments' primary fuel.

Although its overall sales of vehicles declined by 4% during the quarter, Maruti's net sales rose 9.4 % to Rs 125.7 bn, excluding the powertrain unit.

"The increase in net profit during the quarter was on account of higher sales of new models such as Ertiga, DZire and Swift, cost reduction and localization efforts and the benefit of a favourable exchange rate," Maruti said. — Reuters

New Delhi, April 26
Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) is investigating some of the business practices of search giant Google. Similar investigations are also being conducted against the US-headquartered company in Argentina and South Korea.

"The Comision Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia in Argentina, the Competition Commission of India and the Korea Fair Trade Commission in South Korea have also opened investigations into certain of our business practices," Google said in a regulatory filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

When contacted, a Google spokesperson said, "We're always happy to answer questions about our business and we're extending our full cooperation to CCI. We're confident that our products are compliant with competition law in India."

In August 2012, the Parliament was informed that CCI had initiated investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices by Google.

CCI had received information for contravention of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002, by Google. The section pertains to the abuse of dominant position by a market player.

In February 2012, another company, BharatMatrimony, had filed a complaint against Google alleging that the multinational company has abused its dominance by engaging in discriminatory and retaliatory practices relating to AdWords.

The AdWords programme, in which Google sells keywords to advertisers and displays them in the form of short ads online, is a big money spinner for the company. In 2011, the advertising segment comprised 96 per cent of Google's US $38 billion revenue. — PTI

Seoul, April 26
South Korea's Samsung Electronics said Friday net profit soared 41.6 percent to a record 7.15 trillion won (US $6.4 billion) in the first quarter of 2013, driven by strong smartphone sales.

The profit figure was up from 5.05 trillion won in the first quarter of 2012 and beat the previous record of 7.04 trillion won set in the fourth quarter of last year.

Operating profit rose 54% from a year ago to 8.8 trillion won, while sales were up 16.8% at 52.9 trillion won.

Analysts estimate Samsung shipped approximately 70 million smartphones in the three months to March. The company does not release details on the number of phones it sells in its earnings reports.

The earnings figures were released on the same day as the new version of Samsung's flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, went on sale in South Korea ahead of a planned global rollout.

In a statement Samsung said "sound sales" of the popular Galaxy S3 smartphone had aided profit margins, but cautioned that second quarter global demand was "forecast to dampen".

"We may experience stiffer competition in the mobile business due to expansion of the mid- to low-end smartphone market," said senior vice president Robert Yi.

Of the total 8.8 trillion won operating profit, the IT and Mobile Communications division accounted for 6.51 trillion won, with sales of 32.82 trillion won in the first quarter — the bulk of it from the mobile business. — AFP

The S4 comes with several new technologies intended to help users interact with the phone. For instance, the screen now senses fingers hovering just above the screen, and some applications react. Samsung believes the S4 will set the new standard. Apart from the larger screen and upgraded processor, the S4 has a battery that's 20% larger than that of the S3. The device also has a 13MP camera, compared with the S3's 8MP camera. The phone is thinner and lighter than the previous model, weighing just 130 gms. — TNS & Agencies

Chandigarh, April 26
Projecting an economic growth rate of 6-6.4 per cent for the current fiscal, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said India can achieve a growth rate of 8-9 per cent over the next two to three years if investments and consumption demands are kickstarted.

Underlining the need to speed up growth, currently at a decade low, CII president S. Gopalakrishnan called for rapid state level reforms and easing of interest rates at the earliest to revive the economy.

Speaking to reporters here on Friday, he said in order to attract investments and accelerate growth, it is essential to speed up the state level reforms like early implementation of goods and services tax and adoption of Model APMC Act in Agriculture by denotifying fruits, vegetables and other perishables, go in for land reforms to enable farmers to lease their land for cultivation while still retaining ownership rights and carry out power distribution reforms.

“Procedural reforms by using information and communications technology to enhance ease of doing business and transactions in states and undertaking skill development programmes are also mandated,” he added.