B U S I N E S S

Sensex breaches 22,000-mark
Mumbai, March 10
The benchmark Sensex today briefly breached the 22,000-mark for the first time and then managed to end at a new record close with modest gain of 15 points, extending the rally to the fifth session, on the back of continued overseas investor interest linked to upcoming polls.

10 firms to be part of CPSE Exchange Traded Fund: FM
New Delhi, March 10
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) met today to give final shape to the proposed CPSE Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which will comprise shares of 10 blue-chip state-owned firms and solicit retail participation.

Engineers India to foray into solar power for growth
New Delhi, March 10
Engineers India Limited (EIL) is diversifying into areas such as water and waste water management, nuclear and solar power and green infrastructure to increase its revenues.

Ranbaxy shares slip 1.51%
Mumbai, March 10
Shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories today settled for the day with losses of 1.51%, pursuant to which the market capitalisation of the company eroded by Rs 43 crore.

Biz talk
Venus Remedies to bank on R&D for growth
Panchkula-based Venus Remedies is among the 10 fixed-dosage injectable manufacturers in the world. Pawan Chaudhary, chairman and managing director, Venus Remedies, talks about the growth strategy, the concept of profit centres within the organisation and expanding into new export markets.

Firefox Bikes' managing director Shiv Inder Singh along with children poses with Superhero bikes for kids during its launch in New Delhi on Monday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Nokia India managing director P Balaji at the launch of Nokia X Series smartphone in New Delhi on Monday. It is priced at Rs 8,599. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Sensex breaches 22,000-mark
Closes at 21,935 points; Nifty hits new record high

Mumbai, March 10
The benchmark Sensex today briefly breached the 22,000-mark for the first time and then managed to end at a new record close with modest gain of 15 points, extending the rally to the fifth session, on the back of continued overseas investor interest linked to upcoming polls.

Capital goods, realty, banking and refinery segments gained while IT, pharma, tech and metal counters fell.

The BSE 30-share barometer resumed nearly 100 points lower on the back of weak Asian cues but later moved between positive and negative territory. It ended at a new closing high of 21,934.83, a rise of 15.04 points or 0.07%. This surpassed the previous closing high of 21,919.79 set on last Friday.

The Sensex registered an all-time high of 22,023.98 today. In five days, the Sensex has gained 988 points.

The wide-based 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also edged up by 10.60 points, or 0.16%, to record its closing high of 6,537.25.

It also touched a new intra-day peak of 6,562.20 today, surpassing previous life time peak of 6,537.80 hit on Friday.

Sensex constituents, including HDFC Bank, L&T, RIL, M&M, SBI, Maruti Suzuki and HUL, notched up handsome gains. TCS, Infosys, Tata Motors, ITC, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's, Gail India, Tata Steel, Wipro and Coal India fell.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 2,577.44 crore on last Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Upcoming data like IIP, CPI for urban and rural India and WPI will dictate the future trend, traders say.

"Positive global cues, optimism ahead of upcoming elections and FIIs buying is leading to sustained momentum," said Nidhi Saraswat, senior research analyst, Bonanza Portfolio. — PTI

10 firms to be part of CPSE Exchange Traded Fund: FM

New Delhi, March 10
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) met today to give final shape to the proposed CPSE Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which will comprise shares of 10 blue-chip state-owned firms and solicit retail participation.

"Ten public sector companies will be part of PSU ETF," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reproters after the meeting of the EGoM on CPSE ETF.

Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Oil Minister Veerappa Moliy also attended the EGoM.

The ETF, which is expected to hit the markets this month, would have a corpus of Rs 3,000 crore and will be used as a vehicle for government stake sale in major PSUs, including ONGC, IOC and BHEL.

As per the draft prospectus filed with SEBI, individual retail investors can invest a minimum of Rs 5,000, while the maximum limit is Rs 10 lakh in the ETF. — PTI

What is ETF

ETF or Exchange Traded Fund is a security that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange.

Engineers India to foray into solar power for growth
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 10
Engineers India Limited (EIL) is diversifying into areas such as water and waste water management, nuclear and solar power and green infrastructure to increase its revenues.

EIL chairman and managing director AK Purwaha said the company has taken this initiative to drive growth by leveraging its experience and technological knowhow.

EIL has executed many projects in its core areas of providing engineering consultancy for refinery, petrochemicals, pipelines, upstream oil and gas projects and metallurgy. Purwaha said EIL has also commenced projects in the infrastructure segment and is expanding into crude storages for the government.

He said the company was also looking at expanding its presence in overseas markets like the Middle-East, Africa and South-East Asia where it has executed many energy projects. It has executed projects in Kenya, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia among other countries. Its joint venture in Saudi Arabia is a step towards becoming an international EPC and consultancy company.

The company, which reported a net profit of Rs 628.58 crore on a turnover of Rs 2,505.97 crore in 2012-13, is targeting more than double of the turnover to $1 billion.

EIL has already re-entered the fertilizer sector and is doing projects in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nigeria.

EIL will celebrate its 50th foundation day on March 15 to commemorate five decades of its operations.

"Set up in 1965 with the mandate of providing indigenous technology solutions across the hydrocarbon value chain, EIL today has a diverse portfolio of projects in hydrocarbon, petrochemicals, mining and metallurgy, fertiliser, power and infrastructure sectors," Purwaha said.

Right from executing its first refinery project in Madras Refinery in 1967, EIL has its footprint in 19 of the 22 operating refineries in the country with a combined capacity of more than 150 million tonnes.

Ranbaxy shares slip 1.51%

Mumbai, March 10
Shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories today settled for the day with losses of 1.51%, pursuant to which the market capitalisation of the company eroded by Rs 43 crore.

Ranbaxy said on Saturday it was withdrawing two lots of Atorvastatin calcium tablets, a generic version of cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, after a complaint of wrong dosage.

The company’s shares opened on a weaker note and had sank 3.8% during the day on the BSE. — PTI

Biz talk
Venus Remedies to bank on R&D for growth
Pawan Chaudhary CMD, Venus Remedies talks to Sanjeev Sharma

Panchkula-based Venus Remedies is among the 10 fixed-dosage injectable manufacturers in the world. Pawan Chaudhary, chairman and managing director, Venus Remedies, talks about the growth strategy, the concept of profit centres within the organisation and expanding into new export markets.

Q: What is the growth strategy of your company?

A: Our growth strategy is centred on our research products since the generic business is prone to price erosion. The share of R&D products in our revenue has grown from 8% five years ago to around 27% now. We aim to take this to about 50% by 2017-18 with the help of our own marketing efforts and key out-licensing deals.

We have already signed a few deals and discussions are on to forge tie-ups with some other pharma giants as well. We have tied up with South African pharmaceutical firm Adcock for our research product Potentox and signed deals with Austell Laboratories, another South African company, and Goodwill Pharma, a South Korean firm, for marketing Elores, our flagship R&D product. We have taken a leap since 2010 when we filed our first patent. Since then, we have filed more than 360 patents in 60 countries, out of which we have received 102.

Q: What is the concept of profit centre in each department that the company follows?

A: The profit centre concept is a departure from the conventional concept of a cost centre. The moment you label a department or function as a cost centre, you take the zing out of it. Under the cost concept, each department charges from the other for the services it renders. The department is free to price its services at the market rate and thus make profit. Since the department heads are responsible for the profits of their departments, they in turn become particular about efficiency. This concept empowers the employees to manage their own affairs and keeps internal customers satisfied. We have around 30 profit and loss (P&L) statements drawn each month, one each for every department.

Q: To how many countries your company exports products?

A: Venus Remedies exports its products to around 40 countries. We aim to take this to 60 by next year. We have three manufacturing units, two in India, including Panchkula and Baddi, and one in Werne, Germany. The Venus facility at Werne is the company's gateway to Europe. We have received 66 marketing authorisations from regulated markets across the globe and 451 marketing authorisations from emerging markets out of 642 Asean Common Technical Dossiers (ACTDs) filed.

Q: What is your focus on anti-bacterial resistance and pain management?

A: We have a basket of 25 research products in the categories of antibiotics, pain management, oncology, neurology and wound care. Out of these, 15 have been commercially launched. We are among the very few R&D-based pharma firms focusing on anti-microbial resistance (AMR). It is because of our focused approach towards AMR that our superbug-tackling solutions like Elores and Potentox are under patent protection.

We have also set a benchmark in pain management by developing Achnil, which was recently awarded a US patent. Containing aceclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Achnil is a pioneering product developed by the Venus Medicine Research Centre. Another painkiller developed by us, Trois, is a topical nano-emulsion that relieves all kinds of arthritic pain.

Q: What is your take on consolidation in the Indian pharma industry with MNCs acquiring Indian companies?

A: There is an opportunity for low-cost generic manufacturing with many molecules going off patent. If Indian companies are being acquired by multinationals, we also have instances of Indian companies acquiring multinational firms. The pharmaceutical industry is too fragmented to get so easily affected by a few acquisitions.