Business News Updates

Hike in interest rates may puch realty prices upwards

2010-03-26T06:24:00.001-07:00

In order to avoid a bubble in real estate market , RBI increased interest rates by 25 basis points. While the RBI argues that even though there is no bubble in the market, hike in interest rate is just a precautionary measure. According to industry experts, increase in interest rates may result in increase in property prices in the near term

Anti-Dumping Duty on Chinese Tyre and Steel Companies

2010-02-24T04:46:00.000-08:00

Taking cues from the rising imports of cheap stainless steel products and radial tyres from China, Indian authorities have finally slapped anti-dumping duty on Chinese companies to protect domestic industry. Central Board of Excise and Customs has imposed an anti-dumping duty of around $2254.7 per ton of steel products that are used for manufacturing refrigerators and automobile products. While tyre manufactures seems to be happy with this move, auto players are resenting it on the back of recession threats.

TCS overtakes Infosys

2010-01-19T02:23:00.000-08:00

TCS, country one of the largest IT service company reported a 11% rise in profit to Rs.1,824 crore, overtaking Infosys in profits for the first time a few quarters ago. Cost cutting measures and focus on new verticals has helped the company’s bottomline. According to Mr Chandrasekaran, CEO,“I am happy with the nature of growth. We saw very good growth volumes including in the troubled sectors of manufacturing, hi-tech and retail. I was expecting de-growth or flat growth... They didn’t grow significantly but they grew.”

Reliance to post its first profit in five quarters

2010-01-19T02:06:00.000-08:00

Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries expects to post profit for the first time in five quarters. Increase in production from fields off India’s east coast and stable oil prices has helped the company’s bottom line.

Reliance also plans to purchase bankrupt LyondellBasell as a part of its inorganic growth strategy for about $13.5 billion. This acquisition will give the company greater access into Western markets and some premier customers in US and Europe.

Era Infra bags NHAI project

2010-01-18T01:24:00.000-08:00

Era Infra Engineering, an infrastructure firm bagged a Rs.1,659 crore project from National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for construction related works. While filing to the BSE, Era Infra said, “The company in association with OJSC-SIBMOST has bagged the orders for constructing and operating road projects worth Rs 1,659 crore."
The project entails designing, building and operating the road projects.

Punj Lloyd bags Rs.574 crore project in Thailand

2010-01-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

Punj Lloyd, an Engineering and construction has bagged a Rs.574-crore project for an offshore oil from Thailand’s state-owned oil and gas firm PTT Public Company Limited. The project entails installing three compressor units for a platform station in the Gulf of Thailand. Punj Lloyd director PK Gupta said, “Upon completion, the project will facilitate boosting the pressure of gas being supplied downstream. This would help meeting the rising demand of gas within Thailand's domestic market for power plants and other users."

Escorts to enter into manufacturing railway wagons

2010-01-18T00:54:00.000-08:00

Escorts, a Delhi-based tractor and farm equipment manufacturer will enter into the manufacturing of railway wagons. It will also launch a slue of tractors in the coming years. Its foray into railways is a part of its strategy to diversify across business verticals besides agricultural machinery and infrastructure.

“We would be launching new tractors to keep the market exciting and aggressively increase our market share by expanding our dealership base in western and southern markets. Besides we would foray into making wagons for the Metro and the Monorail segment from our Railway division”, said Nikhil Nanda, Escorts’ joint MD.

Profit of UltraTech Cement down 17%

2010-01-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

Slowdown in demand in Southern India which generates around 30% sales for UltraTech Cement resulted in the company’s net profit falling 17.64% to Rs.196 in the third-quarter this year. The company produced around 4.4 mt of cement during the third quarter this year compared to 3.98 mt produced last year. Drop in cement prices due to excess capacity has further pressurized the company’s margins.

Satyam to face heavy penalty

2010-01-10T22:23:00.000-08:00

The scam-hit Satyam Computer Services ( now Mahindra Satyam) has been facing several class action suits against it in US courts which could result in a heavy penalty. It could also face action by the US SEC. Indian government has requested the US authorities not to take any action against the IT company as it would amount to punishing shareholders of the for the second time.

BSNL to get fee waiver

2010-01-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

BSNL, a state-owned telecom major may get a waiver from paying license fees amounting to around 6% to 7% of its annual revenues. The company may save over Rs. 4,000 crores annually. The PMO will look into this proposal to help the telecom company to revive its fortunes and improve its competitiveness in the world’s fastest growing telecom market.

Communications Minister A Raga said, “We discussed with the PMO about the licence fee waiver for BSNL. As the first step, we sought the waiver for fixedline services in rural India. We had already approved this policy change, but it could not be implemented (from January 1, 2009 due to objections from the finance ministry). Rural licence fee waiver alone will enable BSNL to save about Rs 1,800 crore annually.”

BHEL won a Rs.420 million contract for building SPV plant

2010-01-06T04:05:00.000-08:00

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has won a contract worth Rs.420 million from Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) for setting up an eco-friendly Grid-Interactive Solar Power Plant of 3 MW capacity in Karnataka. The company will be setting up a Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) Power Plant at Yapalaniddi village in Raichur District of North Karnataka. The scope of contract will include engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of the equipment, operation and maintenance of the plant for three years.

Future Group to list FVRL independently

2010-01-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

The Future Group had recently hived off its value retail business, including Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar into a separate wholly owned subsidiary, Future Value Retail (FVRL). The company now plans to list FVRL independently to fund its growth. According to Mr Biyani, the company has a total requirement of Rs.1,800 crore. Of this, around Rs.750 crore has already been raised. He said, "Listing the value retail business is one of the options we are looking at to fund our growth."

L&T bagges Railway ERP projects

2010-01-05T22:37:00.000-08:00

L&T Infotech, IT service provider of engineering and procurement major, Larsen & Toubro has bagged the outsourcing contracts of Indian Railways which will involve installation, commissioning and implementation of a multi-year on-going support of hardware and systems. The company has won two ERP turnover projects for computerizing the maintenance of rolling assets in Delhi and Lucknow.

Indian Steel companies may raise prices

2010-01-05T22:24:00.000-08:00

Global economic recovery will benefit Indian steel companies this year. Indian steel companies are eyeing higher prices in 2010 as stronger economic growth worldwide drives up demand for the critical building material. Some steel makers have already raised prices and are bracing for an increase in the cost of raw materials that go into the making of the alloy.

Stronger economic growth and growing demand for building material is expected to push steel prices higher in 2010. SAIL, a state owned Steel Authority of India Ltd has withdrawn the rebate of Rs.750 to Rs.1500 per tonne it started offering from November last year due to the increase in raw material cost. Tata Steel Ltd raised prices by Rs.2,000 per tonne. Industry expects the several other private players including JSW Steel Ltd, Essar Steel Ltd and Bhushan Steel Ltd may also follow suit soon.

Shree Cement to resume land acquisitions

2010-01-05T00:03:00.000-08:00

Shree Cement, a building material maker has resumed its land acquisition process across India. It’s operations has been concentrated in North India. To minimize the effect of volatile prices, the company is purchasing around 90 acres of land in regions of Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and also its home state of Rajasthan to set up new plants. It had earlier abandoned its land purchases last year due to stiff local resistence. As per HM Bangur, MD of Shree Cement, “We have acquired land for our new units in different locations of the country. Getting land from farmers is an uphill task but the company is in process.”

Liquidity tightening ahead this month

2010-01-04T22:46:00.001-08:00

Reserve Bank of India is expected to hold its quarterly monetary policy review on January 29. It is expected to tighten cash reserve ratio (CRR) requirements for banks. However, some economists still remain divided on the timing of changes in policy rates.

According to the prime minister's economic adviser, C. Rangarajan, an adjustment in policy interest rates is not warranted at the moment but liquidity tightening may be needed.

Maruti Suzuki to launch new segment

2010-01-04T22:29:00.000-08:00

Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Maruti Suzuki said that the company will create a new segment with the launch of its new family car to maintain a healthy sales growth rate this year despite the rising raw material costs, inflation and rising yen against the rupee. Maruti Suzuki showcased its new seven-seater family car at the auto show in Delhi.

NTPC may sell 10% capacity at market rate

2009-12-30T23:53:00.000-08:00

The Government may allow NTPC to sell 10% of its capacity at market determined price in the range of Rs.6 to Rs.8 per unit which it currently sells at Rs.1.80 per unit to state boards. Experts opine that such a move will help the company in improving its profits upto 40% and also improve valuations as it looks for disinvestment.

At present, NTPC sells 85% of its capacity to state electricity boards and the remaining 15% is sold to power-deficit states. The Centre may allow the company to sell 10% of this 15% capacity at market prices to bulk consumers like sugar mills, chemical manufacturers and steel plants.

DOT seeks approval for waiver of license fees in rural areas

2009-12-30T21:22:00.000-08:00

To increase fixed line telecom density in rural India, last year, DOT planned to roll out services in rural areas. It also targeted an ambitious target of rural telecom density of 25% as against the present 12%. DOT also amended the terms of the basic services and universal access service (UAS) license to accommodate the telecom license fee waiver. This move was aimed to benefit state-owned BSNL and private players Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, HFCL and Tata Teleservices.

The finance ministry had however objected the license fee waiver. It objected that DoT should have ideally moved a note for Cabinet consideration which it never obtained its concurrence to the proposal. Due to the growing tiff between DOT and finance ministry, DOT will seek the approval of the Union Cabinet t waive off license fees for fixed line services in rural areas.

GMR to exit sugar business

2009-12-30T04:41:00.000-08:00

After Balrampur Chini announced that it is looking to exit from its sugar business, promoters of GMR group announced that it will exit from its 11,000 tonnes crushed per day (tcd) sugar business. The company has hired investment banker N M Rothschild to find suitors. According to some experts, GMR now wants to be only a pure play infrastructure player. GMR Holdings holds 74.8% stake in the company and expert to gain attractive valuations given the ongoing sugar shortage in the country which has increased imports of sugar to the tune of 2 million tones.

NTPC to set up 301 megawatt solar power generation capacity

2009-12-30T04:31:00.000-08:00

NTPC, India’s largest state run utility provider announced that it will set up 301 megawatts of solar power generation capacity by March 2014. It also plans to spend around Rs.5.64 billion towards modernizing its two units at Badarpur thermal power station. At present NTPC operates a majority of its installed capacity of over 30,000 MW through coal-fired power plants.

Tyre companies gearing up for next growth

2009-12-29T22:20:00.000-08:00

Driven by growing demand in auto sector and recovering economy is expected to boost the country’s tyre industry. Industry experts suggest a healthy growth in the range of 7% to 8% in 2011. Sensing the upcoming demand tyre companies have lined up huge capital expenditure and capacity expansion next year.

JK Tyres, a leading players in the domestic market plans to invest Rs.1,200 crore and expand production in its car and truck radial segment during the next 2 years. Another leading tyre manufacturer, Ceat also plans to spend Rs.650 crore next year to set up a new plant and expand its existing plant capacity in Nasik.

Honda Seil enters into an MoU with Axis Bank

2009-12-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Honda Siel Cars India has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Axis Bank for vehicle finance. Axis Bank has already approved a line of credit for financing the company’s dealers. According to T Nat Sume, HSCI Director (Marketing), “With this tie-up Honda Siel and Axis Bank have agreed to pool their resources together to make accessible organized finance at competitive rates to our dealers and customers across the country for purchase of Honda cars.”

Hyundai to display electric version of compact i10

2009-12-28T22:17:00.000-08:00

Hyundai, Korea’s auto giant today announced that it will reveal a new electric version of its compact car ‘i10’ in Auto Expo. The company’s management also said that it will display its current range of products and new concept vehicles with futuristic technology. It said, "Hyundai i10 Electric is a zero-emission vehicle that reconciles motoring with the environmental aspirations of customers looking for a vehicle with the best possible ecological footprint."

Link home loans to completion of project: Home loan providers

2009-12-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

To make real estate developers accountable for uncompleted and delayed projects, home loan providers have been insisting on construction-linked disbursal of funds, according to news released by Economic Times. Last year, several home loan providers and buyers experienced difficulty when several developers either stopped construction midway or slowed down the construction due to shortage of funds in 2008 and 2009.

Several buyers were stuck in a difficult situation as they were expected to pay monthly installments towards the loan without receiving the possession of their house. Experts opine that releasing funds based on proportion of completed construction will be good for the real estate industry . Besides making developers accountable, it will also benefit buyers as it will reduce the installment amount during development stages.