Infosys to acquire Citi stake in Progeon
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies plans to acquire the 23 per cent stake that Citicorp International Finance Corporation holds in its BPO subsidiary, Progeon, for Rs 518 crore ($115.13 million) in an all-cash deal. The transaction is likely to be completed by July 2006, according to a company release.

Citi's 23 per cent stake in Progeon amounts to 8.75 million shares.

Infosys set up Progeon as a majority owned subsidiary in April 2002. Progeon was ranked among the top 10 third-party BPOs in India, according to Nasscom 2004-05 rankings. Infosys officials said that the company would integrate the BPO services under the `One Infy' offering once the buy-out is complete, and may subsequently phase out the Progeon brand.

The `One Infy' integrated offerings would include consulting, technology services, and BPO services. Progeon accounted for four per cent of Infosys's revenues in 2005-06 and has over 7,000 employees. It registered revenues of $85 million with profits of $21 million during the year gone by. It added one new client during the fourth quarter to take its total client base to 22.
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TCS forms JV in China: to hold 64 per cent stake
Chennai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) would hold 64 per cent stake in its joint venture with the National Development Reforms Commission (NDRC) in China and that its existing, wholly-owned global delivery centre would be folded into the new venture when the latter is formally launched sometime this June.
S Ramadorai, CEO and MD, TCS, said, "Microsoft will be the other investor in the company."

TCS has also completed the integration of companies it recently acquired: Comicron in Chile, FNS in Australia and its Indian sister concern Tata Infotech. For FNS, TCS has nominated a chief financial officer and chief operating officer to the company.

Comicron recently bagged a BPO deal with a Spanish bank for an extension of the work it did in Chile.
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Zensar Tech net up 100 per cent
Pune: Zensar Technologies, software and BPO services provider, has registered a net profit after tax of Rs 34.02 crore for the year as against Rs 17.69 crore recorded last year, a growth of 100 per cent. The company has recorded a revenue of Rs 428.79 crore for the year ended March 31, as compared to the revenues of Rs 344.89 crore registered last year.

Exceptional items have been excluded and basic earnings per share before exceptional income have increased to Rs 14.49 from Rs 7.73 the previous year, with the year-on-year growth being 87.4 per cent.

The company's revenue stood at Rs 125.23 crore for the quarter ended March (Rs 91.85 crore) with the year-on-year growth at 36.3 per cent. Net profit after tax stood at Rs 16.47 crore as against a loss of Rs 1.07 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, and with a sequential quarter growth of 75.4 per cent (Rs 9.39 cr).

Ganesh Natarajan managing director Zensar Technologies said "The company's consolidated profit has been the highest so far. The company's SBU (strategic business unit) structure launched this year has driven the intended growth in newbusiness areas and has significantly improved profitability.''

Zensar and Fujitsu have signed a $30 million multi-year offshore agreement with a new centre planned to employ 1,000 people over three years. He said 56 new clients added this year, with 22 of them engaging Zensar's services from its new portfolio.
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Spanish company acquires 50 pc stake in Parryware Glamourooms
Chennai: Spanish company Roca has acquired a 50-per cent stake in Parryware Glamourooms for about Rs 275 crore (€ 50 million). The latter formed as a result of the hive off of the sanitary ware division of EID Parry into a wholly owned subsidiary is fast becoming a name in upmarket sanitary ware.

Roca would pay EID Parry € 50 million as soon as the FIPB clearance is obtained, after which the company's name could be changed.

A Vellayan vice chairman EID parry, said the Murugappa group (to which EID Parry belongs) would continue to be in the sanitary ware and bathroom fittings business. He said Roca brings different skill sets to the table and while the Indian partners had the brand equity and knowledge of the market, Roca had design and production capabilities and international presence.

He said the foreign collaborator would help Parryware raise its productivity levels, making its products more competitive. Also, Roca would introduce its own products into India through the joint venture. Besides, products made here could be exported through Roca's international network.

Roca operates 20 units in Europe and has production units in Brazil and Argentina.
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BEML receives big defence vehicle orders
Bangalore: Public sector company Bharat Earth Movers (BEML) has received orders worth Rs 800 crore from the Ministry of Defence for ground-support high-mobility vehicles.

These include BEML-Tatra 4x4, 6x6, 8x8 trucks for high mobility applications, heavy recovery vehicles, special purpose vehicles for Pinaka/Radar project and 50-tonne trailers and engineering mine ploughs for breaching minefields. The company would supply most of the vehicles in 2006-07 with the rest being carried forward to 2007-08, said the release issued by the company. The company has carry forward order-book position, including defence equipment, to the tune of Rs 2,550 crore.
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Amco Batteries celebrates golden jubilee; registers Rs 100 crore turnover
Chennai: Amco Batteries, a part of the Amalgamations group, has achieved a turnover of Rs 100 crore in 2005-06 and hopes to double its turnover in the next 2-3 years, according to Jayashree Venkatraman, vice-president of the company.

Addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of the company here today, she said the company had achieved the turnover in the face of intense competition.

She said the company now produced about 1.5 lakh batteries a month and expected to grow 30-35 per cent year on year, covering a wider range of batteries.

The company's original equipment fraternity includes Hero Honda, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters Ltd, TVS Motor, Bajaj, LML, Kinetic Motors and Enfield, in the two-wheeler segment, and TAFE, VST Tillers, SAS Motors, Cummins India Ltd, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd, General Motors and others.
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Talisma gets 68 new customers
Bangalore: Talisma Corporation has bagged 68 new customers and significant orders growth for the quarter ended March 2006. The companies that are now on Talisma's customer list include OptiMix fund (ING Vysya Mutual Fund), JM Mutual Fund, Eli Lily, Toyota Motor Europe, Xerox, and Plaxo.

In the first quarter, Talisma expanded its product offerings by leveraging technologies from IBM for enhanced search, access, and retrieval, of contact centre information.
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Biocon bottom line eroded by 12 per cent
Bangalore: Biocon's bottomline has been hit by 12 per cent due to pricing pressure, impact of higher taxes and depreciation in fiscal 2005-06. Biocon has reported a net profit of Rs 174 crore on a consolidated basis as against Rs 198 crore in the previous fiscal, a drop of 12per cent. Biocon reported a net profit of Rs 48 crore for the fourth quarter of 2005-06, up 9per cent from Rs 44 crore in Q3 FY06, while its net income during the same period stood at Rs 215 crore, showing a sequential growth of 7per cent over Rs 201 crore for Q3.

However, total revenues for the financial year rose 9per cent, touching Rs 793 crore as against Rs 728 crore in the previous fiscal, including other income of Rs 5 crore (Rs 15 crore). The company expects the pressures of pricing and depreciation to continue in the current fiscal as well.

For FY06, the depreciation cost stood at Rs 29 crore as against in Rs 22 crore in the previous fiscal while taxes rose to Rs 31 crore as against Rs 18 crore in the previous fiscal. The operating margin also declined by 2per cent to 30per cent during the reporting fiscal while the net margin was maintained at 22per cent.

Commenting on the results, Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said, "The year ahead will continue to be challenging due to uncertainties in market conditions and the impact of depreciation at our new facilities at Biocon Park." She added that the pricing pressures are likely to continue with the statins market going off patent in June this year. "Europe is our largest market for statins, but there is competition coming in from China and we will have to bear the brunt of commoditization," she said.

Biocon declared a dividend of 50per cent amounting to Rs 2.50 per share of Rs 5 face value. At the end of the fiscal under review, the company's EPS stood at 17.4, down 12per cent from 19.8 for FY05.
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PI Drugs to buy Elixir Chemicals
Mumbai: PI Drugs & Pharmaceuticals is acquiring pharma company Elixir Chemicals for Rs 700 crore in an all-cash deal.
The board also approved the issue of 18 lakh warrants convertible into equivalent number of equity shares at Rs 47 per warrant to promoters and non-promoters on preferential basis, subject to the shareholders approval.
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Chevron is Reliance Petro co-promoter
Mumbai: Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) has said Chevron India Holdings Pte Ltd, Singapore, wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, would be its co-promoter. The company said, "Subsequent to the signing of the Equity Investment Agreement and further discussions, Chevron has agreed to be one of the promoters of the company along with RIL."

Pursuant to the equity investment agreement entered into between RPL, RIL and Chevron, RIL had agreed to sell 225,000,000 of RPL's equity shares representing 5 per cent of the company's post-issue outstanding equity share capital, to Chevron at a price of Rs 60 per share. There would be a lock-in period of three years from the date of allotment of equity shares in the public issue or date of commencement of commercial production, whichever is later. After the transfer, the minimum promoters' contribution, as per clause 4.1.1 of SEBI DIP Guidelines, would be RIL - 15 per cent and Chevron - 5 per cent.
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