Infosys scales down growth for 2002
Bangalore: Infosys’ earnings have been scaled down for 2002. The company declared 30 percent future earnings estimates for fiscal 2002 here on Wednesday after posing double-digit growth rates year on year for a number of years.

According to NR Narayanamurthy, chairman and chief executive officer, Infosys Technologies, "With the economic environment in North America becoming challenging, we estimate a revenue growth rate of 30 per cent for fiscal 2002. As always, we will exploit any new opportunity for higher growth."

Nandan M Nilekani, managing director, president and chief operating officer, Infosys said the company is in constant touch with its clients several of whom are facing uncertain economic conditions.
Infosys has added 37 clients in Q4 of fiscal 2001 the highest ever during a quarter.
Start-up and venture funded companies accounted for 7 per cent of Infosys total revenues in Q4 of fiscal 2001, down from 9.3 per cent over preceding quarter.
However the company does not intend to stop hiring people since to achieve a growth of 30 percent it needs 2,000 to 3,000 more people at least.
Nilekani said Europe is emerging as a key market for Infosys, with the company expanding its presence to the UK, Belgium and Germany.
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Bidding for CMC to open next week
New Delhi: The disinvestment process is gaining momentum thanks to the response to VSNL. Now the government may throw open the CMC dataroom to bidders next week for transacting the deal by June-July this year.

The government has decided to divest 57.3 per cent equity stake in the company to a combination of a strategic partner, employees and others.
The confidentiality information memorandum was dispatched by the government to about 15 short-listed bidders earlier this week, they said, adding almost all the applicants were cleared.
Leading IT players Hewlett-Packard, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services are amongst a host of global players who have bid for buying the controlling stake from the government in the infotech company.
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UB plans to offer 49 percent stake in beer to foreign investor
Bangalore: The United Breweries group wants to divest up to 49 per cent of its beer business to a strategic foreign investor and is said to be exploring all options.

Some time back UB appointed consultants IL&FS and Deloitte Haskins and Sells to initiate a corporate restructuring exercise to facilitate the divestment process.
Depending on the size of the equity, the disinvestment proceeds are likely to be anywhere between Rs 100-200 crore sources in the company said.
The group will appoint Kotak Mahindra Capital Company as its advisors for the purpose, following which it will start the roadshows abroad as soon as possible.

Recent policy changes in government regulations regarding beer are possibly prompting international breweries to look at possible associations with UB.
The UB group has prepared itself for the growth in demand by ensuring sufficient capacity through several arrangements.

The company owns or contracts 22 out of 57 operating breweries in the country, representing about half the total capacity. The group is the market leader in the beer segment with a share of about 40 per cent. Kingfisher is the flagship brand with 25 per cent market share.
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Sebi orders investigation into Satyam result leak
New Delhi: Sebi asked stock exchanges on Wednesday to make inquiries as to how the Satyam Computers results were flashed on Websites before its board meeting.

On Tuesday, the Satyam results were flashed on two Websites at around 3 pm, much before the board meeting scheduled to start at 4 pm.
Singhvi said as per the regulations, the results could only be made public after the board meeting had been completed.

After ascertaining the facts of the episode, Sebi will form a view on the incident and take further action. Sebi will also examine the trading pattern of the scrip to evaluate whether there was any incident of insider trading in the scrip.
The website, chamatkar.net, that broke the news at 3.21 pm, has a tie-up with Walletwatch.Com, which in turn belongs to Sify. Both Walletwatch and Chamatkar.com are channel partners.
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Satyam attributes leak to technical fault
Satyam has denied allegations that it released its financial results prior to the company’s board meeting, it says that there may have been a technical snag in its systems due towhich the Satyam Computer Services has shifted the blame on possibility of a technical snag due to which the information could have leaked out.

The company says that it is examining the possibility any one accessing the unapproved information even for few seconds from its website due to technical snag.
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Zee accused of hostile takeover attempt
Mumbai: B4U Television Networks says that the reported acquisition of a substantial block of B4U shares without the its knowledge by Zee Network amounted to a backdoor, hostile takeover bid by the latter.
Ravi Gupta, CEO of B4U, says B4U was in the process of giving a legal notice for not having intimated either the company or the regulatory authorities about this development.
He said that Zee’s public statement on Tuesday that it had acquired a 15 per cent stake in B4U’s equity through stockbroker Ketan Parekh was the first he had heard about the deal.

In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, Zee reiterated its earlier statement that it had acquired a 15 per cent stake in B4U.
However, he agreed that Ketan Parekh did have a substantial holding in B4U, which, however, did not exceed five per cent thus making it impossible for Zee to acquire a 15 per cent stake.
He termed Zee’s bid as "violative of legal norms and "unethical".
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GE; Mega service
New Delhi: According to a case study on the experience of foreign investors in India just concluded by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry,
GE Capital Services India Ltd belonging to the $130 billion GE group of USA has become one of GE’s largest service centres in the world, providing back office services for a whole range of activities including credit cards, finance, damage management etc.

The case study says that GE Capital has optimised its Indian operations in a unique fashion by leveraging India’s strengths, particularly its intellectual capacity, to source materials and services from India for global markets with the result that India has been able to occupy a central space in GE worldwide.

The study says that GE realised that the market size and growth in India was not as substantial as was believed. Some of the largest companies operating in India had a total revenue of about $2 billion--small compared to international levels.
GE’s approach to new markets, says the study, is in a phase-wise manner. It starts by selling into a market, followed by manufacturing and operating in local markets and finally leverages the local market’s strengths to service global markets.
For GE India, the third phase gave the maximum benefits and thus it pioneered the concept of software sourcing from India through offshore development centres throughout the country.
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Reliance denies new cracker capacity plans
Mumbai: Reliance Industries the largest petrochemicals maker in India, on Wednesday denied plans to set up new cracker capacity.
A Reliance spokesman denied reports that the company was planning to set up a one million tonne per annum cracker at Jamnagar in western Gujarat which would enable it to raise its ethylene capacity to two million tonnes per annum.
In mid-morning trade, Reliance shares were up 0.4 per cent at Rs 329.45.
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Tata Engg eyes China
Mumbai: Even as the threat of cheap Chinese imports looms large over the Indian auto industry, one company is actually eyeing China as an export market. And that is Tata Engineering.
As part of its ongoing "thrust on exports," the company is participating in an auto show in Beijing in June, where it will display the Tata Indica, and the double cab version of Tata 207, the company's offering in the pick-up segment.

Sources say that the company will also put the Magna, its mid-sized car, to be launched in the next fiscal, on the ramp in China, although the final decision on this has not been taken yet.

However, it is not known how the company's products will be priced to fetch it a competitive advantage against the Chinese products.

An analyst at a foreign brokerage said, "China is a huge potential market for exports. But it is also a black hole and not much is known about its auto industry, except that they are priced very competitively."
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Mahindras will recast its tractor business
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra’s (M&M) Rs 2000-crore tractor business is undergoing a major recast under the code name, Project Vishwajeet.

The project is aimed at turning the company into a leading tractor producer in the global arena by 2005.
About 1,800 officers from the farm equipment division are covered under Project Vishwajeet.
The farm equipment division has been divided into 38 different business units, which have been further classified under five divisions.

The divisions -- marketing and customer relations, manufacturing and supply chain, product development and R&D services, performance management, and international operations -- will operate under the supervision of K J Davasia, executive director and president of M&M's farm equipment business.

According to Gautam Chakravarti, --The hierarchy structure in each of these divisions has been trimmed to just five layers to provide more autonomy, clear accountability, and support high levels of teamwork at all levels. A performance management system has been implemented where each person has clearly defined measures of performance and targets, with quarterly achievement levels, and performance ratings. A significant part of the compensation package (up to 30-35 per cent) has been linked to performance.
The company has, over the past two years, infused a lot of "new blood" by recruiting executives at various levels.

Also, a number of people have been axed, based on performance and the vacancies are now being filled through internal advertisements.

The farm equipment division of the company has, during the previous fiscal, increased its sales by almost 25 per cent, against an industry decline.
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Indian Hotels to bid for HCI, brings in Portmans
Mumbai: Indian Hotels Company, part of the Taj group of hotels, has bought in Portmans, the US-based multinational real estate developers, as a strategic partner in its bid for the Hotel Corporation of India.

HCI put on the block in October last, has five hotels around the country, two in Mumbai, one each in New Delhi, Srinagar, and Rajgir in Bihar plus an air-catering unit called Chefair.

The Taj group is said to be closely looking at the Centaur Hotel near the Mumbai domestic airport possibly because the group does not have a presence in north Mumbai. It has two large hotels in south Mumbai --The Taj Mahal and the Taj President.

Arun Nigahawan, vice president & chief representative of Portmans in India declined to comment on the development.

Portmans, is associated with the Taj group for developing Wellington Mews, an apartment hotel, in South Mumbai.
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Zydus Cadila won despite lower bid
Mumbai: Zydus Cadila, which won the bid to acquire a significant stake in German Remedies, may have done so despite a far lower bid than the rival bidders.

Both the multinational bidders who lost out have expressed their shock after the announcement was made.

Senior officials of Pharmacia Upjohn said that the US pharma major had bid Rs 850 a share for Asta Medica and Heller’s stake in German Remedies. This was Rs 200 a share higher than Zydus’ quote.

Sources at SG Cowen, the investment-banking arm of Societe Generale, the advisors to Bristol Myers Squibb, confirmed that their bid too was higher than that of Zydus’ but did not disclose the amount.

Sources indicated are that Zydus clinched the deal as it valued the rights of five brands at a higher price. They said Asta Medica and Heller, the two largest shareholders in German Remedies, would be the ones to benefit from this Rs 52.6 crore brand deal while the losers would be the minority shareholders of German Remedies as they will have to be content with only Rs 650 a share in the open offer.

The company’s scrip closed at Rs 475.60 after touching a high of Rs 516.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
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Videocon-PCCW to bid for VSNL
Mumbai: Videocon, as part of its massive diversification plan, is said to have tied up with Richard Li's Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW) in order to bid for the 25 per cent stake for Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL).

Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of the Videocon group said, "We have put in a bid for acquiring the government's stake in VSNL on Monday."

He confirmed that Videocon has tied up with a Hong Kong-based multinational, but declined to disclose names.
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Dr Reddy’s ADS opens at $10.12 on NYSE; raises $132.8 million
Mumbai: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) on Wednesday, American Depositary Shares (ADS) were listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), making it the first Asian (non-Japanese) pharmaceutical company to make it to the American exchange

Dr Reddy’s ADS opened at $10.12 on the NYSE (a marginal increase over its pricing of $10.04 per ADS), moving up in the range of $10.15 and $10.25. Volumes at the counter as of 11.14 AM eastern time stood at 10,64,800.

The ADS was priced at $10.04 each (representing half an equity share of DRL) and the 11.5 million ADS offer raked in a total of $132.8 million (including a greenshoe option worth $17.3 million).
The company has been allotted the trading symbol of "RDY" on the NYSE. Merrill Lynch & Co is the managing underwriter for the offering.

Dr K Anji Reddy, DRL chairman, responding to media queries from New York, said, "We are really excited. The listing brings us a global reach in the investor base. Forty per cent of the world pharmaceuticals market is here and we are happy to be here."

The DRL ADS (representing 5,75,000 equity shares, excluding the 15 per cent greenshoe) was oversubscribed four times with 50 per cent of the demand coming from global institutional investors, while retail demand accounted for roughly 42 per cent. Forty-five per cent of the demand came from the US, while 29 per cent was from Europe. Asian interest accounted from the remaining 26 per cent.
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Daewoo charts out yet another strategy to revive sales
New Delhi--Daewoo Motors India, (DMIL), in another marketing initiative has identified seven cities where sales are low. It aims improve customer service and bring market performance up to the company’s expectations.

For this the company has drawn up a list of dealers, which have a lacklustre performance in these cities.

Giving details, Daewoo Motors India managing director and CEO, YC Kim told newspersons here on Wednesday, the company is offering dealers two options: First, the dealer transfers the dealership to DMIL, who will run it for a year and implement a turnaround strategy, while the dealer runs the after sales service during the period. In this case, the dealer will not have to bear the burden of pumping any money in the dealership, and the company will take care of the working capital and other costs.

In the second option, the dealer will transfer the dealership’s management to the company, if he does not want to give control of the dealership. The dealer will, however, have to take care of all investments in the venture.

The seven cities identifies are Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Cochin, where DMIL has identified eight out of the 25 dealers as poor performers.
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