Hindujas and Qatar to set up JVs for infrastructure projects
New Delhi: The Hinduja group has announced major investment initiatives, totaling up to $10 bn, with Qatar for infrastructure projects. The investments will come through an Indo-Qatar fund with an initial corpus of $1 bn.

"Hindujas and Qatar government would contribute equally to the fund ($500 mn dollars each) as corpus for projects in India and Qatar to set up manufacturing facilities and infrastructure projects," said R J Shahaney, Chairman of Hinduja group company Ashok Leyland Project Services Ltd.

As part of the initiative, Hinduja Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of Qatar towards joint participation in projects and investment in the two countries.

Hinduja Group's overall exposure could be to the tune of 2.5 billion dollars, officials have said.
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USTR report accuses VSNL of adopting restrictive practices
Washington: The Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited has drawn flak from US companies who have complained about the restrictive policies adopted by it on international bandwidth access. "They (US companies) complained about the discriminatory and monopolistic practices of VSNL," United States Trade Representative (USTR) has said in its latest report.

The USTR has also requested that the Indian government to intervene to ensure VSNL makes available submarine cable capacity to other suppliers on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.

US companies have recorded protest against restrictive policies by VSNL, where the Indian government holds twenty six per cent equity, on international submarine cable access and landing stations.

VSNL officials in India said similar allegations had been made last year as well and the same were found incorrect after scrutiny by appropriate authorities.
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Infosys to spend Rs1,100 crore on expansion
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies expects to sustain the robust hiring momentum in fiscal 2006 and also plans to invest between Rs950 crore - Rs1,100 crore in expanding its infrastructure and new technologies during the year.

The company plans to hire some 12,600 people on a gross basis during the year. The company added 1,521 employees during the fourth quarter, lower than the previous quarter's hires of 2280. For fiscal 2004-05, Infosys and its subsidiaries have added some 11,116 employees, taking the overall headcount to 36,750.

Infosys plans to effect a salary hike of 14-15 per cent for its offshore employees and about three per cent hike for its onsite employees, effective from this month, said T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chief Financial Officer and board member.

Infosys also plans to raise the salary for newcomers by 15 to 18 per cent, Pai said adding the company's variable compensation plan had helped it align the employee costs to the growth in the business.

The company has seen employee attrition declining during the year to around 9.7 per cent as compared to 10.45 per cent in the previous year. It planned to add 20,000 seats to its infrastructure during the year, Pai added.

The company will also be investing about Rs250 crore on technology upgradation. The company is investing in increasing its data communication links to the US to 90-mega bit as compared to 20 mega bit earlier. The company has set up its second redundant data communication hub in Chennai and has started using wide area network to provide remote access to its employees.

Over 10,000 Infosys employees are also being provided with laptops.

Infosys spends about 6.8 per cent of its revenues on training and research and development, the company said.
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Infosys subsidiaries performing well
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies plans to increase the employee strength in China to around 1,000 from the current level of 122. Though the operations in China had incurred a loss, the company saw better prospects in the long term as there has been an increase in number of clients as well as business.

On revenues of Rs8 crore, the China operations posted a loss of the same amount. Some of its other subsidiaries have, however, performed well.

Its BPO arm Progeon generated revenues of about Rs191 crore and a net income of Rs30.6 crore. For the fourth quarter, Progeon posted a net profit of Rs16 crore on revenues of Rs63.6 crore. It added two new clients during the last quarter taking the total number of clients to 19. Its employee base stands at 3,966 up from 3,422 in the previous quarter.

Its operations in Australia have yielded revenues of Rs303 crore for 2004-05 and it has already broken even. Infosys Consulting has posted revenues of Rs21 crore, but has incurred a loss of Rs33 crore for the same period.

Infosys has considered rupee conversion versus dollar at 43.62.
Revenues from onsite operations for the last quarter fell five per cent to 48.1 per cent compared with a year ago figures while revenues from offshore operations rose five per cent to 51.9 per cent. The company generated about 5 per cent of its revenues from new business while the rest came from repeat orders from existing clients.

Infosys' revenues from North America continue to be the highest though it fell six per cent to 65.2 per cent during the last 12 months ended March 2005. Revenues from Europe rose nearly three per cent to 22.3 per cent during the same period.

From fixed price offering, its revenue during the last 12 months fell nearly four per cent to 30 per cent while revenues from time and materials rose nearly four per cent to 70 per cent.
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Cushman & Wakefield plan private equity fund for India and China
Chennai: Cushman & Wakefield plans to set up a private equity fund in the next 6-10 months for the India and China markets, for which it is in talks with major private equity investors, Michael W. J. Thompson, Group CEO, Asia-Pacific, Cushman & Wakefield said.

The company, a global real-estate consultant, is planning acquisitions in India in order to scale up operations. Indian operations contribute about ten per cent of its global turnover. Cushman & Wakefield officials said it would look at acquiring BPO companies to service the mid-segment market.

Thompson said though the opening of foreign direct investment (FDI) into real estate is an excellent step, there is a need for private domestic real estate mutual funds, which do not exist as of now. Private domestic real estate mutual funds would ensure that significant capital flows into the sector; it would provide opportunities for domestic investors to invest in commercial real estate and accelerate growth.
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Gail and Petroleum ministry sign MoU for performance targets
New Delhi: Gail (India) Ltd has signed an annual memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, regarding performance targets for the financial year 2005-06.
During 2005-06, the company has targeted a transmission of 75.10 MMSCMD (metric million standard cubic meters per day) of natural gas, including 16.22 MMSCMD of regasified LNG, according to a company release.

The MoU also provides for a production target of 3,10,000 million tonnes (MT) of polymers (HDPE and LLDPE) and about one MT of LPG.

The company's performance will be assessed in terms of key financial parameters as also dynamic parameters such as project implementation, gas sourcing, customer focus, safety, and enterprise-efficiency.
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Trisha is brand ambassador for Tata Indicom
Chennai: Tata Teleservices Ltd has signed on Tamil actress Trisha as the new brand ambassador for the Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh circles of Tata Indicom.

Madhusudan, Chief Operating Officer, Tamil Nadu & Kerala Circle, Tata Teleservices, said, "Tata Indicom is a youthful and vibrant brand and Trisha reflects these very qualities, her association with Tata Indicom personifies the brand's identity. The youth are a growing segment in the telecom sector and Trisha as a brand ambassador, is one such effort to connect with this segment."

The contract is valid for one year.
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Quarterly Results: REL, Infosys, iGate
REL net up 39.07 per cent
Mumbai: Backed by a huge growth in its EPC and contracts business, Anil-Ambani controlled Reliance Energy Ltd has reported a 39.07 per cent rise in net profit at Rs520.29 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, 2005.

The board has declared a quarterly dividend of 14 per cent taking the total dividend outgo of 47 per cent for the reporting fiscal.
The company's net stood at Rs374.12 crore in 2003-04. Total income during the reporting fiscal rose to Rs4,592.55 crore as compared to Rs3,582.70 crore in 2003-04.

The net sales from energy during the last fiscal remained flat at Rs2895.99 crore as compared to Rs2,820.96 crore. The income from Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) and contracts have doubled to Rs1,234.68 crore (Rs578.55 crore).

The other income of the company also doubled to Rs461.88 crore (Rs183.19 crore).

The EPC and contracts division has an order book position of about Rs3,500 crore compared to Rs1,200 crore in the previous fiscal. The company has decided to "slightly revise" the time schedule for its upcoming gas-based 3,740 MW project at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.

Infosys Q4 net rises 53 per cent
Bangalore: A sluggish volume growth coupled with overriding client issues have forced Infosys Technologies to issue lower-than-expected earnings guidance for fiscal 2006 even as it posted a tepid fourth quarter results.

Infosys' net profits rose 53 per cent to Rs 513 crore, while revenues grew 47 per cent to Rs 1,987.32 crore for quarter-ended March 31, 2005, over corresponding last year.

Sequentially, the growth in net profits and revenues was at 3.25 per cent and 5.96 per cent respectively. Onsite volumes grew by 4.6 per cent while offshore volumes rose by 6.6 per cent during the March quarter, as compared to double digit-volume growth the company used to post in the last few quarters.

After including a realisation of Rs45 crore through a stake sale in subsidiary Yantra Corporation, Infosys' net profit for the fourth quarter of FY05 stood at Rs558 crore. For fiscal 2005, net profits grew by 52 per cent to Rs1,891.7 crore, while its revenues grew by 47 per cent to Rs7,129.65 crore, over previous year.

The company has recommended a final dividend of Rs6.50 per share (130 per cent on a par value of Rs5 per share) for fiscal 2005 amounting to Rs175.87 crore. Including the interim dividend of Rs5 per share amounting to Rs133.93 crore, the total dividend recommended for the year is Rs11.50 per share amounting to Rs309.8 crore. For fiscal 2006, Infosys expects income to be in the range of Rs8,890 crore and Rs9,029 crore, a growth of 24.7 per cent to 26.6 per cent.

Analysts said the outlook was below expectations of the market, which was looking for thirty per cent guidance.

iGate posts Rs.2 crore net in Q4
Bangalore: iGate Global Solutions has posted a net profit of Rs2.2 crore for the fourth quarter of 2004-05 on revenues of Rs145.6 crore. A company release said that for the same quarter in 2003-04, it posted a loss of Rs5.6 crore on revenues of Rs138 crore.

Revenues for the entire fiscal rose by nearly two per cent to Rs580 crore, while net profit was Rs21.2 crore compared to Rs0.08 crore for the previous financial year.

"The past year was one of consolidation for us and we had mixed outcomes," said Phaneesh Murthy, CEO.
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