France makes a pitch for Airbus aircraft ahead of AI board meet
New Delhi: Just ahead of Air India's board meeting today, where in it is expected to take a decision on buying fifty new planes, the French Transport Minister Gilles de Robien has made a pitch for the sale of Airbus Industrie Aircraft to Indian Airlines and Air India.

Air India sources say the airline had initially shortlisted both Boeing 777s and the Airbus A 340s. But now they are keen to go for only Boeings because most of its fleet is from Boeing. This understandably has panicked the French who are lobbying for Airbus. "If a decision is taken in an objective manner, then there is no other choice," Robien told reporters after a 45-minute meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

Just ten days back it was Patel's US counterpart Norman Minneta who lobbied for US aircraft manufacturer Boeing, saying if Air India buys Boeing planes it will help Indo-US relations.

For the record, Patel says Air India is free to make its own choice. With $6 billion at stake, clearly both the US and France are playing for high stakes.
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Reuters to pick up stake in Times Group's news channel
Mumbai: Reuters Ltd has decided to acquire 26 per cent equity stake in The Times Global Broadcasting Co Ltd, the news broadcasting company of The Times of India Group. The Group has declined to give details of the valuation of the deal.

Reuters is expected to supply branded programming to the news channel, slated to be launched by the Times of India Group later this year. The news channel will be initially in English and will operate from Mumbai and Delhi.

Reuters established its first news bureau in India in 1866 and today has five bureaus in key cities across the country. Its financial information and news business employs 821 people in India.

The agreement is subject to regulatory approvals and contract.
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Disney chief meets Kalam
New Delhi: Walt Disney's Chief Executive Officer, Michael D Eisner, is visiting India to review its operations here. Asn part of his visit here Eisner met President, A.P.J Abdul Kalam.

Eisner along with the CEO-elect Robert A Iger is now expected to meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Jaipal Reddy, as well as other Government and business leaders, to explore and discuss future opportunities for Disney in the burgeoning market of India. According to an official statement, the Walt Disney Company has identified international expansion as one of its key strategic priorities and maintains a particular focus on growing markets such as India.

Disney currently has several established businesses in India such as film distribution, consumer products and media networks. Besides review of its new channels, sources also said that senior officials of ESPN Software, a joint venture between Walt Disney and NewsCorp would make presentation to the Disney Chief on Tuesday.

Meetings with Star India, the distributors of the Disney Channels and other partners are also scheduled in the next few days.
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Anil 'unaware' of his status in IPCL
New Delhi: In a new twist to the ongoing controversy over his status on the board of Reliance group petrochemical company IPCL, Anil Ambani has said that he was unaware of any step taken by the company.

Speaking through his spokesperson, Anil said he was "unaware of any step taken by IPCL board concerning his status as Vice-chairman and Director of the company".

The spokesperson for Anil, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Reliance group, did not take any question on what might have happened at the IPCL board following his resignation letter of January 3.

The Ambani brothers are engaged in a battle over ownership of the Reliance empire.

Anil's statement, clearly demonstrating that he was not informed of any decision taken by the Board of IPCL headed by Mukesh, comes a day before the Board meeting of the company to be held in Mumbai. As of now, the 11-member IPCL Board, among other things, will consider the financial results for the year 2004-05.

IPCL, in a statement to the BSE on Saturday, informed that Anil ceases to be a member of its Board following his resignation as Vice Chairman and Director. Reliance Industries spokesperson had said last Saturday that "the letter of resignation tendered by Anil Ambani was considered at the Board meeting on January 20, 2005.

The resignation having been received by the Board took effect and he ceased to be a Director on the Board.
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Aban Loyd to raise $100mn
Chennai: Armed with shareholders' permission for raising $100 million from the overseas market, Aban Loyd Chiles Offshore Ltd has readied itself to acquire "two or three more jack-up rigs," should an opportunity for such a purchase arise. Aban Loyd provides offshore drilling services to oil companies.

Till December last, the company focused exclusively on opportunities from within India, serving mainly the ONGC. In December, it forayed into international waters - one of its five rigs is doing work for an Iranian oil company.

Firm crude prices have led to enhanced interest in exploring for oil and as a consequence the market for drilling services is good. Aban Loyd expects this trend to continue for several more years and intends to capitalise on the opportunity by pressing more rigs into service.

The company owns five rigs, one drill ship and one floating production unit. In January, all of them were put on long-term contracts (two to three years). The company wants to buy more rigs with an eye on business from West Asia, officials said.
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Mallya may list United Spirits overseas
Bangalore: The UB Group Chairman, Vijay Mallya, has disclosed that he may list United Spirits Ltd on overseas bourses, either on the London Stock Exchange or the Singapore Stock Exchange.

United Spirits Ltd, will now be the world's third largest spirits marketer by volume.

The move to list abroad may fructify in the next 18 to 24 months, after Mallya completes the consolidation of his four existing spirits companies - McDowell & Co, Herbertsons, Triumph Distillers & Vintners, and the recently acquired Shaw Wallace & Co - under the banner of United Spirits.

United Spirits will have combined sales of 56 million cases, which include a list of 13 million cases brands. It will give the company a 50 per cent share of the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) market pegged at 112 million cases annually. The Indian spirits market is one of the fastest growing in the world with sales projected to grow between eight to 10 per cent in the short to medium term.
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Kingfisher Air takes delivery of first aircraft
Toulouse, France: Kingfisher Air on Monday has taken delivery of its first brand new Airbus A320 aircraft.

The A320-200 aircraft has been leased from DaimlerChrysler-owned debis AirFinance. The company will lease out three more similar aircraft to Kingfisher Air.

At a function at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, the UB Group Chairman and Chairman of Kingfisher Air, Vijay Mallya, signed a deal with debis Air Finance and Airbus Industrie to take delivery of the aircraft. The airline will be launched on May 8, the birthday of Mallya's son, Siddharth.

The inaugural flight will take off on May 9 and will be from Mumbai to Bangalore in the morning. Later, several new sectors will be introduced.

"As per our vision statement of 2010, we expect to be the largest private sector domestic airline in the country," Mallya said.

The airline has placed orders for 11 more aircraft this year. It has placed orders for a total of 30 new A320 and three A319 aircraft from Airbus at a total cost of $1.93 billion (Rs8,500 crore). All the aircraft will have IAE V2500-5A engines. Indian Airlines will provide engineering and maintenance support, while Lufthansa Technik will provide spares.

Mallya said that the airline will certainly not price tickets as low as Rs 500, but it will be slightly lesser than those offered by Jet Airways and Indian Airlines.

"We don't have an economy class or a business class, but a single class: each seat will have a TV screen and each passenger will be treated as a guest," he said.
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BPL Mobile in talks to sell stake
Mumbai: BPL Mobile is in talks for selling up to a 49 per cent stake to a strategic partner, and plans to invest Rs625 crore towards strengthening its cellular network.

The company is planning to partner with another telecom company, similar to its erstwhile partnerships with France Telecom and AT&T. It has appointed JM Morgan Stanley as the investment banker for the proposed deal. The company also hopes to go in for an initial public offering (IPO).
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Hyundai Electronics to set up Rs.100 crore manufacturing plant
New Delhi: In a bid to increase its market share in the domestic consumer durables sector, Hyundai Electronics India is planning to set up a manufacturing facility in the country at an investment of Rs100 crore.

"The plant would be coming up in Uttaranchal by the end of the current year and will manufacture CTVs, air-conditioners and DVD players. We will also be setting up an R&D centre at the plant. At the same time, we plan to set up an R&D centre in China in joint collaboration with Hyundai Electronics, Korea," Hyundai officials said.

The capacity at the proposed plant would be 1.2 million units for CTVs, 0.3 million for DVD players, and 0.2 million units for air conditioners.

The company also plans to commence manufacturing microwave ovens at a later stage.

Further, the proposed plant would be used for exports as well, especially to countries in West Asia, South Africa, and the SAARC region. Hyundai Electronics currently uses Videocon's facilities for manufacturing in India.

Venugopal Dhoot, promoter of Videocon, has more than 70 per cent stake in Hyundai Electronics India.

Meanwhile, after clocking revenues of Rs100 crore since its launch five months back, Hyundai Electronics is planning to expand its product portfolio this year and is targeting a turnover of Rs600 crore in the current fiscal. Hyundai Electronics caters to the premium end of the market; its products are priced about 8-10 per cent higher than competitors.
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Bharti to begin 3G trial runs by month-end
New Delhi: Bharti Tele-Ventures is set to begin trial runs of 3G mobile services by April-end and has sought spectrum from the Department of Telecom (DoT) to conduct the trial runs.

The company has told the DoT that it has set in place the equipment and the network required to conduct trial runs but is awaiting the release of spectrum in the 1900 Mhz, which has been earmarked for 3G services. The company had earlier said that it was lining up investments of $1 billion for rolling out 3G mobile services across the country.

3G services allow high-speed data connectivity on mobile phones. While currently data speeds of broadband Internet services go up to an average of 256 kbps, 3G services allow more than 380 kbps on a mobile handset.

The biggest block to the rollout of 3G services in India is the lack of clarity over spectrum allocation. The telecom regulator is yet to make up its mind over sharing the 1900 Mhz frequency band between GSM and CDMA operators.

While CDMA operators want to share the frequency band, GSM operators are opposing the move on grounds that it will create interference.
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Quarterly Results: HCL Technologies, MRPL, MTNL, Exim Bank, Colgate, Aban Llyod, BPL Mobile
HCL Tech Q3 net up 25 pc
New Delhi: HCL Technologies Ltd has reported a 25 per cent increase in net profit at Rs157.25 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 over the same quarter in 2003-04.

The revenues of the company grew 31.9 per cent to Rs858.22 crore for the third quarter ended March 31, 2005.

The company has declared 200 per cent interim dividend on each share of face value Rs2 for the third quarter. HCL has added eighteen new clients in the third quarter taking the total number of active clients to 489.

The company added 1785 new employees during the third quarter to take the total to 22034.

HCL's recent buyout of an Irish call centre will take some time to contribute to the financials but the company says there is substantial scope to improve margins in BPO. It hasn't ruled out more acquisitions. Software services revenues of the company grew 2.6 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The revenues of the BPO services grew 17.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 498 employees were added taking the total to 5393.

The revenues of the infrastructure services business grew 23.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

MRPL FY05 net shoots up 85 per cent
Mumbai: The Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) has reported an 85 per cent rise in its net profit for the fiscal ended March 31, 2005 at Rs850 crore as against Rs459 posted in the previous fiscal.

Turnover during the reporting fiscal of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation subsidiary, rose by 64 per cent to Rs20,650 crore as against Rs12,612 crore in FY04.

The refinery processed 11.85 million metric tonnes of crude during FY 05 as against 10.05 MMT in the previous fiscal and the capacity utilisation was 122 per cent of the total capacity of 9.69 MMT. The export realisation during the reporting fiscal was Rs6,186 crore over Rs4,477 crore in FY04.

MRPL has signed a term contract with Ceylon Petroleum Corporation for export of 3.2 lakk MT of refined products, including motor spirit, high speed diesel and aviation turbine fuel, against a line of credit of $150 million extended by the EXIM Bank under the government-to-government framework.

MTNL Q4 net up 5.26 per cent
New Delhi: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has posted a 5.26 per cent rise in net profit at Rs323.27 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005. The telecom major had reported net profit of Rs 307.09 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Total income has increased 4.59 per cent to Rs1657.61 crore for the fourth quarter against Rs1584.76 crore in the year-ago period.

The company posted 17.76 per cent dip in net profit at Rs946.04 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 as compared to Rs1150.47 crore last year.

Total income has decreased to Rs6001.89 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 from Rs6683.93 crore in 2003-04, it said.

Exim Bank FY05 net at Rs.258 crore
Mumbai: Export-Import Bank of India has posted a thirteen per cent rise in net profit at Rs258 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 as against Rs229 crore in 2003-04.

The bank will pay Rs65.44 crore by way of dividend to the Government of India, 100 per cent owner of the export credit agency, for 2004-05, its chairman and managing director T V Venkat Subramanian has said. The total income for FY 05 rose to Rs1,104.30 crore as against Rs972.23 crore 2003-04, he said.

The loan sanctions stood at Rs15,853 crore as on March 31, 2005 from Rs9,266 crore at end of March 2004, he said adding disbursement rose to Rs11,435 crore in FY-05 as against Rs6,957 crore. It has extended 16 lines of credit (LOC) for $423 million. As on date, the export credit agency has 44 LOCs with credit commitments of $953 million.

The loan assets surged by 24 per cent to Rs13,410 crore from Rs10,775 crore in 2003-04. The share of direct credit was 30 per cent while balance 70 per cent was for export enabling finance to customers, he said.

The net non-performing assets stood at 0.85 per cent at the end of FY-05 down from 1.26 per cent as on March 31, 2004. The capital adequacy ratio stood at 21.58 per cent as on March. There was infusion of Rs 200 crore in the form of equity capital, taking the capital base to Rs850 crore, he said.

Colgate to pay third interim
Mumbai: Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd has informed BSE that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on April 25, has declared a third interim dividend of Rs1.50 per share.

The interim dividend will be paid on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs135.99 crore involving a total pay-out of Rs23 crore.
Aban Llyod net up six per cent.

Chennai: The company has announced its unaudited results for 2004-05 to its shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting. Net profit for the year grew six per cent to Rs50.11 crore, from Rs47.29 crore in 2003-04. Turnover increased to Rs288 crore from Rs276 crore previously.

The company says that it expects the turnover to touch Rs400 crore in the current year.

Shareholders also approved resolutions enabling the company to raise its authorised capital to Rs1,000 crore from Rs200 crore, to issue cumulative redeemable preference shares on private placement basis, to raise $100 million (Rs450 crore) from overseas market and split the company's shares of Rs10 each into five shares of Rs2 each.

BPL Mobile revenues up 40 per cent
Mumbai: BPL Mobile has announced that its annual revenues were up 40 per cent at Rs1,012.2 crore compared to Rs728.5 crore in the year-ago period. Profit before interest, tax and depreciation went up 42 per cent to Rs406.6 crore (Rs287 crore).

Officials said that this was the most profitable year in a decade. The company added 15 lakh new customers across the country in the last financial year, of which 5 lakh were in Mumbai. BPL is a GSM cellular service company in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry, Maharashtra and Goa.

This year, it plans to capture a 35 per cent market share in the above States and will extend its network to 225 new towns. It will also invest in adding 800 base stations this fiscal, as part of `Project Rapid Growth.'

The company continues to be in talks for selling between 26 to 49 per cent stake to another partner - preferably, a foreign telecom company. In December, France Telecom sold its 26 per cent stake in the company to a consortium of investors. Of this, the Essar Group, which is also one of the promoters of the Orange brand, bought 9.9 per cent.

BPL Mobile has a Rs1,700-crore debt on its books.
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