Bajaj Auto reports 15 per cent fall in Q1 net
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto has reported a 15 per cent drop in net profit for the first quarter of this financial year due to increasing competition, slowing demand for motorcycles and rising interest rates. Bajaj Auto saw its net profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal drop by 15 per cent to Rs226.5 crore from Rs266 crore in the same period last year.

Meanwhile the industry slowdown witnessed from January continued. Net sales for the quarter ended June 2007 dropped to Rs2,109.1 crore from Rs2,202.6 crore.

Two-wheeler sales have dropped 13 per cent to 4,94,042 units, though exports of 1,49,804 two- and three- wheelers registered a healthy 52 per cent growth.

During the quarter, the company initiated structural changes in distribution which has esulted in reduction of inventory at dealers by around 45,000 motorcycles.

The company total income, net of excise, fell nearly 4 per cent to Rs2,212 crore.

It sold 494,042 motorcycles in April-June this year, a drop of 13 per cent which is sharper than the 11 per cent decline in all motorcycle sales.

The company contained the erosion in its margin, caused by rising raw material cost, by selling more high-value products. The EBIDTA margin for the quarter was 13.2 per cent compared with the last financial year's 15 per cent. The industry average is about 10 per cent.

The company is increasing exports to Indonesia and Latin America to cut its dependence on India. Exports in the last quarter rose 52 per cent to 149,804 vehicles.
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AI to start non-stop flights between Mumbai-New York
New York: Air India plans to introduce direct non-stop flights between Mumbai and New York from August 1. Apart from this it will introduce two more non-stop flights -- between New Delhi and New York and Bangalore and San Francisco -- in February and mid-next year respectively. The Mumbai-New York flight time will be around 14 hours.

The Air India Regional Director for North America A K Mathur said the airline is giving a lot of attention to improve and upgrade its in-flight service and provide all possible facilities to business travellers to make their flight experience highly satisfying.

For the purpose, the airline will use the latest long-range aircraft Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner, first of which will be delivered to it on July 25.

A week later, it will be in service and first flight is scheduled to arrive at New York at 0700 hours. The plane will leave for Mumbai the same evening.

Air-India had ordered 68 Boeings 18 months ago including eight 777-200LR (longer range) Worldliners, 15 777-200ER (extended range) and 27 just unveiled 787-8 Dreamliners.
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Genpact, WNS are top BPO firms: Nasscom survey
New Delhi: Genpact remains the top Indian information technology-enabled services and business process outsourcing (ITeS-BPO) firm, based on export revenues for 2006-07, while WNS continued to be the second best according to IT trade body Nasscom. Transworks – an Aditya Birla group company – emerged third, up from its 15th position last year.

The rankings are based on the revenues reported for 2006-07 in the annual Nasscom survey on the IT industry's performance. Other BPOs such as Wipro BPO, HCL BPO, EXL Service Holdings and Aegis BPO Services have seen a decline in their rankings. IBM-Daksh, TCS BPO and Firstsource Solutions, among others, have moved up the rankings during the year.

The list does not include companies like Convergys and Sutherland Global Services whose corporate headquarters are located outside India, but have significant India-based delivery capabilities, and have not shared their India-based revenue figures.

The ITeS-BPO sector is expected to grow to about $11 billion by the end of the next financial year, according to the Nasscom. The ITeS-BPO segment has witnessed 33.5 per cent growth, contributing $8.4 billion to the total software and services exports that touched $31.4 billion in 2006-07. The growth has been attributed to the maturing ITeS-BPO sector, which now not only offers customer interaction services (CIS), finance and accounting and HR administration, but also provides vertical specific and niche business services and other high-end services. This segment is expected to account for approximately 8-10 per cent of the total value of BPO activity undertaken in India.
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Tata Steel, Arcelor invited by Indonesian government
Mumbai: The Indonesian government has invited Tata Steel and Arcelor Mittal to take part in the privatisation process through which the government is selling 35 per cent in PT Krakatau Steel.

The broad contours of the plan suggest that the government will dilute another 30 per cent through a public offer later.

The proposed privatisation plan is a part of the government's aim to scale up the country's annual steel production capacity to 10 million tonne in three years from 6 million tonne now. For this, the government wants Krakatau to increase its capacity to 4 million tonne from the existing 2.5 million.

Krakatau's previous privatisation plan, which was rejected by the government two weeks ago, did not include the IPO.
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RIL's Navi Mumbai SEZ gets tentative approval
New Delhi: The Board of Approval (BoA) for Special Economic Zones after referring the issue for clarifications several times has given a conditional nod to Mukesh Ambani's chairman of Reliance Industries, Navi Mumbai SEZ in Dronagiri, for a multi-product zone spread over 1,250 hectares. Sources said this means RIL can establish a unit in the zone after completing contiguity works like over-bridge etc. The sources, however, added that this type of conditional nod holds good for all proposals wherever associated works concerning the proposed zones are incomplete or not being undertaken.

The sources said that the Maharashtra Government was asked to give its views on the report of the Revenue Department, which touched upon issues that encompassed the rights of the villagers in the area affected by the Reliance Industries Ltd's Navi Mumbai SEZ in the last BoA meeting held in June.
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ACC exits non-core business
Mumbai: Exiting its non core business ACC has sold its wholly owned subsidiary ACC Nihon Castings to VN Enterprises Ltd of Hindustan Udyog Group for Rs30 crore.

The transaction has no significant impact on the results of the company," ACC said in a communiqué to the BSE. In 2005, ACC sold its refractory business to ICICI Venture Funds for Rs257 crore. It also amalgamated Bargarh Cement Ltd and Domadhar Cement and Slag.
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Jet gets clearance to fly to US
New Delhi: The Centre has not found any reason to review the security clearance given to the private sector carrier following the recent controversy over a PIL alleging that the airline's promoter, Naresh Goyal, had underworld links.

There was speculation about the possible review of the security clearance given to the airline after the Bombay High Court asked the police to file a report on the PIL filed against Mr Goyal.

Following allegations by a US-based company, the US Department of Transport kept Jet's application for flights to America in hold. Finally, the US authorities cleared Goyal last November. The US authorities also sought a clarification from the Indian government which was finally submitted earlier this year.
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Metro Tyres willing to offer stake to Continental
Bangalore: Metro Tyres is willing to offer a stake to its partner, Germany-based Continental Tyres, though the majority stake will continue to be held by the Indian company. Continental Tyres is helping the Metro Tyres break into the highly competitive European market.

Continental Tyres is the world's fourth largest tyre maker.

Metro Tyres could offer the stake earlier or when it goes for an IPO, which is expected in another 18 months. Metro plans to raise about Rs100 crore from its IPO proceeds.

Metro has also opened an office and a warehouse in Barcelona and will market its tyres and tubes under the Ortem brand in Europe,

Metro expects the European market to contribute up to €15 million during the first year of operations to its topline.

Continental sources 2-lakh tyres every month and 3-lakh tubes per month from Metro and wants to increase the sourcing from the company.

Hence to meet Continental's demand, Metro plans to set up another plant with a capacity of 4-lakh tyres per month either in Uttarakhand or Himachal Pradesh in another 18 months at an investment of about Rs50 crore. Metro currently has four plants in India.
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