BSNL to cut GSM tender by half
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is said to be halving the 45.5 million line GSM order and may re-negotiate the price with Ericsson and Nokia-the two equipment manufacturers who were given the order.

At a three-hour long meeting BSNL board members are also believed to have come to a consensus that the order will be limited to only 2G lines. A separate tender for 3G would be floated later on. The decision to overturn the earlier order, which was a combination of 2G and 3G lines, was taken in cognizance after communication minister A Raja's letter to the board that the existing tender should be restricted to only 2G considering the 3G policy has still not been finalised.

In the earlier order, the equipment suppliers had to supply 17 million lines, out of which 75 per cent would have been for 2G while the rest would be for 3G. As the order is now only for 2G, industry sources say the price per line would range from $60 to $70.

Sources say the board, which decided against any financial rebidding, hopes to complete the deal in the next few days.
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TCS consolidated net rises 36 pc in Q1
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) posted a consolidated net profit (Indian GAAP) of Rs 1,203 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2007(Q1FY08), a 36.3 per cent increase over the same period last financial year.

The company's consolidated revenue at Rs5,203 crore was a 25.2 per cent increase over the corresponding quarter's figure the previous year.

However when compared to its growth over the last quarter's figures, the company saw a marginal rise of 0.8 pc over the previous quarter's revenue of Rs5,162 crore and 0.7 pc in the previous quarter's net profit of Rs1,195 crore.

The appreciating rupee impacted the company's margins by 258 basis points. The operating margin (OPM) was down by 281 basis points to 25.49 pc as against 28.3 pc the previous quarter. The wage hike, too, impacted the first quarter margins by 208 basis points. The company was able to partly counter the effects with a productivity improvement of 213 basis points. Hedging too helped. As of June 30, TCS had about $2.5 billion outstanding in hedges. It posted hedging gains of Rs107 crore this quarter.

The company is confident of its growth prospects and has effected a pricing growth of 0.6 per cent this quarter. In dollar terms, TCS revenues grew 8 per cent during the first quarter driven by volume increases with an upward pricing bias, and the banking and financial services (BFSI revenues grew 13 per cent in the quarter), telecom and life sciences verticals performing strongly.
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RCom acquires US data communications company
Mumbai: Reliance Communications (RCom) has acquired US data communications company Yipes Holdings for $300 million (Rs1,200 crore) in an all-cash deal.
This is the Indian telecom company's biggest acquisition deal so far.

RCom acquired Yipes from venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners, controlled by Promod Haque, Crosslink Capital and Sprout Group, and private equity firm JP Morgan Partners.

Promod Haque, Yipes chairman and Norwest Venture Partners managing director, will continue on the company's board, which has been acquired by and will function as a subsidiary of Flag Telecom, the submarine cable company RCom acquired in 2003 for $207 million.

The acquisition will help the Indian telecom services provider to penetrate the $100-billion global enterprise and the institutional data market. Yipes enjoys 40% of the US data communication market.

By synergising operations with Flag Telecom, RCom Chairman Anil Ambani aims to become a global leader in the ethernet-based data communications market. Ethernet is the latest and most popular technology for data communications.

Yipes a profitable company is headquartered in San Francisco and owns over 22,000 route kilometres of fibre optic across 14 US cities. It also has a presence in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Flag and Yipes will work jointly to address markets in which RCom has a presence, like India, West Asia and other Asian regions.
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Reliance Retail to open 30 new Reliance Fresh stores in Mumbai this month
Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani- controlled Reliance Retail will launch 30 new `Reliance Fresh' retail outlets in Mumbai and the adjoining suburbs this month.

The stores would be typically spread over an area of around 3,000-5,000 sq ft.

Each store would provide fresh fruits, vegetables and also products of Reliance Select and other related groceries.

Every store will have at least 50 employees.

According to Mukesh Ambani Reliance would launch at least one hypermarket in the next three months, would penetrate even the smaller cities.
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HUL declares lock out at Doom Dooma plant
Mumbai: Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has declared a lockout at its factory located in Doom Dooma in Assam, effective from July 15 following a series of what the company calls illegal strikes launched by the workmen during the last six months. The plant engaged in the manufacture of personal care products, has about 800 employees and accounts for 30,000 metric tonne or about 15 per cent of the company's total production of personal products.

The company says the lockout will not have any immediate impact on its production schedules as there is adequate buffering production capacity across units. It also did not comment on the financial implications of the lockout.

According to the company, the events took a serious turn from July 6 when the workers confined the managers and officers inside the factory.
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TVS begins operations in Indonesia
Bangalore: TVS Motor Company has begun operations in Indonesia with the inauguration of its two-wheeler manufacturing plant by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Surya Cipta Estate in Karawang.

The company has introduced TVS Neo, a step-through bike in the Indonesian market. The factory, built over 20 hectares, has an installed capacity of 3 lakh units per annum. TVS has invested $43 million and aims to scale it up to $100 million in the next three years, a company press release said.

Venu Srinivasan, chairman, PT TVS Motor Company Indonesia, said the company would make further investments in Indonesia to increase the local value addition to 80 per cent from the present 40 per cent. He said TVS was a long distance runner in Indonesia.

TVS aims to grab a market share of 10-15 per cent over the next three years, in what is the third largest market for two-wheelers in the world after China and India.
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Infosys to buy Philips Global's finance BPO
Bangalore: IT giant Infosys Technologies is planning to acquire Philips Global's finance and accounts BPO

Infosys will take over the subsidiary along with all the costs in the similar manner that TCS had acquired the operations of the Pearl Group in the UK.

Informed sources said, once the takeover is completed, Infosys will bring down costs and restructure operations to make it a paying proposition.

This will be Infosys' second acquisition in its 25-year history, after it had acquired Expert Information Services in Australia for around Rs104 crore ($22.9 million) in 2003.

Infosys' BPO has close to 11,000 employees and has posted a top line of around Rs662 crore and a net profit of Rs151 crore in FY07.

Infosys, the country's second largest software services exporter, currently has cash reserves of $1.4 billion. No official comments were available from the company. Usually conservative in the M&A game, the company has grown to $3.5 billion and employs around 71,000 professionals.
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65 per cent work completed at RPL Jamnagar refinery
Mumbai: Reliance Petroleum (RPL) has completed 65 per cent of the project work for the refinery complex, which is coming up coming up in a SEZ at Jamnagar work for which began 19 months ago.

Engineering and procurement activities are almost complete and the refinery is well on track for completion by December 2008, RPL said in statement after its second annual general meeting on Monday.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman, RPL said on commissioning, RPL refinery will be sixth largest refinery in the whole world and along with the RIL refinery, it will become the single largest refinery complex globally and will make Jamnagar the 'Refining Hub of the World.'

This complex will process two barrels out of every hundred barrels in the world Ambani said.
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Lanco gest projects worth Rs1,006-cr
Two special purpose vehicles of Lanco, Hoskote Highways and Devihalli Highways, have bagged contracts worth Rs 1,006 crore for construction and operation of two toll road projects in Karnataka. The projects were 81 km Bangalore-Hoskote-Mudbagal stretch on National Highway No 4 and 82 km Neelamangla - Devihalli stretch on NH 48. The concession periods were 20 and 25 years for the two projects respectively, according to a release.
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Ashok Leyland forms JV with Siemens Automotive
Chennai: Ashok Leyland and automotive supplier Siemens VDO Automotive AG, Germany, have signed an agreement to set up a joint venture to design, develop and adapt 'infotronics' products and services for the transportation sector.

The equity of the JV company would be held at a ratio of 50:50 between Ashok Leyland and Siemens VDO.

Infotronics refers to the use of electronics in automobiles to increase passsenger safety and fuel efficiency. The JV would develop electronic components and software such as instrument cluster applications, cockpit electronics and various control units for both commercial vehicles and passenger cars. While the JV company was expected to cater to the requirements of Ashok Leyland vehicles, it would actively pursue opportunities with other vehicle manufacturers in India and abroad. It would accelerate development of next generation telematics solutions for introduction in the market.

The new company which is expected to register a turnover of Euro 100 million in the next five to six years would commence its operation in full swing in the beginning of 2008 employing a workforce of 100 to begin with.
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MTNL gets Rs1,462 cr refund from IT dept
Mumbai: State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has received a refund of Rs1,461.68 crore, that includes tax and a significant amount of interest from the Income Tax department.

The IT department has refunded the amount pursuant to the order of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), MTNL said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

MTNL and IT department were engaged in litigation for the past several years on refund of license fee and 80IA deduction. The deduction under section 80IA is available to any enterprise involved in developing, maintaining and operating any infrastructure facility.

The IT department has accepted that license fee is an operational expenditure and allowable at par with other operators.

MTNL further said an estimated amount of Rs2,000 crore was yet to be refunded by the department on account of license fee and 80IA.
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