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>> Dish TV is set to launch Conditional Access Module (CAM), a device that will enable

consumers with set-top boxes of other DTH service providers to switch to Dish TV’s feed of television channels. (ET)

>> Religare Finvest plans to increase its loan portfolio to Rs 140bn by the end of the current fiscal, betting big on the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. (ET)

>> The downturn in global markets has taken a toll on Essar Oil’s plans to raise US$1.5bn in foreign currency loans to finance its expansion plans and forced the company to look for options in a difficult environment. (ET)

>> Japan’s JFE Corp is planning to increase its  shareholding in the JSW Steel to meet

corporate norms. (ET)
>> FMCG majors Wipro, Godrej and Dabur may participate in an auction process initiated by global consumer healthcare giant Reckitt Benckiser for the sale of its personal care products division in India, which it acquired as part of the acquisition of Paras Pharma last year. (ET)

>> Sanofi-Aventis is in advanced talks for a strategic tie-up with nutraceuticals firm

Universal Medicare, maker of popular codliver oil capsules brand Seacod, which will help the French drugmaker scale up its over-the-counter (OTC) business in India. (ET)

>> Coal India Unions have demanded a 100% jump in their salaries-a demand that would put the state-run entity under a severe strain. (ET)

>> GVK Power and Infrastructure will become the largest shareholder in Bangalore

International Airport (BIAL) after agreeing to bite the bullet and pay a premium in difficult market conditions to buy Siemens’ 14% stake. (ET)

>> The Satyam ghost continues to haunt Mahindra Satyam. The Income-Tax Department has asked the new management to pay Rs 21.14bn for the assessment years 2002-03 and 2007-08 when Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, the founder Chairman of Satyam Computer Services, allegedly perpetrated the financial fraud. (BL)

>> Brigade Hospitality Services, the hospitality arm of real estate developer Brigade Group, is looking at entering the mid-range hospitality segment in the South. (BL)

>> Mahindra Satyam has opened a near shore delivery centre in Eindhoven (Netherlands), with an aim to strengthening its presence in the Benelux region. (BL)

>> JSW Ispat Ltd has completed the Rs 6obn debt refinancing deal. the new average interest rate for the refinance is 11.75 % lower than the earlier rates. (BS)

>> Aditya Birla Minacs is exploring the possibility of tapping private equity investors for a significant minority stake in the company or may even exit the business, provided it gets a significant exit premium. (BS)

>> Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Limited (NOCL) is aiming to ready its petroleum refinery

project in northeastern Tamil Nadu by this year-end, with an additional investment of Rs

120bn. (BS)

>> Suzlon Energy Limited (SEL), announced that it has won a repeat order from the Malpani Group to set up, operate and maintain projects totalling 29.70 mega watt. (BS)

>> The Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited is planning to invest over Rs3.7bn

during the present fiscal. The proposed investments include setting up a cement

manufacturing facility, de-inking plant amongothers. (BS)

>> Ford and Toyota announced plans to jointly develop a new hybrid system for light trucks and sport utility vehicles. (ET)

>> India plans to allow more foreign carriers under an upcoming policy to keep pace with rising demand for international travel that domestic airlines are unable to service. (ET)

>> India can achieve 9.5% average economic growth in the 12th Five Year Plan, provided steps are taken to push agriculture growth rate

to 4.2% and manufacturing to 11.5%. (ET)

>> Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the central government was open to a “reasoned debate” for resolving differences on the Lok Pal bill. And, maintained such an institution was not the sole solution for eliminating corruption. (BS)

>> The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has asked the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to withdraw price preference policy for domestic companies and ensure a “level playing field” among all categories of bidders. (BS)

Bangalore Airport & Infrastructure Developers Private Limited (BAIDPL), a step down subsidiary of the company has set to acquire 53,844,000 equity shares with a face value of Rs.10 each held by Siemens Project Ventures GMBH (Siemens), being 14% of the issued capital of Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), at a price of Rs.114 per equity share.

The said acquisition will be completed after obtaining the requisite approvals, if any.

GVK is India’s largest infrastructure developer with experience and expertise spanning areas such as Energy, Airports, Roads and Urban Infrastructure. As on date GVK has invested over Rs.8502 Crores into infrastructure projects and has on hand projects in the pipeline of over Rs.25000 Crores.

Hosur, January 1, 2011: A substantial increase in domestic sales spurred by significant demand from across all product segments has propelled TVS Motor Company’s December sales by 42% over the comparable period of the previous year.
The company sold 171,790 units in December 2010 against 120,913 units in the same month of the previous year. Cumulative sales of the company for the period April 2010 to December 2010 thus stood at 1,512,896 units.
Two Wheeler Segment:
Total two wheeler sales witnessed a sizeable increase of 41% with sales of 168,359 units in December 2010 against 119,701 units registered in December 2009.
Consequently, cumulative two wheeler sales for the period April 2010 to December 2010 increased by 34% with sales of 1,485,102 units over 1,109,054 units in April to December 2009.
Domestic sales of the company increased by 46% with sales of 149,357 units in December 2010 against 102,479 units reported in December 2009.
Scooter sales grew by an impressive 94% with sales of 41,804 units as against 21,566 units recorded in December 2009.  Motorcycles sales recorded a growth of 24% with sales of 61,414 units in December 2010 as against 49,560 units in December 2009.
The company exported 19,002 units of two wheelers in December 2010 against 17,222 units registered in December 2009.
Three Wheeler Segment:
In December 2010, the company sold 3,431 units of three wheelers against 1,212 units sold in the comparable month of the previous year. Cumulative three wheeler sales for the period April 2010 to December 2010 stood at 27,794 units against 8,707 units, a growth of 219%.

GMR Energy Limited  Wins  bid for Rajasthan Rajya Vidut Prasaran Nigam RRVPNL 400KV Power Transmission Project on BOOM basis
GMR Energy Limited (GEL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Limited has successfully won two bids for a Rajasthan Rajya Vidut Prasaran Nigam Ltd (RRVPNL) Transmission Project. The projects are awarded to GEL and are one of the first of their kind BOOM (Build Own Operate Maintain) projects for the Group. The Group will be commissioning these projects for a concession period of 25 years that will also include an estimated period of 2 years for completion of the construction phase. The projects would include setting up of 400kms of 400KV Transmission lines with 2 power substations that will be based at Alwar and Deedwana.

The company plans to invest up to Rs. 100 Cr on cold storage business by setting up 10 cold storage units across the state. The cold storage units will come primarily in the areas, where vegetables and fruits harvesting is high, Rao said.

“The company is ready to invest Rs.100 crore on cold storage units. We will setup 10 cold storage units in suitable places in Andhra Pradesh in next two years,” the repor said quoting Rao.

Apart from the cold storage business, The company plans to invest another Rs.100 Cr on green house facility, which can be spread in 25 acres.

We have been tied up with an Israel firm Netaphim to develop this facility on turnkey basis.

“First phase of production in this facility would be started in couple of months,” he said.

The company is in the process of setting up a subsidiary to look after these two businesses.

For the Green House Project, Kaveri Seeds already acquired 250 acres of land near Shameerpet, 45 km away from Hyderabad.

The company plans to go for vegetables and fruits harvesting in this green house project applying modern technology, mainly for European exports.

IDFC Ventures may buy stake

Private Equity firm, IDFC Ventures is believed to be in talks with Kaveri Seeds to take a stake in the newly incorporated arm.

‘We will raise funds up to 25%  from internal accruals, 25% from banks as debt and another 50% from PE companies to meet our requirement. Couple of PE firms have shown their interest to take a share in our new subsidiary, where we can dilute upto 40% stake’ Mr. Rao has said, without mentioning IDFC.

At present, IDFC has 8.30% stake in Kaveri Seeds and promoter group holds 62.14% in the company.

Kaveri Seeds, with a significant presence in seed industry is planning to introduce new paddy, wheat, Bt cotton and vegetable seed varieties into the market this year.

Contributed by R.Reddy

Exceptional quarter:

Infosys has reported better-than-expected Q3FY10 results. The quarter’s performance was exceptional on both the volumes and cost management front. Though growth was led by BFSI, key verticals like telecom and manufacturing too witnessed a strong revival of 6.7% QoQ each. We maintain our Buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 3,080.

Quarterly results

- Revenues for Q3FY10 in dollar terms stood at US$ 1,232mn, a growth of 6.8% QoQ and 3.9% higher than our estimate of US$ 1,186mn. This is despite Q3 being a seasonally weak quarter.

- Cross-currency movement had a positive impact of 0.9% on revenues.

- Revenue growth for the quarter was supported by strong volume growth of 5.3% QoQ.

- Pricing, even in constant currency terms, has improved as the contribution from fixed priced projects remained stable QoQ at 38.3% of revenues.

- In rupee terms, revenues were Rs 57.4bn, reporting a lower growth of 2.8% QoQ due to rupee appreciation.

- The EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 35.5%, an expansion of 100bps QoQ, against our expectation of a 130bps QoQ decline to 33.2%. The strong margin performance is despite salary hikes and increased SG&A investments in the quarter. Margin resilience is largely attributed to the 150bps QoQ improvement in utilisation including trainees.

- Net profits (IFRS) were Rs 15.6bn and grew 1.8% QoQ as against a 12% QoQ decline guided by the management. 

FY10 and Q4FY10 guidance

- As expected, the management has raised its FY10 guidance.

- Revenue guidance in dollar terms has been raised by 3% and is now expected to be US$ 4.75bn–4.76bn, a growth of 1.8–2%.

- EPS under Indian GAAP is now pegged at Rs 106.85–107.06, a YoY growth of 2.2–2.4%. This is an increase of 7% as compared to the earlier guidance of Rs 100.

- For Q4FY10, revenues are guided to be US$ 1,240mn–1,250mn, a QoQ growth of 0.7-1.5% which we believe is conservative considering the strong growth witnessed in Q3FY10.

Other highlights

- BFSI grew the strongest in the quarter with 10.1% QoQ growth. In BFSI, revenue contribution from Insurance increased by 110bps QoQ to 8.5% of revenues.

- The telecom vertical witnessed a revival, growing 6.7% QoQ as compared to the 1.5% QoQ decline witnessed in Q2FY10.

- The US geography grew 7.8% QoQ in reported currency whereas Europe was flat in constant currency terms.

- In services, ADM grew the fastest at 10.6%; however the growth is attributed to increased contribution from application maintenance to 24.5%.

- Application development too, which is discretionary in nature, grew 4.9% QoQ after declining for four consecutive quarters.

- Forex gains in the quarter were limited to Rs 200mn.

- The company added 8,719 and 4,429 employees on gross and net basis respectively.

- Utilisation (excluding trainees) improved 300bps QoQ to 76.2%.

- Attrition inched upped in the quarter to 11.6%.

Source: Infosys Release.