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.

This alliance establishes a preferred relationship between ICICI Bank and Harley-Davidson India in the areas of consumer financing, dealer financing and banking services to Harley-Davidson India.

ICICI will offer finance options for Harley-Davidson customers starting at 11% r.o.i. for a period of up to five years, with a starting EMI of Rs. 12,845/- per month only for a 2010 XL883 Low Sportster. Customers can also calculate EMIs for other models via an EMI calculator at the Harley-Davidson India website: www.harley-davidson.in
Harley-Davidson Motor Company is the US based global leader in cruising and touring motorcycles and ranks as one of the strongest brands in the world, with complete line of motorcycles, accessories and general merchandise in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit Harley-Davidson India’s web site at www.harley-davidson.in.

An AMFI certified IFA with a minimum of a year’s experience can use the online facility by paying the nominal application and security fees.

On becoming a member, the IFA enjoys several benefits: expenses are significantly reduced; he has complete ownership of his customers; he can provide to his customers several value added services like portfolio tracker, SMS alerts, various non-equity financial products.

One of the other important benefits that an IFA can provide to his customers is the ICICIdirect professional advisory on mutual funds. This advisory tracks various schemes, rates them as well as recommends a buy/sell/hold strategy.

ICICIdirect, with close to 2 million customers, is a market leader in online and offline financial product distribution. It is among top 5 Mutual Fund distributors in the country, offering more than 2000 Mutual Fund schemes and executing 0.15 million online transactions/month.

The company was also among the first distributors to revise its commissions on mutual funds, post Securities Exchange Board of India’s directive on removal of entry load from August 1, 2009. 

ICICIdirect has witnessed a growth of almost 50% q-on-q in the mutual fund segment.

source: BSE

The Far-East Connect Network has many unique network elements that span across the region and comprises of Airtel’s network assets on multiple cables routes i2i, SMW4, APCN2, JUCN, AAG and also a proposed investment in another High Speed Network between Singapore and Japan. This would now enable Bharti Airtel to extend its reach to Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.

According to Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, “The launch of the “Far-East Connect Network” is another step towards Bharti Airtel’s vision of making Bharti Airtel, the communication services partner of choice for global telcos. Our investments of over US$500 million over the last two years are designed to create a global network that offers unmatched resilience and maximum diversity. Asia and the Pacific represent one of the fastest growing markets for ICT and as industry leaders in India. Bharti Airtel is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this growing market opportunity.”

Through the Far-East Connect Network, Bharti Airtel will be able to deliver seamless connectivity on Asia America Gateway (AAG). Bharti Airtel is one of the leading consortium partners for this new 20,000 Rkms cable system that is now ready to carry commercial traffic. This together with a capacity upgrade by Airtel on its existing network assets on multiple cable routes, has made available an additional 1 Terabit per second of capacity to the region. This Terabit Super Express Highway will link major cable landing stations in India, HK, Japan, Singapore and across the Pacific to the United States.

Further, through a unique partnership model, Airtel has entered into partnerships for capacity and onward connectivity to Japan, Taiwan, Australia and South Korea through multiple alternate routes. The initiative is consistent with Airtel’s aim of ensuring diverse meshed cable topologies on all major routes.

Bharti Airtel’s, global wholesale portfolio offers MPLS, Ethernet, IP and International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) services to carriers in high growth markets across Asia and the Pacific. The portfolio includes solutions for voice and data connectivity, collaboration services, co-location, carrier outsourcing and content distribution through its next-generation high speed submarine and fiber network.
Source: Company Release

IVRCL has announced restructuring of its BOT assets portfolio wherein it will transfer its holding companies to IVR Prime Urban (62.4% subsidiary). The effective date for the transfer will be April 1, 2009. The merger will be through share issue of 59.5m shares in IVR Prime Urban to IVRCL. Thus the stake of IVRCL in IVR Prime Urban will increase to 80.5% post the restructuring. Further details (e.g. incremental net worth of IVR Prime Urban post acquisition) will be available after Court approval for the transaction (expected by 1QFY11).

-      IVRCL’s BOT assets plus future opportunity valued at Rs9b: IVRCL has invested equity of ~Rs4.5b in the BOT assets. At the CMP of Rs152/sh for IVR Prime Urban, the transaction is being valued at Rs9b (P/BV of 2x).

-      Rationale for the transaction: Boost to IVR Prime Urban – increased net worth (up~85%), debt raising possibilities (~Rs5b), possible equity dilution: The restructuring will lead to increased focus on BOT projects, and also provide a higher net worth to bid for large projects. We estimate that at possible transaction value of Rs13.5b (at say 3x P/BV), the net worth of IVR Prime Urban as at March 2010 including capital reserves (~Rs8.5b) and minority interest (~Rs1.7b) will increase to ~Rs20b+. This compares with net worth of Rs10.9b as at March 2009 (including minority interest of Rs1.5b).

-      Valuation and view: We currently value the BOT portfolio of IVRCL at 1.5x P/BV, and thus the proposed transaction at 2x P/BV (based on CMP of IVR Prime Urban) will add marginally (~2.6%) to SOTP value of IVRCL. The transaction could lead to increased focus on BOT projects without necessitating further equity dilutions in IVRCL. We maintain Buy with price target of Rs382/sh for IVRCL.