27th October - Newspaper Summary

SAKET GARG
SANDIPAN MONDAL
SATYENDRA YADAV
SECTION H

Tayal moves court to unlock ICICI shares

The News:
Pravin kumar Tayal, promoter of the erstwhile Bank Of Rajasthan Ltd has moved the Rajasthan High court to access ICICI Bank shares worth at least Rs. 1000 crore.
The back Ground:
SEBI had frozen the demat account of Pravin Kumar Tayal and 100-odd related entities which owned Bank Of Rajasthan shares for alleged violation of regulatory norms
The Impact:
A court order in their favour would allow them to encash shares and clear liabilities to many banks.


Bharti prepay part of $7.5 bn loan
Bharti Airtel Ltd may prepay at least $1 billion (Rs.4,440 crore) of the $7 bn loan it took from banks to funds its acquisition of the African assets of Kuwait-based Zain Telecom according to a banker familiar with the development. The flexibility of prepayment has always been part of the loan agreement and Bharti has the option of prepaying based on its cash flow.


Venky’s hatches plan to buy English Football club
A Pune poultry farm and hatchery with global aspirations is set to become the country’s firsh owner of an English football club,albeit a bottom-of-the-league team.
Venkateswara Hatcheries Group, or VH group, is in advanced negotiation to acquire “Blackburn Rovers”, according to the both group and the club.
The group will pay 46 million pound (approx. Rs.322 crore) to buy the club, Bloomberg reports.
“Blackburn Rovers” the English Premier League (EPL) champion in 1995, currently standing fourth from bottom, having own nine points from as many matches.


Rupee gets its place on the keyboard-next to the dollar
The symbol for the Indian rupee will start appearing alongside the dollar sign $ and numeral 4 on computer keyboard by the middle of next year.
“It has been decided to place the rupee symbol on the right side of the 4 numeral key, where the dollar sign is also there”,said N.Ravi Shankar, joint secretary, depertment of information technology (DIT).
An official at leading PC manufacturer HCL Infosystem Ltd confirmed the development.
S.Rajendran chief marketing officer of another PC manufacturer, ACER India Pvt. Ltd, said the company will start putting the symbol on its keyboards one software companies such as Microsoft Crop. and other stakeholders also integrate it.


User Development Fees Increased--GHIAL
Hyderabad is set to become the most expensive airport to fly from. The user development fees is going to be increased from 1 November. The UDF has been raised by 26% and 87% for the passengers flying within country and abroad respectively. The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority(AERA) has taken this decision.GMR Hyderabad International Pvt. Ltd.(GHIAL) airport began charging Rs.350 from departing domestic passengers and Rs.907 from international passengers including taxes. AERA has consulted to the authority for taking this decision. And this decision will result in the profits of Rs.650crore for next three years. GHIAL suffered losses of Rs.120 crore in 2008-09 and Rs.109.22 crore in 2009-10.


Losses Lower Down Of Q2 By IBN18, TV18
Network 18 Media and Investment Ltd’s subsidiary IBN18 Broadcast Ltd narrowed its second quarter loss to Rs.13 crore from Rs.82 crore in the same period a year earlier. IBN18’s revenue increased 39% in the threemonths to end September, boosted mainly by Viacom 18, which runs channels such as Colors, Nick and VH1. Haresh Chawla, group chief executive, Network 18, said the company’s losses were minimized because of investments that came through in phases for all its brands. Mr. Chawla also added that he expects some improvement in the revenue. An analyst at a Mumbai brokerage, who did not want to be identified, said TV18’s “staff costs are high year by year and quarter by quarter but stil they managed their overall costs well.
First Case Going To Be Set By CBI against CWG
The Central Bureau of Investigation is set to register its first case to corruption allegations in the Common Wealth Games 2010. They said “we are verifying the papers received from the organizing committee(OC) and have gathered some evidence”. There is delay in the registration of an FIR (first information report) in the case. It is alleged that proper procedures were not followed and the firms were hired at exorbitant prices. CBI chief said “we are verifying the complaints. We will take action after others get over. But the focus of the investigation is largely on the work undertaken by the OC.


WHY SHOULDN’T HERO HONDA HAVE SOME FUN
Advertisements for mobile phones and services dominate the ratings for September,with 4 ads for telecom,featuring in the top 10 of the ad reach index,a measure of awareness and brand recall.But HERO HONDA is on the top in the race with an ad for its PLEASURE scooter,targeted at women.Hero Honda has the ad clocks 67 on the reach index.One of only 2 ads that breach the mark of 60 on the index for September while 8 ads had scored 60 or above on this index in august,including 4 that scored 70-plus.Food brands also did well in august,with 4 ads in top 10,but there is only 1 such ad in September-for Maggi vegetable Noodles.The Mint-Synovate-TVAd index survey covered 722 respondents from high income groups in Delhi,Mumbai,Bangalore.


STERLITE INDUSTRIES RESULTS DISAPPOINT
Sterlite announced lower than estimate financialresults for the quarter ended sep. the company’s operating income declined by 1% from the previous year to Rs.6,084 crores.Zinc and copper business which was in declined.
Sterlite’s aluminium bisiness contributed 12% revenue which was perfomed reltively higher than zinc and copper.Analyst s expected that global aluminium prices to increase which was increased by domestic and international demand.China’s move to cut aluminium production will help prices. Sterlite managed to inpove its oveall operating profit margin by 150 basis ptsto25%.Manwhile sterlite industrie’s stock has underperformed the sensex and BSE metal index the beginning of the fiscal.
Madras high court oder for the immediate closure of the company’s copper smelting plant in Tamil nadu.The supreme court has extended the stay on the order till the second weak of December.


EARNING SURPRISE AT TECH MAHINDRA
Tech Mahindra Ltd. has ported a positive earnings surprise for the September quarter,with operating profit adjusted for one-offs rising by 32.1% quarter-on-quarter.But investors are likely to have questions about the sustainability of this growth and hence the rise in the company’s share price.
The company reported a growth in revenue, but this revenue to an Indian client for hardware and software purchases and third party services.This is essentially pass-through revenue from a customer, on which the company has earned a margin of less than 5%.
But again,even this growth is a positive, considering that revenue have been flat in the past few quarters.Demand from the company’s top client BT GROUP PLC ,continues to be sluggish.
Tech Mahindra also reported a handsome 300 basis points improvement in margins,excluding the impact of the pass-through deal. As the chart shows, Tech Mahindra shares have underperformed this year because of the weakness in the telecom IT services space. Besides, as an end-september report by Citigroup points out, “ Tech Mahindra;s organic business stills carieers higher domain (telecom) and client concentration (BT) risk.Tech Mahindra will continue to struggle in the near term. “