Thomas Cook Q1 net profit shrinks 48%

    One of the largest integrated travel and travel related financial services compay Thomas Cook (India) has announced the financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.
    The company has reported net profit of Rs 4.04 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 against Rs 7.85 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, down 48.53%. The company’s net sales / income from operations stood at Rs 78.20 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 against Rs 70.31 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

DCB to raise Rs 300 crore through QIP

    Development Credit Bank (DCB)’s board of directors have approved to raise an amount not exceeding Rs 300 crore, which includes an amount of Rs 150 crore, through issue of further shares including under QIP.
    The Bank’s shareholders at fifteenth AGM held on June 01, 2010 authorized the bank to raise Rs 150 crore which could not be raised till yet. However, the bank due to unfavorable market conditions for capital raising last year could not raise the money as planned. However, the bank taking into consideration the improving market condition has now planned to raise capital by Q2 this fiscal (2012).
    The bank has reported growth of 27.76% in its total income for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 at Rs 177.48 crore as compared to Rs 138.92 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. The bank has registered net profit after extra ordinary items at Rs 11.35 crore as compared to loss of Rs 8.16 crore for the similar quarter last year.

Gammon India likely to sell stake in overseas arm

    Gammon India is considering to restructure its business verticals and might go for stake sale in its European offshore power subsidiary Gammon Holdings BV. The stake sale to strategic investors is likely to yield close to Rs 700-1000 crore, thereby clearing the debt burden to great extent.

In June 2008 the company acquired three Italian companies, for which it had raised about Euro 100 million at 2.25-2.5% over the prevailing Libor rate. This has added cost of servicing the debt on the company's books since then. The company currently incurs about Rs 700 crore annually to service this debt.

Ultratech to spend Rs 11,000 crore on capacity expansion

    The country's largest cement-maker Ultratech Cement plans to spend around Rs 11,000 crore over three years to increase its cement-making capacity by 9.2 million tonnes per annum

    The company has planned a capital outlay of around Rs 11,000 crore, to be spent over the next three years. These include setting up of additional clinkerisation plants in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka , together with grinding units, bulk packaging terminals and ready-mix concrete plants across the country. Orders have already been placed for major equipment for setting up the projects and these expansions are expected to be operational from early FY'14 and will enhance the company's cement capacity by 9.2 mtpa.

RPP Infra bags pilot project worth Rs 50 crore

    RPP Infra Projects, one of the India’s leading and fast growing Non Metro/Rural based company has bagged a pilot project of Rs 50 crore for building housing for the internally displaced people (IDPs) in Sri Lanka. The company will build 1000 houses for IDPs in two packages in Mullaitheevu, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mannar district in the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. The execution period defined for the project is 6 months.

The project awarded to the company has been funded by the Government of India (GOI) through the Ministry of External Affairs and the execution of the project will be done by Hindustan Pre-Fab (HPL), a GOI subsidiary.

    The company is engaged in the business of infrastructure development such as highways roads, bridges, civil construction works, irrigation and water supply projects and power plants.

Govt to allocate Rs 2,500 cr to TUFS for MSMEs

    The government today said it will create a Rs 2,500-crore corpus for technology modernisation of the micro , small and medium units by the next year.At present, only textiles sector is availing these benefits under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) wherein the units get 5 per cent subsidy on loans, for upgrading technology, from the government.

    The MSMEs account for 45 per cent of the country's manufacturing output and 40 per cent of exports. The sector employs 50 million people in 26 million units producing over 6,000 products.

Patni Computer Systems net profit up 12%

    Patni Computer Systems has announced the results as per Indian GAAP for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.

    The company has posted a profit after taxation of Rs 176.75 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 as compared to Rs 158.37 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, up 11.60%. Total income of the company has increased from Rs 511.83 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 to Rs 562.42 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.

    On consolidated basis, the group’s net profit increased marginally by 3.33% at Rs 162.28 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 as compared to Rs 157.04 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Its total income has increased from Rs 831.79 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 to Rs 912.60 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.

RBI penalises 19 banks for violating rules

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) meted out some small but long overdue penalties for a long forgotten issue. It penalised 19 banks, mostly private and foreign, for violating RBI instructions while selling derivative products.
    The regulator has imposed a fine of Rs 15 lakh on names such as Axis Bank, Barclays Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and YES Bank.BNP Paribas, Citibank, RBS, ING Vysya Bank, Standard Chartered and State Bank of India were fined Rs 10 lakh. Bank of America, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase Bank were fined Rs 5 lakh each.

Suven Life Sciences secures seven products patents

    Suven Life Sciences has been granted seven products patents, two from Canada, three from India and one from Eurasia and Japan each corresponding to the New Chemical Entities (NCEs) for the treatment of disorders associated with Neurodegenerative disease and these patents are valid throughout 2023, 2024 and 2025.

    With these new patents, the company now has total of five granted patents from Canada, thirteen granted patents from India, nine granted patents from Eurasia and finally four granted from Japan for the NCE. These granted patents are exclusive intellectual property of the company are achieved through the internal discovery research efforts. However, products out of these inventions may be out-licensed at various phases of clinical development like at Phase I or Phase II.

Wipro Q4 net up 13.7% to Rs 1,375.4 cr

    WiproIndia’s third-largest IT services company Wipro’s consolidated net profit registered a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 14% for the fourth quarter ended on March 31, 2011, powered by the demand from outsourcing services from the clients.

    The net revenue of the company’s flagship IT services business stood at Rs 6,289 crore an increase of 20% y-o-y. For the January-March period of the FY11, the revenues of the company stood at Rs 8,302 crore an increase of 18% y-o-y.

    Net profit for the financial year 2010-11 ended on March 31, 2011 witnessed a jump of 15% y-o-y. The IT services revenues stood at Rs 23,485 crore an increase of 16% y-o-y for the fiscal 2011. The total revenue of the company for the FY11 was Rs 31,099 crore an increase of 15%.

Ambuja Cement’s Q1 net dips 11.84%

    Ambuja Cement has reported a decline of 11.84% at Rs 407.48 crore in its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 against Rs 462.19 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. However, total income of the company has increased by 11.24% at Rs 2274.56 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 against Rs 2044.74 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

M&M launches sedan - the Verito

    Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) a part of $11.1 billion Mahindra Group has launched its sedan - the Verito. The new Verito retains the fame strength of the Logan, while adding a new style with some key changes. Now equipped with several rugged and sporty styling elements, the Verito is all set to be the most exciting buy in the entry level sedan category for Indian Consumers. It is competitively priced at Rs 4.82 lakhs (petrol BS3 version) and 5.62 lakhs (Diesel BS3 version).The BS4 compliant version is also available for BS4markets. Verito which is derived from the Latin word “veritas” means truth and goes with the overall image of an honest, sensible and dependable car.