Goa Carbon To Invest Rs 700cr - Aug 04 , 2008

Goa Carbon, a group company of Rs 1,800-crore Dempo Group, has planned an infusion of Rs 700 crore to establish a Calcium Petroleum Coke (CPC) manufacturing plant, augment capacity by 1 lakh tonnes to 2.25 lakh tonnes (lt) at its Paradip unit in Orissa and venture into co-power generation of 18 MW at its three units in Bilaspur, Paradip and Goa. Currently, the company has a total CPC capacity of 2.40 lakh tonnes at three plants. The new CPC plant will have a capacity of 3.5 lt to 5 lt with a 50 MW power plant and will set up in the East Coast, mostly in Orissa, with an investment Rs 500 crore. The investment for cogen plants in three units will cost Rs 200 crore.

The demand for CPC is on the rise from robust aluminium manufacturing companies which consumes about 70 per cent of the total production. Tracking the crude oil, prices of raw petroleum coke, the main raw material for CPC, have gone up from $300 a tonne to $410 a tonne last year exerting pressure on the margins. Dempo Group is in negotiations with private equity investor to divest 30-40 per cent stake in its mining venture V.S. Dempo & Co.

Investors Not To Invest In Unit-Linked Insurance Plans - July 3, 2008

Volatility in stock markets is taking a charge on the sales of unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips) that account for over 80 per cent of the industry''s total sales.

The latest data released by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) explain that during April and May this year, premium from the sale of new policies increased to Rs 8,119 crore compared with Rs 7,331 crore, representing an increase of 10 per cent.

In the first two months of 2007-08, the industry had registered a 25 per cent increase in the first premium income. Insurance company executives said purchasers were staying away from Ulips, which are insurance-cum-investment policies with 90-95 per cent of the corpus invested in stock markets. Premium from the sale of individual single-premium policies declined 3.2 per cent to Rs 1,508 crore as against Rs 1,559 crore in the year-ago period. In contrast, income from new individual regular-premium policies grew 8.7 per cent to Rs 4,928 crore during April-May this year.

The main reason for industry''s lower growth was a 17 per cent drop in Life Insurance Corporation''s first premium income.

GSPC To Invest Rs 400cr In 11 New Blocks - July 2, 2008

Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) has appeared as provisional winners in as many as eleven blocks in the seventh round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP VII). The state PSU is targeting to invest over $ 100 million (Rs 400 crore) initially for exploration of these blocks eight of which are offshore. In all 96 companies submitted bids for the 45 blocks, with 19 of them getting single bids and 26 others attracted multiple bids. Of the offshore blocks, GSPC has secured one block in KG Basin which is adjacent to its existing block KG-17 well, which is one of the most significant discoveries for the company. Of the eight offshore blocks, GSPC has secured three in Mumbai and two potential blocks in Cambay basin.

Lehman Bros To Invest $175 M In Unitech Project - June 16 ,2008

Mumbai: Developer Unitech Ltd said on Monday Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners has agreed to invest about $175 million for a 50 per cent stake in the initial phase of a project in Mumbai.

Unitech and its local partners will develop one million square feet of office space, in the initial phase, out of a total developable area of about 18 million square feet on the Western Express Highway, the company said in a statement.

The construction costs will be equally split between Lehman Brothers and Unitech with its partners, it added.

Both firms intend to expand the relationship by considering future investments in subsequent phases of this project as well as in additional projects.

Nahar To Invest Rs 200 Cr For Setup New Plant

Chandigarh: Integrated textile major Nahar Group has decided to set up a new plant for manufacturing Bi-axially Oriented Polypropylene film (BOPP) at Mandideep in Madhya Pradesh with an estimated investment of Rs 200 crore.

"We have decided to invest Rs 200 crore for setting up a new plant in Bhopal which will make raw material for the packaging industry," Nahar Investments and Holdings Director Dinesh Oswal told PTI.

The company has also proposed to carry out this film project under company's new name of Nahar Poly Films Limited, he said.

The board of directors of the company has decided in its board meeting to change the name of Nahar Investments and Holdings Limited to Nahar Poly Films Limited.

To fund this project, the company would raise money through a combination of internal accruals and loans from banks, he added.

The total manufacturing capacity of the plant has been fixed at 30,000 tons per annum, he said.

Hoping to commission the manufacturing facility within one year, the company expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 300-400 crore within next two years.

"We feel that we will be able to have a turnover of Rs 300-400 crore from this new project," he said.

Real Estate Firm Uppal Group Is Planning To Invest Over Rs 8,000 Crore

New Delhi: Uppal Group to invest Rs 8,000 cr in 4 SEZs in the next five years to develop four special economic zones and two hotels in the north India.

The Delhi-based company has already received the notification for two SEZs in Gurgaon, while it has got the formal approval for two SEZs planned in Uttar Pradesh.

"Infrastructure work has already started on the 263 acre multi-service SEZ in Gurgaon where we will develop 22 million sq ft in different phases," said the Uppal CEO (SEZs and Hotels) Gian Bansal.

The project cost of the SEZ, including land, is Rs 5,000 crore, he said, adding that the project would be completed by 2013. The construction work on another SEZ in Gurgaon is expected to start in the next three months.

"We are developing an IT/ITeS SEZ in Gurgaon spread over 87 acre of land with built up area of nine million sq ft. The project cost is about Rs 1,500 crore," Bansal said, adding that this project would be completed in the next three years.

Uppal is also planning to develop two more SEZs in UP over 26 acre of land each. "We have got the formal approval for two IT SEZs in UP and notification is under process," he said.

The construction on both the SEZs one in Noida and another in Greater Noida- would start in five months.

A total investment of Rs 800 crore would be made on these two projects. When asked about the source of funding for SEZs, he said it would be done through internal accrual, debts and private equity at project level

Red Fort To Invest Rs 3,500 Crore

Red Fort Capital, an international private equity fund, is planning to invest Rs 3,500 crore in the country's real estate sector during the next one year.

It has also launched a domestic fund few weeks back through which it plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore. The proceeds would be deployed into non-foreign direct investment projects. The first closing of the 6-year domestic fund would be in May, 2008.

From the Rs 3,500 crore raised through the international fund, the company has committed Rs 1,100 crore for several projects.

It has allocated 50% amount towards residential projects and 10-15% each for logistics, commercial office space and smaller ITITES parks.

Construction has begun for Prestige's project in Bangalore, Indu project in Hyderabad, Chennai and NCR, Delhi.

Kuldip Chawlla, Director, Red Fort Capital, told DNA Money, "We are investing in projects which would be worth 10,000 crore by next year. We are buying land and bringing developers to build the projects."

Red Fort is in the final stages of discussion for investing in budget hotel chains. It plans to capitalise on its existing land bank of over 1,000 acres pan India. It has land in North Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi.

The company has reported returns in excess of 50% this year and expects the returns to flow from these projects by third-quarter 2009.

Daimler, India Hero To Invest $1.1 B In Trucks JV

New Delhi: German vehicle maker Daimler AG and India's Hero Group will invest about Rs 4400 crore ($1.1 billion) over five years in their joint venture to make commercial vehicles, the companies said on Monday.

Daimler Hero Motor Corp Ltd will begin making light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles from 2010 for the local market initially, they said in a statement.

The Indian government last month approved the joint venture, which will compete mainly with leader Tata Motors and a venture of Nissan Motor and Ashok Leyland.

LG To Invest Rs 480 cr In India

LG Electronics India Private Limited, subsidiary of LG of Korea, will invest Rs 480 crore during the calender year 2008. The company would spend Rs 360 crore towards brand building, while Rs 120 crore would be invested for product development.

The key growth drivers for LG would be laptops, GSM phones and other premium category products. The present market share of the company in the household appliances and electronics segments was ranging from 20 per cent to 34 per cent. LG had earned an export turnover of $230 million in 2007 and is targeted at $300 million in 2008.

Australia Looks To Invest In India's Infrastructure Growth

Sydney: As India makes infrastructure growth a top national priority, Australian businesses are being urged to seize opportunities in the infrastructure and resources sectors "worth over Australian $50 billion ($46 billion)". A new report compiled for Austrade (The Australian Trade Commission) by KPMG India identifies key resource and infrastructure developments and projects in India.

KPMG Australia's India Business Practice National Leader Kumar Parakala said there are immediate opportunities that Australian companies can target in the next year worth over $50 billion.

Parkala said: "Australian companies need to move fast to compete with companies from the UK, US and Spain. Opportunities are emerging in the power sector in coal and alternative energy; the transport sector in roads, ports, airports and railways, construction, EPC contractors, equipment and services."

A number of Australian infrastructure and resources firms are already doing business in India. They include Arrow Energy (India) Pvt Ltd, Australian Road Research Bureau, BHP Billiton India, Daryl Jackson Architecture, Hydro Tasmania, Leighton India, Micromine Pvt Ltd, Tata BlueScope Steel Ltd and Thiess India Pvt Ltd.

Said Austrade's Senior Trade Commissioner (South Asia) Mike Moignard: "Operating in a market of this size is not without challenges, but it's a market in which Australian innovation and expertise will find exciting new avenues for business success."

The Australian Labour government has reiterated its commitment to raise the trade and economic relationship with India to a "new level" as senior Australian officials arrive in New Delhi later Monday to discuss the terms of reference for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) feasibility study.

A key focus of the study, expected to be completed by early 2009, will be tariff liberalisation and the removal of other impediments to the trade in goods.

Said Australian Minister for Trade Simon Crean: "The study will consider how an FTA might help take the economic partnership to a stronger level."

He said he was looking forward to discussing these issues with Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath when he leads a business delegation to Australia in May for the Joint Ministerial Commission meetings.

At the Melbourne Business School's recent Critical Issues Conference on the impact of China and India on Australian business and trade, Crean said: "Reflecting our joint interests, Australia has played a leading role in building support for a WTO signalling conference on services - progressing an area of key importance to both Australia and India in the Doha Round - international services trade reform.

"In my judgement, the Doha Round is doable and we're closer now to a successful conclusion than at any point previously in the negotiations."

Australia is the leader of the Cairns Group of agricultural exporters while India is a member of the G20 and the G33 groupings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Crean said: "We are working closely with India and China to improve the environment for international agriculture by cooperating to reduce subsidies that distort international markets".

Australia and India were founding members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and are part of the WTO. At the regional level, both are members of the Asean plus 6 forum and the Kevin Rudd government has been a strong supporter of India's membership of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Crean, who visited India in January as part of his first major overseas visit, said: "I was a strong proponent of this while in opposition and will do what I can in coming years to make this happen."

The total trade between Australia and India has been growing by over 30 per cent annually. India is now Australia's ninth largest trading partner and Australia is India's 10th largest trading partner. Two-way trade in goods totalled over $10.7 billion in 2007.

India is Australia's fastest growing major export market, becoming the sixth largest export market, with commodities such as coal, gold, copper ores and wool representing key exports.

Two-way trade in services has been thriving, particularly in education, tourism, financial services, engineering, accountancy, telecommunications and legal services.

Adding value is the recent cooperation agreement signed between the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC), Australia's export credit agency, and its Indian counterpart, the Export-Import Bank of India, to help promote trade and investment deals involving Australian and Indian firms.

Crean said: "New prospects are emerging in sectors such as IT, biotechnology, health, film and insurance. Australia's competition watchdog is exploring an exchange programme with New Delhi to boost competition, law and enforcement."

Provogue India - Triangle India Fund To Invest Rs 457 Crores In Provogue (India) Ltd''s Subsidiary

Provogue India Ltd has informed that Triangle India Real Estate Fund LLC, co-promoted by Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investment (OMIGPI) and ICS Realty has entered into an agreement to invest Rs 457 Crores (apprx US $114 million) for a 27% stake in a step down subsidiary of Prozone Enterprises Pvt Ltd (Prozone-Liberty). This downstream subsidiary of Prozone Liberty holds stake in four projects being developed in Aurangabad, Indore, Nagpur and Jaipur covering over approximately 1.6 million sq.ft.
Prozone Enterprise Pvt Ltd (subsidiary of Provogue (India) Ltd) is a joint venture between Provogue (India) Ltd and Liberty International PLC which is a UK FTSE 100 listed property company, with assets of over GBP 10.8 Billion of which regional shopping centers account for over 85% of the portfolio. Liberty owns 9 of the top 21 regional mixed use centers in the UK and are amongst the 20 largest REITs in the world.
Prozone-Liberty has set up six international and domestic subsidiaries as SPVs for
carrying on its business viz. Prozone Liberty International Ltd, Prozone International
Ltd, Prozone Overseas Pte Ltd, Alliance Mall Developers Co Pvt Ltd, Royal Mall Pvt Ltd and Standard Mall Pvt Ltd.
The downstream subsidiary of Prozone-Liberty has acquired 5% additional stake in its Aurangabad Project and now holds a majority stake in it.

Havells To Invest Rs 400 Cr In Expansion Projects

New Delhi: Electrical goods manufacturer Havells India said it will invest Rs 400 crore for increasing its capacities in the country, besides foraying into a new segment.

The company is entering the new segment of manufacturing electrical-motors and is augmenting its capacities in lighting and cables segment. It has earmarked a budget of around Rs 400 crore for the purpose and has already spent Rs 200 crore in current fiscal, Havells India Ltd Joint Managing Director Anil Gupta told PTI.

Havells is setting up a green-field plant in Rajasthan to manufacture electrical motors ranging from .25 horse power to 500 horse power. The company has already spent Rs 150 crore in the plant and will invest Rs 50 crore more in it, he said.

"Manufacturing Industries located in the region provide us excellent opportunity to sell electrical motors here and it also synergies with our products," he said.

The company has also purchased around 17 acres of land near its facility in Alwar to expand the manufacturing capacity of high tension cables and domestic cables.

Godrej To Put In Rs 360 Cr More In FMCG Arm

Mumbai: Godrej Industries decided to further put in up to Rs 360 crore in Godrej Consumer Products. Earlier, on December 4, 2007, Godrej Industries had said it would invest up to Rs 100 crore in Godrej Consumer Products. Additionally, Godrej Consumer Products is mobilizing Rs 400 crore on a rights basis. The proceeds of the rights issue would be utilised for funding capital expenditure, payment of certain debts, investing in subsidiary - Godrej Netherlands BV and its joint venture Godrej SCA Hygiene.

FII Activity On 12-03-2008

The FIIs on Wednesday stood as net seller in equity. The gross equity purchased was Rs4,610 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs0.00 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs5,782.40 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs0.00 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was (Rs172.40 Crore) and net debt was Rs0.00 Crore.

IOL Chemicals To Invest Rs 75 Cr In Ulcer Drug

Mumbai: IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd said on Wednesday it will invest Rs 75 crore to manufacture anti-ulcer drug rabiprazole.

MSP Steel To Invest Rs 400 Cr For New Plants

MUMBAI: MSP Steel & Power Ltd said on Monday it plans to invest Rs 400 crore in setting up two 5 million tonnes per annum iron ore beneficiation plants in Madhya Pradesh.

Ireland’s Saon Group To Invest €10 M In India

Pune: Ireland-based Saon Group, an online recruitment company, is all set to invest €10 million in the Indian market for setting up online city-centric job portals.

Talking to presspersons, Leslie Buckley, Chairman, Saongroup.com, said it had started its India operations in Pune in September 2007 with MyJobsinPune.com. The site is attracting more than 5,000 visitors daily with 10,000 new job seekers registering every month. It has on an average 3,000 clients advertising 4,000 jobs monthly from entry level to mid-management level for players in the IT/ITES, manufacturing, automobile, retail and BFSI sectors. The company also launched MyHyderabadJobs.com Web site recently and would now be looking at setting up the Mumbai Web site.

The company would cover five cities in the next 18 months. According to an industry study by Juxt Consult in 2007, job search is the second most preferred activity among Indian Internet users. Also, according to a survey by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the number of users seeking jobs online had increased from 6.5 million in 2005-06 to 9.2 million in 2006-07.

Accent’s On Long Term, Invest Well

By now, most of us would have a fair idea of the additional cash that is going to be available with you the next financial year, thanks to changes introduced in the Union Budget 2008.

For those who aren’t yet clear, here’s a look-in on some of the major Budget recommendations and their broad impact on the individual investor’s finances:

Income tax slabs revised.

Impact: Positive; will increase liquidity. Move is expected to leave more money in the hands of the salaried class, taking into account inflation.

Short term capital gain tax (u/s 111A/115 AD) hiked.

Impact: Negative; will reduce liquidity. Alarming as the move is for active day traders, this will ultimately go in favour of personal financial planning by reducing the urge to realise short-term gains on the market. Investors will stick to long-term financial goals, rather than go for emotional profit booking.

Tax treatment of income from reverse mortgage changed - henceforth, such income will not be taxable.

Impact: Positive for the elderly; will leave more money in their hands. Move will benefit the elderly who have immovable property but no regular cash inflow.

Section 80 C basket enlarged by adding five-year time deposit in an account under Post Office Time Deposit Rules, 1981 and deposits in an account under Senior Citizens Savings Scheme Rules, 2004 for not less than 5 years.

Impact: Positive; more options for savings. Move will encourage small savings, besides giving the investor more options.

Service tax introduced on asset management services provided under unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips).

Impact: Neutral in short term; negative in long term. This could work against investors accumulating their retirement corpus through Ulips. Over the long term, it has the potential to reduce the corpus significantly.

It is the last point that we will dwell upon at some length. Let us consider its impact on the maturity value of a Rs 10 lakh investment in any Ulip for ‘n’ number of years.

The insurer charges a nominal 1.5 per cent per annum as fund management charges and it is assumed the fund will grow at a compounded growth rate of 12 per cent p.a. The first column projects the maturity value prior to the Budget proposal and the second column projects the maturity value post the proposed introduction of service tax on asset management services at 12.36 per cent of the fund management charges.

As the table shows, the maturity value of the funds invested is significantly eroded following the budgetary changes.

As always, it would be in the interest of investors to understand the possible impact of the changes introduced before settling for any investment option.

FII Activity On 03-03-2008

The FIIs on Monday stood as net seller in equity. The gross equity purchased was Rs3,800.90 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs0.00 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs4,045 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs0.00 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was (Rs244.10) Crore and net debt was (Rs0.00 Crore).

Ramco Systems To Invest Rs 90 Cr In Chennai Centre

Chennai: Ramco Systems will invest around Rs 90 crore in a new software development centre in the heart of the city.

The centre (in 22 grounds) will be ready in the next 18-24 months and can accommodate around 2,000 employees, P.R. Venketrama Raja, Vice Chairman, Ramco, said.

The Chennai-based IT company recently sold part of its building to its parent, Ramco Group, for Rs 43.22 crore. This amount will be used to fund the new centre, he told Business Line.

Profitable

The year 2008-09 will see Ramco Systems turning profitable. The recently-launched full fledged software-as-a-service ERP (enterprise resource planning) will enable the company to have better results from next year. “This year itself the negative [results] will be far less than last year, and we can even breakeven,” he said.

Raja said cash flow for Ramco will turn positive in the next six to seven months. “For the first time, a new business model will make the company profitable, thanks to ‘Ramco OnDemand ERP.’

The new solution enables clients to subscribe for a software module on a monthly fee. It takes care of all IT infrastructure, maintenance and support needs. For instance, a small automotive component company need not buy the entire ERP package. Instead, it can begin with a finance module and extend to purchase, sales and inventory management depending up on the growth.

In the next 18 months, Ramco expects to have around 10,000 users for the new product. This will bring in revenues of around Rs 6.5 crore every month. Following a soft launch earlier, Ramco’s OnDemand ERP has won around 1,000 users across multiple verticals, including auto components, trading, distilleries, electronics, textiles and chemicals, he said.

More partners

Kamesh Ramamoorthy, Chief Operating Officer, Ramco, said the company needed to have around 500 partners in the next three years to take the new solution across the country. The company currently has around 50 partners, who have been working with the company for a long time. “We are signing two deals every week for the new solution.”

Switching

Raja said the new solution offered clients a compelling reason to switch over from the traditional ERP systems that have been plagued by non-availability of skilled resources; long implementation time and huge upfront investment. Ramco’s OnDemand ERP takes care of all these by providing software, hardware and also maintenance support. Clients can focus on growing their business and stop worrying about managing an ERP, he said.