Reliance Retail, a unit of Reliance Industries (RIL), plans to enter e-commerce in six to eight months, a move that will pitch it against established players like Amazon for a slice of Indias fast growing online retail market. A technical team of Reliance Retail is working on the project and may adopt the marketplace model. Reliance Retail operates over 1,500 stores, including hypermarkets, digital stores, jewellery outlets and apparel stores, in 136 cities nationwide. For the quarter ended September, the companys sales jumped 31% from a year ago to Rs 3,456 crore. Its profit before depreciation, interest and taxes stood at Rs 165 crore in the first half of fiscal 2014. According to consultancy firm Technopak Advisors, Indias e-commerce market, which is dominated by travel-related services, is worth $10 billion at present and is expected to touch $200 billion by 2020. Aditya Birla Groups flagship company UltraTech Cement is set to build a Rs 100-crore terminal at the Mumbai Port to transport cement from its plants in Gujarat into Mumbai, in an effort to cut logistics costs and entrench itself deeper into one of the largest cement markets in the country. UltraTech, which turned out to be the only bidder for the terminal, will get a land area of 2.5 hectares on lease for 30 years against an upfront payment of Rs 35 crore and a guaranteed flow of traffic through the Mumbai Port. The facility has a capacity of 1.25 million tonnes. Indias largest cement company UltraTech currently has only bulk terminal in the city and one jetty. This terminal will add to logistics while using the cheapest form of transportation. UltraTechs recent acquisition of Jaypee Cement has given it more cement capacity in Gujarat. Realty firm Unitech has leased 8.1 lakh square feet of space in its under-construction Gurgaon IT SEZ to Accenture in a deal that will give Rs 1,000 crore of rental income over 15 years. Unitech and its group firm Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP), which is listed in London, last week signed the lease deed with Accenture. Unitech and UCP, listed on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange, are in talks to sell their entire stake in the special economic zone (SEZ) being built for IT companies in Gurgaon. The duo are in talks with private equity firm Blackstone and Singapores sovereign wealth fund GIC for selling their stake in the IT SEZ for an estimated Rs 2,700 crore. The leasing agreement with Accenture could help Unitech and UCP get better valuation for their SEZ ‘IST Infospace Gurgaon’, which has a total leasable area of 36 lakh square feet. UCP holds 60 percent in the SEZ project while Unitech has the remaining 40 percent stake. Unitech also holds about 12 percent directly in the UCP. State-owned Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) has shortlisted 18 odd proposals -- out of 89 it has received from companies in various nations such as Indonesia, Australia, Mozambique and the US -- for buying coal assets overseas. The company is looking to acquire 2-3 assets for supply of 2-10 million tonne (MT) of coal in a year to secure long- term fuel linkages to its upcoming power projects. The 89 proposals received were under five different categories, including joint ventures. Most of the 20 percent proposals shortlisted are from Indonesia and many companies have offered multiple proposals. NLC has plans for growth in power generation capacity and is expanding its activities not only at Neyveli, but also in other parts of the country. Its fuel needs are likely to shoot up to 10 MTPA once all these projects are commissioned. A committee under the Ministry of Environment and Forests has deferred its decision on state-run NMDC’s plan for setting up a 500 MW power plant in Uttar Pradesh on the grounds that the place where the project is proposed to come up is a fertile agriculture land. The committee also suggested that the Ministry to delist the proposal from the pending list as exploration of alternatives sites may take a long time. NMDC Power, a subsidiary of the miner, approached the Ministry for clearances to set up 2x250 MW coal-based thermal power plant at Yankapur village in UPs Gonda district with an investment outlay of Rs 3,000 crore. NMDC Power will initially hold 48 percent stake in the venture for setting up the 500 MW plant while the remainder will be with IEDCL, a subsidiary of IL&FS. ONGC Videsh (OVL), an overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) will split equally the 10 percent stake they acquired in a giant Mozambique gas field from Videocon Group for $2.475 billion. OVL and OIL had jointly bought Videocon Groups 10% interest in the Rovuma Area-1 for $2.475 billion. This stake was originally envisaged to be split in 60:40 ratio with OVL getting the larger share. But with OVL on its own buying US energy major Anadarko Petroleums 10 percent stake in the same block for $2.64 billion, the Videocon stake will be split 50:50. Apollo Pharmacy, a part of Chennai-based healthcare major Apollo Hospitals Enterprise would add 250 outlets every year. The company had a turnover of Rs 1,150 cores in the last financial year. It is witnessing a consistent demand from the metros and other cities. The pharmacy chain currently employs around 10,000 people. Besides, in a bid to add 2,800 beds across the country as per its expansion plans, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise is planning to invest Rs 2,000 crore in three years. At present, the company has over 8,500 beds in 51 hospitals across the country and is to set up a mix of reach hospitals for smaller cities and big super speciality hospitals for larger cities. Indias largest software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is making serious investment in emerging digital technologies like big data, cloud and mobility. TCS is not the only firm eyeing the growing digital technology space. Infosys, countrys second largest software services exporter, stated in July-September quarter it witnessed increased sales momentum of its big data and cloud offerings. On consolidated basis, the company’s net profit for second quarter ended September 30, 2013 registered 34.91% growth at Rs 4633.33 crore against Rs 3434.37 crore in the September quarter of previous fiscal. Group’s total income has risen by 31.36% at Rs 20951.53 crore for the quarter from Rs 15949.08 crore in the similar quarter of previous year. Indias largest software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is making serious investment in emerging digital technologies like big data, cloud and mobility. TCS is not the only firm eyeing the growing digital technology space. Infosys, countrys second largest software services exporter, stated in July-September quarter it witnessed increased sales momentum of its big data and cloud offerings. On consolidated basis, the company’s net profit for second quarter ended September 30, 2013 registered 34.91% growth at Rs 4633.33 crore against Rs 3434.37 crore in the September quarter of previous fiscal. Group’s total income has risen by 31.36% at Rs 20951.53 crore for the quarter from Rs 15949.08 crore in the similar quarter of previous year. Motorbike manufacturer Bajaj Auto has been ranked sixth out of the ten top motorbike sellers in Africa. The company sold more than 600,000 units across Africa last year, creating a lot of appeal with its brand Boxer. Bajaj Auto also exported 1.5 million vehicles last year, including two- and three-wheelers and has been ranked the third largest motorbike manufacturer in India. It produced 3.83 million motorbikes during 2012-13 and over 515,000 three-wheelers. Currently, Bajajs Boxer brand commands a market share of 90 percent in Uganda, 40 percent in Nigeria, 35 percent in Angola and 30 percent in Kenya. The company has also teamed up with SOMOCO, a locally-owned Indian company in Ghana and a subsidiary of the Mohinani conglomerate, to distribute its products in its 51st global market. Syndicate Bank is now in the league of large banks with a business of over Rs 346,000 crore as on September 30. The bank has been progressing on sound financials, and registered business level of Rs 346,000 crores with 33 million customers as on September 30. Spread over 3,047 branches, the bank has got strong fundamentals and is showing consistent performance. In commemoration with its 88th foundation day the bank announced the opening of 88 branches in different states of the country. The bank has also announced the launch of 5 new products focused on MSME sector, that include- SyndDoctor, SyndGranite, SyndTextiles, SyndCashew, SyndTransport.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 14:45:55 +0000
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