Tuesday, April 24, 2012

ASBM Business Updates Vol.1(12) 23 April 2012, Monday from Chanakya Central Library, Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar.

   

 
ASBM Business Updates is a Selective Compilation of Business News from Various Sources. To find details follow the links.

ASIAN BUSINESS
Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co's Indian marriage is on the rocks.
Accusations by its local partner of "inappropriate" corporate governance and a tussle over future investment have exposed the perils of operating in a business model that has run out of gas for foreign automakers in India's booming car market.
As sales and their confidence rises, overseas manufacturers are tearing up local partnerships and pumping billions of dollars into wholly-owned Indian units, encouraged by the government's hands-off policy that gives it an edge over Asian rival China. With more foreign car makers choosing to have complete control of their Indian businesses, investment is increasing, capacity is rising, and Asia's third-largest economy is fast challenging Thailand and China as an automobile export hub.
Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co on Tuesday said it will spend $200 million to build a new hatchback at its UK plant as British Prime Minister David Cameron began a tour of Japan and Southeast Asia aimed at boosting trade and investment ties.
The investment, announced hours before Cameron's plane touched down at Tokyo's Haneda airport, underscored the business focus of his trip.
"Nissan's investment in the UK is a huge vote of confidence in the skills and flexibility of the UK workforce. We want to attract more investment like this," said Cameron, due to meet later on Tuesday with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

ASIAN MANAGEMENT
Rapid climate change and its potential to intensify droughts and floods could threaten Asia's rice production and pose a significant threat to millions of people across the region, leading climate specialists and agricultural scientists have warned.

South and Southeast Asia are home to more than one-third of the world's population and half of the world's poor and malnourished.

Absent new approaches to food production, climate change in this region is expected to reduce agriculture productivity by as much as 50 percent in the next three decades. And with agriculture serving as the backbone of most economies in the region, such plunging yields would shake countries to the core.
While thousands of hedge funds across the globe manage nearly $2 trillion in assets, relatively few have so far established a large presence in Asia, despite the region's rapid economic growth in the last five years.
That is changing fast, with GLG Partners, Soros Fund Management and Paulson & Co among the funds that have set up shop in Hong Kong as a major centre for growth, especially given its proximity to China.
The sources, who had direct knowledge of the matter, said Capula would open an office in Hong Kong, which would be fully operational at some point this year.

ASIAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
In a significant development during the preceding decade, 90 Indian companies made 127 Greenfield investments worth 550 million Dollars and created 16576 jobs in the U.S. Similarly the pride of industrial scenario Tata that entered into US in the year 1939, today operates in its 49 states through 13 companies, thereby creating 15, 500 job opportunities. This indicates the dawn of a bright future for Indian managers whose presence will be decisive in shaping the global economy said Dr Earl.H.Potter III, President of top notch US St. Cloud State University. Addressing the fifth Annual Convocation at ace b-school ASBM,
ASBM has established its credibility through quality education backed by academic rigour with industry focused curricula and practical hands-on training on professional etiquette through the Finishing School Modules. The Power Packed Personality & Placement Grooming Module (4PGM), supported by learning through language lab and psychometric lab, has enhanced the employability of our students. They are groomed as action leaders with positive attitude through innovative methods to add value to the organization by being achievers in the face of any adversity. ASBM takes all initiatives for competency development of the students to exert high performance.

BANKING
An uptick in trading and dealmaking lifted JPMorgan Chase & Co's first-quarter profits out of the funk of late 2011, but the recovery fell short of the good times the largest US bank enjoyed a year ago.
The results beat Wall Street expectations as investment banking revenue rebounded from the fourth quarter. But it was not enough to surpass the levels achieved in the first quarter of last year as net profit fell 3%.
JPMorgan also got a boost from improvements in credit quality and loan demand - a trend seen in the performance of Wells Fargo & Co as well. The No. 4 US bank separately reported higher first-quarter profit as mortgage banking improved and it set aside less money for bad loans.
Markets ended the Thursday's trading session on a strong note led by bank, metals and index heavyweight Reliance Industries and FMCG major ITC. The Sensex advanced 133 points to provisionally close at 17,333 levels and the Nifty jumped 50 points to close at 5,277.

Meanwhile on the macro economic front, the index of industrial production  (IIP) for the month of February came in at 4.1% as against a market expectation of 6.6%.

The Asian markets also ended on a strong note. The Nikkei closed higher by 66 points at 9,524 levels, Hang Seng advanced 187 points to close at 20,327 and the Shanghai jumped 42 points at 2,351 levels.

The European markets were trading on a subdued note. The CAC and FTSE were trading marginally lower. While, the Germany's DAX was trading higher with marginal gains.

BUSINESS

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex closed at near day's lows as the weakness in European markets weighed on sentiments. All sectoral indices ended in the red with realty, technology and metals stocks leading the decline.

The Sensex ended at 17,070.83, down 303.01 points, or 1.74 per cent. It touched an intraday high of 17,444.18 and a low of 17,068.67.

The National Stock Exchange's Nifty closed at 5,193.40, down 97.45 points, or 1.84 per cent. It touched an intraday high of 5,310.55 and a low of 5,191.95

The BSE Midcap Index was down 1.73 per cent and the BSE Smallcap Index was 1.51 per cent lower.
The euro zone's private sector slump deepened in April at a faster pace than any economist polled by Reuters predicted, dampening hopes the region will emerge from recession soon, surveys showed on Monday.

Shrinking order books and rising job losses hobbled both manufacturing and service sector businesses, according to Markit's purchasing managers' indexes (PMIs), which have a good record of tracking economic growth.

April's PMI for the euro zone's dominant service sector fell to 47.9 from 49.2 in March - a five-month low and worse than any forecast in a poll of more than 40 economists which projected a rise to 49.3.

The services PMI slipped further below the 50 threshold that divides growth from contraction in April, while factories endured their worst month since June 2009.

BUSINESS  MANAGEMENT
Equity markets are going through great uncertainty amidst unprecedented volatility. While governments across the world are battling issues of high debt and deficits, Indian policy makers have their own share of problems such as high fiscal deficit, spiralling inflation and high interest rates.
In such unsettling times, the time-tested strategy that can lead to long-term wealth creation and protection of underlying investments is of “quality investing” according to a study conducted by ASK Investment Managers (ASKIM). The research shows that a portfolio constructed with a core holding of high quality businesses has the potential to deliver healthy long-term compounded returns with minimal volatility.
ASKIM using a filter of a minimum Rs 500-crore market cap arrived at a shortlist of such high quality businesses that have consistently generated an ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) of over 25 per cent during the past five years with an added filter of minimum ROCE (return on capital employed) of 15 per cent in each of those five years.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) India will soon provide philanthropy services as a part of its wealth management segment in the country.
“We have started providing philanthropy services under wealth management in Britain from 2005. As India is one of our key international markets, we will soon provide this service to our clients under our wealth management portfolio,” RBS executive director for philanthropy services, wealth management division, Ms Maya Prabhu, said here.
Rising level of prosperity and family-run businesses here provide a lot of opportunities in this space, she said.

INDIAN BUSINESS
Multinational drug majors, who are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to strengthen their India presence, are back in the buyout market, scouting for the next big M&A opportunity.
Pharma giant Glaxosmithkline (GSK) and generic player Teva Pharma, are in separate discussions to acquire the domestic business of Bangalore-based Micro Labs. Micro Labs’ domestic sales are about Rs 1,100 crore. Investment banking sources said Micro Labs promoters had asked Nomura to help find suitors. According to sources, though both players are interested, a valuation mismatch may play spoilsport. Though company promoter Dilip Surana is looking for a valuation of seven-eight times sales, which would be about Rs 8,800 crore, the potential buyers are unwilling to pay such a premium
Pakistan-based fashion house Sefam, which already has a store in the capital's Greater Kailash market, is planning to expand its network in India with 200 stores in the next five years.

"Owing to impressive demand for Pakistani dress material in India, we are targeting at significantly strengthening our presence in the country through a dynamic product range," Zain Aziz, international business head, Sefam Private Limited, said in a statement.

"From dress materials to ready-to-wear, we are planning to launch our collection in more than 200 brand stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Ludhiana by 2015," added Aziz.

INDIAN MANAGEMENT
Olacabs.com, an aggregator of car rentals and point-to-point cab services, has received funding from Tiger Global Management, a New York-based investment firm with investments in leading consumer internet companies in India.
Olacabs will use the funds to scale up operations nationally and further strengthen its technology platform.
Commenting on the investment, Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Olacabs said, "We are very excited to have Tiger Global backing us. In addition to the funding, their invaluable experience in the Indian consumer Internet space, will considerably add to our management bandwidth as we rapidly scale. We plan to expand to new cities, hire more people, upgrade technology infrastructure and most importantly, make a significant difference to thousands of consumers and cab operators."
Globally, the $1.5 trillion market for Shariah-adherent products is expected to grow by around 20% annually. In India, 1,200 of the total 6,000 stocks are Shariah-compliant already. Over the last one year, Shariah-linked funds, which manage assets worth Rs139 crore, have outperformed the Sensex by a mile. Change is in the air, write Nitin Shrivastava and Sachin P Mampatta.
A cursory comparison of Islam-based investments and broad market performance (as symbolised by the Sensex gyrations) might suggest that Shariah-compliant funds have caught the fancy of Indian investors. Over the last one year, the 30-stock BSE Sensex has slipped 13.21%, while the 50-stock Shariah index has lost only 5.25%.

INSURANCE
With the growing number of homes in the middle-income and high-end segments, the home insurance segment is gradually gaining awareness across the country.
But traditionally, buyers' interest in choosing the best of homes with elegant interiors, isn't matched by the interest in securing there purchase.
“The home insurance sector is at a nascent stage, as compared with other insurance sectors in the country,” says Mr Mukesh Kumar, Head - Strategy, HDFC ERGO. According to him, housing finance companies are playing an important role in evolving the home insurance companies in India.
“Increasing incidents of house burglary, better awareness, and higher disposable income are contributing to the growth of the home insurance segment,” says Mr Subrahmanyam B, Senior Vice-President and Head - Health, Commercial Lines and Reinsurance, Bharti AXA General Insurance.
Japan's Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company agreed to buy out New York Life's 26% stake in its life insurance joint venture with Max India, valuing the insurer at about Rs 10,000 crore, nearly double the market cap of the listed holding company.
The 2,731-crore, two-leg, all-cash deal values Max's 70% holding in the insurer at 7,000 crore. In contrast, the market capitalisation of Max itself stands at 5,395 crore. Max India shares surged 8.3% to 203.95.
ET had reported about New York Life's plan to exit the insurance venture in its edition dated February 15.
The valuation of Max New York at about three times the so-called embedded value - net assets plus the present value of future profits - is lower than the 3.5 times that Nippon Life paid last year for a stake in Reliance Life.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Bajaj Electricals has merged all its overseas operations into itself from the sister-firm Bajaj International, which has now been transformed into an investment company.
As part of a larger reconstruction plan, the Shekhar Bajaj-led firm has also moved all the employees of Bajaj International Pvt Ltd (BIPL) to Bajaj Electricals Ltd (BEL). "We are restructuring the business for optimising our resources. Under this plan, we have shifted all the businesses of BIPL to BEL. Now, direct exports will be started from BEL," BEL Chairman and MD Shekhar Bajaj told PTI.
BIPL, however, will continue to exist with its "assets" only as an investment company without any trading, he added.
Bajaj's son, Anant Bajaj -- who played a key role in BIPL, was recently appointed as BEL's Joint Managing Director.
Spain's banks are fast joining the ranks of the most unloved in Europe just as many need to raise capital urgently, deserted by investors who believe the country is on the brink of a recession that many lenders will not survive.
The government has ruled out more state aid for a sector that comprises a motley mix of international lenders and heavily indebted local savings banks. That leaves two options: raising private capital or turning to the EU for bailout funds. Prospects for a private sector solution are poor. Nothing on the horizon looks likely to persuade foreign fund managers to invest, such is the fear of the banks' growing bad loans, their holdings of shaky sovereign debt and the worsening economy.
Already battered by a property market crash that began four years ago and continues unabated, few Spanish banks are able to borrow funds on wholesale credit markets and the majority are instead relying on the European Central Bank.

LOGISTICS
The eastern region office of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has taken a new initiative by starting to provide logistics and multi-modal transportation in an integrated manner to the remote areas, thus making it possible to implement large projects there.
M. Rajeev Kumar, Executive Director (ER), told The Hindu that starting with the major gas-based project at Palatona in Tripura's capital Agartala, BHEL Power Sector Eastern Region was now geared to provide this service to other regions too. “What started out of compulsion has now opened windows of opportunity,” he said.
Altogether 190 consignments had to be moved for the implementation of the 2x363.3 MW gas-based project, billed among the largest in India. The project is coming up as a joint venture of ONGC and the Tripura Power Development Corporation in which IL&FS also has a stake.
Four Soft, the IT services provider for the logistics and transportation sector is focussing on cloud computing.
The company has designed a cloud-based product for the small and medium enterprises for effective management of information flows covering the entire supply chain structure.
“We have already tied up with Amway and Toshiba for the product.
“We feel cloud-based logistics product will be attractive for companies, as this eliminates the need to install and run applications on the customer's own systems,” Mr P. Srikanth Reddy, Chairman of the company, told Business Line.
The company feels the global logistics and supply chain market will be looking for specialised software that focuses on continued technology advancement. Four Soft is competing with companies such as Kale Consultants and Take Solutions in this space.

MANAGEMENT
Discontent is brewing within Air India, as pilots from erstwhile Indian Airlines feel left out by the Air India management's decision to train the latter's pilots only to fly the state-of-the art Dreamliner jets.
This is latest in the series of challenges faced by Air India that on Thursday saw the government stepping up its financial commitment to save the airline by easing the cash crunch and enable the national airline to take delivery of Dreamliners.

The executive committee of nine members, including the president and general secretary of the erstwhile Indian Airlines' union, Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), met senior officials at the civil aviation ministry on Friday that included the civil aviation secretary Naseem Zaidi, to argue their case.
Medical Administrative Cadre to improve management of hospitals
The State government will establish a Medical Administrative Cadre to improve the management of government hospitals, Minister for Health V.S. Vijay announced in the Assembly on Thursday. Replying to a debate on the demands for grants for his department, he said that the move was the first of its kind in the country.
Dr. Vijay admitted that hospitals were not run effectively because of poor administrative acumen among doctors. Henceforth, doctors interested in administration would be roped in and trained and would function under the new cadre.
A State-level round-the-clock helpline would be set up to help the public. This would provide all particulars required by patients and doctors relating to the facilities and services available, including emergency service and blood banks. It could also act as a monitoring centre and help redress grievances of the public.

MARKETING
India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki on Thursday took its first serious shot at the people mover segment with the launch of the multi utility vehicle Ertiga.
Priced at an aggressive Rs. 5.89 to 7.30 lakh for its three petrol variants and Rs. 7.30 to 8.45 lakh for the diesel
versions, the vehicle is expected to be a game changer not only for a product-starved market but also for the firm that has lost its 50% marketshare and is hungry for a rebound.
"Utility vehicles are a promising segment, and we have been largely absent from here so far," said Shinjo Nakanishi, managing director and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. "The segment has demonstrated a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% over the past three years. We strongly believe that this trend will continue in future and we have to play a role in it."
The segment that accounted for annual sales of 367,012 units in 2011-12 and grew by 16.5% during the year, is spread over a wide spectrum and is dominated by the likes of Mahindra Bolero at the entry level, Xylo and Chevrolet Tavera in the middle and Toyota Innova and XUV5OO at the top end.
Bolero is the largest selling MUV in India with sales of just over 100,000 in 2011-12.
Almost a year after the government set out to finalise marketing rules to end the rampant practice of drug companies offering freebies to doctors to drive sales of medicines, the policy hasn't really gone anywhere.
The department of pharmaceuticals is yet to notify the final code of marketing conduct and the industry has not given its final feedback to a draft marketing code, people familiar with the matter said. "More important policy matters such as drug pricing have taken precedence, pushing the marketing policy to the back seat," a person familiar with the issue said, adding even the timeline for the policy hasn't been finalised either.
Drug makers, across the globe, have come under intense scrutiny for promoting drugs illegally, and some had to cough up penalties running into several million dollars. And in an attempt to make dealing with doctors transparent, some companies such as the US-based Merck & Co and Eli Lilly have voluntarily disclosed details abut their payments to doctors. But so far, no Indian company or a subsidiary of these global firms, has done anything of the sort in India.

ODISHA BUSINESS
State-owned Nalco is looking to set up a new aluminium smelting facility of 5 lakh tonnes and 1,250 MW captive power plant in Odisha's Sundargarh district at an investment of Rs 18,000 crore, a top company official said.

"An independent consultant has confirmed that there is no problem of water in Sundargarh district. Their report came a month back. Now, we are hopeful of getting state government's approval for the project," National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) Chairman B L Bagra said.

He added the proposed plant will require Rs 18,000 crore investment and would be executed in phases.

The Odisha-based company, which currently has an alumina refinery capacity of 2.1 MTPA and an aluminium smelter of 4.6 MTPA, has been looking to set up another smelter in the state for last three years.

Mining revenue collection in Odisha has crossed Rs 4000 crore in 2011-12, beating the state's own Budgetary estimate (BE) of Rs 3050 crore.
Revenue from non-ferrous mining & metallurgical industries for the last fiscal stood at Rs 4517.10 crore, posting 35.68 per cent growth over 2010-11. Mining royalty is the single largest contributor to the state's non-tax revenue segment, accounting for over 75 per cent of collection.
Blackmail has clearly become a paying industry for terrorists of all hues, Maoists included. The Red terrorists are emboldened in their ways by the fact that both in the past and even now they have succeeded in bringing the Government to its knees by abducting innocent people. In fact, with this approach they have discovered that even killing security personnel does not produce the same impact as kidnapping.
With their most recent abduction of an Italian foreigner and an Odisha MLA, the Maoists have struck gold. After all, the Odisha Government has agreed to release two dozen Maoist prisoners on ‘humanitarian grounds’ in exchange for the freedom of the hostages. It is, however, unfair to single out the Government of Odisha. The decisions of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reflect the national policy that was adopted by the Government of India back in 1989.

RETAIL
American retail giant Walmart is learnt to be actively exploring the online space in India. It was in talks with some leading e-commerce companies in India for partnership possibilities, sources close to the development said.
Walmart, however, said the information was “completely speculative”. The world’s largest retail company, with global revenue of $400 billion, is currently trying to strengthen its e-commerce operations in the US and other international markets, sensing competition from online competitors, including Amazon. In recent months, Walmart has been acquiring web-related companies internationally, including in China. The e-commerce space has turned active in India, with several serious entities in the game. Amazon has also entered but through the aggregator route, by launching jungle.com. Amazon opted for the indirect entry due to the restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector.
A tug-of-war between retailers and manufacturers over margins has resurfaced. Samsung, the consumer durables maker, is looking to rationalise payouts to channel partners by as much as six to seven percentage points, in a bid to reduce the price differential between retailers of home appliances.
The Korean giant has been looking at ways to get all its trade partners — small retailers, large-format stores, regional and national chains — under one pricing structure. That is, the margins it is willing to pass on would be uniform for all. The categories where it is targeting a uniform pricing structure include air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and microwaves. Audio-visual products, information technology and mobile phones are not part of this move. Samsung is keen to bring margins to 17-18 per cent across formats. This has not gone down well with regional and national chains, since these enjoy margins of about 24 per cent. A small retailer’s margins are 12-14 per cent; a large-format store, basically a large neighbourhood electronics showroom, enjoys margins of 16-17 per cent.

SUPPLY CHAIN
The complex range of risks and variables likely to face the international apparel supply chain in 2012 are detailed in a new report from just-style - providing buyers and suppliers with an important tool to help evaluate the potential impact on their business.
The report, 'Risk analysis of the apparel supply chain in 2012', offers a detailed analysis of how cultural, linguistic, climatic, political and economic factors impact on global sourcing. It was compiled in response to a "perfect storm" of cost elements that confronted the supply chain in late 2010 and early 2011, including record cotton prices, large-scale wage increases and soaring shipping costs.
Using six supply chain cost models to illustrate the many variables, the report looks at how various factors will impact on typical sourcing decisions. These variables may be created by the sourcing country chosen, the decision on whether to use local materials, and then the effects of cost increases.
Brazil's tougher rules for auto makers could cause supply problems, especially for producers that are building or plan to build their first factories in the country, purchasing managers from the industry said Monday.
To cool down the pace of vehicle imports and fortify its auto industry, Brazil last year raised taxes on cars made with less than 65% locally sourced content, and, for at least the next four years, will continue to impose higher taxes on cars without a specified level of local content.
Many of the established auto makers already produce a significant ratio of their parts locally, and expect that they should be able to meet the new local content requirements without significant bottlenecks, purchasing managers for the South American units of Fiat SpA (FIATY, F.MI), Ford Motor Co. (F), General Motors Co. (GM) and Volkswagen AG (VLKAY, VOW.XE) said Monday during an event in Sao Paulo.
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Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 13th and 16th April & Google search accessed on 23th April 201­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­2.
We welcome your suggestions in improving this information updating service.
Knowledge Is Power. Be Informed, Be Knowledgeable, Be Powerful.
Best wishes
Compilation
 Sabita Sahu, B.A., PGDCA, MLISc, 
Professional Library Trainee
Concept, Layout and Editing
Rajashekhar Devarai
Chief Librarian
Information and Documentation Division,  Chanakya Central Library
Asian School of Business Management
Shiksha Vihar Bhola,
Barang Khurda Road, Chandaka
Bhubaneswar-754012
Sabita Sahu : Professional Library Trainee and R.S.Devarai : Chief Librarian, Knowledge and Information Services Unit, Chanakya Central Library, Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar. chieflibrarian@asbm.ac.in ; www.asbm.ac.in

1 comment:

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