Monday, April 30, 2012

ASBM Business Updates Vol.1(13) 30 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
Australia's Macquarie Group and Japan's Nikko Asset Management are among the companies interested in buying ING's Asian asset management business, sources said, in a deal that could be worth $500-600 million. The sale is part of ING's plans to divest some of its Asian operations to repay the Dutch government's 2008 bail-out funds.
ING is selling life insurance and investment management in two separate deals, which could raise more than $6.5 billion combined, sources previously told Reuters. ING has asked suitors for the insurance business to submit first-round bids by the third week of May.
Other companies likely to express interest in the investment management sale include South Korea's Mirae Asset and Fidelity Worldwide Investment, the sources, who had direct knowledge of the matter, said. The information booklet for the investment management sale is expected to go out starting this week, they added.
Swiss food group Nestle is to buy US drugmaker Pfizer's infant nutrition business for $11.85 billion, beating out French rival Danone in the battle to gain preeminence in the lucrative baby food market.
Nestle, the world's biggest food company, was already seen as a favoured bidder due largely to its deep pockets, and is paying for the acquisition in cash. The fight for the unit had intensified last week, with the price escalating sharply from bids around $10 billion after Danone was reported to have raised its offer on Friday.

"The deal makes strategic sense, it really was Nestle's deal to lose as it very much wanted to add to its Asian business and boost growth and margins," said Kepler analyst Jon Cox.

"The price being paid seems quite high, by my calculations it's at 22 times core earnings, almost as high as Danone's infamous 2007 acquisition of Numico."

Danone paid 12.3 billion euros in 2007 for Dutch food group Numico, at the time Europe's largest baby food producer, paying a similar multiple, a price many analysts said was too high.

ASIAN MANAGEMENT
Asian shares fell and commodity-linked currencies such as the Australian dollar slipped on Friday after disappointing U.S. economic data stirred doubts about the strength of the recovery.
Renewed worries on the euro zone debt crisis also kept riskier assets under pressure and supported safe-haven U.S. Treasuries, as a better-than-feared Spanish bond auction failed to allay concerns that Spain may follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing an international bailout.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5% and Japan's Nikkei share average lost 0.3%.
Euro STOXX 50 index futures slipped 0.1%, while financial bookmakers in London called the FTSE 100 index to open 0.2% lower.
After racing ahead in the first quarter amid improving data from the United States and liquidity injections from major central banks, global equity markets have stumbled in recent weeks, although the MSCI Asia ex-Japan, Nikkei and S&P 500 all remain up 10% or more for the year-to-date.
The 78-year Chairman of Las Vegas Sands, world’s biggest gambling company by market capitalisation, looked supremely confident when he opened his new $4.4 billion casino last week in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, world’s largest gambling destination where bettors spent $33.5 billion last year compared to Las Vegas, which took in $6 billion.

Speaking at the opening of his Sands Cotai Central on April 11, Adelson outlined plans to spend billions more developing casinos in Vietnam, Korea and Japan, in addition to the $35 billion he plans to spend on a Spanish casino-resort complex.

Rivals Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts are also staking their own claims throughout Asia for growth.

It’s not all an American story however. Asian players like Malaysia’s Genting , Hong Kong-listed Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Crown, are aggressively raising the ante as they expand on their home turf.

ASIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Towering academic champion, administrator and nation builder, Dr. Earl H. Potter, esteemed President of St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, United States of America has been conferred with ASBM Lifetime Achievement Award-2012 for his trendsetting rendering to the world knowledge economy. The founder Director of ASBM, Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak honoured this outstanding genius with citation and memento in recognition of his trendsetting career in management education on the auspicious occasion of ASBM’s 5th Annual Convocation held on 7th April 2012.

BANKING
Home loan customers will have greater flexibility to switch to banks that offer better rates with the banking regulator having banned lenders from charging a prepayment penalty on floating rate home loans.
For over a year, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) persuaded banks to desist from charging a prepayment fee but moral suasion from the central bank was to no avail. On Tuesday, RBI barred banks from charging any fee from a customer who wants to repay an outstanding loan and close the account. Housing finance regulator National Housing Bank (NHB) has already barred home finance companies from charging any prepayment penalty. Among banks, State Bank of India was the first to do away with the pre-payment fee on both fixed and floating rate loans. Following this, nearly 20 banks withdrew the penalty on floating rate loans. However, most lenders continue to charge the penalty on premature closure of fixed rate loans.
"The RBI move ends a year-long debate on whether banks should charge any prepayment fee on floating rate loans," said S Raman, CMD, Canara Bank.
Australia's leading bank Westpac today said it will open its first branch in India to increase commercial and wholesale banking business in the region after having received clearance from the Reserve Bank of India.
Having operated a representative office in the country for the past five years, Westpac announced that it has received in-principle approval for a foreign banking licence to operate in India. The Indian licence allows the bank to now carry out rupee-denominated transactions.
The bank's first branch in India will open in Mumbai, Group Executive, Westpac Institutional Bank, Rob Whitfield was quoted by local media reports here.
"India is Australia's fifth largest trading partner and fourth largest export market so it is a very important market for our customers," Whitfield said in a statement.
He said that extending presence in India through Mumbai branch will position the bank to support Australian customers with their trade and investment activities in India, and Indian customers with their increasing trade and investment flows with Australia.

BUSINESS

UPS 1Q profit up, but international business slows

UPS said Thursday that its first-quarter profit rose 6 percent, but the result came in below Wall Street's expectations as Asian exports and other international shipments slowed.
United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest package company, said net income rose to $970 million, or $1 per share, from $915 million, or 91 cents per share.
Revenue rose 4.4 percent to $13.14 billion.
Analysts' expected net income of $1.02 per share and revenue of $13.3 billion, according to FactSet. Much of UPS' profit growth came from its core U.S. business, where revenue was up 6.1 percent on higher volume and prices. But that was offset by a shift toward lighter packages and slower shipping methods. UPS is handling more e-commerce packages from online businesses directly to consumers, which tend to be lighter and cheaper to ship.

Sony expects to earn 10 percent of global business from India

Japanese electronic goods maker Sony is expecting to garner 10 percent of its total global business from India after five years.
"At the moment, five percent of Sony's revenue globally comes from India. Of course, we are aiming to grow much more in India. India's contribution (to the company's total business) should be much, much higher," Sony India General Manager (marketing) Tadato Kimura told reporters here. "After five years, definitely the company's business in India should be among the five top markets in the world. We expect that the share would be 10 percent after five years," Kimura said.
He said the company's business in India was one of the highest in the world in all segments like digital still camera, television and laptop.
"We continue to be very aggressive in Indian markets. We focus on value-added products in metros mainly, while we are expanding the coverage as well as penetration (in rural areas) using our entry level models, which is affordable."

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Mahindra Satyam hopes to bid for World Bank projects post merger with Tech Mahindra. The company was barred by World Bank in October 2008 on data theft allegations.
"Yes. That is one of the benefits we see in the merger. After the merger, we can put the past behind as we did in other aspects of business and look ahead to win World Bank projects since there's no such bar on Tech Mahindra. The old entity would go into oblivion removing the scar," a senior Mahindra Satyam executive told Business Line.

Coffey shares plunge on earnings downgrade

Shares in the geosciences, international development and project management group fell 10.5c, or 17.5 per cent, to 49.5c.
Coffey said it had revised its guidance for reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the full year ending June 30, from $45 million down to break even.
Underlying EBITDA, which excludes non-recurring items, was revised downwards from $45m to between $39m and $41m.
"The revised guidance for reported EBITDA is almost entirely due to the non-cash writedown of the remaining goodwill attributed to the project management business following completion of a detailed bottom-up strategy review, reflecting more conservative management projections," Coffey said.

FINANCE

The FCC Makes Campaign Finance (a Bit) More Transparent

The Federal Communications Commission voted today to require broadcast stations to post political ad revenue information online, marking a small step forward in campaign finance transparency.
Broadcasters will be required to post political ad files, which previously had been publicly available only in paper form at each station, to a FCC online database. Two of the three commissioners voted for the requirements, which Bloomberg View has supported.
The vote came despite lobbying from media companies including News Corp., NBCUniversal and Walt Disney, who said posting data online would undermine pricing control and give advertisers an unfair leverage.
Even with the increased transparency these online records will provide, there are limitations.

INSURANCE
In a bid to ensure immediate compensation to farmers, the State government on Thursday announced an ‘Individual Farm Insurance Scheme” on a pilot basis, besides a host of other projects to develop the farm sector and aid farmers.
Making a slew of announcements after replying to the Demand for Grants to the Agriculture Department, Minister for Agriculture S Damodaran said the individual insurance scheme for farmers would be implemented in the current year in Nemili and Aruppukottai in Vellore and Virudhunagar districts respectively on a pilot basis. “This plan will remove the obstacles in the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme,” he noted.
Announcing that an Integrated Farming Model Village would be set up in all taluks of the State, he said if avocations like cattle and fish-rearing was taken up along with agriculture, it would augment the income of farmers.
Insurance Australia Group Ltd., (IAG) the Sydney-based insurer formed in 1925, agreed to buy a stake in AAA Assurance Corp., the Vietnamese insurer said.
IAG will hold 30 percent of AAA after the Ho Chi Minh City- based company issues new shares, Do Thi Kim Lien, chief executive officer and chairman of AAA, said yesterday by phone. The stake is valued at less than $20 million, IAG said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange, adding it has the option to raise its holding to 49 percent.
“Vietnam’s insurance market has just started so there are a lot of opportunities to explore,” Lien said.
IAG joins German insurer Talanx AG to tap the non-life insurance market in Vietnam that is growing at a 20 percent annual pace. Talanx in August agreed to buy a 25 percent stake in PVI Holdings for 1.9 trillion dong ($91 million) to seek a foothold in the Southeast Asian nation.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
HSBC Holdings PLC said Wednesday it will combine its Omani division with local lender Oman International Bank in a deal that will give it control of just over half of the combined company.
London-based HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, plans to inject up to $97.4 million into its existing Oman operations ahead of the deal. It will control 51 percent of the combined bank, which will be named HSBC Bank Oman. Under the terms of the deal, HSBC will provide support services to the combined bank for at least 10 years.
``This transaction presents HSBC with a great opportunity to invest for growth in a key Gulf economy. With over 60 years' presence in the country, we recognize the tremendous business opportunities in Oman,'' Simon Cooper, deputy chairman and CEO of HSBC's Middle East operations, said in a statement.
Oman's financial sector is overshadowed by those of Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two biggest Arab economies. But the once sleepy sultanate is developing rapidly, and ranks as the top Mideast oil exporter that is not part of OPEC.
Over 1,000 gleaming cars, about 100 launches and roughly 10 lakh visitors: it doesn't get any grander. The biggest auto show of the year, if not in stature at least in size, kick-starts tomorrow. But it's not in Detroit or Frankfurt. It is happening in Beijing. And this shift in address says more about the new power equation in the auto industry than statistics could. China isn't just the biggest market for cars, the deal breaker for world number one or two spots. It is fast developing as a manufacturing hub for both the mass and class market. Last year, the extravaganza in Shanghai attracted 7.85 lakh visitors and 12,500 journalists from 48 countries. This year, "the Beijing show will be the largest international show in terms of both the number of cars and visitor attendance", says Bill Russo, founder of Synergistics, a consulting firm in China.

LOGISTICS
Chennai-based TVS Logistics Services Ltd, a TVS group company, plans to divest a near 20% stake to leading private equity firm, KKR & Co, for around $55 million. This will be the logistics services company's second round of private equity funding in the last four years. In 2008, the company had raised $25 million in 2008 from Goldman Sachs and TVS Capital Funds Ltd, a venture capital arm of the TVS Group. A person with direct knowledge of the transaction said the funds invested by KKR will be used by the company to scale up its supply chain management operations, as it prepares for an IPO. "The money will be used for acquisitions as well as expand to new geographical areas. The company intends to strengthen its footprint in the domestic as well as global market,'' he said.
In Alkhobar, the British Week was opened by David Harries, head of British Trade Office yesterday with great fanfare. After formally cutting the ribbon to mark the opening of the British Week in the Saudi capital, Ambassador Phillips expressed his appreciation at the hypermarket's initiative in holding a food festival that highlights the high quality and rich diversity of food products from the UK. Phillips, who took a round of the hypermarket after formally opening the festival, said that Lulu Hypermarket was introducing and popularizing some of the best British products to the local market.

MANAGEMENT
Hyderabad will soon have its own model of Emergency Management Exercises (EMEx) to face any natural or man-made disaster with a heightened response.
A week-long exercise comprising field drill of a simulated incident will be carried out to test the strengths and weaknesses of the emergency support functions of the various departments from June 29.
In the meantime, a committee of various departments headed by Disaster Management Commissioner, will prepare an action plan for the city with the guidance of National Disaster Management Authority team headed by Muzaffar Ahmed.
Such an exercise was carried out in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Guwahati to come up with robust city-specific emergency response plans. The decision was taken at a high-level review meeting conducted by the NDMA Vice-Chairman M. Shashidhar Reddy with Chief Secretary, Disaster Management Commissioner, senior officials from various departments and the Hyderabad Collector.
The Indian markets have witnessed at least three cases in the past few days when the value of a stock or index plunged sharply within a few seconds.

Although top officials at Sebi and stock exchanges are not willing to call them ‘flash crash’ cases, as a recovery was quite fast in those cases, a consensus has emerged that systems need to be strengthened to avoid any similar, or even worse, cases in the future, sources said.

In most likelihood, these were cases of ‘fat-finger trade’ — a term used for punching error or wrong pressing of orders on the trading terminals, a senior official said.

The upcoming guidelines for stress testing of stock exchanges would ensure that appropriate systems are in place to safeguard the interest of investors from any ‘flash crash’ like scenario, he added.

On Friday, April 20, the Nifty futures witnessed a sharp plunge of nearly 7 per cent for a few seconds, and some market players put the blame on a huge sell order executed by mistake. The day also saw a sharp plunge in Infosys futures. However, the recovery was fast, limiting the estimated loss from the two freak trades at less than Rs 10 crore.

MARKETING
Mahindra South Africa (MSA), an affiliate of auto maker Mahindra and Mahindra, will market SsangYong products here, the first country outside India, after M&M acquired a 70 per cent stake in the Korean car maker last year.
MSA this week strengthened its promotion of Ssangyong in the country with the release of two new models from the Korean manufacturer's stable -- Korando sports utility vehicle (SUV) and Actyon sports recreational vehicle (SRV). These two models are the upgraded versions of vehicles which have been available from Ssangyong in the South African market, but are now more competitively priced as well.
Mahindra and Ssangyong were companies of comparatively similar size, who were both focusing on the utility segment of the vehicle market, said Ruzbeh Irani, chief executive of Mahindra and Mahindra's international business.
"We are busy identifying synergies in respect of distribution channels in many international markets and will use this to expand the global presence of both our vehicle brands," Irani said.
MSA has set a target of 1,500 sales for Ssangyong products in the first year, with steady growth expected over the next five years with the release of new models.
With the latest earnings taking the professionals completely by surprise, the small investor has the same advantage of knowledge as the professional. The small investor, at least for today, knows as much about Apple news as anybody on the Street.
All the analysts are busy re-working their numbers on the company, so using their currently published numbers is really being conservative. When I wrote an article back in October on APPL, the recent analyst 12-month targets were 550, and the high analyst target was 700.
Today, Finviz.com is showing the recent analyst targets at 650 to 740. Yahoo.com shows the high analyst target at 910. CNBC’s “Fast Money” has had one analyst on TV with a target of 1001. All of this before the gangbuster earnings just reported by Apple. Likewise, Nasdaq.com , using Zach's data, shows 32 out of 38 analysts have strong buys on AAPL with a consensus target of 710 and a high target of 910.

ODISHA BUSINESS
Chennai-based Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC), a navratna public sector unit, has evinced interest in setting up a 2,000-Mw coal-fired power unit in Odisha through a joint venture (JV) with a state government owned PSU. The proposal envisages an investment of around Rs 10,000 crore.
NLC would prefer to put it up in the vicinity of its allocated coal blocks,Talabira-2 and Talabira-3, situated under the command area of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. “Top executives of NLC had a meeting with the chief minister recently on their plan,” a senior government official told Business Standard. “The plant is to be set up by forging a JV with any of the state PSUs —Odisha Hydro Power Corporation, Odisha Power Transmission Corporation or Grid Corporation of Odisha Ltd. NLC is the only central PSU with core competencies in both power generation and coal mining,”
The upgradation of the seasonal port at Gopalpur into an all-weather port has hit a roadblock due to sluggish pace of acquisition of land needed for expansion.
The port expansion that is being implemented at a cost of Rs 1700 crore needs 783 acres. The state government on Friday assured to provide the necessary land for expansion of the Gopalpur port being developed by a special purpose vehicle called Gopalpur Ports Limited (GPL).
While around 393.67 acres have already been handed over to GPL, the remaining 130 acres are expected to be acquired soon to meet the expansion plan, sources said.
“We will provide the required land to GPL very soon for its expansion”, said state’s transport and commerce minister Sanjib Sahu after reviewing the progress of the port work at Chhatrapur in south Odisha's Ganjam district.

RETAIL
Retail inflation spurted to 9.47 per cent in March because of higher prices of milk, vegetables, protein-based items and edible oil products.
Retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 8.83 per cent in February, as per the government data release here today. Among other items, prices of cereal and its products saw a rise of 2.78 per cent over the March 2011 level.
The prices of milk and products rose by 15.22 per cent, while oils and fats turned costlier by 14.20 per cent during the month, year-on-year basis.
While sugar saw a marginal rise of 3.78 per cent in March, 'pulses and products' were up by 4.89 per cent, over the same month last year.
Prices of egg, fish and meat shot up 10.06 per cent, while non-alcoholic beverages and vegetables became costlier by 10.20 per cent and 9.55 per cent respectively.
Prices of fuel and light, and clothing, bedding and footwear segments also remained in the double-digit.
Inflation rates for rural and urban areas were 8.79 per cent and 10.30 per cent respectively in March.
In the past few years, looking at the evolution of the retail sector in India, companies have changed their market strategies three to four times already.
For instance, while Reliance Retail had traditionally focused on smaller format stores, it is now stepping up its presence on big-box stores or hypermarkets that are built on about 60,000-80,000 sq ft and stock everything from food to apparel to furniture. Most recently, last July it hired former chief operating officer of Walmart China, Rob Cissell, as chief executive (value formats) and Shawn Gray, a former vice-president of Walmart China, as chief operations officer.

The company launched its first 'wholesale' format under the name 'Reliance Market' in Ahmedabad. The format caters to kirana stores, small businesses, restaurants and various other institutional buyers.

SUPPLY CHAIN

Future Supply Chains, India's largest supply chain company, plans to raise a second round of private equity funding to diversify into new consumer-driven sectors as retail growth in the country shows signs of moderation.
The company, part of the Future Group, which runs the country's top retailer Pantaloon Retail , earns most of its revenue providing services to affiliated companies such as the Big Bazaar hypermarket chain.
"Retail industry's expansion plans in the past 1-2 years have been witnessing a scale-down," Chief Executive Anshuman Singh told Reuters.
"So we identified drivers of growth in the consumer-driven sectors instead of focussing just on retail."
High inflation and interest rates have hurt consumer spending which alongwith a lack of funding and high real estate costs has hurt expansion plans of Indian retailers.
Expectations that India's capital-starved retail industry would get a boost from the entry of global chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Carrefour were thwarted late last year when India backtracked on a plan to allow foreign supermarkets.
The 31 March blast at Evonik's plant at Marl, Germany has again thrust the fragility of the automotive supply chain firmly into the spotlight.
The blast will cause a shortage of Cyclododecatriene - often abbreviated to CDT - a key element of a resin called PA-12. Global capacity of CDT is limited and Evonik not only produces its own CDT, but is also a key supplier to other manufacturers of PA-12.
As reported by Automotive World, Bloomberg first carried the story, citing a letter written by William Kozyra, the Chairman of TI Automotive, who told customers: "The shortage is real and immediate. The possibility of production interruptions at some of your facilities in the next few weeks is high."
Bloomberg reports thatthis was sent out dated 12 April. The explosion, he said, resulted in a "complete loss" of CDT manufacturing. Evonik is one of just four PA-12 manufacturers, with the others reportedly being Arkema, EMS and UBE.
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Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 23th and 27th April & Google search accessed on 28th 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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