Tuesday, May 8, 2012

ASBM Business Updates Vol.1(14) 7 May 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
Asian stock markets rose Monday in holiday-thinned trade as sluggish U.S. growth figures boosted hopes for more measures from the Federal Reserve to help the world’s No. 1 economy.
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 percent to 1,980.27 amid improving business sentiment among manufacturers. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7 percent to 4,393.30 as rising commodities prices helped push up its mining sector.
Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne said that investors shrugged off the weaker-than-expected U.S. economic growth, as well as a second downgrade this year by S&P of Spain’s debt, amid hopes that the Fed will launch a new round of bond buying to keep interest rates low.
The Fed has already carried out two rounds of bond-buying known as quantitative easing to stimulate spending and drive down long-term interest rates. Low bond yields generally encourage investors to shift money to buying stocks.
LG Electronics will steal a march on its rivals by bringing forward the launch of a 55-inch flat TV using next-generation technology, raising the stakes in a cut-throat battle for the living room between Asia's top tech powerhouses.
The South Korean firm will introduce its organic light emitting display (OLED) TV in several European countries in May, well ahead of an original plan to launch in the second half, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. That would edge out cross-town rival Samsung Electronics and cement, at least for now, South Korean dominance in the television market over long-time leaders Japan, but it also highlights the fierce competition reshaping Asia's flat panel industry.

"(In the past) if you wanted a top quality TV you had to buy a Sharp, Panasonic or Sony. Those days are gone," said Steve Durose, Senior Director and Head of Asia-Pacific at FitchRatings.

ASIAN MANAGEMENT
Kelvin Woo and Joe Zhang are leaving GLG Partners Inc., the London-based hedge fund bought by Man Group Plc (EMG) in 2010, to set up their own Asia-focused macro hedge fund, said four people with knowledge of the matter.
The two, both emerging-markets managers based in Hong Kong, may start the fund in July, said the people who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Angela Fung, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Man, confirmed Zhang’s departure. Woo declined to comment when reached by phone.
Woo and Zhang join managers such as former Perry Capital LLC Asia head Alp Ercil and Carl Huttenlocher, who had led Highbridge Capital Management LLC’s regional business, in leaving big global companies to start their own hedge funds.
Two state-backed Asian oil companies have tapped the U.S. dollar bond markets with major offerings this week to healthy investor interest.
China’s Cnooc Ltd., raised US$2 billion worth of 10-year and 30-year bonds at lower yields than expected.
“The deal was so heavily oversubscribed that the investor call was canceled,” said Jesse Fogarty, portfolio manager at Cutwater Asset Management in New York, referring to a planned call with U.S. bankers. Mr. Fogarty said he wasn’t planning to buy the bonds.
The bonds received $12 billion of orders from Asian buyers and $3 billion from the U.S., he added.
Cnooc’s 30-year bond was stronger in initial trading on Thursday, trading around 1.72 to 1.75 percentage points over Treasurys. The bond was priced to yield 1.9 percentage points over comparable Treasurys.

ASIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) has entered into two prestigious agreements. The institute has signed MoUs with internationally reckoned centre of learning and excellence, St. Cloud State University of US and University of Enterprise, Argentina.
The MoU which was signed during the visit of Dr. Earl H. Potter III, President of St. Cloud State University, USA to ASBM would enable the exchange of student, Faculty and research scholar to promote cross-cultural learning & research activities. It would also encourage co-operation like joint research lectures, symposia and country visits for students and faculty members, exchange of data, documentation and research materials, in the field of mutual interest.

BANKING

Spain's latest credit rating downgrade has thrown into sharp relief the need to revive a banking sector that could need another 100 billion euros to cover bad debts in order to avoid exposing another weak flank in the euro zone crisis.
The options are clear: Spain's troubled banks seek fresh capital themselves, the government comes to their aid or euro zone funds are somehow pushed in their direction.
But while the need for new funds is pressing, policymakers have no clear idea how to proceed.
The problem is the banks are in no shape to attract investment, Madrid cannot offer much more help since a domestic bailout would worsen Spain's already parlous debt position, while Brussels rules out direct euro zone aid to banks.
The youngest private sector lender Yes Bank has set a target of achieving a balance sheet size of Rs 1.5 trillion by the turn of 2015.
"The remaining three years will see the bank witnessing accelerated growth with the objectives to achieve a balance sheet size of Rs 1,50,000 crore (Rs 1.5 trillion), deposit base of Rs 125,000 crore and advances of Rs 100,000 crore," Yes Bank Managing Director & CEO Rana Kapoor said. He was addressing the top management, investors and analysts on the completion of two years of its Version 2.0 vision yesterday.
This confidence comes on the back of significant momentum on Casa and retail liabilities front, he said, adding going forward, the bank will focus on branch expansion.
"We have a target of 900 branches, along with increasing headcount to 12,750 by March 2015," Kapoor said.

BUSINESS
Drugmaker Elder Pharmaceuticals is exploring options to sell its nutrition products business, two sources with direct knowledge of the development said.

One of the sources said that Elder is looking for a valuation of roughly $60 million to $75 million for the business, which includes about 20 brands, and that discussions are at a very early stage.

Elder Pharma Joint Managing Director Alok Saxena denied that the company was looking to sell the business.

"We are not selling anything, nor are we discussing this with anybody," Saxena said in an emailed reply to a query from Reuters.

‎‎
A team of Indian business tycoons made history on Sunday when they crossed the Radcliffe line at the India-Pakistan border at Attari to meet their counterparts in Pakistan.

The group of business leaders form part of the 45-member delegation, led by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president and Godrej chairman Adi Godrej, who will be meeting key Pakistani businessmen, ministers and officials in Lahore at the two-day Aman ki Asha Indo-Pak Economic Conference.

The first such Aman ki Asha meet was held in New Delhi in 2010. The Lahore conference will be inaugurated on Monday by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

SilverSun Technologies, Inc. /quotes/zigman/5754317/quotes/nls/ssnt SSNT +43.75% (otcqb:SSNT), a preferred source for best-of-breed business management applications and professional consulting services, today announced the successful launch of a proprietary series of cloud-based software solutions created specifically to meet the unique business management needs of the U.S. craft beer brewing and distribution industry.
Jointly developed and distributed by SWK Technologies, the Company's principal operating subsidiary, and branded as BeerRun, BrewPub and the Distributor Relationship Management System (DRM), these new SWK-hosted solutions represent SilverSun's initial introduction of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings -- all of which were brought to market in the first quarter of 2012.
Infor, a leading provider of business application software serving more than 70,000 customers, today announced that UK-based defense leader AWE has selected Infor10 EAM, supported by Infor10 ION Suite, Infor's unique, lightweight middleware, and Infor10 ION Workspace, which provides in-context business intelligence, to support business transformation across its asset management operations.
The application is expected to instill greater visibility, business intelligence and rigor across AWE's plant equipment portfolio comprising approximately 315,000 assets, which, in turn, helps the company reduce risk, boost productivity and extend the lifecycle of its assets. ION in particular will help the defense company to achieve a more comprehensive picture of its assets, processes and people, through integrating multiple databases and applications, and will help equip AWE with the agility to react quickly to defense program demands.

FINANCE
The International Financial Corporation (IFC) is planning to invest Rs 50 crore in Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, a microfinance company that lends to urban and semi-urban poor, especially salaried and self-employed women.
The funds are for a project that will expand and carry out Ujjivan's strategic and operational changes in order to cope with the changed regulatory and business environment, and meet its regulatory capital adequacy requirements for the next 3-5 years. Recently, Ujjivan Financial raised $25.5 million by diluting a minority stake in its latest round of PE funding. Netherlands Development Finance Company, Wolfensohn Capital Partners and existing investors participated in this round of fund raising, the company said in a statement.
Branded or unbranded gold jewellery will not attract excise duty. The Finance Ministry has rolled back the budgetary proposal of levying such a duty.
Buckled under severe pressure, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukkherjee, announced: “The proposal to levy excise duty was aimed with the Goods and Services Tax (GST), but it seems that people are not ready for it, so I withdraw it.’’
This withdrawal will be in effect from March 17.
This budget proposal had not gone well with the bullion merchants. They went on strike for 21 days. They were demanding a complete rollback as they were apprehending such a provision would bring inspector raj.

INDIA BUSINESS
The first annual US-India Business West Coast Summit attended by 300 top business leaders from the two countries has highlighted the dynamic potential that exists in present and future collaboration between them.
Hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the summit held at the Rosewood Sand Hill in Silicon Valley over the weekend attracted prominent business and policy leaders from both countries. Themed "Building Bridges, Fostering Innovation," the conference focused on the most pressing political and economic issues impacting US-India relations, as well as technology and innovation, renewable energy and trade and investment, according to USIBC.
Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, describing India as "a wonderful example of what democratic institutions can achieve", said: "The Indian democracy cannot be underestimated."
After chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu and Standard & Poor's, it's the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which has cited governance concerns and the tardy pace of project approvals for a moderation in economic growth.

In fact, in the Asia Pacific Economic Outlook, IMF on Friday said that the global economic environment is unlikely to have a significant impact on the Indian economy, which is relatively less integrated with the world economy. But the domestic policy concerns were sufficient for the multilateral agency to forecast 6.9% economic growth in 2012, marginally lower than the earlier estimate of 7%.

IMF, however, said that GDP growth is expected to pick up to 7.3% in 2013.

INDIA MANAGEMENT
Foreign portfolio investors seem to have taken a fancy for equity mutual funds these days, even as their domestic counterparts are reducing exposure to such funds.
Better onshore fund management capabilities of Indian fund managers coupled with high levels of transparency and exposure to quality second-line stocks are prompting international pension funds and insurance pools to invest in domestic equity funds, industry sources said. According to AMFI data, FII investments in equity funds stood at Rs 1,212 crore over 87 folios at March 31, 2012 against Rs 1,048 crore in September 2011 and Rs 1,027 crore in March 2011. Though the increase in allocation is only marginal, there's a feeling in industry that this could be just the beginning of large long-only funds giving core investment mandates to Indian fund managers.
Amul, the country's largest food brand, has widened its lead over nearest competitor Nestle, leaving the world's largest food company a distant second despite having completed 100 years of business in India.
Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), owners of Amul brand of milk and dairy products, posted sales of Rs 11,670 crore for the year ended March 2012, almost 55% more than Nestle India's Rs 7,541-crore sales. Exactly a decade ago, the gap was much narrower when Amul reported sales of Rs 2,336.48 crore against Nestle India's Rs 2,075 crore.
"We have managed to post 20% sales growth this year with over 12% value growth due to price hikes and around 8% contributed by volume or demand," GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi said.
Amul, which has been around for less than four decades, dominates the dairy products business in the country with more than 85% share in butter and 70% share in cheese.

INSURANCE
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said there is a case for hiking FDI cap in insurance and some other sectors in view of India's growing integration with the global economy, if local economic and political scenario permits.
"... as the economy integrates further with the global economy and domestic economic and political conditions permit, there may be a need to relook at the sectoral caps (especially in insurance) and restrictions on FDI flows (especially in multi-brand retail)," RBI has said in a study, released earlier this month, on FDI flows to India
Life insurance has been invented by the society as a financial tool for creating a corpus to be utilised when financial support or protection is needed the most in someone's life. Insurance, therefore, is very different from savings, banking, and investment. Any insurance scheme or policy is based on the principle of mutual pooling of small amounts of money by large numbers of people; using the amount for those few unfortunate members of the society who suffer financial loss or loss of financial support because of some tragic event. Insurance helps in recovery from an unfortunate situation; takes away stress from the social fabric; and helps the affected person in bringing life back to normalcy at least financially.
With the very first installment of premium paid to a life insurance company, the policy holder makes sure that the family acquires an umbrella of financial protection which is guaranteed to the family in the event of the unfortunate demise of the policy holder. It is, therefore, rightly said that there is no substitute for life insurance.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Apple, the world's most profitable technology company, doesn't design iPhones here. It doesn't run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn't manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby.
Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno in a company subsidiary named Braeburn Capital, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: It has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states. Apple's headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office to collect and invest the company's profits out of Reno, just 200 miles away, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.
California's corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada's? Zero.
Britain on Wednesday officially slipped back into recession with its GDP shrinkingfor the second consecutive quarter, putting further pressure on an already beleaugered government. Initial GDP estimates showed the economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012, following a 0.3% drop in the previous quarter.
A defiant David Cameron, insisted that the government will not deviate from its plan for deficit reduction and spending cuts, which is being widely blamed as a key factor for the dreaded double dip. Opposition leader Ed Milliband categorically blamed the cuts, pointing out that the government had cut too far, and too fast. Cameron, currently under immense pressure as his key cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt, culture secretary, is embroiled in a scandal about his connections to the Murdochs, had to continue to defend his plans to keep cutting public spending, putting economic recovery at risk.

LOGISTICS
Hubli-based logistics major VRL Logistics has raised Rs 175 crore from New Silk Route (NSR), an Asia-focussed private equity fund. The company plans to use the funds to retire its high cost debt amounting to Rs 100 crore and also fund expansion plans.
“After deferring our public offer plan last year due to the unfavourable market conditions, three to four investors had approached us for investing in our company. We have now signed the agreement with NSR and raised Rs 175 crore. The purpose is to clear our high cost debt, which is of the order of Rs 500 crore raised from select banks and financial institutions. We will also use part of the funds for our expansion plans,” Vijay Sankeshwar, chairman, VRL Logistics, told Business Standard.
AAI Logistics & Technical Services, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. TXT -2.26% company, announced today that the business has received a competitive award to provide C-17 Globemaster maintenance training for the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Advanced Military Maintenance Repair Overhaul Centre (AMMROC), a joint venture company owned by Mubadala Aerospace, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and Lockheed Martin Corporation.
AAI Logistics & Technical Services will provide C-17 maintenance training for AMMROC mechanical and avionics technicians. This will include classroom training featuring AAI's modular C-17 maintenance training courseware, developed and honed throughout more than a decade of experience with multiple customers around the world. With that comprehensive academic background, AAI instructors will then lead AMMROC trainees through hands-on instruction with the aircraft.

MANAGEMENT
HR executives grapple with keeping hundreds of thousands of staffers, across 45 countries and mostly below 30 years, fully utilised and motivated
Apart from being a $10-billion company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest information technology services company, is also a high-magnitude employer. It increased its personnel to 238,000 over 2011-12 and these numbers are to go up, since the plan is to hire another 50,000 for 2012-13. These plans would be reviewed, based on staff utilisation. If the latter rate goes above 82 per cent, it may instead hire only lateral replacements. For the quarter ended March 31, the utilisation rate (excluding trainees) was 80.6 per cent and including trainees was 71.3 per cent. The company has said its comfort level in terms of utilisation was 82 per cent
Britain's largest asset management company Schroders has acquired a 25% stake in Axis Bank-promoted Axis Mutual Fund for an undisclosed amount. The deal will help the Indian fund house access Schroders' global distribution network and advise overseas funds invested in Indian securities.

The Economic Times had written on March 14 that Schroders Investment Management was in talks with Axis Bank to acquiring stake in its mutual fund arm. As part of the deal, Schroders will have one board member each on the AMC's board and Axis Mutual Fund trustee company.

Schroders Investment Management is a UK-based firm managing $291 billion worldwide. Schroders had applied to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in April 2008 to start a mutual fund business in India, but did not secure a licence till last year. Axis Mutual, which started operations in 2009, has equity assets worth Rs 640 crore. Axis Mutual Fund's total assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 8,815 crore as on March 31.

MARKETING
Research In Motion Ltd stock slumped again on Wednesday, even as the company said it was close to hiring a marketing boss to fashion a unified message for a next-generation BlackBerry that will likely determine its future. Speaking at an annual showcase event that has gone over like a lead balloon, RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins admitted RIM spoke with more than one voice when it marketed its current BlackBerry 7 smartphones and its PlayBook tablet. He said that would change. 'One thing that really became obvious when I looked at the various parts of the company is that we needed focus,' Heins, who took over from longtime co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie earlier this year. He was speaking at the companys BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida. RIM stock had fallen almost 6 percent on Tuesday after the company gave investors a glimpse of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphone and the tools they would need to create apps for the gadget. But RIM has announced no specifics on how it would recover from its prolonged slump
PepsiCo Inc. is going on a reunion tour with The King of Pop. The company on Thursday is announcing a deal with the estate of Michael Jackson to use the late pop star's image for its new global marketing push.
The promotion will vary by country but will include a TV ad, special edition cans bearing Jackson's image and chances to download remixes of some of Jackson's most famous songs. Pepsi, which first partnered with Jackson in 1983, did not disclose the terms of its deal.
The promotion is part of a global marketing blitz planned for the year ahead by Pepsi, which is looking to revive its brand and win back market share from The Coca-Cola Co.
Pepsi has a lot riding on its new push. Although the company has a diverse portfolio of brands including Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats and Tropicana, it's often judged by the performance of its namesake cola. And in 2010, Pepsi was knocked out of the No. 2 spot among sodas in the US by Diet Coke, with Coke remaining in the No. 1 position, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest.

ODISHA BUSINESS
The move by Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) to ship coal from Odisha to meet the requirement of end user power plants in its home state has come a cropper.
GMDC was allocated the Naini coal block in Odisha to meet the requirement of its proposed coal-based power station at Angul. However, the company later made a U-turn and wanted to shift the venue of its power station to Gujarat, causing much heartburn for the Odisha government. “We have already written to the Coal ministry, urging it to cancel the Naini coal block. The company has no concrete proposal for any end-use plant and is also non-serious about the development of the block,” a highly placed official source told Business Standard.
Ministry of Coal is also understood to be peeved over GMDC's lack of seriousness on the matter. The ministry has given April 30 deadline to the Gujarat PSU as a last ditch measure to obtain the views of the Odisha government and the Union ministry of power on change of site of its power plant.
Domestic steel major Jindal Steel and Power Ltd has said it would invest more than Rs. 10,000 crore in the current financial year towards capacity expansion in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.  The company reported a 16% increase in net profit at Rs. 1,161.6 crore for the quarter
ended March 31 while turnover grew by 42% to Rs. 5,482.3 crore during the quarter. It attributed better sales of steel and pellets and higher power generation during the quarter for the improved financial performance.
“We will be spending more than Rs. 10,000 crore in 2012-13 to part-finance the ongoing expansions in our company,” said Sushil Maroo, group financial officer, JSPL.

RETAIL
Despite volatile markets, weak sentiments and a faltering growth story, retail investors are not fleeing the market. On the contrary, they are adopting a new strategy to counter the current situation: shifting investment from high risk, high-return equity schemes of mutual funds to low risk,
low-return debt schemes of MFs.
The number of folios in equity schemes of mutual funds declined to 37 million at the end of March 2012 from 38 million at the end of March 2011, whereas the number of folios in debt schemes grew to 4.5 million at the end of March 2012 from 3.9 million at the end of March 2011.
“It shows that there are investors who do not rush to open fixed deposit just because there is volatility in the market,” said Arindam Ghosh, vice-president and head, retail sales, JP Morgan Asset Management. “They rather go for less-risky instrument available in the market.”
Infiniti Retail Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, on Monday entered the ecommerce space, launching cromaretail.com to compete alongside the group’s retail store chain Croma and with sites such as Flipkart.com.
“The online store and the physical retail store chain would be two separate entities and will have individual strategies in terms of deals available and will compete with each other,” said Ajit Joshi, chief executive officer, Infiniti Retail, who expects the website to equal the six-year-old retail chain’s revenue in the next “18 to 24 months.” The launch saw the attendance of Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons, and his designated successor, Cyrus Mistry, currently deputy chairman, besides R.K. Krishna Kumar, chairman, Infiniti Retail, and director, Tata Sons.

SUPPLY CHAIN
Amazon has launched a new online e-commerce offering — AmazonSupply.com — which is aimed at business, scientific and commercial customers and offers products like abrasives & finishing, cutting tools, fasteners, fleet & vehicle maintenance, hydraulics, pneumatics & plumbing, janitorial & sanitation, lab & scientific, materials, occupational health & safety, office, power & hand tools for sale. It offers more than 500,000 items and the same shipping terms as its regular customers – free two-day shipping for purchases above $50 and Amazon Prime members. It also offers a free 365-day return policy, a dedicated customer service center and lines of credit for businesses. [1]
New Zealand makes up just a tiny fraction of Rabobank's network, but is one of the most important cornerstones of the global food and agribusiness lender's strategy to fund the supply chain to a hungry world.
On a whistle-stop tour of New Zealand and Australia Rabobank chairman Piet Moerland says the two countries are among a group of key food basket nations in a world that will need to feed a population forecast to balloon from seven billion to nine billion by 2050.
The giant Dutch financial co-operative is a banker to farmers and agribusiness in 48 countries around the world with 10 million customers and total assets of 732 billion (NZ$1421b).
Food production will need to double over the next 40 years to feed the extra mouths.
In addition to population growth, people in developing Asian countries with burgeoning middle classes are switching to a more protein-based diet, including meat and dairy products.
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Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 30th and 4th April & Google search accessed on 7th May 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

3 comments:

Koushal said...

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RajLibrarian said...

Thank you, follow the blog by subscribing .... best wishes
Rajashekhar Devarai
Chief Librarian, ASBM

Unknown said...

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