Monday, May 14, 2012

ASBM Business Updates Vol.1(15) 14 May 2012, Monday from Chanakya Central Library, Asian School of Business Managent, Bhubaneswar.


 


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

ASIAN BUSINESS
Manufacturers in Asia upped their tempo in April to meet growing demand from overseas, in a sign that while the road to recovery might be bumpy, the global economy remains on track and the worst has probably passed for China.
Optimism about a global rebound was boosted on Tuesday by a survey showing the pace of growth in US manufacturing picked up last month, although debt-mired Europe remains a concern with more dismal numbers expected from the euro zone later. An index of China's manufacturing offered more evidence on Wednesday that the world's second-biggest economy bottomed out in the first quarter of the year, while the pace of factory sector growth in emerging rival India ticked up.
The HSBC China PMI, which concentrates mainly on privately owned firms, remained below the 50 threshold that divides growth from contraction, for the six month running. But it improved to 49.3 in April from 48.3 in March, hinting that the rate of deterioration had slowed, and was stronger than the preliminary "flash" estimate released last week.
Oil prices hovered below $103 a barrel Friday in Asia amid investor concern U.S. jobs growth last month may disappoint and suggest demand is weakening.
Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 8 cents to $102.62 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.68 to settle at $102.54 in New York on Thursday.
Brent crude for June delivery was up 10 cents at $116.18 per barrel in London.
Traders will be closely watching April employment figures scheduled to be released later Friday. Analysts expect the economy added about 165,000 jobs last month. Businesses created 120,000 jobs in March, far fewer than the 205,000 that analysts had forecast.

ASIAN MANAGEMENT
Asian stock markets climbed on Wednesday after strong manufacturing data from the United States and China boosted optimism over the state of the world's two biggest economies.
The dollar rebounded after hitting a two-month low against the yen while the Dow rallied to its best close for more than four years. Tokyo rose 0.31 percent, or 29.30 points, to 9,380.25 and Seoul climbed 0.86 percent, adding 17.08 points to 1,999.07 while Sydney closed 0.14 percent, or 6.4 points, higher at 4,435.9.
Hong Kong was 1.02 percent higher, gaining 214.87 points to 21,309.08 while Shanghai climbed 1.76 percent, or 42.12 points, 2,438.44
The mood was upbeat on the back of Wall Street's strong lead after the US Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose for the second straight month in April, to 54.8 percent, from 53.4 in March. Analysts had forecast the reading would fall to 53.0.
Any reading above 50 is considered growth while a reading below indicates contraction.
Tata Group is the only Indian entity which has managed to find a place in the list of ten best companies for leadership in Asia, according to a study by management consultancy giant Hay Group.
The Tata Group is at the fifth position among ten best companies for leadership in Asia list, which has been topped by Samsung Group followed by Toyota Motors and Unilever at the second and third position, respectively. The study said that innovation was the prime factor that made Tata Group to find a place among the top names in Asia. The group's Nano project has been mentioned as a notable breakthrough in the study.
"Leading Asian companies are no strangers to innovation, the key theme of this year's study. Top 10 companies Samsung and Tata, for example, are both notable for recent breakthrough products like the Galaxy Tab tablet computer and the Nano ultra low-cost family car," the study noted.

BANKING
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s guidelines on Basel-III capital regulations are unlikely to make domestic lenders scramble for funds, at least in the near term, say industry analysts and bankers.
“There is no desperation among Indian banks to raise capital,” said Rohit Bammi, partner, financial risk management at KPMG in India. “Most banks are well capitalised and do not have any immediate need for funds. Also, the banking story in India is still attractive for investors. This strengthens banks’ ability to access markets. So, even if they need to raise capital over the medium term due to growth in their businesses, there will not be any shortage of funds.” The new norms mandate Indian banks need to maintain a minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of nine per cent, in addition to a capital conservation buffer, which will be in the form of common equity at 2.5 per cent of the risk weighted assets.
In other words, banks’ minimum CAR must be 11.5 per cent. Indian banks are currently required to have CAR of at least nine per cent.
Britain's economy should start growing again this year, though the recovery from recession is likely to be slow, the Bank of England's governor said Thursday a day after he conceded that the central bank should have done more to rein in bank excesses in the run-up to the financial crisis.

Though Britain is back in recession after two consecutive quarters of negative growth, there has been some positive survey data lately that may point to a recovery ahead despite high energy and commodity costs, King said.

``There are indeed signs of a recovery coming and we see that in the business surveys and I think also in the employment data,'' Mervyn King, the Bank's governor, said in a BBC radio interview. ``So I think a reasonable view would be that we would start to see steady, slow recovery coming during the course of the year.''

BUSINESS
Sony Corp racked up a record annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) in its fourth straight year of red ink as the once-glorious maker of the Walkman and PlayStation struggles toward a turnaround under a new president.

The electronics and entertainment company, which also makes ''Spider-Man'' movies, reported Thursday a loss of 255 billion yen ($3.2 billion) for the January-March period - its fifth straight quarterly net loss to round out a fiscal year that was the worst in its 66-year corporate history.

The latest red ink was worse than 1995, which followed Sony's ambitious but disastrous purchase of Hollywood studio Columbia Pictures. Sony's recent troubles were worsened by factory and supplier damage in northeastern Japan, ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami last year. Sony also suffered production disruptions from the flooding in Thailand.
Republicans pushed legislation through the Michigan Senate Thursday that would eliminate the taxes businesses pay on computers and equipment while strengthening promises that most of the lost revenue would be made up to local governments, school districts and libraries.
Supporters said the bills would remove a personal property tax that's not charged by neighboring states and make Michigan a more attractive place to do business. Democrats expressed concern they would further cut funding for already hurting school districts and local governments. The bills now go to the House.
Local jurisdictions would be reimbursed by the state as business tax credits for battery manufacturers and other companies expire. But none would be completely repaid, a fact that troubles advocates for the affected groups. They wanted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the money would be replaced, but lawmakers declined.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Private equity group Blackstone Group has made its first acquisition in Singapore, buying the StarHub Green project from Germany's SEB Asset Management for S$215 million ($173 million).
Blackstone bought the 400,000-square-foot business park as part of an opportunity real estate fund, according to a source familiar with the deal. SEB and Blackstone agreed to the terms of the deal last week, the source said. SEB, which held the business park in an open-ended property fund, was facing redemptions and opted to liquidate the asset, the source said. Singaporean mobile phone and television operator StarHub, majority-owned by sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, is the anchor tenant in the building.
Pune based Icertis, cloud independent software vendor (ISV) and the provider of enterprise solutions in the Microsoft Cloud, has developed its new Contract Lifecycle Management product (ICLM) on Windows Azure in India. According to company, ICLM is easy to use and makes the contract lifecycle available on all devices, including smartphones and tablets. Also, the company is planning to expand its operations in UK and India by starting new offices and will invest around ' 54 crore for this. It will be hiring more than 150 IT professionals for in the next one year.
Commenting on this new product Samir Bodas, co-founder and CEO of Icertis said, "Improving efficiency and managing contractual risk are becoming critical in today’s global business scenarios. ICLM, our cloud based CLM product, not only streamlines the complex contract lifecycle process, but also helps businesses improve contract compliance"

FINANCE

RBI may sell dollars directly to oil companies to check rupee ...

The government and the central bank are pondering over a plan to move bulk dollar purchases by oil marketing companies out of a turbulent currency market to make the weakening rupee less volatile.

With a weekly demand of $2-3 billion, roughly one out of every 10 dollars bought or sold in the Indian foreign exchange market is by oil companies. In a choppy market, the rupee comes under pressure whenever these companies step in to buy the greenback.

"In such circumstances, a direct dollar line to oil companies can help check volatility in currency markets...It has been discussed," said an official familiar with the matter. India's crude oil and petroleum product imports totalled about $155 billion last year.

On a few occasions in the past, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has temporarily opened a special window to supply dollars to oil companies to ring-fence the currency market.
Markets post biggest weekly loss for the year
Persistent selling pressure in view of rising inflation and contraction in industrial production data pulled Sensex down by hefty 538 points to a near 4-month low of 16,298.98 in spite of fair amendments made by the Finance Minister in finance bill, mainly regarding GAAR.

With this week's fall, the market completed straight three weeks of losing string. The BSE benchmark Sensex collapsed by 1,080.86 points, or 6.22 percent, and the Nifty by 361.95, or 6.84 percent.

Selling was seen across-the-segment as all 13 sectoral indices closed in the red between 0.5 percent and 4.67 percent.

INDIA BUSINESS
Scores of staff at the Indian unit of Royal Bank of Scotland are staring at the spectre of a job loss with HSBC unlikely to absorb all staff as anticipated at the time it agreed to buy the local assets of the UK state-owned bank, said three people familiar with the development.

"It was once said in the town hall that HSBC had agreed to absorb the entire RBS staff here," said one of the persons who did not want to be identified. But it now says that not everybody will be retained, he added. The sources, however, did not know how many positions will become redundant.

An HSBC spokesperson declined to comment for the story. An RBS spokesperson said, "We continue to work closely with HSBC and the regulators to complete the deal in a manner that satisfies regulatory requirements and is in the best interests of our clients and employees."
Buffetted by a sliding Indian rupee and surging dollar demand for imports, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday eased some curbs to attract dollars from NRIs and scrapped the interest rate ceiling on exporters' foreign currency credit. But the measures, aimed at taking the steam off the currency, may only provide temporary relief, analysts say.

The central bank raised the cap on interest rates offered by banks on non-resident Indians' deposits to make it attractive for those who earn less than 2% in most parts of the Western world.

Aiming to attract long-term money, the cap on three- to five-year deposits has been raised to 3 percentage points above international benchmark rates from 1.25 percentage points. For less than three years, it will be 2 percentage points, raised from 1.25 percentage points. These are for the so-called FCNR (B) deposits, where the bank bears the currency risk since it will repay the depositors in US dollars.

INDIA MANAGEMENT
EFS Facilities Services, a UAE-based group acquired Dalkia India Pvt Ltd, a facility management service provider for an undisclosed amount.

Dalkia India will now be part of the EFS Group, expanding the company's regional operational capabilities and strengthening its foothold in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (Menasa) region.
Dalkia India, a Veolia Group entity, manages more than 70 projects across 15 cities with a 2,500 strong workforce, providing Mep services to banks, hospitals, malls and multinationals companies. Besides building on core facilities management services, EFS plans to expand its operations and maintenance capabilities into the industrial sector by offering specialized integrated FM services.
Country's third largest software exporter Wipro today said it will acquire Australian firm Promax Applications Group (PAG) for AUD 35 million (about Rs 192 crore), a move which will allow the Indian company to strengthen its analytics solutions portfolio.
PAG, which offers trade promotion planning, management, and optimisation solutions, is headquartered in New South Wales and has offices in US, UK and Japan. "Analytics is a key growth driver of Wipro's growth strategy. The acquisition will strengthen our position and capability in management, analytics and optimisation of trade promotions," Wipro Senior Vice President and Global Head (Analytics and Information Management) K R Sanjiv told reporters on a conference call.

Combining expertise of both companies will enable our clients to maximise the return on investment (RoI) on trade promotion spends, he added.

INSURANCE
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway more than doubled its profit in the first quarter, as the conglomerate's insurance business was spared from the devastating natural disaster losses that hit the company a year earlier.
The company also benefited from much higher gains in its derivatives portfolio, offset in part by a substantial writedown on one of its bond holdings. The results come one day before the conglomerate's annual shareholder meeting, a festival-like event dubbed the "Woodstock for Capitalism" that draws nearly 40,000 investors to Omaha.
Even before the results came out, though, one Berkshire investor said his fellow shareholders were much more likely to focus on succession issues for the 81-year-old Buffett than other questions like the quarterly report.
"If you boil it down, most people say: 'who's the replacement going to be,'" said Harvey Eisen, chairman of Bedford Oak Advisors.
The government appears to have buckled under political pressure, as the finance ministry is set to take a diluted version of the Insurance Bill to the Cabinet in the coming week.
The revised Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill proposes to retain the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in the sector at 26 per cent, against 49 per cent proposed earlier. This comes barely two weeks after the Cabinet cleared a toned-down version of the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill. A higher FDI cap in insurance was expected to give a push to financial sector reforms that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had been talking about. But, a foreign investment ceiling status quo will take much of the sting out of the legislation, particularly at a time when the country desperately needs foreign inflows in the wake of a widening current account deficit and a weakening rupee.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Ford Motor Co will sell its Saline, Michigan-based automotive interior trim business to French auto parts maker Faurecia, the companies said on Thursday.
Ford will still own the plant through its Automotive Components Holdings unit. Faurecia will lease the plant.
After the deal, Ford's ACH unit will operate just two businesses: a lighting plant in Sandusky, Ohio, and a hydraulic steering systems plant in Plymouth, Michigan. In 2005, Ford took back 17 plants owned by its former subsidiary Visteon Corp and formed ACH, with the intent of preparing each of those plants for a sale. Ford now owns three of the plants.
The sale price for the business in Saline, Michigan, which was announced on Monday, was not disclosed.
Worried at airlines from the Gulf taking away their traffic, Indian and international carriers, particularly from Europe, are keen to further strengthen cooperation among themselves.
Sources told Business Line that the airlines will look at a variety of options, including enhancing code-share cooperation and entering into alliances with each other.
Such a move will allow airlines to share passengers among themselves.
The basic worry has to do with the manner in which some airlines, particularly those from the Gulf, are taking away sixth freedom traffic from India and Europe.
In technical parlance, the sixth freedom right allows an airline to fly between two foreign countries while stopping in its own country.

LOGISTICS
Sunoco and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) announced a merger agreement under which ETP would pay $5.3 billion for the crude oil logistics, retail, and pipeline company.  While the deal is set to close in the third or fourth quarter, analysts at Citi suggest a higher bid for Sunoco could spark a bidding war that would be detrimental to ETP’s interests. Sunoco shareholders would be getting $25 in cash and 0.5245 of an ETP common unit (which represents equity ownership in the context of a master limited partnership, like ETP), if the deal closes.  Sunoco’s shareholders could also choose to get either $50 in cash or 1.049 ETP units.  Aggregate cash paid and common units issued would be capped so that they each represent 50% of the transaction, valued at $5.3 billion.
Ceva Logistics, majority owned by Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N), filed with U.S. regulators on Friday to raise up to $400 million in an initial public offering of its common stock.
The United Kingdom-based company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus that it intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CEVL."
The company is the world's second largest non-asset based supply chain management company, as measured by 2011 revenue, according to the regulatory filing.
The filing did not reveal how many shares the company or stockholders planned to sell or their expected price.

MANAGEMENT
EMC Corporation has announced the availability of EMC Documentum xCP Saksham eGov Case Management, an easy-to-use and quick-to-deploy case management solution for government departments and agencies in India. The solution automates key processes typical in most government operations.Case management, a pattern of work that requires a group of people to systematically collaborate on content and data, is pervasive across all government functions. Whether to make a law, or approve a purchase order, most government departments perform similar functions of initiating, reviewing and approving case files. Citizen-facing government services such as tax processing, issuing of driver’s license, visa and passports, criminal justice matters are also common requirements for case management solutions.
Oil-to-yarn and retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said on Thursday that it has selected US-based firm Fluor Corp. to provide project management services for the expansion of its refining and petrochemical complex at Jamnagar, Gujarat. “In addition to assisting RIL in project management, Fluor will also perform engineering and procurement services for the pet coke gasification project,” RIL said in a statement.

MARKETING
Research In Motion Ltd named a pair of wireless industry veterans to senior management roles on Tuesday as it prepares for the make-or-break launch of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphones later this year. Frank Boulben, most recently in charge of marketing and sales for U.S. telecom start-up LightSquared, takes over as marketing chief, charged with the task of reinventing the tarnished BlackBerry brand as RIM prepares to introduce the new devices. In its second appointment, RIM handed the job of chief operating officer to Kristian Tear, a former executive vice president at Sony Mobile Communications. His role will center on managing the logistics of the BlackBerry 10 launch.
The cardamom market gained last week with the prices moving up marginally on buying support from exporters and upcountry dealers at auctions held in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Trade sources in Bodinayakannur, the main hub of the cardamom trade in the country, told Business Line that good colour first quality cardamom was fetching moderate prices while arrivals at present were of mixed quality materials.
Good colour 8 mm bold cardamom was fetching prices up to Rs 1,300 a kg. According to them, the market has shown a positive trend last week and Ramzan buying is expected to push up the market further in the coming days, they claimed. An estimated 25-30 tonnes were bought by exporters, while demand from the domestic market was slowly picking up. There was a squeeze in arrivals following closing of the season's harvesting.

ODISHA BUSINESS
The annual Plan size of Odisha for 2012-13 has been pegged at Rs 17,250 crore, 13.48 per cent higher than Rs 15,200 crore in the previous fiscal.
The Planning Commission finalized the Plan size on Friday, urging the state to focus on infrastructure upgradation, enhancing spending level and taking up more projects on the public private partnership (PPP) mode besides maintaining the high growth tempo. The Plan size was fixed following talks between Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi. This was preceded by elaborate official level parleys held on Thursday.
The fate of the Rs 1,000-crore investment made by Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) in setting up a power plant in Odisha is hanging in balance. A high-level inter-ministerial committee that recommends coal allocation for power units has refused to take up the vexed issue of linkage for VAL’s plant in view of the legal nature of the matter.
VAL, which is a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc, had earlier asked the committee to renew a letter of assurance (LoA) for supply of coal to the 270-Mw capacity plant by Coal India subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL). This, after an LoA had lapsed when VAL failed to achieve project milestones. “The standing linkage committee has noted the developments in this case,” according to an official close to the development. “It has decided that it is a legal matter — one that cannot be opined upon by the committee,” he told Business Standard. A senior VAL executive refused to comment.

RETAIL
Retail sales have posted their biggest jump in nearly a year, an encouraging end to the quarter amid industry hopes for a sustained pick-up after a surprisingly large interest rate cut last week.
Today's data showed retail sales rose 0.9 per cent to $21.2 billion in March, handily beating forecasts for a rise of 0.2 percent as households spend more on eating out and shopping for clothing and footwear.
Sales for the first quarter were up 1.8 per cent when adjusted for inflation, snapping a run of soft outcomes and well above forecasts for a 0.5 per cent rise.
The report offset figures from ANZ Bank showing a 3.1 per cent fall in job advertisements in April, although this decline followed three months of gains.
Pantaloon Retail has raised over Rs 200 crore by issuing preferential shares at Rs245 each. The shares will be issued to Bennett Coleman & Co, a leading media house.

The company Board also passed a resolution to change the name of the company to Future India Retail Limited. Pantaloon Retail on Thursday informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it will issue 81,63,265 equity shares of Rs. 2 each at Rs 245, on a preferential basis to Bennett, Coleman & Co.

It will also issue 800 optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) at Rs. 1 crore each on a preferential basis to Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited and / or its 100 per cent subsidiary Company, Peter England Fashion and Retail Limited.

SUPPLY CHAIN
Highmark Inc., the state's largest health insurance company, has started a supply chain management company under the leadership of a former UPMC executive that the insurer says will help hospitals reduce costs.
ProtoCo Supply Chain Partners is the latest addition to Highmark's emerging integrated health care delivery system. The new system, to be anchored by the five-hospital West Penn Allegheny Health System, is being established by the health insurer to compete with Western Pennsylvania's dominant hospital system, UPMC.
"Containing the cost of health care is critical for our customers," said Bill O'Connor, who is running ProtoCo and reports to John Paul, Highmark's executive in charge of the integrated system.
RedPrairie Corp., a global supply chain and retail technology provider, has entered a strategic partnership with the Panalpina Group to provide a complete supply chain execution platform to support the expansion of Panalpina’s worldwide logistics operations. Panalpina will be able to benefit from RedPrairie’s extensive supply chain suite including warehouse, workforce, and transportation and billing solutions.
Panalpina is one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions, combining air and ocean freight with a wide range of value-added logistics and supply chain services. Operating a global network with 500 branches in more than 80 countries, Panalpina also works closely with partner companies in an additional 80 countries. Panalpina employs approximately 15,500 people worldwide.
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Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 7th and 11th May & Google search accessed on 12th 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

1 comment:

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