ASBM Business
Updates is a Weekly Selective Compilation of Business News from Various
Sources. To find details follow the links.
ASIAN BUSINESS
The
maker of expensive management software, SAP, is having some trouble
making sales in Asia.
According
to Reuters, SAP's Asian business stumbled at the
start of 2013 partly because some of its top sales managers left.
Things
should have gone better for SAP. Its customers are switching from localised
hardware to cloud computing which should be just up SAP's alley.
Gartner predicts that the
cloud services market forecast should grow 18.5 percent this year to $131
billion worldwide but it requires software outfits to adapt fast and there are
signs that SAP isn't.
The
company saw its first-quarter earnings and revenue below analyst forecasts. SAP
says this is because of some leadership changes in the region.
SAP's
co-Chief Executive Jim Hagemann Snabe said that the Asia Pacific region would
be back on track in the second quarter as the sales pipeline looked good and
important sales positions were now taken care of.
However,
disappointment in SAP's quarterly results in the Asia Pacific Japan region is
being seen as one of the reasons why the company's share price slumped.
SAP shares
were down 2.8 percent at 57.95 euros by 0932 GMT, while a broader index of
European technology companies was down 0.7 percent.
Software
and cloud subscription revenue in the East declined seven percent, lagging the
Americas, where revenue jumped 49 percent, and Europe, the Middle East and
Africa, where it grew 13 percent.
Telstra today announced that it has signed a
three-year multi-million dollar business communications contract with Jetstar,
the largest low cost airline carrier in the Asia Pacific region. This deal
represents Telstra’s largest global contract to date and Telstra’s first
significant Network Application and Services (NAS) contract in Asia.
As Jetstar’s preferred telecommunications supplier,
Telstra will supply a dedicated managed communications services team to work
across all of Jetstar’s business to support the airline’s Information
Communication Technology (ICT) operations in the region. Telstra will also
continue to provide domestic and global voice, mobile and data services,
including multi wide area network and global data centre services.
Under the new agreement a dedicated Telstra team
will be responsible for Jetstar’s network architecture, global procurement
services, finance management, project change management, continuous improvement
and interface management.
Jetstar Chief Information Officer Steve Tame said
that with Jetstar achieving rapid expansion and now offering flights to 65
destinations in 16 countries and territories, the dedicated resources provided
by Telstra were an invaluable addition to the business.
“We have experienced fantastic growth in recent
years and Telstra has been a crucial partner for us, providing a high quality
and reliable communications infrastructure to facilitate our expansion across
Asia,” Mr Tame said.
“We’re committed to providing the best level of
service for our customers as we manage the ever increasing passenger demand
across our network. By incorporating NAS as part of the new contract, there
will now be a dedicated Telstra team working as an extension of our existing IT
team. This puts us in a strong position to tailor our networks for future
demand.”
BANKING
India’s third largest
outsourcer, Wipro Ltd. is in talks to acquire the IT assets of ANZ Banking
Group. In India, ANZ Banking’s global IT operations include ANZ Operations and
Technology Pvt Ltd. and ANZ Support Services India Pvt Ltd based out of
Bangalore.
According
to the ANZ Web site, the group employs close to 5,000 people in technology
development, operations and shared services roles in Bangalore. The group has
been servicing ANZ’s technology needs for over two decades and has now added
operations and support functions as well.
Without
naming the company, a spokesperson for Wipro told Business Line that it
is constantly in talks with various entities for acquisitions. “As part of our
strategy, we are constantly in discussion and consultations with various
parties for acquisitions, deals, etc. As and when any of those discussions
fructify, we will be making suitable announcements,” the spokesperson said.
By acquiring
ANZ’s IT business, Wipro can strengthen its BFSI (banking, financial services
and insurance) vertical, which has always lagged its peers.
ANZ Bank,
which began India operations in 1989 in Bangalore, is one of the earliest
companies to have embraced outsourcing. The bank has over the years been
aggressively reducing costs and has upgraded its technology infrastructure.
The
financial institution had earlier moved around 500 jobs to India, according to
industry sources. This was in addition to an increase in workforce in ANZ
India’s technology and development facility in Bangalore to support the bank’s
Asian expansion as well restructuring of its large Pacific operations in Fiji.
Last year,
ANZ transferred 360 employees who were testing ANZ’s banking software from its
Melbourne and Bangalore centres to Capgemini. At that time, ANZ chief
information officer Anne Weatherston said the partnership would support its
planned change for approximately 800 banking-related applications and more than
280 projects associated with it at a pace that it cannot achieve if it decided
to go alone.
Customers had better take their bank’s request to
submit know-your-customer (KYC) documents seriously. Else, some banking
services may be curtailed.
ICICI Bank has sent SMSes to its customers who did
not respond to its earlier requests for furnishing KYC documents, to the effect
that if they don’t submit the documents within seven days Internet banking
services may be discontinued.
Now, if you have not stepped into a bank branch in a
long time due to the convenience of Net banking, then not submitting the KYC
documents (latest photograph, original and self-attested copies of identity and
address proofs) could land you in hot water.
ICICI Bank has asked its customers to submit the
documents at the branch nearest to them. A senior Reserve Bank of India
official said that he too was asked by his bank — HDFC Bank — to submit KYC
documents.
“In the backdrop of online frauds that have recently
taken place, banks are only trying to secure customers’ interest by seeking KYC
details. Online fraudsters are on the prowl. So, revalidation of the proof of
identity and address is in order.
“Unauthorised access to accounts/transactions can be
prevented. Moreover, it will also help check attempts at money laundering,”
said the official.
A special KYC audit conducted by banks at RBI’s
behest, in the November-December 2012, period, found that customers who have
been banking with them for a long time are not coming forward to provide the
latest documents.
A senior public sector bank official said though his
bank sent a number of letters to customers requesting them to provide the
documents, hardly 10-15 per cent of them have responded.
Given this, banks probably have been left with no
choice but to prod the accountholders.
The KYC process involves determining the true
identity and beneficial ownership of accounts, source of funds, the nature of
customer’s business, reasonableness of operations in the account in relation to
the customer’s business, and so on.
The objective of the KYC guidelines is to prevent
banks from being used, intentionally or unintentionally, by criminal elements
for money-laundering or terrorist-financing activities.
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Esna
Technologies (Esna), a leader in
cloud-enabled unified communications and collaboration, and Touchbase, a Global
Unified Communications and Contact
Center specialist, today announced a strategic partnership to bring Esna’s Cloudlink™ for Cisco unified communications
solution to the markets in which it operates.
Together,
Esna and Touchbase will help companies using Cisco Unified Communications
solutions to seamlessly integrate those solutions with cloud applications such
as Google™ Enterprise, driving greater employee collaboration and
increased productivity.
“Cloudlink
for Cisco transforms the way people collaborate with one another to get work
done,” said Davide Petramala, Esna’s EVP Business Development and Sales. “Our
partnership with Touchbase will enable their clients to leverage cloud, mobile
and social communications to deliver specific business outcomes.”
“We work
with so many customers that are using Google Apps today, but want to leverage
and optimize the Cisco UC solution they have invested in,” added Alex
Nicholson, Touchbase SVP of Sales “This partnership enables us to deliver
an end-to-end service for Cisco customers, connecting them with Google’s
cloud-based applications using the Cloudlink solution.”
Touchbase
is a strong technology services organization, and focuses heavily on
transforming its client’s unified communications and contact center capability.
Touchbase works closely with partners like Esna to deliver an exceptional end
user experience and deliver tangible returns to its clients.
The Swedish launch of Telia Touchpoint is an
extension of TeliaSonera's cooperation with Telepo that already covers Finland.
Telepo has announced that it is powering
TeliaSonera's new cloud communication service "Touchpoint" that has
just launched in Sweden. Telia Touchpoint will initially target mid-sized
companies. It is a leading cloud communication solution that combines IT and
web technologies with net based services for mobile and fixed communication.
The solution includes full PBX capabilities,
Attendant and ACD services fused with enterprise presence and IM to enable new
flexible ways of working for the modern business user whatever their preferred
device: a smartphone, iPad, PC or Mac.
Thomas
Johansson, Head of B2B Product Management Broadband Services at TeliaSonera
said: "We have a long successful relationship with Telepo through our
business in Finland. We have now expanded that into the Swedish market, with
the launch of Telia Touchpoint that combines Telepo based services with our
network based services."
Patrik Sörqvist, CEO at Telepo, said: "We have
once again demonstrated our ability to help large operators rapidly launch
sophisticated, Telepo powered, business communication services under their own
brand. We are excited about our ongoing relationship with TeliaSonera and the
potential to expand with them into new countries."
INDIA BUSINESS
Low cost
efficiency put India's outsourcing companies at the heart of global business
and created a multibillion dollar industry that for years has skated over
criticism it was eliminating white collar jobs in rich nations. Now, the
industry's long-held fears of a backlash are being realized in its crucial U.S.
market.
Provisions
in an overhaul of U.S. immigration law will close loopholes that allow
outsourcing companies, Indian and American, to pay guest workers in the U.S. at
rates often below wages for equivalently skilled Americans. The proposed
changes are in line with President Barack Obama's vows to make it tougher for
U.S. companies to replace American workers with cheaper labor abroad, either by
opening factories overseas or subcontracting their work to outsourcing
companies.
The cost
to the Indian companies, which do everything from running call centers to
managing the massive amounts of transactional data generated by banks, could
run to several hundred million dollars in lost profits.
India's
$108 billion outsourcing industry has shrugged off bad publicity in the U.S.
and other countries since it began blossoming more than a decade ago. It has
plenty of supporters among global corporations who prized outsourcing's ability
to lower their costs and boost profits. But with the world economy stagnating,
and U.S. unemployment at stubbornly high levels since the recession, a day of
reckoning appears to be looming.
Continuing its lobbying among the American lawmakers over
Indo-US bilateral relationship, the Indian government has spent USD 180,000
(about Rs 1 crore) to its lobbyists here in the first quarter of 2013.
Cumulatively,
the Indian government has paid its lobbyist firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers
LLC (BGR), close to USD 5 million (over Rs 25 crore) since it began lobbying in
the US in September 2005, shows the Congressional records of lobbying
disclosure reports filed here.
Lobbying
is a legal activity in the US, but the lobby firms are required to mandatorily
submit the disclosure forms with the Senate for each of their clients.
The latest
quarter lobbying disclosure report on behalf of the Indian government was filed
by BGR yesterday, wherein it has disclosed an income of USD 180,000 on issues
related to the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
On behalf
of India, BGR has lobbied at the US Senate, the House of Representatives, US
Trade Representative (USTR), Department of State and Department of Commerce in
the area of Indo-US bilateral relations, while its lobbying issues in the past
have included the US-India civil nuclear deal.
Other
Indian entities having lobbied in the US during the quarter ended March 31,
2013, included ONGC Videsh Ltd, software industry body Nasscom and Sterling
Biotech.
ONGC
Videsh, which began lobbying in the US this year itself, paid USD 20,000 to its
lobby firm Patton Boggs LLC, which has disclosed having lobbied on "issues
related to GAO Report regarding Iran sanctions issues".
The US
Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its December 2012 report on Iran's
energy sector had listed ONGC Videsh among the "foreign firms reported in
open sources as engaging in commercial activity in Iran's energy sector at some
point between June 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012".
INSURANCE
The government is considering setting up an Indian
Energy Insurance Pool (IEIP) to provide insurance cover to domestic
refineries that process crude oil imported from Iran, Parliament was
informed today.
"Keeping in view the strategic geo-political
relations and the need to have an uninterrupted import of crude oil from Iran,
Government is exploring the possibility of setting of an IEIP as one of the
options," Minister
of State for Finance Namo
Narain Meena said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. A task force has
been constituted to finalise the terms of reference for operationalising the
energy pool.
"The possibility of setting up of the IEIP is
being discussed with all stake holders and a decision will be firmed up
soon," Meena added.
As a consequence to the unilateral economic
sanctions by US and the European
Union on Iran, the provisions of services related to insurance or
reinsurance of crude oil cargoes originating from Iran were impacted, he said.
Insurance companies in India have refused to provide
cover to refineries processing Iranian oil as they could not get reinsurance
from their European counterparts.
Reinsurance makes up for 90 per cent of the
insurance cover provided.
At present, Indian general insurers provide cover to
oil refiners and then re-insure the risk with global re-insurers. But under the
US and EU sanctions, the global insurers provide re-insurance with
"sanction clause", which limits the amount to be paid in case a claim
arises.
A deal-making frenzy in Asia's insurance industry is
turning up the heat on buyers to fork out huge sums or miss out on a prime
chance to tap into the sector's fastest growing market, and few predict a
slowdown despite the eye-popping prices.
The appeal of Asia's growing middle class and rising
personal income pushed insurance takeovers in the region to a record $30.5
billion last year, according to S&P Capital IQ, a data compiler. At least
$5 billion more are in the pipeline and that's good news for bankers, lawyers
and shareholders such as Malaysia's AMMB Holdings Bhd , which is
shedding its life insurance unit.
For buyers, soaring valuations and increased
competition from foreign newcomers present a tough choice -- either pay through
the nose for a scarce, fast-growing business or wait for prices to settle and
potentially lose out to nimbler rivals.
There are signs that at least some potential buyers,
like South Korea's Samsung Life Insurance Co, are getting spooked by higher
deal valuations. Price to book value (P/B) ratios -- a key metric for valuing
banks and insurers -- for Asian deals have risen on average by 13 percent
between 2005 to 2012, while the same multiples across the world have shrunk.
"These deals have definitely gotten more
expensive," said Manulife's Financial Corp Asia Chief Marketing
Officer Philip Hampden-Smith, showing that even company executives are raising
their eyebrows at how far some buyers are willing to go.
"You've got to have financial discipline -- a deal
is only worth so much," he added.
Asian insurers trade at a median P/B ratio of 1.73,
according to Thomson Reuters data, nearly double their peers in the United
States and Europe. Some recent deals were struck at nearly twice the median P/B
ratio of Asian companies.
Just 5.8 percent of Asia's population is insured,
compared with 8.1 percent in the United States, and that is set to drive
insurance premium sales in emerging Asia at nearly three times the growth in
industrialised nations, Swiss Re says.
LOGISTICS
Century Logistics Holdings Bhd, an integrated
logistics service provider, expects more than 10% growth in revenue for the
current financial year ending Dec 31, 2013 (FY13), driven by its third-party
logistic services, warehouse facilities and document management storage, said
its finance director Edwin Yeap.
"We hope to do better than last year. Our
first-quarter results will be announced in the middle of next month," he
told reporters after the group's AGM here yesterday.
For FY12, Century Logistics saw its net profit and
revenue fall 41.4% and 8.8% to RM17.6 million and RM256.9 million respectively
from a year earlier, mainly due to lower contribution from its oil and gas
logistics business.
"It gets challenging each year (for the
logistics business due to the global economic environment). (But) we hope to
continue to win new customers through our innovative solutions," he said.
Century Logistics is currently constructing two
additional distribution centres at Port of Tanjong Pelepas (PTP) in Johor,
which will provide a combined warehousing capacity of 400,000 sq ft on the 6ha
piece of land.
Yeap said the first new distribution centre is
expected to be completed next week, while the second facility will be ready by
end-May.
This will bring the group's distribution centres at
PTP to three, with a combined warehousing capacity of 460,000 sq ft.
Yeap said the group is also refurbishing a 280,000
sq ft property in Port Klang, which was purchased in October 2012, to house its
procurement logistics operation.
In the Klang Valley, Century Logistics currently
owns three distribution centres with storage capacity of 370,000 sq ft.
Bourque
Logistics (BL), the leader in logistics software for industrial shippers,
introduces the latest version of RAILPort®. This web-based report tool
allows you to quickly customize and distribute reports of your own design and
requirements. In addition, the RAILPort® report writer offers Bourque
Logistics' base reports also known as "templates." These
time-saving template reports are provided for your convenience and allow you to
build your own customized reports using them as a base. RAILPort® 3.0 was
created to easily extract and format information sets from all of the Bourque
Logistics modules including RAILTRAC®, YardMaster®, eBILL®, RAILAcct®,
RateServer®, TransPay® and others. The FILTER function enables you to specify
the data you would like to see in your report or cut out data you wish to
eliminate. RAILPort® also offers the ability to customize the column, sort and
group sections and also calculate totals & averages.
MARKETING
Taiwanese
smartphone maker HTC Corp will struggle to improve its margins this year as
it increases marketing spend for its latest model in a bid to catch up to
rivals Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc.
HTC on Thursday forecast strong sales of its flagship HTC One smartphone to lift second-quarter revenues by almost two-thirds to T$70 billion ($2.37 billion).
Operating margins were also expected to widen to between 1 and 3 percent from the previous quarter's 0.1 percent, as HTC spends more on a campaign to improve its brand image. HTC's third-quarter 2012 operating margins were 7 percent.
"We're improving the HTC marketing execution. It's the first time since HTC developed its brand that we are really integrating brand, product and marketing all together," HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou told an investor conference call.
He did not give specific figures but the company said in March its digital media marketing budget for the first half of this year would increase 250 percent year-on-year, while the budget for traditional media will double.
Investors, however, were cautious about the HTC One's longer-term prospects as both Apple and Samsung have much deeper pockets and are more established brands.
"Samsung basically cornered the whole supply chain. To me, HTC is more of a product story: good product, higher stock price," said Hong Kong-based portfolio manager Michiel Van Voorst, who manages $1.2 billion in Asian equities for Robeco.
HTC on Thursday forecast strong sales of its flagship HTC One smartphone to lift second-quarter revenues by almost two-thirds to T$70 billion ($2.37 billion).
Operating margins were also expected to widen to between 1 and 3 percent from the previous quarter's 0.1 percent, as HTC spends more on a campaign to improve its brand image. HTC's third-quarter 2012 operating margins were 7 percent.
"We're improving the HTC marketing execution. It's the first time since HTC developed its brand that we are really integrating brand, product and marketing all together," HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou told an investor conference call.
He did not give specific figures but the company said in March its digital media marketing budget for the first half of this year would increase 250 percent year-on-year, while the budget for traditional media will double.
Investors, however, were cautious about the HTC One's longer-term prospects as both Apple and Samsung have much deeper pockets and are more established brands.
"Samsung basically cornered the whole supply chain. To me, HTC is more of a product story: good product, higher stock price," said Hong Kong-based portfolio manager Michiel Van Voorst, who manages $1.2 billion in Asian equities for Robeco.
ODISHA BUSINESS
Jindal Stainless, the largest domestic stainless
steel producer, is planning to double its Odisha plant capacity to 2 million
tonnes (MT), a top company official said today.
"I think 2 years from now, in 2015 we will start the expansion of Jajpur plant (in Odisha). We are planning to double it to 2 MT," Company's Vice Chairman and Managing Director Ratan Jindal told PTI on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Metal Recycling Association of India here.
When asked about proposed investment on expansion, he said, "It will not be a huge investment but I would not like to comment right now because in two years many things will change. So putting any figure will be incorrect at this time."
Moreover, the company is trying to reach optimum production capacity of 1 MT at the Odisha plant as early as possible and is hopeful of achieving 75% capacity utilisation in the current fiscal, he said.
In the just concluded FY13, the Odisha plant had produced at the rate of 40%.
"It (Odisha plant) has stabilised, we are picking up every month. Hopefully we will reach 75% capacity utilisation this fiscal. We hope to produce roughly about 7-7.5 lakh tonnes this year," Jindal said, adding that expansion will begin after present capacity reaching to 100% production levels.
"I think 2 years from now, in 2015 we will start the expansion of Jajpur plant (in Odisha). We are planning to double it to 2 MT," Company's Vice Chairman and Managing Director Ratan Jindal told PTI on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Metal Recycling Association of India here.
When asked about proposed investment on expansion, he said, "It will not be a huge investment but I would not like to comment right now because in two years many things will change. So putting any figure will be incorrect at this time."
Moreover, the company is trying to reach optimum production capacity of 1 MT at the Odisha plant as early as possible and is hopeful of achieving 75% capacity utilisation in the current fiscal, he said.
In the just concluded FY13, the Odisha plant had produced at the rate of 40%.
"It (Odisha plant) has stabilised, we are picking up every month. Hopefully we will reach 75% capacity utilisation this fiscal. We hope to produce roughly about 7-7.5 lakh tonnes this year," Jindal said, adding that expansion will begin after present capacity reaching to 100% production levels.
A Russian company has shown keen interest in setting
up an exclusive special economic zone (SEZ) in Odisha for producing titanium.
It has already forwarded a proposal in this regard
to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Commerce and Industry Ministry for
consideration.
The proposal by the Russian company, Technokhim,
revolves around setting up an Integrated Chemical and Metallurgical Complex
(ICMC) at the core and other SEZ industries around it. The project entails an
investment of around $2.1 billion, and is likely to be located at Chhatrapur,
Odisha. “During my visit to Russia recently, I conveyed to the Minister of
Economic Development, Andrey Belousov, and Minister of Industry and Trade,
Denis V. Manturov, the willingness of the Indian government to consider the
application for SEZ. We will provide all support for its implementation. If we
can take this project forward, it will be an important investment in high
technology sector,’’ Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told this
correspondent.
The Ministry of External Affairs had forwarded the
SEZ proposal to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). The
project would use advanced Russian technologies to produce various titanium
products.
“The project will be supported subject to adherence
to the SEZ policy which has witnessed some changes in the recent foreign trade
policy (FTP). The Government of Odisha, I am told, is also keen on the
project,” he added.
Mr. Sharma said the Russian Direct Investment Fund
(RDIF) and State Bank of India (SBI)have come together to launch a joint
investment fund which would act as a vehicle for enhancing mutual investments,
which, so far, had been transaction or deal-based. “The pooling in of the
expertise and resources shall make the process more methodical and render it
easy for our investors,” he added. The size of the present fund is up to $2
billion and SBI and RDIF will contribute $25 million each. It is proposed to
mobilise resources from public sector companies having interest in Russia.
_______________________________________________________________
Source of
Information for this issue: Google alert accessed on 29th and 30th Apr 2013
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Compilation
Sabita Sahu
Sabita Sahu
Junior Librarian
Concept, Layout and
Editing
Syamaghana Mohanty
Chief Librarian
Chief Librarian
Information and
Documentation Division, Chanakya Central Library
Asian School of
Business Management
Shiksha Vihar Bhola,
Barang Khurda Road,
Chandaka
Bhubaneswar-754012
Tel:0674-2374832, 2374833
E-mail:library@asbm.ac.in, chieflibrarian@asbm.ac.in
Sabita Sahu :Junior Librarian and Syamaghana Mohanty : Chief Librarian, Knowledge and Information Services Unit, Chanakya Central Library, Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar. chieflibrarian@asbm.ac.in ; www.asbm.ac.in
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