Lipton Kiosks to Compete Coffee Day – Serve Ice-Creams too
Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is planning to extend its out of home (OOH) business by establishing kiosks under its Lipton brand.
The company plans to setup 50 kiosks at corporate parks, railway stations and airports.
The new experiential kiosks would serve mocktails and health-oriented beverages from HUL’s beverage brands, unlike the usual vending machines. Beside it would also serve ice-creams.
The company will run the kiosks on a 10 by 10 square feet area on a franchise model. RetailMantra has the best coverage on Kiosk Retailing in India.
Spencer’s Retail likely to post Rs 250 cr loss this fiscal
Spencer’s Retail, belonging to the RPG Group, is expected to report a net loss of around Rs 250 crore for the current fiscal. However, analysts state that the company will be in a position to reduce its losses in the next fiscal.
As part of its austerity measures, the company has decided to shut stores totalling 25% of its retail area and is expected to incur expenses of Rs 100 crore towards this end. In a related development, parent CESC has affirmed plans to infuse up to Rs 175 crore in Spencer’s Retail in the next fiscal. The former has pumped in Rs 250 crore in 2008-09.
The fund infusion plan is not expected to impact CESC’s expansion initiatives.
TI Cycles launches Rs 2 lakh worth bicycle
TI Cycles, a unit of Tube Investments of India promoted by the Murugappa Group, has launched a bicycle worth a whopping Rs 2 lakh.
The cycle is 3 to 5 kilos lighter than existing cycles and each aspect of the cycle has been handcrafted and fitted with tubeless tyres equipped with cutting-edge technology in shock absorbers and gears.
The company hopes to ride with 7,000 people as more and more urban Indians are taking to cycles to reach their offices or ride it for recreational reasons. Reports quoted that the cycle market in India is growing at a rate of 25% annually.
TI Cycles has set up dedicated service centers for this cycle where it can be overhauled just like a car. Besides, the rider can also purchase genuine spares, components, merchandise as well as cycling apparels.
TI is planning to invest around Rs 10 crore for marketing and retailing these cycles and is aiming to sell more than 1,000 units in the next fiscal.
Any Bank – Any ATM card – Cash Widthdrawl for Free from April-1st
No this is not an April Fool’s Joke. But w.r.t RBI/2007-2008/260 DPSS No.1405 / 02.10.02 / 2007-2008, Based on the feed back a framework of service charges would be implemented by all banks as under:
- For use of own ATMs for any purpose – Free (in effect)
- For use of other bank ATMs for balance enquiries – Free (in effect)
- For use of other bank ATMs for cash withdrawals – No bank shall increase the charges prevailing as on December 23, 2007 (i.e. the date of release of Approach Paper on RBI website). Banks which are charging more than Rs.20 per transaction shall reduce the charges to a maximum of Rs.20 per transaction by March 31, 2008and finally, Free – with effect from April 1, 2009.
For the services at (1) and (2) above, the customer will not be levied any charge under any other head and the service will be totally free.
For the service number (3) the charge of Rs.20/- indicated will be all inclusive and no other charges will be levied to the customers under any other head irrespective of the amount of withdrawal.
Crompton Greaves – Avantha Power acquisition concerns
Management discussed the Avantha Power acquisition with analysts, presenting data points on its power projects that suggest valuation is reasonable. However, we are disappointed with the use of CG’s cash flows to fund a non-core promoter-owned business, as well as absence of early disclosure of the transaction.
Poor Corporate Governance: In the past, management had consistently denied any desire to fund Avantha. The communication on the agenda for the board meeting on March 24th was restricted to the buyback. Had the intention to buy a stake in Avantha been disclosed then, the stock may not have risen 13% in a week. CG’s investment of Rs2.27B is below the threshold that requires shareholder approval – a process that might expose the deal to closer scrutiny; noncore foray for a T&D major, in our view.
Management has emphasized that the investment is at book value of Rs11 per share. For a capacity of 165MW, we would attribute
(165MW*Rs40mn/MW*30% equity) or Rs2B, which is the cost of setting up new capacities. The valuation of Rs5.5B for the deal implies that CG has paid a premium for the 600MW Korba project, which, as per management, is in an advanced stage of commencement of construction
ICICI Prudential Life inks pact with PNB for premium payments
Private insurance major ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has entered into an agreement with public sector lending major – Punjab National Bank (PNB) – to facilitate premium payments through the bank.
This is the first of its kind tie-up between a private sector insurer and a state-run bank.
As per the deal, the customers of ICICI Prudential can make their premium payments in cash, cheque, demand draft or direct debit through over 10,000 touch points of PNB across India.
Initially the service will be offered in five states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana and West Bengal and would be extended to the other states later.
PNB had recently entered into a bancassurance agreement with insurance major Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) wherein the lender would sell insurance LIC policies through its branches.
Indian Banks Environment to turn tougher
We expect business conditions for Indian banks to get tougher given decelerating credit demand, falling margins and worsening asset quality (NPAs to rise 3x over FY09-11). Among banks, we prefer ICICI Bank, Axis, PNB, BoB and UBI for their cautious asset growth, ample NPA coverage and sizeable CASA base.
After deflation through most of FY10, our economist expects price instability, leading to lower private investment and durables consumption. Given this, we expect credit growth to decelerate to 15.1% in FY10, and slip sharply to 7.6% in FY11 – resulting in an 11.5% CAGR in bank credit over FY09-11.
Aggressive monetary easing would make credit cheaper. Banks, however, would not have much flexibility to lower deposit rates as small savers would have other attractive investment avenues open to them. Though margins would come under pressure, we expect CRR cuts to soften the impact.
We expect NPAs to increase three-fold over FY09-11, yet they would be at manageable levels of around 4.5% vs around 20% during the previous peak NPAs in the 1990s. Banks today are also better capitalized and credit growth is broad-based.
GMR Promoters Raise stake to 74.71%
GMR Infrastructure Ltd has informed BSE that GMR Holdings Pvt. Ltd (‘GHPL’), promoter and holding Company of GMR Infrastructure Ltd (“the Company”) has purchased 38,00,000 on March 20, 2009 Equity Shares of Rs 2/- each through open market purchase in normal segment on the Stock Exchanges.
Consequent to the aforesaid acquisition of 38,00,000 Equity Shares, GHPL now holds 136,03,73,238 (74.719%) Equity Shares of Rs 2/- each of the Company.
BHEL exhibits confidence on execution of Aravali Power
BHEL’s project site at Jhajjhar, Haryana is a large 1,500 MW site (three units of 500 MW each). It belongs to the Aravali Power Co., 51% owned by the National Thermal Power Corp. (NTPC), 25% by the Haryana government. This project has been fast-tracked since it is expected to start supplying electricity in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Against planned execution of 21% of the project, BHEL has executed 13% due to delays in other parts of the project. Despite this, however, BHEL is confident of completing its part on time.
While the project has been placed on a fast track some challenges remain due to possible delay on others’ part. The areas of concern are obtaining canal water, the ash handling plant and a railway feeder line for coal supplies.
HP launches storage virtualization solutions – Virtual Array 6400 and 8400
HP today launched new storage virtualization solutions – StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 6400 and 8400 (EVA6400/8400) and the enhanced SAN Virtualization Services Platform 2.1 (SVSP 2.1) that change the economics of customers’ infrastructures by reducing costs and better leveraging existing technology investments.
Technology plays a major role in determining an organization’s success before, during and after a downturn. In a 2007 survey, 99 percent of chief executive officers said technology is integral to the success of their companies.(2) Additionally, in a new study conducted across Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe and Middle East, 48 percent of respondents from Asia Pacific indicated they see the current economic climate as an opportunity to restructure their technology environments for the future.(3)
Hemant Tiwari, Director, Enterprise Servers & Storage, Technology Solutions Group, HP India said,
Winning CIOs are focused on both strategic cost reductions and supporting long-term business growth. It’s not about spending more: best-in-class IT organizations spend about half as much as the average company on technology as a percentage of revenue. Instead, they strategically spend and prioritize technology investments. HP offers an unprecedented range of solutions to help organizations emerge stronger when the economy recovers
The new StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 6400 and 8400 (EVA6400 and EVA8400) is a highly reliable, easy-to-use and cost-effective storage solution designed for enterprise customers. This virtualized storage system is optimized for performance as well as capacity, and automatically grows or shrinks as applications demand. Integrated data protection software offerings provide real-time data replication, migration and quick-restore services between multiple arrays without disrupting service.
Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, HP StorageWorks Division, HP India at the occasion said,
The current economic environment is dramatically changing how businesses operate. While difficult, these times do create opportunities for agile businesses to seize a stronger market position,” says . “With virtualization innovations surrounding storage devices, networks and applications, HP is helping customers optimize performance and adapt quickly to change.