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Pantaloon Retail Q3 net up 71% at Rs 32 cr

Mumbai, April 26: Kishore Biyani-promoted Pantaloon Retail India on Friday announced a net profit of Rs 32.1 crore for the third quarter ended March 31, 2008, a 71.47 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year-ago.

The company had a net profit of Rs 18.72 crore in the third quarter ended March 31, 2007, the Future Group Company said in a BSE filing.

The total income rose to Rs 1,355.99 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 861.99 crore in the year-ago period. Shares of Pantaloon Retail closed at Rs 478.40, up 3.64 per cent on the BSE yesterday.

ICICI Bank FY`08 net up 34%

Mumbai, April 26: India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Saturday posted a 34% rise in net profits in FY'08 at Rs 4,158 crore against Rs 3,110 crore last year on the back of good growth in fee income.

"A healthy growth of 27% in net interest income and 32% in fee income has contributed to our net profit growth," ICICI Bank Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar told reporters here.

The bank's net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, rose 39% to Rs 1,150 crore from Rs 825 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Despite a 20% drop in Treasury income due to volatile equity market conditions in Q4, the bank recorded a 32% growth in fee income at Rs 6,627 crore.

For Q4 alone, the treasury income dropped by 63% at Rs 164 crore.

The board has recommended a dividend of 110% or Rs 11 per equity share subject to requisite approvals.

The net interest income grew by 30% to Rs 7,304 crore in 2008 from Rs 5,637 crore in 2007, Kochhar said.

The credit growth for the year stood at 15% with a 3% expansion in retail banking and 20% in corporate.

"Of the total credit portfolio, we sold off assets of Rs 14,000 crore, all of which was retail. If we factor this in, the credit growth will be 26%," she said.

On the outlook for the new year, she maintained that credit growth would remain flat at 14-15%.

IDBI Q4 net up 15%

Mumbai, April 26: Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) on Saturday announced a net profit of Rs 244.99 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, a 14.72 percent growth over the corresponding period a year-ago.

The bank had a net profit of Rs 213.55 crore in the fourth quarter of the financial year ended march 31, 2007, IDBI said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The total income of the bank rose to Rs 2,628.2 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 2,185.35 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank has announced a net profit of Rs 746.59 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2008, a 26.90 percent growth over the corresponding period a year-ago.

The bank had a net profit of Rs 588.31 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2007.

The total income of the bank rose to Rs 9,963.11 crore for the fiscal year ended March 31, from Rs 7,516.82 crore in the year-ago period.

For the financial year ended March 31, 2008 the bank had a stand-alone net profit of Rs 729.45 crore, a growth of 15.73 percent over the corresponding period last year.

The stand-alone total income of the bank for the year ended March 31 rose to Rs 9,656.31 crore, from Rs 7,372.6 crore in the year-ago period.

For the year ended March 31, the board of directors has declared a dividend of Rs two on every share of face value of Rs 10 held.

Shares of the bank closed at Rs 103.90, up 1.76 percent on the BSE on Friday.

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Ambanis world`s richest together; Mittal richest in Europe

London, April 27: Indian-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is the richest man in Europe with his fortune estimated at a staggering 27.7 billion pounds, even as he emerged as Britain's wealthiest person for fourth year in a row. Over all, the steel baron, whose wealth saw a whopping increase of 8.5 billion pounds in a year, is the sixth richest in the world, a rich-list published by the Sunday Times said on Sunday.

His company ArcelorMittal is now worth more than 57.2 billion pounds and the Mittal family's 43 per cent stake is worth 24.6 billion pounds.

According to the list, the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, although they have parted ways, together were rated as the richest in the world at a combined worth of 43 billion pounds, ahead of America's Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart (38.4 billion) and Microsoft chief Bill Gates (29 bn pounds).

There were two more Indian entries in the list of 50 richest in the world in 2008 - K P Singh (property - 15 billion pounds and Shashi and Ravi Ruia (steel, oil telecoms - 7.5 billion pounds).

Meanwhile, the Hinduja brothers, S P Hinduja and G P Hinduja, Chairman and President, respectively of the group were Britain's second richest with 6.2 billion pounds.

Leading NRI entrepreneur Lord Swraj Paul was the fourth among the ten richest Asians in Britain, the list said. The London-based Caparo Group of 77-year-old Lord Paul, British Ambassador for Overseas Business, is making hefty investments in the booming Indian economy. In 2006, its profits were 55 million pounds on 660 million pounds sales. The richest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their wealth quadruple under the Labour regime.

The collective wealth of the 1,000 richest has jumped to 412 billion pounds, up from 99 billion pounds in 1997. Total net wealth during the same period has slightly more than doubled.

Among others in the richest Asians in Britain were Anil Agarwal (mining, 2.45 b pounds), the Jatania brothers (toiletries, 1.1 b pounds, Sir Anwar Pervez (cash and carry, 717m pounds) and Bhikhu and Vijay Patel (Pharmaceuticals, 520 m pounds).

Tom Singh (Fashion, 464 m pounds), Gulu Lalvani (Consumer electronics, 450 m pounds) and Naresh Goyal (Airlines, 420 m pounds) also figured in the elite list.

From 1998 to 2005, the Mittals had 1.57 billion pounds in dividends from its steel operations. Mittal is also a shareholder in Queens Park Rangers, a football club in the UK.

If that was not enough, the 57-year-old entrepreneur, not content with running the world's biggest steel company, ArcelorMittal, has submitted a bid for the ailing steel plant of his brother Pramod in Kremikovtzi.

The report said when the Hinduja Group celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2014, it is estimated that 25 billion pounds will have been pumped into the Indian economy via investments in industry or infrastructure projects.

The Hinduja property portfolio in India is growing with plans to develop sites in Bangalore and Hyderabad, each valued at about 2 billion pounds.

Mining group Vedanta Resources, owned by Anil Agarwal, plans to spend 2.5 billion pounds building an aluminium plant in West Bengal.

As per the list, Naresh Goyal and family's wealth has declined from 512 million pounds to 420 million pounds during the year.

IFCI board may discuss stake sale

New Delhi, April 27: After failing in its effort to rope in a strategic partner last year, IFCI board may take up the stake sale process again at its board meeting scheduled for April 29.

It is not the part of the board`s agenda but may come up for discussion during the meeting, a company source told agencies.

There are certain non-agenda items that come up for discussion, he said, adding that the board meeting is primarily to finalise the results for financial year 2007-08.

IFCI board had aborted the process for equity sale to a strategic partner, rejecting the demand for management control by the successful bidder in December last year.

NRI billionaire Anil Aggarwal-led Sterlite Industries, jointly with Global Investment Banking giant Morgan Stanley, had emerged as the front-runner by quoting the highest price.

Speaking about the stake sale two months back, IFCI CEO and Managing Director Atul Rai had said it has no immediate proposal to go for another bidding, but in the medium term may require an "angel investor".

"We have got back solvency of the company. We have ability to do fresh business. But over the medium term it will not do harm to this company if it can find the partner who will provide it with the necessary vision, people and support," he said.

Finance minister P Chidambaram had also backed IFCI`s decision to reject the bid offer in December, but said the company could get more offers when a rebidding is initiated.

He did not give a timeframe for the rebidding.

Tata-one of the largest global brands

London, April 27: Tata, one of India's biggest group of companies on an acquisition spree has emerged as one of the largest global brands, according to a UK-based independent consultancy firm.

Valued at USD 11.4 billion, Tata is ranked 57th among top 100 brands listed by Brand Finance, an independent company focused on the management and valuation of brands.

Coca-Cola heads the list followed by fellow American companies Microsoft, Google, Wal-Mart, IBM and GE while UK's HSBC is placed 7th.

Expressing his happiness, R Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of Tata Sons, and member of the Group Corporate Centre said it was a first for an Indian brand to be listed among the world's largest.

"For the first time, an Indian brand has got into the list of the largest global brands, although it is number 57 and they have valued it at USD 11.4 billion," he said.

Referring to recent acquisitions, Gopalakrishnan said "each of them have a strategic significance for the company.

"If you see the three biggest acquisitions in value, the Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus is the biggest. When completed and approved, Ford's Jaguar and Land Rover will be second and the third will be Tata chemicals' purchase of General Chemicals."

He said the total amount of acquisitions done by Tata is probably around USD 25 billion in the last 4 to 5 years and "apart from the apparent glamour, it is hard work."

"A lot of Tata companies are focussed on extracting value from these acquisitions by setting up integration committees, by cutting costs, by enhancing values, market access, so on and so forth," Gopalakrishnan said.

MS deadline to ***** passes without a word

Washington, April 27: Microsoft Corp's deadline to ***** to accept its USD 40 billion-plus offer passed without a word, setting the stage for the next act in the corporate drama.

In an open letter to the ***** board of directors on April 5, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave the Internet giant three weeks to accept the USD 31 dollar per share bid - an offer which expired - or face a hostile takeover. He also warned that Microsoft could drop its bid price. The ultimatum followed *****'s repeated rejection of Microsoft's February 1 bid, saying it is too low and one that undervalues the company.

Analysts are divided about what Microsoft's next move would be, with some expecting Microsoft to go direct to ***** shareholders to oust its board, while others believe that Microsoft could simply walk away from the deal.

In fact, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell made clear this week that the company was prepared to drop the bid. He told company employees on Friday "We put what anyone reasonable would say was an incredibly generous offer on the table to try to facilitate a speedy transaction. We've been disappointed in the speed at which the transaction went."

He said Microsoft had publicly signaled what its alternatives were if the two companies failed to reach a deal by the weekend. "And our alternatives then, are to try to facilitate a transition, to possibly go directly to ***** shareholders. Or, to walk away and go back to our original organic strategy. We'll see what next week brings," he added.

There is no doubt that Microsoft could live without *****, but acquiring ***** would put it in a much better position to compete against Google in the Internet search and advertising arena.

Sensex could hit 18,300 in a few weeks
28 Apr, 2008, 0313 hrs IST,

Major indices posted weekly gains for the third time in a row. For the latest week, the Sensex and Nifty closed above the crucial levels of 17,000 and 5,100 respectively, up 3% over the previous week’s close.

The rally was backed mainly by momentum stocks like Reliance Capital, RNRL, Reliance Communications, Reliance Power, HDIL, Lanco Infratech, India Infoline and Adlabs Films. Traders have taken an active interest in mid-size stocks like Chambal Fertilisers, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra, JP Hydro, Arvind Mills and MRPL. Volumes were above average. This indicates that traders are slowly regaining their confidence.

Technical Aspect: Last Monday, the market opened higher on the back of strong positive global cues. The opening was gap up. The most interesting part was that it held throughout the week. This must have set the tone for the strong rally on Friday. It was the first gap up opening on a weekly and daily basis between 4,985 and 4,991 for the Nifty (16,570 and 16,589 for the Sensex). It shows that bulls are impatient and moving in for the kill, while the bears are suddenly finding themselves on the backfoot as the move was against their expectations.

The coming week would be more event-based. The trend of the market may depend mainly on the outcome of events (RBI credit policy, which is slated for April 29, and the outcome of the US Federal Reserve meeting on May 1). Both events are crucial, and will set the tone for the near-term trend. We feel that even in case of any adverse development, there is no likelihood of a steep downtrend. Technically, the market appears poised for an uptrend in the short term, medium term as well as long term.

Also, all major world indices, specifically Dow Jones, Hang Seng, Nikkei and FTSE, were in the positive territory. Our markets have a direct correlation to these markets. Last, but not the least, is that except capital goods, all sectoral indices turned positive last week. This may help lift sentiment for the next couple of weeks.

There is a fair chance the market may reach 18,300 and 5,375 in the coming few weeks, as the trend is strongly placed on the positive side. However, the short-term trend seems to be over-retraced (not overbought as open outstanding positions are still at their lowest levels of the year). It is approaching the major hurdle of 17,300/5,200. This is the 38% retracement level of the entire fall between 21,206 and 14,677 (6,357 and 4,449 for the Nifty).

Even the levels of the 200-day simple moving averages are pretty close to it (17,380 for the Sensex and 5,150 for the Nifty). One must be cautious around these levels and avoid buying those stocks which are far away from their recent support levels.

On the lower side, the levels of 16,500/4,900 may act as major supports for the market. One can search for buying opportunities in oil and gas, metals, power and, especially private sector bank stocks, as these sectors show a greater potential to ride the bull run. This may happen between 16,000 and 18,000 for the Sensex (4,800 and 5,400 for the Nifty).

The author is VP, technical research, Kotak Securities