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Arun sarin of vodafone resigns.details awaited.....................?

VISA Steel reports quantum jump in profit

Kolkata, May 28: VISA Steel Limited, part of the VISA group, Wednesday reported a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 209.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2007-08, showing a quantum jump of 3,129 percent over the corresponding period of the previous year.

The PAT for 2007-08 grew by 110 percent to Rs 431.5 million on revenue of Rs 6.82 billion.

VISA Steel managing director Vishal Agarwal said: 'The growth in revenue and profits during 2007-08 have been driven by better realisations across products like pig iron, coke and ferro chrome combined with higher volume growth in the coke and ferro chrome operations.'

The company plans to set up a 1,200 MW power plant in Chhattisgarh. It has already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for this project with the state government and is awaiting clearance from the environment and forests ministry.

It plans to double its ferro chrome production capacity to 1,00,000 tonnes by investing Rs 800 million.

Reliance Money debuts in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, May 28: Reliance Money, a retail broker based in India, ventured into Hong Kong on Tuesday, kicking off an alliance with a local brokerage house to give investors access to two fast growing markets in Asia.

Reliance, a subsidiary of Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital Ltd, formed a partnership with Goldride Securities, which is headed by the former Hong Kong Stockbrokers Association chairman Anthony Espina, to provide services and technology for investors in China, Hong Kong and India.

"Why India and China? Because they are the two largest populations in the world and they are the two fastest growing economies in the world," said Goldride's Espina.

China's domestic stock markets are off-limits to most overseas investors, who instead usually buy shares of Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong.

Through the tie-up, Reliance would give customers either in India or Hong Kong access to its stock trading platform, portfolio management services and its investment tools.

Goldride would provide access to potential retail and institutional clients interested in investing directly in India.

The minimum for investment is USD 50,000 and the fees would be dependent on meeting agreed upon investment targets.

Though stocks in both India and Hong Kong have fallen in 2008, they have risen sharply in the last three years. From 2005 to 2007, India's BSE index surged 206 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 94 percent. Earlier this month, Reliance launched India's first sharia-compliant portfolio management scheme in partnership with Islamic investment service Parsoli Corporation Ltd.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and chief executive of Reliance Money, said the scheme is seeing "significant" demand and has attracted USD 25 million in the last few weeks.

Tata Motors profit dips to Rs 21.67bn

Mumbai, May 28: Tata Motors has posted a net profit of Rs 21.67 billion for the financial year 2007-08 -- down from Rs 21.69 billion during the previous year.

The company reported a consolidated gross revenue of Rs 403.40 billion in 2007-08, a growth of 9.3 percent compared to Rs 369.22 billion in 2006-07.

The company has reported a Basic Earnings Per Share (EPS) of Rs 56.24 for its consolidated operations as against Rs 56.43 in 2006-07.

The total sales volume (including exports) for 2007-08 is 585,649 units, which is highest so far for the company, compared to 580,280 units in 2006-07.

In the domestic market, commercial vehicles' sales increased by 4.8 percent to 312,935 units while passenger vehicles' sales, at 218,055 units, declined by 4.5 percent.

The company's margins were under pressure during the year due to rising interest rates, constraints in availability of vehicle financing from outside sources and unprecedented increase in input prices, the company said in a statement.

Anil Ambani`s RTVL invests in Seattle-based Pelago Inc

Mumbai, May 27: Anil Ambani-group run Reliance Technology Ventures Limited (RTVL), on Tuesday said that it has invested in the Seattle-based, early-stage company, Pelago Inc.

RTVL, however, did not disclose the amount invested in the US company.

RTVL is the corporate venture capital arm of the Reliance ADA Group and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital.

RTVL`s CEO, Harshal Shah, said in a statement issued here that "Pelago offers consumers and advertisers a unique proposition by combining local search and discovery with an underlying social networking flavour. While it offers consumers to discover, rate and review places and events, Pelago also enables advertisers to get better ROI (Return on Investment) through its highly precise location-based advertising platform."

Pelago offers a new break-through mobile and web-based service under the brand name ‘Whrrl’. The service catalogues peoples` activities, chronicling an individual`s history of places visited and events attended through icons pinpointed on Whrrl`s built-in mapping application.

Whrrl-users and their friends can then rate, review and comment on these places and events, the statement said.

The Whrrl service is currently available nationally in the US with a database of millions of interesting businesses and events.

Pelago`s CEO, Jeff Holden, said that "Whrrl allows you to discover the world through the eyes of your friends and other people you trust. In this way, it makes a person`s social network valuable in a completely new way."

New York cotton futures end mixed
NEW YORK (May 29 2008): Cotton futures closed mixed Wednesday as trade and suspected consumer buying wiped out most of the early losses from investor sales, with brokers saying the market may see some consolidation in the days ahead.

The benchmark July cotton contract rose 0.24 cent to end at 66.49 cents per lb, trading from 65.11 to 67.20 cents. New-crop December shed 0.07 cent to finish at 74.94 cents, ranging from 73.79 to 75.50 cents.

Volume in the July contract stood at 13,731 lots at 3:03 p.m. EDT (1903 GMT), while December volume was 8,790 lots. "There is a very good chance that cotton prices have now reached a near-term bottom, supported by demand, and will begin a consolidation phase," said Mike Stevens, an analyst for brokers SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana.

He added that "fresh demand along with fixations began to pick up yesterday. (They) were evident again overnight as well as on the break this morning." On a fundamental level, the market is monitoring development of the cotton crop for the 2008/09 marketing year (August/July).

Forecaster DTN Meteorlogix said the key growing area of Texas should get light showers through Sunday. Market sources said there were numerous reports of hail in Texas, which will likely produce about half of all US cotton, along with beneficial rains soaking the ground near the end of the spring planting season.

In other news, China said it will reduce tariffs on cotton imported in excess of annual quotas to ease prices for the domestic and clothing industry. Dealers said the move may help spur some buying by China, the world's top consumer of cotton and a major importer of fiber from the United States. Brokers Flanagan Trading Corp sees support in the July cotton contract at 66.40 and 65.75 cents, with resistance at 67.50 and 68.30 cents.

Volume traded Tuesday in the cotton market hit 33,593 lots, exchange data showed. Open interest in the cotton market rose 1,519 lots to 268,743 lots as of May 27, it said.

Videocon plans $1.4 bln power project

New Delhi, May 29: Videocon Group is planning to invest 60 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) in a 1,000-megawatt hydro power project in north India, Chairman Venugopal Dhoot told reporters.

The group was in talks with potential partners in the United States, he said.

Microsoft not keen to merge: *****

California, May 29: Chief Executive Jerry Yang said on Wednesday a potential deal with Microsoft has tremendous power, but the software giant appears no longer interested in a full merger.

In his most public comments to date about his thinking on the four-month-old, on-again, off-again Microsoft merger saga, Yang signaled his company remained open to a potential deal, but said Microsoft had ruled out a merger for now.

Earlier this month, Microsoft walked away from a proposal to acquire ***** for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, after ***** rebuffed its offer, saying it would only settle for $37 a share.

"We did not walk away from that proposal. Microsoft did," Yang said during an on-stage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference taking place near San Diego on Wednesday. He said he had felt a combination with Microsoft would have had a "tremendous amount of power."

In mid-May the two companies said they had begun discussions on an unspecified deal that is short of a merger. "Microsoft is no longer interested in buying the company, and we are talking about other things. We definitely have to understand what they're proposing...they clearly have an interest in *****, and we need to understand more," Yang said.

Last week, a source familiar with the latest round of discussions said Microsoft has proposed buying *****'s search business and taking a minority stake in the Web pioneer, but has stopped stopping short of reinitiating full merger negotiations.

As part of such a deal, ***** would sell its Asian assets including significant minority stakes in ***** Japan and China's Alibaba Group, while Microsoft would buy a chunk of what remains of the company, the source said.

In an on-stage interview at the "D" conference on Tuesday, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer suggested discussions had broken down largely over price. "It became clear there was a difference between the bid and ask," he said, using stock trader terms.

In its original unsolicited takeover offer in late January, Microsoft offered $31 a share in a half-cash, half-stock bid, to buy *****, which valued it at $44.6 billion. ***** responded by saying it was open to a deal but the offer was too low.

Ballmer repeated on Tuesday that Microsoft had "moved on" but stopped short of saying the mating dance between Microsoft and ***** was over. "We are not re-bidding for the company," he said, but added: "We reserve the right to do so."

In the Wednesday interview conducted by Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, Yang said a merger with Microsoft would involve a variety of issues beyond price. He said discussions between the two had never thoroughly explored such non-price hurdles, including regulatory issues.

***** President Susan Decker, appearing alongside Yang on stage, said price had always been the biggest barrier to reaching agreement on a deal with Microsoft. "We never got through the price door ... once we could have gone through it, then other issues could have been discussed."

Yang argued a competing deal between ***** and Google made sense but no deal had been reached.

Man Group year profit surges 60%

London, May 29: Man Group, the world's biggest listed hedge fund, posted a 60 per cent rise in annual profit on Thursday and said it was seeing strong growth in funds under management despite uncertain financial markets.

Man said it made profit before tax from continuing operations of 2.08 billion pounds ($4.1 billion)in the year ended March 31, driven by a 161 percent increase in net performance fee income.

Ashok Leyland shares hit by big capex plan

Mumbai, May 28: Shares of India's No. 2 truck and bus maker, Ashok Leyland, are being weighed down by a large capex plan but exports, higher component sales and a focus on the defence sector will help, analysts said.

Leyland, the flagship of the diversified Hinduja Group, aims to spend Rs 30 billion (USD 700 million) in capex over the next three years to more than double capacity from 84,000 vehicles to take on leader Tata Motors as well as new entrants.

This week it firmed up ventures with Nissan Motor for light trucks, powertrains and technology with an investment of Rs 23 billion for production starting in 2010/11.

"We believe that the large capex, in light of subdued demand in the near to medium term, will weigh down earnings growth," said Viraaj Teckchandani at ASK Securities, which has a "hold" rating on the stock.

Leyland shares have fallen about 30 percent since the start of the year, compared with a 20 percent decline for the auto sector index as well as the main share index.

Its shares were at Rs 36.65 by 0710 GMT and trade at 10.1 times forecast earnings, compared with a multiple of 12.1 times for Tata Motors.

Better roads and tougher emission and safety rules are boosting demand for trucks, but firm interest rates have dampened demand, particularly for more profitable heavy trucks.

Leyland sold 83,307 vehicles in 2007/08, nearly flat from a year earlier.

It recorded higher sales of spares and engines, as well as exports to South East Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, and has set up a sourcing office in China for components.

It has forecast a "high single-digit growth" in 2008/09, after posting a 6.4 percent increase in net profit for 2007/08.

"The rising interest burden is expected to restrict profit growth going forward," said Aniket Mhatre at Prabhudas Lilladher, which has a "market performer" rating on the stock.

Leyland has raised about USD 200 million in overseas debt, and plans to raise about Rs 7-9 billion more. Higher interest costs will further pressure margins, Teckchandani said.

The Leyland-Nissan venture will have an initial capacity of 100,000 vehicles in a range of up to 7.5 tonnes, a segment that is growing fast in a market with annual sales of nearly half a million units -- the world's fifth-biggest.

But Leyland will not only have to contend with the popularity of Tata Motors' sub-1-tonne Ace, but also new rivals in Bajaj Auto, and ventures of Mahindra & Mahindra with a Navistar unit, Eicher Motors with Volvo and Force Motors with MAN.