Andhranews

Mumbai, Sept. 22: Weighing in on the ongoing tussle between Jet Airways Ltd and Air Sahara, over their soured merger proposal, the Bombay high court on Friday allowed Jet Airways to withdraw Rs 1,500 crores deposited by it in an escrow account for acquiring rival Air Sahara. However, in an interim order in all the four cases related to the merger, Justice D.K. Deshmukh said Jet Airways will require to put up a bank guarantee of the same amount.

“Jet Airways will have the right to withdraw Rs 1,500 crores against a bank guarantee of the same amount,” Justice Deshmukh said. He said the amount in the escrow account, maintained at ICICI Bank’s Nariman Point branch in Mumbai, will be returned to Jet Airways, while the interest accrued on the Rs 1,500 crores will go to Air Sahara.

The formalities regarding the escrow account and all other related disputes will be decided by the arbitration tribunal, the court said. Jet Airways’ counsel Harish Salve told reporters the airline company will submit the bank guarantee (for the same amount) on Monday. “Now Jet has got the right to withdraw the amount in the escrow account. This is an interim order, which shall be modified subjected to the arbitration tribunal’s decision,” he said.

According to Air Sahara’s lawyers, the interest rate applicable on the account was five per annum, a CRISIL MarketWire report said. Mr Salve said this ruling will provide interim relief to the private airline, which was incurring an interest loss of Rs 22 lakhs per day. The petition pertaining to the Rs 5-billion personal guarantee given to Air Sahara’s promoter Subrata Roy will be heard in Bombay high court in November. The arbitration tribunal comprises of retired Supreme Court Chief Justices S.P. Bharucha and B.P. Jeevan Reddy.

The tribunal will hear the case on October 9. In August, the Supreme Court transferred two petitions filed by Air Sahara in a Lucknow court to the Bombay high court for hearing. Jet Airways had already filed two separate petitions before the Bombay high court. “With respect to various clauses of the escrow, pledge and guarantee agreement, we are of the view that ends of justice will be met at one court, namely the Bombay high court,” the Supreme Court had said.

Mumbai, Sept. 22: Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) has replaced Infosys Technologies as the country’s biggest IT firm and second biggest private sector company in terms of the market capitalisation. TCS, the country’s largest software exporter, on Friday achieved a market cap of Rs 1.02 lakh crores, surpassing Rs 1.01 lakh crores of its closest rival in the IT space, Infosys.

TCS has also replaced Infosys as the country’s fourth most-valued publicly listed corporate entity after ONGC, RIL and NTPC. TCS had re-entered the Rs 1 trillion market-cap league earlier on September 20. Wipro retained its position as the third-largest IT firm with a market cap of Rs 74.5 lakh crores at the end of Friday’s trading session.

TCS had attained a market cap of about Rs 1,00,550 crores with a surge of 1.71 per cent in its share price to Rs 1,027.50 at the Bombay Stock Exchange. The country’s largest software exporter had first hit the 1 trillion bracket on April 18, 2006, but had failed to sustain at that level.

Currently, TCS and Infosys are the only two IT companies with a market cap of over Rs 1 trillion, while Wipro has also previously breached this level. Wipro, whose current market-cap stands at about Rs 74,000 crores, is the only company to have attained a market cap of Rs 2 lakh crores, which was achieved on February 2, 2000.

Hyderabad, Sept. 22: Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHE), which runs Apollo Hospitals, is in talks with JP Morgan for a partnership to develop a multi-specialty hospital project in Mumbai, that would entail an investment of Rs 700 crores.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday to announce Apollo Hospitals’ partnership with John Hopkins for cardiac research, Mr Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of AHE said, “The Mumbai joint venture project is currently under negotiation. JP Morgan is keen on picking up 60 per cent equity in the project.”

AHE is on an expansion spree in the country. Apart from the Mumbai project, AHE has planned new hospitals in Bangalore and Bhubhaneswar and is also considering setting up projects in Allahabad or Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. In the overseas market, AHE has plans to set up hospitals in Europe and the Americas, which are expected to act as a channel for patients seeking access to not-so-expensive health services being offered in India by the Apollo Group.

Speaking on the Sri Lankan exit, Mr Reddy expressed his concern over the development where the group lost its management role in the hospital and in future intends to change the equity structure for joint venture projects. Apollo tendered its entire holding of 52 million shares or 33.22 per cent stake in favour of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Ltd (SLIC) at Sri Lankan Rs (SLR) 28 a share.

“In the backdrop of such developments, we now plan to increase our stake in the projects where Apollo owns less than 51 per cent equity in a phased manner,” Dr Reddy said.

Hyderabad, Sept. 22: In what aptly sums up the turbulent times that the Indian aviation sector is undergoing, low-cost airline Air Deccan on Friday said it posted a loss of Rs 340.55 crore on revenues of Rs 1,340 crore for the 15-month period ended June 30.
Deccan Aviation, which runs Air Deccan, said, “The financial performance was impacted by various factors including the increase in fuel and other input costs and introduction of 20 new aircraft and the addition of 56 new routes besides rising personnel costs.”

Earlier this month Air Deccan managing director G.R. Gopinath, in an interaction with reporters here had said, “We are targeting a turnaround in 2008.” Air Deccan’s competitors too are not making profits. With profitless growth being the order of the day, Jet Airways and SpiceJet Ltd have reported losses in recent quarters, a trend which experts do not expect ending before late 2008.

“We are working on innovative financial structures which will strengthen our finances and support our growth strategy. Especially over the next 8-12 months which will see fierce competition with the entry of new players,” Capt. Gopinath was quoted as saying in a company statement.

With a fleet of 34 aircraft, the airline to fund its stated expansion plans and meet working capital requirement said a term sheet has already been signed for raising $100 million. “The board approved the same and documentation for the same is under process,” the statement said. On Friday Air Deccan’s stock took a 2.27 per cent hit on the exchanges to close at Rs 105.45.

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 22: The Kerala high court on Friday revoked the Kerala government’s ban on the production and sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In a major rebuff to the CPI(M)-led government, the high court termed the blanket ban on colas it imposed on August 10 as “arbitrary and unreasonable”. A division bench comprising Chief Justice V.K. Bali and Justice M. Ramachandran pointed out that only the Union government had the power to impose such a ban.

The Kerala government had banned colas on the basis of a report by the Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based NGO, showing that there was a high level of pesticides in Pepsi and Coke. The two soft drink giants had then approached the high court, arguing that the ban was unconstitutional.

While quashing the ban orders, the division bench said the State government move was unilateral and added that the soft drink majors were not allowed to present their case. Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achutanandan, who took the lead in imposing the cola ban, termed the high court’s verdict as unfortunate. “We will explore legal steps on how to reintroduce the ban,” he told reporters at Kannur.

The State’s water resources minister, Mr N.K. Premachandran, also said that the ban on colas was a considered decision of the state government. It is learnt that the government may move an appeal in the Supreme Court against the high court order. The cola majors welcomed the verdict and said that they would start distributing soft drinks within a day or two.

“It is a verdict which will help small-time traders and workers in our factories,” said senior Coke manager Ameer Shahul. The Democratic Youth Federation of India, the youth wing of the CPI(M), has said that it would not allow the cola majors to sell their products in the State.

New Delhi, Sept. 22: During the India day at the international automobile fair in Hannover, heavy industries and public enterprises minister Sontosh Mohan Dev invited the German automotive sector to join hands with India to partner in an exciting and rewarding journey into the future of global automotive manufacturing.

Mr Dev said that India would welcome the SMEs from Germany, who are the strength of the German automotive industry, to be a part of the growth process in India. Mr Dev said that from being a fairly inward looking sector 15 years ago, the automotive industry in India today is among the world’s most-attractive destinations for not just the low-cost components, but for high-value engineered parts and design.

The automotive industry today, said Mr Dev, stands out as a powerful engine of growth representing the new emerging India. “We have emerged as one of the largest auto component centres of Asia.” he said. “But we are still very small in the global market with our $4 billion worth of exports,” he added. However, Mr Dev was satisfied that India is taking decisive steps to enhance its global presence in this sector. “Our exports are growing at a rate of more than 30 per cent every year,” said Mr Dev.

“To align with the rest of the world, India has also joined the WP-29 forum of the United Nations for harmonising automotive standards with the global ones,” Mr Dev said, Mr Dev said that the component industry in India has significant cost advantages, primarily due to lower labour costs. The labour cost advantage translates to overall cost advantage of 20-30 per cent, as compared to other developed countries.

A number of important German vehicle manufacturers such as Daimler Chrysler, BMW and MAN already have a presence in India at Pune, Chennai and Pithampur respectively.
The first major announcement this year was made by Firodias-owned Force Motors and
MAN of Germany in April when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Hannover. lkswagen is also likely to announce establishing manufacturing operations in India.

Employers in the information technology sector are seeking and paying premiums for skills that help their companies adapt quickly to fast-changing business needs, according to a study from Foote Partners, published in InformationWeek. Foote Partners, an IT compensation and workforce management research firm, says that with many of the in-demand skill sets centring on combinations of specific tech expertise, business knowledge, and industry experience, employers need to rethink their job descriptions and pay policies.

“Job titles don’t always match up with what people do on the job,” says Mr Foote, adding that rather than boxing-in IT professionals’ pay based on narrow job titles, employers are increasingly rewarding IT pros on the specificity of their skills and how those skills fit into the company’s business needs.

While customer-facing skills are in heavy demand overall by many companies, premiums are being stuffed into the pay of those professionals with some very specific skills, Foote Partners says. Applications developers with customer-facing skills are hot in general right now, but especially hot are rapid application developers and extreme programmers who are among those getting the highest premiums-about an extra 16 per cent added to base pay.

The demand for rapid development skills also reflects many companies’ intense focus on speed and agility, IW says. “You won’t lose your job because you’re over budget, but you will if you go over time,” it quotes Mr Foote as saying. Other hot skills include SAP application development, wireless expertise, storage area networking, and RFID. There’s also increased demand for “hybrid talent” such as people who have operations experience as well as technology skills.

According to IW, Companies surveyed by Foote are spending about 8.2 per cent more this year on training and leadership development of their IT staff than they did last year. Developing and training existing staff is often easier and less costly than finding and hiring new talent. Foote’s findings were based on analysis of pay, skills, and spending data from 1,800 US and Canadian employers.

Skills that will be in declining demand over the next two to five years include programming and routine coding, systems testing, application maintenance, technical support, data continuity, and recovery. Those skills are among jobs that are increasingly being offshored.

“Outsourcing and offshoring for many companies has been more of a blessing than a curse,” Mr Foote says. That’s because as companies have reduced their IT workforces in some areas such as routine coding, new jobs are being created.

Mumbai, Sept. 22: The markets ended in negative territory after rallying for the last couple of trading sessions. Bears spoilt the party for the bulls as profit booking and selling pressure in the index heavy weights like HLL, Satyam Computer, ICICI Bank, SBI, ONGC and Tata Motors dragged the key indices lower.

The Sensex ended 37.49 points lower at 12,236.78, after touching the day’s high of 12,303.42 and a low of 12,170.20 points. Similarly, the Nifty ended 9.00 points down at 3,544.05 points. It touched a high of 3,562.45 and low of 3,525.40 points.

The market breadth was fairly negative as out of 2,575 stocks traded, 1,605 declined, 900 advanced and 70 were unchanged on Friday. Cement stocks witnessed smart buying, Grasim surged two per cent by Rs 48.60. Also, Gujarat Ambuja and ACC were up over one per cent.

Hyderabad, Sept. 22: Drug companies that develop and launch new products faster than their peers perform consistently better across a number of dimensions, earn higher revenues, and have lower development costs, according to a newly completed analysis from the Boston-based Tufts Centre for the Study of Drug Development.

Tufts CSDD says in a recent report that between 2000 and 2005, drugs developed by the fastest companies each gained an average of $1.1 billion in incremental prescription revenue and saved an average of $30 million in out-of-pocket development costs, compared to those of the slowest companies.

“Speed demon companies, the fastest drug developers, are consistently implementing efficient R&D practices across their portfolios,” says Mr Ken Getz, senior research fellow at Tufts CSDD and co-author of the study. “These companies have far less development and regulatory time variability, kill projects sooner, and are better at setting resource priorities.”

“In a word, being fast on one project is good, but being consistently fast across the portfolio of projects is substantially better,” Mr Getz says. According to Tufts CSDD, Bayer, Astra-Zeneca, Allergan, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Merck are the five fastest development companies in the 2000-05 period; each was able to shorten its development and regulatory cycles by as much as 17 months, compared to average performing drug developers. To assess the fastest drug developers, Tufts CSDD evaluated 104 approved drugs for 29 companies.

“Given the high direct cost of development and the substantial opportunity cost for a day of delay in reaching the market, speed and efficiency are central strategic objectives,” Mr Getz noted. “This is especially important today with steadily rising R&D costs, lengthening development and regulatory approval times, ever more complex clinical trials, and stubbornly low success rates of drugs moving through clinical development.”

The Tufts CSDD study also found that as a group, the fastest third of companies reduced their median development speed by 20 per cent (from 66.5 months in 1994-99 to 53 months in 2000-05) and held regulatory cycle times flat at approximately 13
months in the 2000-05 period. “In each therapeutic area where they compete, speed demon companies beat the median overall cycle time more than 83 per cent of the time,” the Tufts CSDD report says.

Hyderabad, Sept. 22: Big 92.7 FM, the FM radio brand of Adlabs Films Ltd., a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), will be launching its stations in Delhi, Chennai and Srinagar next week, even as it begins its operations in Hyderabad from September 25, Big 92.7 FM chief operating officer Tarun Katial said here on Friday.

Launching the brand here, with Asin, an actor, as brand ambassador for Hyderabad, Mr Katial said Big 92.7 FM will be present in 54 cities around the country by March. The company will be focusing on launching its operations in the large metro cities initially, and will expand it to smaller towns.

“Once we are through with this, Big 92.7 FM will have its presence in 1,000 towns and 50,000 villages, reaching 20 crore listeners across the country.” Big 92.7 FM will be the first FM station to begin operations in Srinagar, Mr Katial said. He said Big 92.7 FM will be undertaking a 12-hour telethon on September 25, to raise awareness about viruses like chikungunya and malaria. The station would have a mix of local entertainment and information and updates on the weather and traffic. The station will have a footprint of 40 km, covering the twin cities.