Bata India Net Up At Rs 47 Cr

Kolkata: Bata India Ltd, for the year ended December 31, 2007, has recorded a profit after tax of Rs 47.4 crore, up from the Rs 40.1-crore for year ended 2006, on a turnover of Rs 890.8 crore (Rs 794.8 crore).

The Bata board has recommended a dividend of Rs 2 per share (20 per cent), inclusive of the 5 per cent additional dividend to celebrate 75 years of Bata in India.

According to an official statement by the company here today, the increase in PAT was on account of improved prod uct mix, stricter cost control, new shoe designs, renovation of stores and continued transformation of the wholesale business of the company.

Announcing the results, Marcello Villagran, Managing Director of the company, said the company has now become profitable on a sustained basis. “We continue growing our sales, improving our margins and monitoring our expenses.”

Allahabad Bank To Cut Home Loan Rates By 25 Bps

Kolkata: Allahabad Bank is all set to slash interest rates by 25 basis points for both floating and fixed term loans of up to Rs 20 lakh on all maturities. The reduction will be effective from April 1 on all fresh sanctions. Consequently, the minimum interest rate on housing loan for a five-year period will be 9.5 per cent per annum, the maximum being 10.50 per cent for 15-25 years in PLR-linked loans.

Ceat Mulls To Set Up Rs 500cr Radial Tyre Facility

Kolkata: Ceat Ltd has finalised plans to establish a 36-lakh radial tyre facility at an estimated cost of Rs 500 crore. The proposed greenfield facility will primarily manufacture radial tyres for passenger car, utility vehicles and light commercial vehicles. The project will also comprise a pilot plant for manufacturing 2.5 lakh truck-bus radials annually. While the company is reportedly weeks away from finalising the location, for the moment the search for land has narrowed down to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat. It may be mentioned that Ceat initially unveiled a hunt for the right partner having access to proven technology for establishing a commercial scale truck bus radial facility. As an alternative strategy, the company had named global consultants for helping develop a truck-bus radial technology of its own as well as improving its existing passenger car radial technology.

MMTC To Source Truck-Bus Tyres From China

Kolkata: MMTC is planning to import truck-bus tyres from China in the next fiscal. The company is also exploring the possibility of import of raw materials for the domestic tyre companies. MMTC likely to emerge as the first major trading house to import tyres. India was importing close to 1.4 lakh truck-bus tyres every month through 35-odd smaller players. The company mulls to market the imported tyres both through the dealer network as well as directly to fleet owners, especially the State transport undertakings and major PSUs. Confirming MMTC''s move, sources in the All-India Tyre Dealers'' Federation said that the trading major has already been in discussion with the dealers and may settle for an initial import quantity of between 10,000 and 15,000 tyres comprising both cross-ply and radial varieties. MMTCs entry will infuse the much needed competition and better trading practices in the tyre sector.

PFC To Foray Financial Advisory Services

Kolkata: Power Finance Corporation (PFC) is confident of making an foray into financial advisory services sector in the next six weeks. To start with, the company will hold a minority stake of around 30 per cent in the special purpose vehicle (SPV), and a consortium of corporates likely to hold the residual stake from the power sector. The SPV will help private equity (PE) investment in the Indian power sector. The company, currently engaged in specialised debt-financing in power sector, is looking forward to emerge as an equity investor in the long term. They are trying to appoint the captains of Indian power sector including representations from both thermal and hydel in the venture. As an advisory service provider, its role will be limited to bridging the gap and help in the matchmaking. They are hoping its disbursals to grow by 15 per cent this fiscal and the sanction aim for the next fiscal likely to go up from $4.5 billion to $ 6.5 billion. The finances are likely to be raised from the domestic market as the recent ECB norms do not confirm use of foreign currency loan in projects at home.

LIC Looks To Mop Up Rs 750cr

Kolkata: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has decided to raise Rs 750 crore by the end of this fiscal, from Eastern region through its maiden stand alone health insurance scheme, Health Plus. LIC is eyeing a first year premium income of Rs 5000 crore for the fiscal from its east zone operation. Health Plus is the first long term unit linked health insurance from the company and it combines health benefits to entire family (husband, wife and children) in a single policy providing daily hospital cash benefit, major surgical benefit and domiciliary treatment benefit. The premium allocation charges for the first year would be 30 percent and 6 percent in the subsequent years. One of the main features of the policy is that the premium remains unchanged through the tenure of the policy.

The policy provides withdrawal of fund equivalent to the actual expenses incurred in respect to the domiciliary treatment after three years as this component is dependent on the capital market. Hospital cash benefit benefit is payable on a daily basis in case of hospitalisation and it ranges between Rs 250-2,500 for the principal insured. However this benefit does not include the expenses incurred during the first 48 hours of hospitalisation. During the term of policy, this benefit shall be available for 365 days for each member.

GAIL Eyes Operating Stake In Small Onshore Blocks

Kolkata: GAIL (India) Ltd may bid for operating stake in small onshore and shallow water blocks in NELP-VII. For the rest of the blocks on offer, especially those in deepwater, GAIL will bid for participatory stake in the consortium.

“We may bid for operating stake for the small blocks especially on-shore,” U.D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, told newspersons here. GAIL has stakes in 29 oil and gas blocks in the country, out of which “six has proven reserves”.

On the company’s petrochemical facility at Pata in Uttar Pradesh, he said that GAIL had recently completed capacity expansion of the facility from 3,10,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 4,40,000 tpa through de-bottlenecking.

“We are now planning further expansion of the capacity to 5,00,000 tpa through some modifications at an estimated investment of Rs 100 crore,” Choubey said.

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Pata petrochemicals currently processes 12-13 million metric standard cubic metre of gas a day (mmscmd). Following the forthcoming capacity augmentation, the plant will consume approximately 15 mmscmd.

On meeting the additional requirement of Pata Petrochemicals, Choubey said that the company had LNG sourcing options from Shell (Hazira) and Petronet LNG. According to the available projection, GAIL would source 1-2 mmscmd from Shell Hazira.

On distribution of additional supplies available from Panna-Mukta-Tapti joint venture, he said that the gas would be marketed as per the guidelines set by the Union Government.

Choubey denied that GAIL’s control over marketing right of PMT gas led to short-supply of natural gas to industries based in Gujarat including those in power and fertiliser sector (like NTPC-Gandhar, Kribhco, IIFCO and others). “We are not aware of any such short-supply in Gujarat,” he added.

Commenting on the possibility of bonus issue, he said, “I cannot deny the fact that it is on our agenda. We are now taking initiative to increase the authorised share capital.”