IL&FS to take over Maytas Properties

The Company Law Board (CLB) on Thursday allowed infrastructure finance company IL&FS to take over Maytas Properties, a company promoted by the family members of disgraced Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju.

IL&FS has been allowed to hold 80 per cent of the equity in Maytas Properties, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters here on Thursday.

The new promoter will pump Rs 150 crore into the crisis-ridden company over the next 18 months, he said.

“I permit the induction of four nominees of IL&FS group as director on the board of Maytas Properties including the Chairman,” CLB chairman Justice D.R. Deshmukh said in the order.

He further said that existing director of Maytas Properties — Rama Raju, D. Gopal Krishnana Raju and D. Venkata Satya Raju — would resign immediately on induction of IL&FS group as the strategic investor in Maytas Properties.

According to the CLB order, IL&FS will be required to hold at least 40 per cent equity in the property company for next three years.

In order to allow IL&FS to take over the company, the paid up capital of Maytas Properties would be raised from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.

IL&FS had already taken over Maytas Infra, another company which was promoted by the kins of Raju.

HDFC Q3 net up 33 p.c. at Rs. 891 crore

Mortgage major HDFC today posted 33 per cent rise in third quarter profit at Rs 891 crore, boosted by higher retail sales and one-time income from sale of its investment in IL&FS.

Buoyed by the healthy numbers, the company said that it expects to close the fiscal with around 25 per cent spike in loan book.

The total income rose by 20.2 per cent to Rs. 3,321 crore in the period under review against Rs. 2,762.2 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Significantly, the company’s non-performing asset (NPA) levels came down to 0.85 per cent during the period under review from 0.94 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

HDFC also set aside an additional provision of Rs. 272 crore during October-December period to meet the recently introduced higher provisioning norms set by the home finance regulator National Housing Board (NHB) for dual rate home loans, company Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Keki M. Mistry said.

NHB increased the provisioning coverage ratio of teaser loans to 2 per cent from 0.4 per cent.

HDFC earned a one-time income of Rs. 167.22 crore from the sale of its investment in IL&FS. In the reporting quarter, the lender had offloaded 2 per cent of its stake in educational arm of IL&FS.

In the same quarter last year, its other income, primarily from treasury operations stood at a lower Rs. 51.3 crore.

HDFC reported a 20.6 per cent increase in its loan book at Rs. 1,09,051 crore at the end of December compared to Rs. 90,110 crore in the same period last fiscal.

HDFC saw a massive 39 per cent jump in retail loan disbursals during the reporting quarter, and the overall loan book rose 27 per cent to Rs. 5,387 crore, Mr. Mistry said.

“We are hopeful of clocking 20-25 per cent rise in the loan book for the full fiscal. We are also hopeful of maintaining a good interest spread and margins in the next quarter,” Mr. Mistry said.

“Our interest spread stood at 2.15 per cent, while net interest margin (NIM) at 4.31 per cent,” he added.

Interest spread refers to the percentage difference between the interest rate charged on a bank loan and the lender’s cost of funds.

The net interest margin (NIM) is the difference between interest income generated by a bank and the interest it pays to its lenders. NIM indicates how successful the investment decisions are in comparison to the debt it raised.

Starbucks, Tata Coffee sign pact for collaboration

In a significant step toward market entry in India, U.S.-based Starbucks Coffee Company on Thursday signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tata Coffee, one of the region's leading providers of premium Arabica coffee beans.

The MoU will create avenues of collaboration between the two companies for sourcing and roasting high-quality green coffee beans in Tata Coffee's facility in Coorg in south India. In addition, Tata and Starbucks will jointly explore the development of Starbucks retail stores in associated retail outlets and hotels.

The two companies also will explore social projects to positively impact communities in coffee growing regions where Tata operates.

Commenting on the announcement, Tata Coffee Chairman R. K. Krishnakumar said, “We welcome Starbucks entry into India because of its unique experience with the store format and for its commitment to society, values that we share.”

“India is one of the most dynamic markets in the world with a diverse culture and tremendous potential,” said Starbucks Coffee Company Chairman, President and CEO Howard Schultz.

“This MoU is the first step in our entry to India. We are focused on exploring local sourcing and roasting opportunities with the thousands of coffee farmers within the Tata ecosystem. We believe India can be an important source for coffee in the domestic market, as well as across the many regions globally where Starbucks has operations.”

Tata Coffee, with its large Arabica coffee production base spread over different growing districts of the South, has supplied premium coffee beans for Starbucks in the past and is now building a structure for a long-term relationship.

In the areas of sourcing and roasting, Tata Coffee and Starbucks will explore procuring green coffee from Tata Coffee estates and roasting in Tata Coffee's existing roasting facilities. At a later phase, both will consider jointly investing in additional facilities and roasting green coffee for export to other markets.

Nokia Siemens expands delivery centre

Nokia Siemens Networks expanded its global service delivery centre and relocated it to a new site in Chennai.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Armando Almeida, Head of Global Services, said the new facility, in 90,000 sq. ft., would manage over 87,000 base station sites.

Mr. Almeida said the Chennai centre was the first one set up by Nokia Siemens in 2007 to pioneer its global service delivery model providing remote delivery support across its services. It was one of the three centres operating now, the other two being in Noida and Lisbon, Portugal.

He said two other service delivery centres were now being set up in Russia and Brazil and these would become operational before the end of 2011.

Mr. Almeida said the Chennai facility, with its vast engineering and telecom talent, had played a significant role in the success of the company's alternative service delivery model. This model allowed the company to centralise and consolidate operations for customers around the world. It provided significant cost savings and improved operational efficiency, freeing up resources to allow operators to focus on the business goals.

Since 2007, the team in Chennai had grown from 120 people to over 1,000 supporting staff, 77 million subscribers and 87,000 base stations on customers' networks globally. The centre at present provides remote services including planning, optimisation services and complete network operations. It also emerged as a centre of competence for 3G and, together with the Noida centre, had delivered 90 projects in 3G globally.

Godrej Properties-Jet Airways land deal likely by end Q4

Adi Godrej-led Godrej Properties on Friday said it will close a deal to buy private air carrier Jet Airways 2.5-acre plot at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) here during the ongoing quarter of the 2010-11 financial year.

“We will close the deal in this fiscal itself. However, we can’t provide any further details on this,” a top Godrej Properties official said on condition of anonymity.

Jet Airways, the owner of the land parcel at the BKC, wants to sell the property so that it can pay off the Rs. 400 crore it had borrowed from HDFC Bank to buy the land from the Maharashtra government.

While the official did not divulge the financial details of the deal, it is understood that Godrej is willing to pay around Rs. 500 crore for the land parcel.

Godrej plans to develop a commercial property on the site, the official said, adding this would be done in a timeframe of 2-3 years.

3 Cummins plants inaugurated

Cummins in India on Friday inaugurated three plants at its Phaltan, Pune, Megasite. The company invested Rs.500 crore in these plants. The 300-acre project qualifies for ‘mega project' of the Maharashtra Government.

Half of the acreage is set up as a Domestic Tariff Area and the other half as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for exports.

The first three plants that were launched today [Friday] were Tata Cummins' second manufacturing facility producing engines for commercial vehicles, power generation and industrial markets, an engine rebuild centre and a reconditioning facility for remanufacturing engines and components.

According to Tim Solso, Chairman and CEO, Cummins Inc., “… the concept of co-locating our businesses at a common campus offers the advantage of scale and greater synergy to our operations. We believe a project of the scale of the Megasite involving investments of about $300 million spanning the next few years, is a demonstration of our commitment to further strengthen our long and valued association with India.”

Anant Talaulicar, Managing Director of Cummins Group in India, said, “We have significantly and profitably grown our businesses in India over the last few years and we expect this positive trend to continue in future.”

Over the last few years, the Cummins Group in India has been executing an aggressive growth plan involving all nine affiliated companies. The second Tata Cummins plant, The Cummins India rebuild centre for high horsepower engines and Cummins Technologies India's ReCon plant are the first of several forthcoming projects to come up at the Megasite.

Tata Cummins, one of Cummins Group's nine affiliated companies, is a joint venture between Cummins Inc. and Tata Motors and was formed in 1993. The joint venture's existing Jamshedpur plant produces the B series and ISB electronic engines for commercial vehicles, power generation and industrial markets.

The new plant at the Megasite will make the B Series mechanical engine, a cost-effective BS-III compliant solution for the Indian market and the ISB electronic engines for the BS-IV norms. The facility has been designed to make 90,000 units annually, and can expand to 1.20 lakh units.

The high horsepower rebuild centre will rebuild engines from 19 litres (K19) up to 60 litres (QSK60 series) and also repair all other Cummins manufactured engine models.

The third facility, ReCon India, introduces the new concept of remanufacturing in India, which requires 85 per cent lesser energy than making the very same product from new parts. The facility will offer professionally remanufactured, high quality engines and components built in accordance with stringent functional specifications of the original product. The business will offer the latest emissions capable products, covered under Cummins warranty.

Intel reports record profit of $3.4 bn in Q4

Bolstered by increased demand from enterprises, Intel’s profit surged 48 per cent to a record of $3.4 billion for the three months ended December 2010.

In the year-ago period, the global chip maker had a profit of $2.3 billion.

“2010 was the best year in Intel’s history. We believe that 2011 will be even better,” Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said.

Intel’s huge fourth-quarter profit came on record revenues of $11.5 billion.

“PC client group revenue flat, data centre group revenue up 15 per cent, other Intel architecture group flat and Intel Atom microprocessor and chipset revenue of $391 million flat, all sequentially,” Intel said in a statement on Thursday.

Even though, revenues from consumer PC was almost flat, the sluggishness was mostly offset by higher demand from businesses.

The fourth quarter also saw a net gain of $140 million from equity investments and interest.

For the full year, the company reported a profit of $11.7 billion on revenues of $43.6 billion.

Intel said that it expects revenues of $11.5 billion - which could be plus or minus $400 million - in the first quarter of 2011.

Haryana to set up Carbon Credit Cell

New Delhi/ Chandigarh: Haryana Government has decided to setup a Carbon Credit Cell, which would guide the local entrepreneurs to adopt the relevant technology to earn carbon credits.

While starting this here today, a spokesman of Haryana Industries and Commerce Department said a pilot project for development of Eco-City at a few brown-field locations was being taken up on pilot basis within the Manesar-Bawal Investment Region of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) by a consortium of Japanese companies.

The Government aims to encourage Environment Management by rational use of resources, environment audit and taking measures to reduce pollution load, waste recovery, recycling and waste recharge besides focusing on adoption of clean process technology.

The Government also intended to gain carbon credits and reduce carbon footprints in the industrial sectors. It would provide greater opportunity to the people willing to take the benefit of green business like carbon credit earning.

The official added, at conservation and efficient management of water resources has been declared as the focus area and priority of the Government.

The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) would lay dual pipelines for supply of fresh and treated water so as to target a situation of zero discharge from its specific industrial sectors within a reasonable time-frame.

9 solar power projects approved for Haryana

New Delhi/Chandigarh: The Government of India has approved nine solar power projects of 8.8 Mw capacity to be set up in Haryana by independent power producers. These projects will get commissioned by September 2011.

Haryana Power Minister Mahender Partap Singh said the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (Hareda) had invited proposals from independent power producers for the installation of solar power generation plants of 100 Kw to 2 Mw capacities in the state under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. After the approval of the state government, Hareda issued pre-registration certificates to the 22 developers for setting up of solar power projects of 20 Mw capacity, of which nine projects had been approved by the Government of India.

He said as part of energy conservation drive launched by the state government, two projects of 100 Kw Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic had been commissioned at M/s Omax Auto Ltd, Manesar and Daruhera units at a cost of Rs 260 lakh each. Ministry of New Renewable Energy have provided a total financial assistance of Rs 150 lakh for these projects. One such project of 50 Kw had also been commissioned recently at Retreat, Teri, Gawal Pahari and Gurgaon.

A small hydro project of 6 Mw was commissioned at Dadupur, Yamuna Nagar in March 2010 and a small hydro plant of 2 Mw commissioned at Gogripur, Karnal in September 2010, said the Minister, adding, a 1 Mw distillery effluents-based power project have also been commissioned at M/s Ashoka Distilleries, Hathin, district Palwal at a cost of Rs 4 crore.

Besides, three biomass co-generation projects of 2.5 Mw capacity were being setup at a cost of Rs 11.25 crore in private industries and were likely to be commissioned by the end of the current financial year. Biogas-based power project of 200 Kw was also being setup at Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa which was likely to be completed by March 2011.

Green construction gaining traction in India

The physics of geothermal energy is tweaked in many ways by modern air conditioning systems

Bangalore: The overgrowth of reeds at Good Earth Orchard, a colony of 60 homes in Bangalore, is actually part of a labyrinthine water-treatment system. Gallons of used water from the colony enter it every day to be pumped out for reuse a week later, good enough at least to water the bushes.

The system recovers about 80% of wastewater without using power or chemicals. A chamber skims off lightweight waste and settles the heavy parts. Another sealed chamber uses bacteria to break down organic waste. Finally, plants such as canna at the surface aerate the water through nitrogen fixation. All this happens without a single watt of power consumed, except for the irrigation pump. What you see on the surface is lush reeds speckled by red cannas, making it a rather pretty treatment plant.

Growing use of such technologies has put India on the green-building leaderboard with countries such as the US. “About 2-3% of all construction in India is green, as good as (in) the US. In the next two or three years, we want to bring it up to 10%, which will put us on top,” says S. Srinivas, principal counsellor the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), a body that certifies green constructions.

Not all these technologies are 21st century innovations. Green construction in India uses a liberal mix of modern science and methods that are nearly 400 years old. Take wind towers, for example, a system used for decades by Arabs in West Asian deserts to keep buildings cool. The Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Institute of Quality in Bangalore uses this technology to continuously supply air in the building. So do the office of the inspector general of police (IGP) in Gulbarga, and Aquamall Water Solutions building in Dehradun.

Wind towers are a series of concrete or fly ash towers. Every morning, these draw in hot air, which passes through channels splashed with water at night so cooled air is circulated through a building. The combination of increased airflow and contact with water brings down the temperature by 8-10 degrees Celsius, which in cities such as Bangalore does away with the need of air conditioning. “Warmer cities like Hyderabad can use hybrid systems,” says Srinivas.

Wind towers were often augmented in Persian architecture with geothermal systems that exploit the difference in temperature between the earth’s surface and 5-6 metres below. At this depth, across the planet, temperature is almost constant in a range of 10-15 degree Celsius. Towers connected to underground pipes would cool air even further beyond plain-vanilla wind towers.

The physics of geothermal energy is tweaked in many ways by modern air conditioning systems in Indian green buildings—another throwback to an ancient practice. Both cooling and heating can be achieved, though heating often requires a supplemental system. Geothermal systems are a major money-saver because almost 70% of the energy used by most buildings is for air conditioning.

“Geothermal systems haven’t really caught on in individual homes in India,” says Srinivas, “but corporations have started using it.” Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd’s factory in Hyderabad is an example.

Conventional technologies have also kept pace. Efficiencies, or the ability of air conditioning systems to convert electricity into cooling power, are far higher today than a decade ago. “Today, we focus on part-load efficiency of an air conditioner when we certify a green building,” says Srinivas. Part-load refers to the time of the day when cooling requirements are not the highest. This is the case for most part of the day, and therefore, air conditioning efficiency during this time is more crucial than during peak-load hours.

Chandrashekar Hariharan, founder of Biodiversity Conservation India (Pvt.) Ltd (BCIL), takes another angle. BCIL uses ammonia-based air conditioning systems that are a lot less-polluting than the ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons used in regular air conditioners.

BCIL is an extreme example of using multiple micro-technologies to achieve tiny improvements that add up. Its complexes typically have banana and areca nut groves because of their high rate of water-vapour expiration.

The company also restricts the numbers of buildings on an acre of land depending on its water holding capacity. If the industry norm is about 90 houses per acre, BCIL would keep it at 46-48 because that is how much the rainfall on the land can sustain. “A patch of land is like your bank account,” says Hariharan. “Just like you cannot draw money without putting in, you cannot draw water without recharging it.”

BCIL only uses shallow wells instead of deep-water borewells. These are continuously recharged by rainwater.

Materials and designs at BCIL are also optimized to improve air quality. “Bangalore lies at about 13 degree north on the grid, the same latitude that passes through Mexico. Any building here would face the maximum heat on its south and west during the day. So we add more protection on these walls—non heat-transmitting materials and hollow bricks,” says Hariharan.

The use of fine controls and technologies cannot be emphasised enough. “This is why building management systems (BMS) have become so important,” says Srinivas. “They allow you to operate many energy-consuming devices in large buildings from a single switchboard. A chiller would be remotely shut down if not needed, and power would be switched off in rooms not used, for example.” An IGBC study shows energy savings from BMS can be up to 13%.

Over the years, with more green construction happening in India, an industry catering to this has sprung up. High performance glass, which can arrest almost 30% of heat in windows, is manufactured by Saint-Gobain and Asahi (India Glass Ltd), while waterless urinals, which use concepts of specific gravity, are manufactured by Parryware, Hindware, etc.

As demand grows, these technologies get cheaper. Waterless urinals now cost only Rs6,000 a piece compared with Rs15,000-16,000 some years ago. “It’s a virtuous cycle,” says an optimistic Srinivas. “As the tech gets cheaper, adoption rises.”