Social networking sites drive Hidesign to tier-II cities

NEW DELHI: An overwhelming response on social networking sites has prompted Indian leather goods manufacturer Hidesign to explore cities like Aurangabad, Mangalore and Guwahati and reach out to buyers who may not be very visible but show great purchasing power.

"More people from tier-II and tier-III cities aspire towards luxury lifestyles. Hidesign saw an increase in the feedback on social networking sites like Facebook as well as in the number of online sales from these regions," Dilip Kapur, president of Hidesign, told IANS.

"So it is essential that we go to the customer rather than expect customers to visit us in metros," he added.

This is not their first attempt to enter smaller cities - the brand is already available in Pondicherry, Goa and Cochin mainly because of the huge footfalls of foreigners visiting these places.

But this is their first major expansion plan as they feel Indian consumers in emerging cities are looking beyond essentials, with high-income households in particular showing strong buying intention, thus making a strong impact on sales growth for retail brands.

Hidesign, a one-man brand, was born in Auroville in Tamil Nadu in 1978 and has turned into a business that is growing at the rate of 25-30 percent per annum. The brand has 56 stores in India.

Kapur feels the shopping malls are a boon for them. "Malls help create space that is exciting for customers. We prefer malls as they increase walk-ins," he said.

It's a surprise that the brand has its largest independent store, approximately 750 sq ft in Guwahati, Assam.

"A two-level store in Guwahati's old town overlooking the lake is our largest store till date. We expect it to thrive as a destination store as northeast India symbolizes nature, warmth and a sense of beauty that goes hand in hand with the ideals and values of Hidesign," Kapur said.

Surprisingly, when Kapur started this label, he did not start retailing from India but Britain and Australia where the market was in those days. It was only in the late 1990s that the Indian market became the focus.

But since early 2000, the brand gauged the growing economic scene in India and started to promote their brand vigorously.

"We have always taken innovative steps in reaching out to our target group through concentrated campaigns in the early 2000s instead of going mass with advertising, or directing marketing activities towards airports way before other luxury lifestyle retailers saw the opportunity," he said.

After this, the brand plans to open exclusive stores in Nagpur, Surat, Kanpur and Indore as well.
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Jyothy Lab acquires 15% stake in Henkel

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/BANGALORE: Mumbai-based Jyothy Laboratories has acquired a 14.9% stake in Henkel India from Tamil Nadu Petro Products Ltd for Rs 60.73 crore in an all-cash deal. The deal makes Jyothy the largest Indian shareholder in the struggling Indian arm of Germany's Henkel AG. With Jyothy shelling out Rs 35 a share, the deal values the target company at Rs 408 crore. This is more than a 20% discount with Henkel's stock closing at Rs 45.35 on the BSE on Wednesday and translates into a market capitalisation of Rs 528 crore.

Jyothy's shares closed down 0.44% at Rs 228 on the BSE, while Henkel India rose 4.98%. The move will help Jyothy, maker of 'Ujala' fabric whitener, ramp up its share in the fastgrowing domestic detergents market, dominated by giants Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Procter & Gamble ( P&G ). Jyothy will use funds raised from its recent QIP (qualified institutional placement) issue and other internal accruals for the acquisition. According to an official directly involved with the developments, TNPL had approached Jyothy as its stake was not clubbed under competitive bidding. Jyothy will also participate in the bidding process to gain Henkel AG's 50.9% stake in Henkel India. "We will aggressively bid for controlling stake in Henkel. The acquisition helps to strengthen our urban distribution network, as Henkel has a strong presence in modern retail formats . We are very strong in rural areas," MP Ramachandran, CMD of Jyothy Labs, said.

Jyothy Labs was advised on the deal by Mape Advisory group. Chennai-based Henkel India is known for its products Henko detergent and Fa deodorant. It is a joint venture between Germany's Henkel AG & Co and Spic Group's Tamil Nadu Petro Products, with the German firm holding 51% stake. Henkel operates in three categories - laundry and home care; cosmetics and toiletries; and adhesives and sealants. Its key brands include Henko, Mr. White, Pril, Fa, Neem and Margo. "There is synergy between the two companies and we saw a value added proposition in this stake purchase," Ramachandran added in a statement.

The deal is in contrast with the recent Reckitt-Paras deal where Paras' valuation was as much as eight times its sales. In Henkel's case, the valuation is even less than the company's annual sales, which was in excess of Rs 500 crore last calendar year. "We see no logic why Jyothy bought a stake in Henkel when it had the option of buying select brands that could fit strategically ," said a Mumbai-based investment banker, who did not wish to be quoted. Analysts also see a bidding war for the remaining stake, especially from other homegrown suitors. "It's basically just a financial investment so far.

If they manage to buy the majority stake, then brand integration between the two companies will be possible," said Anand Mour, vice-president, Indiabulls Securities . While the buy could help Jyothy ramp up share in the domestic detergents market, analysts are skeptical as both companies have been losing market-share in their core categories despite stepping up their product portfolios. "We were interested in a few brands of Henkel and not the company. But, now we will have to wait and watch on whether Jyothy manages to pick up a majority stake. While we are still keen to buy brands, the deal could now be put on the back burner," said the chief executive of a homegrown consumer products company. Marketing experts feel that both Jyothy and Henkel have strong regional presence and are now trying to widen their footprint. At the same time, rivals such as HUL and P&G are focusing on establishing a strong network in the hinterland.

Siemens sets up financial services arm in India

MUMBAI: German multinational Siemens today said it has set-up a financial services arm Siemens Financial Services Private Limited (SFSPL) in India.

The newly-set-up company has filed an application for a Certificate of Registration to commence business of a non-banking financial company with the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI )), a press release issued here stated.

Subject to regulatory approval, SFSPL will focus on asset financing business by offering products such as loans, leasing solutions and hire purchase.

The company aims to provide financing offerings to Siemens customers in India, particularly in the healthcare, industry and energy sectors, the release said.

Sunil Kapoor has been appointed as the CEO of the company based in Mumbai.

The Siemens division Financial Services (SFS) is a global provider of financial solutions in the business-to-business segment.

With over 2,000 employees and an international network of financial companies, SFS supports Siemens as well as non-affiliated companies, focusing on the three sectors of energy, industry and healthcare.

SFS finances infrastructure, equipment and working capital and acts as a competent manager of financial risks within Siemens, the release said.

SKS Microfinance to explore banks for funds

MUMBAI: SKS Microfinance today said it will raise additional funds from banks, a move likely to help it tide over liquidity shortage.

"The Board of the Company...decided against CDR route, instead will explore other possibilities of additional fund raising from various banks/financial institutions," SKS Microfinance said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The Board has decided against going for Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) route, it said.

Several banks are believed to have approached the CDR cell of RBI to restructure loans advanced by them to Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).

Some major banks such as State Bank of India , ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are estimated to have lent over Rs 15,000 crore to MFIs. ICICI has lent around Rs 2,000 crore, SBI Rs 1,000 crore, while Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has MFIs exposure to about Rs 4,000 crore.

The Reserve Bank had in January relaxed the debt restructuring norms for the micro finance sector to enable banks to provide liquidity support to the crisis-ridden MFIs.

With the clamp down on bank loans to MFIs, the business of these companies has slowed down considerably since October last year when a string of farmer suicide cases in Andhra Pradesh led to the introduction of an ordinance to regulate the MFIs' operations in the state.

The ordinance is now passed into an Act. SKS with over 2,400 branches has more than 77 lakh members. As on December 31, 2010 amount disbursed by SKS stood at Rs 21,431 crore.

HDFC sole Indian firm among world's most ethical companies

NEW YORK: India's HDFC is the only company which has managed to find a place in the world's most ethical companies' list this year.

According to the list prepared by the US-based think tank Ethisphere Institute, only one Indian firm HDFC has made a place among the 110 world's most ethical companies.

Of these companies, 36 are new to the list in 2011 and 26 companies dropped off from the last year's list.

Commenting on the achievement HDFC Vice-Chairman and CEO Keki Mistry said: "It obviously feels nice to be one of the world's most ethical company and the only one from India.

HDFC is one of the most trusted brands in the country and for a financial services company it is very important that people perceive it as ethical."

Among the companies that made a place in the list are -- online marketplace eBay, auto maker Ford Motor Company, banking giant Standard Chartered Bank, Accenture, Adobe Systems, software giant Microsoft and food and beverage firm PepsiCo.

Interestingly, the companies that have secured a berth on the list are from wide range of industries, right from banking to consumer goods to auto, retail and media.

As per the report, ethical company designation is awarded to those companies that have leading ethics and compliance programmes, particularly as compared to their industry peers.

NBFC retail lending to soon match that of banks

MUMBAI: The market share of non-banking financial companies, or NBFCs, is expected to go up by 47% in the next three years, according to a report by ratings firm Crisil. NBFCs that at present have a 26% market share in the non-mortgage lending will see a compounded growth of 20% in the next couple of years.

"After the lull of 2007-08, profitability of NBFCs has returned to peak levels," said Crisil managing director Rupa Kudwa . "We expect retail lending of NBFCs to touch around Rs 4 lakh crore by 2013, which is close to commercial banking lending," she added. There are right now over 300 registered NBFCs with the Reserve Bank of India .

Crisil has rated 54 NBFCs among these. The rating agency has looked at NBFCs offering consumer and asset financing. It has, however, not taken into account NBFCs that offer housing loans. NBFCs have raised Rs 17,000 crore in the past three years and the share of financing has also diversified from the traditional vehicle financing to other areas of lending like gold and corporate loans. But concerns remain on the sustainability of this growth.

"The ability of NBFCs to raise capital remains an issue," said Pawan Agarwal, director of corporate and government ratings, Crisil. Another key concern for the sector remains the issue of securitisation, according to a draft paper which was released recently by the central bank.

The NBFC sector is also closely watching the guidelines on the new banking licences as that could determine the fate of most of these companies . RBI is set to release a draft paper on banking licences by the end of this month.

TVS to re-launch electric scooters in 2011-12

NEW DELHI: Chennai-based two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company today said it will re-enter the Indian electric scooter market with some existing and new models in the next fiscal.

The company is currently carrying out test runs of about 50 electric scooters across various towns in the country.

"We are working on introducing electric scooters and these are being experimented for the launch. By some time next fiscal, it will come (to the market)," TVS Motor Company President (Marketing) H S Goindi told reporters here.

About 50 electric scooters, comprising some of its existing and new models, are being tested across the country, he added.

"We will launch only scooters in electric mode. The products will initially run on lead acid batteries and later we may develop some other technology also," Goindi said.

The company will produce these new products at its Mysore facility, he said.

When asked about the electric two-wheeler market, Goindi said: "Business in India picked up few years back and also dropped because of variety of issues. Now, subsidy has also been offered, but still it is very sketchy... We feel, business will again pick up."

Earlier, TVS had launched electric scooterette 'Scooty Teenz Electric' in April 2008 with high hopes of selling around 40,000 units per year. However, it stopped the production in May 2009 as it received a lukewarm response from the market.

The company had also shelved its plans to launch electric three-wheelers. "We have an electric three-wheeler, which we had planned to introduce but there is no market for such products. So we don't have any plans to launch it now," Goindi had said in June 2010.

The Budget for 2011-12 proposed to set up a National Mission for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles to encourage manufacturing and selling of alternative fuel-based vehicles.

It also proposed to cut excise duty on development and manufacturing of hybrid vehicle kits to 5 per cent from the existing 10 per cent, besides fully exempting customs and counter-vailing duty on import of special hybrid parts.

In November last year, the government had announced a Rs 95 crore incentive package for the electric vehicle makers for the remaining part of the 11th plan.

Toyota Motors to invest in Rs 300 cr to enhance capacity of its Indian subsidiary

NEW DELHI: Toyota Motors Corp (TMC) will invest Rs 300 crore to enhance capacity of its Indian subsidiary by 60,000 units in the next one year.

Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM), the local subsidiary of the Japanese company, will take the cumulative capacity of its two plants in Bangalore to 2.1 lakh units to meet rising demand from the local market.

"We have plans to grow gradually as demand will justify our capacity additions. The major expansion will be for our Etios sedan and its yet-to-be-launched hatchback model Etios Liva. In case, the local demand outstrips our capacity projections in the domestic market, we may accelerate our expansion for the Indian customers," TKM's MD Hiroshi Nakagawa said.

These expansion plans comes after the parent TMC plans to have larger focus on emerging market including Asia and projects a larger chunk of sales from such markets. The world's largest car maker, by sales, Toyota is looking at 50% of its future sales coming from Brazil, Russia, China and India (commonly referred as BRIC) and other emerging markets.

"Fortunately we have a huge booking backlog for Etios and other cars that stretches up to six months in different cities and towns of India. But even after successive expansions in place to make deliveries faster to customers, we have not able able to bridge the demand-supply gap. We will expand in stage to narrow down the gap in next few months," Nakagawa added.

Toyota's India sales grew 31% to 74,362 units in the April-February months, which gives it around 3.5% market share of the 2.2 million Indian passenger car sold in the same period.

The company also plans to start exporting cars from India, primarily Etios to similar emerging market in near future, though is has not frozen any exact countries for shipment. Currently its entire production is targets Indian customers only.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor ramps up production to 2,10,000 units

BANGALORE: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced that it will ramp up its annual production capacity to 2,10,000 units.

The ramp up is in line with TKM's increasing annual production capacity in order to cater to the increase in demand for Innova, Fortuner, Corolla Altis and Etios, a company press release said.

The company recently announced plans for introduction of a second shift production in April, reduction in production time per vehicle, production enhancement and postponement of the launch of hatchback Etios Liva from April to June 2011 aimed at reducing the waiting period for Etios.

Furthering these measures, annual production capacity of the first plant currently manufacturing the Innova, Corolla Altis and Fortuner, will be increased from 80,000 units to 90,000 units in the third quarter of 2011.

The second plant currently manufactures the Etios. To cater to the increasing demand for Etios and with a view to reduce the waiting period, annual production capacity for the second plant will be raised from 70,000 to 1,20,000 units, it said.

The expansion will be carried out in a phased manner starting July 2011, extending into the second quarter of 2012. The 1,20,000 units will also include 20,000 units of Corolla Altis, shifted from the first plant to the second plant in the first half of 2012.

Hiroshi Nakagawa, Managing Director, TKM said "The demand for Innova and Fortuner has persistently grown in the recent months and consequently the waiting period. The huge demand for the Etios has further provided momentum to expand our production capacity. We will enhance our production capacity to cater to our customers growing demand."

Sandeep Singh , Deputy Managing Director, Marketing, TKM added "We recently announced our plans to bring down the waiting period for Etios, which included enhancing production and deferring launch of Etios Liva. This production expansion will further our aim to bring down the waiting period."

Toyota had postponed the opening ceremony of its second plant in Bidadi scheduled for March 15 following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

BMW raises capacity at Chennai unit

MUNICH: German carmaker BMW has increased capacity at its Chennai manufacturing facility to 10,000 vehicles per annum from 6,000 vehicles as it looks to strengthen its number one position in the luxury car segment, it said on Tuesday.

"If the market continues to grow at the same pace, we could consider looking at a second production facility by 2015," said its board member Ian Robertson . The company, which so far been assembling the 3 series, 5 series, and X1 models in India, is looking at assembling the X3 model in the country by middle of the year.

Concerns over rising oil prices have prompted the company to enhance focus on its electric (i range) and hybrid range of cars for emerging countries such as India, China, and Brazil. From 2013, BMWi will offer highly sustainable electric cars and the i3 will be the first all-electric vehicle for urban centres, Mr Robertson said. "We are continuously looking at new models and cannot rule out launch of the second generation of the BMWi series in emerging markets," he said.