Biocon eyes $1 bn revenue in next three fiscals: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

NEW DELHI: Biotechnology major Biocon on Tuesday said it aims to achieve revenues of USD 1 billion in the next three years. "Our target is to do it in the next three fiscals," Biocon Chairman and Manging Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw told PTI on the sidelines of an event here to announce the dates and details of India Bio 2012. Speaking about the future plans, Shaw said, "We see ourselves among the top 10 global biotechnological companies in the world." On the main drivers of future growth, she said, "Our main emphasis is on the chronic diseases. The main emphasis is on diabetes, cancer and auto immune diseases." The company also has plans to list its contract research and manufacturing services arm Syngene. "It will be done in the next 18 months. We need to see sustained growth over four quarters before we do it," she said. She did not divulge further details of IPO saying that it is "too early for that". Last year the company had forayed into Malaysia and is in the process of setting up a bio manufacturing and R&D facility at Bio-Xcell, a biotechnology park and ecosystem in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor with an investment of USD 161 million (about Rs 715 crore) in the first phase. Shares of Biocon today closed at Rs 335.15 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), up 0.92 per cent from its previous close.

India's biotech sector to grow 20% in foreseeable future

BANGALORE: India's biotech sector is expected to grow at a robust 20 per cent per annum in the near future, given the growing demand for biopharmaceuticals, biosimilars and vaccines, says a veteran in the field. Biofuels would also offer a huge growth opportunity in biotech, the Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, the country's largest biotech company by revenue, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said. "We are entering the era of bioeconomy, where biotechnology can provide powerful solutions to some of the grave challenges that we face today: food scarcity, energy deficit, environmental damage, unmet medical needs and industrial pollution," she said. Mazumdar-Shaw said the size of the country's biotech sector had reached USD 3.5 billion in 2010 and is poised for robust growth in all segments of biotechnology. "India is already a world leader in vaccine production, Bt Cotton and bio-pharmaceuticals, especially bio-similars," she said. "India is also a large producer of industrial enzymes for green technologies & bioremediation. We also have critical mass in tissue culture-based cultivation." However, Mazumdar-Shaw also referred to regulatory delays, import-export delays and restrictions, lack of venture funding and the listing norms that are unfavourable to innovation-led biotech companies. "The inherent risk associated with gestational time lines involved in developing biotech products is a huge deterrent for investors. Example, Bt Brinjal", she pointed out. Asked about her vision for Bangalore-headquartered Biocon, Mazumdar-Shaw, who has been named among TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, said: "I am committed to pursuing our strategy of delivering affordable drugs for global markets that make a difference to healthcare."

Fortis Healthcare announces two new hospitals in Hyderabad, Agra

MUMBAI: Fortis Healthcare (India) Thursday announced the launch of two hospitals in Hyderabad and Agra, thus increasing its India network to 68 hospitals. The hospital in Hyderabad with a 150-bed capacity will be functional in financial year 2013 and is the second project from the company in the city, the company said in a regulatory filing. The hospital in Agra will initially function as a cardiac care centre, in a hub and spoke model, and expand eventually to become a multi-speciality hospital, it added. The 75-bed hospital will be operational by the end of financial year 2012. "These two projects are in line with our commitment to increasing the network and making quality healthcare accessible across the country," said Aditya Vij, CEO, Fortis Healthcare (India). "We are currently present in 17 Indian states and will continue to expand to newer geographies, while strengthening our presence and increasing bed-capacity in existing cities and states," he added.

Super Religare Labs to invest Rs 100 cr to open 25 labs by end of March 2013

NEW DELHI: Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) will invest up to Rs 100 crore to set up 25 laboratories both within and outside the country by the end of next fiscal. "We will be spending up to Rs 100 crore on a continuing basis to open 25 new laboratories by the end of March 31, 2013," Super Religare Laboratories CEO Sanjeev K Chaudhry told reporters here today. SRL's present network consists of 200 laboratories including eight reference laboratories, seven centres of excellence, 19 radiology/imaging centre and over 1,000 collection centres. Outside the country SRL has presence in Gulf, North Africa, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries and Europe. The company opened an imaging and diagnostic centre at Vasant Vihar, here. "This state of art facility is SRL's 200th centre offering complete diagnostic services with an added advantage of out patient department ( OPD) facility all under one roof," Chaudhry said. On being about the time line for listing if SRL, Chaudhry said: "The company is prepared for the listing process. Listing can happen as soon as Fortis decides on this." Fortis Healthcare, promoted by billionaire brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh had acquired 74.59 per cent stake in SRL for Rs 803 crore in May this year.

IVRCL bags projects worth Rs 552.31 crore

CHENNAI: Construction major IVRCL Ltd today said it has bagged orders against various projects valued at Rs 552.31 crore. According to a company statement, the company's building division has bagged a Rs 418.51 crore contract for construction of 7,720 houses low-cost houses in New Delhi from Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation. In addition, it secured an order for civil and structural steel works under a fuel and flux crushing project in Chhattisgarh from Engineering Projects (India) Ltd. The company also bagged a contract for establishment of infrastructure for a reserve battalion of CISF personnel at Sivagangai, a project awarded by National Buildings Construction Corporation, Chennai. The company's transportation and water divisions have also bagged projects valued at Rs 74.49 crore and Rs 59.31 crore, respectively. These include widening of roads in Orissa and a water supply project at Muzaffarpur, the statement said.

Godrej Properties to raise Rs 750 crore to bring down promoters' shareholding

MUMBAI: Godrej Properties, the realty development arm of Godrej Group, will raise up to Rs 750 crore through a shares issue over the next 6-12 months to bring down promoters' shareholding in the company from the current 83.79% to 75%, and to finance its ongoing as well as future projects. According to the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) norms, shareholding of promoters of public listed companies need to be reduced to 75% by June 2013, and this is the driver for the proposed fund raising, Pirojsha Godrej, executive director of Godrej Properties, said. The company would prefer a qualified institutional placement of shares or a follow-on issue, but the final call on the instrument is yet to be taken, he said. The fund raising will also enable the company to part finance its ongoing and future projects including the joint development deal with Jet Airways for 2.5 acres in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai. Adi Godrej, chairman of the group, has said in the past that promoters would consider diluting the stake to comply with the Sebi norm as per the fund requirement of the realty company. As part of the recent 2.5-acre BKC land development deal with Jet Airways, Godrej is required to pay Rs 135 crore to compensate Jet for expenses already incurred, and also acquire the Rs 360-crore debt of the aviation company on this property. Jet and Godrej will share the project's profit equally. "It's (Jet BKC) a capital intensive project, we could use the some funds raised to part finance it. We will need additional capital to fund our growth. But we are not in a great rush to raise it anytime before six months," said Pirojsha Godrej. Currently, the company's market capitalisation is around Rs 4,600 crore and 9% stake dilution can fetch up to Rs 500 crore, Godrej said. "We would like to wait and raise funds when markets are in better shape," he said. Late Friday, the company informed stock exchanges in a notice that the company will raise up to Rs 750 crore through equity issue, but did not mention any timeframe for this. The funds raised will also be used to finance other projects of the company. In the quarter ended September, Godrej Properties entered into five business development deals spread over 8 million sq ft in Hyderabad, Nagpur, Thane, Bangalore and Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai. On Friday, the company announced entering into another pact with Universal Builders for developing around 4,00,000 sq ft of premium villas spread over 14.5 acres at Electronic City in Bangalore. Godrej Properties will receive 11% of the project's revenue as development manager fees. On Friday, shares of Godrej Properties closed at Rs 668.60 on the National Stock Exchange, up 0.7% from Thursday's close.

Chennai to beat Mumbai in luxury hotel rooms growth

CHENNAI: Chennai is likely to add more luxury hotel rooms than Mumbai between now and 2015, according to realty consultants Cushman & Wakefield. Replying to a query by ET, the consultants indicated Chennai will see an increase in 6,300 rooms by 2015, 100 more than what Mumbai is likely to achieve by that time. However, Mumbai has a far bigger base of existing luxury hotel rooms (18,700) compared to Chennai (4,900), according to its data. In the past, Chennai has had not more than a handful of luxury hotels. Of late, there has been a flurry of activity in this sector, with major global chains such as the Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott entering this South Indian port city, though as part of a bigger pan-India plan. N Hariharan, Office Director, Cushman & Wakefield, attributed the growth in the city to a healthy presence of multiple industries such as IT, banking and auto. "With commercial and tourist traffic gradually picking up and demand expected to increase year on year, every major hotel operator wants to have a presence in Chennai. Another reason has been the emergence of Chennai as the centre for medical tourism in India," he said. "The average occupancy in Chennai in 2011 has been 71% across upscale and luxury hotel segments. While the demand is still driven by domestic arrivals, there has been a significant increase in international arrivals to the city." In 2011, the Chennai airport is expected to see 45 lakh international arrivals (as compared to 37 lakhs in 2009) and 70 lakh domestic arrivals. By 2015, the National Capital Region is likely to see 15,000 additional luxury hotel rooms (the base now being 21,000). Bangalore is likely to see an additional 8,000 rooms (from a base of 8,000 now).

Misleading advertisements come under government scanner

NEW DELHI: The government plans to form an inter-ministerial committee to suggest ways to check misleading advertisements that claim exaggerated benefits like fair skin or full energy, junior food minister K V Thomas said on Thursday. Speaking at a conference organised by the Advertising Standards Council of India, the industry's self regulator, Thomas expressed doubt that the current mechanism works. "What strikes you most is that most of the misleading ads are issued not by small flyby-night companies, but big corporations, who could even be members of ASCI," said the minister of state for food, consumer affairs and public distribution. He cited advertisements issued by the Piramal Healthcare on 'getting complete energy in eight days or money back' and by Airtel Digital TV on 'Free Regional Pack for life'. Thomas said laws such as the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act and the Cable Television Network Regulation Act have failed to prevent misleading ads. Since several ministries are involved in the implementation of some of these laws, the government is now considering an inter-ministerial committee to look at ways to make them effective. There is also a demand for an independent regulator to monitor and certify health-related advertisements, Thomas said. He said the government was open to working with the advertising council to take the matter forward. Information & Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said reviewing consumer complaints on misleading ads will make the self-regulation machinery more effective. "Advertising is the principle motivator of growth in consumer demand, which makes the role of a creative person extremely significant," said Soni. "All of us should sensitise ourselves to ensure that 1.2 billion people can enjoy the freedom entrusted to us," she added. ASCI Chairman I Venkat said the organisation has stepped up the frequency of its consumer complaints council's meetings to twice a month from this month.

Desi online retailers like Flipkart.com, myntra.com unleash ad blitzkrieg

MUMBAI: A fledgling Indian online retail industry has unleashed big buck mass media advertising in the past six months as they seek to build businesses with a broader urban consumer base in the country. Advertising from e-tailing portals surged 228% on television, 78% in print and 797% on radio compared to the same period last year, said data from TAM Media Research. Start-up firms-such as Flipkart.com, myntra.com-flush with funds from private equity investors led the way in creating brand buzz going beyond the top metros, which some skeptics argued was reminiscent of the build-up to the dotcom bubble a decade ago. The growth numbers from TAM are based on ad volumes and not absolute spends. One industry source said the Bangalore-based online retailer Flipkart has marked Rs 100 crore as its advertising budget- significant for a four-year-old firm still soaking in losses. Flipkart, which sells books and electronics online, is labelled as the poster boy of Indian e-commerce and has invested heavily in building distribution and brand visibility across 50 cities. "E-commerce is at a very nascent stage but witnessing a lot of traction with urban audiences. Mass media advertising by e-commerce players will hasten this process and make more people shop online," said Ravi Vora, VP, marketing, Flipkart.com, backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global and Accel Partners. Travel portals like makemytrip, yatra and cleartrip entered mass media advertising sometime back but the rush of brand-building activity from the e-tailing fraternity worries critics, who caution against the hype surrounding online retailing. "It is widely known that advertising does not build a strong online business. Successful online brands like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and eBay almost never advertised. Great online brands are built through tremendous word of mouth. If you don't organically have it, no amount of ad spend can get it for you," said Mahesh Murthy, founder, Pinstorm, and co-founder, Seedfund. Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet, which runs timesdeal.com and indiatimes.com, agreed, "The advertising push may drive initial traffic but post that the growth will depend on the word of mouth. Advertising does help in creating a differentiator but brands have to maintain their margins to run the business successfully," he said. Flipkart and others have been able to shore up sales riding on the back of ongoing media spends. "We feel our campaign has been successful and we plan to continue with our marketing activities," Flipkart's Vora added. India's consumer internet story has been one of the hottest themes for US investors, which was reflected when makemytrip listed on Nasdaq last year with $1 billion market cap. "The intersection between deepening internet penetration and rising disposable income in India is an exciting sweet spot," said Brewer S Stone, MD, Pacific Crest, a boutique investment bank involved with makemytrip's US listing, in a recent interaction. But Murthy, an internet industry veteran, cautioned: "This happened the last time around when Rediff, Indya and HomeTrade spent loads of cash. It will happen this time around too-just let the dust settle down in a year's time. We weren't prepared for the last bubble." The Indian e-commerce market is expected to cross Rs 46,000 crore in 2011 driven by the travel industry, with Indian Railways accounting for bulk of these transactions. The e-tailing industry is a distant second with 8% share, according to estimates from the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

Sabeer Bhatia's JaxtrSMS to allow free SMSes

MUMBAI: Jaxtr Inc, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Yogesh Patel, on Wednesday launched JaxtrSMS, a cross-platform open texting application to send SMSes to anyone in the world for free. "We have developed this application that runs on all mobile applications in the world, including iPhones, Androids, Blackberrys, J2MEs, where one can send unlimited free text messages from his phone to any mobile phone in the world," Jaxtr Inc CEO and co-founder and co-founder of Hotmail Sabeer Bhatia told reporters here. At present it is very expensive for sending international SMSes costing Rs 5 per message, he said. JaxtrSMS, which was developed in the country, is expecting at least 100 million subscriber base globally, he added. "We witnessed tremendous response to this application during the soft launch where users across 197 countries downloaded it in a few weeks and expect 100 million subscribers by end of next year," Bhatia said. The company will generate revenue through advertisements and premium services like archiving texts, multimedia, video etc, which will be available by mid next year, he said. The premium services will be available for the subscribers at a very nominal cost, Bhatt said. "We are talking with advertisers," he said. The US-based company is looking at USD 10-15 million investment in JaxtrSMS in another couple of months. "We are in talks with a few investors and are looking at investing USD 10-15 million in a couple of months time," he added. Bhatia said this application would be in accordance with the regulatory provisions of the country. Globally, there are 4.2 billion texters worldwide and it is expected to reach 12 trillion by 2015.