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Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Ranbaxy inks licensing pact with Epirus Switzerland

New Delhi: Drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories has entered into a licensing agreement with Epirus Switzerland GmbH, the Swiss arm of Boston-based Epirus Biopharmaceuticals Inc, for introducing a biosimilar version (BOW015) of infliximab, a drug currently sold by Johnson & Johnson under brand Remicade for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

According to the agreement, the Swiss firm will develop and supply the product, and upon regulatory approval, Ranbaxy will market the same in India and other emerging markets, the Indian drug maker said in a statement on Thursday. Currently, no biosimilar of Infliximab approved in India. Biosimilar is the generic version of a biotechnology-based product.

According to experts, once Ranbaxy gets an approval and launches the product in India, the drug’s price is expected to come down significantly. The medicine, available in the form of injection, is priced at Rs 82,000 for a single course, sources said.

“We are pleased to partner with Epirus for biosimilar infliximab. We will utilise our strong front-end capabilities in making this product available in India and other parts of the world,” said Sanjeev I Dani, executive vice-president and head (global strategy) at Ranbaxy.

While there have been some domestic companies such as Biocon dedicated towards biotechnology products, recently even pharmaceutical companies such as Cipla, Ranbaxy and Lupin have turned their attention towards the segment.

Recently, Biocon secured approval in India for the first biosimilar version of Roche’s Herceptin, the world’s best-selling breast cancer drug. The biotech company had also jointly developed the product with US-based generic drug maker Mylan Inc.

Experts say some of the recent regulatory developments may have prompted the move. In mid-2012, the Department of Biotechnology along with the Drugs Controller General of India framed the guidelines for biotech products to be developed and marketed in the country. The norms outline data requirements for pre-clinical and clinical trials and also talk about pre-marketing and post-marketing data. Before this, there was no separate set of guidelines for biosimilars in India, and such drugs were approved on the basis of general guidelines.

Cold chain logistics biz feasts on quick service restaurants, cos see 15-25% growth: Crisil

Mumbai: A fast-paced lifestyle and changing eating habits are not only fuelling expansion and growth of quick service restaurants (QSRs) across India, but also of the cold chain logistics industry, which helps food reach fast and fresh. With the growing number of QSRs in India, local cold chain companies like Kelvin Cold Chain, Gati, Crystal Logistics and Snowman are seeing their business balloon at a pace of anywhere between 15% and 25%.

"Quick service restaurants are a big opportunity. We have seen a growth of 25-30% in the last few years," said Manish Agarwal, vicepresident at Gati cold chain, which gets 15-20% of its Rs 45.8 crore annual revenue from this segment. It counts Dominos as one of its major clients.

Business coming from these standardised but quality-conscious food chains is expected to fuel tremendous growth in the next two years as Indian and foreign brands expand presence. Cold chain companies distribute and deliver food from centralised kitchens to outlets, where minimal cooking takes place.

Crisil expects the QSR market to double to about Rs 7000 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 3400 crore in 2012-13, driven largely by new store additions in smaller cities. "Expansion is an issue without cold chains. We give a standard experience to everyone across cities, and that is not possible without a strong supply chain network," said K Ramakrishnan, presidentmarketing at Cafe Coffee Day. Restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee, who runs restaurant chains such as Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta, says that cold chain logistics is a backbone of the food industry and is absolute necessity for the expansion of his BSE-listed Speciality Restaurants.

CCD's Ramakrishnan, however, pointed out the availability of good cold chains is limited in smaller towns. The need for cold chains is greater in smaller towns as infrastructure is poorer and maintaining quality is tougher. Currently, metro and mini-metro cities combined form over 90% of the QSR market, according to Technopak. These food chains are penetrating deeper into the country to gain from increasing urbanisation and aspirations of younger generation. Consumer spend on these fast food chains will rise due to rising nuclear families, steady growth in incomes, changing lifestyle and eating patterns.

"New products are being developed. New localised products are coming in. Quick service restaurants are adding more markets and choices for consumers are increasing," said Pankaj Joshi, CEO at Kelvin Cold Chain. The company currently caters to eight clients in the segment, including Papa John's and Baskin Robbins, which contribute to about 40% of the revenue of about Rs 32 crore.

FY14 marine product exports set to rise 23% to Rs 26,750 crore

Chennai: Export of marine products is expected to touch $4.3 billion (Rs 26,750 crore) in 2013-14, an increase of 23 per cent compared to a year ago. The increase comes despite the US, Canada and Japan’s stringent regulations in recent months. One major contributor to growth is new markets and another value-added products, said an officer at the Marine Products Export Development Authority, under the commerce ministry.

After announcing the 19th edition of the Indian International Seafood Show, January 10-12, in Chennai, Chairman Leena Nair said the Indian seafood sector had grown 20-22 per cent in three years, despite major hurdles. In the last two years, the sector saw the countervailing and anti-dumping duty by the US, as well as quality regulation from Canada and Japan.

N Ramesh, director, marketing, added the $4.3-billion goal during the current financial year was achievable.

Value-added products are gaining momentum, said Nair. These were five per cent of the seafood exports three years ago, but now are 17 per cent. The target is to increase it to 30 per cent and then 50 per cent in three-five years, said Ramesh. Abraham J Tharakan, president, Seafood Exporters Association of India, said over the years the sector had added capacity to export value-added products. India has been exporting these to China and Thailand, where they are converted into ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products.

Ramesh said in two-three years the sector had entered markets such as Africa, Commonwealth of Independent States and southeast Asia. These form 16 per cent of the export turnover.

RBI allows NRIs to operate resident bank a/c on 'either or survivor' basis

An NRI can be a joint holder in more than one account, if she/he is a close relative of all the resident bank account holders
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed non-resident Indians (NRIs) to operate resident bank accounts on “either or survivor” basis. According to RBI, banks may include an NRI close relative in existing / new resident bank accounts as joint holder with the resident account holder on “either or survivor” basis, subject to fulfillment of a few conditions.

Such accounts will be treated as resident bank accounts and will be subject to all the regulations applicable to a resident bank account. Cheques, instruments, remittances, cash, card or any other proceeds belonging to the NRI relative shall not be eligible for credit to this account.

Besides, the NRI relative shall operate such account only for and on behalf of the resident for domestic payment and not for creating any beneficial interest for himself. An NRI can be a joint holder in more than one account, if s/he is a close relative of all the resident bank account holders.

If due to any eventuality, the non-resident account holder becomes the survivor of such an account, it shall be categorised as Non-Resident Ordinary Rupee (NRO) account according to the extant regulations, RBI said. The onus will be on the non-resident account holder to keep the bank informed to get the account categorised as NRO account and all such regulations as applicable to NRO account shall be applicable.

According to RBI, the joint account holder facility may be extended to all types of resident accounts including savings bank accounts. While extending this facility, the banks should satisfy itself about the actual need for such a facility and also obtain a declaration, duly signed by the non-resident account holder, said RBI.

PM to open Mumbai's T2 terminal on Friday

Mumbai/New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the new T2 Mumbai airport terminal on Friday, but passengers will have to wait for at least three weeks before they are allowed to get a feel of the new terminal.

Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), a joint venture that manages the airport, confirmed that commercial operations from T2 would start only in February, adding that no date had yet been decided for the launch. MIAL officials, however, declined to get into details of why the delay in commercial operations.

Interestingly, airlines, which will be the main users of the facilities at the terminal, were earlier asked to be ready to start operating from February 15, which was later shifted to February 22. Late on Thursday, they were asked to await a communication shortly on when exactly operations would begin from the new terminal. Sources indicated that once the Prime Minister inaugurates the terminal on Friday, departments, such as immigration, customs, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and airline staffers would conduct dry runs. “The CISF, in particular, wants to avoid a repeat of the chaos that happened in Delhi during the opening of T3 terminal, when many personnel could not find their duty spots, while those completing their duty could not be relieved for hours,” sources said.

Architecture
The architecture and design of the new 4,39,000 square metre terminal has been inspired by a white peacock. Its roof has been embedded with special lenses that move in accordance with the sun’s movement. The terminal also houses a museum with nearly 7,000 artefacts and a 3km-long art wall that features works by over 1,500 artists.

France’s Lactalis to buy Tirumala Milk for $300 million

Mumbai: France’s Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy products group, will soon buy out Hyderabad-based Tirumala Milk Products for $275 -300 million, sources said.

Rothschild advised Lactalis on the deal, they said. Shankar Narayan, the managing director of the Indian arm of private equity giant The Carlyle Group, which has a fifth of Tirumala’s shares, confirmed the development on Tuesday. Tirumala’s founders own the remaining 80 per cent in the company. The Carlyle Group bought its shares for about $22 million in 2010.

Lactalis has an annual turnover of about $21 billion (Rs 1.3 lakh crore). Tirumala, established in 1998, had a turnover of Rs 1,424 crore for 2012-13. The Hyderabad company makes a wide range of dairy products, including sweets, flavoured milk, curd, milk powder and ice-cream.

India is the world’s largest milk producer, accounting for nearly a fifth of the world’s produce. Yet, private equity deals in the dairy sector have remained scarce. Among the major ones, Motilal Oswal, IDFC & IFC have put money in Parag Milks and IFC invested $7 million in Modern Dairies in 2008.

A report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India sees the dairy industry in India reaching Rs 5 lakh crore in turnover by 2015. It said production would rise to about 190 million tonnes (mt) in 2015 from 123 mt in 2011.

Karnataka IT export earnings put at Rs 1.65 lakh crore

Bengaluru: Karnataka’s IT product export revenue touched the Rs 1.65-lakh-crore mark this this year, said S R Patil, Minister for Planning and Statistics, IT,BT, Science and Technology.

Karnataka accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the country’s IT export and is planning to take the IT export revenues to Rs 4 lakh crore by 2020.

The Minister said the government is is focussing on the growth of IT sector in tier-2 and -3 cities across the State.

To accelerate the growth of the sector, the state has revised and rolled out IT policy.

The new policy facilitates the formation of a single-window agency, which the industry has been demanding for long time.

Incentives
“The State government is planning to offer built-up area or land at a nominal cost in tier-2 and -3 cities. Also, IT industries had been exempted from many of the provisions of labour law,” said Patil.

To a query he said quite a good number of IT industries had shown interest to start their activities in Hubli-Dharwad, Shimoga, Gulburga, Managalore and Belgaum.

Already, the IT giant Infosys Technologies had been allotted an area of 50 acres in Hubli, and they had initiated the process to set up a unit there.

Once commissioned, Patil said, the Infosys unit would provide 10,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs.

ITIR project
He said ITIR (Information Technology Investment Region) was another project the ministry is working upon.

It is a joint project for which the Centre will provide Rs 7,000 crore, mainly for creating infrastructure, including roads and communication facilities in the ITIR township.

First National Wind Energy Mission to begin by mid-2014

New Delhi: The government will launch its first wind energy mission this year to give a boost to the renewable source and putting it in the same league as the high-profile solar mission. The 'National Wind Energy Mission (NWEM), which would be launched around the middle of the year, would give incentives to invest, east land clearances and regulate tariffs. But unlike the flagship 'National Solar Mission' it would not involve projects for bidding. It would act as a "facilitator", officials said.

"We wish to coordinate separate lines of action in the wind sector and involve all the stakeholders. Wind energy led to the establishment of renewable based power in the country but lately it has been marred by several issues," said Alok Srivastava, joint secretary (wind) in the ministry for new and renewable sources of energy.

Under the proposed action plan, MNRE would strengthen grid infrastructure for wind power, identify high wind power potential zones, ease land clearances for the projects, regulate wind power tariff and incentivise investment in the wind sector.

"The proposed NWEM would be placed in the cabinet soon and we wish to kick start it in the next 6 months," said Srivastava. He also said that all stakeholders in the wind sector, ministry of power, Powergrid corporation, central and state electricity regulators, planning commission, private and public sector project developers would be a part of the mission, with MNRE acting as a key facilitator and moderator amongst all of them. "A national program would uproot the scattered impediments faced by the wind sector and spur it towards the second phase of growth," said Srivastava.

Grid connected wind based power in India has been in existence from almost 20 years now while solar made its debut just 4 years back with the national solar mission. India is the fifth largest wind power producer in the world with an installed capacity of 19 GW.

Caught in the policy net, capacity addition in the wind sector fell to decade low during last & current fiscal. The industry, especially the private sector has also complained about the lack of proper grid infrastructure for evacuation of wind power.

There have been delays in payments by the states to the power developers due to the same. Through this mission, government aims to have a generating capacity of 100 GW of wind power by 2022. The potential of wind based power in the country is estimated to be 300 GW.

MNRE also plans to extend the 'generation based incentive (GBI)' for the project developers for five years. This would amount to a total expenditure of .`18,000 crore. Budgetary allocation for GBI in the current fiscal is .`800 crore.

GBI was notified in the union budget 2013. Under this financial scheme, government would pay wind power developers Rs 0.50 for every unit of power generated from the wind facility.

Till April 2012, wind sector enjoyed two fiscal benefits. Accelerated depreciation (AD) has been in force for the wind industry since 2003 till 2012 when its was withdrawn. GBI, announced in 2011 was discontinued in 2012, only to be reintroduced in 2013 in the union budget.

Iran, S Korea stoke oilmeal exports up 7%

Mumbai: Oilmeal exports rose seven per cent during the first nine months of the current financial year due to increased supply to Iran and South Korea, the newly-developed export markets.

Data compiled by the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) showed exports at 3.2 million tonnes during April-December in 2013 compared to three million tonnes a year ago.

Shipments were down 20 per cent in the first quarter due to a drastic fall in the export of soymeal, followed by a 43 per cent surge in the second quarter.

Heavy buying of soymeal from Iran and Europe lifted overall exports of oilmeal in the third quarter as well, with high export of soya bean, rapeseed and castorseed meal.

Rupee depreciation also helped exports. Oilmeal import by South Korea during April-December was 821,811 tonnes, up from 647,331 tonnes a year ago.

Iran imported 923,779 tonnes of oilmeal in the first nine months of FY14, double the 493,669 tonnes it had imported a year ago.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

L&T bags orders worth Rs 2,962 crore

Mumbai: L&T Construction has bagged orders worth Rs 2,962 crore across its business segments.

The buildings and factories business has got orders worth Rs 1,555 crore.

A large turnkey order is from an IT major for design and construction of two technology centres and augmentation of existing utility buildings in Bangalore.

Another order is from the Odisha Government for infrastructure development in three government medical colleges in Cuttack, Sambalpur and Berhampur.

Each of the colleges will have new laboratories, library, lecture and examination halls, a 1,500-seating capacity auditorium and a student-faculty accommodation building.

L&T has also secured a contract from the Cochin International Airport to build a new international terminal complex at Kochi.

The terminal will have 15 aerobridges and capacity to handle 10 million passengers annually.

In the water and renewable energy businesses, the company has got orders worth Rs 726 crore.

The power transmission and distribution business has secured orders valued at Rs 258 crore.

L&T said it has also received additional orders totalling Rs 423 crore from various ongoing projects in its metallurgical and material handling, heavy civil and transportation infrastructure businesses.