Embassy Property in Rs 5,600-cr JV with Malaysian realty co

Bangalore: Realty major Embassy Property Developments has entered into a joint venture with MK Land Holding , a Malaysian company that specialises in pre-fabricated affordable housing, to build projects in the affordable housing segment. The proposed project entails an investment of over Rs 5,600 crore.

Under pre-fabricated housing, the shell of an entire home can be constructed from concrete poured into as many as 1,000 interconnected pieces of aluminium moulding. Once the concrete hardens, the moulds can be dismantled and reassembled later. The method is believed to generate less waste, reduce material cost and save construction time.

“The joint venture is aimed at developing affordable homes to help meet the acute shortage of housing for the masses in India. We plan to roll out a pilot project in North Bangalore, depending on the success we will launch more affordable housing projects,” said Gopi Krishnan, director and CEO, Embassy Property Developments. The proposed development will come up on 185 acres in North Bangalore and will comprise 14,400 residential units with two million square feet of commercial space.

The first phase of the project totalling 5,000 units will be launched in the next nine months. Spread over 650-700 sq ft the apartment will be priced at Rs 15-17 lakh.

The proposed development will be carried out by MK Embassy Land , which is a joint venture (JV) between MK Land, that holds 47.5% in the JV; Star Dreams, a subsidiary of Embassy Group that also holds 47.5%; and MKN Embassy Development , a subsidiary of the Emkay Group that holds the remaining 5%.

“The project will be funded through foreign direct investment and MK Embassy is also in discussions with local banks especially Ex-Im Bank of Malaysia to finance the development of the Bangalore project,” said Mr Krishnan.

MK Land is a vertically integrated home development company focused on affordable housing and high-end condominiums. It is also the largest home builder in Malaysia, based on the number of homes sold, revenues and net income. It has so far delivered around 40,000 housing units.

Thermax acquires Danish co for Rs 187 cr

Pune: In its drive to go global, Thermax has acquired European boiler maker Danstoker group for e29.5 million (around Rs187 crore). The Danish company has two manufacturing plants — one in Denmark and the other in Germany .

“This acquisition is part of Thermax’s plans to become a global company. We will retain the Danstoker and Omnical brands, both of which we acquired on Monday, since these have an appeal in Russian and Middle East markets. The acquisition will also help Thermax for its water treatment and pollution control products through the brand association,” said Thermax’s managing director , MS Unnikrishnan .

He added that they could expand capacities at the two European locations since both plants have the land to expand.

The Danstoker group, which comprises the Danstoker company based in Herning, Denmark, and its German subsidiary, Omnical Kessel , makes biomass and oil, and gas-based boilers as well as waste heat recovery products in the same range as Thermax makes standard packaged boilers, although Danstoker’s focus on renewable energy sources will provide Thermax with new technologies.

Renewable and green products account for over half of the European company’s current revenues of e40 million (October 2009-September 2010), while its non-renewable-energy-based boilers are carbon neutral.

Mr Unnikrishnan said the acquisition presented an opportunity for Thermax to source the latest technology, quality and production practices.

“We will now have a much wider supply chain available to us. We began our international purchase office in 2003, buying from China . Now we will expand this globally,” he said.

He was referring to the Rs3,300-crore energy and environment solutions provider’s manufacturing bases in India and China. These, he said, will be integrated, although currently the Danstoker group sources solely from the very expensive European market.

The standard packaged boiler market, used for heating and cooling, is globally worth $4.5-5 billion, with residential being the biggest segment. Till now, Thermax addressed only the industrial heating market.

With this acquisition, it enters the industrial segment, with no intentions at the moment to enter the residential segment.

While the cash-rich Thermax could have gone in for an all-cash buyout, it has chosen to raise debt of e10 million, thus putting the onus on the newly-acquired company to perform.

Danstoker was set up in 1935 by the United Coal Importers. Prior to Thermax’s acquisition, it was part-owned by some workers and a few investment funds. “The group lacked management bandwidth to grow outside the mature European market,” said Mr Unnikrishnan.

FII inflows cross the US$ 100 billion mark

New Delhi: The net foreign fund investments has crossed the US$ 100 billion mark on November 8, 2010, since the foreign investors were allowed to make investments in the Indian stocks in 1992.

With an addition of US$ 1.6 billion, as per the data from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the figure now stands at US$ 100.9 billion. Taking the indication from the trend of the strong inflow of foreign institutional investors (FII) money into the India market, it was expected that the inflows would cross this milestone before the end of 2010.

Significantly, the net FII inflows into the market has already crossed US$ 3.5 billion, during the first eight days of the November 2010. A third of the total inflow came from the Coal India IPO.

In addition, so far this year, there has been a net FII inflow of US$ 28.3 billion, an all-time peak, as per the SEBI data.

Exports set to cross target of $200 billion in 2010-11: Sharma

New Delhi: The Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, said on Sunday that the country's merchandise exports will cross the $200 billion target for 2010-11 and the Government is working with the industry to double India's exports of goods and services by 2014.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 30th India International Trade Fair 2010 here, Mr Sharma said, in this regard, he has asked the Commerce Department to develop a systematic plan for trade promotion.

“Sector-specific trade fairs need to be encouraged in those countries which have a demand for products in which Indian competitive strengths lies,” he said.

The Minister said work is on to build world class Exhibition and Convention facilities at Pragati Maidan and international airports in the National Capital Region, adding that his Ministry is pursuing the matter with the Urban Development Ministry and the Delhi Development Authority.

Mr Sharma said the India Trade Promotion Organisation, which is organising the Fair, needs to modernise itself.

He said the Pragati Maidan ground, where the Fair is being held, presents a unique locational advantage, adding that a transformational change in this venue will position India as a convention hub of Asia, just as Singapore, China, Malaysia and even Vietnam have developed.

“The work on this activity will commence early next year,” he said, adding, “Work has also started in the earnest in creating similar facility near the international airport and I hope that when we meet next year, we would already have seen some positive movements on both these projects.”

Clean energy focus

The theme of this year's Trade Fair is ‘Energytech and Envirotech: Clean and Energy Efficient Technology, Products and Services', embodies the next big challenge for the entire global community – to ensure growth and development which is sustainable and in harmony with nature, he said. Companies and officials from over 24 countries are taking part in the Fair.

Maharashtra is the Partner State for the Fair and there is a Special Focus on Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh as these States are bringing in new technologies, including in renewable energy and bio-fuels.

In the first six months of the current fiscal, India's exports grew by 27.6 per cent over the same period last year to $103 billion. Exports in services have jumped from $16 billion in 2001 to $100 billion last year. The Minister said the Government has given incentives for market diversification of exports and to labour intensive sectors.

Forex reserves cross $300 b

Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves crossed the $300-billion mark for the first time since August 2008.

For the week ended November 5, 2010, India's forex reserves rose by $2.258 billion to $300.214 billion, according to the data in the weekly statistical supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday. The reserves rose on account of a $2.193-billion increase in the bank's foreign currency assets. For the week under review, foreign currency assets stood at $271.286 billion.

This is second week in succession where the central bank's foreign reserves have risen. The foreign exchange reserves for the previous week stood at $297.956 billion.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, sterling and yen, held in reserves. According to forex dealers, in the week under review, there was a valuation gain as the US dollar depreciated against other major currencies.

Gold reserves remained unchanged at $21.668 billion. SDRs rose by $43 million to $5.225 billion. The RBI's reserve position in the IMF grew by $22 million to $2.035 billion.

Economy will soon return to 9% growth path, says Pranab

Each country has to chart its own regulatory path'.

New Delhi: The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, sees strong prospects for the Indian economy getting back, in the short term, to the nine per cent average economic growth level witnessed prior to the global economic crisis of 2008.

This expectation stems from the revival in investment and private consumption demand, impressive growth in merchandise exports since November-December 2009, favourable capital market conditions and improvement in capital flows besides manufacturing sector buoyancy reminiscent of the pre-slowdown years.

Addressing the India Economic Summit (IES) 2010 in the Capital today, Mr Mukherjee also came up with an encouraging outlook for the Indian economy in the medium to long run. He expressed confidence that the current high economic growth would be sustained in the coming decades as advantages like demographic dividend starts paying off.

The challenge now is to find the means to cross the ‘double digit growth barrier' in the coming year or two, he noted.

“We are seeking to make growth more broad-based and ensure that supply demand imbalances are better managed.”

Mr Mukherjee also told the IES, comprised largely of foreign investors, that the Government was striving to improve the regulatory environment in the country.

“As you know there are no off-the-shelf solutions available to the regulatory dilemmas facing any developing country. Each country has to chart its own path on the regulatory reform based on its native genius and the conditions on the ground. India too is striving to achieve the optimum path,” he said.

Financial stability council

On financial sector reforms, Mr Mukherjee said that India has decided to set up an apex-level financial stability and development council (FSDC), with a view to strengthen and institutionalise the mechanism for maintaining financial stability.

“This council would undertake macro prudential supervision of the economy, including the functioning of large financial conglomerates, and address inter-regulatory coordination issues. It would also focus on financial literacy and financial inclusion,” he added.

The Government has also decided to set-up a financial sector legislative reforms commission (FSLRC) to rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws and bring them in line with the requirements of the sector, Mr Mukherjee said.

India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth had averaged close to nine per cent in the four-year period from 2004-05 to 2007-08.

Due to the global economic slowdown, the GDP growth declined to an average of seven per cent in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Setting up of 14 world-class universities gets approval

New Delhi: The National Development Council has approved setting up of 14 world-class universities for innovation across the 11th and 12th plan periods on the public private partnership model.

The innovation universities are part of the ministry of human resource development's (MHRD) "brain gain" policy to attract global talent and will be set up under the eleventh plan (2007-12).

The proposed universities will be set up in Bhubaneswar in Orissa, Kochi in Kerala, Amritsar in Punjab, Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, Patna in Bihar, Guwahati in Assam, Kolkata in West Bengal, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Gandhinagar in Gujarat, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Mysore in Karnataka, Pune in Maharashtra, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Jaipur in Rajasthan.

According to ministry, three distinct approaches are possible in establishing these Innovation Universities. First, new Innovation Universities focused on distinct issues of national importance to India and building various disciplines and fields of research around such issues. The second approach is to identify a few among existing universities and other institutions of repute, and help these attain world class standards through innovation in chosen areas of knowledge with marginal top-up investment. The third approach is to identify a few educational hubs (cities) in the country where institutions and universities of excellence by national standards are located, and creating the architecture of an Innovation University by building synergies for inter-disciplinarity and strong research and teaching within these institutions.

BSNL to float $3.5 bn tender

NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom company, BSNL, plans to float a $3.5-billion tender, a third of which will be reserved for public sector telecom equipment company ITI, an executive aware of the development told. The telco wants to procure equipment for 40 million GSM lines. BSNL is yet to decide if it wants to go in for a single contract or split it into two tenders for 20 million GSM lines over a two-year period, this executive added. This contract will provide the company with sufficient capacity till 2013.

"To take care of the long-term expansion requirements, BSNL has planned to expand its mobile network by a capacity of 20 million lines each in 2011-12 and 2012-13 ," the telco said in its status report sent to the telecoms department earlier this month.

This will be in addition to the 5.5 million GSM lines tender the telco floated recently. BSNL had initially banned Chinese firms from bidding for this 5.5-million line contract to expand its mobile network for its north and eastern zones, but changed the rules later to accommodate firms such as Huawei and ZTE after the Centre allowed participation from Chinese companies.

The $500-million contract for 5.5 million lines was the first tender the PSU floated after it cancelled its 93 million lines contract, the world's largest for telecom equipment, earlier this year. Following the junking of the mega equipment contract, which had run into several controversies including court cases and a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission, BSNL had decided to abolish its tender-based equipment procurement process and adopt the 'managed capacity model' followed by private telcos. But BSNL's plans to move to a managed capacity model have found no takers in the government, forcing the company to opt for the tender model again.

Over the last two years, BSNL has not sourced 30% of its equipment from ITI, despite the policies mandating it to do so. Under pressure from MTNL and BSNL, department of telecom too did not enforce this clause as ITI had not met the delivery schedules for the previous contracts. But earlier this month, the union Cabinet approved the continuation of the 'offset policy', under which 30% of all telecom contracts (for hardware and equipment) awarded by BSNL and MTNL should be sourced and manufactured by ITI.

Android makes Motorola profitable after 4 years

NEW YORK: US mobile phone maker Motorola reported its first revenue growth in nearly four years and better-than-expected sales of Android smartphones.

Motorola reported a net profit of $109 million in the third quarter compared with $12 million a year ago.

Revenue grew 6 per cent to $5.8 billion as the Illinois-based company notched its first quarter of growth since the fourth quarter of 2006.

Mobile phone division revenue increased 20 per cent to $2 billion and the division had an operating loss of $43 millions compared with an operating loss of $216 million a year ago.

Excluding extraordinary items, Motorola's mobile phone division, which is to be spun off from the rest of the company next year, posted an operating profit of $3 million.

Motorola said it shipped 9.1 million handsets during the July to September period including 3.8 million smartphones powered by Google's Android operating system, more than expected by analysts.

"In the third quarter, Motorola Mobility showed positive momentum across the business, with Mobile Devices reaching profitability for the first time in over three years," Motorola co-chief executive Sanjay Jha said.

" Droid X continues to sell extremely well," Jha said. "And we have had several other successful smartphone launches globally, including the Droid 2, the Ming series in China, as well as a well-received introduction of our enterprise-ready Droid Pro," he said.

Motorola plans to split its businesses in the first quarter of next year, separating products for consumers from its professional equipment division. The mobile and home entertainment devices division will operate as Motorola Mobility.

The other company, Motorola Solutions, will consist of its enterprise mobility solutions, which include two-way radios, mobile computers, secure public safety systems and scanners.

Motorola enjoyed success with its popular Razr phone launched in 2005 but has been losing ground since to Apple, Canada's Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry, and other major cell phone manufacturers.

Jha has been counting on smartphones running Android to help turn around the company's flagging fortunes and Motorola has launched 22 Android-based devices this year.

Read more: Android makes Motorola profitable after 4 years - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tech-News-Telecom/Android-makes-Motorola-profitable-after-4-years/articleshow/6833580.cms#ixzz13kLbGxEs

Intel opens biggest chip plant

HANOI: US-based chip maker Intel opened a billion-dollar assembly and test facility in Vietnam, the company's biggest in the world, saying it would help the country's development.

Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini and Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai officially opened the plant, the size of five-and-a-half football fields, at an industrial park in Ho Chi Minh City.

Hai said the opening "supports our goal of accelerating economic transformation led by technology-intensive industries."

Intel said in a statement, "Production commenced in the middle of this year, starting with production of chipsets for laptops and mobile devices for Intel customers worldwide. Once fully operational, the facility is expected to create several thousand skilled jobs in high-tech manufacturing and generate significant export revenue for the country."

Otellini said at the ceremony that Intel had signed pacts with government agencies to advance e-government, education, personal computer and broadband penetration and digital literacy in Vietnam.

The facility is one of seven operated by Intel worldwide. Intel announced the project four years ago, proclaiming it the largest investment in Vietnam by an American company.

The opening of Vietnam's first semiconductor factory comes despite warnings by analysts that the communist nation risks losing out both to poorer, lower-wage nations and richer ones that are more innovative and have a higher-quality labour force.

The World Bank and Vietnam's Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) said in a joint report in August that the nation depends too much on exploitation of natural resources while its industry, much of it dominated by large state-owned groups, lacks dynamism.

The country is the world's second-largest exporter of rice and coffee, while seafood, footwear and apparel are other key earners. However Vietnam's science and technology standards are low compared with regional rivals, VASS president Do Hoai Nam has said.

He added the country's economic infrastructure is not well-developed, there is a lack of specialisation and competitiveness and a shortage of skilled workers.

But the Intel facility is a sign that Vietnam is "moving up the food chain toward increasingly sophisticated manufacturing," said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam.

The facility would provide "higher-quality jobs" for Vietnamese people and attract other high-tech firms to the country, Sitkoff said. "Usually when Intel goes somewhere, that's a sign to other technology companies that they can go there also," he said.

Leon Perera, group managing director of Spire Research and Consulting in Singapore, said, "Intel's investment in Vietnam is undoubtedly a vote of confidence" in the country.

Vietnam, he added, was benefiting from multinational companies' need to diversify beyond China. Perera said that Vietnam, with its labour-cost advantage over China, closeness to the Chinese market, and participation in regional free trade pacts, "may be well suited for assembly of IT products."

However, one obstacle could be Vietnam's relatively underdeveloped logistics industry, Perera said. "Another obstacle would be the relative scarcity of English speakers as compared to Malaysia, or even Thailand and China."