New Delhi, May 23
Punjab National Bank (PNB) will dilute government holding in it from 57.1 per cent to 51 per cent this year to meet Basel II norms and to meet capital requirement for its overseas expansion.

The bank is also slated to raise Rs 500 crore through tier II bonds by June 30, 2007, as part of its exercise to meet the need of around Rs 2,000 crore during the current fiscal for overseas as well as domestic expansion plans and meeting Basel II norms.

This was disclosed at a press conference by PNB chairman and managing director S C Gupta while releasing the banks fourth quarter results of 2006-07 here.

"We need capital of around Rs 2,000 crore to meet Basel II norms, overseas and domestic expansion and to cater to credit expansion during this year, therefore, we need to dilute the government shareholding," Gupta said.

Though the exact mode of dilution will be decided by the bank’s board, which has already approved the dilution from 57.8 per cent to 51 per cent, he said the bank was likely to come out with public offer.

"I do not think that the money will be raised from overseas market, it will be raised domestically,” he said.

He also disclosed that the PNB has got a licence to open its full-fledged branch in Hong Kong, which was likely to be operational by July end.

As far as opening of bank’s branch in Canada, Gupta said the bank was yet to finalise whether to have a full-fledged branch or a subsidiary like the one opened recently in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, operating profit of the bank increased by 10.8 per cent to touch Rs 3,231 crore during financial year 2006-07. Operating profit of the bank for the fourth quarter of (Jan-Mar 2007) amounted to Rs 1,035 crore.

Net profit rose by 7 per cent to Rs 1,540 crore during 2006-07, after providing for necessary provisions of Rs 1,691 crore towards income tax, wealth tax, NPAs, standard assets, depreciation, gratuity, pension, leave encashment, etc, as compared to Rs 1,478 crore in the previous year, he said.

Last year the bank had paid 90 per cent dividend, this year the board has approved 100 per cent dividend.

Mumbai, May 23
Television broadcaster NDTV, which has announced plans to float lifestyle and entertainment channels, will raise Rs 400 crore through a mix of debt and equity.

The company’s board of directors has approved the fund-raising scheme through preferential issue, Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), follow-on issue, or rights issue constituting a combination of equity shares, convertible debentures, convertible preference shares and warrants etc.

NDTV, which had recently announced it would launch three channels under its new entertainment venture called NDTV Imagine, said it was open to dilution of up to 10 per cent of its present paid-up capital.

This, the company said, would be carried out at the option of the holders seeking conversion of securities into equity shares.

The fund-raising proposal is subject to shareholders’ approval through postal ballot, it added.

“The proposed structure should also allow growth opportunities through acquisitions and strategic tie-ups in India or abroad and benchmark the operations with global peers to enhance shareholder value,” NDTV said in a communique to the BSE.

Ex-Star India chief Samir Nair had joined hands with the Pranoy Roy-promoted NDTV group to head the new entertainment venture.

The company has also declared 20 per cent dividend at the rate of Re 0.80 per share on shares having a face value of Rs 4 each, it added. —PTI 

New Delhi, May 23
Seven new services like rents for commercial purposes and ring tones supplied by content providers to telecom firms will become expensive from next month with the government bringing these under the tax net.

The services, which also include asset management by individuals and work contracts for commercial and residential construction, are taxable as per the Finance Act, 2007, and notified by the Central Board of Excise and Customs today.

Tax on these services will be effective from June 1, according to the notification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs.

With the addition of these seven services, the number of taxable services has increased to about 100. Service providers will have to pay 12 per cent service tax in addition to 3 per cent education cess, taking the total tax to 12.36 per cent.

Various telecom services like telecom connection, pager, leased circuit, communication through telegraph, telex and fax will also come under tax net.

However, property owners have been given a marginal relief as property tax would be deductible for the purpose of service tax on commercial rentals though any penalty paid under the property tax cannot be deducted.

The notification also broadened the existing services tax net to include maxi-cab capable of carrying more than 12 persons for educational bodies or vehicles for driving schools.— PTI

Chandigarh, May 23
Punjab Tractors (PTL) has reported 39.7 per cent dip in net profit for the year ended March 31 at Rs 77.98 crore as compared to Rs 129.34 crore in the previous fiscal.
The net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, also dropped by 17.4 per cent to Rs 17.38 crore as compared to Rs 21.04 crore in the same period a year ago. Total revenue of the company during the quarter decreased to Rs 220.83 crore for the January-March quarter, down by 12.6 per cent from Rs 252.50 crore in the corresponding period in 2006, Punjab Tractors informed the BSE. Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra has appointed Anjani Kumar Choudhari and Bishwambhar Mishra on the PTL board.

The duo have been nominated by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and Mahindra Holdings & Finance Ltd. and have replaced Dr S. Narayan and Sachit Jain.

The board was informed that during the last fiscal, the company’s focus was towards increasing retail sales, improving collections, expanding dealer network and introducing new-look tractors.

New Delhi, May 23
While the current earnings season has brought good fortune for a large number of firms by way of return to profitability, a larger number went into the reverse gear and plunged into the red in the latest quarter.

A total of 112 companies have posted turnaround results for the January-March quarter, marking their return to profit from a net loss in the previous quarter. This includes 25 firms having been in the red for four consecutive quarters.

However, as many as 170 companies have reported net losses for the same quarter, as against their net profit after tax in the previous quarter. This includes 61 firms that were reporting net profit for the past four consecutive quarters.

While a total of 1,231 companies have so far reported a net profit for the quarter, there have been as many as 435 companies witnessing net losses for the same quarter.

The companies that saw their quarterly figures dipping into the red from profitability in the previous quarter include firms like Development Credit Bank, Deccan Aviation, DCM Shriram Industries, EID Parry, Kinetic Engineering, Mid-Day Multimedia, Sandesh, Shopper's Stop and Tech Mahindra.

On a positive front, most of the turnaround results in the latest quarter are from small-cap and mid-cap firms. However, they also include a large number of firms owned by domestic corporate giants or Indian subsidiaries of some global majors.

The companies that reported positive profit after tax figures, after losses in the previous quarter, include Tata group's Tata Metalliks, Mahindra Composites, Nandas' promoted Escorts Ltd and mobile service provider Shyam Telecom.

The turnaround stories of the January-March quarter also include the Indian subsidiaries of Korean consumer goods major Whirlpool, German consumer goods maker Henkel and US auto parts major Federal Mogul.

Besides, state-owned telecom equipment maker ITI Ltd and PSU engineering firm Andrew Yule & Co also reported their return to profitability in the quarter. The latest quarter also saw Bihar Sponge and Mysore Cements, where state governments hold stakes, coming back into the black.

About one-quarter of the companies reporting turnaround results in the latest quarter were those reporting net losses for the four consecutive quarters.

These companies include Sterlite Holiday Resorts, Shiva Cements, Empee Sugars, Mysore Cement, Mafatlal Industries, KEC Infrastructure, Steel Tubes India, SAL Steel and TPI India.

Among major turnaround results, Escorts reported Rs 671 crore in PAT for the March quarter, a sharp turnaround from a net loss of Rs 304 crore in the previous quarter.— PTI

New Delhi, May 23
Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers Ramvilas Paswan today said the government was trying to augment the supply of fertiliser in the long run through establishment of joint ventures (JVs)abroad.

Initial talks have been held for joint ventures for production of urea in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nigeria, Egypt and Mozambique. The government is considering joint venture projects in phosphorous rich countries like Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Jordan, he told reporters here.

He said concerted efforts were made to increase domestic production of fertilisers and improve timely availability of major fertilisers in adequate quantity during the three years of the UPA government.

The demand of ferilisers as assessed by the Department of Agriculture was fully met by the Department of Fertiisers during the last three years.

He said the backlog of fertiliser subsidy amounting to over Rs. 8,000 crore will be cleared by this month end.

The minister said in spite of increase in cost of fertilisers, the government has completely kept the farmers insulated from this increase in cost and have increased the subsidy allocations to meet the consumption needs of the farmer at subsidised level of prices.

In 2004-05, the total subsidy on fertilisers was Rs 15,779 crore. It was increased to Rs 18,299 crore in 2005-06 and Rs 25,952 crore in 2006-07, to ensure that there is no shortage in availability of fertilisers. The likely requirement in 2007-08 will be Rs 50,284 crore.

He said new initiatives had been taken to streamline distribution and movement of fertilisers at the consumption points.

Subsidy will be paid only when fertilizer reaches the districts.

New Delhi, May 23
The food processing industry awaits the implementation of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) with the hope that it would curb inspector raj-led corruption, unify multiple laws, and lead to science-based standards. However, industry players are apprehensive of the massive penalties proposed under the Act, difficulty in meeting certain processed food standards when raw material violates norms and lack of information, according to a study.

The Ficci study, based on the first-ever industry-wide survey on industry’s perspective on the implementation of the FSSA, collates the existing concerns as also throws up worrying revelations that could become the starting point of reference for ironing out the rough edges.

The study reveals major problems that industry would face during the course of the implementation of the Act. These are anxiety due to lack of information, massive penalties proposed under the Act and difficulty in meeting certain processed food standards when raw material violates standards.

Based on the responses by food industry players, the study observes that since the tiny, small and medium scale industries do not have the technical expertise to track the regulatory changes, they will find it difficult to identify the procedural and compliance changes brought in by the Act.

The study suggests that the ministry of health and family welfare (nodal ministry) needs to launch awareness and capacity-building programmes. These will be extremely beneficial to enable effective implementation of the Act.

Industry feels that whilst in other sectors, introduction of Food Safety and Standards Act would remove multiplicity of laws, in alcoholic beverages sector it would lead to multiplicity of authorities. Manufacturers of alcoholic beverages feel that implementation of the Act would pose problems. 

Mumbai, May 23
Gold today fell to a seven-month low and closed at Rs 8,755 per 10 gm with a loss of Rs 50, while silver fell by Rs 135 per kg on weak global advices on the Bombay Bullion Exchange.

Standard gold (99.5) and pure gold (99.9) opened weak at Rs 8,720 and Rs 8,770 per 10 gm, respectively on lack of fresh demand.

Later, the yellow metals fell to a seven-month low and closed at Rs 8,705 and Rs 8,755 with a loss of Rs 50 each from their yesterday's close.

Simiarly, silver fineness .999 opened low at Rs 18,230 per kg on poor demand. Later, it closed at Rs 18,215 with a huge loss of Rs 135 from its last close. — UNI