Usher Agro starts commercial production of its expanded Rice Milling Facilities in UP

Usher Agro has commenced commercial production of its expanded rice milling facilities at Chhata, District Mathura, UP, which has an additional installed capacity of 2,91,600 MTPA with effect from March 28, 2011. After successful completion of the expansion, the total operational and installed rice milling capacity of the company has been increased to 5, 43,600 MTPA. Out of the said total rice milling capacity, the company has capacity to process and produce 'Par Boiled Rice' up to 4,50,000 MTPA, which is one of the largest in the country.

The company is of the view that the operations of the expanded capacity will have a positive bearing on the top line and the profitability of the company.

Usher Agro is engaged in the production and sale of agricultural products. For the quarter ended September 30, 2010, the company had posted a net profit of Rs 8.14 crore on the back of revenues of Rs 114.48 crore.

CARE reaffirms ratings assigned to bank facilities of Vivimed Labs

Credit rating agency, CARE has reaffirmed BBB+ rating assigned to Rs 94.24 crore long term bank facilities of Vivimed Labs. The rating agency has also reaffirmed PR2+ rating assigned to Rs 26 crore short term bank facilities of the company.

The ratings continue to draw strength from the company’s track record in the business of active ingredients for the home and personal care industry, reputed customer base, contract research and manufacturing, specialty pharmaceuticals, adequate profitability and diversification of products/segments.

Vivimed Labs is engaged in the business of manufacturing ingredients for the home and personal care (H&PC) industry and Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS). It carries on its business from 4 manufacturing facilities which are located at Bidar (Karnataka), Jeedimetla (Hyderabad), Bonthapally (Hyderabad) and Kashipur (Uttaranchal).

Karur Vysya Bank opens its 365th branch at Chennimalai

Karur Vysya Bank has opened its 365th branch at Chennimalai, situated between Erode and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on March 28, 2011. The bank is also in the process of opening its 366th branch at Dharapuram Road, Aravakurichi on March 30, 2011. Aravakurichi is a panchayat town in Karur district in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Earlier in this month, the bank had opened two new branches at Tamil Nadu. The first branch which is located at Salem Main Road, Vengamedu was opened on March 10, 2011 while the second branch is located at Rajapalayam Main Road, Sankarankoil was inaugurated on March 16, 2011.

The bank registered an increase in its net profit by 49.23% for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, which stood at Rs 113.22 crore against Rs 75.87 crore for the quarter ended on December 31, 2009. The Bank has posted total income of Rs 645.87 crore for quarter ended December 31, 2010 against Rs 512.11 crore for the quarter ended on December 31, 2009, up by 26.12%.

Cairn India submits bids for 2 blocks at NELP-IX

Cairn India bid for 2 out of 34 oil and gas exploration blocks on offer in the 9th round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). Out of 34 blocks, 19 blocks are totally new areas - 7 in deep sea, 2 in shallow water and 10 onland blocks. The remaining 15 - 1 in deep water, 5 in shallow water and 9 onland blocks are recycled blocks.
Cairn India submitted offers for only two blocks, one onland and one offshore. It did not bid for any two exploration blocks on offer in Rajasthan.
The Mangala oilfield in Cairn India's prolific RJ-ON-90/1 block in the Thar desert of Rajasthan is currently producing 125,000 barrels per day and the entire area, where the company has made number of oil discoveries, has the potential to produce up to 300,000 bpd (15 million tonnes a year).

Reliance Communications inks pact with handygo Technologies

handygo Technologies, the mobile value-added service provider has entered into a partnership with Reliance Communications (RCom), to offer information regarding health, education and finance, besides other areas, to rural subscribers.

The unique voice-based rural solution which is available in all regional languages along with Hindi and English by handygo provides credible and authentic information to rural subscribers.

For the latest and reliable updates, handygo has partnered with various organizations such as Care India, Aviva Life Insurance, Indian Metrological Department, Hariyali Kisan Bazaar, Network for Fish Quality Management and Sustainable Fishing, Transparency International India, India Financial Services and plethora of other organizations.

Recently, RCom’s plan to sell its 50,000 towers asset faces a set back as American Tower Corporation (ATC) is not eyeing these towers. There was an increased speculation that Reliance Communications was being wooed by players to pick up the company’s asset with US headquartered - ATC one among them.

The telecom service provider has also added 3.3 million mobile customers in February. Following the said addition, the company’s total subscriber’s base stood at 132.2 million.

Tantia Constructions bags two orders worth Rs 36 crore

Tantia Constructions has bagged two orders aggregating worth Rs 36 crore. The company has secured its first order worth Rs 26 crore from Municipal Corporation, Gwalior for providing laying, jointing, testing of RCC (S&S) IS: 458-1988 marked NP-3 mains and trunk sewer and IS: 15328 marked PVC-U sewers for household connections including excavations, refilling, restoration of roads, constructions of manhole chambers and bedding, supply of manhole covers with frames including labour and material in all respect with connections to old existing sewers within limit of Municipal Corporation in Gwalior

The company has won its second contract worth Rs 10 crore from PWD, Highway, Mizoram for execution of periodical Renewal from Km. 183/00 to 208.00 on NH-54 in the State of Mizoram.

Tantia Constructions operates as an infrastructure construction company in India. It is involved in the construction, widening, conversion, maintenance, strengthening, and beautification of roadways, road bridges, highways, and flyovers.

SREI Infrastructure eying 30 percent growth in profit

Driven by the growth momentum in the infrastructure sector, SREI Infrastructure Finance is looking to clock up to 30 per cent growth both in profit as well as disbursement in FY12.
From the estimated Rs 204 crore in FY11, SREI Infra expects the profit after tax to be around Rs 265 crore in FY12. Similarly compared to the estimated Rs 11,700 crore in FY11 the total disbursement is expected at around Rs 15,210 crore in FY12.
In the coming fiscal, company is expecting to get 35-40 new projects and would be looking at financing projects related to water, solid waste management and urban utility development areas. However, several hurdles like the 2G scam is likely to put a break on the growth momentum and the sector might not achieve the estimated double digit growth.
Recently, SREI Infrastructure Finance has been classified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as Infrastructure Finance Company (IFC) within the overall classification of Non Banking Finance Company (NBFC).
At present, the company’s businesses include infrastructure equipment leasing and finance, infrastructure project finance, advisory and development, insurance broking, venture capital, capital market and Sahaj e -Village. It has a pan-India presence with a network of 73 offices and has also replicated its business model overseas with three offices in Russia.

CSS Technergy enrolls more than 2.5 lakh residents under the UID-Aadhaar program across 4 states

CSS Technergy has successfully enrolled more than 2.5 lakh residents under the UID-Aadhaar program across 4 states. Further, the company informed that the resources required for the project are being ramped up on continuous basis, due to which the number of enrollments are likely to go up substantially.
CSTL has been successfully implementing e-governance projects since 1994 and has executed projects in several states of India.
CSS Technergy  was appointed as Enrolment Agency (EA) for UID Aadhar Project by State Bank of India for 22 Districts spread across Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa states.
CSS Technergy (CSSTL) provides business support processes, engineering and Information Technology service functions for various functional and technical domains. It provides competitive advantage to businesses using technology and quality assurance practices and help the customers remain competitive and focus on their core business areas.

Aptech to foray into Africa, Russia and Eastern Europe

Aptech, the software education services provider, is planning to expand in Africa, Russia and Eastern Europe. It plans to start IT courses in French and Spanish in 2-3 years and has been short-listed for India’s unique identification program’s IT training contract.
Indian IT training companies like Aptech and NIIT Technologies have been seeing higher demand globally for their services led by cheaper English medium courses by skilled professionals. Aptech teaches in Chinese as it has a JV in China. Its Chinese JV, which filed for an initial public offering in 2009, is still considering listing in the New York.
The company’s next targets include Portuguese, Vietnamese, Russian, French and Spanish. The firm, which is already present in Brazil and 40 other countries, also has plans to foray further into Latin America.

Uflex trades in green on its plan to set up a polyester films project in USA

Uflex is currently trading at Rs. 144.40, up by 1.00 points or 0.70 % from its previous closing of Rs. 143.40 on the BSE.
The scrip opened at Rs. 144.70 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 146.40 and Rs. 143.10 respectively. So far 100631 shares were traded on the counter.
The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 325.00 on 26-Oct-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 91.60 on 29-Mar-2010.
Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 148.50 and Rs. 128.55 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 1032.91 crore.
The promoters holding in the company stood at 43.55 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 6.23 % and 42.65 % respectively.
Uflex has decided to set up a polyester films project in USA through its wholly owned subsidiary. In this regard, the company will invest about $80-85 million.
Earlier in January this year, the company had received its board’s approval for its proposal for setting up a new plant for manufacturing of 30,000 MTs of polyester film at Poland through its wholly owned subsidiary - Flex Middle East FZE - Dubai (UAE).
Uflex manufactures flexible packaging solutions. Earlier known as Flex Industries, currently it is the largest flexible packaging company in India. Being one of the leading companies in Asia pacific region; UFLEX has capacity of 25000 TPA.

CARE assigns ratings to the various bank facilities of Sabero Organics Gujarat

Credit rating agency, CARE has assigned ‘CARE BBB+’ ratings to Sabero Organics Gujarat (SOGL) long-term bank facilities for Rs 100.57 crore. The agency has also assigned ‘PR3+’ ratings to SOGL’s short-term bank facilities for Rs 173.75 crore.
Further, the agency has also assigned ‘CARE BBB+/PR3+’ ratings to SOGL’s long-term/short-term bank facilities for Rs 62.75 crore.
The ratings are further strengthened by modest financial position with moderate leverage and debt servicing indicators and healthy profitability margins.
Sabero Organics is an established player in the agrochemical industry which manufactures and sells a variety of specialty chemicals and crop protection products. It has a diversified product portfolio for insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and specialty chemicals.

Rishab Special Yarns to revive the texturising of Polyester Yarn

Rishab Special Yarns is in process of reviving the Texturising of Polyester Yarn, which is a part of its earlier business at Bhilwara, a new location identified by the management. The Company is in process of arranging funds for the project.
The company did not report any net sales income for the previous accounting year ended March 31, 2010 as its commercial/Manufacturing activities remains suspended except giving part of land and building on rent. However, other income for the 9 months ended December 31, 2010 includes profit on sale of land and building to the extent of Rs 35.49 lakhs of unit - II( i.e. B-130 A, Ambaji Industrial Area, Abu Road).

Coal India lowered down its production target to 440 MT

Coal India (CIL) has lowered the production target to 440.20 million tonnes from 460.50 million tonnes for the current fiscal. This has been reviewed at the time of finalization of annual plan 2011-12. Though, the achievement made up to Feb 2011 is 380.625 million tonnes.

The Ministry of Coal has reviewed the production level of CIL at several levels including reviews at Planning Commission. Accordingly, the government will be continuing to intensify its efforts to provide the support required by the coal companies to achieve the targets.

CIL has planned to take some major steps to achieve the targets during the next financial year which includes increasing efficiency of the equipments, regular monitoring, mechanization as programmed and strict supervision of the existing mines and ongoing projects, capacity addition from new and future projects, and intensively pursuing with the Government for resolving issues of environmental and forestry clearances, land acquisition and law and order problems

CUA opts TCS BaNCS for core banking system overhaul

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting  and  business solutions firm, announced that CUA, Australia’s largest customer-owned financial institution has selected its world-leading TCS BaNCS banking platform to deliver CUA’s new core banking system.
CUA will revolutionize its core banking system and back office processes over the next two years to provide greater flexibility and integration across the business and deliver an enhanced customer experience. This major project will underpin CUA’s growth strategy.
TCS BaNCS Core Banking solution will not only assist CUA for driving new product development but will also improve its efficiencies. Further, the company will be utilizing its local industry knowledge and extensive global experience to ensure CUA’s new banking platform will be scalable and flexible enough to meet its long-term customer service expectations as well as its back-end operational and data management requirements.
A recent report by Forrester Research Inc - The Forrester WaveTM: Global Banking Platforms, Q4 2010 --rated TCS as a “leader” in world-leading banking platform products.  TCS BaNCS received high scores for banking platform functionality, deployment and operations, and both product and corporate strategy.
Australia’s largest customer-owned financial institution, CUA is emerging as a competitive force in Australian banking. CUA provides banking services to more than 400,000 Australians across the country.

Uflex to set up a polyester films project in USA

Uflex has decided to set up a polyester films project in USA through its wholly owned subsidiary. In this regard, the company will invest about $80-85 million.

Earlier in January this year, the company had received its board’s approval for its proposal for setting up a new plant for manufacturing of 30,000 MTs of polyester film at Poland through its wholly owned subsidiary - Flex Middle East FZE - Dubai (UAE).

Uflex manufactures flexible packaging solutions. Earlier known as Flex Industries, currently it is the largest flexible packaging company in India. Being one of the leading companies in Asia pacific region; UFLEX has capacity of 25000 TPA.

CRISIL Equities assigns fundamental grade 4/5 to eClerx Services

CRISIL Equities has assigned a CRISIL IER fundamental grade of 4/5 to eClerx Services. The grade indicates that the company’s fundamentals are superior relative to other listed equity securities in India. CRISIL Equities has assigned a valuation grade of 3/5 to the company, indicating that market price is ‘aligned’ with the fair value.
The assigned fundamental grade showcases eClerx’s strong domain focus, niche service offering and the resultant client stickiness. This has enabled it to grow at a much faster pace than the industry in past and is expected to support its future growth as well.
eClerx Services’ portfolio of services comprises data analytics, operations management, data audits, metrics management and reporting services. It provides service solutions using a mix of custom designed data processes, delivery teams comprising generalists and domain specialists, and in-house software to automate processes.

Essar Oil defers the planned shutdown of its refinery at Vadinar, Gujarat

Essar Oil has decided to defer the planned shutdown of its refinery at Vadinar, Gujarat during May - June 2011. The company has deferred the shutdown until September and October 2011, after the monsoon season due to requests from major public sector consumers mainly Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to continue production due to tightness in the Asian market for petroleum products, particularly gasoil, following recent events in the Middle East and Japan.
However, the deferment will not impact the schedule for commissioning of Vadinar Phase I refinery expansion. The ramp up of the new units will commence in Q3 2011 with majority of the increased production expected from mid Q4 2011.
The planned 35 day shutdown is being undertaken to integrate and synchronize the existing refinery with the new units associated with the Vadinar Phase I refinery expansion. This expansion will increase the capacity from around 300,000 barrels per stream day to 375,000 barrels and increase the complexity from 6.1 to 11.8. The increase in complexity will allow the refinery to process ultra heavy and heavy crude oils, and to produce high grade Euro V fuels which can be sold into International Markets.

SREI Infrastructure gets IFC status from RBI

SREI Infrastructure Finance has been classified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as Infrastructure Finance Company (IFC) within the overall classification of Non Banking Finance Company (NBFC).

IFC status provides more flexibility in terms of accessing debt and providing loans to the infrastructure sector compared to other lending agencies. An IFC can provide loans to any single borrower more than 10% of its owned fund while banks cannot.

At present, the company’s businesses include infrastructure equipment leasing and finance, infrastructure project finance, advisory and development, insurance broking, venture capital, capital market and Sahaj e -Village. It has a pan-India presence with a network of 73 offices and has also replicated its business model overseas with three offices in Russia.

Cals Refineries award Saipem with the detailed feasibility report for refinery project at Haldia

Cals Refineries and the Hardt group has awarded Saipem, Italy, a subsidiary of Eni S.p.A., and one of the largest and best balanced turnkey contractors in Oil and Gas industry, the detailed feasibility report for the 200,000 Barrels per day refinery project at Haldia, West Bengal.
The Company will award Saipem the lump sum Engineering-procurement-Construction -Commissioning (EPCC) contract for the Project if the parties would reach an agreement on the terms of proposed feasibility report within 80 days.
Cals Refineries’ business strategy is to create an independent value-added integrated refining / petrochemical business with significant economies of scale and operational efficiency, producing world-class refining and petrochemical products with competitive domestic and international marketing strategy.

Indiabulls Financial Services gets SEBI approval for Indiabulls Mutual Fund

Indiabulls Financial Services has received SEBI’s final approval for Indiabulls Mutual Fund sponsored by the company. This enables commencement of mutual fund business and launching of mutual fund schemes in due course. SEBI has granted its 'Certificate of Registration' on March 24, 2011.
SEBI has also granted its approval to Indiabulls Asset Management Company, a 100% subsidiary of the company to act as Asset Management Company to Indiabulls Mutual Fund.
In January, this year Indiabulls Financial Services has sold its 26% stake, held by it, in Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX), to Reliance Exchangenext, a holding company of Reliance Spot Exchange (RSX) and a subsidiary of Reliance Capital. The company now holds 14% stake in ICEX.
Indiabulls Financial Services is engaged in the business of offering various services in the area of consumer finance, housing finance, commercial loans, life insurance, asset management and advisory services. It has reported a decline of 204.59% in net profit to Rs 173.98 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 against Rs 57.12 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.