Hyderabad Small & Large scale Industries updates

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Amara Raja scrip hits new high

HYDERABAD, AUG 16:
Shares of Amara Raja Batteries Ltd hit a new high of Rs 384.40, up 5.81 per cent during the day’s trade.

The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 404.

The stock has seen significant surge in the past few days since the company came out with good numbers. The company logged a 95 per cent growth in its first quarter revenue at Rs 76 crore and also indicated at taking up expansion.

The market seems to have received the company news favourably at a time where most companies are hard pressed to register good profits.

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Suven Life net profit more than doubles

HYDERABAD, AUG 16:
Suven Life Sciences has more than doubled its net profit to Rs 8 crore (Rs 3.4 crore) for the quarter ended June 30, 2012.

Its revenues went up by 58 per cent to Rs 71.1 crore (Rs 44.8 crore) as per the unaudited financial results.

The biopharmaceutical company board has recommended a dividend of Re 0.30 per share (30 per cent of face value of Rs 1 each) for fiscal 2011-12.

The company has spent Rs 8.5 crore on drug discovery work, which is 12 per cent of revenues for the first quarter.

During the quarter, Suven Life also got eight product patents from different countries for its candidate molecules targeting Alzheimer’s and Schizophrenia.

The High Court of Andhra Pradesh has sanctioned the Scheme of Amalgamation of Suven Nishtaa Pharma Pvt Ltd with Suven Life Sciences Ltd. The court order has been filed with the Registrar of Companies, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, a release said.

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Ramky Infra divests part stake in Gwalior Project SPV

HYDERABAD, AUG. 15:
Ramky Infrastructure has divested part of its stake in a special purpose vehicle created to execute a road project in Madhya Pradesh to Era Infra.

The Hyderabad-based infrastructure company brought down to 26 per cent its 51 per cent stake in the Gwalior Bypass Road Project, offering the remaining stake to Era Infra Engineering Limited, its project partner.

PERMISSIBLE LIMIT

The 42-km stretch entails four-laning of a bypass road in Madhya Pradesh. Located in the North-South corridor of the National Highways Development Programme, the project is being executed under the Build, Operate and Transfer mode.

The SPV, Gwalior Bypass Road Project Pvt Limited, had Era Infra Engineering Limited as consortium lead and included Ramky Infrastructure and Shriram Chits.

“The project is under execution and is likely to be completed in about four months. As per NHAI norms, the developer cannot bring down the holding to below 26 per cent within the execution phase. We are within the permissible norms,” M. Gautham Reddy, Executive Director, Ramky Infra, told Business Line.

The Board of Directors of the Company, at its meeting on Tuesday, approved the execution of the shareholders’ agreement with Era Infrastructure (India) Ltd for dilution of equity in Gwalior Bypass Projects Ltd.

It also approved a share purchase agreement for sale of preference shares held in Gwalior Bypass Projects Limited.

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Care Hospitals lines up Rs 400 cr expansion plans

Hyderabad-based healthcare chain, Care Hospitals, which had raised $105 million (Rs 534 crore) this financial year from US-based private equity major Advent International, is on an expansion drive.

It is planning to double beds capacity to 3,500, set up five new greenfield hospitals and a Rs 35-crore daycare Centre of Excellence over the next two. The projects will involve a total investment of Rs 400 crore.

“We have adopted this three-pronged growth strategy to become a major healthcare player in India. Currently, we are present in five states across the central and southern India, mainly in Tier II cities such as Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, Surat and Pune, along with Hyderabad. For the time being, our focus will be more on expanding at our existing locations,” N Krishna Reddy, chief executive officer, Care Hospitals, told Business Standard.
Care plans to upgrade and add 100-200 beds at its existing 100-bedded hospitals across the cities, as some of the hospitals are a decade old. It has already started expansion work on its Banjara Hills and Nampally units here.

It has 12 hospitals, including four in Hyderabad. “We are planning to set up our fifth unit in Hyderabad at Gachibowli. It will be a 250-bed hospital and come up with an investment of around Rs 105 crore,” he said.

The proposed Rs 35-crore daycare centre, spread across 100,000 sft, will come up in Banjara Hills and house 100 counselling chambers, spas and dialysis centres. “We have already acquired a building and will covert it into the day-care centre,” he said.

The healthcare major is also looking at growth from the consolidation space. “Two-three healthcare players from our existing locations have approached us with proposals. We are looking at like-minded opportunities. If at all it happens, it will be through acquiring majority stake,” he said.

Care will fund the projects through a mix of equity (around 70 per cent) and debt (30 per cent). “We are planning to raise around Rs 100 crore from various banks in phases over the deployment period of two years,” Reddy said.

Founded in 1997, the hospital chain is estimated to have a revenue of Rs 500 crore.

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Four Soft to focus on mfg for better revenue mix

Four Soft Limited, a Hyderabad-based provider of software solutions for transportation and logistics industry, is shifting its focus to the manufacturing sector to have the right mix of revenues, according to chief operating and chief financial officer Biju S Nair.

“We are tilting towards supply chain execution to increase our margins, as the price that we get from the manufacturing segment is much more than the logistic segment. So, our global focus is now on supply chain management and execution where margins are higher,” he told Business Standard.

The 11-year-old company currently gets 88 per cent of its revenues from transportation execution and 12 per cent from supply chain. With the new focus and new products in the pipeline, this revenue mix would change to 82 per cent and 18 per cent respectively by the end of this fiscal, he said.
“We are also looking at the manufacturing segment in India. We have introduced 4S eCustoms, a web-centric customs compliance solution, in India and there are already six clients live on that. Though India is expected to contribute Rs 2.5 crore to our top line this year, we are aiming at doubling it by next year,” Nair said.

Four Soft, which offers its products on a SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, has 400 customers globally, including around 14 freight-forwarding and logistics companies in India. While Europe accounts for 69 per cent of its revenues, the US contributes 21 per cent and the rest from Asia (mainly Japan and India).

Nair said the company was trying to strengthen its presence in geographies like West Asia and Australia, which primarily are manufacturing markets, during this year. “The future of Four Soft is in the supply chain segment, where manufacturing companies or 4PL (fourth-party logistics) companies use our products as an ERP or a visibility tool,” he added.

Four Soft reported a net profit of Rs 2.76 crore for the first quarter ended June 2012, as against Rs 1.61 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, reflecting a growth of 71.42 per cent. Its revenues grew 8.37 per cent to Rs 32.49 crore, as against Rs 29.98 crore during the same period a year ago.

“Of out total top line of $28 million in FY12, $20 million is annuities (existing repeat business, including annual maintenance revenue). We now have an order book worth $6 million, and our plan is to get $3 million of new sales during this year,” Nair said.

Four Soft Limited’s scrip ended the trade at Rs 7.74 on the BSE on Thursday, up 0.26 per cent, over the previous close of Rs 7.72.

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7Seas' The Dark Man on Android platform

7Seas Entertainment Limited, a Hyderabad-based independent game development company, today said its online game ‘The Dark Man’ is now available for Android-based mobile devices.

Since its launch a year ago, the physics-based shooting game has seen over 15 millions game plays online, including social networking sites. The touch screen-genre game is priced at $0.99 per download.

The game will initially be made available on Google’s Android marketplace, and will be offered on Samsung App Store, LG Store and other Android-supporting app stores and distributor networks in due course, the company said in a release on Thursday.
With Android becoming the world’s leading smartphone platform, makes mobile games a much more reliable way to grow, said L Maruti Sanker, managing director of 7Seas.

According to IDC, Android will reach its peak market share this year, topping out at 61 percent of the global market. IDC believes that Android will continue to command the single-largest share of the smartphone OS market in 2016, he added.

7Seas’ scrip rose 0.39 per cent to end the trade at Rs 25.7 on the BSE on Thursday, over the previous close of Rs 25.6.

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Sr scientists backed funds to C.R. Rao Institute: DRDO

The Defence Research and Development Organisation has funded the city-based Dr C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (AIMSCS) to conduct studies on the latest warfare technology including decoding of enemy’s military secrets and strengthening India’s defence capabilities.

The Rs 2.8 crore sanctioned to AIMSCS was for research in two critical areas of defence — radar technology and cryptanalysis. While research in radar technology will help boost the country’s defence system, the cryptanalysis project deals with coding and decoding secret or encrypted messages. Cryptanalysis needs mathematically-advanced computerised schemes. DRDO chief and eminent defence scientist Dr V.K. Saraswat has been in the news for sanction of funds to AIMSCS, of which he is the honorary president. Defence sources refute the allegation of misuse of funds saying that the money was sanctioned for the critical projects as they were taken up by eminent researchers including Prof. Vellenki Umapathi Reddy, Prof. S.B. Rao and Prof. Virender Sule.

“The project on radar systems including target detection, resolution and identification was taken up due to the potential of the research outcome and its usefulness to DRDO’s futuristic radar development activities. Top scientists including Prof. P.R. Mahapatra of Indian Institute of Science reviewed the proposal and recommended sanction of funds,” a senior defence official said. Sources said the morale of the DRDO team has been hit after the allegation of irregularity in the sanction of funds. C.R. Rao institute received funding from a several agencies including the Government of India (Rs 10 crore), Planning Commission (Rs 5 crore), National Technical Research Organisation (Rs 12.48 crore) and AP government (Rs 50 lakh).

The project on cryptanalysis was recommended by director of Scientific Analysis Group, Delhi, based on the critical areas of research in the futuristic areas of cryptanalysis and cryptography.
According to them, such collaborative work with premier institutes of the country have played a crucial role in overcoming the damaging impact of isolation forced upon India and its strategic research organisations under the harsh international denial regimes. Involvement of academic and research institutes with expertise in the critical areas is an established process in the country and elsewhere.

“Only because Dr Saraswat is the president of the institute, it does not bind the research body from seeking projects and funding from various government bodies, research organisations including those of DRDO,” another DRDO official said.

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Suven Life may tie up for Alzheimer's drug

Hyderabad-based Suven Life Sciences Limited, which has eight product patents with potential therapeutic use in the central nervous system (CNS) disorders including Alzheimer's disease, expects to collaborate with a big pharma company for one of these products in 2014.

It may be recalled that the company’s clinical drug candidate SUVN-502 ,which is meant for treating Alzheimer’s disease among other brain-related disorders, had passed through various toxicity tests along with human Phase-1 trials in Switzerland and is said to have found to be very safe. Other patented molecules are still at a preclincal stage.

“While it’s still a long way to go before these discoveries reach the stage of drug approvals, we are certain of entering into a collaboration in 2014 – which means an upfront payment for our molecule,” Venkat Jasti, chairman and CEO of Suven Life Sciences, told Business Standard.
Though big pharma companies are keen on the drug candidate that has a potential market opportunity of $20 billion globally, they insist on proof of concept before making any commitment, according to Jasti.

Proof of Concept involves a Phase-2 study aimed at evaluating the proof of efficacy and safety of the molecule with enrollment of targeted patient population ranging from 50 to a few hundreds. This helps companies identify a better clinical candidate at the very beginning to save time and money.

The company earned Rs 204 crore revenues last year and spent about Rs 33 crore on R&D initiatives. It has yet to generate any revenues on this front. The likely collaboration with big companies, the only way for a small company like Suven to take the molecule through the next stages of drug development that involves huge costs and associated risks, will see the first signs of pay back from the investments made so far.

Suven gets most of its revenues from the contract manufacturing segment, which it says offers good margins and market opportunities. The company's top line as well as the net profit for the quarter ending June, 2012, grew 58 per cent and 135 per cent to Rs 71 crore and Rs 8 crore respectively (revenues Rs 44.8 crore and net profit at Rs 3.4 crore in the quarter ended June, 2011).

The surge in revenues and net profit was because of several projects maturing at one time, said Jasti, who sees a growth of 20-25 per cent in net profit for the full year in 2012-13.

“We are into making advanced drug intermediaries for clients in the US and Europe and also in Japan. Margins are very good but the rising costs are eating them away,” he said.

Till the time the company’s drug discovery initiatives start paying back, its contract manufacturing operations would be generating enough cashflows to sustain growth, according to him.

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Gayatri Projects redeems Rs 40-cr FCCBs

MUMBAI, AUG 22:
Hyderabad-based infrastructure company Gayatri Projects today said it has initiated redemption of its foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) worth Rs 193 crore (raised in yen) and paid Rs 40 crore towards redemption of the first tranche.

“We have proposed to bondholders to complete the FCCB redemption in two tranches and has remitted 572,000,000 yen (Rs 40 crore) to the trustee’s account towards redemption of FCCBs that matured on August 3, marking the first tranche payment,” the company said.

It also said the company will remit second and final tranche of the remaining amount of Rs 153 crore by the end of September.

It further said funds were partly arranged through internal accruals and debt for which the company has already received sanction.

Gayatri Projects is present primarily in road and irrigation projects along with build-own-operate projects across various other segments.

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Pact signed for cooperation in energy sector

HYDERABAD, AUG. 24:
The Swedish Energy Agency, the Confederation of Indian Industry and Cleantech Scandinavia entered into a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the energy sector on Friday.

The agreement was signed at the 11th Energy Efficiency Summit being held here where the focus will be on sustainable development and improving efficiencies.

The MoU was inked by Karl Edberg, Counsellor-Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Embassy of Sweden; S. Raghupathy, Executive Director and Head of CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, and Alexander Lindgren, Chairman of Cleantech Scandinavia.

The focus of the cooperation will be on technology exchange and facilitate development of better energy management by engaging companies and research organisations.

Cleantech Scadinavia, the Sweden-based network for investors, governmental organisations and professionals, contributes to business and development.

The cooperation is of significance in the backdrop of Indian industry seeking to improve energy efficiency by adopting new technologies and processes in their plants. With the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme in place adding to interest from companies, several global companies are keen to take part in the Indian power sector.

Edberg said more than 360 companies based in Sweden are now engaged in India. Working together with Indian companies will be a win-win situation for both the countries, particularly in the area of energy efficiency.

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Mahindra Satyam employees get moderate pay raise on back of fragile economic scenario

CEO C P Gurnani is addressing the media announcing Q4 results of Mahindra Satyam in Hyderabad on Thursday. BCCL

HYDERABAD: Information technology services firm Mahindra Satyam doled out moderate hikes to its employees exercising caution on the back of a fragile economic scenario in the US and Europe, from where it gets over 80% of its revenues.

Satyam's Indian employees received salary hikes of about 7% while on site employees got a 2% raise, much in line with the rest of the industry. Last month, while announcing the June quarter earnings, company's chief executive CP Gurnani had sought to temper expectations by sounding cautionary on salary hikes.

Despite a volatile market, most large Indian IT firms gave out pay hikes in the range of 8-10%, while Bangalore-based Infosys had withheld hikes citing low visibility in near term growth - a decision that will be reviewed at the end of September quarter.

Last year, MSat which has an employee base of 33,000 offered 8 to 12% salary hikes from October.

"Most of us in the industry are very cautious and are reviewing the economic situation on a day to day basis," Hari T, chief people's officer. "We have decided to offer (pay) hikes to our employees to keep them motivated despite the cut back in IT spends."

Employee attrition at Satyam was at 13% in the June quarter, compared to 17% in the the previous quarter.

Satyam, part of the Mahindra Group, is set to merge with the group's IT services firm Tech Mahindra. The combined entity will have a little over $2billion in revenues and an employee base of around 75,000.

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Celkon launches tablet in sub-Rs 7,000 range

HYDERABAD, AUG. 25:
Celkon, the home-grown mobile phone brand, has come out with a tablet in the sub-Rs 7,000 category, continuing the tablet market war. The Ee-Tab (CT-1) model, priced at Rs 6,450, comes with pre-loaded applications that can be accessed offline.

The Hyderabad-based company is targeting the student community by embedding apps such as My Tutor. This app contains data and question papers for students appearing for national common tests for engineering and management.

“We have tied up with third party app developers for using some of these apps, For geeks, the 7-inch screen device comes with 512 MB RAM and 1.2 GHz processor. It is build on Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and contains 4 GB of internal memory with provision to expand up to 32 GB. Users can access the wireless networks using WiFi and 3G dongle options,” the company said.

Celkon, which sells five lakh mobiles a month, claims to be the number one national brand in the South and number 3 in this category nationally. Smartphones contribute 10 per cent to the sales volumes.

Addressing a press conference, Y. Guru, Managing Director, said the company planned to sell one lakh tablets by December-end. “We are coming out with three more models in the next two months. One of them will have the provision to insert a sim card. It will be priced at Rs 1,000 more,” he said.

Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah launched the tablet.

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P Mangatram Jewellers launches world's lightest necklace at IIJS-2012

P Mangatram Jewellers, a leading jewellery manufacturing company headquartered in Hyderabad, launched first-of-its-kind concepts and pieces in jewellery at the India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) 2012.
It unveiled one of its necklace creations of 3.5 grams, which makes it the world's lightest necklace, the company announced. This piece is crafted in 18 k gold and studded with precious stones. Also, the company introduced ‘SILK’, a new concept offering a delicate and fuller look, very flexible necklace with the minutest detailing set in 22 k gold and studded with rubies. The creations are inspired by the beauty of jewels that are exclusively hand picked and hand crafted to the highest specifications.

Sanjay Gulabani, Managing Director, P Mangatram Jewellers Pvt. Ltd. says, ‘With the rising prices of gold, customers are concentrating on the designs which are more contemporary. The world’s lightest necklace has been designed keeping in mind the soaring prices of the yellow metal that has gone beyond the reach of middle class segment. Moreover since buying gold is still considered as investment, this studded necklace lighter in weight but still luxurious and status symbol shows propensity to capitalize the future trends. We are proud to produce world-class studded jewellery at competitive prices which are signs of evolution in jewellery industry”

P Mangatram Jewellers offers a jewellery portfolio of rings, necklace, earring, pendants and bracelets, which are suited to individual style yet carry the appeal of being a legacy for jewellery lovers. The company primarily exports its precious and semi-precious studded jewellery largely to UAE & USA and plans to expand its foothold globally by setting up office in Dubai later this year.

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Start up’s new technology to enable multiple cardholders to carry just one card only

Hyderabad based information technology firm, Start up, showcased its new technology, which enables a person to carry a single plastic card instead of many cards and make payments using any of them.

Explaining the technology, Ch V.K.S. Kumar, the Managing Director of Onecard Techno Services India Pvt Ltd said that this special card developed by them enables cardholders to print the images of all their plastic cards ( credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, privilege cards etc.) on it and them use it as any other normal card. He defined this technology as "integration of all cards on a single card" and that it is not "cloning".

Elaborating further, he said, "You don't actually bring the whole file on to the screen. It is just an image that, when clicked, will take you to the original file. Our technology takes images on to the card and use it with a lot convenience."

For introducing the new technology, the company engaged former captain of India Criket Team, Sourav Ganguly. On security concerns relating to the use of the card, Mr. Kumar said that the card is as good as using the original card and that it is protected by biometric authentication.

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Premier Explosives sets up new plant

HYDERABAD, AUG. 27:
Premier Explosives Ltd has set up a new emulsion explosives plant at Peddakandurkuru village in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh.

The plant will have a capacity to produce 5,000 tonnes of packaged explosives a year. It is a new product from the company which specialises in producing a range of explosives to meet the requirements of mining and allied industries.

The product also has export potential said A.N. Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of the Hyderabad-based company in a press release.

The plant was inaugurated by T.R. Thomas, Chief Controller of Explosives, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation recently. The Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives V.K. Mishra was also present at the event.

Premier Explosives is also involved in developing specialised products for the Indian defence, space sectors such as solid fuel propellants. It is also into renewable energy sector developing green power-equivalent to grid power, the release added.

The company has set up production facilities for solid fuel to meet the demands of the country’s missile and satellite programmes.

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Solar Panel Maker Doubles Output As Prices Drop: Corporate India

Surana Ventures Ltd. (SURA), an Indian maker of solar panels, is planning to double production after oversupply from Chinese manufacturers pushed prices down by almost 34 percent in the past year.
The company, based in the southern city of Hyderabad, plans to increase output of panels to 30 megawatts this year and invest 250 million rupees ($4.5 million) in a solar cell plant, Managing Director Narender Surana said in an interview. Rising demand for alternative energy driven by coal supply bottlenecks and blackouts may help reverse a slide in revenue, he said.

Surana is counting on one of the fastest-growing solar markets where larger local rivals including Moser Baer India Ltd. (MBI), the country’s biggest maker, and Indosolar Ltd. (ISLR) are struggling to cope with the crash in prices. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government seeks to turn India into a global hub with rules to help almost triple manufacturing capacity to 5 gigawatts by 2020.
“The shortage in coal supply is a great opportunity for us as more and more people are looking at solar energy as a viable alternative,” Surana said. “As India’s energy needs rise, the shift towards solar power shall become more pronounced.”
Sales, which slid 29 percent in the year ended March 31 to 727 million rupees, may jump 38 percent in the current financial year to 1 billion rupees, Surana said.
Stock Slide
Shares of the company have slumped 71 percent since touching 65 rupees on its debut in Mumbai on Jan. 7, 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The stock rose 0.3 percent to 19 rupees yesterday.
India is struggling to add electricity generation capacity to meet peak demand. Power cuts are common across the country, which battles an average 9 percent shortfall that the government says shaves about 1.2 percentage points off annual economic growth. The South Asian country has missed every annual capacity target since 1951, with 76,000 megawatts targeted for the five years ending March 2017.
A shortage of coal and gas used in conventional thermal plants has prompted the government to set a sun-power generation target of 20 gigawatts by 2022, a 20-fold increase. Welspun Energy Ltd., the country’s biggest developer of solar projects, said last month that the nation will surpass the target in the next decade by twofold.
Idle Capacity
The biggest panel suppliers including China’s Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP) and Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar Inc. (FSLR) say India is about to become one of the fastest-growing solar markets, countering waning demand in Europe where governments are cutting back clean-energy subsidies.
Surana may be putting up the investment, anticipating such a surge in demand, even though solar-panel makers in India have almost 80 percent of their capacity lying idle now, said Bharat Bhushan, a New Delhi-based analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
India is soon set to release a 3 gigawatt capacity plan for the next four years and it will have a domestic content requirement, Bhushan said.
“The home market is the big hope for solar manufacturers in India,” Bhushan said. “The government has already been promoting the use of locally made cells and modules,” which will be extended in the next phase, he said.
First Solar, the only profitable panel maker among the 10 biggest in the world, plans to develop solar farms in India, with demand coming from industrial and commercial users without any government subsidies involved, Sujoy Ghosh, the India head of the world’s biggest thin-film panel maker, said last week.
Debt Revamp
A lot of investment planned for thermal projects will go to renewables, Welspun Energy’s Managing Director Vineet Mittal said last month. Indian power utilities have stalled plans to invest about $34 billion to build 42 gigawatts of capacity as coal output fails to meet demand.
The oversupply of solar panels has claimed at least 14 U.S., German and French makers, while prices have plunged 34 percent in the past year amid dwindling demand in Europe, the largest market for the equipment. Moser Baer said in May that it was revamping 35 billion rupees of secured debt and selling bonds to pay off dollar-convertible notes.
Surana faces the threat of competition from Chinese makers that are bigger in size and capacity, said Vishal Kothari, a power analyst at JHP Securities Pvt. in Mumbai, adding it will be difficult for a small company to succeed when bigger ones have failed.
Dim Outlook
“I don’t see any major growth in this sector as the cost of generation is too high and competition is too much,” said Kothari, who doesn’t have a rating for the stock. “Surana’s performance has been volatile historically.”
Surana Ventures was spun off from the solar business of Surana Telecom & Power Ltd. (SRTL) in November 2009 and started trading about a year later. Bhagyanagar India Ltd. (BHIL), the parent company, holds about 24 percent of the solar-panel maker, while the phone company owns about 18 percent.
Access to the group’s cash will allow Surana Ventures to buy raw materials from distressed European companies at half the cost, said Surana. Cash reserves and equivalent at Bhagyanagar rose sevenfold to 95 million rupees as of March 31 from 12 months earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Surana Ventures had 252 million rupees of debt in the period.
“This gives us an edge when we bid for contracts,” Surana said. “It also helps in pricing our products competitively.”
The company is also exploring opportunities after the country’s phone regulator this year recommended that carriers shift to renewable energy from diesel to power their communication towers, he said.
“With the cost of equipment coming down drastically, the cost of generating solar power has also fallen,” he said. “Solar is more attractive than other forms of alternative energy and we expect state governments to encourage setting up of projects as well. That will provide a big boost to us.”

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WINIT creates platform to manage apps

Hyderabad-based mobile app strategy and development maker, is evolving a platform that will allow its clients be more engaged with their customers.

The new SaaS platform, which will bring in added revenues to the company on a monthly basis, will be ready shortly, according to Prakash Sreewastav, chief executive officer of Winit.

WINIT is working with enterprises across home automation, banking, restaurant, sports and education verticals and has so far developed over 250 applications and solutions for its clients primarily with to unlock the business potential to bring in higher customer engagement, enhance productivity and get better margins.

The company, which has about 200 personnel working for it, has been seeing about 100 per cent growth on year on year basis as more companies are preferring to have mobile presence too. It is hopeful of its revenues touching Rs 25 crore from the present Rs 13 crore by FY13.

“We have been in the app making space even before smart phones caught the fancy of users. We have several codes and frameworks that can be used again. Now, our focus is on creating IP,” he told Financial Chronicle.

The new platform will manage the apps after they go live and the clients will have a better control on the usage of the apps, he said adding that users tend to forget about an app in about ten days and therefore there is a need for the companies to engage constantly with the customers.

New as well as existing businesses are on the look out for having mobile presence as mobiles and tablets, not desktops and laptops, are tuning out to be the first and more intense touch points for customers. Also, feature phones will make way for smart phones.

“It is interesting to note that many Indian companies are more keen than ever before to get an app done for their businesses,” he said.

“If banking transactions can happen on mobiles and tablets there is no reason why other industries cannot move their data to a mobile platform,” he said adding that security issues are being ironed out.

The company, which has Schneider, Educomp, Jazeera Airways and others as its clients, is hopeful of travel and hospitality and retail industries, spurring the demand for mobile app strategies.

Citing a case study of a UAE-based retailer, for which it automated its supply chain and management application. The app enabled the company to deliver adequate products without overstocking as the orders are taken in real time. The earlier gadgets took the orders but was processed only at the end of the day resulting in a delay for a day, he said.

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Voter's verifiable paper audit trial system tested in Jaisalmer

JAIPUR: Jaisalmer was among the five districts in the country selected for testing project of voter's verifiable paper audit trial system (VVPAT). Based on the experiences the Election Commission will decide to introduce the new machines in future elections in India.

To satisfy the voters that their vote has been correctly registered in the account of the party they selected, the election commission is mulling to generate electronic slips of the votes. To facilitate this new machines have been developed by the Bangalore and Hyderabad based companies.

"In VVPAT the selected option of the voter will flash on the screen for few seconds. This is to ensure voters that vote has gone to the candidate they opted for. Later a screen printout will be drop by the machine to authenticate it" said official of state election commission.

Apart from Jaisalmer, Leh, Cherapunji, Delhi and Trivandrum have been selected for the trial project.

To test the new machines, election commission organized a dummy election in Jaisalmer on August 11. Total 23,928 voters participated with 28 polling booths set up in 19 villages and 6 in district headquarters. All the polling stations during trial phase were intentionally selected at far off places to test the viability of the system in far flung places in India.

After the testing phase the officials of the election commission took feedback from the voters. These suggestions will later be conveyed to election commission in New Delhi. "If we find any glitches or receive some valuable suggestion we will incorporate it" added official.

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Deccan Chronicle shares gain 5% on strategic investor hopes

Hyderabad: Shares of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) rose 4.72% on Wednesday, extending a rally from its lifetime lows, as investors bet that a strategic investor would emerge soon to rescue the debt-laden publisher from its financial straits.

The stock gained 55 paise from the previous day’s close to end at Rs.13.30 on BSE Ltd on a day the benchmark Sensex fell 140.90 points, or 0.8%, to 17,490.81 points. The shares have gained 39% since plumbing a record low of Rs.9.55 on 17 August.

Analysts attributed the gain in the stock to investor anticipation that the Hyderabad-based publisher may be lining up a strategic investor.

Photo: Mint
Still, there hasn’t been any change on the stock’s outlook given the uncertainty about the state of its finances; the stock is 75% down from year-ago levels.
“We still maintain our negative outlook on the stock as the debt position is still not clear,” said Satish Kantheti, head of the equity research division at Hyderabad-based broker Zen Securities Ltd.

A person close to DCHL chairman T. Venkattram Reddy said the company was in the final stage of negotiations with a potential investor he identified as a South Indian consortium. Mint could not independently verify this.

“There will be a smooth ending and Deccan Chronicle is not going to die,” the person said.

Emails sent to Venkattram Reddy remained unanswered. Attempts to reach him on the the telephone were unsuccessful.

A spokesperson for Yes Bank Ltd, which has an exposure of Rs.144 crore to DCHL, said the company was engaged in “various efforts, including involvement of a strategic investor.” The spokesperson said the bank’s exposure to the company was adequately secured by immovable assets.

Emails sent to other lenders of DCHL remained unanswered.

DCHL, which publishes English-language newspapers Deccan Chronicle, Financial Chronicle,The Asian Age and Telugu daily Andhra Bhoomi, has been in crisis since a 25 July announcement that its managing director N. Krishnan had resigned.

The company’s proprietors —chairman Venkattram Reddy, his brother and vice-chairman T. Vinayak Ravi Reddy and vice-chairman (and new managing director) P.K. Iyer—who together held 73.83% of the company, then pledged a 54% stake to Future Capital Holdings Ltd to raise a Rs.170 crore loan.

Then followed news that financial institution IFCI Ltd had filed a petition in the Andhra Pradesh high court to wind up the operations of DCHL for failing to redeem non-convertible debentures worth about Rs.25 crore. On 31 July, Karvy Stock Broking Ltd (KSBL), which provides depository services, filed a complaint with the Central Crime Station in Hyderabad alleging that the publisher’s promoters forged documents to misrepresent the total number of shares they held in order to raise loans.

Analysts have blamed the troubles of DCHL, which also owns the Indian Premier League franchise Deccan Chargers, and a chain of book stores under the Odyssey brand name, on its rapid diversification into areas outside of its main business of publishing. The company also ventured unsuccessfully into aviation.

Based on Registrar of Companies data posted on the ministry of corporate affairs website, the company has debt of more than Rs.1,500 crore, most of which has come on its books in the past few months.

DCHL promoters have been trying to sell non-core assets that include the IPL franchise and the Odyssey bookstore chain.

[Gudavalli]

Zen Money launches real estate services arm

HYDERABAD, AUG. 29:
Zen Money, the Hyderabad-based financial services company, has launched its integrated real estate services arm, Zen Spaces.

Part of the Zen Group, the new services aims to assist clients in investing prudently in real estate and managing their real estate portfolio efficiently.

SERVICES

The integrated services include advisory, transactional and management services covering the full spectrum of real estate services such as buying property to selling and renting/leasing assistance, and finally, property management, said Pratap Kantheti, Managing Director, Zen Spaces.

The services will be available in Hyderabad and soon be introduced in Visakhapatnam, a press release said. Zen Spaces will offer standard as well as customised real estate services based on various factors such as investment objective, time horizon etc, a press release said.

NETWORK

The Zen Group, founded by late Ravindra Babu with over 26 years into financial services, has a pan-India network of 150 branches/associates and a 70,000 strong customer base, the release added.