Shoppers Stop to go slow on expansion

Shoppers Stop, the Bombay Stock Exchange listed department store chain, has decided to go slow on fresh store expansions as it finds new stores eating into sales of its existing stores.

As a result, its capital expenditure requirement for the year has reduced, prompting the company to defer its rights issue plans. The company now expects to fund its reduced annual expansion target of around five stores every year through internal accruals and debt.

Since December 2008, the company's square footage has remained almost constant at 1.8 million sq ft for three consecutive quarters in a row.

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IBM bags lion's share of 1.5 billion dollars BP contracts

India's top three outsourcing companies, Infosys, Wipro and TCS, and international IT powerhouses IBM and Accenture have won a $1.5 billion five-year IT services contracts from BP.

A spokesperson for the world's leading oil and gas company, Sheila Williams, told Financial Chronicle from London that the total value of the deal for the five players would be $1.5 billion, which had resulted in a saving of $500 million for BP . "The original tendering value was estimated to be $2 billion," Williams said. She, however, declined to give any break-up of how much each company's contract would be worth.

According to a person with knowledge of the development, IBM had got the enterprise solutions deal, which is said to be the largest chunk among the contracts.

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British mails, not same anymore

Strikes. Disappearing letters. Shuttered post offices. Irritatingly long queues and suspicious smells in the survivors. There are (sadly) lots of reasons for the British to indulge in the popular national pastime of grumbling about the Royal Mail this summer.

The appearance last week of a new series of Royal Mail stamps to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the postbox should have struck a cheerier tone. Even the grouchiest grumblers agree that old-fashioned mailboxes are among the most popular symbols of Britain, and share many characteristics of the country's other design icons.

One is that they come in a rousing shade of red, like the K2 telephone kiosk and Routemaster double-decker bus.

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Mahindra joint venture to stop using Kinetic brand

The $6.3 billion Mahindra group is restructuring the two-wheeler business of the Kinetic group that it acquired in a Rs 118 crore deal in July 2008.

The autos-to-IT group has decided to revamp the portfolio of products being sold by the 80:20 joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and Kinetic Motor Company. Facing the axe are scooters such as Nova, 4S, Blaze, Kine, mopeds such as King100, v2, the iconic Luna and motorcycles such as Stryker, Comet and the Kinetic Aquila.

Anoop Mathur, president, two wheeler sector and member of the M&M group management board said that the focus product for Mahindra Two Wheelers at present is the new Mahindra SYM 125 cc Flyte.

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Information Technology`s just getting better all the time

The fortunes of the information technology (IT) sector may at last be turning around. Top IT firms are chasing a larger number of deals this quarter, reflecting an improved business environment.

Companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS and MindTree have now more visibility in the budgets of top clients and there are sweeter deals to go after. This is a clear departure from the dismal scenario a quarter ago, when deals were few and far in between. As reported in this newspaper, the business vision of many big as well as mid-sized IT firms had been blurred by the delay in budget allocations for 2009-10 by the customers. Big IT spenders like Telstra, ABN-Amro, Wyeth, Dell, McGraw Hill, Lythia Motors, Textron and Northern Trust Bank had deferred the allocations.

Infosys CFO V Ba lakrishnan had then told FC: "The economic environment is challenging and this could impact the IT spending of large clients."

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Bharti, MTN extend talks

The creation of the world's third largest telecom player got delayed by another month with India's Bharti Airtel and South African major MTN on Thursday announcing the second extension of their exclusive talks till the end of next month.

"Discussions between the parties regarding the potential transaction continue to progress satisfactorily and the parties have accordingly agreed to extend the exclusivity period until September 30, 2009. The discussions may or may not lead to any transaction," Bharti said in a statement.

On May 25 the two firms had entered into exclusive discussions till July 31 for a possible merger. The exclusivity period was later extended till August 31.

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Sony slashes price of PlayStation 3 by 25 percent

Sony has cut the price of its PlayStation 3 console by 25 per cent, bowing to demands from game publishers and increasing the pressure on industry leader Nintendo to follow.

The PlayStation 3's price will be $299 in the US starting Wednesday, with comparable reductions in Europe and Japan, the Tokyo-based company said. Nintendo offers the Wii for $250 and Microsoft sells its Xbox 360 machine for as little as $200.

Sony chairman Howard Stringer, who rebuffed calls for cheaper prices as recently as last month, reversed course after PS3 sales tumbled to a two-year low.

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Green clearances source of corruption: Manmohan

It couldn't have come from a more authoritative functionary of the Union government. Prime minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday that the process of granting environmental clearances was `corrupt' and a `licence raj' in another form.

Addressing a conference of state ministers in charge of environment and forests in the capital, the prime minister did not mince words. He said, "I wish to draw your attention to the view that environmental clearances have become a new form of licence raj and a source of corruption."

Confirming what environmentalists had held for a long time, he said that some times there were discrepancies in the environmental impact assessment reports.

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Black gold looks better than yellow metal

If you like investing in commodities and thought gold alone will gave you steady returns, consider this emerging option: Black gold. Experts say crude oil could soon emerge as the new `gold' for investors.

An analysis of the price movement of the two commodities -- crude and gold ­ in relation to each other since 2000 suggests that oil may be a better bet at the present juncture from an investment perspective.

Historically (till about July 2008) the two commodities have shown a close inter-relationship in the international market, whereby their price movements shadowed each other.

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Branded eggs catch on, log 20 percent growth in sales

Protein-rich and low-fat branded eggs are slowly becoming the staple breakfast choice of families, reflected in the product's 20 per cent sales growth.

Despite its higher price tag, many firms that produce branded eggs have seen a rise in demand and say there is still a huge untapped market for the product.

"The demand (for branded eggs) is growing between 10-20 per cent annually and is sold through big as well as small retail stores," an official of Tamil Nadu-based leading branded eggs producer Suguna Poultry said.

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Indian Premier League III kicks off from March 12, adds 4 venues

OUR new venues and a third place playoff match will be introduced in the third Indian Premier League (IPL), which will get underway in Hyderabad on March 12, 2010, with a game between IPL II winners Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders.

The final of the 45-day Twenty20 cricket league, which proved a success in its first two editions in India and South Africa, would be held on April 25, 2010 IPL chairman Lalit Modi announced after a meeting of its governing council in Mumbai on Tuesday. IPL III will have four additional match-staging centres -Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala and will also stage one extra match, the 60th, for the third place play-off, Modi said.

"The playing window remains the same, 45 days," Modi said before adding that the governing council also decided to include two more franchisees in IPL IV to be held in 2011.

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Government to issue 90 day bonds new 15 day,

The government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue new short-term bonds, known as Cash Management Bills, to meet the temporary cash flow mismatches of the government.

The Cash Management Bills will be the shortest treasury bills to hit the market with durations of 15 days to 90 days. The proposed bills will be issued at discount to the face value through auctions, as in the case of the treasury bills.

Treasury bills are short term (up to one year) borrowing instruments of the government that enable investors to park their short term surplus funds while reducing their market risk.

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Sugar price rise sweetens return for investors

For the consumer sugar may have turned bitter, but for investors in sugar stocks it is celebration time, thanks to the rising prices of the daily essential.

As prices touch record levels, sugar stocks have risen sharply on expectations of high profits. On Friday, when the Sensex closed 353.79 points, or 2.28 per cent, lower, sugar scrips were big gainers.

Among them Bajaj Hindusthan rose 4.90 per cent to Rs 34.25, Dwarikesh 4.57 per cent to Rs 101.85 and Sakthi Sugars 4.96 per cent to Rs 75.15

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Baxter completes first swine flu vaccine batches

Baxter International said on Wednesday it completed its first commercial batches of H1N1 vaccine in late July and is discussing distribution plans with national health authorities.

The swine flu vaccine, to be sold under the brand name Celvapan, is made using Baxter's cell culture process, which is designed to be faster than traditional vaccine production methods, where virus samples must be put into specially raised chicken eggs to grow.

Baxter has supply contracts with five countries, including the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, but not the US, said spokeswoman Deborah Spak.

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Life Insurance Corporation soft launches 10,000 credit cards

Around 10,000 cards have been disbursed to LIC policy holders since its soft launch in June, reports Sneha Shah Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has soft launched its credit cards and has begun selling its cards through Mangalore-based Corporation Bank.

J M Garg, chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank, said around 10,000 cards have been disbursed to LIC policy holders, since its launch in June for a limited consumers.

The only public sector life insurer, having largest market share with more than 22 crore policy holders, LIC is targeting a customer base of around 1 lakh cards by the end of 2009-10, through its subsidiary LIC Cards.

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BlackBerry changes colour

Even the BlackBerry company, the Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM), doesn't know why the handset has traditionally been black, or a silver grey shade of it. One guess is that it suited the grey suits, its original target market.

It now realises that there is a market beyond that. So it has announced the handset will now come in a rainbow of colours, besides black, backed by the usual marketing spiel -- that colour appeals to youth. So, you can shop for a green BlackBerry, or yellow, coral-butterfly (whatever that is), lavender and also white.

Since BlackBerry has always been seen as an expensive product and service, keeping away legions of prospective customers who lusted after the handset, a cheaper version (Rs 15,990) will be marketed to widen its popularity.

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Bharti, MTN extend talks till 31st

Bharti Airtel on Monday announced extension of its exclusive talks with MTN till August 31 for a potential $23 billion deal.

"No decisions or agreement to acquire any shares or implement the transactions... have been made by the boards of either Bharti or MTN and the discussions may or may not lead to any transaction," a joint statement issued on Monday said. The firms had announced on May 25 that they were in exclusive merger talks till July 31. The merger, if successful, will create the world's third largest telecom firm with over 200 million customers and $20 billion revenues.

The structure and terms of the potential transaction may be adjusted to reflect further discussions, the statement said.

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Metal of future that can outshine gold and silver

IF you are asked to invest in precious metals, which one will you pick? Gold? Silver? Perhaps. But the proverbial pot of gold is actually filled with palladium, a metal little known to investors and which can give dream returns.

Bloomberg data reveal that since January, palladium has outperformed gold by posting a 37 per cent return. Gold gave 8 per cent.

You can't invest in palladium in India though, because the metal is not traded on the country's commodity exchanges. Nevertheless, portfolio advisors say the metal will eventually arrive in India as an investment option.

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