Adama To Invest Additional $50M In India Over 3-4 Years

December 9, 2014 | The Israeli agri-tech company Adama has plans to invest up to $50 million in India in the next three to four years, in order to increase R&D; and distribution. Since Adama began operations in India in 2009, it has invested $50 million, establishing one of the company’s only R&D; centers outside of Israel in Hyperabad. Adama is the third largest agro-chemical company in India, a market worth nearly $2 billion. Adama, formerly known as Makteshim Agan, was founded in 1a945 and is headed by CEO Erez Vigodman.

Qatar Sheikh with Indian partner evinces interest in Modi’s smart city initiative

Sheikh Hamad Bin Nasser Al-Thani, from the Qatar royalty with his Indian partner has expressed interest in investing multi-billion dollars in the `smart cities’ project announced by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi over the coming years.

The focus of the investment will be on ten smart-city projects in the first phase. There is also interest in other areas – power, solar energy, infrastructure development, healthcare and education for investments.

“The partnership between Sheikh Hamad Bin Nasser and Mitesh Sharma, an Indian entrepreneur who has also partnered with us in Doha will be identifying the project areas and Sheikh will be taking decisions over investments”, a release from the Qatar Office said.

The partners recently (November 20-22) met the Chief Minister’s of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu and Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav respectively. They also signed an MOU in AP for a smart city project. An investment of upto $3 billion is needed to develop each smart city.

“We cannot deny the Modi wave in attracting foreign investment, but again as India’s real estate is one of the most profitable sectors, we see a big opportunity to launch our self as a developer in India. The investments will be the Prince’s personal and the Hamad group of companies has experience in various sectors to take up projects”, the release said.

Sheik Hamad Bin Nasser is Chairman, Future Pipe industries and Deputy Chairman, Dalah Brokerage & Investment Holding Co. Mitesh is based in New Delhi, with consultancy services and Managing Director of Al Natroon Trading & Contracting company, Qatar.

Volkswagen to invest $900 mn investments in Tennessee plant

Videocon to invest Rs 500 cr to setup mobile assembly plant in Punjab

NEW DELHI: Videocon Industries will invest Rs 500 crore over the next three years to set up a new mobile handset assembly plant in Punjab, which will also manufacture set top boxes. The plant will create employment for 3000 people over a period of time in the state.

"We are happy to announce that Videocon would be setting up a Mobile assembly plant in Punjab. I have visited several States, but the speed of progress, development and treatment given to industrialists in this State is of par excellence," Anirudh Dhoot, director of Videocon Industries, said.

Videocon recently bagged a contract to make five lakh handsets for Coolpad India, a subsidiary of China's largest smartphone maker, in the first quarter of the next fiscal. In addition, the company is also making feature and smartphones for Spice Mobiles out of the Aurangabad manufacturing facility.

Smartphone makers are looking to tap into the multi-billion dollar opportunity in India, which is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. As per IDC, the Indian handset industry is poised to overtake the US as the second-largest market in the next few years. Shipments in India grew 44 percent to 26.5 million units in April-June, as per research firm IDC.

Leading handset makers Samsung and Micromax already have assembly units in the country. A bunch of handset makers like Xiaomi, Lenovo, OnePlus and Gionee have started manufacturing operations in India in partnership with electronics major Foxconn.

King's College London to invest Rs 1,000 Crore in Punjab Healthcare Sector

Commitments made to invest Rs.1.15 lakh crore in Punjab

Mohali (Punjab) Oct 29 (IANS) The two-day Progressive Punjab Investors Summit ended on Thursday with total investment commitments of Rs.1.15 lakh crore.

Domestic electronics company Videocon and jewellery brand Geetanjali are among the prominent prospective investors.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who presided over the valedictory function, announced a startup fund of Rs.100 crore for young entrepreneurs.

He said Mohali was emerging as a cluster for electronics and information technology. Similarly, the state was poised for development of agro-processing and defence and aero clusters.

Badal told reporters that Geetanjali brand owners would establish a jewellery park at Amritsar with an investment of Rs.1,200 crore.

Likewise, domestic electronics company Videocon would set up a mobile assembly plant with an investment of Rs.500 crore over the next three years.

He said the summit proved that industrial giants had shown full confidence in thestate and this summit would be a game changer in the overall development of Punjab.

He announced a special policy providing for level-playing field for micro, small and medium enterprises would be finalised within a month.

Detailing the investment proposals, the deputy chief minister said Apollo Hospitals would set up a world class facility in Amritsar, starting April next.

He said the government would also tie up with Apollo to conduct health mapping of people.

Badal said HDFC bank would shift its back office to Mohali, adding it had committed to open skill development centres in the state.

Special emphasis was laid on training students and 50 colleges would be set up in rural areas to train girls in various vocations, he said.

He said at least 500 girls would be trained in each college.

He said Punjab had done a lot in creating infrastructure, basic amenities, governance reforms, education, health, air connectivity, mechanised agriculture and congenial atmosphere for industries.

'Africa huge investment potential for Indian energy firms'

New Delhi: Highlighting huge potential for Indian energy players in Africa, Namibia's Minister of Mines and Energy Obeth Kandjoze said on Wednesday that the country's power sector presented good investment opportunities.

"We are a middle income country, and have to import electricity for our growing needs. The power sector in Namibia is a huge investment opportunity for foreign investors," Kandjoze said at a FICCI organised session at the India Africa Business Forum here on the sidelines of the ongoing third India-Africa Forum Summit.

He said Namibia, whose energy deficiency was making it vulnerable, offered a conducive environment for foreign investors with its liberal policies, repatriation of capital, access to foreign exchange, provision of arbitration, fair compensation in case of legal disputes and equal treatment to foreign investors and local players.

Zambia's Vice President Inonge Wina said Africa would benefit immensely if Indian energy 

ITC to double investments in Punjab to Rs 1,400 crore: Y C Deveshwar 
 

Reliance Jio makes Rs 3,900 crore investment in Punjab: Mukesh Ambani

Telecom network operator Reliance Jio has made an investment of Rs 3,900 crore in Punjab, said RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani.

Reliance Jio is expected to launch 4G LTE services during the next financial year competing with Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India in the high speed broadband space. Reliance Jio will have the maximum coverage as per its current plans.

Bharti Airtel has expanded its 4G coverage to more than 330 towns in 12 states. Reliance Jio will have 4G coverage in all 22 states. Idea Cellular said its 4G would cover 600 towns in the first half of 2016.

Speaking at the second Progressive Punjab Investors Summit 2015 held at Mohali, Ambani said Reliance Jio aims to cover 100 percent of the state population with broadband connectivity.

“Punjab will be the first state in India where every single village will be covered with broadband mobile connectivity. Famers, all the small and medium industry can improve their productivity with the 4G broadband,” Ambani said.

Incidentally, established telecoms such as BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, Tata Docomo and Reliance Communications never committed themselves to offer 100 percent coverage with their wireless broadband in India or Indian states.

Ambani said traders in Punjab can make sure that they can do their own e-commerce to compete with the large global players. For the youth, digital infrastructure gives opportunity to create value and to start their own start-up businesses.

GCC-India meeting in Saudi to boost trade ties

The fourth edition of the Gulf Cooperation Council-India Industrial Forum on November 18-19 in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah will focus on promoting trade, investment and collaborations between the two regions, an official statement said on Tuesday.

Gap to open two new stores in India

Gap to open two new stores in India

US apparel brand Gap Inc is set to double its store strength in India with the launch of two new stores in the Delhi-NCR region.

The new stores will open in Ambience Malls in Vasant Kunj and Gurgaon, said Arvind Lifestyle Brands, its Indian franchisee partner.

The Vasant Kunj store will open for consumers on October 30 and the Gurgaon store on November 6, the company announced on Tuesday.

Spread over approximately 7,500 sq ft and 6,000 sq ft respectively, the stores will offer Gap products for men, women, children and babies. "Within a mere 120 days since its launch, Gap has accelerated its expansions plans in India to open its third and fourth stores," said J Suresh, MD and CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands.

"With the launch of Ambience Vasant Kunj and Ambience Gurgaon, Gap becomes the first international retailer in the country to operate with such speed."

"This pace hasn't been seen in brick-and-mortar retail previously, and brings the quick go-to-market expertise to the fore. Delhi, as a geography, has a very strong mall and shopping culture, and appetite for international brands. Satellite cities of the region attract customers to Delhi with strong fashion adaptations and this has worked to define our expansion strategy," he said.

Incidentally, one of the GAP's rival in India, swedish fast fashion retailer, H&M; is also opening its second store in Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi on November 7.

Arvind Lifestyle Brands had earlier announced plans to open 10 Gap stores in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru by next year, with an investment of around Rs 100 crore, and increase the store count to 40 in five years.

hCentive Inc. to invest Rs. 750 crores in its India R&D; centre

Blackstone to invest in cement, consumer lending in India

Private equity (PE) firm Blackstone Group Lp is scouting for investments in India’s cement and financial services firms, especially non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and housing finance firms, said two people familiar with the development.

“The fund is keen to acquire a consumer lending business as they expect it to grow significantly over the next few years. Apart from that, it is aggressively chasing cement assets in the country as it doesn’t have an exposure in this segment in India yet,” said the first person mentioned above, who did not want to be identified.

In May, Blackstone had placed its bid to acquire 5.15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) cement assets of French cement firm Lafarge SA, which was ultimately acquired by Kolkata-based Birla Corp. Ltd for an enterprise valuation of Rs.5,000 crore.

“The fund looks at cement as a consumer product rather than a business-to-business construction material product and it believes there is a significant growth opportunity in this space for newer investors to come in,” the first person added.

According to two other investment bankers who are directly aware of the process, Blackstone has placed its bid to acquire Reliance Cement Co. Pvt. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.

“Last Friday (23 October) was the last day to submit bids for the asset and it is expected to fetch a valuation of Rs.1,000 crore per million tonne, effectively making it the largest deal of this year,” said an investment banker involved in the process.

According to the company’s website, Reliance Cement has a total installed capacity of 5.8 mtpa. Of this, 2.8 mtpa is located in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh, 2.2 mtpa at Kundanganj, Uttar Pradesh, and 0.5 mtpa in Butibori, Maharashtra.

Reliance Infrastructure did not respond to an email sent on Friday. Blackstone declined to comment for the story.

“Cement is a good sector to pick at this point and there is not enough competition in the segment. Also, with the Competition Commission of India keeping a close eye over large firms, it has become difficult for them to increase capacities through the inorganic route. Thus, it provides a perfect opportunity for new investors to come in,” said Ajay Garg, managing director at boutique investment banking firm Equirus Capital Pvt. Ltd.

Garg adds that as the economy picks up, cement firms can grow 12-15%. The only other global PE fund which owns cement assets in India is KKR India, an arm of global PE firm KKR and Co. Lp through its investment in Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd. KKR had invested Rs.750 crore in the firm in May 2010.

Blackstone’s interest in consumer lending can be attributed to the fact that the segment is growing at 25-30% per annum and listed firms in the NBFC segment are trading at 3-4 times the book value, the investment banker quoted above said.

In September, Blackstone bought the business process outsourcing (BPO) unit of UK-based Serco Group Plc. for about Rs.2,558 crore and rebranded it Intelenet Global Services 2.0. The firm has so far undertaken three?buyouts,?including this one.

Blackstone did not make any new investment after March 2013 when it invested in Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX). In January 2014, it raised its stake in MCX and, as of September, it owns a 4.79% stake in the firm.

The fund is looking to invest in sectors like financial services which includes consumer lending, information technology, cement and healthcare.

According to a Reuters report in May, Blackstone managed to raise $17 billion from limited partners for its latest PE fund in just seven months, the biggest first close of a buyout fund ever. Once a fund achieves first close, it starts making investments. Going forward, the fund is keen to undertake larger transactions, said the second person mentioned above.

According to Grant Thornton India Llp, in January-September, PE firms committed Rs.81,000 crore to Indian firms, making it the highest ever capital allocation by fund managers in the country.

According to the third quarter presentation available on Blackstone’s website earlier this month, during the last quarter, the fund has completed private sales of three businesses, of which two were in India. These include CMS Info Systems and Agile Electric Sub Assembly Pvt. Ltd for Rs.656.59 crore.

Blackstone, which established its office in India in August 2005, has since then committed $3.5 billion in the country. Its corporate PE arm invests out of Blackstone Capital Partners VI global fund, which has a corpus of $16.2 billion. The PE arm of Blackstone in India has committed around $1.9 billion in equity across 20 transactions. Real estate investments are made from Blackstone Real Estate Partners (BREP) VIII—its $15 billion global fund—and BREP Asia. It has committed around $1.6 billion across 16 deals and also manages $456 million Merrill Lynch-Asia fund’s assets in India.

This year, the fund has exited two of its investments and expects to exit a few more. In total, the firm has exited four investments, including Intelenet Global Services, Agile Electric, CMS Info and Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

In an interaction on 31 July, Amit Dixit, senior managing director at Blackstone, indicated it will be exiting four firms over 18-24 months. With these, Dixit said Blackstone has returned nearly $1 billion in capital to its limited partners from India investments in the last one year. He is hopeful of returning more as it exits more investments through upcoming IPOs.

Two of its investee firms S.H. Kelkar and Co. Ltd and Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd are expected to go public soon. Blackstone is seeking to exit two more firms through public listing.

The Economic Times reported on 15 October that Ratul Puri-owned Hindustan Power Projects Pvt. Ltd has hired Citibank for a Rs.3,200 crore IPO. Blackstone is an investor in the company.

“There is a clear outlook by PE funds to cut larger sized cheques in India this year and there are enough assets in the market which are waiting to be bought out by these funds. Also, funds are now investing more and more towards building capabilities and management teams to run these businesses and it does not matter which sectors they pick,” said Vikas Khemani, president and chief executive, Edelweiss Securities Ltd.

Oman India Joint Investment Fund scores exit from Solar Inds

Oman India Joint Investment Fund, a private equity fund sponsored by Oman’s sovereign wealth fund State General Reserve Fund and State Bank of India, has sold its entire 4.28 per cent stake in Solar Industries India Ltd for around Rs 240 crore ($37 million).

This is its debut exit after it started investing in 2012. Solar Industries was its second investment in India

The fund house sold 7,74,195 shares at Rs 3,100.42 apiece, according to bulk deals data available with the Bombay Stock Exchange. SBI Mutual Fund and Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund bought bulk of the shares.

The Oman India fund had picked up the stake in Solar Industries in 2012 for about Rs 72 crore through a preferential allotment. The investment firm generated three-and-a-half times returns in the exit Founded in 1995, Nagpur-based Solar Industries – formerly Solar Explosives Ltd – makes a range of explosives and detonators as well as specialty chemicals. It has manufacturing

Founded in 1995, Nagpur-based Solar Industries – formerly Solar Explosives Ltd – makes a range of explosives and detonators as well as specialty chemicals. It has manufacturing facilities at 16 locations in India and two plants in Africa. The company is developing manufacturing facilities to cater to the European market.

Shares of Solar Industries were trading 12.8 per cent higher at Rs 3,499 apiece late Tuesday afternoon in a weak Mumbai market.

Roadrunnr raises Rs 65 crore from Sequoia Capital and Nexus Ventures

BENGALURU: Hyperlocal delivery startup Roadrunnr has raised $10 million (about Rs 65 crore) from internal investors Sequoia Capital and Nexus Ventures, according to two people aware of the matter.

DST Global founder and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner invested $1-2 million in his personal capacity in Roadrunnr earlier this month, they said. The investment comes at a time when the company is in talks with several strategic investors for its next round of funding, which may be up to $40 million.

"Some internal targets with respect to the number of orders and efficiencies need to be met before getting an external investor on board," said one of the persons. The company declined to comment on its fundraising.

Roadrunnr was founded in February this year by Flipkart employees Mohit Kumar and Arpit Dave to focus on business-to-business deliveries. It makes use of an on-demand model to partner delivery boys and manage lean and peak demand, and charges businesses a flat rate per delivery.

According to the company, it is doing close to 25,000 deliveries a day on average with a fleet of nearly 5,000 delivery boys.

Blackstone to invest in cement, consumer lending in India

Private equity (PE) firm Blackstone Group Lp is scouting for investments in India’s cement and financial services firms, especially non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and housing finance firms, said two people familiar with the development.

“The fund is keen to acquire a consumer lending business as they expect it to grow significantly over the next few years. Apart from that, it is aggressively chasing cement assets in the country as it doesn’t have an exposure in this segment in India yet,” said the first person mentioned above, who did not want to be identified.

In May, Blackstone had placed its bid to acquire 5.15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) cement assets of French cement firm Lafarge SA, which was ultimately acquired by Kolkata-based Birla Corp. Ltd for an enterprise valuation of Rs.5,000 crore.

“The fund looks at cement as a consumer product rather than a business-to-business construction material product and it believes there is a significant growth opportunity in this space for newer investors to come in,” the first person added.

According to two other investment bankers who are directly aware of the process, Blackstone has placed its bid to acquire Reliance Cement Co. Pvt. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.

“Last Friday (23 October) was the last day to submit bids for the asset and it is expected to fetch a valuation of Rs.1,000 crore per million tonne, effectively making it the largest deal of this year,” said an investment banker involved in the process.

According to the company’s website, Reliance Cement has a total installed capacity of 5.8 mtpa. Of this, 2.8 mtpa is located in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh, 2.2 mtpa at Kundanganj, Uttar Pradesh, and 0.5 mtpa in Butibori, Maharashtra.

Reliance Infrastructure did not respond to an email sent on Friday. Blackstone declined to comment for the story.

“Cement is a good sector to pick at this point and there is not enough competition in the segment. Also, with the Competition Commission of India keeping a close eye over large firms, it has become difficult for them to increase capacities through the inorganic route. Thus, it provides a perfect opportunity for new investors to come in,” said Ajay Garg, managing director at boutique investment banking firm Equirus Capital Pvt. Ltd.

Garg adds that as the economy picks up, cement firms can grow 12-15%. The only other global PE fund which owns cement assets in India is KKR India, an arm of global PE firm KKR and Co. Lp through its investment in Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd. KKR had invested Rs.750 crore in the firm in May 2010.

Blackstone’s interest in consumer lending can be attributed to the fact that the segment is growing at 25-30% per annum and listed firms in the NBFC segment are trading at 3-4 times the book value, the investment banker quoted above said.

In September, Blackstone bought the business process outsourcing (BPO) unit of UK-based Serco Group Plc. for about Rs.2,558 crore and rebranded it Intelenet Global Services 2.0. The firm has so far undertaken three?buyouts,?including this one.

Blackstone did not make any new investment after March 2013 when it invested in Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX). In January 2014, it raised its stake in MCX and, as of September, it owns a 4.79% stake in the firm.

The fund is looking to invest in sectors like financial services which includes consumer lending, information technology, cement and healthcare.

According to a Reuters report in May, Blackstone managed to raise $17 billion from limited partners for its latest PE fund in just seven months, the biggest first close of a buyout fund ever. Once a fund achieves first close, it starts making investments. Going forward, the fund is keen to undertake larger transactions, said the second person mentioned above.

According to Grant Thornton India Llp, in January-September, PE firms committed Rs.81,000 crore to Indian firms, making it the highest ever capital allocation by fund managers in the country.

According to the third quarter presentation available on Blackstone’s website earlier this month, during the last quarter, the fund has completed private sales of three businesses, of which two were in India. These include CMS Info Systems and Agile Electric Sub Assembly Pvt. Ltd for Rs.656.59 crore.

Blackstone, which established its office in India in August 2005, has since then committed $3.5 billion in the country. Its corporate PE arm invests out of Blackstone Capital Partners VI global fund, which has a corpus of $16.2 billion. The PE arm of Blackstone in India has committed around $1.9 billion in equity across 20 transactions. Real estate investments are made from Blackstone Real Estate Partners (BREP) VIII—its $15 billion global fund—and BREP Asia. It has committed around $1.6 billion across 16 deals and also manages $456 million Merrill Lynch-Asia fund’s assets in India.

This year, the fund has exited two of its investments and expects to exit a few more. In total, the firm has exited four investments, including Intelenet Global Services, Agile Electric, CMS Info and Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

In an interaction on 31 July, Amit Dixit, senior managing director at Blackstone, indicated it will be exiting four firms over 18-24 months. With these, Dixit said Blackstone has returned nearly $1 billion in capital to its limited partners from India investments in the last one year. He is hopeful of returning more as it exits more investments through upcoming IPOs.

Two of its investee firms S.H. Kelkar and Co. Ltd and Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd are expected to go public soon. Blackstone is seeking to exit two more firms through public listing.

The Economic Times reported on 15 October that Ratul Puri-owned Hindustan Power Projects Pvt. Ltd has hired Citibank for a Rs.3,200 crore IPO. Blackstone is an investor in the company.

“There is a clear outlook by PE funds to cut larger sized cheques in India this year and there are enough assets in the market which are waiting to be bought out by these funds. Also, funds are now investing more and more towards building capabilities and management teams to run these businesses and it does not matter which sectors they pick,” said Vikas Khemani, president and chief executive, Edelweiss Securities Ltd.

Lava to invest Rs 2,615 crores over the next 7 years in India

26 Oct 2015 , 13:22

Sical expects its Rs 594 cr iron ore terminal at Ennore to start next quarter finally

Cafe Coffee Day Group firm Sical Logistics is expecting its iron ore terminal at Ennore, near Chennai, to be operational from the next quarter of the current fiscal, after a delay of almost two years. The company had invested Rs 594 crore in the project.

CCD's retail chain owner V G Siddhartha has ventured into the logistics business by acquiring majority stake in Sical Logistics from Spic Group in 2010.

Besides, the company is contemplating to venture into carrying project cargoes and cars through coastal movement and planning to take its road logistics and cold chain business pan-India.

The company has now reached an agreement with authorities to make the asset productive from the next quarter of the current fiscal.

According to company's recent annual report, Sical Iron Ore Terminals Limited is non operational due to ban on iron ore exports and an investment of Rs 594 crores as at June 30, 2015 was lying idle.

The Ministry of Shipping, Ennore port and the company have reached an agreement whereby, the terminal will become productive during the next quarter of the current financial year. "We expect to put an end to negative cash flows and start reaping benefits," said company's Chairman R Ram Mohan, at the recently held shareholders meet.

The company had handled 26 million tonnes of bulk cargo in the ports of Ennore, Chennai, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and Mangalore during the year.

Commenting on Road Logistics he said Sical's cold chain operations which cater to Cafe Coffee Day outlets has been established well and the company shall be ready to move to the next platform of undertaking retail logistics.

The conventional road transportation business has been re-launched with focus on acceptable margins, timely collections and large contracts with better serviceability, he said.

The road logistics and cold chain division handled a cargo of 4.31 million MT of cargo during the year. This division also provides support in the integrated logistics sector for movement of coal and surface mining projects. Apart from this, the Company operates cold chain refrigerated vehicles for the movement of food items currently in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Sical propose to increase the operation on pan-India basis, he said.

Mohan said the setting up of railway terminals at Bangalore and Chennai are in progress. "We have to pass through many hurdles in acquisition of the contiguous parcels of land and getting various statutory approvals. Once this process is completed, the railway segment will become a highly profitable business segment of the company".

Sical which has been handling bulk cargoes, including coal, dolomite, limestone and steel products is now contemplating to venture into carrying project cargoes and cars through coastal movement.

The company is already bullish on rail-sea movement of coal. It has said it would offer Rail-Sea movement of coal for Neyveli Lignite Corporation and the scope of the business is to lift coal from the mine pit of Mahanadi coalfields in the state of Orissa, get it washed in the washeries established by the company and provide transportation to the power plant of Neyveli Lignite

Corporation located at Tuticorin vide road, rail and sea movement.

"We expect this business to commence by next month. This business segment of integrated logistics is expected to take your company to new heights," said Mohan.

Mobile investments in India drive Ericsson’s growth in

Telecom network equipment maker Ericsson saw an 81% growth (pdf) in regional sales in India for Q3FY15. Overall, the company saw a 3% growth in sales YoY (year-on-year), and while sales decreased in Japan, Russia and Brazil, this was offset by better sales growth in India, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Mobile data drives growth:

The increase in sales in India is likely due to telecom networks updating their networks for 4G adoption across the country. TSPs are already late on the deadline for rollout obligations, which ended in September. According to Ericsson, the high level of mobile broadband investments in India, which started in the beginning of 2015, continued in the quarter with the main driver being mobile data traffic growth. This, among other things, ensure the rise in demand for the company’s managed services business

Ericsson’s net sales for the quarter increased to 59.2 billion SEK from 57.6 billion SEK YoY, of which networks services accounted for 28.8 billion SEK, global services for 27.1 billion SEK and support solution for 3.3 billion SEK. In India, the demand for the company’s network services grew 120% YoY, while global services saw a growth of 46%. Demand for support solutions however declined by 26% YoY.

On a quarterly basis, India generated 3.63 billion SEK in sales for the company with network services bringing in 2.43 billion SEK, global services accounting for 1.08 billion SEK and support solutions at 0.11 billion SEK. Overall, India came in 3rd in the top 5 countries for sales, a list led by the US and China, with the UK and Italy coming in 4th and 5th respectively

Other highlights:

– Deployment of 4G in mainland China slowed as the market has matured. For the networks part of its business, all regions saw a decline in growth except for India and Southeast Asia.

– Focus on 5G networks and Internet of Things has increased, while video continues to be the main driver of network traffic.

– The company plans to exit its modems business, although the segment saw marginal growth. Note that this was first reported in September last year, when several media outlets mentioned that this could cause over 200 job cuts in India and over 1,500 worldwide.

Ozone partnership: In November last year, public Wi-Fi service provider Ozone Networks signed a Small Cell as a Service agreement with Ericsson to provide a neutral Wi-Fi network across India. In the first stage of this project, Ozone would get 30,000 Wi-Fi access points, network management nodes and tools, along with various monetization options for the network, from Ericsson. Other than this, Ericsson currently provides TSPs with network managed services, network rollout, network design and optimization and support services among others.

Premji Invest buys 216 crore stake in Hygienic Research Institute 
 

Amazon Continues To Invest 'Very Heavily' In India

BANGALORE: Global e-commerce giant Amazon continues to invest “very heavily” in the Indian market, encouraged by its strong sales numbers and expanding seller base, a top company executive has said.

Amazon Senior Vice President and CFO Brian T. Olsavsky said the U.S. - based company has seen sales quadruple during the festive season (pre-Diwali sales) compared to last year.

“We’re really encouraged with what we are seeing, both on the customer side and the seller side. On the customer side, active customer accounts are up 230 per cent year-over-year.

“We are in the middle of the Diwali season that is going really well. Sales are 4x what they were last year,” he said on an investor call.

Mr. Olsavsky added that the company has been adding 40,000 products a day so far this year on its platform and the number of sellers has grown more than 250 per cent year-on-year.

“About 90 per cent of those sellers are using our logistics and warehouse services. And as a result, we’ve tripled our fulfilment capacity year-over-year.

“So, we are very encouraged, as I said last quarter in India, and continue to invest there very heavily,” Mr. Olsavsky said.

However, he declined to disclose specific investment details.

India is one of the fastest growing markets for Amazon.

The online retail giant had announced an investment of USD 2 billion to expand its operations in India last year.

Amazon, which competes with the likes of Snapdeal and Flipkart in India, operates under a marketplace model here as regulations in the country do not allow foreign capital in business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce.

According to a BCG report, the e-commerce industry in India is expected to touch USD 60-70 billion by 2019 from USD 17 billion in 2014.

Amazon is investing heavily into setting up warehouses across the country to speed up delivery and efficiency.

Earlier this month, it set up a new fulfilment centre in Pune, taking the total count to over 21 with a cumulative storage capacity of over five million cubic feet.

“India is a different market and does not have a lot of the same ready fulfilment options that some other countries did. We see that as an opportunity,” Mr. Olsavsky said.

He added, “We like what we see in India. We think we’re attractive both to customers and to sellers and we like our position.”

Swarovski to Make a Sparkling Debut in India with Own Stores

BANGALORE: The world’s second largest jewellery market India is all set to welcome Australian                crystal makers Swarovski to run fully owned stores in the country. The Brand has secured the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) approval for its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposal for single brand retail, reports Economic Times.

As India has previously removed the FDI cap on single brand retail, Swarovski has joined the club of other global firms such as Swedish budget furniture chain IKEA, fast fashion firm H&M; and American lifestyle brand Fossil to receive the FIPB's nod for its investment plans. The brand is looking forward to invest 10 million in the country in order to expand its stores across the country as well as to inspire its global product range.

Senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific region, Francis Belin stated that, "There is a very high appetite of Indian women for opulent jewellery and we have to be there when the market develops. We are investing to learn consumer relevance and are also testing different price points in terms of more affordable products; we don't want to milk the market by cutting prices or launching stores everywhere. Instead, we want to learn design sensibilities from India since there is a lot of demand for such products similar to how Indian yoga is in fashion the world over,"

The brand has started functioning in India from 2005 and since then they have been keen on the limited expansion which were only at major cities and malls. The company has all over 2,500 stores around 170 countries in the world. 

Gujarat receives Rs 51,000cr investment proposals in 2015

AHMEDABAD: If one goes by the latest data released by the department of industrial policy and promotion of Union ministry of commerce and industry , Gujarat tops in getting new investment proposals in 2015. The state has received investment intentions worth Rs 51,108 crore during January-August 2015. Projects to the tune of Rs 4,060 crore have been implemented during the same period. 

According to the Union ministry of commerce and industry data, with a lion share of 21.62%, Gujarat has raced ahead of states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal in attracting new investments. In fact, the state has surpassed the total investment of Rs 39,620 crore pledged for the entire 2014. 

As on August 2015, all the states cumulatively received Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandums (IEM) of total Rs 2,36,423 crore for 1,302 projects with Gujarat having 207. 

"The confidence level of the investors in Gujarat is the highest among all the states.It's the main reason why we got the highest investment intentions in the country year after year. Our USP is the best infrastructure and security of the investment," said state finance minister and state government spokesperson Saurabh Patel. 

The rise in number of proposals is also attributed to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2015. There was a sudden spurt in proposals soon after the summit. "Gujarat's new industrial policy of fers special interest subsidy for MSMEs. This could also have led to more and more people filing investment proposals," said Gujarat State Council of FICCI chairman Rajiv Vastupal. 

However, regarding actual implementation of the proposals, with Rs 4,060 crore worth proposals being implemented so far this year, Gujarat lags behind the states like Maharashtra (Rs 7,383 crore) and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 6,682 crore). 

Industry experts opine that the situation on ground is different and business en vironment is tough. 

"As per a research report by a leading rating agency , capacity utilization by industry has come down to 61% across all the sectors in the country .There is no appetite for capital expenditure in most of the sectors. The figures by the government need further analysis to understand the actual scenario," said Sunil Parekh, a city-based industrial advisor. 

When asked about relatively lower realization of investment intentions, Patel said, "It is a dynamic process.Several projects are under implementation and by the end of the financial year, our investment realization figures will be very impressive."