The Hindu Business Line : Weekly News Round-up

Jet Airways announced on Wednesday that it planned to terminate the services of 1,100 more employees. The airline announced that 800 flight attendant probationers had been told to leave. Mr Wolfgang Prock Schauer, Chief Executive of Jet Airways, told mediapersons that the company had to take this extreme step to prevent the airlines from collapsing.

But barely 24 hours later, the Chairman of Jet Airways, at the luncheon meeting on Friday, reversed the decision and openly apologised to the flight attendants and cabin crew for the "agony" they had to go through and officially declared that they could join work on Friday.

Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways seem poised to forge an operational alliance to fly through turbulent times, caused by rising crude prices, input costs and declining passenger numbers. A meeting between top-brass of Jet Airways and Kingfisher's Mr Vijay Mallya and his team, at Kingfisher's office late Monday, took the aviation circles by surprise. The two private airlines were hoping that the synergies would help increase air fares by about 15 per cent, in the face of difficult market conditions. And industry sources indicate that attempts had been made to get Air India also on board such an alliance.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd's net profit increased 42 per cent at Rs 581 crore in the September quarter beating its guidance, compared with Rs 410 crore posted in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. The total revenue grew 38.8 per cent to Rs 2,819 crore compared with Rs 2,031 crore in the corresponding period previous year.

The Parikh family, the existing promoters of The Zandu Pharmaceuticals Works Ltd, has agreed to sell 18.18 per cent strategic stake to Emami Ltd at a total price of Rs 242 crore, including a non-compete fee of Rs 22 crore. This off-market deal with Parikhs signed on Wednesday and two other market deals, which gave it additional 4.64 per cent, allowed Emami to gain control of Zandu.

The annual inflation rate, based on the wholesale price index, has hit an 18-week low of 11.44 per cent for the week ended October 4. This is the third successive week that has seen a decline in the headline inflation number. Among the major groups constituting the WPI, the inflation rate for `manufacturing' has dropped below double-digits to 9.69 per cent and for fuel, power, light & lubricants it has also come down from 16.52 per cent to 14.64 per cent..

HCL Technologies - the sole bidder left in fray after Infosys pulled out of the race for Axon - has purchased 10.43 per cent stake in the UK-based SAP consulting firm, at 631 pence a share.

The Centre on Thursday approved a Rs 50 per quintal bonus for paddy, over and above the already declared minimum support price payable during the current 2008-09 kharif marketing season of October to September. The decision by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs would raise the official procurement price to Rs 900 a quintal for common paddy and Rs 930 a quintal for Grade `A' varieties. These rates are applicable for the entire 2008-09 marketing season.

The Reserve Bank of India last Wednesday announced a one percentage point reduction in Cash Reserve Ratio to infuse more money into the liquidity-starved economy. The RBI steps came after the Sensex fell 674 points on Wednesday. Last week, the central bank had announced a 150 basis points reduction in CRR. Both CRR revisions will be effective from the fortnight beginning October 11.

HCL Technologies on Wednesday posted nearly 16 per cent year-on-year rise in its consolidated net income for the first quarter ended September 2008, as rupee's sharp depreciation against the dollar raised the value of overseas sales. Its net income for quarter ended September 2008, increased to Rs 356.2 crore.

Tata Motors has picked up a majority stake in Norway-based Miljo Grenland/Innovasjon, which specialises in developing solutions for electric vehicles. Tata Motors' UK subsidiary, Tata Motors European Technical Centre, has acquired a 50.3 per cent in Miljo for Rs 9.4 crore. The existing shareholders will retain the balance shares and will continue to be associated with the venture.

Axis Bank flagged off this results season with an impressive performance on all parameters. Its net profit increased 77 per cent to Rs 402.9 crore in the second quarter of current financial year ended September 30, 2008 compared with Rs 227.8 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Net interest income grew 55 per cent to Rs 913 crore during September quarter.

Compiled by M J Madhavan
Podcast by S Vasudevan