The company had reported less than 1 per cent of the revenue of Rs 781 crore (Rs 7.81 billion) in 2007-08 from the dredging business. For the nine months ending December 31, 2008, it reported revenue of Rs 853 crore (Rs 8.53 billion), a 61.1 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous year as it largely deployed its ships on long-term contracts.
Currently, the public sector major has an inventory of 20,000 tonnes as against the usual level of 5,000 tonnes. Analysts expect the inventory to reach 25,000 tonnes by March-end. "We expect aluminium prices to remain below the cost of production for the next six to nine months," said Vipul Shah, an analyst with Mumbai-based brokerage K R Choksey Shares. "The outlook for aluminium is grim," he said.
RIL has been using gas from GAIL during the past three months to test-fire the 1,440-km east-west pipeline, India's longest, from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat. Only 100 km of the pipeline remains to be test-fired. It will transport gas from the world's largest gas discovery at the Krishna-Godavari basin in the Bay of Bengal to Jamnagar in Gujarat, where it has set up the world's largest petroleum refinery.
Despite a troubled job market that could continue for another year or more, many B-schools are looking at expanding the number of seats by up to 50 per cent and launching new programmes. B-schools maintain the demand for good students will remain even in a troubled job market and the student pool and programme portfolio need to be expanded. "Besides, when these students pass out in the next two years, the market will be better," said a director from one of the institutes.
The options include doing away with Day Zero and reducing placement fees. Day Zero is the name given to the day placements begin at the IIMs. Day Zero and Day One are reserved for top companies and placement fees are higher on these days. In good times, most students are placed on these days, leaving the smaller companies to return empty-handed.
Falling crude prices and the global credit crunch have jeopardised India's efforts to attract more investment in oil exploration and production, with several domestic and international companies opting to sell part of their participating interest in E&P projects. Around half-a-dozen companies are currently in talks with exploration and production majors -- mainly state-owned Oil India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation -- to farm out part of their stakes.
India's largest refiner, Reliance Industries Ltd, is in talks with public sector oil marketer Hindustan Petroleum Corporation for a tie-up to run the former's fuel retail outlets, closed a year earlier.HPCL has issued a limited tender to five merchant bankers to advise it on the deal.Last year, RIL closed 1,400 petrol pumps -- 900 owned by the company and the rest managed by dealers.
Eight companies are in the fray for rolling out gas networks in six cities, bids for which were invited by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board. The deadline for submission of the bids expired on Tuesday.
At a time when the economic slowdown is eating into corporate earnings, the country's economy hotels, including Krizm Hotels and Berggruen Hotels, are going ahead with their expansion plans.
High crude oil prices in 2008 have left the government richer by a few thousand crore rupees. In 2008-09, the government earned "windfall profits" from the petroleum sector as crude oil prices spiked, touching a high of $147 in July 2008.
The debt came with covenants, which require borrowers to meet certain conditions such as a mandated debt to EBITDA ratio. A failure to meet the conditions may result in an increase in interest rates. The company reported EBITDA (operating profit) of $69 million in the quarter ended December 31, down from $151 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Aban offshore has a Rs 13,000 crore debt on its books and a market cap of only Rs 1,645 crore, down 90 per cent from its peak on May 23 last year. The huge debt is a result of the company, earlier known as Aban Lloyd, buying a 33.7 per cent stake in Sinvest ASA, a Norwegian drilling company, for Rs 5,200 crore. The acquisition gave Aban access to eight premium jack-up rigs with contracts, but it also increased its debt substantially.
Refining margin is the difference in prices of crude oil and finished products. More exposure to diesel behind less fall in Indian refining margins.
Here is another sign that the economy is slowing. The growth rate of diesel and petrol consumption is down sharply, though it is still in the positive territory.Year-on-year growth in diesel consumption in December 2008 was down to a mere 1.5 per cent as against 10.7 per cent growth in December 2007. Consumption of petrol grew 5.5 per cent in the month compared with 9.5 per cent in December 2007.Preliminary data for January showed that diesel consumption grew only 2 per cent.
The retailer, which runs a supermarket chain under the More brand, is targeting annual sales of $4.5 billion (Rs 22,000 crore or Rs 220 billion) by March 2014 from Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) in the current financial year. The retailer clocked sales of Rs 500 in the previous year. In 2007, the company had talked about a Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) investment plan.
Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and Research has announced that it will provide initial financial assistance to the tune of Rs 20 lakhs (Rs 2 million)to any of its students who wishes to don the entrepreneurial hat. The business school has set up an entrepreneurship cell in association with National Entrepreneurship Network.
After a year of sluggish growth in fuel retail outlets, the three state-run oil-marketing companies--Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation--have chalked out aggressive plans for expansion in the next financial year. They will be commissioning over 2,100 outlets in 2009-10--over three times what they added in the current year--at an investment of about Rs 1,200 crore.
According to sources, the government has provided a list of 20 companies to Reliance Industries for sale of gas as per the gas utilisation policy. Some of these companies include Nagarjuna Fertilizer & Chemicals, Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals, Tata Fertilizers and Oswal Chemicals & Fertilizers among others.
The fuel price revision on Wednesday is likely to wipe out the Rs 1,100 crore net revenue earned by the three oil marketing companies--Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation -- in the last one month, say officials from these companies.
The Reserve Bank of India is formulating guidelines that would allow government-owned banks get into the private equity business.
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