The Swift DZire, which is essentially a replacement model for the Esteem, was launched by Maruti Suzuki to strengthen its dwindling position at the entry-level of the sedan segment. The car was launched with an attractive price tag of Rs 4,49,000 in March, 2008.
Most realtors are already advertising cash discounts of 5-10 per cent on upfront payment and buyers can get up to 25 per cent discount if they book properties and are willing to wait for two to three years until possession. According to consultants, developers may even give 15-20 per cent discount on the price as they are eager to clear inventories.
Despite a slowdown in property sales, realty developers across the country are launching new residential apartments during the ongoing Navratri festival in the hope that they will get higher sales from prospective home buyers, who have deferred their buys so far.
Brandhouse manages exclusive stores of four SKNL brands -- Reid & Taylor, Stephens Brothers, Belmonte, and Carmichael House -- and two foreign brands Dunhill and Escada. It has more than 600 stores now. The company plans to set up its first private label store early next year and the average size of the store will range from 8,000 to 10,000 sq ft, said Tarun Joshi, managing director of Brandhouse Retails, the retail unit of S Kumars Nationwide.
Analysts say prices may stagnate or decline in the next three months. Almost 70 per cent of the brokers who participated in the poll believe prices will be flat or negative in the period and even Diwali is unlikely to lift the mood in the property market.
Real estate companies such as Unitech, Peninsula Land, HDIL and Future Capital, the financial services arm of Future Group, are in talks with investors including some leading private equity funds for raising investments for their projects, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose third party fund had promised investments in these property companies' projects, according to industry sources.
The rupee's slide against the dollar and euro has put pressure on international automobile companies as compressed margins may force them to revisit prices of imported models in the next few months.
Recently, IT czar Azim Premji bought a 10 per cent stake in Subhiksha through his personal investment arm for nearly Rs 230 crore, valuing the retailer at Rs 2,300 crore. Premji's firm purchased this stake from ICICI Venture. However, this time around, Subhiksha promoters are expected to issue fresh equity to investors and expect the valuation to be around Rs 3,800 crore, sources said.
The group, which employs nearly 26,000 employees, plans to cut employee costs by one per cent, or Rs 65 crore (Rs 650 million), in the current year by redeploying people in its various businesses and reducing new hirings. "Instead of external hiring, we have redeployed a part of our people resources from our mature businesses to the new ventures," Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said.
Companies that earlier took 36 months on housing projects are now completing them in around 30 months by boosting efficiencies and using modern technology. Commercial project developers are going a step further, completing projects in 17 months instead of 24. In some instances, mainly in smaller commercial buildings, developers are trying to cut down the project completion time to a mere 9 months.
Caisse manages nearly $155 billion of pension and insurance funds in Canada and North America while Ivanhoe has 70 shopping centres in Canada, the US, Europe and Latin America, totalling 46 million sq ft.
The regulator has also cancelled the licences of three packagers providing services to Subhiksha for violating the packaging rules. The warehouses are based in Bhiwandi, which is on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Tax concessions in Uttarakhand are encouraging auto majors from Hero Honda to Tata Motors to shift a larger part of their manufacturing to the state to counter rising raw material costs and increase their flexibility to offer consumers cheaper models in a competitive market.
Austrian two-wheeler maker KTM Power Sports is developing three intra-city transportation models - a trike, a budget car and a scooter - in a joint collaboration with Bajaj Auto. Bajaj, India's second-largest motorcycle maker, owns 21 per cent stake in KTM.
Analysts tracking listed companies like Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors have said sales forecast for the two-wheeler industry for the next few months looks very bleak as spiralling input costs, high lending rates and reducing availability of finance will put brakes on sales growth. ICICI Bank's has already withdrawn from advancing loans at two-wheeler dealerships.
Property developers, consultants and brokers have seen a 40 per cent decline in enquiries from home buyers over the last three months.
In an attempt to steal the two-wheeler market from the three Indian giants Hero Honda, Bajaj and TVS Motors, which collectively account for almost 85 per cent of sales, Japanese bike manufacturers like Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki will launch scaled-down Indian versions of their international superbike models.
Honda Motorcycle Scooter India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Honda Motor Company, Japan, will launch a slew of high-power premium bikes in India, the first of which will debut by March next year, according to company executives.
The drive to cut costs is becoming critical as key input costs - steel, cement and labour - that account for 40 per cent of project costs have escalated 50 per cent over the past year.
The group's foray into the segment dates back to the start of 2004 when M&M Group Chairman Keshub Mahindra said the company had started testing some two-wheeler models and was looking at a commercial launch. Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said: "The company's foray into the bottom segment of the pyramid will create tremendous brand awareness in an entire section of the population and open a whole new population in the urban market."
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances