Ruchi Soya net sales up 18%

During the quarter, branded sales registered a healthy 22.95% growth from Rs. 1,374.23 crore to Rs. 1,689.59 crore
Ruchi Soya Industries Limited (Ruchi Soya) has announced its un-audited financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q3). As compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, net profit for the quarter rose by 105.45% from Rs. 24.05 crore to Rs. 49.41 crore whereas net sales rose by 17.56% from Rs. 6,954.29 crore to Rs. 8,175.16 crore.

During the quarter, branded sales registered a healthy 22.95% growth from Rs. 1,374.23 crore to Rs. 1,689.59 crore. Refining capacity utilization improved by 8.85% from 4,78,589 MT to 5,20,960 MT. Export of Soya Meal in value improved by 47.29% from Rs. 883.16 crore to Rs. 1,300.83 crore. Sale of Textured soya protein (TSP) stood at Rs. 28.16 crore registering an impressive rise of 43.53% from Rs. 19.62 crore during Q3 in the last fiscal.

Commenting on the performance, Managing Director, Dinesh Shahra said, “I am happy to share the healthy growth recorded by the Company during the third quarter ended December 31, 2012. Improved branded sales, better sales realization of oilseed extraction, effective control on the costs and favourable business sentiments helped us to get profit on the track. We are making our efforts to have good performance on a sustained basis in the times to come.”

Source: http://planetcorporatenews.blog.com/

Ruchi aims to turn Nutrela into Rs 5,000-cr brand in 5 yrs

Kolkata, Feb 4 (PTI) Ruchi Soya Industries today said it aims to expand the Nutrela brand five-fold to Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years.Stating that Nutrela was a small brand compared to the Ruchi brand which accounted for sale of Rs 7,000-8,000 crore, Ruchi Soya AVP Marketing Sandipan Ghosh said the company wanted to make Nutrela a Rs 5,000 crore brand in the next five years from Rs 1,000-1,200 crore now.

On reports of raids by the Mumbai income tax authorities on the group, the company did not forsee any hurdle towards its growth target. “No,” Ghosh said when asked whether the raids would have any adverse impact on growth. Ghosh said the existing business of Nutrela would grow by around 20 per cent year on year and the company planned to introduce more products.

“Currently, we are carrying out market research to enter new product categories under Nutrela brand,” he said. The brand was currently restricted to soya products, edible oil and margarine. In 2008, the company had made an attempt to foray into beverage from soya but failed to get the desired response. Ghosh said Nutrela offered high EBITA margin of 10-15 per cent for the company among other products.

Source: http://planetcorporatenews.blog.com/

Nutrela TVC

Launch of TVC and radio Jingle to tap Bengali market; veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee to sing a jingle for the new campaign.

Ruchi Soya Industries is set to target the West Bengal market with an aggressive marketing campaign for their premium brand, Nutrela Kacchi Ghani Mustard Oil. The state accounts for over a third (around Rs 110 crore) of the Rs 300-crore mustard oil market in the country.

With the intent of reaching out to Bengali masses, the company is also planning to launch a 35-second TVC and a 25-second radio jingle this month. With the campaign, the company aims to create a bridge between the brand and true ‘Bangaliaana’, using a thoroughly Bengali concept, ‘Jagai Bangaliana’, which aims at evoking the authentic taste of food every time they use Nutrela Kacchi Ghani mustard oil.

The idea revolves around reviving and rejuvenating this ‘Bangaliaana’ and brings back the fading Bengali persona and spirit, reminding them of their roots. The campaign largely aims to reawaken authentic taste of Bengali food. It evokes the rich culture and tradition of the state and exhorting the people of Bengal to rediscover the pride of eating authentic Bengali food.

‘Bangaliyana’ is a tradition that has been passed on from one generation to the next in every Bengali family over the past century. It is a way of life as in the weekend ‘adda’, inviting friends and family to the house and discussing music, literature, politics, food, culture, history and then savouring authentic home cooked Bengali cuisine together. ‘Bangaliyana’ is also in celebrating togetherness and appreciation of Rabindrasangeet or Sumoner ‘gaan’ or Bangla ‘natok’ and even discussing Shakespeare, and most importantly how good the food was at the last brunch party.

Strengthening this connect further, the company has roped in veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee to sing a jingle for the new radio campaign.

“We are sure that the campaign will rejuvenate the fading spirit of ‘Bangaliyana’ and the need for ‘kacchi ghani’ mustard oil as the predominant cooking medium. We are extremely excited about reviving ‘Bangaliyana’ and more so being able to make Soumitra Chaterjee partake in bringing the idea alive by singing a song for us,” said Sandipan Ghosh, Assistant Vice-President Marketing, Consumer Brands Division, RSIL.

The television and radio campaign has been conceptualized and developed by Hammer Communications in New Delhi.

The TVC and radio campaign will be simultaneously rolled out in Bengal and Assam. The 360 degree clamour marketing campaign is the company’s first campaign centred around the three-year-old mustard oil brand. Bihar and Jharkhand are next in the company’s radar.

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Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SltHF_7vYOg

Nutrela Likely To Have New Products To Increase Biz Prospects

Kolkata: Ruchi Soya Industries is planning to have new products in the health and wellness space to increase sales under its flagship soya food brand Nutrela about five-fold in five years, a company executive said on Monday.

Currently the company under the brand sells edible oil, soya chunks and granules, and table spread. The firm has clocked Rs.1,200 crore sales turnover from the brand.

“We have a target to garner Rs.5,000 crore turnover from the Nutrela brand within the next five years,” Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd assistant vice president, marketing, consumer brands division, Sandipan Ghosh said here.

“We will be aiming for both inorganic and organic growth. We will be growing from existing categories of around 20 to 30 percent and then we will also be expanding into newer category, which will also fuel the growth,” Ghosh said.

He said the newer categories in the health and wellness space would be home-grown and the company was now carrying out a consumer research for that.

“On the basis of the consumer research we are going to decide the potential of the category and potential of our business. As we progress towards second and third quarter of this calendar year, we will see that Nutrela will be expanding into newer category or incrementally innovate into the existing category,” he explained.

The makers of the largest-selling soya food brand enjoys about 90 percent market share in organised soya chunks and granules segment.

The firm, which is currently concentrating on domestic market said it will also focus on expanding its presence in tier III and IV cities.

Source: http://www.pardaphash.com/news/nutrela-likely-to-have-new-products-to-increase-biz-prospects/705094.html#.URlHux32815

Yahoo! buys scrapbook website Snip.it

Yahoo! confirmed Tuesday that it bought Snip.it, a young San Francisco startup that lets people create scrapbooks with pictures, articles, videos and other content found online.

“The Snip.it team created an innovative technology that lets people share content in a

social and fun way,” Yahoo! vice president of product Mike Kerns said in a statement emailed to AFP.

“Reading and sharing content is a core daily habit for most of the world, and we can’t wait to work with the Snip.it team to make that experience even more entertaining for our users.”

A message posted at Snip.it told users it was “joining forces” with Yahoo! and that the service was no longer available. A link was provided to a hall of fame honoring top Snip.it contributors.

“For the past year and a half, we’ve worked tirelessly as a team to build the best social news platform on the Web,” Snip.it said in the message.

“We are thrilled at the opportunity to bring Snip.it’s vision to a larger scale at Yahoo!”

Snip.it launched in late 2011 as a place where people could share digital “scrapbooks” based on topics or themes of their choosing.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but unconfirmed online reports estimated the figure to be in the vicinity of $15 million.

Ruchi Soya Sep ’12 sales at Rs 5,427.23 crore

 

Ruchi Soya Industries has reported a sales turnover of Rs 5,427.23 crore and a net profit of Rs 65.66 crore for the quarter ended Sep ’12. For the quarter ended Sep 2011 the sales turnover was Rs 6,082.29 crore and net profit was Rs 3.78 crore.

Quarterly Results of Ruchi Soya Industries ——– in Rs. Cr. ——–

Sep ’11 Jun ’12 Sep ’12 Sales Turnover 6,082.29 5,007.91 5,427.23 Other Income 10.84 67.74 83.16 Total Income 6,093.13 5,075.65 5,510.39 Total Expenses 6,045.25 4,860.81 5,362.07 Operating Profit 37.04 147.10 65.16 Profit On Sale Of Assets — — — Profit On Sale Of Investments — — — Gain/Loss On Foreign Exchange — — — VRS Adjustment — — — Other Extraordinary Income/Expenses — — — Total Extraordinary Income/Expenses — — — Tax On Extraordinary Items — — — Net Extra Ordinary Income/Expenses — — — Gross Profit 47.88 214.84 148.32 Interest 3.72 116.59 18.59 PBDT 44.16 98.25 129.73 Depreciation 34.02 34.63 34.27 Depreciation On Revaluation Of Assets — — — PBT 10.14 63.62 95.46 Tax 6.36 21.02 29.80 Net Profit 3.78 42.60 65.66 Prior Years Income/Expenses — — — Depreciation for Previous Years Written Back/ Provided — — — Dividend — — — Dividend Tax — — — Dividend (%) — — — Earnings Per Share 0.11 1.28 1.97 Book Value — — — Equity 66.60 66.69 66.69 Reserves — — — Face Value 2.00 2.00 2.00

No More Intel Motherboards For Desktop

Bangalore: Intel, the chip maker, is planning to fade out from the traditional desktop motherboard business, as it centers its resources on mobile products.

“We disclosed internally today that Intel’s Desktop Motherboard Business will begin slowly ramping down over the course of the next three years,” said the company in a note. Eventually, Intel is trying to devote its resources towards Ultrabooks, tablets and phones rather than the PC system which was considered to be the Best Buys of the World at a certain point of time.

Further, Intel said, “The internal talent and experience of twenty years in the boards business is being redistributed to address emerging new form factors.”

Although Intel addresses “emerging”, the designs will mostly be mobiles rather than the desktops. With the launch of Intel’s upcoming “Haswell” chip generation in summer, the company will stop expanding its business in Desktop boards.

The products like the tiny Intel NUC board and the all-in-one is in budding stages in the mobile world. Even though Intel stops its production of Desktop boards, Asus and Gigabyte, considered being the trendsetters as motherboard makers are expected to actively participate in the market.

Intel will continue to create high-performance chips for the extreme performance systems. The company made this official disclosure following the rumors that Intel would stop creating board connectors like Land Grid Array (LGA) Socket for desktops after the arrival of future generation processors beyond Haswell, codenamed Broadwell. However, Intel refused to remark on these rumors.

Indian IT Companies Sharpen Claws For Deals Worth 2.7 Lakh Crore

Bangalore: 2013 is going to witness almost 2.7 lakh crores worth software outsourcing deals coming up for renewal, which constitutes almost half the size of the Indian information technology industry. The Indian service providers are eagerly approaching this prospect in what is expected to be, a fierce fight for contracts, reports TOI.

Price discounting is nothing new, but the coming battle seems be to a serious one as some of the restraints that kept rivals under control seems to have scrapped away.

Besides all underlying factors, it is the shape in which the software service is in entering 2013 after leaving behind one of the most forgetful years in its history.

According to N Chandrasekaran, CEO of India’s largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services, “being irrational depends upon the situation one is in. TCS which is steady towards industry growth looks forward to be optimistic about the sector’s prospect and is in good shape among other Indian information technology companies.”

The top four IT services companies – TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL technologies have their results announced for the October – December quarter.

Corporations Demanding Outcomes

TO I reports that the top four IT service companies are being seen as indicators that the phase of slow growth may come to an end. However, India’s software exports may barely grow by double digits, while the company copes with fundamental, technological and business model transformation. The certainties of linear growth where revenue is directly proportional to the number of employees is fading away and corporations are demanding outcomes rather than showing efforts.

As an example of aggressive discounting, analysts cite HCL Technologies recently winning a contract worth several million dollars from Deutsche Bank. Although not clear of the discounting happened, executives aware of the deal negotiations, described the pricing offered as ‘significantly lower’. Once a major client of Infosys, Deutsche Bank now brings in excess of $50 million in business to HCL Technologies.

Competition seems to be heated further as large outsourcing contracts from Procter and Gamble, American Express, Bank of America and Unilever which were first signed during 2002-03, come up for renewal this year. Deep pricing discounts and even paying money upfront are becoming commonplace with associated negative implications for margins, say senior executives.

According to Wipro’s CEO, TK Kurien, fierce fights exist between the rational and irrational players. In a recent interview, as per his observation, he feels that some which were categorized as rational have moved on to the other side.

Analysts believe that Infosys which has been extremely profit-margin conscious is now beginning to show increased flexibility on pricing and a greater willingness to take on deals which it had earlier shunned. Infosys seems to be under pressure to grow faster as compared to how it was being outpaced by partners previously.

However, analysts on seeing the company’s strong performance in the December quarter say that Infosys is being led by a desire to protect turf in a slowing market with enhanced competition. A deal wins for Infosys means a deal loss for another vendor, who may necessarily get their share of business and can drive a competitive response.

Corporate, income tax rates to stay

Companies and individuals fearing higher tax rates in view of a high fiscal deficit may rest easy as the forthcoming budget is unlikely to give them taxing times.

With government deficits hovering around record levels and inflation nearing double-digits at home, and most countries
in the world feeling the slowdown pinch, investments are drying up. To improve sentiments, the government is unlikely to tamper with corporate and individual tax rates in the budget, government sources said.

Finance minister P Chidambaram has already underlined the need to follow a tax-friendly regime and a non-adversarial tax administration to raise the tax-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio in the country, which is currently around 10% .

A number of think-tanks and policy advisors have proposed that the rich should be taxed more, but the government is not keen on this approach.

“The finance ministry at this point is not going to try new structures especially in taxes as the focus would be to draw investment, even though there have been several proposals suggesting that certain tax rates need to be revised upward in order to boost revenues,” an official source told HT on condition of anonymity.

The government has set a target of reducing fiscal deficit to 4.8% of GDP by 2014. The current year’s target is 5.3%. According to the roadmap, fiscal deficit would be brought down to 3% by 2016-17.

The government is looking at several ways to bring down expenditure while boosting revenues. The finance ministry is also likely to set a higher disinvestment target of over Rs. 40,000 crore for 2013-14 against Rs. 30,000 crore set for the fiscal year 2012-13.

Global credit rating agency Moody’s has maintained its sovereign rating for India at Baa3-— the lowest investment-grade rating — with a stable outlook.

Canada may have to review future RIM handset unit sale

(Reuters) – The Canadian government might have to review any sale of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd’s (RIM.TO)(RIMM.O) handset business to a foreign buyer, Industry Minister Christian Paradis told Reuters on Tuesday.
Asked if he would allow such a sale to a foreign company, Paradis said: “It’s speculation and each decision on each case is based on its own merit, so it would premature for me to speculate on any of these kinds of cases.

“So if something was going to occur, then we would have to determine if it was reviewable or not, depending on the threshold (of the value of the transaction), and then we go with the net-benefit test.”

He was referring to a provision in the Investment Canada Act that requires the government to determine whether certain foreign investments in Canada are of net benefit to the country.

The markets have gained renewed excitement over RIM because of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system and because Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said its strategic review could potentially lead to the sale of its handset business.

“We hope to see RIM remain a global leader and player, and make sure it can grow organically,” Paradis said by phone from Germany, where he is meeting with industrial leaders to promote Canada as a place to invest and to learn how they innovate.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Reuters last February that he wanted to see RIM grow “as a Canadian company.” He singled out hostile takeovers and bids for what he described as “critical technology” companies as ones that Ottawa might block.

On a separate topic, Paradis said the government did not intend at present to lift foreign ownership restrictions on Canada’s large telephone companies.

In March it eliminated foreign ownership restrictions on telecommunications carriers with a market share of 10 percent or less. But the rules remained for large companies including BCE Inc (BCE.TO), Rogers Communications Inc (RCIb.TO), Telus Corp (T.TO) and Shaw Communications Inc (SJRb.TO).

For such companies, foreign ownership is limited to 20 percent of voting shares and indirect control to 46.7 percent.

He said if Canada were to change rules for the large telecom carriers, it would get tangled up with separate rules on broadcasting companies, which are required to have a minimum of Canadian broadcasting content.

“This is not in the cards of our government to go further down this road as we speak,” he said.