Reliance Infra Q1 net up 8 pct, beats forecast

Reliance Infrastructure on Thursday said fiscal first quarter profit rose 8 percent, beating expectations as income from its road and rail business soared on the back of infrastructure investment in Asia's third-largest economy.

The Mumbai-based firm controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani started out as a power distributor in India's financial capital, but has transformed itself into a complete infrastructure player as India looks spend $1 trillion between 2012 and 2017 to revamp its roads, railways and ports.

Reliance said income from its infrastructure arm, which includes subway and highway projects, grew almost ten-fold to 1.1 billion rupees ($24.5 million), benefitting from the 1,800 kilometres of roads India built in fiscal year 2011.

As India plans to award a record 7,300 kms of road building contracts, worth $12 billion, this year, Reliance plans to bid for 35 new projects.

Its engineering and construction business posted revenue of 17.5 billion rupees ($386.7 million) in the first quarter, an increase of 295 percent.

Its current portfolio includes 11 road projects across the country and three metro rail lines in Mumbai and Delhi.

The company reported net profit of 4.05 billion rupees ($89.5 million) for the quarter ended in June compared with a profit of 3.75 billion rupees a year ago.

Total revenue rose 38 percent to 51.9 billion rupees ($1.15 billion). A poll of brokerages had estimated net profit for the quarter at 3.7 billion rupees on net sales of 43.3 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares in the company rose as much as 4.2 percent to 491.70 rupees after the earnings announcement.

Revenue from its power business was roughly flat at 33.3 billion rupees even as power-hungry India plans to halve its peak-hour power shortage of nearly 14 percent in two years.

Reliance Infra Chief Executive Lalit Jalan told Reuters in June he expected massive growth in the power sector as India targets adding 100,000 MW generation capacity in five years.

Reliance is in talks with investors and domestic and foreign funds regarding stake sales in its road, rail and transmission projects, Jalan said in June.

Shares in the company, valued at $2.7 billion, have fallen 42 percent so far in 2011, compared with an 18 percent drop in India's benchmark index.

Reliance Infrastructure's market value has suffered in recent months over investor worries that debt-related challenges facing some of the group's other firms may spill over to impact the company's growth plans.

The company, which had the smallest market capitalisation of the 30 firms that made up India's main stock index, was removed from the benchmark index earlier this month.

Tree House Education & Accessories Ltd IPO 0.44% subscribed on Day 1

Objects of the Issue:

The object of the issue are to:

1. Expansion of pre-school business;
2. Acquisition of office space;
3. Procurement of exclusivity rights to provide educational services;
4. Construction of infrastructure for educational complexes in Rajasthan and Gujarat;
5. Repayment of loan; and
6. General corporate purposes.

Issue Detail:

  »»  Issue Open: Aug 10, 2011 - Aug 12, 2011
  »»  Issue Type: 100% Book Built Issue IPO
  »»  Issue Size: 8,432,189 Equity Shares of Rs. 10
  »»  Issue Size: Rs. 113.83 - 129.01 Crore
  »»  Face Value: Rs. 10 Per Equity Share
  »»  Issue Price: Rs. 135 - Rs. 153 Per Equity Share
  »»  Market Lot: 40 Shares
  »»  Minimum Order Quantity: 40 Shares
  »»  Listing At: BSE, NSE

Issue Subscription Detail / Current Bidding Status

	Number of Times Issue is Subscribed (BSE + NSE)
As on Date & Time	Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs)	Non Institutional Investors (NIIs)	Retail Individual Investors (RIIs)	Total
Shares Offered / Reserved	2,951,267	1,264,828	2,951,266	7,167,361
Day 1 - Aug 10, 2011 17:00 IST	0.5000	0.0600	0.5400	0.4400

Piramal Healthcare to acquire 5.5% stake in Vodafone Essar

 Piramal Healthcare has entered into an agreement with Vodafone Group to pick up a 5.5% stake in Vodafone-Essar. It will buy this stake from Essar Group company ETHL Communications Holdings, for around Rs 2,856 crore.

The transaction follows the settlement between Vodafone and Essar over the sale of Essar's approximately 33% stake in Vodafone-Essar, which was announced on July 1, 2011.

The deal is in line with Piramal's objective of earning 19% internal rate of return (IRR). And, it contemplates various exit mechanisms for Piramal, including both participation in a potential initial public offering of VEL and a sale of its stake to Vodafone. (HERE 's expert review on the deal)

Sources indicate that Piramal as two years to exit if the IPO doesn't materialise and would get USD 900 million if sold to Vodafone, whose value is close to USD 19 billion.

Started with borrowed money, Apple becomes world's No. 1 company

 From a start-up launched with borrowed money to becoming the world's most valuable company, Apple has come a long way.

The Cupertino-based technology giant Wednesday surpassed the global leader Exxon Mobile Corp. to take this title. Exxon has held the top spot since 2005.

At the close of markets Wednesday, Apple had market capitalization of $337 billion ahead of Exxon's $331 billion. Started in 1976 with borrowed money from an Intel executive by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple's steep rise to the top began with the return of Jobs to the Cupertino-based company in 1997.

Jobs borrowed $150 million from Bill Gates to turn around the loss-making Apple with a series of overhauls.

And the path-breaking change came in October 2001 when Apple unveiled the iPod. This smart-looking, easy-to-use MP3 player went on to become the best-selling device.

But it was the unveiling of the iTunes store - the online record collection - in 2003 that created tremors in the technology world and set Apple on its journey to the world's most coveted company.

The iTunes store revolutionized the way people listen to music. Today, iTunes is the world's biggest music store which also sells TV shows and movies from its digital shelves. Music companies, which were initially apprehensive, have also made fortunes thanks to the iTunes store.

The innovation-driven Apple unleashed another revolution in 2007 by unveiling the iPhone - a device laden with apps. The sleek iPhone virtually weaned users from desktops and laptops with its surfeit of apps - from on-screen games to locaters for your neighbourhood shops to what not.

Today, Apple app store boasts 500,000 apps while rival BlackBerry App World has not even touched the 40,000-mark. Over 15 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple app store so far.

Interestingly, the company which was not in the smart phone business just five years ago, has dethroned BlackBerry and Nokia from the top perch.

The launch of the iPad in April last year made Apple the unrivalled leader of the mobile space. Apple has sold more than 25 million iPads so far.

If it keeps improving the iPhone and the iPad and launching new products, and if its products don't start cannibalizing each other, Apple could become the first trillion-dollar company in the world

Obama Forsakes Air Force One for Bus Tour

The White House announced on Tuesday that President Obama would travel around the Midwest next week on a “three-day economic bus tour,” hitting the hotspots of southern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and western Illinois.

Really? The president? On a bus?

This is the guy who usually travels around with not one, but two planes, which ferry his car, nicknamed ‘the beast’ around, including to international destinations, all in the name of security. But with an election campaign underway — and a grim economic outlook at the moment — there’s a premium for political candidates on appearing as of-the-people as possible.

So the president will be busing it. (He will still fly to the Midwest, officials say, but once he is there, be on the lookout for, if not a Greyhound, at least a large bullet-proofed vehicle)

L&T Finance Holdings to list shares on August 12

L&T Finance Holdings , a subsidiary of engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro, will be listing its equity shares on exchanges on Friday, August 12. The company has fixed issue price at Rs 52 a share while the price band was 51-59 a share.

The issue, which opened between July 27-29, was subscribed more than 5 times.

Reserved portion of retail investors was subscribed 9.61 times while non-institutional investors' portion got subscribed 6.18 times and qualified institutional buyers 1.93 times.

L&T Finance received Rs 1,245 crore through the issue. Parent company L&T's stake in the company reduced to 83% post issue.

Company intends to use issue proceeds for augmenting the capital base of L&T Finance and L&T Infra to meet the capital requirements arising out of expected growth in their assets, primarily the loan portfolio.

Fortis to buy 65 pct stake in Vietnam hospital chain for $64 mln

Fortis Healthcare International, the Singapore-based holding company of India's billionaire Singh brothers, said on Wednesday it will buy a 65 percent stake in Vietnam's Hoan My Medical Corp for $64 million.

Hoan My is one of Vietnam's largest private healthcare groups with 700 beds across five hospitals. It will open a new 200-bed tertiary care hospital in Ho Chi Minh City by November 2011.

Fortis Healthcare International has been on an acquisition spree since it was set up about a year ago, and now owns clinics and hospitals in several Asian countries including Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Singapore-based firm is held directly by brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, who are the main shareholders of India-listed Fortis Healthcare.