L&T Finance net up 13.7 per cent to Rs 301 crore

L&T Finance Holdings has reported a 13.7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit in the September quarter to Rs 300.7 crore, driven by a healthy growth in assets.

Loans and advances grew 28.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 35,458.7 crore compared to Rs 33,309.9 crore.

The growth in net profit in lending businesses has been on account of improvement in margins, offset by an increase in credit cost. For the lending businesses, net interest margin for the quarter improved by 0.1 percentage point to 5.6 per cent, the company said in a statement.

Gross NPAs stood at 2.89 per cent or at Rs 992.9 crore of loan assets compared to 2.54 per cent in the June quarter or Rs 846.4 crore. Net NPAs stood at 1.93 per cent or Rs 654.6 crore of loan assets compared to 1.67 per cent or Rs 551 crore in the June quarter.

The company attributed the rise in gross NPAs to slippage of one account in the infrastructure segment.

Despite a de-growth in the investment management business industry, the average assets under management grew by 9.4 per cent to Rs 15,078.9 crore, resulting in an increase in market share from 1.6 per cent in Q1 to 1.9 per cent in Q2.

The private wealth management business continued to grow momentum with the client base crossing 1,000 and an average assets under service of Rs 3,570 crore.

MTS awaits cheaper spectrum for India expansion

 
Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL), which operates under the MTS brand in India, has launched a high-speed wireless broadband service in an attempt to boost its data revenue.

The new 3GPlus service will offer speed as high as 9.8 Mbps. This is higher than the speed on third-generation (3G) networks, which peaks at 7.2 Mbps, but is lower than 4G speed.

"The margins are higher on data. So we want to be a data company," said Dmitry Shukov, CEO of MTS India.

The company has licences to operate in nine of India's 22 telecom service areas. The 3GPlus service is delivered over evolution-data optimised (EVDO) technology. It will be available over MTS dongles and MTS-branded smartphones. The service will be offered at a starting price of Rs 700 for a month, and goes up to Rs 1,498.

The company aims to increase its share of the Indian dongle market by 50 per cent. It currently has 13 per cent of the Indian dongle market by volume. However, if the nine circles where MTS is present are to be taken, it governs anything between 18 to 20 per cent, said Leonid Musatov, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at MTS India.

CEO Shukov said the company will expand beyond the nine circles if it gets spectrum at a lower rate. When asked what should be the reserve price for spectrum, he answered: "The right price according to me is zero."

So, at what price does MTS want to go for pan-India expansion? "We have done some calculations but are not ready to talk about them," Shukov said. But he is sure he wants spectrum cheaper than what MTS paid in the last auction - Rs 2,013 crore in addition to Rs 1,626 crore it had paid in 2008.

In early October, MTS received a unified telecom licence from the government, which allows it to offer services through both Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technologies. However, it's not interested in providing GSM services.

"What's the point of thinking about 2G when operators are looking at next-generation [services]," Shukov said.

The company also recently received its third carrier, or tranche, of 1.25 Mhz spectrum for all its circles, taking its total spectrum availability to 3.75 Mhz. But it will still not be able to offer long-term evolution (LTE) technology for 4G services, which it intends to do.

"We need four carriers to do LTE in these circles, but we don't have contiguous spectrum," Shukov said. He, however, remains committed to achieving MTS India's break-even by the end of 2014. Shukov is also waiting for clarity on the Indian government's merger and acquisition guidelines for the telecom sector.

Is MTS looking to make an acquisition? "We are open for discussion [with other operators]," Shukov said

Microsoft says Apple apps going free not a big deal

 
This was expected, but it hasn't taken a long time coming. A day after Apple announced that its new operating system , OS X Mavericks, as well as its office suite iWork -and iLife - would be free from now on , rival Microsoft has retorted by saying that the announcement was "not a big deal".

In a post filed on Microsoft's TechNet blog Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Communications at Microsoft, said both Surface tablets had Office for free. "… Making Apple's decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets is not a very big deal."

In a very cynical note, Shaw, who filed the post from Abu Dhabi, where the Nokia World has just concluded, added: "Seems like the RDF (Reality Distortion Field) typically generated by an Apple event has extended beyond Cupertino."

"Apple announced yesterday that they were dropping their fees on their "iWork" suite of apps. Now, since iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought, it's hardly that surprising or significant a move. And it doesn't change the fact that it's much harder to get work done on a device that lacks precision input and a desktop for true side-by-side multitasking," he added in a bid to show that the Surface tablets were superior to the iPad as far as productivity is concerned.

The post does not say much on what Redmond thought about the OS going free, but Shaw went on to highlight that the Surface and Surface 2 "are less expensive than the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively, and yet offer more storage, both onboard and in the cloud". However, the fact is that Microsoft's tablets are far from popular and not even available in countries like India.

Perched in its position of software superiority Microsoft can afford to play hardball. "So, when I see Apple drop the price of their struggling, lightweight productivity apps, I don't see a shot across our bow, I see an attempt to play catch up," added Shaw in his post.
Now, to see if Microsoft can afford to maintain the hardline for long

Nissan recalls over 188,000 SUVs worldwide to fix brakes

Nissan Motor Co is recalling more than 1,88,000 Nissan and Infiniti SUVs worldwide to fix faulty brake control software that could increase the risk of a crash.

The recall covers some Nissan Pathfinders from the 2013 and 2014 model years, as well as the 2013 Infiniti JX35 and its successor model, the 2014 QX60.

Nissan says that during light braking on rough roads, the antilock brake software could cause longer-than-expected stopping distances. The company said no crashes or injuries have been reported.

Nissan will notify owners within 60 days, and dealers will reprogramme the antilock brakes free of charge.

The recall includes nearly 1,52,000 SUVs in the US and roughly 36,000 in China, Canada, Mexico and other countries, the company said.

The Pathfinders were built between April 18, 2012 and September 20 of this year. The JX35s were built from September 15, 2011 to January 16 of this year, while the QX60s were built from January 17 to September 20 of this year.

India rupee up 57 paise to 61.08 dollar in early trade

 
The rupee opened strong and was trading 57 paise up to 61.08 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on Wednesday as the greenback fell against other currencies overseas after the weak US jobs report fuelled hopes the Federal Reserve will keep its stimulus programme in place.

Besides, increased dollar selling by exporters and a higher opening in the domestic equity market also supported the rupee, forex dealers said.

The rupee had lost 13 paise to close at 61.65 against dollar in Tuesday's trade on sustained demand from importers and banks as investors awaited US jobs data.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex was trading over 100 points down in late morning trade on Wednesday.

NSEL scam: NK Proteins MD Nilesh Patel held

Managing Director of NK Proteins Ltd, one of the biggest defaulters of the beleaguered National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), was on Tuesday arrested in connection with the bourse's Rs 5,600 crore scam, taking the total number of arrests in the case to four.

"NK Proteins' MD Nilesh Patel was on Tuesday arrested in connection with NSEL case," Additional Police Commissioner (EOW) Rajvardhan Sinha said.

NK Proteins was the first company that had borrowed Rs 350 crore from the NSEL, said another police officer adding that "now the company owes the spot exchange about Rs 850 crore to Rs 900 crore that includes the principal amount of Rs 350 crore, interest as well as other payable amount."

"Patel knew that its company would not be in a position to pay back money but still he borrowed Rs 350 crore from the spot exchange, knowing the fact that NSEL cannot lend money.

Hence, Patel, in connivance with the NSEL officials misused the investors' amount," the official added.

The company has also used the amount to expand its edible oil business and also entered into a joint venture with Adani group, the officer alleged, adding "hence the books of accounts of the joint venture have also come under scanner and investigators would surely examine the books."

NK Group and the Adani Group's agro trading arm, Adani Wilmar Ltd, had formed a 50:50 joint venture called AWN Agro Pvt Ltd, which became the largest castor oil exporting entity in India.

The EOW officials earlier arrested three accused in the case. Anjani Sinha, former head of the beleaguered bourse, was held on October 17, Amit Mukherjee, an ex-assistant vice-president of NSEL was nabbed on October 9 and the next day Jay Bahukhundi, another ex-assistant vice-president and in-charge of KYC department, was apprehended.

An FIR was registered in the case on September 30 by the EOW against the directors, including Jignesh Shah and Joseph Massey, promoters and defaulters.

All of them have been charged with cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy and other offences under the Indian Penal Code. On October 1, CBI too registered a preliminary inquiry into the case.

NSEL has been facing problems in settling Rs 5,600 crore dues of 148 members/brokers, representing 13,000 investor-clients after it suspended trade on July 31 on government's direction.

NSEL defaults for 10th time, pays Rs 30 lakh against Rs 174.72 cr

Crisis-hit bourse National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) defaulted for the tenth straight time on Tuesday as it could pay only Rs 30 lakh to investors against a scheduled amount of Rs 174.72 crore.

NSEL, which is engulfed in a Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis, had previously defaulted nine times. On its seventh pay-out date, the bourse was unable to make any payment as its accounts were frozen by economic offences wing (EoW) of the Mumbai police.

With Tuesday's pay-out, NSEL settled about Rs 180 crore against Rs 5,600 crore dues to 13,000 investors.

"The total amount being disbursed today in a proportionate manner is Rs 30 lakh," an NSEL spokesperson said.

According NSEL data, MSR Food Processing made a payment of Rs 5 lakh and Metkore Alloys & Industries made payment of Rs 25 lakh to the exchange.

NSEL had availed a bridge loan of Rs 177.23 crore from its promoter Financial Technologies (FTIL) to make payments on priority basis to small investors.

NSEL, promoted by Jignesh Shah-led FTIL, is facing the problem of settling Rs 5,600 crore dues to 148 members after it suspended trade on July 31 on the government direction.

The bourse plans to settle the entire dues in 30 weeks time, by paying Rs 174.72 crore for first twenty weeks followed by Rs 86.02 crore in next ten weeks.