Standard Chartered pay PENALTY

Civil Penalty: StanChart pays $340 mn

AGENCIES

Posted: Wednesday, Aug 15, 2012 at 1211 hrs ISTNew York: Global banking giant Standard Chartered has agreed to pay USD 340 million to New York's top banking regulator, settling allegations that it hid thousands of transactions worth billions of dollars with the Iranian government.

Under the settlement reached with the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Standard Chartered will pay a "civil penalty" of USD 340 million and would have a monitoring system for a term of at least two years.

The monitors would report directly to DFS and evaluate the money-laundering risk controls in the New York branch and implementation of appropriate corrective measures.

The settlement came after StanChart was accused by the New York regulator of hiding about 60,000 secret transactions with the Iranian government, involving a whopping USD 250 billion, and exposing the US financial system to terrorists,

weapon dealers and drug kingpins.

New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky said DFS examiners shall be placed on site at the bank and StanChart would permanently install personnel within its New York branch to oversee and audit any offshore money- laundering due diligence and monitoring undertaken by it.

"The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least USD 250 billion," Lawsky said, adding that DFS would continue to work with its federal and state partners on matter.

In the wake of the allegations over Iran transactions, Standard Chartered's Chief Executive Peter Sands had flown to New York to take personal control of the bank's attempts to reach a settlement with the US regulators over allegations it

hid transactions involving Iran.

Last week, the New York banking regulator had in its order said that the bank must demonstrate why its state banking licence should not be revoked over the transactions.

The agreement now enables the bank to avoid having its licence to operate in New York revoked.

Lawsky had termed the bank a "rogue institution" for breaking US sanctions.

StanChart had "strongly" rejected the allegations made by DFS. It had said it was conducting a review of its historical compliance and was discussing that review with US agencies, including the state financial services department, Department

of Justice, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Federal Reserve Group of New York.

It said the New York order does not present a "full and accurate picture of the facts".

Since the allegations became public just over a week ago the firm's shares have lost around 15 per cent of their value.

Rs22,451 crore loss-IOC

IOC reports Rs22,451 crore loss, biggest ever by any listed company

Published: Thursday, Aug 9, 2012, 19:23 IST 
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today posted the nation's biggest quarterly net loss of Rs22,451 crore after the government failed to compensate it for capping auto and cooking fuel prices. Simultaneously, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), the nation's third largest fuel retailer, also posted a net loss of Rs9,249 crore in April-June, the second biggest quarterly loss by a listed corporate.

The government has in the year year not compensated oil firms for selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost this year as the Rs40,000 crore fuel subsidy it had budget has all been exhausted in paying compensation for last fiscal. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), India's second largest fuel retailer, will report quarterly earnings tomorrow and is likely to post over Rs9,000 crore of net loss. IOC, which like other retailers is living off borrowed money, warned that it may soon exhaust the limit to which it can take debt and sourcing crude oil (raw material for making petrol, diesel and other petroleum products) would become difficult as international sellers don't give credit.

The three state-run fuel retailers are losing about Rs710 crore per day on selling diesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene at government controlled rates which are way below market price. Besides, the government's "inflationary concerns" have not allowed them to raise price of petrol - a fuel that was deregulated in June 2010 - even though they are losing over Rs3 per litre. IOC Chairman R S Butola said the government should realise that oil firms are on the brink and fuel subsidies need to be addressed urgently.

The three fuel retailers are projected to lose a record Rs177,715 crore this fiscal as they sell diesel at a discount of Rs12.13 a litre to its cost, kerosene at Rs28.54 and LPG at Rs231 per 14.2-kg cylinder discount. The government, which is struggling to contain budget deficit and runaway inflation, has not just failed to compensate state-run retailers for selling fuel below cost this fiscal but also not provided about Rs10,000 crore of the promised subsidy for 2011-12.

What has made matters worse is rupee's slump against the US dollar, making import of crude oil costlier. The nation relies on imported crude to meet is almost 80% need. "We had a net loss of Rs22,450.95 crore in April-June quarter as compared to Rs3,718.70 crore loss in the same period a year ago," Butola said.

This was primarily because IOC was not compensated Rs17,485 crore for selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at a discount to its cost and another Rs950 crore lost on selling below its cost. The delay in getting compensation has increased PSU oil firms' interest payments on debt they have taken for buying crude oil among other things. IOC's borrowings have gone up by a masive Rs15,000 crore in the April-June quarter to Rs90,923 crore.

The company can borrow a maximum of Rs110,000 crore and if losses on fuel sales continue that borrowing limit will soon be reached, after which it will not get any finances impacting the company's ability to buy crude oil from international markets, he said. The company's debt-equity ratio has deteroriated ato 2.57:1. Also, its capital expenditure will have to be pruned.

"As of now capex funding has been tied-up. Overall, if financial constraints continue to play in remaining part of the year, there is bound to be impact," he said. Shares of IOC fell 1.8% to Rs251.60 at the close on BSE, the lowest level since June 19.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

ECONOMY AND MARKETS WILL RISE- RISE-- RISE---WISH GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO ALL.

BELIEVE IN THE INDIA GROWTH A NATURAL PROCESS GETS MOMENTUM WITH OUR RESOURCES PUT TO USE.

WE SCALE NEW HEIGHTS
GOODLUCK TO EVERYBODY.

Education - HUGE BUSINESS!! GRAB...!!!!!

HYDERABAD, AUG. 13: 

Next Education India Pvt Ltd, a digital learning technology company, will raise Rs 150 crore from private equity players by December end.

“We are in talks with them. We hope to conclude the deal by the year-end,” Beas Dev Ralhan, Chief Executive Officer, Next Education, has said. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said the company had so far invested Rs 250 crore, including Rs 60 crore on research and development of content. It raised the money from internal accruals and some debt from Kotak. It clocked revenue of Rs 100 crore in the last financial year.

While the Indian education market (including higher education) is put at $40 billion, digital education market is pegged at $2-3 billion. The company has tie-ups with 4,000 schools (in CBSE and ICSE streams) across the country and claims a student user base of eight lakh.

“Of this, 50,000 are paid customers, with 60 per cent of them coming back to us for content in renewals,” he said. “The State board student population is 10-15 times bigger than the Central education streams. We are expecting a growth of 30 per cent in business from this arm,” said Ankur Agrawal, Executive Vice-President (Operations), Next Education.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article3764992.ece

SUGARS - BUY BUY!!!

AT ONE TIME BYE BYE SUGARS IS NOW BUY BUY SUGARS.
I RECOMMENDED SUGARS IN JUNE-JULY PERIOD. I AND MY FAMILY HAD SOME POSITIONS. I RECOMMENDED DALMIA AT 12-12.50 RANGE IN JUNE. IN THAT PERIOD ALL SUGARS ARE AT THEIR YEARLY LOWS. SO I SUGGEST TO BUY FOR DOUBLE OR TRIPLE RETURNS FROM THEIR LOWS. WHEN THE MARKETS TAKE AS DIP, FOCUS TO BUY SUGARS. THE MORE THE INVENTORY, THE MORE PROFITS TO POUR. GOOD LUCK...----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moneycontrol » News » Stocks » Expert Advice Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 09:50 Dalmia Bharat Sugar can test Rs 24-25: SP Tulsian Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries can test Rs 24-25 in next six months, says SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com.

Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries  can test Rs 24-25 in next six months, says SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com.

Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, "Dalmia Bharat Sugar has three sugar mills with a capacity of 22,500 tonne crushing per day with matching co-gen facility and & distillery of 80 KLPD. If you see the sugar performance of all the companies, the inventory gain in some of the cases, we have seen that happening though, that has not got reflected into the financial results of the Q1 of this company as well as of Balrampur Sugar."

He further added, "The main point or the triggers for these companies are the kind of inventory they are carrying in their books and the unrealized gain they are sitting on. In this case the company is having an inventory of close to about Rs 450 crore as on 30th June after they have declared the results for quarter ended June which has been quite good with PAT of close to about Rs 10 crore. So the inventory of Rs 450 crore has an unrealized gain of close to about Rs 45 crore."

"If you see the financial performance or the expected output from the UP it is estimated that probably the UP based sugar mills are going to perform the best because of the drought situation prevailing in the Maharashtra and Karnataka and more specially in the Eastern UP where the monsoon has been quite good. Because if you take a call on the Western UP and the Central UP the monsoon is slightly inferior than what the Eastern UP region has seen."

"The companies overall are likely to perform better in terms of the performance going ahead in view of the firm sugar prices now prevailing at about Rs 34-35 per kg. So, the crux for the recommendation that the whole of FY13 is likely to see an EPS of close to about Rs 6 for this stock. If you go by the book value parameter also the share is looking on fundamental basis quite cheap with book value of close to about Rs 54-55 and with expected EPS of close to about Rs 6 for FY13 as I said partly because of the inventory gain and partly because of the better working."'

"I think this looks a good midsize sugar mill, if you take a call on the Avadh Sugars, Upper Ganges or Simbhaoli Sugars or for that matter even Dhampur, Dhampur though have a higher capacity. So taking a relative call on all the sugar stocks and more specially if I focus on the UP based sugar mills this stock looks quite good and one can expect a price of Rs 24-25 in next six months or so."

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/stocks-views/dalmia-bharat-sugar-can-test-rs-24-25-sp-tulsian_744159.html

VERITAS- DLF. ROCM AND INDIABULLS....

Indiabulls accuses Veritas of helping short-sellers

Indiabulls alleges that report was released to select few before wider publishing

N Sundaresha Subramanian / New Delhi Aug 10, 2012, 00:21 IST Under attack from Canada-based Veritas for alleged governance lapses, the IndiaBulls group today accused the firm of profiteering by helping subscribers to enter into short positions ahead of the wider release of the report. In a police complaint, the company has alleged that Veritas analyst Neeraj Monga demanded money and offered to delay the wider release of the report. “Indiabulls officers filed a complaint to the police against the malafide Veritas report, along with an email evidence where Neeraj Monga has demanded money through his personal email and that if monies are given in time, then he would hold back the report,” the group said in a statement. According to a senior group official, “Heavy short positions were built up in the stock ahead of the release of the report on Wednesday, enabling people to take home profits by squaring off when the prices fell.” Data from the exchanges seem to suggest there was a build-up of shorts in IndiaBulls Real Estate, the only group stock in the F&O segment. According to data from the exchanges, open interest in IndiaBulls Real Estate shot up from 11.9 million on August 1, the date of the latest report to 16.2 million on August 8, when the report was widely circulated among brokers and market players. Short selling refers to selling stocks that one does not own, with a view to buy these later when the prices fall. In India, direct short sales is not allowed. However, traders use the futures and options (F&O) segment, where such transactions are allowed, to execute short sales. Among the three stocks covered by the latest IndiaBulls report, only IndiaBulls Real Estate is available for trade in the F&O segment. The increase in open interest coinciding with a fall in the share price indicated that the shorts were building up in the counter, said brokers. Between August 1 and August 8, the stock fell by 4.4 per cent as against a two per cent gain in the Sensex. Similar build-up in open interest accompanied by a fall in the share price was noticed in the earlier reports by Veritas this year. On March 2, a damning report by Veritas on the largest real estate player, DLF, was circulated. Between February 24 and March 2, the open interest had gone up from 22 million shares to 30 million, while the stock price fell 10 per cent. The broader market fell 1.6 per cent. On June 19, a Veritas report on Reliance Communications setting the target price of Rs 15 surfaced. Over the preceding week, open interest in the counter went up from 57 million to 68 million as the stock shed nearly five per cent. The Sensex was flat during the period. The Indiabulls statement further added that the Veritas report dated August 1, 2012 was released to certain select group of people before being released to the media and institutional shareholders after seven days on August 8, 2012, along with a TV interview on August 8 by Neeraj Monga. Monga openly tried to distort facts and presented erroneous data in his answers for fulfiling his personal agenda of profiteering, the statement alleged. In the email sent to a London based hedge fund Altimas Partners on August 7, Monga allegedly demanded $40,000 for subscription to Veritas reports for the current year. He is also said to have offered to delay wider circulation of the Indiabulls report if the fund officials promised to subscribe. "Our first year subscription price is $50K. For the remainder of the current year we are signing up for $40K. We plan to publish at least two more reports for the rest of the year. We have published on five stocks so far this year. The report on DLF was published in March and that on RCom in June. Our other report covering an additional three stocks is not public yet. If you sign today we can hold the wider release of the third report back by one day for you to read it and take action if you so desire," Monga allegedly wrote in this email. In an email response Naresh Monga of Veritas said, “Indiabulls appears to be basing its complaint on an email from Prashant Periwal, a fund manager from Altima Partners in London, who is a fund manager who owns Indiabulls group stock and who contacted us for our research. Veritas’ commercial practices are of the highest standards and integrity. We are disappointed that Indiabulls is attempting to discredit our company and us individually, rather than addressing the issues outlined in our research.” Monga added that Veritas stands by its research, which is based on publicly available documents . “We have not contacted Indiabulls before or after our research was published. We are an independent research company servicing institutional investors and funds. We sell research for a subscription fee, as is the industry practice in India and the world over. We are regulated and licensed by the relevant financial service authorities to do so.” Veritas also pointed out that it does not have any proprietary trading positions and referred to its clean track record. Monga, however, added that “If there are any factual errors we will correct those.” http://www.businessstandard.com/india/news/indiabulls-accuses-veritashelping-short-sellers/482846/

MISTAKES ...KNOWINGLY..!!!

Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 23:26

Govt slaps notice to BHEl asking to pay Rs 25 Cr as penalty

Karnataka government has slapped a notice on BHEL asking to pay Rs 250 crore as penalty for supplying faulty power generating equipments at the Raichur Thermal Power Station, Minister for Energy, Shobha Karandlaje said today.

Karnataka government has slapped a notice on BHEL asking to pay Rs 250 crore as penalty for supplying faulty power generating equipments at the Raichur Thermal Power Station, Minister for Energy, Shobha Karandlaje said today.

The eighth unit of the RTPS, the contract of which was awarded to BHEL, developed technical snag since about a year ago and the company has not been able to rectify it, she told reporters here. The government had also decided to recover the losses caused to the state following failure to generate power by BHEL in the last one year, she said.http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/govt-slaps-notice-to-bhel-asking-to-pay-rs-25cr-as-penalty_743990.html

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Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 12:22

CNN, Time magazine suspend Fareed Zakaria for plagiarism

Noted Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by his employers CNN and Time magazine after he admitted to plagiarism and apologised for the ethical lapse.

Noted Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by his employers CNN and Time magazine after he admitted to plagiarism and apologised for the ethical lapse.

Zakaria, was suspended by CNN and Time magazine after he admitted that he had plagiarised portions of an article he wrote on gun control for Time, from the New Yorker magazine.

He issued an apology saying he had made a "terrible mistake" and his lifting a paragraph from the article by Harvard University professor of American history Jill Lepore was an "ethical lapse".

Zakaria, 48, a Yale and Harvard graduate, had written the column on gun control that appeared in the August 20 issue of Time magazine.

Cognizant D'Souza story

Newsmaker: Francisco D'Souza The 'Kid' reinvents Cognizant - and himself T E Narasimhan /  August 10, 2012, 0:39 IST A few days ago, US-based Cognizant overtook Infosys to become the second-largest information technology (IT) company in India, an important milestone that saw the baton being passed from an iconic pioneer in the Indian technology space to a future contender. The man steering Cognizant today is boyish-looking, 44-year-old Francisco D’Souza, who could easily pass for an energetic student at a management school, than for the CEO of a top-flight technology company. Much of Cognizant’s success is thanks to D’Souza, who, in the past five years as the CEO, has propelled the company’s revenues from $1.4 billion, when he took over, to almost $7 billion today, at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 35 per cent. D’Souza attributes much of his and Cognizant’s success to his peripatetic childhood. His father, Placido D'Souza, an Indian Foreign Service diplomat, had to move to a new country every few years, and he made sure his son attended a local school wherever they went: Whether it was Panama, Zaire, Trinidad, New Delhi, New York, Hong Kong or Pittsburgh. This resulted in the need to learn new languages, make new friends, explore different cuisines, and soak up diverse cultures. "If there is one thing in my personal life that has made a decisive impact on business in Cognizant, it is the multi-cultural experience that I have gained and cherished,” says D’Souza. “From the beginning, we have consciously built the organisation with this 'multi-cultural' flavour, because to serve the global marketplace, you need to be global. What I learnt growing up in a microcosm, is very much alive in the DNA of Cognizant," says Francisco. Born in Nairobi, D’Souza grew up in three continents. He attained a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of East Asia, and a master of business administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, where he reportedly was the youngest in the class. This won him the moniker, ‘the kid’. When D’Souza took over in 2007, Cognizant was a late entrant in the IT services sector, dominated by giants like Wipro and Infosys. Playing catch-up was not easy. But D'Souza had a clear game plan— focus on a few areas and expand into adjacent ones, be it new geographies, solutions, or industries. Within Cognizant, D'Souza had many roles to play — from the Director of the US operations, to the vice-president (North American operations), to COO, and now, CEO. During these stints, D'Souza set up and incubated the North American operations, European operations, and newer industry practices and solutions. Yet, D'Souza isn’t satisfied. He recently announced that his ace team of Gordon Coburn, R Chandrasekaran and Rajeev Mehta would take over the ownership for over 95 per cent of the company's business, allowing him to focus on new business models, geographies, and technology architectures, somewhat akin to the decision Bill Gates took many years ago, when he handed over the reins of Microsoft to Steve Ballmer. According to analysts, these new ideas, models and technologies may not have opportunities today. However, in the next three-five years, this strategy would germinate, especially in areas like social media, cloud and mobile analytics. D’Souza refers to these as emerging business accelerators (EBAs), and expects those to be the material drivers of Cognizant's future growth. The EBA segment comprises 18 new businesses, with D’Souza heading four. In effect, D’Souza has created a venture capital organisation within his IT enterprise and appointed ‘mini’ CEOs from Cognizant’s work force to head these verticals. At this rate, D’Souza, at the age of 44, has a good chance of eclipsing the luminaries of an older generation of IT entrepreneurs, who set the bedrock for Cognizant’s success. http://www.businessstandard.com/taketwo/news/newsmaker-francisco-dsouza/482863/