Daily News Digest- 28th Aug'14

Thought of the Day:

Today in History:

Following made the Headlines:

India:

• India Inc CEOs Cheer Modi, But Expect More Action: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to finish his first 100 days in office, but India Inc CEOs are convinced an economic revival is around the corner. A huge majority of 50 CEOs ET polled in the run-up to this special edition are preparing to make fresh investments and are also stepping up hiring, all in anticipation of 6-8% GDP growth most feel is possible over the next three years. The results of the exclusive ET Poll suggest that after years of uncertainty and inaction, India Inc is now preparing to re-ignite its growth engines. The poll shows 74% of CEOs are already seeing demand pick-up, 80% have made new investment decisions or are likely to do so soon and two-thirds are now stepping up hiring. Many leading industrialists and CEOs -several of them running business empires well in excess of Rs 10,000 crore. Most of them credit Modi for the revival in business sentiment. Only 6% felt this regime has failed to meet expectations. “The decisions on FDI, insurance, defence, the prioritisation of job creation and skilling over dole economics, the refocus on highways and rural roads, infrastructure rollout through ports, railways and smart cities, the emphasis on manufacturing exports -these could all be potentially game-changing,“ says Hero Mo toCorp VC & MD Pawan Munjal in a column he's written for this edition. The Sensex closed at 26,560 points on Wednesday, up 7.6% since Mo di was sworn in as PM on May 26. But CEOs are also looking be yond the initial euphoria and be lieve this government's real test is yet to come. When asked how much the economic situation has really changed on the really changed on the ground, CEOs, on average, gave the government only 5 on a scale of 1-10, even though they gave a score of 7 for improvement in business sentiment in the country. Similarly, while CEOs gave PM Modi a score of 7.7 for his vision of India's development, they rated his ability to convert that vision into action at only 6.2. Despite the early bonhomie, it is clear India Inc wants the PM to act more on the big dreams he has articulated so well so far.

• Ratan Tata Invests in Snapdeal: Ratan Tata has invested an undisclosed amount in Snapdeal.com, the e-commerce company said on Wednesday. The Tata Group's chairman emeritus has invested in his personal capacity. Tata is one of the most high-profile individual investors in the fast-growing, hyper-competitive e-commerce space. According to sources, Tata has bought the stake held by former Microsoft executive Ken Glass, an early investor in the company. The announcement comes a day after Snapdeal entered into a strategic partnership with affordable housing company Tata Value Homes to sell the latter's apartments on its platform.

• US' Wendy's Now in India, Ties up with Sierra Nevada: You will soon get Wendy's hamburgers in India. The third largest hamburger chain in the US is entering the country in partnership with Sierra Nevada, one of whose founders is the new owner of Barista Coffee. “We plan to bring a basket of brands into India and Wendy's being the prominent one,“ said Sanjay Chhabra, director of Sierra Nevada, the equal joint venture between London-based retail consultancy firm International Market Management and Haryanabased packaging company Rolltainers, which is getting Wendy's to India. Rolltainers had acquired Barista from Italy's Lavazza earlier this month. Wendy's outlets are likely to come up the first quarter of 2015, Chhabra said, adding that Sierra plans to bring more global food brands into India, including Jamie's Italian Restaurants.

• No Monthly Cap on Subsidised LPG Cylinders: The Cabinet on August 27 formally lifted restrictions on supplying more than one subsidised cooking gas cylinder per household per month. “The Cabinet has merely ratified an old decision of the oil ministry. There are no changes in the number of cylinders per household annually,“ an oil ministry official said. The UPA government had in February raised the quota of subsidised cylinders to 12 from nine, but limited the supply initially to one cylinder per month.

• Ramesh Tainwala Made Samsonite's Global CEO: Ramesh Tainwala will take over as the chief executive officer of Samsonite International, the world's largest luggage maker, in October, joining a growing league of Indians heading global companies. The American multinational has elevated Tainwala just six months after the Indian took over as its chief operation officer in March this year. Tim Parker, Samsonite's chairman and current CEO, said, “This will allow us to secure the continuity and succession of our management team and drive the further development of our business with an even higher level of focus.“ With this Tainwala joins a club of 14 select Indians heading multinationals that include Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Anshu Jain of Deutsche Bank and Ivan Menezes of Diag eo among others. Tainwala, originally an entrepreneur in the plastic processing and consumer goods industries, joined Samsonite nearly 20 years ago. His family enterprise, Tainwala Group, has a 40-60 joint venture with Samsonite -Samsonite South Asia -to run the Indian business of the American firm.

• DHL to invest Rs 800 Crore in India to tap e-commerce sector: Deutsche Post DHL, the leading global mail and logistics group, is set to invest over 100 million euros (about Rs 800 crore) in India over the next two years. The company's aim to become the go-to for services related to e-commerce. According to sources, Blue Dart, a subsidiary of DHL will play a major role in creating the e-commerce wave. According to Deutsche Post DHL chief executive Frank Appel, Deutsche Post has also chosen India to pilot development of its e-commerce business model for Asia Pacific. He believes that India will soon become the biggest online market in the world. "This region is expected to soon surpass North America and Europe as the biggest online market in the world. As the leading logistics company with an unsurpassed global footprint, there is a huge opportunity for us to become the world's leading provider of e-commerce logistics and we have a ready solutions infrastructure in India to pilot our solutions," said Appel. As per the company's global online retailing report, e-commerce share of over all trade volume of emerging markets will surge to 30% by 2025. Notably, the share in developed countries will rise upto 40%. In a bid to become the leading player of e-commerce services, the German logistics giant is investing through its domestic subsidiary Blue Dart Express in infrastructure and the development of fulfillment centre, multiple delivery and payment options. DHL will set up 15 fulfillment centre across locations, including Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai as well as in tier-2 cities as part of this plan, said Appel. Blue Dart Express managing director Anil Khanna said e-commerce portals like Flipkart, Amazon among others have shown interest in the proposed fulfillment centres.

• Monte Carlo plans IPO, Samara Capital to divest 9.5 per cent stake: Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd (MCFL) today said the company plans to launch a public issue of 54.33 lakh equity shares, including an Offer for Sale by promoters group and private equity (PE) firm Samara Capital. The Offer for Sale, which is expected to hit the market in September this year, will constitute 25 per cent of the post paid-up equity share capital of the company. "Our PE investor Samara Capital has decided to divest 9.5 per cent stake and promoters will dilute 15 per cent stake through offer for sale," Monte Carlo Executive Director Sandeep Jain said. In June 2012, Samara Capital, a Mauritius based India focused private equity firm, through its affiliate, KIL, acquired a stake in MCFL and currently holds 18.51 per cent of the pre-Offer capital of the company acquired at an investment amount aggregating to Rs 175 crore. KIL will hold 9.04 per cent after selling 20,58,026 equity shares in public issue. The company expects that the listing of the equity shares will enhance visibility and brand image among existing and potential customers and provide liquidity to the existing shareholders, Jain said. Launched in 1984 as an exclusive woollen brand by Oswal Woollen Mills Ltd (OWML), Monte Carlo, Jain said will continue to focus on the growth of its cotton and cotton-blended apparel to establish pan-India presence. "As part of our growth strategy, the company has a target of establishing 275 'Monte Carlo exclusive brand outlets' by the end of fiscal 2017. We seek to penetrate further in the western and southern regions of India," he said. He said they will continue to focus expansion in tier-I cities in north India, along side focusing expansions in tier-II cities in north, east and central India and tier-I cities of south and west India by opening additional 'Monte Carlo Exclusive Brand Outlets.

• Hypercity Retail appoints Vipin Bhandari as the new CEO: Bhandari joins Hypercity from Max Hypermarket where he was the Chief Operating Officer and a part of the founding team of the retail chain. He has also played a significant role in establishing the leisure division for Landmark Group. Govind Shrikhande, customer care associate and managing director, Shoppers Stop, said, "I welcome Vipin Bhandari to our leadership team. His food and hypermarket experience will surely enable Hypercity to pursue its goal of becoming the leading hypermarket in India. Hypercity is committed to offering a great shopping experience combined with value and Vipin's entry at this exciting point will definitely help the company sprint towards its long term vision." On his new assignment, Bhandari said "I am delighted to join Hypercity as it enters into this exciting phase of expansion and growth. My endeavour will be to build on the brand's strength and great shopping experience with value, while entering new and untapped markets for the retail chain." A chartered accountant by profession, Vipin has a vast retail experience ranging from retail operations, sales, marketing, merchandising and business development. He has held senior retail leadership positions in India as well as in Dubai with in his previous job.

• Naturals partners with Godrej Good & Green to set up beauty academy to train 50,000 beauticians: Naturals the leading salon chain has announced their association with Godrej Good & Green with the aim to set up the largest beauty & salon training academy in the country. Through this collaboration, Naturals and Godrej Industries together will train 50,000 individuals, over the next 4 years. They will also set up satellite academies over the next 12 to 24 months, across India. With the objective to generate skilled and trained professionals in the beauty and salon industry, Naturals looks to achieve its goal to provide 50,000 job opportunities by 2018. Naturals has an aim to launch 3000 salons by 2018 while by 2020, the Godrej Good & Green plans to train 1 million youth in skills that will enhance their income earning potential. This new venture will act as a catalyst in the journey for both the organizations. The association between Naturals and Godrej Industries began 1.5 years ago with the salon chain playing a critical role in placing graduates of Godrej's beautician and hair care training program - SALONi. SALONi is one among the several employability training programs that fall under Godrej Good & Green, the Godrej Group's strategic CSR and environmental sustainability platform. Till date, 17541 women and girls have been trained through SALONi beauty skills across the country. In the coming months Godrej SALONi will become the knowledge partner for Natural Academy, in association with DB-Tech, where an estimated number of 4,000 girls will be trained and placed within the Naturals network of salons. Speaking on the occasion Mr. C.K. Kumaravel, CEO & Co-Founder, Naturals said, "When we entered into the salon industry back in 2000, the biggest challenge that we came across was the unavailability of trained beauty & hair professionals and unfortunately even today we see a gap. I believe that our partnership with Godrej will not only help us to achieve our goals but will also benefit the industry demand for professional talent". Kayomarz D Dotiwalla, Associate VP, Good & Green, GCPLsaid, "Together with Naturals we hope to reach our goal to train and equip youth with skills that will enhance their income earning potential in the salon industry".

• Dr Batra's to open 50 homoeopathy clinics by March: Dr Batra's Healthcare is aiming to open 50 new homoeopathy clinics across the country and abroad by the end of the current financial year as part of its expansion plans. "We plan to open 50 more clinics thereby taking the total number of clinics to 200 by the end of this financial year," Dr Batra's Healthcare Founder and Chairman Mukesh Batra told PTI. The clinics in India will be in a mix of company owned and franchise models. In tier I and tier II cities the clinics will be mainly owned by the company while in smaller towns they will be franchised, he added. "Our Franchise partners play a prominent role in our success. With their support we have managed to have our presence in tier II, tier III and IV cities," Batra said. Without giving out the amount, he said the investments on expansion will be made through internal accruals. The homoeopathy clinics chain is looking for locations in which it is already present and is also plans to foray in the new cities. "We plan to open more clinics in existing cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Surat, Jaipur," Batra said. There are plans to open clinics in cities like Rajkot, Calicut, Silchar, Durgapur, Mehsana, Gondia, Aligarh, Moradabad, Sikkim, Dibrugarh, Panipat and Jamnagar among others, he added. "Overseas the new clinics will be one in Bangladesh, one in Dubai which will be our third there and one in London where we already have a clinic," Batra said. Founded in 1982 in Mumbai, Dr Batra's Healthcare has 150 clinics across India, Dubai and London.

• Indian Hotels to invest Rs440 crore in next three years: Cyrus Mistry: Tata group’s The Indian Hotels Co. Ltd (IHCL), which runs the Taj Group of Hotels, will add 30 hotels with 3,700 rooms and has committed Rs440 crore for the next three years, according to Cyrus P. Mistry, chairman of the company. Addressing shareholders at the 113th annual general meeting, Mistry said the hospitality sector is still facing a challenging environment and due to significant increase in supply in the coming years the pressure will increase further. On Wednesday, he said the company has raised Rs1,000 crore through a rights issue and the proceeds will be used for retiring debt and for capital expenditure. Mistry said the whole-time directors of the company will forego their commission for the year. The hotel operator has Rs3,956 crore in debt as on 31 March. Taj Group of Hotels has 125 hotels in 63 locations.

• Mother Dairy ties up with SBI for smart cards: Mother Dairy, which sells milk and milk products under an eponymous brand name, has teamed up with State Bank of India (SBI) by launching a prepaid SmartChange Card to facilitate cashless transactions starting with 150 milk booths in the national capital region (NCR). These cards, which will be available to consumers starting at the end of the month, can be used to purchase milk, dairy products and ice creams; they will subsequently be available at the Safal outlets—the fruit and vegetable retail chain run by Mother Dairy. The card is aimed at “reducing the quantum of cash at our booths which is primarily taken care of by our booth managers”, said S. Nagarajan, managing director, Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Pvt Ltd. “Also, to further avoid usage of change and coins, lack of which is always a concern to consumers.” The prepaid card will come at an initial issuance cost of Rs25, wiith a top-up limit of Rs1,000, with Rs500 as the limit per transaction. The company expects 20% of its daily customers to convert to card usage in the first phase of carded transactions. “It will help with a vendor’s cash management reduction,” said S.K Mishra, deputy managing director for corporate strategy and new business at SBI.

International:

• Australian shopping giant Westfield boosts investment in global stores: Australian shopping centre giant Westfield Corp. on Wednesday reported a 5.3 per cent increase in first-half operating income and said it was progressing with an US$11.6 billion investment in global projects. The firm, which assumed Westfield Group's international operations after its Australian and New Zealand assets were folded into a new entity this year, said the results for the six months to June 30 were "in line with expectations". "The operating performance of our pre-eminent portfolio of 40 shopping centres in the United States and United Kingdom remains strong, and in line with expectations," Westfield's co-chief executives Peter and Steven Lowy said in a statement. "Significant progress (was) made on the US$11.6 billion pipeline of current and future developments." Westfield Group, one of the world's largest shopping centre operators, split its empire in July. Its Australian and New Zealand businesses, including 47 malls, merged with Westfield Retail Trust to form a new entity named Scentre. Scentre on Tuesday reported property net operating income growth in its Australian and New Zealand portfolio of 2.3 per cent for the half-year to June 30. Westfield Corporation has interests in 44 shopping centres in the United States, Britain and Europe, with assets under management of US$27.7 billion. Among its development pipeline, it said "good progress" had been made on its US$1.4 billion World Trade Centre project in New York which is now 70 per cent leased and is expected to open late next year.

• Qantas reports biggest ever loss of A$2.8bn for year: Australia's national flag carrier Qantas has reported an after-tax net loss of A$2.8bn ($2.6bn; £1.57bn) for the year ending in June - its biggest ever financial loss. The struggling airline said the result was in part due to an A$2.6bn write-down on its international fleet. Analysts were expecting a net loss of around A$750m. Qantas said weak domestic demand, poor consumer spending and rising fuel costs also contributed to the huge loss. It is the worst result in the company's history and compares with a revised after-tax profit of A$2m a year earlier. One-off costs associated with redundancies contributed to the full-year loss, though, and the firm said its current underlying financial position was strong and improving.

• France's jobless total rises sharply in July: The number of people looking for work in France rose 0.8% in July to a new record. The sharp rise confirms a longer term trend with the number of jobless rising 4.3% over the last year. President Francois Hollande has promised to kick start growth and create jobs. But the economy has floundered, prompting a revolt against austerity by three left-wing ministers. Mr Hollande replaced them and named a new cabinet. In mainland France 3,424,400 people were looking for a job in July, 26,100 more than the previous month.

• Lockheed Martin in space junk deal with Australian firm: US defence giant Lockheed Martin has struck a deal with an Australian technology firm to track space debris that can damage satellites. It has signed a "strategic co-operation agreement" with Canberra-based Electro Optic Systems (EOS) to build a new tracking station in Western Australia. The site will employ advanced optical and laser technology to detect, track and identify specific space objects. Debris threatens orbiting satellites daily and can cause millions in damage. "Ground-based space situational awareness is a growing priority for government and commercial organisations around the world that need to protect their investments in space," said Lockheed Martin Space Systems executive vice president Rick Ambrose in a statement. "We'll offer customers a clearer picture of the objects that could endanger their satellites, and do so with great precision and cost-effectiveness."

• Millions knocked offline in US by Time Warner Cable fault: A fault with Time Warner Cable's network left millions of people cut off from the internet in the US. The firm said the problem affected customers in all 29 of the states in which it offered broadband connections. The problem started in the early hours of Wednesday morning, which will have limited its effect. Many of the company's 11.4 million internet subscribers are now back online but others are continuing to report issues. "Unfortunately, I do not have an estimate time of repair," the service's Twitter account responded to one user who asked when his home connection would be restored.

• Mobile Sales in China Propel Alibaba Q1 Earnings: In what might be the final financial report before Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. goes public, the company on Wednesday said first-quarter net income nearly tripled as mobile revenues helped to fuel its e-commerce growth in China. Alibaba’s first-quarter report came on the same day that Reuters reported China’s Dalian Wanda Group is set to launch an e-commerce venture with Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. For the three months ended June 30, net income was $2 billion, or 84 cents a share, compared with $709,331, or 31 cents, a year ago, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission updating Alibaba’s Registration Statement. The company is expected to have its road show with investors next month. In yuan, the company said net income was 12.34 billion yuan, or 5.20 yuan a diluted share, versus 4.38 billion yuan, or 1.93 yuan, a year ago. Year-ago figures were converted to U.S. dollars at a three-month average exchange rate. Total revenues rose 46 percent to $2.54 billion from $1.74 billion, or 15.77 billion yuan versus 10.78 billion yuan in the same 2013 period. Revenues from e-commerce in China gained 44.2 percent to $2.15 billion from $1.49 billion, or 13.35 billion yuan from 9.19 billion yuan a year ago. The company has some revenue from international commerce, as well as cloud computing and Internet infrastructure operations.

• Gabriella Scarpa Named Administrator of Emilio Pucci: Emilio Pucci has appointed Gabriella Scarpa, president of Acqua di Parma and member of the board of the Florence-based brand, as its administrator. Both brands are part of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group. Former Pucci ceo Alessandra Carra left the company in March and went on to hold the same role at Agnona. Vice president and image director Laudomia Pucci succeeded Carra as the brand’s ad interim chief executive officer.

• Express Surges, Chico's Falls on Earnings: Investors rewarded Express Inc. for its strong second-quarter results and punished Chico’s FAS Inc. for its poor performance in the quarter as the WWD Global Stock Tracker remained essentially flat for the day. The tracker ended at 101.09, up 0.01 from its 101.08 finish on Tuesday. That paralleled the performance of the S&P 500, which rose 0.1 points to close at 2,000.12 for its second endpoint above the 2,000 mark. Express posted the best performance among the 100 equities monitored by the tracker, rising 12.8 percent to $16.45, while Chico’s recorded the steepest decline among tracker stocks, declining 4.6 percent to $15.29. Express’s second-quarter results exceeded analysts’ consensus estimates, as did its guidance for the remainder of the year, while Chico’s results fell short of expectations as heavy promotions reduced margins but failed to prevent a spike in inventory. Other top gains came from Yoox.com, up 6.8 percent to 20.31 euros, or $26.75 at current exchange, and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp., which both rose 3.7 percent to, respectively, $11.20 an $35.94. Lotte Shopping Co. rose 3.5 percent to 336,000 South Korean won, or $330.50. Among other equities to fall were Movado Group Inc., down 4.6 percent to $38.79; I.T Ltd., down 4.1 percent to 2.57 Hong Kong dollars, or 33 cents, and American Apparel Inc., down 3.5 percent to 98 cents. Shiseido Co. backtracked 2.9 percent to 1,952 yen, or $18.76. Earnings news is likely to be among the drivers of trading on Thursday as Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Signet Jewelers, Coty and Pacific Sunwear of California are among the firms scheduled to report quarterly results.

• Guess to Trim 50 Stores From Fleet: Paul Marciano is putting Guess Inc. on a diet after a disappointing second quarter and signs of continuing struggles as the second half begins. Marciano, cofounder and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based jeanswear and sportswear firm, said that Guess will trim its North American store portfolio and streamline its organization to “adapt to the new normal of retail today.” By the end of the current fiscal year, Guess plans to close 50 of the 488 stores in its North American store base as of Aug. 2 after reducing that figure from 507 one year ago. “In addition to these 50 stores, 50 percent of our North American store base will come up for renewal in the next three-and-a-half years, which will give us flexibility to optimize our real estate portfolio,” he said during a late-afternoon conference call with analysts Wednesday. The plans to limit Guess’ retail exposure came after the company reported lower second-quarter profits and sales that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations and provided guidance for third-quarter results that were well below consensus estimates. “So far, sales trends have not improved from the second quarter and the improvement we had expected during the last quarter [did not] materialize,” he said. In the three months ended Aug. 2, net income fell 44.9 percent to $22 million, or 26 cents a share, from $39.9 million, or 47 cents, in the year-ago period, with all five business units — North American retail, Europe, Asia, North American wholesale and licensing — generating lower sales and operating income than in the 2013 quarter.

Tech:

• Indian Govt Launches .bharat Domain Name in Devanagari: The government on August 27 launched the .bharat domain name in devanagari script covering eight languages including Hindi, Konkani and Marathi. With the launch, individuals of companies who are interested in owning a website with domain name in Hindi language would be able to book the name in Hindi script. The name would have ‘.bharat' in Hindi script as its extension instead of commonly top level domains such as .com, .net or .in.

• Fund managers look to make room for Alibaba: Investors are looking over portfolios to make room for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings's market debut next month and that means some less attractive stocks that funds are holding might be shown the door. The initial public offering, which could top $16 billion to become the largest-ever IPO by a technology company, is expected as early as next month after Alibaba management kicks off a two-week investor road show after the Labour Day weekend. As investors take a hard look at their portfolios, it may trigger a veritable garage sale of names that are failing to impress Wall Street, including US e-commerce rival Amazon.com, fund managers said. "Any company that didn't meet expectations and give a rosy outlook is probably being considered as a sale candidate to make room for a name like this," said Jim O'Donnell, chief investment officer of Forward, which has $5 billion in assets under management. "There won't be wholesale turnovers of portfolios, but I imagine Amazon is being looked at," he added. Chinese rivals like Baidu and Tencent Holdings also may be pressured if fund managers view Alibaba, which powers 80% of all online commerce in China, as a better path to tap into growth in the world's second-largest economy. Next month's roadshow is likely to attract interest from a wide range of funds, including those focused on emerging markets and technology. Alibaba may garner a valuation of $200 billion or more when it goes public, analysts say which would make it one of the 20 biggest companies listed in US markets. "It is the 8,000-pound gorilla coming for the stock market," Michael Reynal, portfolio manager at San Francisco-based RS Investments, said of Alibaba.

• Flipkart launches five tablets under Digiflip Pro series: India's e-commerce marketplace Flipkart Wednesday launched five new tablets under the Digiflip Pro brand series in a price range of Rs 5,999 to Rs 13,999, and said that it is optimistic about the tablet market, going forward. "We believe that there is already a selection of smartphones available and with the launch of these tablets, we aim to bridge a gap," Micheal Adnani, vice president- retail and head, brand alliances at Flipkart, told ET. Wednesday's launches include ET701 - a 7-inch Wi-Fi only tablet with 1.20 GHz dual core processor (Rs5,999); XT811 (Rs10,999) and XT801 (Rs8,999) - 3G with voice calling with 8-inch HD display; XT911 (Rs15,999) and XT901 (Rs13,999) - 3G with voice calling with 2 GHz dual core processor. Powered by the Intel Atom processor, these tablets come with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS. All the Digiflip Pro range tablets feature dual-core GPU and have dual camera capability with expandable memory of upto 32GB. "Our objective is to offer tablets at affordable price points with optimum quality so that we can exceed consumer expectations," said Adnani, adding that he believes tablet buyers from non-metros are increasing considerably. Given the experience of previously launched Digifilip Pro tablet, priced at Rs 9,999, Flipkart is optimistic about the new Digiflip Pro tablets lineup and said that they are expecting to sell it in "big numbers." In India, the tablet market though is on a decline and, according to research firm IDC, fell by over 32% to 0.78 million units in the January-March 2014 period. Flipkart's tablets will be available on Myntra as well. Consumers can avail of special benefits by buying through mobile apps.

• Urban Ladder ties up with Daakiyaa to hire women in logistics team: Online furniture retailer Urban Ladder has tied-up with marketing and logistics company Daakiyaa, to employ women to lead its delivery and logistics team. Without specifying the number of women hired, the company said women will lead the team that visits customers for furniture delivery to ensure the products are assembled and installed properly. "We are confident that women will prove to be effective leaders in our logistics team," said Rajiv Srivatsa, cofounder, Urban Ladder. Currently Urban Ladder has overall men to women ratio of 7:6 and it aim to reach an equal gender ratio in the next 4-6 months. "Traditionally, women were never the front-runners in the logistics industry, but as we move away from 'logistics' to 'customer fulfillment', we felt that women would be the right fit for this initiative," said Rohit Singh, CEO, Daakiyaa Marketing & Logistics Pvt.In July, Bangalore-based Urban Ladder raised $21 million (Rs 120 crore) in a funding round led by Hong Kong-based Steadview Capital. Other existing investors SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital also participated. Urban Ladder, which offers over 1,000 products across 25 categories in furniture such as wardrobes, beds, sofas, dining tables, coffee table, is aggressively looking to expand its product range and service 25-30 cities in India by March 2015. Founded by IIT & IIM graduates Ashish Goel and Rajeev Srivatsa two years ago, Urban Ladder competes with other online furniture retailers including Pepperfry and Rocket Internet-backed FabFurnish. 

• Snapchat valued at $10bn by Californian investment firm: The popular messaging app Snapchat has reportedly been valued at $10bn (£6bn) by one of Silicon Valley's most established investment firms. The evaluation, detailed by the Wall Street Journal, puts the start-up in the same bracket as young tech titans Dropbox and AirBnB. The newspaper also reported that Snapchat now has more than 100 million monthly users, approximately half of its rival Instagram. Snapchat was founded in 2011. The mobile app, which is the brainchild of two US university students, lets users communicate by sending each other photos that automatically delete after a few seconds. In just a few years, it has grown to compete with messaging and photo apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram - both now owned by Facebook - as well as Chinese companies such as Line and WeChat.

• Asos Shares Gain on Bid Rumors: Shares in the British online fashion retailer Asos closed up 13.3 percent to 26.59 pounds, or $44.07 Wednesday, after climbing on the back of market speculation that a U.S. firm is interested in buying the 27.4 percent stake in Asos owned by the Danish clothing firm Bestseller. Amazon and eBay were among possible bidders mooted in a report in London’s Daily Mail Wednesday, which cited “vague talk of a U.S. cash bid in the region of 50 pounds [$83] a share.” A spokesman for Asos declined to comment Wednesday. But David Reynolds, equity analyst at Jefferies in London, was skeptical of the reports. “The source of the rumors makes me question them and the detail of the reporting makes me question them,” said Reynolds, noting that the Mail described the speculation as “vague.” Reynolds also said that a bid of 50 pounds per share, “given that the stock is trading in the twenties, is nonsensical.” He also said that eBay and Amazon would likely see that Asos’ “young, fast fashion and edgy," identity could be compromised by becoming part of a larger retail group. The speculation follows a tough few months for Asos’ shares. In June the retailer’s stock tumbled 31.4 percent in one day, when Asos warned that its profit margin for the current fiscal year would be lower than expected. It forecast a dip in its EBIT margin to around 4.5 percent from around 6.5 percent, as a result of selling more product in lower-margin regions such as the U.K. and U.S., and higher promotional activity. That followed a 17 percent fall in Asos’ stock price in March, when the retailer forecast an initial fall in its EBIT margin due to increased costs relating to warehousing, IT costs and its China start-up. “People want to believe [the bid talk] because it has been a traumatic eight months [for online retailers] – the value of stocks [in the sector] has divided by four,” said Reynolds. “The market wants to believe but…that doesn’t have an impact on the credibility of rumors.”

• Wearable devices maker Theatro Labs raises $8.8 million in funding: Theatro Labs Inc., a Dallas, Texas-based start-up that makes voice-controlled wearable communications devices, has raised $8.8 million in funding. This round of funding was led by US-based venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, with participation from a group of individual investors. Khosla Ventures, started by Sun Microsystems Inc. founder Vinod Khosla, has invested $5 million in the company. Theatro, established in 2011, makes a small matchbox-sized device which is a voice-activated wearable computer. It helps retail employees communicate with each other through a Wi-Fi network. The device essentially takes the place of a traditional walkie-talkie and allows employees to access store-related information which is difficult to do using smartphones. The company opened a research and development centre in Bangalore in February this year and has 40 employees, evenly split between Dallas and Bangalore. As reported by Mint this month, GoQii Inc., a wearable technology company, said it has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Neeraj Arora, business development head at instant messaging subscription service WhatsApp Inc., and Marco Argenti, vice0president (mobile) at Amazon Web Services.