News As We Read- 19th June'13

Thought of the Day:

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Following made the Headlines:

India:

• Bharti Airtel ties up with J&K Bank to offer 'airtel money' services: Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd (AMSL), a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, today announced a tie-up with Jammu and Kashmir Bank to offer 'airtel money' services through the bank's 800 Khidmat Centres across the state. This alliance marks a unique joint commitment by both the companies towards taking the power of airtel money to the masses and further promotes the nation's financial inclusion agenda, a spokesman of the mobile company said. Through airtel money, the users can load cash on their mobile devices and spend it to pay utility bills, recharge mobile phones, shop at merchant outlets and transact online.  Today, we are seeing airtel money play a pivotal role in bringing unbanked millions of Indians into the banking fold, and are now honoured to work with J&K Bank to proliferate the power of this service into deeper pockets of Jammu and Kashmir," Sriraman Jagannathan, CEO of M Commerce of Bharti Airtel, said. As part of this association, Airtel will leverage the reach of Jammu and Kashmir Bank's vast network of Khidmat Centres towards creating an alternative distribution channel for airtel money, thus enabling wider access for customers, he added. 

• Readymade garment exports to cross Rs 80,000 crore this year: CMAI: The readymade garment industry aims to achieve Rs 80,000 crore in exports in 2013-14, an 8-10 per cent growth from last year's levels. "We expect 8-10 per cent growth in readymade garment exports in FY 2014 to Rs 80,000 crore (USD 17 billion). Due to the weakness of Indian rupee, our exports are expected to rise further in rupee term," Clothing Manufacturers Association of India(CMAI) President Rahul Mehta told PTI here. Competitor countries like Bangladesh and China are facing labour problems. China is slowly moving out from the labour intensive garment industry and moving towards high-tech and sophisticated products. The present garment exports of China is approximately 10 times more than India. So, even if 10 percent of China exports get diverted to India, Indian apparel exports could double, Mehta said. Further, the talks on FTA (Free Trade Agreement) between India and Europe have been going on for the last three years and are likely to be finalised in near future. If the Indo-EU FTA happens, it would provide duty free access to Indian garments in Europe, giving a huge boost to the Indian apparel industry, he said. The industry is now exploring markets of Japan, Middle East and South America which have a huge potential for readymade garment exports, he said. The onset of monsoon is expected to stabilise the raw material like cotton prices, which will boost the industry, Mehta said. Commenting on the domestic market, he said, the association expects that the size of the Indian domestic readymade garment industry will double within 5 years due to economic prosperity, simplified government policy, growth in fashion orientation, brand awareness and consumer expectations.

• Air travel picks up, IndiGo stays on top, Jet Airways & JetLite grab second slot: The holiday season spurred a mild revival in demand for air travel and the month of May witnessed positive growth in air traffic after almost 15 months of decline.  According to data furnished by aviation regulator DGCA, domestic airlines together carried 57.1 lakh passengers last month, recording a growth of 5%, compared with May 2012. It also reflects a sharp jump of seven lakh passengers from April. "Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January to May 2013 were 259.98 lakhs as against 258.08 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 0.74%," an official statement said. Low-cost carrier IndiGo ruled the Indian skies in May, flying almost a third (29.5%) of domestic passengers, while Jet Airways and JetLite together were at the second spot, flying 22.5% of the total passengers. SpiceJet held its number three position with a market share of 19.8% fliers while Air India wasn't far behind with 19.2% passengers. GoAir accounted for 9% of travellers.The holiday season also helped airlines fill up more seats, resulting in higher aircraft occupancy, or passenger load factor, in May, except for the Jet group.

• Priya Biscuit lines up Rs 45 crore investment in Bengal: Buoyed by three consecutive years of growth in sales, biscuit major Priya has planned an Rs 45 crore investment near Dankuni in West Bengal. Spread over six acres of land, the factory will have a covered area of one lakh square feet and is being built with technical support from German equipment suppliers. According to Priya Biscuit managing director GP Agarwal, "we shall double our production capacity before the festival season...The new greenfield project is expected to create some 600 new jobs in Bengal." Presently, Priya Biscuit has three product verticals - sweet biscuits, semi sweet and salty. It has added a new range of hygienic biscuits called 'Bite' made from digestive herbs and spices. The 'Bite' range would have five variants - Top Bite, Butter Bite, Nastha Bite and Big Bite.  "We don't want to loose focus on taste though. Consumers cannot treat biscuits as health pills. Hence, we have brought about new products which are essentially good for taste buds with additional health ingredients," added Mr Agarwal.

• SABMiller India appoints Grant Liversage as Managing Director: Brewery firm SABMiller India today appointed Grant Liversage as the Managing Director of the company. His key responsibilities will include overseeing the company's operations, expansion & growth in India and working towards building the business in the Indian market, the company said. He will be taking over the position from August 1, 2013. "I am confident that Grant's leadership, vision and extensive experience will be instrumental in further driving the company's growth and performance...," SABMiller Asia Pacific Managing Director Ari Mervis said.  Grant takes over from Paolo Lanzarotti who will now be taking up the position of Managing Director of SABMiller's subsidiary Plzensky Prazdroj in the Czech Republic, the company said. "Given its current size and changing demographics, India offers a great opportunity and I am happy to be part of the team driving SABMiller India's commitment to grow and expand in the country," SABMiller India Managing Director designate Grant Liversage said. SABMiller India is the Indian arm of UK headquartered SABMiller Plc.

• Tulip Telecom joint CEO Deepak Khanna resigns: Deepak Khanna, the joint chief executive officer at enterprise data services firm Tulip, is learnt to have put in his papers after being in the role for about one-and-a-half years, according to people with direct knowledge. Tulip did not reply to queries. Deepak joined Tulip in October 2011 as president of the company. Within six months, he was elevated as joint CEO. Khanna joins several other senior executives who have quit Tulip. Previous CEO Sanjay Jain and chief financial officer Rahul Ahuja are among others who left Tulip in the recent past. Umesh Garg, who replaced Ahuja as CFO left the company within six months of joining. Tulip's datacentre business also had a number of exits starting with its CEO Raj Gopal A S, chief operating officer Kannan Venkatraman and senior vice president Sujeet Deshpande quitting. Tulip, which is burdened with debt of over Rs 2,700 crore, has defaulted on paying salaries to employees for more than five months now. Last month, the company said it will go into a formal corporate debt restructuring programme. For the quarter ending March 2013, Tulip had a net loss of Rs 653.72 crore while sales declined 40% to Rs 416.90 crore.

International:

• Huawei says has no plans to buy Nokia: Chinese network equipment and cellphone maker Huawei Technologies Co said it "has no plans to acquire Nokia”, responding to a report that it would consider buying the Finish phone maker. The denial came from Huawei's vice president for external affairs, Bill Plummer. The story on the FT website on Tuesday had quoted the head of Huawei's consumer business, Richard Yu, as saying: "We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia. We are open-minded." Nokia declined comment. Nokia's US shares closed up 17 cents or more than 4 per cent at $3.86 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock had risen as high as $4.12 after the report.

• Cynthia Rowley debuts designer eyewear online: Designer Cynthia Rowley has launched an online eyewear store in partnership with licensee B. Robinson that features a full range of frames under the brands Rowley Eyewear for women and Mr. Powers for men. Sunglasses are listed at $99 while prescription pairs are listed at $129, and shoppers can pick four pairs to try out for seven days before deciding which ones to buy.

• Adidas Projects Soccer Sales of $2.6B: Soccer sells, to the tune of what Adidas projects will be a record 2 billion euros, or $2.66 billion, in soccer category sales in 2014, the year of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The German active sportswear giant is the official FIFA World Cup sponsor, supplier and licensee, and will again supply the tournament’s official ball as well as equipping officials, referees, volunteers and ball kids. “The FIFA World Cup is the perfect stage to showcase our company, our brands, and our products. Adidas is the clear no 1. in soccer globally,” Adidas Group chief executive Herbert Hainer claimed.  The expected windfall is related to what the company termed a “constant stream of new and innovative soccer products for the World Cup,” to be launched starting in the second half of 2013. Adidas’ FIFA World Cup involvement is also expected to further boost the group’s performance in Latin America. The company said sales on the continent, driven by the Adidas brand, have grown at strong double-digit rates every year since 2002. Further boosted by the FIFA 2013 Confederations Cup, which is currently running in Brazil through June 30, and the upcoming World Cup, Adidas said it expects “continuous and solid double-digit sales growth in Latin America in the years to come.” Besides celebrating with fans in Brazil, the active sportswear maker said it will use POS and digital communication — with a particular focus on social media — to spread the soccer excitement around the globe.

• China, UAE Maintain Top Fashion Growth Scores: China and the United Arab Emirates maintained the two top spots in A.T. Kearney’s biennial ranking of the best markets for apparel retail development as Latin American markets, including Chile and Mexico, took large strides forward. Chile jumped seven spots to number three in this year’s Retail Apparel Index as Kuwait dropped one notch to fourth place and Brazil was up two ticks to fifth place. Saudi Arabia was off one spot to sixth, Russia down three slots to seventh and Turkey down two to 10th. Malaysia and Mexico, which failed to make the top 10 in the 2011 study, entered the top 10 at eighth and ninth place, respectively. India and Vietnam, numbers six and nine in the last survey, failed to make the top 10.

• Retail Apparel Prices Rise in May: Retail apparel prices rose for the first time in three months in May, increasing a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent, primarily driven by an uptick in the men’s and girls’ areas. The increase in May came off of a three-month slide in retail apparel prices that began in February, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released its monthly Consumer Price Index report on Tuesday. Women’s apparel prices bucked the trend and declined 0.4 percent in May. Within the category, dress prices dropped 1.8 percent last month, while prices for suits and separates slid 1.3 percent and combined prices for underwear, nightwear, sportswear and accessories fell 0.2 percent. The outerwear category showed the only pricing strength in May, with a 3.4 percent increase. Men’s apparel prices were up 0.2 percent. In that category, prices for shirts and sweaters rose 1.3 percent, while prices for pants and shorts increased 0.6 percent and prices for furnishings rose 0.4 percent. Combined prices for suits, sport coats and outerwear fell 1 percent. Girls’ apparel prices were up 1 percent, while boys’ apparel prices dipped 0.3 percent. “We have had three straight months of negative readings in the apparel index,” said Jeet Dutta, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, with apparel prices falling 0.1 percent in February, 1 percent in March and 0.3 percent in April. “Taking a slightly longer view, it does seem apparel prices have been quite stable,” Dutta said, noting prices were up an unadjusted 0.2 percent compared with May 2012. “This is one category where you would not typically expect a lot of pricing power because a lot of manufacturing has moved overseas and there is a lot of price competition among those vendors. Aside from the month-to-month fluctuations, you would not expect there to be a steady or persistent price power in this category, and that is what you have seen over the past year.”