Category: Businesss News

Kwedit Launches Online Payment Service for Cash Transactions

Posted by admin – March 3, 2010

Kwedit launched new online-payment services targeted at consumers who prefer to pay for digital content and virtual goods with cash. Former PayPal President Jeff Jordan is an advisor to Kwedit, which is also working on a service that would allow eBay buyers to pay for items by using Kwedit Direct at any 7-Eleven.

Kwedit Promise enables consumers to receive goods immediately in exchange for Promises to “Play Now. Pay Later.” Kwedit Promises can be paid off using any of the mechanisms provided by Kwedit Direct, which allows consumers to make payments at participating retail stores or by mailing cash or asking a friend or family member to pay on their behalf through a unique social payment network called Pass the Duck.

The service establishes a Kwedit Limit for users, which is a spending limit established by publishers and modified by consumers’ Kwedit Scores. The company expllains that Kwedit Scores are similar in concept to FICO scores, in that they reflect consumers’ previous, timely payoff of Promises, and rise with on-time payments, allowing responsible consumers to use more Kwedit.

Kwedit is available on over 100 online destinations, including FooPets and PuzzlePirates, via partnerships with publishers and payment aggregators.

Kwedit CEO Danny Shader had been CEO at Accept.com, a consumer-to-consumer payment service that Amazon.com acquired in 1999.

Manufacturer consolidates in Aurora

Posted by admin – March 2, 2010

A leading manufacturer of audio-visual mounting equipment has signed a long-term lease for a 307,813-square-foot building in Aurora where it will consolidate its international operations.

The move by Peerless Industries, Inc., will bring roughly 400 jobs to Aurora as the company consolidates its operations from China, Mexico and two campuses in Melrose Park, Ill.

Jason West, Sean Henrick and Michael Magliano of Cushman & Wakefield completed the transaction on behalf of the building’s owner, Northern Builders, Inc. This is the second building of 300,000 square feet or larger leased by the West team in the last six months. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The building is located at 2300 White Oak Circle where it is visible from Interstate 88 and easily accessible from the new Eola Road interchange. The building, which features 30-foot ceilings and 35 exterior docks, was developed by Northern Builders for 3M in 1997. It sits on roughly 22.5 acres, a portion of which Peerless will use for a planned 185,000-square-foot expansion at a later date.

Peerless Industries, Inc., has been a leader in the audio-visual mounting industry for more than 40 years, offering a comprehensive line of TV mounts and installation accessories for residential and commercial users. Peerless manufactures more than 3,600 different accessories for televisions, VCRs, LCD and plasma-screen monitors, projectors, speakers and more.

Larry Goldwasser and Jay Maher of the NAI Hiffman Industrial Services Group represented Peerless Industries in the transaction.

united-bank-of-india-Up- to-raise-3-3-billion-rupee

Posted by admin – February 23, 2010

United Bank of India plans to raise as much as 3.3 billion rupees ($72 million) in the first initial public offer by a state-owned lender since Central Bank of India’s share sale in July 2007.

The Kolkata-based bank will sell 50 million shares between 60 rupees and 66 rupees apiece starting Feb. 23, Chairman Satish Gupta told reporters in Mumbai today. The final price will be revealed two days before the issue opens and retail investors will get a 5 percent discount, he said.

The proceeds from the share sale will help the bank meet growing demand for loans in the second-most populous nation, Gupta said. India’s economy, Asia’s third largest, may expand more than 8 percent in the year starting April 1, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters today in New Delhi.

“In the last five years, our business has grown at an average 32 percent and we will continue to grow at the same rate in the future,” United Bank’s Gupta said.

SBI Capital Markets Ltd., Enam Securities Pvt. and Edelweiss Capital Ltd. are managers to the sale that closes on Feb. 25. The offer, which includes 2.5 million shares reserved for employees, accounts for 15.8 percent of the expanded equity, with the government holding the rest.

United Bank, which has 20 million customers in 28 states, reported a profit of 2.31 billion rupees on revenue of 27.8 billion rupees in the six months ended Sept. 30.

‘Collective action a safeguard against crisis’

Posted by admin – February 15, 2010

While central bank governors from seven countries and the finest economics brains such as Nobel laureate Andrew Michael Spence and financial sector wizards such as Stephan Roach, who were here for the first international research conference organised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), might have suggested another round of co-ordinated action, in practice, the situation would have been different.

“Every country is at a different stage of getting out of the crisis. Advanced economies are getting out of the crisis slowly, while emerging economies are getting back to high growth rates,” says Jorgen Elesmov, acting head, economics department of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Every central bank has to make policies and take action keeping in mind country-specific challenges despite the lack of a consensus. But, that is not enough in a globalised world to ward off cascading effects of the troubles in one financial market.

Governor Miguel Fernandez Ordonez of Banco de Espana said, “We must emphasise the significance of unprecedented coordinated action led by G20 in avoiding another great depression, and in view of the expected difficult years ahead, we must sustain the global approach despite domestic differences in policies.”

The theme of the conference was “Challenges to central banking in the context of financial crisis”. More than 50 international dignitaries, including seven central bank governors, several deputy governors, academicians and eminent personalities from the IMF, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements participated in the two-day conference.

While each speaker made a strong case for global coordinated action, inefficiencies in the present international monetary system and organisations did not escape their attention.

Subbarao was categorical in his remarks that the international monetary system was inadequate to prevent a major structural problem, that is, global imbalances, which had to manifest in the form of some crisis or the other at some stage. He noted that even though India did not contribute to global imbalances, it had to face the consequences.

SBI scales down credit growth estimate

Posted by admin – January 10, 2010

State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, is scaling down its loan growth estimate for the current financial year by at least 700 basis points to 18 per cent in the wake of lower demand for loans.

At the beginning of the financial year, the bank had expected to expand its loan book by over 25 per cent. However, due to a decline in demand for loans, the growth rate till December-end dropped to around 16 per cent.

SBI Chairman O P Bhatt told reporters at a press conference that during the year ending March, the growth rate would be around 18 per cent.

Despite the slowdown in loan growth, SBI is growing faster than the industry. According to the latest RBI data, overall credit growth for the 12 months ended December 18 was 11.25 per cent.

Bhatt said companies were still slow to avail already sanctioned credit. With projects on hold in the wake of the slowdown, the gap between sanctions and disbursals was close to Rs 50,000 crore, he said.

“Credit growth is tentative. We do not know if the demand is due to the stimulus or due to the Sixth Pay Commission. It is early to say if the demand is going to pick up,” he said.

On bad debt, he said the ratio of non-performing assets (NPAs) to total assets could worsen. “When growth has slowed, the NPA growth will be faster. Even after the economy improves, as it has in recent months, there can be a lag effect. So, the ratio will get distorted,” he added.

While Bhatt refused to share details of how SBI would cope with the new loan-loss coverage norms, he said the bank was working to meet the stipulated 70 per cent level. SBI had a coverage ratio, that is, provision for bad debt, of less than 50 per cent.

Asked about the impact of RBI’s decision to allow banks to include write-offs while calculating the ratio, Bhatt said, “In SBI’s case, we were not accounting that earlier. This will significantly increase our coverage ratio.” Bhatt said the numbers were being analysed.

The bank has ruled out equity issues at the moment, saying it has a comfortable capital adequacy ratio of 14 per cent. Bhatt also spoke about the bank’s plan to tap retail investors through a bond issue. “Retail bond is a new instrument that we want to bring to the market. Maybe we will bring it this year. We will first test the market. The issue size will not be significant,” he said.

Car insurance may come with accident cover

Posted by admin – January 5, 2010

The road transport ministry is planning to charge up to Rs 15 on every premium paid for insuring vehicles to fund a scheme to provide cashless hospital facility to victims of accidents on national highways.The ministry has suggested charging of Rs 15 as a premium for the vehicle insurance policy,” said a source in the ministry.There are around 10 million registered vehicles in the country and the total insurance premium collected in 2008-09 was Rs 30,601 crore. The administrative heads of the districts would administer the fund, according to the proposal.The government is working to provide cashless medical facility under the scheme as accident victims usually have to follow long procedures to get claims from insurance companies.

The government has constituted a committee to find ways to fund the scheme. The committee has members from four public sector insurance companies (National Insurance Companies, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance, the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority, the General Insurers (Public) Sector Association and Reliance General Insurance. The committee will submit its report by mid-January.According to a World Health Organization report of a survey on road safety in 178 countries, constituting 98 per cent of world’s population, India leads in the number of deaths due to road accidents. India reported 105,000 traffic deaths in a year, compared with over 96,000 in China. Also, in India, an estimated two million people have disabilities resulting from a road accident.

Over 1.2 million people die each year on world’s roads and 20-50 million suffer non-fatal injuries. In most regions of the world, this is increasing. Road traffic injuries are one of the top three causes of death of people between 5 years and 44 years.Predictions are that by 2030, road traffic injuries will become the fifth leading cause of death worldwide.Also, a lot of questions has been raised over the safety on the roads in India. Union Roads and Transport Minister Kamal Nath had announced that his ministry aimed of reduce accidents on the roads by half in the next three years.

The road transport and highways ministry had been able to utilise only 10 per cent of the fund allocated for providing road safety during the current financial year till November-end.

Markets rebound after a soft start

Posted by admin – December 14, 2009

The markets have firmed up after a soft start this morning. The Sensex opened a point lower at 17,118, and soon touched a low of 17,089 owing to weak cues from the global markets.

The markets however have rebounded into the positive zone owing to fresh buying interest. PSU stocks owing to the divestment buzz are in limelight. Auto stocks and capital goods stocks also have moved up.

The Sensex is now up 71 points at 17,191. The NSE Nifty is up 14 points at 5,132.

Among the index stocks – Hindalco has gained 1.6% at Rs 144. ACC, Hero Honda and Grasim have advanced over 1% each to Rs 825, Rs 1,691 and Rs 2,423, respectively.

Maruti, Sun Pharma and Jaiprakash Associates are also up around 1% each.

Bharti Airtel, however, is down 1% at Rs 329.

RBI may cut credit target again: PNB

Posted by admin – December 13, 2009

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) aims to achieve credit growth of 17 per cent in 2009-10, but the pick-up in credit since October was “not very significant”, Executive Director Mohan Tanksale said on Friday

“I am afraid that Reserve Bank of India may revise its credit growth target even lower in the January policy. We are still hopeful that PNB will achieve credit growth of more than 17 per cent,” he said.

Tanksale said the market’s expectation of a rise in credit growth from October onwards has “not happened”.

“I expect credit growth for the industry to be around 17-20 per cent,” he said.

RBI had revised downwards its forecast for banks’ credit growth to 18 per cent in its mid-term review of annual policy, from 20 per cent earlier.

Tanksale was of the view that the opportunity for companies to garner funds from mutual funds was not available to everybody.

When asked whether he supported any quantitative restrictions on banks’ investments in mutual funds, Tanksale said, “RBI has expressed its view on this issue, which is indicative of the stance it favours.”

He said PNB had done “nothing specific” to change its lending exposure to mutual funds.

ITC reaps growth benefits from its green capital

Posted by admin – December 7, 2009

Clinton’s visit to the centre in July was a symbol of green collaboration between the US and India, the centre being the globe’s first largest green building.

Twelve years on, and an unspecified amount of investment, ITC’s green initiatives labelled as sustainability goals have translated into 24 per cent total shareholder returns, measured in terms of increased market capitalisation and dividends, at a compounded rate of growth.

The initiatives are embedded in each of the company’s business models.

Consider this: The paper business of ITC, which was bleeding 12 years ago, turned around with the help of a clonal propagation programme covering 100,000 hectares, that is Mumbai and Pune put together.

ITC’s paperboards business is critically dependent on wood pulp for raw material. Instead of opting for imports, the company took a strategic decision to source its fibre by mobilising tribals to plant trees on their private wastelands and encouraging small and marginal farmers to undertake farm forestry programmes in the vicinity of the mill. The tribals are given saplings at break-even cost. Of the 100,000 hectares, around 3,000 is a registered CDM (clean development mechanism) project. The whole initiative improved profit margins from 15 per cent to 30 per cent over a period, while mitigating external risks.

The forestry programme is just one of the eight CDM projects already registered.

ITC Sonar in Kolkata is the first hotel in the world to earn carbon credits. “All our future hotels will be green hotels,” said an ITC spokesperson.

The cigarettes-to-hotels major has many green accolades under its triple bottomline, which is mainly augmentation of economic, ecological and social capital. Three major global distinctions for the only company of its size to achieve so are carbon positive (for four years in a row), water positive (seven years in a row), and solid waste recycling positive (since last year).

From its commitment to the triple bottomline, ITC has chosen wind energy as a focus area for enhancing its positive environmental footprint.

The company’s total investment in wind energy will soon touch Rs 250 crore when it commissions wind turbines in Maharashtra and Karnataka. ITC has already invested close to Rs 100 crore in wind energy generation in Tamil Nadu to meet the requirements of its packaging business in Chennai.

From next year, withdraw cash at shops for Rs 10-15

Posted by admin – November 26, 2009

Public sector lender Union Bank of India is aiming to offer the facility by December 31. Corporation Bank is also preparing its PoS infrastructure and hopes to start offering this facility in the next two months. Most banks are expected to offer the service in the coming months.

In July, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued a circular permitting cash withdrawals of up to Rs 1,000 per day from point-of-sales (PoS) terminals at merchant establishments. PoS terminals are machines where customers can swipe their credit or debit cards to pay for purchases. “We are fully prepared to offer this facility. Customers in remote locations who do not have ready access to ATMs will be the biggest beneficiary of this facility,” said Pravin Bansal, General Manager, Transaction Banking, at Union Bank.

Its board will consider the proposal to offer this facility when it meets next month, following which Union Bank will seek the RBI’s nod.

Both banks are aggressively expanding their PoS networks. Union Bank plans to have 25,000 PoS terminals by end-March 2010. Earlier, Corporation Bank entered into a deal with Prizm Payments for the setting up of 100,000 PoS terminals in the next two to three years.

At the end of March this year, there were around 427,000 PoS terminals. ICICI Bank had a 42 per cent share, followed by Axis Bank with 27 per cent of the pie, according to a report by Venture Infotek Research.

Once this service is rolled out, other banks are expected to follow. The charges will be lower than those for third-party ATM withdrawals, since the costs for the banks will also be lower. At present, most banks offer five free third-party ATM withdrawals a month to savings account customers and thereafter charge Rs 18-20 per transaction. Banks mainly save on cash replenishment charges, since the cash is present with the merchant. A bank executive said this could also be a current account/savings account (CASA) acquisition strategy, since every merchant offering this facility will necessarily have to open a current account with the acquiring bank.