TCS, HDFC-India's best managed companies

IT giant TCS and financial services major HDFC have been named as India's two best managed companies in an annual poll conducted by Finance Asia magazine. TCS and HDFC are followed by IT major Infosys, telecom giant Bharti airtel and PSU behemoth ONGC in the list of the top-five best managed companies in the country.

The report also named TCS's Natarajan Chadrasekaran and ICICI Bank's Chanda Kochhar as the two best CEOs of the country, while Infosys' V Balakrishnan and Tata Steel's Koushik Chatterjee have been named the two best CFOs. The results are a part of an annual poll conducted by Finance Asia to find the region's best managed companies, based on votes from more than 300 investors and analysts across the region, the magazine said.

Other companies on the list of India's best managed companies include SBI at 6th place and Page Industries at 7th position, while as many as four companies -- Reliance Communications, Cadilla Healthcare, Tata Group and Tata Motors -- were ranked at 8th position. In terms of best corporate governance practices, Infosys has been ranked at the top, followed by HDFC, Wipro, Tata Group, ONGC, TCS, Bharti airtel, RCom and Tata Motors.

In terms of best investor relations, HDFC was on top, followed by Infosys, Wipro, Bharti airtel, ONGC, TCS, RCom, Reliance Industries and SBI. Tata Steel has topped the list of best companies for corporate and social responsibility, followed by Tata Motors, Bharti airtel, ONGC, NTPC, SBI, RCom, Wipro and Infosys. In terms of commitment to a strong dividend policy, Infosys has been ranked at the top, followed by Page Industries, HDFC, ONGC, Tata Group, GE Shipping, VST Industries, RCOM, ITC and Wipro.

The poll also named eClerx and Vardhman Textiles as the two best mid-cap companies in the country, while MM Forgings and SKF India were found to be the best small-cap companies.

Forbes Global 2000 list has 57 Indian Firms

As many as 57 Indian companies including Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. figure in The Forbes Global 2000 list of public companies based on their rankings for sales, profits, assets and market value.

Reliance with sales of $45.3 billion is ranked 121st in the list with three public State Bank of India Group (136, $29.1 billion), Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (172, 22.6 billion) and Indian Oil (243, $52.1 billion) taking the next three places among the Indian firms.

Other companies in India’s top ten were ICICI Bank (288, $13.2 billion), NTPC (348, $10.8 billion), Coal India (418, $10.4 billion), Bharti Airtel (453, $9.3 billion), Larsen & Toubro (499, $9.8 billion) and Tata Motors (512, $20.2 billion).

JPMorgan Chase is in the top spot for the second consecutive year as the world’s largest company followed by HSBC, up six spots fuelled by a 121 percent growth in profits in the past fiscal year.

In total, the Global 2000 companies now account for $32 trillion in revenues, $2.4 trillion in profits, $138 trillion in assets and $38 trillion in market value. These firms also employ 80 million people worldwide.

Cable companies plans to learn foreign broadcasters

A group representing Canada's biggest telecommunications companies has sent a letter to the head of the national regulator asking him to study the growth of new, foreign broadcast players like Netflix Inc. The letter asks CRTC Chair Konrad Von Finckenstein to launch a public consultation process to "determine whether and how such non-Canadian companies should support Canadian cultural programming."

Tuesday on Twitter, Industry Minister Tony Clement said that regulating Netflix would be "offside" with the Tory government's directive to encourage more choice and competition. Netflix first shook up the DVD rental and cable business in Canada last September when it began streaming unlimited movies and TV shows for a flat rate of $7.99 per month. Unlike traditional cable companies, the company is not bound by the CRTC to help fund Canadian programming.

The letter is signed by Alain Gourd, head of the Over-The-Top Services Working Group, which is made up of roughly 35 industry executives including ones at Astral Media Inc. and Rogers Communications Corp.

Aires Ali attracts Indian Companies to Invest

 

Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali has invited Indian businesses to invest in Africa, and particularly in Mozambique, in a "win-win" partnership that will bring benefits to both sides.  He made the invitation during the 7th edition of the "Conclave on India-Africa Partnership", organised this week in New Delhi by the Indian Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Exim Bank.

Ali stressed that Africa is a continent of 53 countries with a total population of over a billion, and vast natural resources, including large tracts of arable land, oil, natural gas, hydropower and a wide range of minerals. He noted that "Africa has preferential access to global markets (US, via AGOA, EU, via EBAs, China, Japan, as well as the Middle East) through continental, regional or bilateral agreements, but due to its low productivity and reduced production capacity it is hardly benefiting from those instruments and trade mechanisms".

"This represents a tremendous business opportunity for Indian companies looking for new markets to invest in", he stressed. In addition to its easy access to foreign markets, Ali added, Africa has established various sub-regional organisations with their own free trade areas, which allow the free circulation of people and goods and which "offer tremendous business opportunities for domestic markets". Ali cited the case of the 14 member Southern African Development Community (SADC) as an example of regional integration. SADC, he said, had a combined GDP of about 500 billion US dollars and a population of 257 million.

"Mozambique plays an important role in this organisation due to its strategic location, providing an easy access to the sea for hinterland countries in Southern Africa", he said. African countries, Ali continued, have been undertaking "legal and institutional reforms to improve the business climate to attract more investments. The extent of reforms varies from country to country, but the prospects are very good".

"Africa and India have a combined market of over two billion people", said the Prime Minister. "The Africa-India Conclave, if successfully conducted, could be an important global trade and investment promotion gathering. We therefore need to use effectively this platform to promote more tangible results, fostering strong partnerships and delivering value to our countries through new joint projects and Foreign Direct Investment".

"Africa is strongly committed to promoting private business initiatives and South-South cooperation as key engines of economic growth, in order to eradicate poverty and promote development in our countries", said Ali. "India is a key partner in this process given its continuous support to Africa through several ways, including the organisation of Conclaves such as the one we are now attending".

The India-Africa Conclave was established in 2005, as a platform for bringing together the governments, and public and private sectors of African countries and of India. Up until the holding of the 6th Conclave, 1,084 projects were discussed, valued at over 56 billion dollars. The conclave is believed to have contributed to a 400 per cent increases in commercial relations between Africa and India over the past five years.

Indian firms speed to link digital gap in Kenya

 

Top-tier Indian firms have stepped up their presence in Kenya in recent months hoping to secure lucrative telecom deals that are set to be finalised within the next six months. Tech giants such as Mahindra Satyam, Infosys and Tata who hope to capitalise on growing prospects in the sector have all recently increased their local presence as they move to establish regional bases operating out of Nairobi. On the radar is the expected hefty investment by mobile operator Airtel as it seeks to consolidate its entry into 13 African markets following its buyout of Zain Africa last year.

That aggressive play by one of India’s largest telecom firms has spurred more companies from the sub-continent to make forays into the local telecommunications market, which is expected to grow by 65 per cent over the next four years. But alongside the more visible investments in the mobile sector where the Indian mobile firms Airtel and Essar operate, ongoing efforts by the government and private firms to digitise their processes has attracted Indian firms operating in other sectors such as software, IT engineering and infrastructure.

Analysts attribute increased investment in the ICT sector to a number of enabling moves undertaken by the country to liberalise the sector. “Kenya’s new constitution, combined with private investments in infrastructure and a quickly growing telecom sector, shines an optimistic light on the state of Kenya’s economy. Moves by the CCK continue to encourage investments in this sector,” said Majd Hosn, Associate Research Analyst at Pyramid.

Pyramid says that vendors are responding to high demand for their products as more operators, companies and government agencies seek for services and technology to set them apart from their competitors. Mahindra Satyam recently restructured its operations to enable it to take advantage of the increased growth opportunities in Africa, picking out Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa as key markets where it immediately needed presence.

The company, which mostly supplies Enterprise Resource Planning products, hopes to deliver systems integration and outsourcing solutions to clients in numerous industries regionally. “Our interest has been steadily rising, and we intend to focus more fully on the East African region to capture some of the demand for IT services. It will be a subtle move, but in five years we should have a more visible presence,” said Manojeet Chowdhury, vice-president, Mahindra Satyam, Middle East and Africa operations.

Its entry into the Kenyan market four years ago has seen it capture a share of key projects for large entities such as Kenya Airways, Airtel and the Central Bank of Kenya. Now Mahindra Satyam intends to intensify its focus on larger contracts within the region, with an eye on recruiting more businesses to cloud computing – a concept that allows for documents and resources to be shared online. It also hopes to capitalize on its 2010 coup of winning the contract to supply IT systems for the FIFA World Cup to clinch more sports-related contracts. In its quest to establish a larger footprint in the region, Mahindra joins Infosys, a software service provider, who recently announced that it would start a long-term play for more business in Kenya.

40 firms participate in Indian pharma exhibition in Nigeria

 

More than forty companies from India participated in pharmaceutical exhibition organised by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos on Wednesday.  The two-day fair, tagged, "Brand India Pharma", witnessed a massive turnout from Nigerians seeking information or wanting to purchase Indian drugs.

In the opening ceremony, the oil rich African country's drug regulatory body commended the firms for being World Health Organisation (WHO) Good Manufacturing Practices certified, a factor he said is not known among Nigeria pharmaceutical companies.

"Many Indian companies are WHO pre-qualified companies and we are working with them to transfer knowledge and technology to our people," the chairman of regulatory body National Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC), Paul Orhii, told a crowd that turned up to witness the opening ceremony of the two-day event.

He enthused that India has a lot to gain from cooperation and so does Nigeria, since it "is mutually beneficial cooperation".  The High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdev, reassured NAFDAC of the determination of Indian companies to tackle the menace of fake Indian medicines from non-Indian sources. "I would also venture to suggest that the stakeholders could think in terms of entering in such areas as co-manufacture, distribution and retailing," Sachdev said, urging a greater presence of Indian drug companies in Nigeria.

India occupies the status of first supplier of pharmaceutical products to Nigeria and its drugs enjoy wide patronage in the country of 150 million people. Issues had arisen in the past over fake drugs alleged to be manufactured in India, but further investigations revealed they were produced in another country, but labelled   "Made in India".

Nigeria imports a large quantum of pharma products from India and many Indian companies already exist here. Furthermore, Nigerians seeking medical attention abroad make India their preferred choice as a result of affordability and efficacy.

Indian IT firms raises 5 % in pricing for outsourced contracts

 

Ever since the wave of Lehman crisis hit the market, companies have not seen an increase in their pricing. Various projects were shelved and recession showed its impact on the world market. This crisis did not leave any space for the companies to be volatile with their pricing. But today the present scenario of Indian economy is different and hence it can take the risks of restructuring the industry and pricing. Rising inflation, wages and attrition are some of the reasons for driving up billing rates for outsourcing contracts.

Driven by higher salary costs and improved business environment Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and HCL are beginning to see an uptick of up to 5 percent in pricing. Companies like Citibank, JPMorgan, Telstra, Wal-Mart and American Express have come up to 1-3percent higher rates as compared to what it was three years ago in relation to the larger contracts outsourced by customers.

The Indian IT players have always followed the per employee, per hour billing model. The pricing was decided on the basis of number of hours contributed by each employee involved in the project. Last three years, pricing has been a complicated issue for the IT firms.

Today the outsourcing clients have also been taking India's high inflation into account to give price increase. IT contracts will come with a clause that allows for fluctuations in pricing. A report released by CLSA, a brokerage firm said that with 4-6 percent revenues in any year from new business, it should add 40-50 basis points year-on-year to portfolio pricing. Hence next financial year would be able to get a 1.5-2 percent year-on-year pricing increase.

The last few years Indian IT players have been trying to move to a non-linear one where pricing is outcome based or fixed. This will help companies to provide more and more high - end services and dictate better prices.