| |
News
MoD
shortlists players for the SCI advisor role
Ministry of Disinvestment (MoD) has short listed about a dozen
players, for final selection of global advisors for offloading
51 per cent stake in Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). The
list includes; ICICI Securities, IDBI-Sumitomo Bank-Care consortium,
Price Waterhousecoopers, DSP Merrill Lynch and Deolitte Touche
Tochmatsu, Rabo India Finance-Deutshce Verkehrs Bank, Fieldstone
Capital Services-IDFCI, ANZ Investment Bank and ABN Amro Asia.
Ernst and Young have tied, up with Moore Stephens, Lazard has
joined hands with SBI Caps and KPMG has partnered American Marine
Advisors. The short listed firms will be making presentations
before the department of disinvestment on February 1, 2002. The
bidders would also be asked to quote a drop dead, fee payable
in case government decided to cancel the contract. The bidders
would also be required to give a detailed presentation of its
global experience in privatisation along with details of
similar transactions (government, quasi-government and private
sector) executed by them.
Essar
Shipping’s Q3 net profit dips by 27 % Essar Shipping
Ltd has reported a 27 per cent drop net profit to Rs 14.51 crore,
for the third quarter ended December 31, 2001. The company had
made a net profit of Rs 20.03 crore in the same quarter in the
last fiscal year. Income from operations for Q3 is up 2.43
per cent to Rs 117.37 crore, as against Rs 114.58 crore same quarter
last year. Other income for the quarter stood at Rs 1.51 crore
as against Rs 2.11 crore in Q3 of the previous fiscal. Interest
cost for the quarter has fallen to Rs 12.23 crore as compared
to Rs 18.98 crore in the same period last year. The increase in
other expenditure in the quarter is mainly because of dry-docking
expenses, a company release has explained. Other expenditure for
Q3 stood at Rs 56.56 crore, as against Rs 42.91 crore in the same
period of the previous fiscal. The company has registered stable
net profit for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2001,
at Rs 52.36 crore as compared to Rs 50.54 crore for the nine months
of the previous fiscal. Total income at Rs 367.75 crore for the
nine months is higher by 18 per cent compared to Rs 311.63 crore
for the corresponding period of the previous year.
CONCOR
seeks agents for consolidating LCL cargo Container
Corporation of India (CONCOR) is reportedly planning to appoint
logistics providers and transporters as agents for consolidating
less than container load (LCL) cargo for the eastern corridor,
connecting Chennai and Kolkata and the northern corridor connecting
Delhi and Chennai simultaneously. The company has conducted a
market survey, which found that there is tremendous business potential
on the Chennai and Kolkata sector. Currently, Concor runs two
trains per week in the eastern corridor, each carrying about 70
TEUs. In the New Delhi- Chennai sector, Concor runs three trains.
Private
sector role in minor port development bright According
to a paper submitted at a recent seminar on port development in
Cochin, potential for privatization of minor ports in the country
are bright, given the significant growth in traffic in recent
years. The share of the minor ports traffic has increased from
10 per cent to 25 per cent of the total traffic handled at all
the Indian ports in the recent period, the paper has stated. It
has projected that traffic would grow to 100 per cent provided
improvements were made in infrastructure facilities such as berths,
dredging and communications. Among the ports that have registered
significant increase in traffic include Mundra, Pipavav, Dahej
and Jamnagar.
P&O
Ports seeks removal of exclusivity clause in Kandla project P&
O Ports in a communication sent to the Union Shipping Ministry,
has argued that the changes made by the board of trustees of Kandla
port, while clearing the draft concession pact signed on September
29 2001, for developing container terminal were not acceptable.
The P&O Ports in its letter has also argued that decision
of the board asking private operator to take over all the labour
employed at the Berth No 7 (which is proposed to be converted
into a private container terminal) was not agreeable. The original
terms set by the bid document had assured exclusivity to the private
operator in handling containers at the port. However, the board
opposed the monopoly over container handling by the private operator,
when the draft pact was put up for consideration of the board.
Gartner
survey on storage purchases A recent Gartner Dataquest
Survey has found that nearly 74.5 of corporates out of the 850
companies surveyed have no plans to invest in storage purchases.
The survey points out that while there was an increase in storage
shipments over the past few years companies have reported under-utilization
and over-adoption of storage capacities.
|
|
