Dr Reddy's, Fujifilm call off alliance

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Tuesday, Jun 4, 2013.

Dr Reddy’s and Fujifilm have called off their partnership to tap the generic drugs market in Japan after almost two years of planning and market analysis.

The companies had in July 2011 inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with plans to seta joint venture for developing and manufacturing drugs in Japan and had even conducted studies on business aspects.

“However, as Fujifilm realigns its long-term growth strategy for the pharmaceutical business, both companies have led to a mutual agreement to terminate the MoU,” the companies said in a joint statement on Monday.

GV Prasad, chairman and CEO, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, called it an unfortunate development. “However, I want to reinforce our commitment towards a planned entry into Japan to bring affordable and innovative drugs to more patients worldwide,” he said.

The companies will continue to explore partnerships in other pharmaceutical businesses, the statement said.

“In the long-term we will be focusing more on priority fields such as new drugs in cancer, more value-added super generic,” said Takatoshi Ishikawa, director corporate vice-president and general manager of pharma products division, Fujifilm.

Analysts made light of the development. “We haven’t changed our estimates on Dr Reddy’s given the JV does not contribute anything,” said Sarabjit Kour Nangra, VP-Research, Pharma, Angel Broking.

When Rakesh Jhunjhunwala grilled Aurobindo Pharma brass with some hard questions

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Monday, Jun 3, 2013.

It was a ‘rare’ occasion when Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, partner in asset management firm Rare Enterprise, logged into the fourth-quarter earnings call of Aurobindo Pharma on Friday. The multi-billionaire investor was raring to ask the company’s top management some hard questions and pounced on the opportunity as soon as the operator unmuted his line. Here’s what followed, verbatim:

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (RJ): I’d like to know how much is your net foreign currency (dollar) receipts, considering you have a sale of Rs 5,800 crore, of which Rs 5,000 crore is from overseas markets. What are your expenses really like, out of this Rs 5,000 crore?

Robert Cunard (RC), CEO, Aurobindo USA: It may be in the range of $250-300 million... I mean exports minus imports and other expenditure in the foreign currency for the year as a whole.

RJ: Right. So what is your net foreign exchange receipts?

RC: In the range of $250-275 million, in import expenditure.

RJ: Import expenditure is about $300 million?

RC: No. Net foreign receipts in dollars is in the range of $250-275 million.

RJ: That means your gross receipts is Rs 5,000 crore, which is nearly $900 million, and you are incurring $600 million expenditure outside India?

(Pin-drop silence from the Aurobindo Pharma side for 15 seconds)

Sudhir Singhi (SS), CFO, Aurobindo Pharma: In that number, domestic sales worth Rs 1,493 crore is there as well.

RJ: Foreign sales is Rs 4,500...

SS: Yes, Rs 4,000 crore is exports sales.

RJ: Rs 4,000 crore is export sales, that means about $750 million.

SS: Rs 4,000 crore divided by 55... that is approximately $725 million.

RJ: Then your expenses is about $400 million?

SS: Sir, that includes the import of raw material for API, which could be a considerable number. This could be a couple of hundred million dollars.

RJ: But you are following I’m told... And, what is your debt in foreign exchange?

SS: Our debt in foreign exchange is approximately $600 million.

RJ: So, you don’t have a natural cover on the debt, no?

SS: No no... Sir, what happened, see, we don’t hedge it from the operations. We have a surplus of about $300 million for which we take for trade operations a working capital borrowing in foreign currency, which is approximately $330-340 million. So, as far as operations are concerned, we are fully hedged.

RJ: No no, but your debt is $700 million, no? What is your debt in foreign exchange?

SS: Yes, the remaining debt (term loan) is repayable somewhere in the years 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, so we are having a natural hedge by growing exports over a period of time.

RJ: Therefore, are you dividing your forex debt into two parts – one which is payable in the near future or is a permanent debt or one which is payable after a certain period of time?

SS: Yes, we are dividing it into two parts. The debt which is falling (due for) maturity over a period of one year is considered to be sort of working capital or including working capital, short-term loan. If you see that portion, which is about $350-375 million including debt repayable within one year, against which we have an extra hedge, net from the trade operations, i.e. exports minus import...

RJ: Yes, I understand that. But then the balance $300 million debt which is payable over the next 4-5 years, how are you accounting for the loss in foreign exchange there? You are passing it through the profit and loss (P&L) account or capitalising it?

SS: No, we are not capitalising it. Whatever the loss is there – quarter end as well as year end – we restate and charge the difference to the P&L account. So this year, you see our loss on account of forex is being accounted in the P&L account.

RJ: That means if the dollar goes up, you are a net loser.

SS: We will be the loser on the restatement of the loss, notionally.

RJ: If you are charging it to the P&L account, that means today dollar has gone up from Rs 54 as of March 31 to Rs 56.5, so to that extent, on your one-year loan, your loss is covered. But for $300 million, you will have to provide it in the balance sheet.

SS: Yes, every one rupee depreciation on the dollar we would be losing on the restatement Rs 30 crore. For instance, from Rs 54 to Rs 56 today, we are losing Rs 2. As on date if we account for it in our P&L account, we will be the loser by Rs 60 crore.

RJ: On the entire debt?

SS: On the entire debt of $700 million.

RJ: You also have a choice wherein you can differentiate a long-term debt as short-term? Why don’t you charge the loss on long-term debt directly to your balance sheet?

SS: Because we have not exercised the option which the government has given – I recollect two years ago – so we decided as per the accounting standards in the
Institute of chartered accountants that we charge it to the P&L account.

RJ: But that’s not a true reflection of your profits, no?

SS: It isn’t, but please understand that we classify the portion of the forex as interest. So, our interest cost on foreign currency is only 3.75% and if you add the rupee depreciation that has happened, 6.7%, the interest cost would have been 9%, which is nothing, but if we could have taken loan in INR (rupee), our cost would be 9-10%.

RJ: What kind of sales growth are you expecting this fiscal?

N Govindarajan (NG), MD, Aurobindo Pharma: We are clear that it should be over 20%.

RJ: So, that will mean sales of around Rs 7,000 crore.

NG: Yes sir. It will be a little over that number.

RJ: What kind of a margin improvement are you indicating?

NG: We don’t talk about specific numbers, but I’ll put it that we are expecting a minimum improvement of 200-300 basis points in fiscal 2013-14.

RJ: Does cash flow on your budgeted profit allow for any debt repayment?

NG: Yes sir.

RJ: What’s your plan? How much debt do you want to repay?

SS: As we said, we have about $47.5 million loan coming for repayment, which we are confident of repaying in the current year and the rest will continue.

RJ: That means you are repaying $50 million this year?

SS: That’s right sir.

RJ: Ok sir. Thank you.

(Sigh of relief from Aurobindo officials)

Siti Cable sees subscriber base doubling by March

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Saturday, Jun 1, 2013.

Siti Cable Network, which reported a 352% year-on-year increase in consolidated operating profit for the fiscal 2013 to Rs 86.96 crore, is looking to double its subscriber base to six million in fiscal 2014.

Total revenue at the multi-system operator for the last fiscal increased 33% to Rs 483.66 crore.
V D Wadhwa, chief executive officer, Siti Cable, said, “We are planning to grow the subscriber base  over 100% this fiscal.”

The new subscribers will largely come from the cities under Phase II of digitisation in addition to some of the Phase III locations where the company enjoys monopoly.

The company also exceeded its target of touching 2.5 million subscribers, closing the last fiscal with an subscriber base of 3 million.

Wadhwa said the company has taken several key steps like providing own-your-customer (OYC) system, carriage revenue share, training for business partners and customer education to ensure smooth transition to the digital regime.

“We have made a conscious effort to align our people, processes and technological upgradation more closely with our business strategy, thereby giving ourselves the best chance to capture emerging opportunities in the industry especially broadband, value-added services (VAS), etc,” he said.

During the fiscal, the company consolidated its presence in the country by expanding in the central, western and eastern regions.

Sanjay Goyal, chief financial officer, Siti Cable, said there is concerted understanding among major digital cable players and everyone is working towards expanding their reach on the ground.

“Digital Addressable System (DAS) cities and towns are getting stabilised gradually and we are already seeing majority of the collections for the first three to four months starting to flow into the system. While pricing has been increased, we expect it getting reflected either in June or July. Also tier-based pricing (ranging from Rs 100 plus taxes to Rs 267 plus taxes) has been finalised, which will be implemented in the next few months,” he
said.

This apart, Siti is also pursuing expansion in the regions it is currently present through joint venture and partnerships.

The company has presence in 60 DAS cities, of which 20 have already been covered in Phase I and II.

The rest are in the subsequent phases of digitisation.

Of its overall revenue, close to 65% comes from carriage/bandwidth charges.

“This year, however, it has come down to 45%, and close to 20% is from set-top-box activation and the balance from subscription that grew almost 300% last fiscal, mainly due to DAS invoicing and collections being done in Phase I and II cities,” said Goyal.

Siti Cable currently enjoys an average revenue per user (Arpu) of Rs 104, net of local cable operator’s share of revenue.

The weighted Arpu, according to company, is Rs 175, of which 33% is shared with the local cable operator.

Orient-Express provision costs IHCL dear

An edited version of this story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Friday, May 31, 2013.

Tata group’s hospitality business, Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) reported a standalone loss of Rs 338.90 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 (Q4FY13) against a profit of Rs 65.21 crore in the Jan-March quarter of FY12. The loss, company officials said, was largely on account of exceptional expenditure to the tune of Rs 424 crore on account of provisioning for some impairment in the value of investments in Orient-Express Hotels (OEH) and BJets Pte Ltd (a private air charter company).

According to Anil P Goel, executive director - finance, IHCL, impairments to the tune of Rs 373 crore in Orient-Express Hotels (Rs 305 cr) and BJets Pte Ltd (Rs 68 cr) have been recognised in the books. “We have an offshore subsidiary company called Taj Hong Kong through which we have a variety of important off-shore investments. What we have done is looked at value of IHCL’s investment in the subsidiary company and re-looked at the valuation of the underlying portfolio, compared the upside and downside and based on the calculations we have recognised the said investments in OEH and BJets,” said Goel.

In addition, the company has created a provision of Rs 27.55 crore, to satisfy the obligations of BJets Pte Ltd, an associate company, currently under restructuring. Another Rs 23 crore has been incurred towards the settlement of a dispute that was under arbitration for over 25 years.

As for company board’s final decision on OEH investment that was to be taken in March 13, Goel said that the board has not yet taken a call on the same.

The standalone turnover of the company for the year ended FY13 was Rs 1875.86 crore as against Rs 1808.73 crore in the previous year. Profit after financing cost but before exceptional item was Rs 223 crore as compared to Rs 236 crore.

IHCL said that isolating the impact of the extraordinary provision of Rs 424 crore, the profit after tax for the standalone company would stand at Rs 147 crore. However, on a consolidated basis, it would be a loss of Rs 7 crore as against profit of Rs 3 crore for the preceding year.

For the fourth quarter FY13, IHCL reported an almost flat turnover of Rs 556 crore as compare to Rs 560.15 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Company’s debt on books on a standalone basis stood at Rs 2,500 crore while on consolidated basis it is Rs 3,800 crore. The company received Rs 370 crore in the form of cash from promoters of which Rs 270 crore has been used to retire debt.

IHCL opened six hotels with 677 guestrooms in FY13 and the total tally currently stands at 119 hotels with 14,423 guestrooms as on March 31, 2013. The company will launch 21 hotels in the next two years with a total of 2,688 guestrooms across the country.

The capital expenditure in the next 18 months will be to the tune of Rs 200 crore for two greenfield Vivanta by Taj projects in Dwarka and Guwahati. This will be funded through internal accruals.

IHCL is also restructuring the shareholding of its 20-odd international assets housed in different subsidiaries. Goel said that IHCL wants to through an elegant structure shift all of it into one international entity.

"It will be one apex offshore company owned by IHCL, As a result of this exercise, the profile of those 20-odd assets becomes visible through one entity and effectively what it becomes is that the some of the parts become more valuable. We are moving in that direction to have that flexibility and in a perfect world I’d like to do it in the current fiscal," Goel said.

Also, IHCL managing director Raymond N Bickson's tenure with the company gets over in July 2013. when asked, Bickson said he will be applying for an extension.

Max calls off Rs 540 crore Speciality Films sale

An edited version of this story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Friday, May 31, 2013.

Max India founder and chairman Analjit Singh’s plans to raise Rs 540 crore by selling Max Speciality Films (MSF) has fallen through owing to valuation mis-match. MSF is in the business of manufacturing flexible polymer films for multitudinous applications in food, non food, and industrial packaging, leather coating films.

Confirming the development, Mohit Talwar, deputy managing director, Max India, said the speciality films’ sale deal has been called off. “The non-binding term sheet we’d got into for our plastics business is unfortunately not going through. There were valuations differences and this business has gone through a bit of a struggle given the market conditions as a result of which we did not go ahead with the transaction,” said Talwar.

In September 2012, Max India had said that the decision to sell MSF was is in line with the group's strategy to focus on service oriented businesses of life. The company board had then approved the proposal for sale of 100% equity to Treofan Germany GmbH & Co - a German global technology leader for biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film. Established in 1990, MSF had registered revenue of Rs 703 crore, a growth of 77% over its revenue in the previous fiscal i.e. FY11. Its earnings ebitda also witnessed an increase of 50% over previous fiscal to reach Rs 77 crore.

Talwar added that the speciality films business has enough tailwinds as a result the company has now decided to add another line. “An approval for the same has already been received from the board,” he said. The equity component for this business, according to Talwar, is not significant and the company management is working towards a situation where there are possibilities of going in for part or full monetisation through a strategic investor.

In another development, IFC Washington (existing investor in Max Healthcare) is set to increase its stake in Max Healthcare from the current 2.3% to 7.5%. IFC also holds some shares in the healthcare vertical.

According to Talwar, Max India has got into an understanding with IFC Washington for a partial conversion of the preference shares into equity. “This transaction places a value of Max Healthcare at about Rs 2000 crore of pre-money. What this really means is that it cleans up the balance sheet, improves debt-equity ratio and also brings in some amount of liquidity in the company. As a result of this transaction, our other joint venture partner (Life Healthcare) who gets diluted, will be topping up upto 26%,” said Talwar.

We are a niche realtor focusing on creating landmark developments: Kailash K Agarwal

Kailash K Agarwal
with son Nishant Agarwal

An edited version of this Q&A first appeared in DNA Money edition on Thursday, May 30, 2013.

A non-resident Indian (NRI), Kailash K Agarwal, chairman, Avighna India Ltd, had a tough time searching for a quality residence in Mumbai to live in. The experience led him to conclude that finding a house that meets all the requirements is a dream come true. Ending his search, Agarwal went on to build his own residence Nishika Terraces - a 18 storey tower featuring six duplex apartments on Worli sea face. The most astonishing aspect about Nishika Terraces is that the state-of-the-art development was completed in a record eight months.

Taking this experience forward, in 2006 Agarwal acquired a seven acre mill land at Currey Road to launch the company's second luxury development called One Avighna Park - a pre-certified platinum rated project under Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) green homes rating system. The project, currently in a fairly advanced stage of construction, has already won five prestigious International Asia Pacific Property Awards in 2012 including the 'Best Residential High Rise Development' in the entire Asia Pacific region.

Earlier this month, One Avighna Park once again won seven International Property Awards held at Malaysia and will once again compete for the best residential development in the APAC region, the finals will be held in December this year. He spoke about the awards and the key highlights that led to winning the awards twice in a row. Edited excerpts:

Despite stiff competition, this is the second year the Mumbai project has won the International Property Awards.

Yes. The One Avighna Park project at Lower Parel has been awarded the Best Residential High-Rise Development and the Best High-Rise Architecture in the entire Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The competition was between developers from 23 countries including Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore and Malaysia. The project also won awards in the categories of Best Interior Design Apartment, Best Renovation / Redevelopment and the Best Landscape Architecture in India. Last year, International Property Awards conferred One Avighna Park with the prestigious Best Residential High-Rise Development in the World.

Could you share the reasons and key highlights of the project that got it the awards?

First and foremost, we chose a rather unconventional approach to developing the exclusive residential development i.e. making luxury practical. Several proactive steps are being taken to ensure luxury doesn’t become a burden for residents. For instance, consumption of water, the development offers a long-term sustainable solution – treating sewage water and using the recycled water in areas where maximum water is consumed i.e. flushing, gardening and other such ancillary services. This will drastically reduce water consumption.

Common areas have been designed to have maximum natural light and ventilation ensuring significant reduction in power consumption. Being a cluster redevelopment, residents will also enjoy substantially lower property taxes – a life long benefit that holds great value.

As far as quality of construction is concerned, majority of the materials have been imported from Europe and America. The execution of mechanical, electrical and plumbing works have been contracted to a firm in UAE. We also have eight layer water proofing in deck and wet areas to arrest leakage problems for a period of 50 years at least. In fact, we have over 300 workers flown down from various Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to ensure international standard execution and workmanship.

Cluster developments typically tend to be very challenging. How did you deal with the hurdles posed by this project?

Managing tenants and convincing them to give their consent was quite challenging for sure. After continuous discussions with the 800 tenants explaining them the benefits and the change it will bring to their quality of life and living standards, we managed to get 100% consent for the development.

We have already shifted 90% of the tenants in to the redeveloped towers and another 10% will be shifted in three to four months from now. I must also confess that the two political bodies namely Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) extended all the help in getting this project off the ground.

We had asked for some concessions from the government which are very practical. The chief minister has promised and is working on it. However, since the final approvals from the government's side is yet to be received, suspicion tends to build up in the minds of the tenants.

Also, we have seen developers do the for sale component very seriously while the free component generally gets a step-motherly treatment.

We have stayed away from that approach to business and have ensure the tenants get an enhanced quality of life in the rehabilitated towers. We have taken Gold certification under the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) green homes rating system for these towers which is unheard of in the Indian real estate sector.

What is the current status of this development? How are you funding it?

Of the two towers, one has already reached 51 floors and the second tower has reached 36 floors as we speak. When completed the two towers will be 64 floor tall with 278 apartments in 3-, 4- and 5-BHK configurations. We are targeting to complete and hand over the development with building completion certificate by mid-2014. Funding this development is being done completely through internal approvals.

One Avighna Park

How has the market responded to this project? Are you also targeting the NRI buyers?

Sales were opened just a few months ago and we are taking the by invitation only approach to finalising the buyers. In fact, we are closely screening buyers to ensure creation of a community of like-minded people. We are also staying away from selling to the investor community. Most of the buyers currently include gold and diamond traders as we also have a Jain Derasar (temple) there. We may also look to tap the NRI buyers as well in the near future.

Your company has land parcels in Thane and Pune. What are the plans like for these locations?

Out entire focus currently is on completing the One Avighna Park development. Unless and until this project is completed and handed over to the buyers we will not undertake any new project. We are a niche realtor focusing on creating landmark developments and we want to continue the same way in the future as well.

HDIL braces for legal fight after MIAL notice

An edited version of this story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Thursday, May 30, 2013.

Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) plunged 10.3% in the intra-day trade on the news that Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) has served a notice of termination for its slum rehabilitation project citing unsubstantiated charges. The company shares recovered part of the losses to close 6.8% lower at Rs 47.95 in Mumbai trading on Wednesday. The realtor is set for a legal battle with MIAL and may also file for damages.

Hariprakash Pandey, vice president - finance, HDIL, said the company has not accepted the notice. "The termination notice is completely unwarranted and company will take all the necessary legal steps and is also looking at filing (as said by company chairman Sarang Wadhawan) as damage claim on MIAL," said Pandey. He added that their legal counsel has advised the notice of termination is not tenable in the court of law and that the realtor has initiated legal remedies available to it.

While HDIL claims it has fulfilled all the obligations pertaining to the slum rehabilitation project MIAL feels otherwise. According to sources, MIAL entered into Slum Rehabilitation Agreement with HDIL in October, 2007 and as per the said agreement, HDIL had to complete the slum rehabilitation within four years i.e. by 2011.

"However, HDIL continuously failed to perform and MIAL issued a Cure Notice in June 2011. Because of non-performance of HDIL, the MIAL board took a decision to terminate the agreement and accordingly, in the month of February, 2013, MIAL terminated the said agreement,” MIAL sources said.

However, HDIL management said they have already handed over over 1,000 apartments for the Sahar elevated road and that more than 16,000 apartments are ready clearly substantiating the company has have fulfilled obligations.

"We have applied to the Maharashtra government for taking possession of over 7,000 apartments, which has been pending for over a year now. There have been issues regarding the eligibility criteria of the slum dwellers and the Maharashtra government has taken cognisance of it. There is a policy issue with respect to eligibility norms of the slum dwellers which needs to be resolved. Our apartments are ready since over two years now but issue will only get resolved after the government comes up with clarity on the criteria and expedite the hand over process," said Pandey.

HDIL said it will continue work on the approximately 27,000 units and keep on receving the transfer of development rights (TDR) from Government of Maharashtra against these units.

However, following a conservative accounting policy, the company has written-off the unabsorbed costs on its books (profit and loss account as an exceptional item) around Rs 441.98 crore accumulated over a period of 3-4 years. The unabsorbed costs pertains to 65 acres of land HDIL is supposed to get after the completion or substantial completion of the slum rehabilitation project.

The market is also abuzz with rumours that banks have termed their lending to HDIL as non-performing asset (NPA). The company management said they cannot comment on this matter unless there is proper information given by the banks themselves. "There was some issue with bank payments in fourth quarter but none of our bank accounts are frozen as of now," said Pandey.

Prior to termination, MIAL also invoked HDIL's performance securities in the form of bank guarantee worth Rs 25 crore, MIAL sources said. Now that the termination notice has been served the HDIL management feels there is no question of any other performance security to be invoked. "There was a promissory note worth Rs 275 crore but that cannot be invoked as the agreement itself has been terminated," said Pandey.

Bajaj Electricals to double advertising spend to Rs 75 crore in FY'14

An edited version of this story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

Coinciding with its platinum jubilee celebrations, Bajaj Electricals will more than double its overall advertising spend for the current fiscal i.e FY14. The company has earmarked Rs 75 crore towards advertising as compared to Rs 38 crore it spent in FY12. The company is also looking to increase its sales turnover by 25% to over Rs 4,200 from Rs 3,416 it registered in fiscal 2012-13.

Anant Bajaj, joint managing director, Bajaj Electricals Ltd, said the company has a very elaborate spent planned considering it is their 75th year in business. "We clearly have on our mind to spend a significant money on advertising this year. In fact, you should soon start seeing significant visibility being created in the market place for our brand and products alike," said Bajaj.

Over the years, the management has been aggressively working on its distribution, product range and the consumer's requirement (in terms of a product) and it feels that advertising will only help it become better. "We have achieved very good traction in the market despite not spending too much in the past mainly because we have been smart in our spending. While continuing with that strategy, we will work smartly towards being more visible vis-a-vis competition," added Bajaj.

In another development, the company is also planning at taking its exclusive Bajaj World stores international. "A store has already been opened in Nepal, and talks are currently on for opening in Ghana, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and South Africa," said Bajaj adding that all these stores will added through exclusive franchise agreements.

As on May 1, 2013, the company had 42 Bajaj World stores operational in India and the management is looking at opening another 13-odd outlets in the next 45 days. A total of 75 stores are likely to get operational by the end of this fiscal.

The company is also in the advanced stages of setting up a new research and development (R&D) centre in Mumbai. It has a capex planned of Rs 45 crore, though not all of it has been invested in the centre as yet.

And with e-commerce starting to gain traction in the country, Bajaj Electricals has launched its e-retailing market place as well. The e-commerce portable has been up and running for the last five to six months. Bajaj said that the company is quite pleased with this initiative which has been giving them Rs 6 lakh to Rs 10 lakh worth business every month.

"We are currently selling most of the products available in the market but will gradually launch products that will be sold only through the e-commerce portal thereby creating a differentiation in the market place," he said.

The company also reported fourth quarter results for the fiscal 2013 wherein its net profit plunged 99% year-on-year to Rs 0.62 crore mainly due to restructuring of its engineering and projects (E&P) business. E&P sales declined 22% to Rs 285 crore in Jan-March and losses stood at Rs 51 crore as compared to a profit of Rs 21 crore in the fourth quarter a year ago.

Its net sales for the three-month period gained just 5% from a year ago to Rs 1,114 crore. Sales from consumer durables rose 22% to Rs 544 crore while lighting sales were up 15% to Rs 285 crore.

Wockhardt says speeding up process to be up to speed

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Saturday, May 25, 2013.

Drugmaker Wockhardt has stepped up efforts to mitigate the impact of an ‘import alert’ by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its units at Waluj in Aurangabad. The company will hire a US consultant and submit a corrective action plan within a fortnight.

”The consultant will be helping us in bringing this facility in compliance in a month or two maximum,” said Habil Khorakiwala, chairman, Wockhardt, during an analyst call on Friday.

Wockhardt has two facilities at Waluj, — one manufacturing injectables for the US and another that is not for US exports but has a product filed in that area.

”The FDA has observed non-compliance in terms of standard operating procedure and several other areas. This we are in the process of correcting. We will have clear replies to FDA within 15 days of the corrective measures and timelines we propose in terms of correction,” said Khorakiwala.

As a result of the import alert, Khorakiwala expects Wockhardt’s revenues to be impacted by Rs 550 crore, while margins are likely to be down 2%.

Anshuman Gupta & Prashant Nair, analysts with Citigroup, on Friday said they see revenues hit on two counts viz. discontinuation of approved products like Geodon, Comtan, Stalevo, Zithromax etc and delay in new approvals from the unit.

”While we don’t know how many abbreviated new drug applications (Andas) were filed from Waluj, we believe the list includes a few key products such as Reclast, Zometa, Adenoscan, Tricor, Arthrotec over this and next fiscal. We cut our topline estimates for the 2 years by $140m/$180m and await more clarity on potential mitigating measures (site transfers for instance) Wockhardt can explore,” Gupta and Nair said in a note.

Khorakiwala said Wochardt has over 47 Andas pending of which 50% has been filed from the facility that has received an import alert.

Chaitanya Joshi takes JWT Portfolio Night All-Star crown

Chaitanya Joshi

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Saturday, May 25, 2013.

Chaitanya Joshi, currently with Draft FCB Ulka, came out on top when he was adjudged the ‘All Star’ winner on Friday at JWT’s Portfolio Night 11 held in Mumbai. A gold medalist from Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), Joshi was picked from a total of 90 contestants for the coveted title. He is now headed for New York where he will compete at the Portfolio Night All-Stars Creative Challenge in August.  

Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT South Asia, terms a Portfolio Night ‘All-Star’ as the one who is rated as the most talented young creative and notches up the highest score of the evening. “This is the first time ever in the 11-year history of Portfolio Night that this has been instituted,” said Harris.

“It was wonderful to see 90 bright, young minds unleashing their creativity with the legends of Indian advertising. We hosted the event with a view to giving back to the industry and recognising and guiding aspiring young creatives to carve a career for themselves,” he said, adding the entire JWT team worked overtime to create and put together this event.

Tista Sen, national creative director (NCD) and senior vice-president, JWT India, who was part of an impressive array of 28 reviewers, talked about two types of portfolios that hogged the limelight. “One category included kids in college who were sharing their college projects and there were others who had put together different ideas to showcase their writing skills, mock up advertisements, art direction and illustrations skills. I met and reviewed some very interesting portfolios. Despite just starting out in life, the kids were very clear on what they wanted to be and do, which I think is fantastic,” Sen gushed.

Portfolio Night is an event that provides a platform to aspiring ad copywriters, art directors and designers to pitch their cases with renowned advertising creative directors. Ford Motor Company has partnered with Portfolio Night for the All Stars Creative Challenge and together with Ford’s agency Team Detroit, the Portfolio Night All-Stars will tackle a Ford creative brief.