Essar Projects wins its maiden EPC contract from BPCL worth Rs 550 crores

Kolkata: Essar Projects Limited (EPL), a Global EPC engineering, procurement, construction company headquartered in Dubai, on Tuesday announced that it has secured a contract valued at over Rs 550 crore from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd ( BPCLBSE -1.07 %) to participate in its major refinery expansion project in Kochi.

EPL has won the contract in a consortium with GR Engineering of Mumbai for the engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) of the reactor regenerator package of 2.2 MMTPA fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at the Kochi refinery, which is set to expand to 15.5 MMTPA. The project is scheduled to be completed in 24 months. Technip Shaw is the Process Licensor of this package.

With this the total number of major projects secured by EPL both domestic and overseas has gone up to eight, taking the total order book to about USD 4.1 billion. EPL is executing significant hydrocarbon projects for major companies like IOCL, Jurong Aeromatics, Matix fertilizers to name a few.

Alwyn Bowden, President & CEO, Essar Projects said in a statement, "This order from BCPL further consolidates our position in the hydrocarbons sector in India."

The scope of work and obligations comprise of project management, residual process design, residual engineering of reactor regenerator, procurement & supply of all materials, stage wise inspection including third party inspection, transportation of all the equipment & materials to work site, erection, installation, pre-commissioning, commissioning, commissioning assistance, testing for performance guarantee in presence of licensor and owner representative etc.

On the occasion Amit Gupta- CEO, hydrocarbons business of Essar Projects said, "Essar Projects secured this order amidst extremely stiff competition and demonstrates our competence and capability in delivering complex projects to our key clients in the Hydrocarbons sector."

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) - Kochi is in the process of expanding the refinery facilities from 9.5 to 15.5 MMTPA as part of the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project ( IREP) for which Engineers India Limited ( EIL) has been appointed as Project Management Consultant (PMC) for the project.

Read More

Tour operators bet big on luxury domestic travel

Mumbai: Enjoying the sunset on a private yacht or hopping on a heli-taxi service to some of the lesser-known pockets of the country, Indian travellers are seeking to explore the most exquisite travel ideas.

While luxury tourism caters to a niche market in India, tour operators expect this segment to grow by 25 per cent annually, heightened by the depreciating rupee making outbound travel costlier and an array of offers dished out by tour operators for domestic travellers.

Travel spends
“We expect the luxury domestic travel sector to grow by 20-25 per cent. In next 5-10 years, India will see a greater amount of travel spends,” said Sunil Hasija, Executive Director, TUI India. A Barclays report highlighted that lifestyle experiences such as travel have become the most popular use of wealth. About 43 per cent of high net worth individuals (HNIS) in India cited travel as their first option, the report added. The trend is bringing cheer among the travel and tourism players who are betting big on the domestic travel space.

According to industry body Assocham, the tourism industry saw a growth of 35 per cent in domestic tourists in the first six months of 2013 compared with a drop of 20 per cent during the same period last year.

Tour operators say that there is an increasing demand seen for newer destinations in the domestic circuit. Luxury villas and spas have come up to cater to this demand.

“We have seen bookings go up for regions such as Rajasthan, Andaman, Kerala, North-east and Kashmir for luxury holidays,” said Rajeev Kale, Chief Operating Officer – Domestic, Sports and Cruises, Thomas Cook (India).

Thomas Cook (India)’s domestic luxury brand ‘Indian Indulgence’ includes activities such as wildlife safaris with trained naturalists, decadent spa and wellness programmes, luxury train experiences and unique accommodation.

Travel metasearch site Wego.com has also seen a surge in domestic travel searches. “The search volumes for domestic getaways to places such as Srinagar, Mahabaleshwar, Ooty, Kumarakom, Kovalam and Darjeeling have shown an increase,” said Ashwin Jayasankar, Head – Product and Marketing, Wego India.

A luxury domestic tour package costs on an average Rs 2 lakh per couple for a five to seven-day trip, which includes hotel stay, food, other activities.

With the emphasis shifting more on unexplored and offbeat destinations and unique experience-based itineraries, hospitality players such as the Taj Group are also capitalising on this growing segment. ‘Powerfly Vacations’ of the Taj Air and Deccan Charters enables travellers to hire an aircraft for a vacation and fly straight to some of the luxury properties of Taj hotels, resorts and palaces. The services costs anything between Rs 80,000 to Rs 3 lakh per flying hour.

Read More

Govt allows 100% FDI in telecom

Inflow norms for defence and single-brand retail also eased; Mayaram suggestions partially accepted
New Delhi: Amid concerns over a weakening rupee, dwindling capital inflows and a widening current account deficit, the country on Tuesday moved a step closer to overhauling its foreign direct investment (FDI) policy as it lifted caps for the telecom sector and asset reconstruction firms, besides tweaking norms for 13 sectors. The limit for defence production companies was also virtually raised to 100 per cent, subject to approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

The decision was taken at a meeting of senior Cabinet ministers with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Also decided at the meeting was that FDI cap for private insurers would be raised to 49 per cent but that would need Parliament’s approval. The FDI limit for credit information firms was raised from 49 per cent to 74 per cent — all of it may come through the automatic route, against the requirement for clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) at present. (EASING FDI INFLOWS)

Besides these, the ministers eased FDI procedures for seven other sectors. But they stopped a little short of accepting all recommendations of the Arvind Mayaram committee, including those to raise FDI cap for news & media (current affairs) to 49 per cent from 26 per cent.

After the meeting, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said a Cabinet note on Tuesday’s recommendations would soon be prepared. He, however, clarified that these proposals would not be taken up at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

He also assured investors that their concerns over multi-brand retail would be allayed and clarifications would soon be issued. He added that his ministry’s concern over acquisition of Indian pharma companies by foreign ones would be discussed separately.

Though FDI in telecom services will be raised to 100 per cent, only up to 49 per cent could come via the automatic route. Beyond that, permission of FIPB will have to be sought.

So far as FDI in defence is concerned, it has been left to CSS to decide which FDI proposals will bring in state-of-the-art technology into the country. That way, even the proposals for foreign investment beyond 26 per cent could be considered on a case-by-case basis.

In single-brand retail, though there is no FDI limit at present, the investment has come only after FIPB clearance. This has been eased to allow up to 49 per cent investment through the automatic route. Similarly, up to 49 per cent FDI is currently allowed in petroleum and natural gas refinery, but with FIPB approval.

This, too, has been changed to automatic route, without any modification in cap. The caps on FDI in commodity exchanges, power exchanges, stock exchanges, depositories and clearing houses have been retained at 49 per cent (26 per cent FDI and 23 per cent foreign institutional investments). But procedures of approval have been eased and investments can now come through the automatic route.

The meeting also decided to remove a clause that tea and other plantation companies — in which 100 per cent FDI is allowed — have to divest 26 per cent equity in favour of Indians within five years. For this sector, up to 49 per cent FDI could come via automatic route, while that below this threshold will have to be vetted by FIPB. Courier services already enjoy 100 per cent FDI but now full investment could come via automatic route.

Read More

Dabur India, Hindustan Unilever's tech route to rural markets

New Delhi: With urban consumers cutting back on their spending spree, fast-moving consumer goods companies have redoubled efforts to tap into rural India in 2012-13. In their latest annual reports, Dabur India and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) have both highlighted why the rural markets are so critical and what they are doing to better their rural sales.

Going technical
HUL’s decade-old Project Shakti received a technology boost in 2012. About 40,000 Shakti Ammas were equipped with a basic smartphone. These smartphones had specifically designed software enabled them to take and bill orders, manage inventory and receive updates on promotional schemes run by the company. This improved their efficiency The Shakti workforce rose to 48,000 in 2012, up by around 3,000 from the year before. Project Shakti equips women with the basic entrepreneurial skills and facilities needed to set up and market FMCG products.

If HUL depended on its Shakti Ammas to connect with consumers, Dabur India embraced the idea of getting rural folk to sample products and experience the benefits for themselves. The idea was to get word-of-mouth advertising of product benefits.

The company made the most of fairs and melas around the harvest seasons when purchasing power is high. It also conducted school health camps to boost its toothpaste and chyawanprash portfolio and beauty pageants, to showcase its ayurvedic beauty products.

That’s not to say the company ignored the power of the mobile phone. Dabur’s rural sales force used mobile phones to report sales. Phones were equipped with maps showing the demographics and market potential of each locality, to improve rural coverage. Over two years, Dabur’s rural strategies saw it doubling the villages under its coverage to 30,091.

Distribution
For any FMCG company, the efficiency and reach of its distribution systems is the most important tool to improve profits and drive sales. In this regard, HUL has a giant coverage reaching out to over 2 million outlets. To improve connect and with its distributors , HUL set up a helpline for its distributors and retailers to address problems or questions quickly.

Dabur, meanwhile, armed more than half of its urban sales force with hand-held devices to generate data, which is then used to decipher buying patterns and customise selling strategies. IT has also been used to provide information to, and generate feedback from doctors on Dabur’s formulations and ayurvedic products.

Read More

IVRCL bags orders worth Rs 1,098 crore

Hyderabad: City-based infra player IVRCL Limited on Friday said that its building, water and power divisions had bagged total orders worth Rs 1,097,57 crore.

The building division bagged four orders worth Rs 573,12 crore, of which one is from Zein Advanced Technology Co. WLL, Kuwait while the rest are domestic orders. The nature of the work in the international order includes design, construction and maintenance for truck parking lots and the completion period is two years from commencement.

The company said that the water division of the company had bagged three orders worth Rs 471,82 crore. The orders have been awarded by Anantapuram Municipal Corporation, Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Programme (AUIIP), government of Assam.

Of the Rs 471,82 crore total orders, Rs 311,15 crore had been awarded by Orissa water supply and sewerage board. The nature of work includes construction of sewers for Bhubaneswar sewerage istrict-VI and the completion period is three years from the start of the project.

The power division of the infra player has three bagged orders worth Rs 52,63 crore. While one order has been awarded by by Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited, the other two have been awarded by Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited.

Read More

Investments worth Rs 961 cr in electronics sector cleared

Mumbai: The Centre has approved investment proposals worth Rs 961 crore from Samsung, Bosch and Sahasra for the setting up of electronic systems design and manufacturing (ESDM) facilities in the country.

The proposals were received under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology’s Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS), in which the government will provide up to Rs 10,000 crore in financial support to spur production of electronics products and components.

“The Government is trying to promote manufacturing to create employment and bring the latest technologies into the country,” said Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications & IT and Law and Justice, in a press statement.

Under M-SIPS, the Department said it has already received investment proposals totalling close to Rs 4,600 crore for manufacture of consumer electronics, telecom products, hand-held devices, automotive electronics and semiconductors.

Bosch’s India unit has received approval for its Rs 544 crore investment programme in Bangalore to manufacture automotive electronics. Bosch, the first company to submit an application under M-SIPS, is expected to implement the project in the next three years.

Confidence booster
“India is a fast developing market for automotive electronics…this support from the government bolsters our confidence and strengthens efforts to provide customized solutions for the Indian market,” said Markus Hildenbrand, Managing Director, Bosch Automotive Electronics India, in a media statement.

Consumer electronics giant Samsung has received approval for its Rs 406 crore project to manufacture smart phones in Noida, as per the Department of Electronics and Information Technology’s press statement. Both Samsung and Bosch will be eligible for a subsidy of 25 per cent in their investments in areas that are not designated as special economic zones. Sahasra Electronics, which has proposed an investment of Rs 11.1 Crore for LED lighting products, will receive a subsidy of 20 per cent at its SEZ unit.

Read More

Coromandel joint venture plant in Tunisia commissioned

Hyderabad: Coromandel International Ltd, India’s leading fertiliser manufacturer, has with its joint venture partners inaugurated a 1.4-million-tonne phosphoric acid plant in Tunisia on Friday.

The Tunisian Indian Fertilisers (TIFERT) is a venture between Coromandel and Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC) and Tunisia's Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) and Compagnie Des Phosphat De Gafsa (CPG) (both are Government of Tunisia entities).

The plant will consume around 1.4 mt of Tunisian phosphate rock per year, producing 360,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid annually. It is equipped with the latest technology and meets the international environment efficiency standards, according to a press release.

The plant has started production and the first shipment is expected to reach Coromandel’s facility in Kakinada (AP) by month-end.

In the joint venture, Coromandel International and GSFC hold 15 per cent share each in this $498 million project with the balance 70 per cent being held by GCT and CPG, respectively.

Read More