1. Top Weekend News
(18th Oct. to 24th Oct. 2010)
Presented By
Supriya Nayyar

2. IOC may hit street in Jan with
Rs.19,000 crore FPO
 State run Indian Oil Corp will start shortlisting merchant bankers
next week for its Public issue that is likely to raise about Rs.19,000
crore, making it the largest equity offer in the country.
 The Oil ministry proposing a 10% stake sell by the government
that will help it meet its disinvestment target of Rs.40,000 crore.
 The Rs.19,000 crore public offer which would top Coal India’s
Rs.15,000 crore offering, may hit the market by January.
 There are chances that the IOC issue will enter the market even
before the Rs.8,000 crore issue of Steel Authority of India.
 After the issue of Coal India and Power Grid, the government
would have mopped up about Rs.22,000 crore.

3. HDFC Q2 net up 22% on back of
increased spread
 HDFC, the largest home loan provider, reported a
22% rise in net profit for the 2nd quarter of this fiscal.
 The rise in profit is on account of increase in spread-
the difference between the cost of funds and yield on
advances.
 The Net Profit was Rs.807.5 crore for the second
quarter compared with Rs.664 crore while the net
Profit for 6 months was also up 22% to Rs.1,502
crore.
 The gross non-performing assets stood at Rs.939.3
crore, or 8.6% of the loan portfolio.

4. Reliance Industries, Essar Oil likely to
bid for Nelp-1X
 Reliance Industries and Essar Oil, India’s biggest non-state energy
companies, plan to bid in a government auction of Oil & gas
blocks as the country seeks to ramp up domestic production & cut
imports.
 Crude imports reached $79.55 billion in the year ended March 31,
according to data from the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell, a
division of Oil ministry.

5. Esprit to open franchise-based outlets
for retail push
 The brand is eyeing to cross the mark of Rs.100 crore in retail
turnover by the end of this fiscal.
 This would be almost Rs.30 crore more than the last year’s retail
turnover.
 Esprit has no plans to hike the prices till December this month.
 To maintain freshness in its products, Esprit buys a new full-
fledged collection every month.
 Unlike the concept of 4 seasons in India in an year, the brand
celebrates twelve seasons by offering a new wardrobe solution
every month.

6. Premji to launch billion-$ endowment
trust
 Wipro’s billionaire founder Azim Premji is all set to launch an
Endowment trust modelled along the lines of the Harvard
Management Company to fund all his Philanthropic initiatives.
 It will largely focus on leading the education initiatives strongly
favoured by Mr. Premji.
 He could use the proceeds from his sale of around 4.52% stake in
Wipro to fund this corpus.
 The trust will led by KR Lakshminarayana the current chief of
Wipro’s strategy and mergers & acquisitions, who declined to
comment on these developments.

7. Britannia enters baked snacks market
with time pass
 Britannia Industries entered the baked snacks category with its
brand, Time Pass.
 While Britannia sells salted biscuits under its youth-centric Time
pass brand, the new offering will directly compete with Parle’s
Monaco smart chips, Frito Lay’s Aliva & Parle Agro’s Hippo.
 The company will add about two variants every quarter and
intends to roll out the brand nationally in a year.
 The salted snacks category is estimated to be at Rs.6,000 crore.

8. PTU to set up biz incubation centers
in Institutions
 In order to encourage entrepreneurship in the state, PTU, Punjab
Infotech, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and The
Indus Enterpreneurs has initialled an MOU.
 This initiative is expected to give a fillip to entrepreneurship
development and open floodgates for economic & industrial
growth.
 This initiative will augur well for the youth of Punjab and give
them the much needed confidence to be able to stand on their own
feet and start their own ventures.