Indian Stock Market

OpenTable Files For IPO, And Reveals Its Finances
OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation site that was founded in 1998, is hoping to raise as much as $40 million in an IPO, according to a filing with the SEC (embedded below). The prospectus offers a detailed look at the company’s finances and operations.
Revenues through the nine months ended September 30, 2008 were $41.3 million, a 41 percent increase from the same period in 2007. The company makes money from the restaurants, which pay both subscription fees (54 percent of revenues) and reservation fees for each diner that shows up through the system (42 percent of revenues). It also makes a small amount on installation fees (4 percent of revenues).
The company lost 149,000 in net income, but turned an operating profit of 261,000. That is a rather slim margin, however, it appears that the company was spending as much as it could to grow and take market share, especially internationally where it is just getting started. Operating income in North America for teh period was $6.8 million, whereas the company took an operating loss of $6.5 million internationally. Those are startup costs, since it is just getting its foot in the door at restaurants outside the U.S. and Canada.
As of September 30, 2008, OpenTable offered reservations at 9,709 restaurants worldwide, 8,788 of which were in North America It seated 25.5 million diners the first nine months of last year, up 45 percent. It employed 292 people, and had $17.4 million in cash.
I have a feeling any IPO money will go towards international expansion. A successful IPO would be a coup for CEO Jeff Jordan, a former eBay executive who is well regarded in Silicon Valley.

Piramal Healtcare- Q3 FY09.pdf

Videocon Industries Q1 net down 76 pc at Rs 60 cr

Network18 group company Web18 has made its initial steps for  an IPO in Nasdaq. Web18 is the internet arm of the Network18 Group. The group owns CNBC TV18, and CNBC Aawaz through Television Eighteen Ltd and CNN IBN, and Hindi channel IBN through another group entity Global Broadcast Network or GBN.Network18 Media and Investments Ltd and its subsidiary Television Eighteen India Ltd jointly informed stock exchanges on Thursday that they have submitted a draft registration statement on a confidential basis to the US Securities and Exchanges Commission for an initial public offering of American Depository Shares in its Internet subsidiary Web18 Holdings Ltd.Confidential filing does not require Web18 to disclose its financials or other sensitive information.The statement said that the IPO is expected as market conditions permit, and is subject to Web18′s public filing with the US SEC. The amount of mopney to be raised by ADS is not yet determined.Web18 holds all the internet properties of the group. They include Moneycontrol.com,  ibnlive.com, and the recently launched email site in.com, besides niche portals like tech2.com and cricketnext.com. Web18′s listing was rumoured in the Indian tech and investor circles for a while. The company at one point was seeking a $100 million valuation which was not bought by the venture capital investors. An Indian listing might also have been difficult since many of its properties are yet to make money. The only property that is strong on revenues could be Moneycontrol, while rest of the properties are in an investment mode. The last time Indian portals listed in Nasdaq was years ago. Sify listed in Nasdaq on 1999 and Rediff in 2002.

PNB Q3 net up 86%

Corus set to sell stakes in steel plant to raise $450 mn

Six-seven companies have shown interest in a complete takeover of Satyam Computer Services, a board member of the IT services firm said. Suitors
Satyam’s government-appointed board had appointed Goldman Sachs and Avendus Capital as investment bankers earlier this week. “The in-vestment bankers will start the process, look at the seriousness of the suitors and their proposals. The process will take six weeks,” board member and CII chief mentor Tarun Das said.
Mr Das declined to reveal the names of the potential buyers. Engineer-ing firm Larsen & Toubro has publicly expressed interest in completely buying out Satyam, firms such as iGate Technologies and Tech Mahin-dra have evinced interest in acquiring certain businesses of the firm. Private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and General Atlantic are also believed to be in the fray, expected to mount a bid with an Indian IT firm.
Mr Das said internal and external checks at Satyam have shown that there is no inflation of employee numbers as alleged earlier. “We have done headcount check internally and using external agencies. On the basis of investigations, we believe there are well over 50,000 employ-ees,” the CII chief mentor said.
Asked to comment on speculation that Satyam’s board would rope in former Tata Chemicals MD Homi Khusrokhan and Murugappa group’s former finance director Partho S Dutta to head its management team, Mr Das only conceded that the two were did not figure among the shortlisted names for Satyam’s CEO and CFO.
On whether Mr Khusrokhan and Mr Dutta would be appointed to the company’s board, he said any board appointment had to be an-nounced by the government.

Chennai metro rail seems to be a harbinger of hope to the city’s transportation as well as recession problems. At a time when there’s

a crunch for liquidity to fund infrastructure projects, it received clearance from the cabinet committee for economic affairs on Wednesday thereby unleashing the funds it has secured through grants and agreements, for its use. The ruling DMK Government, a partner in the UPA government at the Centre, has pushed for its quick clearance.

When the project was first drafted in 2006-07, it was estimated to cost Rs.9000 crore. Now, despite having got the fastest cabinet clearance among infrastructure projects, its cost estimate has escalated to Rs.14,600 crore. According to the special purpose vehicle formed for the project, the state and central governments will hold 15% equity each in the project. The former will fund 6% through subordinate debt, and the latter 5% through subordinate debt.

Tamil Nadu government first provided Rs 50 crore in the Budget for 2007-08 and another Rs 300 crore in the Budget for current year as a reflection of its committment to implement the project to ease traffic congestion in the metro. However, as work has not yet begun on the project , sources said only a fraction of the provision has been utilized for the preliminary works of the SPV, Chennai metro rail corporation ( CMRL). The rest has been transferred to CMRL’s public funds for subsequent use.

The SPV has also secured 59% funding by way of a development assistance loan from the Japanese government through the Japanese international co-operation agency (JICA). By clinching the agreement for this loan in November 2008, the project completed financial closure in a year after it was proposed.

Recently, CMRL has floated tenders for the first construction – a 4.8 km elevated wire duct in the Koyambedu-Vadapalani stretch. The bidding process is over, and the tenders are being processed. However, the land assessment for the project is yet to be completed, before when work cannot begin. “Of the 91.71 hectares of land to be acquired for the project, only 9.98 hectares fall under private property,” said a metro railway official involved in land usage.

The total length of the rail would be 45 km, of which 21 km would be elevated and 24 km underground. The rail will run along two corridors – Anna Salai and Poonamallee high road – connecting Washermanpet to the Airport and the Central railway station to St.Thomas Mount, respectively. The project is scheduled for completion in 2014-15.

Chennai metro rail seems to be a harbinger of hope to the city’s transportation as well as recession problems. At a time when there’s

a crunch for liquidity to fund infrastructure projects, it received clearance from the cabinet committee for economic affairs on Wednesday thereby unleashing the funds it has secured through grants and agreements, for its use. The ruling DMK Government, a partner in the UPA government at the Centre, has pushed for its quick clearance.

When the project was first drafted in 2006-07, it was estimated to cost Rs.9000 crore. Now, despite having got the fastest cabinet clearance among infrastructure projects, its cost estimate has escalated to Rs.14,600 crore. According to the special purpose vehicle formed for the project, the state and central governments will hold 15% equity each in the project. The former will fund 6% through subordinate debt, and the latter 5% through subordinate debt.

Tamil Nadu government first provided Rs 50 crore in the Budget for 2007-08 and another Rs 300 crore in the Budget for current year as a reflection of its committment to implement the project to ease traffic congestion in the metro. However, as work has not yet begun on the project , sources said only a fraction of the provision has been utilized for the preliminary works of the SPV, Chennai metro rail corporation ( CMRL). The rest has been transferred to CMRL’s public funds for subsequent use.

The SPV has also secured 59% funding by way of a development assistance loan from the Japanese government through the Japanese international co-operation agency (JICA). By clinching the agreement for this loan in November 2008, the project completed financial closure in a year after it was proposed.

Recently, CMRL has floated tenders for the first construction – a 4.8 km elevated wire duct in the Koyambedu-Vadapalani stretch. The bidding process is over, and the tenders are being processed. However, the land assessment for the project is yet to be completed, before when work cannot begin. “Of the 91.71 hectares of land to be acquired for the project, only 9.98 hectares fall under private property,” said a metro railway official involved in land usage.

The total length of the rail would be 45 km, of which 21 km would be elevated and 24 km underground. The rail will run along two corridors – Anna Salai and Poonamallee high road – connecting Washermanpet to the Airport and the Central railway station to St.Thomas Mount, respectively. The project is scheduled for completion in 2014-15.

mjunction shelves IPO plan

India-focused mining group Vedanta Resources posted a 98.5 percent fall in third quarter core profit on Wednesday due to low metals prices, 
inventory writedowns and currency losses.

Vedanta said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the three months to end December was $10.1 million, down from $671.5 million in the same period last year.

Earnings were hit by $104 million in inventory writedowns, negative pricing adjustments of $47 million and currency losses of $34 million.

“Record production volumes of zinc and aluminium and record sales of iron ore were primarily offset by steep falls in commodity prices as well as negative provisional pricing adjustments and writedown of inventories,” the company said in a statement.

Handset maker Nokia and IT hardware firm HCL Infosystems plan to set a joint venture (JV) to sell value added services (VAS) and 
entertainment content for mobile devices directly to consumers. The JV is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to take off later this year.

“An important part of our future distribution strategies in India is that we want to ensure that our value added services and entertainment offerings are readily available to all consumers,” Nokia India VP and managing director D Shivakumar said.

Nokia has announced its internet services strategy globally under the brand name Ovi with specialised offerings in music, navigation, games and livelihood enhancing services for the semi-urban and rural population in the form of Nokia Life Tools.

Shares of Larsen & Toubro were weak in a strong market after the company indicated it would hike its stake in Satyam Computer beyond
15%, a move that will trigger an open offer.

L&T investors are concerned that, in case of an open offer, the engineering and construction major would have to offer Satyam shareholders almost six times the software company’s current market price.

As per the existing norms, if an acquirer buys more than 15% in a listed entity, he has to mandatorily make an open offer to buy another 20% from smaller shareholders.

Though a section of the market is betting authorities may relax the open offer norms in L&T’s case, given the enthusiasm shown by the government to end the matter, it is still not clear to what extent would the rules be relaxed.

Sun TV net up 9.72% in Dec`08 qtr

Britain’s business secretary Peter Mandelson will meet representatives of the UK auto industry on Wednesday to discuss a Hybrid carsbailout package, raising hopes that the Tata group-owned Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) may finally get some financial relief. A spokeswoman for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the UK auto industry’s apex body, said despite media speculation that an automotive industry package is expected this week, the industry is yet to be informed of any such move. But she said the industry is optimistic about the outcome of the meeting. The auto industry, including JLR, is definite that the package being discussed is not a bailout, but measures like credit guarantees or loans to ease the flow of liquidity. An industry expert with knowledge of the developments said the financial package is due shortly. Lord Mandelson had reportedly met top Tata officials during his visit to India last week. The Tata Motors spokesman refused to comment. Speaking to ET earlier, a JLR spokesperson had clarified that JLR is facing a problem with routine credit availability for its buyers and suppliers, mainly because bank credit is unavailable. Tata Motors bought JLR from US carmaker Ford last year for $2.3 billion.