Business News 07-09-2007 ANW 99 Exclusive

some brisk news first

• Bank of England keeps interest rates unchanged at 5.75%

• China raises Bank's Reserve Ratio requirement by 50 bps to 12.5%

• April - August direct tax mop up at Rs 61,030 Cr, Up 42% (YoY). This is the clear result of higher corporate tax realizations and continued or moderately increased individual tax realizations!

• What ??? Steve Jobs Apologizing ? yes in case of what is termed as the technologically superior or far superior but featuristically inferior iphone as inferred from expert reviews... He apologised to iPhone customers and offered a $100 store credit, following Apple's decision to cut the gadget's price by $200 just two months after its release. All hype cant be the resource for expected success.... They will learn from the mistakes and we are surely going to see iphone part II very sooooooooon.... Also Apple Inc. introduced a new range of ipods with WiFi & a Touchscreen !!

• Intel Unveils Xeon Quad Core Processors, for servers. These are capable of multitasking and are similar to 4 processing brains packed on a single micro chip... They are also compatible with their new 45 nano meter manufacturing technology....

• This is why Venture Capitalists & PE firms mean Business!! They are the masters of the game.... Cerebrus Capital Mangament LLP, yes the proud 80.1% owners of Chrysler Corp. have shown their executive luring ability from rivals!!! They hired Long time Toyota Motor Corp. North America chief executive Jim Press as V. chairman & president. This is the 2nd executive they snagged from Toyota. First a marketing head of Lexus Ms. Deborah Wahl Meyer was hired as CMO now Mr. Press. Also this is the PE firm who appointed Mr. Robert Nardelli ex. controversial CEO of Home Depot Inc. as CEO of Chrysler some time back..... They mean business and are on track for revival of chrysler as visible as per their recent deeds !!!!!

• Remember the controversy on GSPC gas find about the actual gas reserve size of the well ? NOw GSPC has tasted its success in KG-8 gas well Appraisal drilling which will substantially increase the reserve size from DGH (upstream regulator & more or less most controversial figure in exploration of oil & gas in india) estimated 1.38 trillian cubic feet.... Remember that GSPC was of opinion that the gas find was economically valued at around $50 Bn then !! Even if this increases the valuation by some modest estimates even then it will be a sizeable gas find after reliance KG gas find or even may topple its record!!! who knows !

• In a recent move SEBI has pushed for Waiver of Entry Load in all Mutual fund investments... But all the leading Asset Management Companies have opposed this move !!!!! Keep watching what happens ultimately ??

• Kai Nargolwala joins Credit Suisse as Chief Executive Officer for APac - Asia Pacific. He is joining CS from Standard Chartered.

• LIC - Life Insurance Corporation, India's no. 1 insurer is partnering GE Money, Corporation Bank, LIC Housing Finance & LIC Mutual Fund for starting its Credit Card venture. Good News Now they should start giving credit cards to all the policy holders of LIC and as the number of policies increases with amount of insurance they should give credit limit..... so this will help us keep at BAy the companies like ICICI & SBI etc. who charge exhorbitant interest rates in some cases in excess of 40% and help LIC take over a sizeable market share.... But they must keep revolving credit interest rates moderate!!!!!!

• Securitization Market or the market for structured finance has made an estounding come back in India after the slump of the past year. As per Moody's data the total transactions in this year's H1 half year part the deals totalled around $5.5 Billion. Last year the full year deals were just about $6 Billion!!

• Stora Enso, A finland based World's Largest paper maker in an write off of its assets removed charges or value worth $2.4 Billion from its books!!! The reason being higher wood costs & the worsening outlook for magazine papers! They did this restructuring and still this work continues!! Magazine paper selling problems -- people this may be the result of growing popularity of online edititons may be ??? who knows?

we really thank all the news sources for the wonderful and knowledge enhancing insights they have provided us.

Thanks for reading!!!