IIPM - Live: June 2011

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Nokia tries N9 ahead of Windows

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop unveiled a new smartphone on Tuesday that uses software the firm plans to ditch, a move analysts said would probably condemn the device to obscurity. The model — Nokia's first and last to use MeeGo —can be navigated by a single finger swipe and comes in black, cyan and magenta colours in a polycarbonate design.

Once the undisputed leader in hand phones, Nokia has rapidly lost ground in the smartphone market to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices, and at the low end of the market to Asian rivals such as China's ZTE and India's Micromax.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

UK's Serco buys Intelenet for Rs 2.8k cr

UK-based international services firm Serco has acquired Indian BPO company Intelenet for Rs 2,772 crore, making it the largest acquisition in the Indian BPO space. It pips the $550 million (Rs 2,475 crore) that Genpact paid in April to acquire Headstrong. The acquisition of Intelenet supports our ambitions as a leading global service company. The international BPO market is growing quickly as companies seek out new ways to improve their service and reduce costs, Chris Hyman, the chief executive of Serco, said in a statement. ntelenet offers a broad range of BPO services including transactional, voice support, finance and accounting services in markets like the US, UK and India. It focuses on the banking, financial services & insurance, travel, hospitality & transport, and healthcare sectors. The valuation, however, appears to be on the higher side. Serco's acquisition cost represents a multiple of around 12 times EBITDA for the year to March 31, 2011. Nikhil Rajpal, partner, private equity practice, Everest Group, said, this deal is on the expensive side considering that Intelenet has a lot of low-margin India business.

The buyout is part of the £4.3 billion Serco's strategy to gain a larger exposure to higher-growth overseas BPO markets. Serco made an investment about two years back in an India-based company called InfoVision, which is now called Serco BPO. Serco BPO, which has about 8,000 people, provides customer services, database management and back office services for only the Indian BPO market. Intelenet has an employee base of 32,000 with about 75% of revenues coming from international business and 25% from domestic business. Their combined BPO operations will have 40,000 employees providing services across seven countries.

The combined entity is a strategic fit for Intelenet as it adds significantly to its consulting and technology capabilities. The vision is to become a complete player offering consulting to front line services to middle and back office and technology, said Susir Kumar, chief executive of Intelenet Global Services.

Analysts say that the BPO industry will see more consolidation, as clients prefer vendors who can provide end-to-end capabilities with stronger domain expertise. Smaller players should either gain scale through consolidation or acquire expertise in niche areas, said Kumar.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Monday, June 06, 2011

Allahabad HC quashes land acquisition in Gr Noida

In yet another setback to Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court on Monday quashed acquisition of 170 hectares of land at Gulistan village in Greater Noida for industrial development. The order was passed by a division bench comprising Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice Kashi Nath Pandey on a petition filed by landowners and farmers challenging the government notification for land acquisiton issued on September 5, 2007 under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act depriving the aggrieved persons of filing their objections on the ground that the matter was urgent. The declaration of the acquisition was made on February 27, 2008, about more than five months.

The court rejected the contention that there was any urgency and said the landowners have to be given an opportunity for hearing by filing their objections. This was the third time that the HC has set aside land acquisition in Greater Noida where the farmers are up in arms against UP government's land acquisition demanding adequate compensation for their land and had clashed with police earlier this month. On May 12 and May 15, the HC had quashed acquisition of more than 170 hectares in Gautam Budh Nagar district.

Friday, June 03, 2011

German govt wants nuclear exit by 2022 at latest

Germany will shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022, parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government agreed on Monday, in a reaction to Japan's Fukushima disaster that marks a drastic policy reversal.

As expected, the coalition wants to keep the eight oldest of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors permanently shut. Seven were closed temporarily in March, just after the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima. One has been off the grid for years. Another six will be taken offline by 2021 , Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said early on Monday after late-night talks in the chancellor's office between leaders of the centre-right coalition.

The remaining three reactors, Germany's newest, will stay open for another year until 2022 as a safety buffer to ensure no disruption to power supply, he said. Merkel backtracked in March on an unpopular decision just months earlier to extend the life of ageing nuclear stations in Germany, where the majority of voters oppose atomic energy.

Her Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and junior coalition partner the Free Democrats (FDP) met on Sunday after an ethics commission ended its deliberations this weekend. Some politicians had wanted a clause allowing for the agreement to be revised in future. The FDP had wanted no firm date but rather a flexible window for the exit, plus the option of bringing back at least one of the seven oldest nuclear reactors in case of emergency.

The coalition agreed to keep one of the older reactors as a "cold reserve" for 2013, if the transition to renewable energies cannot meet winter demand and if fossil fuels do not suffice to make up for a potential shortfall.

IMPACT OF FUKUSHIMA

A massive earthquake and tsunami in March crippled Japan's Fukushima plant, causing releases of radioactivity, sparking calls for tougher global safety measures and prompting some governments to reconsider their nuclear energy strategy.

The German decision still needs to go through parliament and leaders of the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens were present at parts of the meeting to enable a broad consensus.

The decision could still face opposition from RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and EnBW, the utility companies that run the 17 plants, mostly because of plans to keep a disputed nuclear fuel rod tax.