THE TIMES OF INDIA, KOLKATAFRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 201718 TIMES BUSINESS

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd(BHEL) has secured two newexport orders for transformerbushing from Niquel Electric Ltdaof Chile and Electronic cards fromScanfil Oy Vana Sauga of Estonia.Its global footprint now spansacross 82 countries. Bhel hasreceived its highest export ordersin 2016-2017, amounting to over Rs10,000 crore from 23 countries.CII East’s SHE awards: Jhadsu-goda (Odisha)-based AdityaAluminium bagged the CII EasternRegion SHE (safety health andenvironment) Excellence Award2016-2017 in the large manufac-turing category (company withover 3,000 employees), while inlarge mining, Tata Steel, NoamundiIron Mine, Jharkhand, cornered theglory at the 11th Safety Symposium& Exposition organized by CII.Travel tech co’s new frontier:eRevMax, the travel technologycompany for online hotel dis-tribution, has completed two-wayXML integration with the Europe’sleading travel wholesaler Go GlobalTravel. Hotels using RateTiger andRTConnect can leverage theinterface to make real-time rateand availability updates andreceive bookings generated on thechannel directly into their system.TCS IT Wiz 2017:The Kolkataedition of TCS IT Wiz 2017 — India’slargest technology quiz for schools— will be held in Kolkata (alongwith 12 other locations in India) onAugust 24 at Sangit Kala Mandir.Each institution can send a maxi-mum of 15 teams with each teamconsisting of two members study-ing in Class VIII-XII. EDA Summit: EnergyTech Ventu-res, an emerging energy dataanalytics solution company in Indiawill host their flagship Energy DataAnalytics (EDA) Summit on Sep-tember 8 2017 at The Claridges,New Delhi, with the intent toenable smoother transitionstowards better Governance. K8 Note unveiled: Lenovo Indiahas launched the latest edition ofits best-selling K Note series — theK8 Note. Targeted at the young andspirited, the K8 Note becomes thefirst device in Lenovo’s K Noteseries to run on stock Android andoffer dual cameras. The K8 Notecomes powered with a 10 coreprocessor, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage.Online fire licence: In order toreduce the time taken to grant firelicence to industrial units, the WestBengal government has introducedonline fire licence, said Arnab Roy,the state’s principal secretary tothe department of fire & emergen-cy services & environment, at the11th Safety Symposium & Expositionorganized by CII here.

BUSINESS DIGEST

Bhel’s export feat

Kolkata: The Mamata Baner-jee government will soon comeup with a food processing poli-cy and a host of incentives forthe investors in the sector, saidNandini Chakravorty, secreta-ry, food processing and horti-culture, West Bengal.

She was speaking to CIIEastern Region Agriculture &Food Proces-sing Taskforcemembers com-prising CEOs of food proces-sing companies, feed and ferti-lizer industries, cold storages,head of banks, and heads ofexport promotion councilssuch as MPEDA and SHEFEX-IL here on Thursday. Industrymembers like B Sumant, cha-irman, CII Eastern Region Ag-riculture & Food Processing

Taskforce & president (FMCGbusiness), ITC Ltd, were pre-sent at the meet.

Chakravorty said the stategovernment is committed tohelping small companies,especially those facing pro-blems over land and litigation.According to her, fruits and ve-getables grown in the state ha-ve the potential to hit marketsin the US and Europe. The sta-

te governmentis preparing astudy on agri-

horti-logistics infrastructure.The idea is to identify and nar-row certain gaps, she added.

According to her, grapesprocessing can turn out to be amajor opportunity for inves-tors in West Bengal. “Grapesare grown in Bankura and Pu-rulia, and the quality is betterthan those from Nasik.”

State to unveil foodprocessing policyTIMES NEWS NETWORK

INFRA PUSH

Kolkata: RP-Sanjiv Goenkagroup firm Phillips CarbonBlack Ltd (PCBL), one of the le-

ading carbonblack manufac-turers globally,is planning to setup a greenfieldunit somewherein the southerncoast of the co-untry. On the si-

delines of its first quarter re-sults announcement here, gro-up chairman Sanjiv Goenka sa-id the greenfield project wouldhave an annual capacity of 1.2lakh tonne initially and thegroup would take a final call onit in a few months time. Goenkapointed out that it is looking ata location in Gujarat.

“The unit would be in a co-astal location for the import ofraw materials. We are lookingat possible locations in TamilNadu, Andhra Pradesh andGujarat as well. The new tyrecapacities are coming in sout-

hern region so it makes senseto have a new plant there,” headded.

The group has around 60acres in Tamil Nadu. “We wo-uld require around 70-80 acresfor the plant,” Goenka added.However, he refused to divulgethe investment details by say-ing that it is still premature tocomment on the investment be-cause it would vary dependingon the product mix. Besidesgreenfield expansion, PCBL isplanning to expand capacity inits plants in Palej and Mundrain Gujarat. The company wo-uld invest Rs 300 crore for ex-panding the capacity by 80,000tonne. Currently, the companyhas a capacity of 4.86 lakh ton-ne, which would go up to over5.66 lakh tonne after the expan-sion.

Meanwhile, PCBL has pos-ted a 407% jump in net profit toRs 48.16 crore in the first quar-ter of this fiscal from Rs 9.50crore during the same quarterof the last year. The profit befo-re tax (PBT) of Rs 66 crore wasone of the highest ever postedby the company.

The revenue of the compa-ny was up by 33% to Rs 638 cro-re during the quarter.

PhillipsCarbon Black

mulls newunit in Gujarat

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Sanjiv Goenka

Q1 NET UP 407%

Bengaluru: Infosys co-cha-irman Ravi Venkatesan sa-

id the boardwould be opento a formal ar-rangement forN R NarayanaMurthy in thecompany if

the co-founder were to wishthat. “We would absolutelyconsider it,” said Venkate-san, responding to a queryfrom ET Now on whether theboard would consider a for-mal arrangement that couldsolve a lot of issues in termsof board-founder relations.Venkatesan did not elaborateon what the formal role couldbe. And he said in response toanother question that Murt-hy had not indicated any desi-re to return.

Murthy had recently toldanother business news chan-nel that his biggest regret inlife was leaving Infosys in2014. When ET Now askedVenkatesan how he would re-ad that comment and aboutthe possibility of bringinghim back as a mentor or in so-me other role, he said, “It is

not surprising to me. If youlook at Microsoft, Bill steppedback as CEO early 2000 but hestayed on as chair for a whileand he is still on the board as adirector. He is no longer thechair and I feel he seems to fe-el that that is important forthe sake of continuity and soforth, so this is…I think foun-ders enjoy that emotionalconnection with their crea-tion. So, it does not surpriseme greatly. I have also saidthat Murthy has enormouspassion and ideas for the in-dustry, for the company, and Ithink he is an important sta-keholder.”

Murthy and some of theother co-founders had objec-ted to the steep compensationincreases granted to chief ex-ecutive Vishal Sikka andCOO U B Pravin Rao, and theunusually high severancepay to former CFO Rajiv Ban-sal. Murthy feels the boardhas compromised values ofthe company.

Murthy has been a strongbeliever in compassionate ca-pitalism, arguing for limits tothe difference between top ex-ecutive compensation andmedian salaries.

Board open to giveNRN formal role:Infy co-chairman

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru: Mythical techtsars, Jeff Bezos of Ama-zon and Masayoshi Son ofSoftBank, are set to renewtheir e-commerce hostiliti-es in India, the last of theworld’s potentially big in-ternet markets. SoftBank’s$2.5-billion cheque to Flip-kart comes a decade afterBezos surrendered Chinato Alibaba, the most suc-cessful investment by Ma-sa, which turned a startupinto an all conquering in-ternet dragon.

Alibaba’s sway overChina’s internet marketspawned several other bil-lion-dollar startups in thatcountry, which effectivelystalled the American con-quest of the world’s largestdigital economy. FromeBay to Uber, the story re-main unchanged there. Ho-wever, Amazon has been a

mighty challenger to thehomegrown market leaderFlipkart in India. Ama-zon’s runaway share pricehas buoyed Bezos to com-mit big bucks to win Indiaat all costs — a $5-billionwar chest till date.

Amazon has been narro-wing the gap with the locale-tailer just as Japanesebillionaire Masa shows upas the white knight.

“This is an alpha mo-ment not only for the e-com-merce market, but also forthe Indian tech ecosystem.It demonstrates trust in the

Indian technology marketon behalf of the global in-vestor community. It alsocreates a level-playing fieldbetween the local leaderand its large global chal-lenger, where product andexecution determine thewinner, rather than accessto capital,” said RiteshBanglani, partner at Stella-ris Venture Partners.

The industry observersexpect Flipkart, which hasbeen cutting costs acrossdepartments after a tough2016, to intensify efforts tofend off Amazon. “The

fight will be as intense as itcan get now. SoftBank hasclearly chosen Flipkart forits e-commerce ambitionshere. Bezos is also likely tobe more aggressive in Indiaas he knows the capabiliti-es of his old rival. Both Sonand Bezos do not have theproblem of capital to investand this will see Flipkartand Amazon expandingtheir fight into other cate-gories beyond smartpho-nes and electronics,” saidSatish Meena, analyst withForrester.

Nasscom executive co-uncil member Ravi Gururaj said Indian digital consu-mers will benefit from nu-merous innovations andeven discounts as both thecompanies build a massivefootprint over the next fiveyears.

“India, as the biggestmarket outside of China, is abig, big prize everyonewants to win,” he added.

Amazon Tough Rival To Homegrown Mkt Leader Flipkart

Fire & fury: SoftBank’s Masain battle royale with Bezos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (L) and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son

Digbijay Mishra & Shalina Pillai TNN

Mumbai: Tiger Global, thesecretive New York-based in-vestment fund which hasbacked Flipkart since 2010with more than $1 billion incapital, is likely to get a lion’sshare of the secondary mo-ney which is slated to come aspart of the $2.5-billion finan-cing round in the e-commer-ce company.

It’s not surprising, consi-dering Lee Fixel, the media-shy fund manager at Tigerwho was crowned the maha-raja of Indian e-commercefor his bullishness on Flip-kart over many years, has be-en at the forefront of orchest-rating the secondary dealwith SoftBank’s maverick fo-under Masayoshi Son.

A secondary sale is whenan existing investor sellsshares to a new one but themoney does not come intothe company.

Fixel’s push to get liqui-dity from Flipkart is seen ashis make-or-break move at atime the 30-something Ame-rican has retreated from In-dia completely, not havingmade any fresh investmentsfor more than a year. Cont-rast this to the time he wasthe most pivotal character ofthe funding boom in the In-dian consumer internet spa-ce — which reached its peakbetween 2014-15.

While Tiger wrestles toget $800 million from the se-

condary sale of shares toSoftBank, other early back-ers of Flipkart, like ventureinvestor Accel Partners, arealso vying for a partial exitfrom the online retailer.

Most people privy to thetalks said there were discus-sions to draw up secondari-es to the tune of $1.5 billion.However, Flipkart was ableto get more primary capitalinto the company. “This iswhen Tiger was looking atan assured $800 million butthe numbers may look diffe-rent now,” a person close tothe matter said.

Whatever the final num-ber for Tiger turns out to be,most stakeholders in the do-mestic internet ecosystemare not sure if this cash bo-unty will aid Fixel’s returnto India.

“The venture investorsgetting cash returns will co-me as good news for the ove-rall industry. Most venturecapital funds are staring atpaper valuations with no ex-it in sight, so an event likethis will shore up confiden-ce and change the view onIndia globally, too,” said anearly-stage investor.

Tiger’s extended bet on Flipkartmay finally return cash to investor

Samidha.Sharma@timesgroup.com

Most stakeholdersin the domesticinternet ecosystemare not sure if thislargest cash bountywill aid Fixel’sreturn to India