Checkout: Making of voter awarness campaign

The voter awareness campaign from CNBC-TV18 and Hindustan Unilever brought together two heavyweights from Indian advertising Piyush Pandey and R Balki, who worked with HUL's Hemant Bakshi to bring the campaign to life. From what motivated them, to how they worked together, everything is up for discussion with Storyboard's Anant Rangaswami.

The voter awareness campaign from CNBC-TV18 and Hindustan Unilever brought together two heavyweights from Indian advertising - Ogilvy's Piyush Pandey and Lowe's R Balki, who worked with HUL's Hemant Bakshi to bring the campaign to life. From what motivated them, to how they worked together, everything is up for discussion with Storyboard editor Anant Rangaswami.

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GM all set to improvise its operations in India

After being hit with the country's biggest "corporate fraud" in the automotive sector, General Motors is now trying to turn a new leaf. The India subsidiary of the Detroit-based carmaker is working overtime for an image makeover and is also looking to fix emission related issues on engines in 114,000 units of the multi-purpose vehicle Tavera that was manufactured between 2005 and 2013 recalled by the company last year. The unenviable task to fix the mess has now squarely fallen on the shoulders of an industry veteran and a former Maruti Suzuki executive Arvind Saxena, the first local Indian at the helm of affairs at GM since 2007.

"My mandate is very clear. I have to improve the operations for GM in India which would mean internal and network efficiency," Saxena said in his first formal interview since taking charge as president and CEO of GM India last month.

Also read:  Labour tensions return to haunt Indian auto sector

In October last year a government appointed panel headed by Nitin Gokarn, CEO of the NATRIP accused GM of committing a "corporate fraud" and alleged that the company's top management from 2005-2012 were complicit in manipulating the conformity of production testing norms for its MPV Tavera. This was a huge setback for the company. GM is now currently awaiting Special Investigating Reports from the governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Saxena insists that "corrective action" has been taken to ensure that "re-occurrence of such issues is not repeated." He however acknowledges the need for creating the right perception in the market for brand GM. "We need to improve the perception in the market and be seen as a very customer friendly organization," Saxena says. He further adds, "GM has been very transparent in bringing this up and frankly it is behind us and we should look forward how do we get the confidence and that's why I say we should be seen to be more customer friendly organization."

Last year to fix accountability, GM fired over 20 executives from the company including their CFO Anil Mehrotra and Vice-President for global engine engineering Sam Winegarden. It has also overhauled its manufacturing process following an audit carried out by Ernst & Young. According to P Balendran, Vice-President (Corporate Affairs) at GM, the company has replaced engines in 20,000 out of the 114,000 Taveras it recalled. He claims Tavera sales have not been impacted due to the recall and cites the monthly sales data for the MPV as a case in point. Last month GM sold over 1,000 units of Tavera.

Once the storm settles down, Saxena would also have to work towards enhancing the company's product portfolio from the current 8 cars it offers and increase market share, which at the end of last fiscal stood at a little over 3% even though GM has been in India for 16 years. However, it won't be an easy task. Saxena says the slowdown in the car market is currently so acute that he does not see any major turnaround till the end of this calendar year.

One strategy that is quietly being put in place is to start exports out of its two manufacturing plants at Halol and Talegaon. According to GM insiders, the export plan is yet to be finalized fully as the company is mulling the products to be shipped overseas. This, they say, will also turn GM profitable in India. Saxena refused to divulge much when asked but added, "Domestic market is priority for us and exports could be a possibility in the future but I can't say much about that right now."

At a time when GM is facing a lot of heat in its home market in the US for faulty ignition switches including a US congressional probe, its India subsidiary too is awaiting an SIT report from the governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra that could see the US automaker shell out a tidy sum as compensation for manipulating COP testing norms in Tavera.

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New govt should focus on job creation: CII's Ajay Shriram

According to Ajay Shriram, the new CII President one would definitely want a stable government and a government that moves rapidly on economic agenda.

FDI in multi-brand retail is a win-win across the board.

Ajay Shriram

President

CII

It is impossible to predict the outcome elections said Ajay Shriram, the new CII President but all political parties surely want economic growth and development. However, the new government's key area of focus must be jobs because large percentage of population is under 35 years of age.

According to him one would definitely want a stable government and a government that moves rapidly on economic agenda. 

In an interview to CNBC-TV18's Ronojoy Banerjee talking about the uncertainty of fate of foreign direct investment (FDI) he said, we want to highlight to the government why FDI in multi-brand retail is positive and a good thing. 

Also read: CII unveils 100-day agenda for new govt; stresses on GST

"I think FDI is important not for the money point of view, it is important for the knowledge, it is important for the know-how, it is important for logistic management," he said. 

FDI in multi-brand retail could be a win-win for the farmer. It is an employment opportunity for the entire logistics, supply chain sector and the customer gains. Therefore it is a win-win across the board, he said. 

For the entire interview watch video

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HP executives held in Pakistan tax probe: WSJ

The arrests followed a raid at a large Pakistani computer seller's offices in Karachi that revealed records allegedly showing equipment as not being properly taxed, the Journal reported.

Two executives of the Pakistani arm of computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co were arrested by local officials in Karachi on Friday on suspicion of corporate tax evasion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The arrested executives were identified as Shahid Ali Khan, HP Pakistan's country general manager for printing and personal systems and country controller, Salim Rawjani. Hewlett-Packard had no comment when contacted about the Journal report.

The arrests followed a raid at a large Pakistani computer seller's offices in Karachi that revealed records allegedly showing equipment as not being properly taxed, the Journal reported.

Also read:  HP agrees to pay $57 million to settle shareholder lawsuit

Tanveer Malik, director of intelligence and investigation for the Pakistan's Federal Board of Revenue told Journal the raid was carried out after the agency received "overwhelming evidence" of wrongdoing.

"We have no comment at this time, other than to say that HP adheres to the highest ethical standards," said an HP spokesperson when contacted by Reuters.

Pakistani tax officials told Journal the tax evasion accusations could be expanded on further investigation following the arrests, which was a preliminary step in Pakistani legal proceedings, the Journal reported.

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Banking on Bangalore mkt, Sobha Dev expects strong Q1FY15

The slowdown in realty sector is not preventing developers from launching new projects. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, J C Sharma, vice chairman and managing director, Sobha Developers , says he expects better margins in FY14 than its preceding year.

Though the company has seen weak demand in Gurgaon-NCR region, its projects in Bangalore and Kerala have meet good response.

Also read: Won't meet FY14 guidance; margins seen at 28%: Sobha

"We launched four projects of which two were in Bangalore and the other in Kerala. These projects total an area of 3.6 million square feet and have see really good response. Infact, we have seen Bangalore market perform 20 percent better," adds Sharma.

On the road ahead, Sharma expects to post good numbers in Q1FY15 as most of its latest projects were launched in March-end and hence, will be reflected in Q1 numbers.

"We expect the Bangalore market to keep the momentum going and though Kerala is a small market, we are hoping to capitalize on it. Though NCR and Mumbai haven't performed that well, they do have tremendous potential," he explains.

Below is the edited transcript of the interview to CNBC-TV18.

Sonia: Take us through the Q4 performance and extrapolate how the new projects in Q4 that you have launched will help you Q1 onwards?

A: We did launch four projects in Q4; two in Bangalore and two in Kerala, totaling about 3.6 million square feet. Both the projects in Bangalore met good response which means that our performance for the Bangalore, in this quarter as well as the overall performance for the year among all the cities for this quarter, was far better by about 20 percent more than the preceding quarter.

The prices also remained stable. In Bangalore we realized about Rs 6,747 per square feet in the last quarter and about Rs 7,000 in the whole year and the 10 percent overall increase in the price realisation shows that on year-on-year basis, we got 6 percent more in value whereas we lost out about 4 percent in volume throughout the year.

Going forward, we believe that since three of these four projects were launched, on the last seven-ten days of March month, the benefit of that should start showing from this quarter onwards.

Latha: How might this current quarter shapeup in terms of increased sales?

A: We will be coming out with our financial results early next month and at this point of time, we should be given the annual guidance for the whole year but we are confident that it would be better than what we have achieved this financial year or the preceding financial year both in value or in volume terms.

Latha: So margins also should be improving in FY15?

A: Margins are in alignment with our expectation but we cannot say whether it will further improve or not because the cost keeps increasing.

Sonia: You did see a big slowdown in the National Capital Region (NCR) Gurgaon region, do you think that will continue or are you seeing any signs of revival there?

A: We are still disappointed with our Gurgaon performance. Though it was the best quarter amongst all the four quarters, both in volumes as well as in value terms, but the numbers are significantly smaller than what we have achieved in the last financial year. The strong belief, however, remains that Gurgaon has to be a significant contributor in our overall scheme of things. Going forward hopefully, we believe that something better should emerge as far as NCR market is concerned.

Latha: Which are the markets that are looking positive for you and where would you be worried in FY15?

A: This year we expect our Bangalore market to hold on and still do better. It has good potential and there will be a good number of new launches. Throughout India, the Bangalore market should again stand out in this financial year as well. Our prominence in Kerala market makes us stand out. So the market is small but as far as Sobha is concerned we believe that we should be able to capitalize on our Kerala market also.

We are also planning a couple of launches in Chennai in this financial year and hopefully the Chennai market should be relatively much better than what we have achieved in the last two years.

As far as this Mumbai and NCR market is concerned, we believe that if the unsold inventory, interest cost issues are tackled, then the markets that have potential should see better improvement.

Sonia: You said that in Q4 the average realisation stood at around Rs 6,560 a sq ft, is that a run rate that you will maintain in Q1 of FY15 as well or do you think it could improve?

A: Sometimes it all depends upon the product mix but on balance we do not foresee that the price purchase realisation should decrease.

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Doha Bank opens 1st branch in May; eyes $5 bn biz in 3 yrs

The second largest Qatari lender Doha Bank will be opening its first branch in India next month and has set a target of USD 5-billion balance-sheet by the third year of operations.

The Qatari lender is the third Arab lender to have operations in the country after Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait and Abu Dhabi Bank.

"We got the permission from the Reserve Bank to open the branch last December, and we will be launching the operations as early as next month as a full-fledged bank," Doha Bank Group Chief Executive R Sitharaman said.

Also read:  Here's why RBI is banking on Bandhan

Doha Bank already runs a brokerage in the country (Doha Brokerage) with 41 percent stake, the rest of the holding being held by local brokers of Kochi. Sitharaman said the bank has no plan to scale it up, nor does it have any exit plans.

When asked about whether the bank is ready for incorporation as a local subsidiary once operations reach a critical scale, he said, "We have no issues with RBI norms of becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary".

On what could be the differentiation for his bank, as there are close to 50 foreign banks in the country, Sitharaman said differentiated pricing and focused corporate banking will be the focus.

When asked how much he will be investing in the branch, he said capital won't be any constraint and whatever is the minimum required amount (which is USD 25 million) will be brought in as the parent bank has deep pockets and high tier I capital (16 percent).

Also read:  Why 'IDFC Bank' is still a distant dream

Sitharaman said he would finalise the location for the branch in the tony south Mumbai CBD Nariman Point and it will be a 50-people branch to begin with, offering retail and corporate banking solutions with emphasis on off-branch banking.

Stating that his objective is to be profitable by the end of first year of operations, he said, already the bank has an asset of over USD 1 billion to domestic corporates by way trade finance and the target is to have a USD 5-billion balance-sheet by the end of the third year.

Doha Bank nets 17 percent of its business from overseas operations and is a major player in the remittances market to the country with Rs 8,000 crore in volume last year.

About expansion plan, he said, "Our next branch will be Kerala, considering our long association with that market," but added that since foreign bank licences come as bilateral reciprocity, it depends on when the RBI allows it to open the next branch.

Qatari government holds 16 percent stake in the bank and the bank has a market capitalisation of USD 5 billion and an asset of USD18.4 billion as of December 2013 (loan book of USD 11.3 billion and deposits of USD 11.7 billion).

Doha Bank has branches in Kuwait, Dubai and Abu Dhabi and representative offices in Singapore, Turkey, Japan, China, Britain, Canada, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Sharjah.

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Weather risk partly behind sugar price rise: Shree Renuka

Sugar prices have been on a tear in the domestic market in the past few days, with prices of the sweetener jumping 24 percent in the past three weeks.

CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy discussed the issue, along with the state of the industry and its own business, with Shree Renuka Sugar's managing director Narendra Murkumbi.

He conceded that a looming risk of weather disturbance is expected to keep prices high till the onset of monsoon. "There is a major weather risk hanging over all global agricultural markets. It has to do with El Nino and rain patterns in South America, which have not been normal."

Also read: India Ratings upgrades sugar cos to 'negative to stable'

Below is the interview of Narendra Murkumbi, MD of Shree Renuka Sugars with Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy on CNBC-TV18.

Sonia: Why are sugar prices rising so much, is it just the weather condition or is something changing?

A: There are two factors, one was sugar prices were rather beaten down in the middle of the season that is December-January, global prices were at a three-year low, so there is overdue correction as the season closure is imminent.

Second is there is a major weather risk hanging over all global agricultural markets. It has to do with El Nino and rain patterns in South America, which have not been normal. So the combined effect is: people are factoring in that in 2014, there could be significant disturbance from the weather.

Right now, we do not have very abnormal weather, it has been drier than usual in Southeast Asia but everybody is watching the onset of the Indian monsoon and until then we can expect a bullish tilt at least to the sugar and oil markets.

Latha: How could you place the price target for now? We are still floundering on how the weather might move but for the next quarter, is there more to come in terms of sugar price hikes?

A: Right now we moved from about Rs 25,000 a tonne, ex-mill in Maharashtra to Rs 30,000. I think there is room to go to about Rs 32,000. You must also remember that now with decontrol, the price difference between on-season and offseason is going to be pretty large and that is also one of the factors playing out.

Beyond that now, we are looking towards end of June, we will have a fair idea of the monsoon and then the price cues will be based on that.

We had very healthy exports as well from India. We will end up with about 1.8 million tonne of exports. So stocks have also become very comfortable. So two government measures, soft loans as well as export subsidy have helped supporting and bringing up prices.

Sonia: What about the output, there is an expectation that for the first time in three years the sugar output is expected to climb quite a bit, what kind of production do you think we could see this year?

A: Domestic production is lower than early estimates. Against 25.1 million tonne, which we produced last year, we will end up at about 23.5 million tonne. We are also seeing lesser planting in North India, the planting season is not over. Cane arrears are at a record, which is causing farmers to divert away from sugarcane to other crops.

Arrears are mainly in North India now, they are concentrated in Uttar Pradesh and that part of the country.

Latha: We were getting varied estimates of even the current sugar years output, ISMA is going with 23.8 million tonne, some individual forecasters were putting it lower than 23, where are your own forecasts and give us an idea of how much lower can it be next year precisely for the problem that you are saying that lack of money is going to divert sugarcane farmers?

A: We are quite sure it will be above 23 million. Production is already 21.5 million as of March end.

Latha: Is there much crushing done thereafter?

A: There is not much but it seems to be enough to cross 23 because crushing is on still in all major states. As far as next year is concerned, one is lower plantings that we are seeing in North India.

There is slightly higher planting in Maharashtra given that monsoon was good this year but the main factor is going to be the spread and the consistency of the monsoon.

So it is too early to say what would be next year's production but it should be in the same range given normal weather.

Sonia: Your sugar business was down almost about 35 percent in the quarter gone by. You have posted an EBITDA loss also close to 20 crore, what could be the way forward, when do you see things recovering?

A: I think the underlying factors have already taken a positive swing. We had inventory losses, we had sugar produced at higher prices, which are sold at the bottom of the market. Going forward, prices are positive.

We have in the last 12 months -- other than the decontrol at the central government level -- moved to a cane pricing mechanism based on sharing of revenue with farmers in both our states, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

That means that our margins will be much more consistent from hereon irrespective of whether sugar prices are high or low. So some of these fundamental changes in the business will start getting reflected in the next few quarters.

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Delay in project commencement a concern: Feedback Infra

Vinayak Chatterjee of Feedback Infrastructure thinks Larsen and Toubro 's (L&T) statement on order backlog is a reality check for the capital goods industry, which is yet to see an upturn in infrastructure and related project activity.

L&T on Thursday said that they have orders worth about Rs 15,000 crore, which are slow moving due to various hurdles. Reports had suggested the company could write-off some of these orders.

Chatterjee said two forces were expected to contribute positively for the sector – the cabinet committee on investment's attempt to clear huge amount of stuck projects, and a spike in public sector investments.

The government was encouraging public sector units to invest, thus the market had expected an upturn in project activity in Q4, he said, adding that while many of these measures were good, they have not been able to achieve desired results.

He said the companies are now pinning their hope on the new government, which is likely to assume office by mid-June.

Below is the interview of Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman of Feedback Infrastructure with Ekta Batra & Anuj Singhal on CNBC-TV18.

Anuj: There is a belief that the market may have got ahead of itself in some of these capital goods infrastructure stocks, do you think the statement from Larsen and Toubro (L&T) yesterday was a bit of reality check in terms of what is happening on ground. L&T is saying that they may write off orders worth Rs 15,000 crore and some of the orders are slowing moving now?

A: It is certainly a reality check because from industry side we have been saying for quite some time now that we haven't yet seen an upturn in infrastructure and related project activity. If you step back a little, you will recall that two forces were expected to contribute positively – (1) was the cabinet committee on investment/PMG clearances which at their level had cleared Rs 4 lakh crore to Rs 5 lakh crore worth of stuck projects and 325 of them. These has enthused the market feeling that there would be a kind of an immediate upswing in project activity. The other force that was expected was a spike in public sector investments – with the announcements of two major ports with dedicated freight corridors and Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), nuclear plant, various public sector investments, the PMO and the Prime Minister were pushing and encouraging the public sector undertaking (PSU) chiefs from about a year-and-a-half back both the finance minister, the Prime Minister were pushing public sector units to invest the surplus cash lying with them.

So the market has expected that the combination of both of these would see an upturn project activity in Q4 or soon after Diwali even towards the latter end of Q3. Unfortunately while many of these measures were good, for example I value the hard work done by the cabinet committee on investments in pushing out a lot of stuck projects whether they were fuel supply agreement related or whether they were defense clearance related to the exploration licences etc, but the reality check on the ground which you rightly said comes out of the L&T statement as a leading indicator is that somewhere along the pipe these so-called positive pushes or impetus have not yet resulted in the rubber hitting the road and from most of my business colleagues in the capital goods industry – anecdotally I have learned that they have not seen any uptick in their order book situation or even projects on the ground have not got around galvanizing themselves in terms of recommencing project activities, nor has the banking seen decreasing trend in corporate debt restructuring schemes (CDRs) or repayment of stuck or debts or stressed assets.

So, to summarise yes, the L&T statement is a reality check and now I suppose the light at the end of the tunnel and getting brighter everyday for market watchers. The fact that a new government maybe in place by mid-June seems to be the big hope right now.

Ekta: I am reading a report which is written by one of the top brokerages and they have quoted Mr. Anil Swarup, who is the chairman of the Prime Minster's project monitoring group, where Mr. Swarup's team has cleared about 140 projects amounting to USD 85 billion over the past seven months and according to them what lacks at this point in time is just execution. Once the new government comes on board, whoever that might be, the policies have already possibly been put into place but execution would be the key challenge going forward and might be the only challenge going forward for the new government. Would you agree with that?

A: That is certainly a positive thought and I have no reason to disagree. It is indeed true that Mr. Swarup and his team have worked too hard to push out huge number of stuck projects but the dilemma in the minds of the private sector as well as the capital goods industry is what is taking so long for this period from policy clearances or logjam clearances to projects raving up. We have not expected this pipeline to be this long.

People are expected within one or two months - projects would start revving up and order would start getting in place. So, the question to ask ourselves is that why is that not happening. Is it because there are many more permissions required at the state level, is it because the balance sheets of the project entities are stressed, are people holding back capital investments because of lack of confidence right now. We do not know and I wish somebody would do a deeper investigation; in fact it would be nice if the cabinet committee on investments and Mr. Swarup's group itself came up with certain answers by doing a dipstick among the projects they have cleared to say how many of them have started project activity and how many are still languishing for reasons which maybe beyond their control.

Anuj: Did you find it ridiculous that Railways told Coal India  that it does not have wagons for coal supply and the way some of the issues are being handled for power projects. Your reaction to that statement that came from Railways yesterday.

 A: I was extremely disappointed when I read the report yesterday and I tweeted about it also saying that railways in a sense shows the arrogance of a monopoly to just tell Coal India that coal supplies to 53,000 Mega Watt worth of captive thermal projects, they do not have wagons to supply that, seems to me a completely unacceptable statement from India's leading transporter of goods. A more positive statement would be to say we are scrambling to see how we can meet your demand. We may have some temporary shortcomings, but this is completely unacceptable.

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Vodafone to add 150 shops, create 1,400 jobs in UK

The British group said the expansion is part of the company's plans to invest 1 billion pounds in the United Kingdom in 2014 where it serves 19 million customers.

Vodafone Group Plc said on Thursday it would add 150 shops and create 1,400 jobs across the United Kingdom during the next 12 months in a 100 million pound investment.

The British group said the expansion is part of the company's plans to invest 1 billion pounds in the United Kingdom in 2014 where it serves 19 million customers.

Also Read: Vodafone agrees USD10 billion deal for Spain's Ono

Vodafone last year in June said that it would increase its UK expenditure by more than 50 percent to nearly 1 billion pounds.

The opening of the new shops will increase the total number of Vodafone's branded UK outlets to more than 500, the company said.

It plans to open first of the 150 stores in Notting Hill, Fulham, Walthamstow, Wembley, Ilford, Perry Barr and Bicester.

Vodafone is the third-largest mobile operator in Britain after EE, a joint venture between Orange and Deutsche Telekom, and Telefonica's O2.

British Prime Minister David Cameron supported Vodafone's plans.

"It is a sign that our long-term economic plan to create jobs and build a stronger, more competitive economy is working," he said in a statement.

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Will get Rs 215 cr via land sale; have strong pipeline: KEC

There is no particular reason for monetizing land assets, says Ramesh Chandak, managing director,  KEC International with reference to its Thane land deal with Tata Housing .

Chandak says the company got a good deal from Tata Housing and will garner about Rs 212-215 crore from the same.

On whether the sale was done to lower debt levels, Chandak says the company is comfortable with its book position.

"Our debt equity is good. We are at 1.2. So we don't have any shortage of funds. The land was lying without any use. We have already invested in Baroda so there wasn't any particular reason for doing this," explains Chandak.

Below is the edited transcript of the interview to CNBC-TV18.

Anuj: I wanted some clarity on your land deal which you announced. Can you tell us the kind of money that you will be getting and the kind of money your profit and loss will be getting and when will this get reflected?

A: This is the land which we had for RPG Cable in Thane and we had little more over seven acres of land. We have been able to get about Rs 29 crore per acre. So, the approximate value will be about Rs 214 crore depending on the actual calculation of the land but in that ballpark number of between Rs 212-215 crore.

We had anyway closed the factory sometime ago and the intention was really to sell that land. We were able to get a good deal from Tata Housing. The deal will get completed in about three months and by that time the deal should be closed but we have already signed an agreement to sale and have also registered it.

Ekta: Any more land deals such as these which are lined up for the company and the reason behind monetisation of the land at this particular time?

A: There is no particularly reason for monetizing this land because this is a land available which was vacant and we already started a plant in Baroda, we have invested money there so the intention was really to monetize this so that our borrowing can come down because we had borrowed money for putting a plant in Baroda. So naturally it will reduce the borrowing level of the company.

We don't have any other land parcel which is for sale as of now, this was the one parcel which was available which is clearly surplus and we had no use at this point of time. And there is no particular reason that we are going to use these funds anywhere else, simply these funds will go in reducing the borrowing only.

Ekta: IIFL believes that your international order book going forward will look quite robust, can you just give us a sense on how exactly the order inflow is panning out on an international basis and margins based on that as well?

A: Today we have an order book of more than Rs 10500 crore which is roughly 50 percent international and 50 percent domestic and that has been our trend. So, it is not that we got more orders in international markets and less in India. In both the locations we have been able to secure very good orders despite whatever market exists. So we had some good gains in Tanzania, in Saudi Arabia, in Indonesia etc. Hence, we are seeing that in bits and pieces there are good tenders coming in.

We are still seeing lot of flow of the tenders in international market and since our spread is very good, that helps us really to expand our business internationally and that is really helping us to grow that business.

This is also the reason that in the last two years the cycle was down, our sales have been growing regularly. If one really looks at the last five years, our CAGR is more than 19 percent. So, I think we have been able to capture the opportunity wherever it comes. In many countries we have gone for the first time.

Ekta: How is the balance sheet for KEC International looking at this point in time? What would your debt levels stand at this point, what are your working capital needs and are there any plans in terms of reduction of it going into FY15 quite aggressively?

A: Our debt equity is very good, it is around 1.2 so debt-equity is not very bad. We don't have a shortage of funds, we have enough bank limits. Since we have monetized these assets, naturally our debt will go further down and to some extent the borrowing will come down because that is what will happen.

But the intention was not that because the debt level is higher and we wanted to monetize the asset. It is just happening that way but our debt levels are just normal, there is nothing abnormal in the debt level, our working capital cycle is one of the best in the industry, our net working capital is less than 90 days. So overall we have no pressure on the balance sheet as far as our funds are concerned. But on the contrary this Rs 200 crore inward monetisation will definitely help us to further improve the position.

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