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A visit of PepsiCo Chairman and CEO, Ms Indra Nooyi, and all its top executives, merits a announcement such as a $500-million investment over the next three years to triple business in the next five years in India.“Looking forward, as a tangible sign of our continued confidence in India, I am delighted to announce that we expect to invest $500 million over the three years, with a goal to triple our business here. This represents a substantial acceleration of our business here,” said Ms Nooyi addressing a press conference in Gurgaon on Sunday.

The money would be spent on expanding manufacturing capacity and adding new facilities and further building marketing infrastructure, as well as for sustainable initiatives and R&D, said PepsiCo India’s CEO, Mr Sanjeev Chada.

Consumers can look forward to new fortified and flavoured water over the next 12 months and more offerings from its Quaker portfolio. PepsiCo will also look to bring in the “good for you” products and ideas that have helped its portfolio elsewhere to shift away from a predominantly “treat for you” or comfort food bias. India ranks among the company’s top ten markets overall in dollar terms. In purchasing power parity terms it would be counted among the top 5-6 markets, and is a very substantial one whose prospects the company was bullish about, said Ms Nooyi.

She was accompanied by Pepsico’s senior leadership team that included Vice-Chairman and Pepsico International CEO, Mr Michael D. White, and Mr Saad Abdul-Latif, President South Asia, Middle East and Africa (SAMEA) Region.

The Pepsico Executive Committee (PEC) is to meet here on Monday.

The three-day India visit is to give the 26 business leaders a first hand insight into “what makes India tick, its history, politics culture and most importantly cuisine.”

Source:Business line dated: 22-09-08

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Reliance Industries will be ready to sell gas from its Krishna Godavari offshore basin from the January-March quarter next year.Commercial production of gas from the D6 block in the KG basin would start from January-March quarter, said Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL, at a news conference on Sunday called to announce the commencement of oil production from the block.

Mr Ambani said the crude, which started flowing on September 17, is now stabilised at 5,000 barrels a day, and would be scaled up to 5.5 lakh barrels of oil equivalent a day over the next four to six quarters. This would account for 40 per cent of domestic output. Gas would account for 90 per cent of production from the D6 block, and crude the rest.

The gas from the D6 block is currently being injected back. By fiscal 2010, oil and gas would contribute 25 per cent of the RIL’s profits, against 2 per cent currently.

Source: Business line dated: 22-09-08

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While the collapse of the US-based investment bank Lehman Brothers may not have a direct impact on Indian banks, some of them may face marginal losses due to their exposures to the US bank.The biggest private bank in the country, ICICI Bank, has the largest exposure. It has invested €57 million, (approximately $80 million) in senior bonds of Lehman Brothers. The investment is through the UK subsidiary, ICICI Bank UK PLC, and the bank has already made a provision of about $12 million against investments in these bonds, said Ms Chanda Kochhar, the bank’s Joint Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer.

The investment in Lehman Brothers bonds constitutes less than 1 per cent of the bank’s UK subsidiary’s assets and less than 0.1 per cent of ICICI group’s total assets, she said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

“Considering a 50 per cent recovery estimate, the additional provision required would be about $28 million. There is no other material impact on ICICI Bank or ICICI Bank UK PLC on account of exposure to Lehman Brothers,” she said.

Some Indian banks which have overseas operations have an exposure to Lehman Brothers, but as the amounts involved are negligible, the impact is likely to be minimal, banking analysts said.

Among the public sector banks, State Bank of India has an exposure of $ 5 million to Lehman through one of its foreign offices, said a senior official from the bank.

Bank of India has an exposure of about $10 million to FRNs (Floating Rate Notes) of Lehman Holdings, (which has gone bankrupt) and about $20 million thorugh CLN (Credit Linked Notes) to a Lehman subsidiary which has not been affected, said Mr T S Narayanasami, Chairman and Managing Director, BoI.

“There will be a hit, but we will know only as time evolves. We will have to make some provision,” he said.

Bank of Baroda has an exposure of $10 million (approximately Rs 47 crore) to CLNs (Credit Linked Notes) issued by Lehman Brothers, said a senior official of the bank.

Axis Bank has an exposure of about $1 -$ 1.5 million to Lehman Brothers, through a marked-to-market forex counter-party deal, which is maturing sometime in 2009-2010, said a senior official from the bank. “The exposure of Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India is immaterial. The only bank to be the most impacted would be ICICI Bank, but they too have exited a large part of their portfolio consisting of international clients and are now concentrating on the domestic portfolios”, said a banking analyst with a brokerage.

Source:Business line dated:17-09-08�

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