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BUSINESS

SNIPPETS
Cipla arm sells entire stake in Chinese firm
MUMBAI: Cipla, on Wednesday, said its wholly-owned

subsidiary Meditab Holdings entered into a denitive

agreement to sell its entire 48.22 per cent stake in
Chinese company Jiangsu Cdymax Pharmaceuticals
Company to an affiliate of one of the other shareholders
of Jiangsu for $18.5 million (around Rs.115 crore). In a
ling to the BSE, Cipla said the closing of the transaction
was subject to receipt of regulatory approvals in China.
Special Correspondent

Bharatiya Mahila Bank to expand network

COIMBATORE: Bharatiya Mahila Bank targets Rs.1,800-

crore business by the end of this scal. Bank Chairman

and Managing Director Usha Ananthasubramanian told
reporters here on Wednesday that the total business by
the end of March, 2014,
was Rs.190 crore. As of
now, the business had
increased to Rs.900
crore. The bank had
tied-up with micro
nance institutions to
fund self help groups.
Besides traditional
products such as
vehicle loans and car
loans, it offers womencentric products. The
bank plans to end the
current nancial year
Usha Ananthasubramanian with 80 branches. It
opened its 36th branch
here on Wednesday. The bank has now two branches in
Tamil Nadu. It also planned to start off-site ATMs and
launch mobile banking. It had over one lakh accounts and
82 per cent were held by women, she said. Special
Correspondent

Sensex gains 34 points

MUMBAI: Rebounding from over one-month lows,

benchmark Sensex on Wednesday closed 34 points

higher to end at 27831.10, snapping its three-day losing
trend. The wide-based 50-issue NSE Nifty also recovered
by 14.95 points to close at 8355.65. PTI

Rupee falls 14 paise

MUMBAI: At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex)

market, falling for the third day, the Indian currency on

Wednesday weakened by 14 paise to close at over oneweek low of 62.02 against the greenback on sustained
dollar demand from importers and fresh capital outows
from the previous close of 61.88. PTI

CM
YK

KOCHI

THE HINDU

Vikram Akula to take 26 %

stake in Vaya Finserv

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014

Major ports handle more

cargo in November

Working on preparing a small bank licence application

Special Correspondent
MUMBAI: Vikram Akula, founder and former Chairperson
of SKS Micronance, will pick
up 26 per cent stake in Vaya
Finserv Private Ltd., a nancial inclusion start-up.
The start-up company has
also appointed Mr. Akula as
Chairman of the start-up
company, Vaya said in a
release.
Vaya is a business correspondent that facilitates savings and loans for self-help
groups of women on behalf of
banks.
The company was founded
by former SKS Micronance
executives, and opened its
rst branch in July. It has

now 23 branches with 183

employees across six districts
of eastern Maharashtra and
northern Karnataka.
Now that my three-year
non-compete period is over, I
was looking to get back to nancial inclusion, said Mr.
Akula, adding, I chose to join
Vaya because it is focused on
under-banked districts, it has
a great team, and it uses a
next-generation technology
platform that will become the
future of nancial inclusion.
We are working with our
advisors on preparing a small
bank licence application,
said Mr. Akula.
Vaya is the rst business
correspondent to use tablet
banking in the eld. The eld

face seamlessly with core

banking systems to ensure
daily cash settlement with
partner banks, it added.
The Reserve Bank of India
had released nal guidelines
for small banks and payment
banks on November 27 and
sought applications byJanuary 16 from those interested
in applying for a small bank
licence.
Mr. Akula said Vaya was also having an option to apply
for payments bank licence.
In terms of strategy, Vaya is
focused on under-banked areas. Other than Mr. Akula, inVikram Akula
vestors in Vaya include
officers tablets connect to a individual high networth incentralised online system vestors, SKS Trusts and Vaya
that has the ability to inter- employees.

Schwing Stetter to sell tower cranes

Special Correspondent
CHENNAI: Schwing Stetter India, on Wednesday, announced its foray into
material handling industry.
The expansion will see the
ready-mix concrete equipment maker selling tower
cranes of XCMG, a Chinabased global construction
equipment maker that has
now majority control of Germany-headquartered
Schwing group, in the Indian
market.
The plan to sell XCMGs
tower cranes, which will be
able to lift heavier loads,
comes on the back of a rising

country. We found an opportunity to ll a gap in this industry, which has only a very
few players.
There is no pan-India
player in this category. Also,
this foray provides us a synergy as we have been working
with a number of builders
across the country. So, this
existing customer base presents a huge opportunity to
sell tower cranes, Anand
Sundaresan, Vice-Chairman
&
Managing
Director,
Schwing Stetter India Pvt
Anand Sundaresan
Ltd., said here.
demand for mechanisation of
It has unveiled two prodconstruction activities in ucts 5-tonne (with free
high-rise projects in the standing height of 35 metres)

& 6-tonne (45 metres) tower

cranes. These products will
be priced at Rs.60 lakh and
Rs.90 lakh, respectively.
V G Sakthikumar, Managing Director, Schwing Stetter
Sales & Services Pvt Ltd., the
sales and service arm for all
products of the group in India, said the company would
import the cranes in the initial period. But, it would focus
on producing it locally with
higher localisation as early as
possible.
Total size of tower crane
market is estimated at 700
units a year. Schwing aims to
sell 50-100 units of its new
cranes in the rst year.

N. Anand
CHENNAI: Backed by coal and

fertilizers, 12 major ports in

India handled 48.55 million
tonnes of cargo during October 2014 against 43.98 million
tonnes
in
the
corresponding period last
year.
Barring Haldia Dock Complex and New Mangalore Port
Trust, all the other ports recorded a growth of 5.33 per
cent against 4.64 per cent in
October 2014.
The total cargo handled by
these ports from April to November 2014 touched 384.59
million tonnes against 365.11
million tonnes for the yearago period.
Though the Shipping Ministry had set a target of 604.45
million tonnes of cargo for
2014-15 for the major ports,
the current output is less than
two-third of actual target. Going by the current trend,
Kamarajar Port (formerly
Ennore Port) and Mormugao
Port might hit the target
ahead of schedule. As the port
sector has been recording average monthly growth of
about 50 million tonnes, it
might not be easy to surpass

the target, say industry

observers.
During the eight-month
period, Mormugao Port,
Kamarajar Port and V.O. Chidambaranar Port posted double-digit growth of 22 per
cent, 16 per cent and 10 per
cent, respectively. Compared
with the previous month,
there was a tremendous variation in the cargo handled by
Kolkata Dock System, Chennai Port Trust and Kandla
Port.
On the container front,
these ports handled 5.3 million twenty-foot equivalent
units (TEUs) against 4.9 million TEUs, marking an increase of 8.3 per cent. The
growth in other cargo was 12
per cent. The variation in import of petroleum, oil and lubricants compared to the
previous month was 1.36 per
cent.
Iron ore was handled by six
major ports. There was a 29
per cent drop in iron ore volume handled by the ports of
Kolkata, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, New Mangalore and
Mormugao during November. Kandla saw an increase of
16 per cent in its iron ore
handling.

KI-TRKM