AU Optronics is the first major Taiwanese LCD screen manufacturer that is going to build an advanced LCD factory in China. It is planned to build a 7.5-generation LCD panel factory for US$3 billion in Kunshan, China. The company will be able to spend $1.2 billion of its own money and the rest part it is going to take from local financing.

Last month the Taiwanese government eased rules concerning technology investments, such decision was made in order to compete with South Korea. One should say that Taiwanese LCD makers hold the second position in the global LCD panel business. Last year Seoul finally allowed its two big LCD makers to build advanced LCD factories in China.

Now companies are able to make investments or even transfer advanced technologies to China. The island takes a lot of efforts to stick to U.S. regulations related to technology transfer to China as well as other nations lagged as a danger under the Wassenaar Arrangement.

Taiwanese politicians and companies understand that China has over one thousand missiles targeted at the island, moreover, a couple of times it said that it would invade Taiwan in case the island decides to become independent.

According to AU, it is still going to continue to invest in new LCD panel production in Taiwan.

New Delhi, March 15  The state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), India’s third-largest lending institution, will soon set up an IT susidiary to provide technology-related assistance to the country’s growing financial sector.

“We have the technical know-how in the area of financial services and we want to share this know-how. So we applied for permission and the finance ministry has given its nod for an IT subsidiary,” said the bank’s chief general manager, R.I.S. Sidhu.

“Now we are working out the finer details about the level of investment required, the mode of financing the project and the number of people we should employ for this project,” Sidhu told IANS.

“What we are sure about is that it will be a 100-percent subsidiary.”

According to the senior official, several of the initial recruits for this new project will be drawn from the parent bank and their number could be in the region of 50-odd engineers.

“These will be people who are already working 100 percent on core banking system.”

Punjab National Bank also boasts of 100 percent computerization, covering all the branches, including 2,000 in rural areas, to provide ‘anytime anywhere’ services to all customers.

Among the other plans, Punjab National Bank had recently announced that it has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to open a representative office in Australia and proposes to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Canada by December.

It also has plans to have its footprint in other overseas destinations, notably South Africa, Ghana and Indonesia. It already has a presence in Hong Kong, Dubai, Kazakhstan, Britain, Shanghai, Singapore, Kabul and Norway.

As on March 31, 2009, it had assets of Rs.2,469 billion ($50 billion) making it the third largest bank in the country after the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, but second in terms of branch network.

State-owned steel major Steel Authority of India (SAIL) today said it has hiked steel prices by Rs 500 a tonne, effective from February 1.

“SAIL has increased the prices of its flat steel products (primarily used by automobile and consumer durable industries) by Rs 500 a tonne, effective from February 1,” a company spokesperson said.

There is no change in prices of long steel products, consumed mainly by the infrastructure and construction firms.

The spokesperson said priced were hiked following firming global trend and rising demand in the domestic market.

SAIL had last month ruled out any reduction in domestic steel prices in the near-term citing improvement in the demand scenario and rising input costs.

Steel firms, including Tata Steel and SAIL had increased prices of their different products by up to Rs 4,500 a tonne in the past two months, raising inflationary concerns and prompting the government to term the price hike as speculative.

Domestic steel price is in the range of Rs 26,000-35,000 tonne.

Swinging into the black, media conglomerate Time Warner has reported a profit of $627 million in the last three months of 2009, led by good performance of films like ‘The Blind Side’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes’.

The entity had incurred a loss of $16.03 billion in the same period a year ago, it said in a statement today.

Time Warner’s revenues jumped to $7.32 billion in the December quarter, compared to $7.16 billion in the year-ago period.

In the fourth quarter, the film entertainment division, Warner Bros, saw revenues rise 7 per cent to $3.3 billion.

The rise was “led by a strong theatrical release slate, including The Blind Side and Sherlock Holmes, higher home video revenues from the performances of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Hangover…,” the statement noted.

Revenues from the Networks division — comprising Turner Broadcasting and HBO — grew 4 per cent. The rise was mainly on account of 11 per cent jump in subscription revenues to $194 million.

Time Warner’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said the firm’s studio and networks achieved record profits, while investing even more in programming and production.

In 2010, Bewkes said the company would continue to leverage its brands and scale to make “the most compelling content”, improve efficiency and expand internationally, among others.

IT hardware and mobile phone company Intex Technologies is aiming 35 per cent revenue from the cellphone segment next fiscal on the back of new launches.

“We are looking to achieve aggressive growth from mobile segment as the mobile handset market is very large and is expanding…We have plans to have 35 per cent revenue from mobile segment, up from 25 per cent at present…Which will also be supported by new launches,” the company’s Executive Vice Chairman, Ramesh A Vaswani told PTI today.

Intex attained sales of Rs 466 crore in 2008-09 at a growth rate of 46 per cent and is expecting to clock Rs 625-650 crore by the current fiscal-end. For 2010-11, the company is looking to touch turnover of mark of Rs 950-1,000 crore.

Intex gets 25-30 per cent revenue from  mobile and computer peripherals respectively and the rest from PC and consumer electronics.

The company is focusing on introducing low and mid-end GSM and CDMA mobile phones in the market between Rs 1,500 and Rs 6,000. “We are launching 4 to 5 mobile sets every month under the brand of Intex to tap the booming mobile handset market,” he said.

The firm has also decided to set up new unit with Rs 5 crore outlay at Baddi to assemble mobile phones, manufacture electronic items and IT items, Vaswani said.

The company also plans to start exporting its products like mobile and computer peripherals to Saarc countries, Vietnam, Mauritius, Malaysia and Fiji, Vaswani added.

Birla Edutech Limited, part of Yash Birla Group, is aiming to open 200 schools besides from 20 Teachers Training Institutions (TTI) in the country in the next three years.

The schools will be either company owned or In partnership with others, CEO, Birla Edutech Srikrishna said here today.

“Each school requires around Rs 2-crore to Rs 3-crore. We need Rs 2,000 crore to reach the goal,” Srikrishna said on the sidelines of inauguration of their first preschool “Globe Toters” here in association with a city based real estate company DRS Infrastructure.

He said that nearly 15 per cent Of the total schools will be company owned and rest on Partnership management.

Yash Birla, Chairman of the Yash Birla earlier in the meeting said, that they will be raising the funds through internal accrual, IPO and private equity.

He hinted that the Company might come for IPO in 24 to 36 months.

“We are planning to set up super specialty schools across the country. We are holding discussion with some of the institutions,” Srikrishna said.

The schools are targeted above average income group population and the fee range depending up on the city varies from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000.

Bulk drug maker IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (IOLCP) today reported over seven-fold increase in net profit at Rs 6.38 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, compared to the same period a year ago.

The company had reported net profit of Rs 85 lakh for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, IOLCP said in a statement.

During the third quarter of the current financial year, the company’s total income rose to Rs 85.97 crore, an increase of 27.7 per cent compared to Rs 67.32 crore for the same quarter last fiscal.

IOLCP is one of the largest manufacturer of Ibuprofen bulk drug in the country.

Reliance Money today launched a platform which would allow investors and traders unlimited trading facility at a fixed rate.

Executive Director of Reliance Securities Vikrant Gugnani said the new product ‘Trade Unlimited’ priced at Rs 6,000 would allow customers to trade at a competitive brokerage fee.

He said such accounts would be activated within 10-15 days of subscription and would remain valid for 90 days.

Gugnani said the present daily average trade on Reliance Money platform was Rs 1,600 crore.

With a subscription base of 9.5 lakh, the company was in the process of expanding the branch network, he said.

At present, the company has around 45,000 touchpoints and 3,000 outlets

Home appliances major Whirlpool Corp’s profit for the three months ended December 2009 more than doubled to $95 million, mainly bolstered by better sales and cost-cutting measures.

The company, which has a good presence in India, had a profit of $44 million in the same period a year ago.

In the 2009 December quarter, Whirlpool recorded net sales of $4.86 billion, an increase of 13 per cent as compared to the year-ago period.

“Results were favourably impacted by cost reduction and productivity initiatives and increased sales volume,” the firm said in a statement today.

In the last three months of 2009, Whirlpool Asia reported sales of $188 million, a rise of 34 per cent as against the comparable period.

“The company anticipates full-year 2010 industry unit shipments in Asia to be up 3 per cent to 5 per cent compared to 2009 levels,” the statement noted.

Whirlpool’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff M Fettig said last year, the company significantly improved its global cost structure and operating performance despite a substantial decline in global demand levels.

“We have positioned the company to deliver strong earnings growth despite a continued challenging economic backdrop in the developed economies.

“Cost reduction, cash flow generation and balanced market execution remain key operating priorities,” Fettig added.

ARSS Infrastructure Projects plans to raise Rs 103 crore through its initial public offer (IPO) scheduled to hit the market on February 8.

The price-band for the IPO has been fixed between Rs 410-450, a release issued here said.

ARSS Infrastructure is engaged in construction of roads, highways, bridges, irrigation projects, and EPC activities for railways in the country.

The company proposes to use Rs 50 crore from the IPO proceeds for investments to form joint ventures and for projects which have not yet been awarded to the company, the release said.

“ARSS expects to generate profits by execution of projects as a result of such investments and work orders that would be received through credentials of joint venture partners,” the release said.

Proceeds of the IPO would also be used for working capital purposes.

The company clocked a revenue and Profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 628 crore and Rs 51 crore in FY 09.

For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2009, ARSS Infrastructure Projects has already notched a revenue of Rs 609 crore and PAT of Rs 50 crore.

The company also has an order-book of Rs 2,877 crore as on January 10.