Author: CP

Air express and courier firm Blue Dart Express said today, that it plans to invest about Rs 1000 crore in the short- to medium-term to expand its air infrastructure. The company will expand its aircraft fleet, add material handling equipment and ramp up ground handling facilities.

The company now operates four Boeing 737s and two Boeing 757s. Blue Dart also plans to launch a new ground express service which will expand its capacity to 17,500 locations from 14,600 locations now.

Blue Dart Express is South Asia’s leading integrated air express carrier and premium logistics-services provider. The company has the most extensive domestic network covering over 14,000 locations, and services more than 220 countries and territories worldwide through sales alliance with DHL, the global brand name in express distribution services.

ICRA and Indian Overseas Bank, a premier nationalised bank headquartered in Chennai, have signed a MoU under which the company will assign ratings to the Bank’s loans and its other exposures under the standardized approach of RBI’s new capital adequacy framework for basel-II. Last week we had reported in news flash that ICRA would rate loans of India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India.

The MoU between ICRA and the Bank seeks to deliver benefits to the Bank as well its clients. For the Bank, ICRA’s line of credit ratings would assist in implementing RBI’s new capital adequacy framework under basel-II. For the client, an ICRA rating may place the rated entity in a superior position in terms of faster loan processing and to obtain competitive credit terms from the Bank.

Motilal Oswal stock was listed at Rs 970 a 17% premium to its offer price. At the current price of Rs 970, PE works to 37.30, based on the consolidated year ended March 2007 EPS of Rs 26. All the Financial Firms / Stock Broking stocks listed on the BSE had a steep jump yesterday. Book Partial profits now. Operators in this counter are strong and they will take the stock to higher orbit.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL) is the Motilal Oswal group’s holding company with stake in four group companies: Motilal Oswal Securities (MOSL – the stock broking arm), Motilal Oswal Commodities Brokers (MOCB – the commodity business arm), Motilal Oswal Venture Capital Advisors (MOVC – the venture capital advisory arm) and the Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors (MOIAPL – the investment banking arm).

Moser Baer India has announced the launch of its Optical Disk Drive (ODD) i.e. Combo drive and writer, which also marks the company’s foray into the PC peripherals industry. The company in partnership with Taiwan’s Philips & Lite-On Digitil Solutions tarp., the world’s largest OEM / ODM optical disc drive manufacturer has launched their ODDs in India in the name of ‘Moser Baer-Lite-on’.

Having established itself as a global leader in the high technology manufacturing space and the global blank optical storage media industry, the company is now leveraging upon its existing synergies, established brand equity and large distribution network in the domestic market to enter the PC Peripherals market.

The company brand is recognized for high quality products which the company now plans to extend into the fast growing PC Peripherals market in India, given its credibility amongst the drive manufacturers. The company plans to enter this market by launching products in five metros and create a niche for itself.