MADHAVPURA CHIEF FOR MERGER WITH PSU BANK

28th July 2004: Jairambhai Patel, the chairman of the ill-fated Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB) said that MMCB should be merged with any of the three nationalised banks, State Bank of Saurashtra, Dena Bank or Bank of Baroda. These banks have strong presence in Gujarat. It is in accordance with amalgamation scheme of Global Trust Bank with Oriental Bank.

Mr. Patel said in a statement, “It has become inevitable for the Central government to protect the interest of large depositors and several co-operative banks, which have deposit more than Rs 700 crore with MMCB as the deadline for MMCB revival is to expire on August 24,’04”.  He also criticised the RBI’s role in resolving cp-operative banks’ crisis in Gujarat.

Mr. Patel suspected that the RBI has kept prejudiced approach between co-operative banking sector and private banking sector to solve crisis.

Sebi clears UTI's merger with IL&FS schemes

29th May 2004: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has okayed the proposal of UTI Mutual Fund with IL&FS schemes. The original identity of the IL&FS schemes will be held by the UTI Mutual Fund. UTI MF will market the IL&FS schemes and all the schemes of the latter will be absorbed by them. Of the eleven IL&FS schemes, at least three have no UTI equivalents. These are IL&FS Floating Rate Fund, IL&FS Dynamic Equity Fund and IL&FS Global India. All three will get absorbed without any changes. The IL&FS bond fund has been doing much better than the UTI MFs Bond Fund and therefore is original identity will be retained. IL&FS MF has an index fund, different from UTI MF’s, since it has a dividend option. UTI has no plans to tinker with this fund. IL&FS’s equity scheme will continue in its current form. With the approval of SEBI, formal messages are to e sent to investors across the nation.

IBM to buy Daksh for Rs 650-800 crores

8th April 2004: IBM has decided to buy out Daksh eServices, the third largest business process outsourcing company in the country, for about Rs 650-800 crores. This would be the largest M&A deal in the Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. This deal would add 6,000 employees to IBM’s 9,000 workforce in India and also big-ticket clients like Amazon.com and Citimortgage. Daksh had revenues of $30 million in 2002-03 and expected to notch up a turnover of $50-55 million in 2003-04. The acquisition would hurl IBM into the top two in the third-party outsourcing segment, close to Wipro Spectramind. IBM had recently struck a $750 million deal with telecom major Bharti Tele-Ventures for outsourcing its IT management services. The acquisition of Daksh will enhance IBM’s business transformation capabilities in areas like customer relationship management and financial management services in industries like banking, insurance, retail, technology, telecommunications, and travel and transportation. It would also increase the scope of IBM’s global network of 22 business transformation delivery centres, adding capabilities in India and the Philippines. Daksh is on the verge of executing a major expansion plan and an initial public offer later this year. Daksh planned to take its employee strength to 10,000 in 2005 from the present 6,000. It expected to touch the $100 million mark in revenue by the end of the current financial year. Daksh’s clientele comprises a list of Fortune 500 companies that are market leaders in their domains.