Uber signs pact with Kempegowda International Airport
Taxi aggregator Uber has signed a pact with Kempegowda International Airport to provide people rides who land in the city from the airport. Through this pact, Uber will be given a dedicated parking area and pick-up zone called ‘U Zone’ located within the airport premises, the company said in a release. Stating that the U-Zone has been created to streamline traffic and reduce congestion at the pick up lanes, it said Uber executives will also be at the airport to help passengers find their cars easily and give them access to wi—fi in case they face network issues. Nate Solder Womens Jersey
The World’s Largest Oil And Gas Companies 2016: Exxon Is Still King
The past year hasn’t been kind to oil and gas companies, as sliding oil prices have eaten sharply into bottom lines and caused layoffs and bankruptcies across the industry. However, the titans of energy are still standing tall, even as their businesses are pressured. ExxonMobil remains the world’s largest oil company and No. 9 on Forbes’ Global 2000 list of the world’s biggest and most powerful public companies, as measured by a composite score of revenues, profits, assets and market value. While Exxon has managed to maintain its massive dividend program, it has slid two spots on our list and recently lost its perfect credit rating for the first time since the Great Depression. China’s state-controlled oil company PetroChina is the second-largest on our list and Chevron takes third place. Both companies have dropped considerably, though, falling nine spots and 12 spots on the Global 2000, respectively. The abundance of cheap oil is the culprit. While a barrel of crude has gone up and down in price this year, recently breaking $50 per barrel, it’s still a far cry from the $100-plus that it fetched in 2014. Earlier this year, oil bottomed in the low $30s. This has been particularly bad news for countries that depend on oil. State-owned oil companies are getting squeezed and in Russia, for instance, Gazprom (No. 53) has dropped a staggering 26 spots and Rosneft (No. 75) has fallen 16 spots. Albert Pujols Womens Jersey
Flipkart not the only firm to delay joining dates of recruits
E-tailer Flipkart’s move to defer joining dates of recruits picked during the last campus placement season from the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may have drawn flak, but it is not the only recruiter resorting to this ploy. InMobi, a leader in mobile advertising, has also deferred the joining date from July to November 2016. “We requested the company to reduce the delay by two months because we will be idle during the deferred period. But the officials said it was not possible,” an InMobi recruit from an IIT told The Hindu. “I didn’t request for any compensation, though. The company has guaranteed the job and so I am not worried,” the student added. IIM Ahmedabad responded to Flipkart’s decision to defer joining dates of placed students from June 2016 to December 2016 with a strongly worded communiqué tagging other major institutes like IIM Bangalore and IIM Lucknow. On its part, Flipkart has offered an additional joining bonus of Rs 1.5 lakh to all recruits for the delay. ‘Worried about delay’ “This is the first time in the last five years that a company is deferring the joining date. The students are worried about the delay by the company,” said Sapna Agarwal, head, career development services at IIM Bangalore. However, the scenario is different at IITs. “Every year, there are one or two companies that end up doing this. But even that shouldn’t happen. Some companies do it due to factors out of their control. For instance, if the company is shutting down, you can’t do anything. But otherwise, if companies have made a certain commitment, they have to abide by it,” said Anishya Madan, Industrial Liaison Officer from Training and Placement Cell, IIT Delhi. Aditya Gupta, who graduated from IIT Kanpur in 2013 with a job from Schlumberger, one of the world’s largest Oil Field Services company, recalled that his appointment was cancelled by the firm after several delays. A Flipkart recruit said some students have already started looking for other jobs while some are searching for internships for the break period. Wes Schweitzer Womens Jersey
How Alibaba won and lost a friend in Washington
In 2011, a respected anti-counterfeiting coalition in Washington escalated its fight against the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, saying its websites served as a 24-hour market “for counterfeiters and pirates” and should be blacklisted. Fast forward to 2016. The same lobbying group, the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, reversed its position. Alibaba had become “one of our strongest partners.” The group welcomed Alibaba as a member and invited its celebrated founder, Jack Ma, to be the keynote speaker at its spring conference in Orlando, Florida. This is the tale of how one of China’s corporate giants won and ultimately lost a friend in Washington, using legal methods long deployed by corporate America: money and influence. But those time-honored tools weren’t enough to defuse the deep loathing that has greeted one of communist China’s greatest capitalist success stories. Alibaba is at the forefront of China’s rise on the global stage, and the anxiety and suspicion that have greeted the company abroad are, to some extent, anxiety and suspicion about China itself. A month after it became the first e-commerce company to join the anti-counterfeiting coalition, Alibaba got kicked out. An Associated Press analysis of public filings shows that the coalition’s public comments shifted from criticism to praise as the personal and financial ties between Alibaba and the group deepened, even as other industry associations and the US and Chinese governments continued to take a harder line. A probe by the US Securities and Exchange Commission into Alibaba’s accounting practices and sales data, disclosed this week, has raised further questions about how the company does business. How Alibaba fares in Washington could help shape the global fight against counterfeiting and impact the expansion of one of China’s most prominent companies. Those who believe Alibaba intentionally profits from the sale of fakes fear the company could lobby its way out of having to make meaningful changes in the way it polices its platforms. That, critics say, would be a boon for the multibillion-dollar counterfeiting industry, which costs US companies money, can imperil consumers’ safety, and feeds an underground money-laundering industry for criminal syndicates. Alibaba was one of the first Chinese companies to play politics seriously inside the beltway, and may not have realized how even the smallest misstep can backfire, said Sean Miner, China program manager for the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Chinese firms are going to have a bigger spotlight on them,” he said. Miner said that as Alibaba tries to expand its global reach, “their reputation has preceded them. … Some Americans might think, `Why don’t you go home and fix the problems first?”‘ ALIBABA’S RICHES Alibaba began 17 years ago in the modest living room of a gutsy man with a history of failure. Jack Ma struggled in school, and even Kentucky Fried Chicken refused to hire him. Today, Alibaba is a $15.7 billion e-commerce ecosystem that supports the livelihoods of tens of millions of merchants. Some 423 million shoppers last fiscal year picked through the billion listings that Alibaba’s platforms host on any given day. Alibaba doesn’t sell any merchandise. It merely facilitates transactions, deriving much of its revenue from advertising. Alibaba’s core is Taobao, a Chinese consumer-to-consumer platform much like eBay, only bigger. The company also operates Tmall, which offers merchants, including Nike and Macy’s, official storefronts to consumers in China. Two export platforms, Alibaba and AliExpress, connect businesses in China with buyers around the world. Critics, among them some top brands and intellectual property lawyers, say Alibaba’s ecosystem has proven remarkably conducive to counterfeiting. They feared Alibaba’s inclusion in the anti-counterfeiting coalition would lend it undeserved credibility. In US court filings, Gucci America and other brands belonging to France’s Kering Group have accused Alibaba of knowingly profiting from the sale of fakes a charge Alibaba has dismissed as “wasteful litigation.” Alibaba and its advocates argue that the only way to fight counterfeiting is to fight together. The company says it works diligently to improve its systems, and that it proactively took down 120 million listings of suspicious products on Taobao last year. Still, it remains relatively easy to find knock-offs. Chat with a vendor on Taobao and the price of a Louis Vuitton Rivoli handbag listed at 15,200 yuan ($2,318) may magically drop to 980 yuan ($150). And despite the company’s repeated admonitions that it stands with brands in the global fight against fakes, skepticism reigns. MR MA GOES TO WASHINGTON After Robert Barchiesi, a gruff-talking former New York cop, took over the anti-counterfeiting coalition in 2008, the group took a hard line, singling out Alibaba and Taobao for facilitating the large-scale sale of fakes. The US Trade Representative listened, and placed Taobao on a blacklist of markets notorious for sales of fakes in 2008. Alibaba responded by ramping up its game in Washington. In 2012, Alibaba’s spending on lobbying shot up from $100,000 a year to $461,000, and has remained fairly steady ever since, according to Opensecrets.org. Among its lobbyists was James Mendenhall, former general counsel for the US Trade Representative. Mendenhall was part of a string of high-profile hires Alibaba would make, including a former chief of staff for the US Treasury and a former White House staffer who went on to GE Capital. In April, Alibaba announced a further expansion of its government affairs office in Washington, with three new hires with experience in the White House, the Commerce Department, Congress and several blue-chip US companies. The anti-counterfeiting coalition told the trade representative in 2012 that Taobao topped its list of concerns. “Advertisements for fakes of IACC member brands are often in the thousands and even millions,” the coalition wrote. By the end of 2012, Alibaba was off the notorious markets list anyway. The US Trade Representative commended Taobao for its “notable efforts” to work with rights-holders. The next year, the coalition signed an agreement with Taobao to expedite the removal of counterfeit goods through a pilot program it called MarketSafe. The coalition charged its members $12,500 last year to participate, on top of annual
Snapdeal to lay-off employees soon, confirms company sources
A performance improvement plan for 200 employees in February this year followed by a string of resignations by top executives recently – the sudden unrest brewing inside Snapdeal certainly shows not all is well within the company. Further validating this, credible sources from within Snapdeal have now confirmed to Business Insider that it is likely to show the door to several of its employees soon. The news has spread within the nooks and corners inside the company, and several employees who we got in touch with, say they are not happy with the way things have been unfolding in the past few months. Sources tell us that a layoff plan is certain, but it’s still not clear as to how many employees could be asked to leave and by when. However, unlike February when Snapdeal put 200 employees on a performance improvement plan which forced several to quit, but the company washed its hands off saying they didn’t sack anyone, sources say, this time around there will be no cover for them to take shield under because Snapdeal is looking at undertaking massive layoffs any time this year. Even as several reasons are being speculated for mulling to take this extreme step, as per sources, the Gurgaon-based company reportedly is wanting to cut costs, and therefore cracking the whip on its poor performers. It’s also being said that it is finding itself under tremendous pressure to keep its lead in the online marketplace segment where it’s facing stiff competition from its rivals Amazon and Flipkart India. Meanwhile, reacting to a story published by Economic Times earlier today regarding the company’s restructuring plans, Snapdeal denied reducing operations in any of its regional offices. A company spokesperson said: “Snapdeal strongly denies the ET report (dated 27 May, 2016) about Snapdeal reducing operations in any regional office, the report is baseless and misleading. We are witnessing strong growth across all our markets in the country. Our campus in Gurgaon and regional offices in 8 cities are staffed by highly experienced teams, who continue to drive excellence and growth in our business. We have recently added more members to our Mumbai and Bengaluru offices and we are in the process of doing the same at Chennai.” Matt Beleskey Jersey
Flipkart stake marked down 15.5% further by Morgan Stanley
This is the second consecutive markdown by Morgan Stanley, after it had marked it down by 27% in the previous quarter A Morgan Stanley managed mutual fund has further marked down the value of its shares in Flipkart by 15.5%, the fund has disclosed. Morgan Stanley has marked the value of their Flipkart shares at $87.9 per share as of March 2016, down from $103.97 per share as of December 2015 and down 38.2% from $142.24 per share as of June 2015. This is the second consecutive markdown by Morgan Stanley, after it had marked it down by 27% in the previous quarter. The markdown pegs Flipkart’s valuation at $9.39 billion, as compared to the $15.2 billion when it last raised capital in July 2015. This follows a series of markdowns by other mutual funds that own Flipkart shares. Two of Flipkart’s mutual fund investors Fidelity and Valic had further marked down the value of their holdings in the company by 20% earlier this month while a T Rowe Price-managed mutual fund had marked down their holdings by 15% last month. Morgan Stanley had picked up shares in Flipkart as a part of its series D round of funding in 2013, when the Bengaluru-based e-tailer had raised $360 million in two tranches. It had also picked up additional shares when Flipkart raised a massive $1 billion investment in August 2014. Flipkart’s other key shareholders include New York-based investment firm Tiger Global, South African media giant Naspers, Singapore sovereign wealth GIC, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global and early stage investment firm Accel. Last week, Flipkart co-founder and CEO Binny Bansal had told ET in an interview that these markdowns are “mostly a theoretical exercise by small investors”. “From our perspective, valuation is when we raise money. When we raise money, our value will be clear in the market” Bansal added. These markdowns however comes at a time when Indian Internet companies are facing a funding slowdown, after an exhuberant funding levels last year. Flipkart has been looking to raise a new round of funding since late 2015 to maintain its leadership position in India against rival Amazon’s onslaught that has infused at least Rs 6,700 crore since January 2015 into its India unit, with over half of that amount being invested since December. Flipkart co-founder and executive chairman Sachin Bansal had also hinted at a tougher financial climate earlier this month, but also attributed it to regular financial cycles. “The way I think about it is we need to keep our business interests ahead of everything else. We need to make sure the business is well capitalized and it is growing at a healthy pace. In long term, all these things wouldn’t matter. I would therefore keep my head down and keep executing. If the business needs funds, raise the minimum possible at the available terms and move on” Bansal said. In an interview with ET earlier this week, Binny Bansal said they have also now shifted focus towards customer loyalty, instead of obsessing about gross merchandise value, an industry metric usually associated as a proxy for sales. Last month, Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl said Snapdeal will also no longer rely on gross merchandise value and instead focus on adding and retaining high-quality users, who are essentially frequent shoppers purchasing high-margin products. Dominique Easley Authentic Jersey
States want AI to fly new routes between cities
Several State governments have asked Air India to look at launching virgin routes connecting different cities. These governments have also asked the airline to consider connecting their States with others, and begin routes from their cities to new global destinations. “Nagpur-Nashik, Raipur-Kolkata, Kolkata-Indore-Jabalpur, Kolkata-Raipur-Indore-Ahmedabad, Chandigarh-Dubai, Kolkata-Ahmedabad and connecting Andaman to Singapore and Bangkok are virgin routes, and were requested for in the meeting that we had with representatives of 16 States,” said Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India. The meeting was held here on Wednesday at the initiative of Air India as it looks to lease more small aircraft as part of plans to enhance its fleet to 100 aircraft in the next four years. The airline plans to lease the smaller propeller-driven ATR aircraft to enhance regional air connectivity that some States have requested. At the meeting, Karnataka requested the airline to look at connecting Mysore to Bengaluru, Puducherry and Goa, apart from connecting Chennai and Hubballi. State government officials pointed to the huge tourist interest in these cities to push their case. Lohani said the States were willing to provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) or their own funds so that the State-owned carrier does not operate these flights at a loss. “We will not require VGF for all the flights as potential does exist for many of the routes suggested. But where VGF is required, the States are willing to provide us funding,” he said. Andaman also requested that an ATR aircraft be stationed there so that it could be used to operate flights between the various islands which make up the Union Territory. Terron Armstead Womens Jersey
Jet Airways back in black in FY16
Riding on reduced expenses, Jet Airways has posted a profit of ?397 crore on a standalone basis for the quarter ended March 31, against a loss of ?1,728 crore in the comparable quarter of the previous year Income from operations increased 4 per cent to ?4,842 crore (?4,626 crore). For FY16, net profit was ?1,173 crore against a loss of ?1,813 crore in the previous year. Income from operations stood at ?19,556 crore (?18,044 crore). The company in a media statement said that the cost per available seat kilometre (CASK) excluding fuel dropped 3.2 per cent, which helped achieve operational efficiencies throughout its business. The better financial performance has enabled the company to reduce its debt by ?1,680 crore during FY16. Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal said in a statement that the airline has been revitalised over the past two years. The company’s focused efforts have resulted in significant improvement in operational performance. The Indian aviation industry is witnessing a growth phase but the competitive and structural challenges in the domestic market continue to exist. The induction of capacity and the enhanced competitive scenario are creating a constant pressure on yields, he added. John Greco Authentic Jersey
Air India to achieve fiscal targets two years in advance?
Air India hopes to report an operating profit in FY 2015-16, two years earlier than what had been envisaged in the original Turnaround Plan (TAP) approved by the Centre in April 2012. The airline has also advanced its projections for reporting a cash profit to 2017-18 from 2019-20, and hopes to report a profit after tax (PAT) in 2018-19, two years earlier than what was envisaged earlier in TAP (2021-22). While the operating profit is likely to be in the region of ?8 crore, sources indicated it would not be possible to share the other profit figures as these may change. The revised TAP and actual performance vis-a-vis TAP for the state-owned carrier were reviewed by its Board at its meeting here last week. During 2015-16, the airline’s yields were higher at ?5.02 in the domestic sector and ?3.66 in the international sectors than what had been laid down in the TAP. The Board asked the airline to work on increasing yields by 2-3 per cent annually, starting from fiscal year 2017 onwards. The revised TAP envisages an addition of 43 new aircraft between 2016-17 and 2019-20, apart from 12 wide body aircraft that would comprise six 787, three 777-300 Extended Range, and another three aircraft on dry lease. While the induction of the wide body aircraft will be substantially from the order placed by the airline with Boeing in 2005, the narrow body aircraft will be leased from the market. The airline is also planning to add 18 Boeing 737-800 and 35 ATRs in its subsidiary companies on dry lease. The acquisition plan envisages a net addition (after phase out) of 100 aircraft for AI and its subsidiary companies, to increase its market and capacity share both in the domestic and international markets. “The fact that global crude prices are down, the airline’s operating efficiencies have improved, and passenger loads are better than what was envisaged in TAP – have all helped advance the target date for achieving the financial goals, than what was earlier envisaged,” said a senior airline official, who wished not to be named. Besides, the decision to hive off the Air Transport Services Limited (AITSL) and Air India Charters Limited (AICL) has also paid dividends for Air India. AITSL, which provides ground handling services at airports around the country, reported a PAT of ?100 crore in 2014-15 and contributed ?62 crore to AI’s revenues. AICL is an Air India subsidiary that operates Air India Express. AI Express has a revenue share agreement with AI, which earned the parent ?325 crore in revenue, in 2014-15. The Board also noted that while Air India’s ‘On Time Performance’ on a network wide basis at 78.4 per cent was lower than the TAP target of 90 per cent, it was in line with what Star Alliance members were able to achieve. The airline was able to report a better passenger load factor of 75 per cent on its network during 2015-16, higher than the TAP target of 73 per cent. The domestic load factor was even higher at 79.8 per cent. The revised TAP has reset the target at 85 per cent on domestic routes and 80 per cent on international routes going forward. Jacques Plante Womens Jersey
ONGC Q4 profit jumps 12%
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s fourth quarter profit jumped 12% mainly on reversal of impairment loss as well as lower provisioning for dry wells. The state-run oil and gas producer’s profit rose to Rs 44.16 billion in three months to March despite a 24% contraction in revenue that slid to Rs 164.24 billion due to a sharp fall in oil prices. The company realized a net crude oil price of Rs 2354 ($34.88) per barrel in the quarter compared with Rs 3,463 ($55.63) a year ago. The fourth quarter profit was primarily driven by write backs of some impairment losses taken last quarter, lower provisioning for dry wells and the government taking over the burden of oil price discounts ONGC had provided to fuel retailers in the first half of 2015-16, A K Srinivasan, director (finance) said. ONGC wrote back about Rs 8.50 billion of impairment losses it took in the previous quarter as oil prices rebounded, boosting the value of the company’s assets. The company has used a crude oil price range of $40-54/barrel for valuing its assets for the purpose of impairment. The provision for dry wells was lower by Rs 6 billion while the government decision to take over most of ONGC’s oil subsidy burden for 2015-16 boosted quarterly profit by Rs 3.50 billion. An impairment of Rs 30 billion also swung ONGC’s overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, to a loss of Rs 20.94 billion for 2015-16, chairman Dinesh Sarraf said. This was probably the first loss for ONGC Videsh in a decade, Sarraf said. Sarraf declined comment on whether ONGC was in talks to acquire Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) or its key project in the KG basin off the eastern coast. ONGC currently has a cash reserve of Rs 140 billion. Sarraf said the company would evaluate marginal fields’ data and bid in the auction that was launched on Thursday. Most of 67 marginal fields were discovered by ONGC but not developed for years, prompting the government to take over these fields and put up for auction. Glen Rice Authentic Jersey