Two years after buying Virgin Radio and re-branding it as Absolute Radio in the UK, The Times of India-controlled radio station has reported a 62 per cent rise in pre-tax loss to £4.3 million for calendar year 2009. The station owners blamed recession and rebranding for this rise in losses and fall in overall revenues by a third under the new management. Revenue fell to £14.8 million from £22 million. In 2008, pre-tax loss was at £2.65 million. The radio station changed hands in mid-2008, when the India-based publishing conglomerate bought it from the Richard Branson-controlled Virgin Group (Scotish Media Group) for £53.2 million without the “Virgin” brand name. The current owner, TIML, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd, the ultimate owners of The Times of India and other group publications. The new owner, however, is bullish about the coming months, and said revenues had started to look up as September revenues were reported to be up by 20 per cent. The station said its growth in revenues came at a time when the national advertising market was down by three per cent. Commenting on the results, Donnach O’Driscoll, CEO, said, “The heavy lifting is now behind us. We look forward to building on the strong growth shown in the most recent audience figures and we are optimistic about 2011.” Absolute said costs were down by 22.5 per cent, or £5.6 million, to £19.1 million in 2009. Wages were reduced from £4.76 million in 2008 to £3.4 million in 2009 as a result of the number of staff falling from 105 in 2008 to 90 in 2009. Cash used in operations was just £1.6 million, reflecting a combination of non-cash items and a strong working capital management performance. “The past two years have seen Absolute Radio Network reposition itself as it drives towards a digital future, reporting a 33 per cent increase in digital listening and considerable progression in digital online and mobile year on year. It continues to invest consistently in premium audio content to build audiences and drive new revenue streams,” an operational note from the station said. |
Friday, October 29, 2010
Absolute Radio's loss swells 62%
Ed Miliband is new Labour Party head
He won with 50.65 per cent of party-member votes, defeating his elder brother David Miliband (49.65), four years his senior, by a wafer-thin margin. The result was announced late last evening at Manchester. “I joined the party when I was 17. Never in my wildest imagination did I believe that one day I will lead this party,” he said, while addressing party members and supporters. In the final run up to the election, five candidates were in the fray. Diane Abbott (first Afro-Caribbean woman to contest for the party leadership), Ed Ball, former education minister, Andy Burnham and the Miliband brothers. The voting took four rounds to decide the the leader, though a knock-out system. It saw Abbott leave the fray first, followed by Burnham, Balls and finally David Miliband. Ed Miliband’s success was to a large extent made possible by the backing of the unions. He takes over as leader at a difficult time for the Labour party. It is barely recovering from a defeat in this year’s general election, after a 13-year reign under first Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown. Speaking at the Andrew Marr show on BBC this morning, he said unity and humility were the key to the party’s future and it must blame itself for the defeat in the recent general election, not blame the electorates. Ed Miliband is the son of Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband (whose father fled from Belgium during the second world war; he was earlier from Warsaw, Poland). He studied in Oxford and the London School of Economics, joining the Labour party when 17. He gradually rose to the position of cabinet minister in October 2008 (he was first elected to Parliament in 2005), when he was appointed minister for the then newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change. He held this charge till the general election defeat. Accepting the leadership office, he first paid rich tribute to his brother (who was foreign minister till the Brown government stepped down) and said, “David, I love you so much as a brother. And, I have such extraordinary respect for the campaign that you ran. The strength and eloquence that you showed. And, you taught us the most important lesson. Which is, we can be the party that reaches out to the community and we can also be a serious party of government again.” |
UK media slams New Delhi
Both The Times and The Guardian raised doubts over the games organisers’ ability to meet the deadline set for October 3, when the games will be declared open. The Guardian carried the picture of the bridge that collapsed near the main venue of CWG – Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium – injuring 27 workers with a provocative title. “Does this look ready to you?”. The Times carried the story of the fiasco surrounding the games as the only story on page one with a title ‘Games crisis grows as British stars pull out’. Even Business Secretary Vince Cable’s attacks on banks (which has a far more significant impact on the British economy) at his party’s annual conference was prioritised below the games story, highlighting Britain’s serious concerns over the Game’s preparedness. The tabloid-styled Daily Mail reported three of England’s top athletes pulling out of the game “as the chaotic £1.5 billion event edged closer to being cancelled”. Earlier, Olympic 400m gold medalist Christine Ohuruogu, world champion triple jumper Philips Idowu and Commonwealth 1,500m champion Lisa Dobriskey said they were pulling out of the games, citing the collapse of the footbridge as the reason for their decision, Daily Mail reported. UK’s most popular daily tabloid The Sun in a page 9 report dubbed the game as “Commonwealth shames”. Despite attempts by the organisers in fire fighting the media frenzy, the comment from Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fannell that it was the “biggest crisis in the Games’ history” helped in fuelling media speculation on the success of the games. |
India second-most challenging place for expats: Survey
S Kalyana Ramanathan / London September 18, 2010 It has emerged that India is the second-most difficult posting for expatriate managers to work in, according to a report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit today. The survey conducted in July this year covered 418 executives who had collectively worked in 77 different countries. It showed that 34 per cent believed working in India would qualify them for a special ‘hardship’ living allowance, next only to Nigeria (37 per cent). The hardship estimate is based on factors such as political stability, crime levels and quality of housing, health and education, according to the authors of the survey-based report. The survey also showed that India ranked third in terms of where the number of expatriate executives were coming from (21 per cent) and sixth in terms of where expatriate executives were heading for (16 per cent). More than a third of those polled were working in China (35 per cent). The survey also showed that a stint in a major emerging market scuh as India boosts careers. Although employers will not explicitly say so, employees believe working in a major market will make a big difference to the career. Around 80 per cent of those polled believe an assignment in a major emerging market will make the difference. Quoting Yvonne McNulty, Monash University, the report said, “Expatriate assignments used to be very much company-generated. Companies selected individuals. This tradition has now been turned on its head and many assignments are now self-initiated.”
Haroon Lorgat: Mr Clean
If formidable challenges help define a person’s real mettle, this is definitely the time for Haroon Lorgat to tell the world he means business. As CEO of International Cricket Council, this accountant-turned-management consultant-turned-PE firm founder has his plate full while the world of sports fans and sports managers wait to see if he will stand up to the big challenge. That challenge was a scathing report based on a sting operation by weekly tabloid News of the World from Rupert Murdoch’s stable that three Pakistani players were involved in a match fixing scandal during the fourth test match between England and Pakistan at Lords involving £150,000 changing hands. The ICC under Lorgat’s leadership lost no time in springing into action. Less than a week after this news broke, despite severe criticism by Pakistan Cricket Board and Pakistan High Commission in London, Lorgat along with colleague Ronnie Flanagan of ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit temporarily suspended the three players pending investigation not only by Scotland Yard, but also the ICC itself. Even before this, just two days into the scandal surfacing Lorgat went public and said, “Make no mistake — once the process is complete, if any players are found to be guilty, the ICC will ensure that the appropriate punishment is handed out. We will not tolerate corruption in this great game.” Born in South Africa, Haroon completed his BCom from Rhodes University and went to work for one of the Big Four accounting firms, where he trained to become a chartered accountant in 1985. After a brief stint at IBM, he set up his own consulting firm, which he merged into Ernst & Young. In June 2008, he became ICC’s CEO — only the third man to hold this office in the body’s 99-year old history. A cricket all-rounder himself, Logart has played 76 first class matches for his country. However, going by the widening scope of the current cricket scandal, this could prove his toughest innings so far. |
Monday, September 13, 2010
Vedanta set to source bauxite from Gujarat
| | S Kalyana Ramanathan / London September 13, 2010 Even as London-based mining and metals major Vedanta Resources struggles to procure bauxite from Niyamgiri in Orissa for its 1-million tonne capacity alumina project in the state, it has managed to find a new source of a slightly lower grade of bauxite in Gujarat. According to a senior Vedanta executive, the supply of bauxite from Gujarat should start this week. The Orissa alumina project needs about 3 million tonnes of bauxite to run at full capacity. An estimated 55 per cent of this already comes from Balco in Chhattisgarh and another 25 per cent from Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The remaining 20 per cent is expected to be met from Gujarat and in part from Maharashtra, said Mukesh Kumar, chief operating officer for Vedanta Aluminium Ltd in Lanjigarh, Orissa. The additional source of bauxite will cost Vedanta nearly four times that of procuring it from Orissa. The cost of bauxite from Orissa would have been Rs 600 a tonne, while the new source will cost company around Rs 2,400 a tonne. The difference is mainly due to the cost of transportation by sea from the west coast to the east coast and rail freight charges for the last mile by land. The cost of production, therefore, will escalate, but the company expects this to be only a temporary challenge and hopes to find a new source of bauxite within Orissa. The company has an agreement with state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation to feed its plant with bauxite ore. “The state is committed to this deal and we hope to resolve it soon,” said Kumar.
The bauxite from Gujarat is also of lower quality than what it would have been in Orissa. The alumina content in the bauxite in Gujarat is around 42 per cent, while the Niyamgiri ore has 44-47 per cent alumina content. Further, the silica content in the Gujarat ore is 3.5-4.2 per cent, or nearly four times that of the Niyamgiri ore. Every 0.1 per cent of additional silica in the ore means an additional 3-3.5 kg of caustic soda used in processing the bauxite, thus escalating the cost of refining. It may recalled that the Narendra Modi-led BJP state government had come to the rescue of Tata Motors when the company was unable to build its Nano small car project in Singur in West Bengal. The project was relocated o Sanand in Gujarat in October 2008. Until recently, the Gujarat government had a stated policy of not allowing bauxite to be shipped outside the state or overseas. This policy was changed two months ago to allow movement of ore within the country. Gujarat Mining Development Corporation floated three tenders in four months, but could not find buyers due to the lower quality of the state’s bauxite. Vedanta hopes to overcome this problem by mixing the Gujarat bauxite with better quality ores from other sources within the country. “We will blend it with bauxite from Chhattisgarh and Jharkand,” said Kumar. Like Posco’s steel project India, Vedanta is also a victim of the political tussle between the BJD government in Orissa and the Congress-led coalition at the Centre. The Orissa Mining Corporation, which has sought the Centre’s clearance to extract bauxite in the state, is a state government-owned company, with Vedanta only a buyer of the ore. Orissa has the largest source of bauxite in the country, with reserves in excess of 2,000 million tonnes. Nearly a third of these deposits are within a 40-km radius of Vedanta’s refinery. In the last 25 years, only 90 million tonnes of ore has been extracted in the state by central government-owned Nalco. | ||||||||||||||||
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Pak envoy sees Pawar's hand in ICC suspension
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, Wajid Hasan, today criticised International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat and President Sharad Pawar, saying he sensed a “conspiracy” behind the suspension of three Pakistani cricket players facing allegations of spot-fixing. He told the BBC that ICC intervention at such an early stage of investigation was uncalled for. Hasan said when the result of an investigation by Scotland Yard was pending, ICC had no authority to intervene at this juncture. He said even the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) could not take action or intervene when there is an ongoing inquiry. Later in the day, addressing a press conference in London, Lorgat dismissed a question that the action had been taken to keep Pakistan out of international cricket. Late last night, ICC had issued a statement saying that it has charged Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir with offences under its anti-corruption code, relating to allegations of spot-fixing during the fourth test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s last month. In an interview published today, Hasan also said that the Pakistani cricketers under investigation were pawns in a game of vendetta meted out by Indian bookies in Mumbai, who had a score to settle with Mazhar Majeed, the bookie in London first arrested and later released on bail by the British police. In an interview to The Daily Telegraph, Hasan claimed, “(Mazhar Majeed) was a bookie involved with Indian bookies in Mumbai. I think it is the Indian bookies that have used the sting operations to settle scores with this Majeed chap... probably because he has not kept his contract with them.” The spot-fixing scandal first broke early last month after a sting operation conducted by media baron Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid News of the World. ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat played down the conflict with the PCB, saying that Hasan had a right to his opinion and that ICC would question the players only after it gets a green signal from Scotland Yard. As the charges relate to the commission of a crime, Scotland Yard questions the players involved first. Lorgat today said, “We will not tolerate corruption in cricket — simple as that. We must be decisive with such matters, and if proven, these offences carry serious penalties up to a life ban. The ICC will do everything possible to keep such conduct out of the game, and we will stop at nothing to protect the sport's integrity. While we believe the problem is not widespread, we must always be vigilant. “It is important, however, that we do not pre-judge the guilt of these three players. That is for the independent tribunal alone to decide," Lorgat added. |