FinXpress

Company in Focus:

The Royal Bank of

Scotland

2

StartUp in focus:

Lakshya

3

Markets this Week 4

News of the Week 5

CAN YOU SOLVE IT? 7

AUGUST 28, 2011

Institute Of Management Technology

Ghaziabad

Sources of Data:

HDFCsecurities

Economic Times

The Hindu

Rediff Money

MoneyControl.com

Financial Express

Indiapetro

IOCL

Inside this issue:

LIVING UPTO

ROYAL

STANDARDS

REINVENTING EDUCATION

About the Royal Bank of Scotland Group In 300 years, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has grown to become one of the largest financial services groups in the world. Their brands operate around the globe to provide banking services for individuals, businesses and institu-tions while remaining committed to innovation and service. The RBS Group uses branding developed for the Bank on its merger with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland in 1969. The Group's logo takes the form of an abstract symbol of four inward-pointing arrows known as the "Daisy Wheel" and is based on an arrangement of 36 piles of coins in a 6 by 6 square, representing the accumulation and concentration of wealth by the Group. The Group serves a variety of medium to large enterprises, including multi-national corporations (MNC) and financial institutions. They offer integrated consumer and business banking services such as transaction banking, risk management, investment banking, private banking and asset management. About RBS India In 2007, the Group strengthened its presence across the globe through the purchase of several parts of the Dutch bank, ABN AMRO, including their businesses in India. RBS India offers an unparalleled suite of client services in India. Using their global reach and drawing on the expertise of their team of research, sales and trading, equity capital market and mergers & acquisitions (M&A) advisory professionals, they have led many of the biggest and most innovative landmark transactions in India for their Corpo-rate and Institutional Clients. Services They offer a broad range of transaction banking, fixed income and foreign exchange products and services, including sales and trading, fixed income origination, derivatives, structured lending and commodity financing. Product Offerings including personal loans, credit cards, savings accounts, financial planning, investment and insurance services, to meet the everyday financial needs of over a million Personal Banking clients in India. Asset Management is among the fastest growing asset managers, with just two years of operations in the country. They have ever-increasing distribution and aim to emerge as a leading player in the Indian asset management industry. Leveraging the Group's comprehensive research and diverse range of investment products, They offer their clients investment options in fixed income, equities, money markets and structured products. Microfinance program is the largest amongst its peer foreign banks in India aimed at delivering credit to our target community of impoverished rural woman through intermediaries called microfinance institutions. Facts RBS sponsored the Williams F1 team from 2005 until the end of 2010. They also were the title sponsor for the Canadian Grand Prix from 2005 until the end of 2008. They have supported tennis player Andy Murray since he was

aged 13.RBS sold its retail and commercial banking operations to HSBC in 2010.

Page 2 FinXpress

Company in Focus : The Royal Bank of Scotland

Lakshya is a very interesting start-up in the education industry. It serves the informal segment of the education industry. Lakshya provides tutoring services for the students at the school level and also for the students preparing for entrance tests of professional examinations like Engineering and Medicine.

They believe that using a proper thought process, both teaching and learning can be made interesting. According to them teaching based on “teacher + digital content based modules” can be of help in making teaching deliverables of higher quality and can be made more interesting.

Founded in 2006, Lakshya is the brain child of four IIT-ians, conceptualized with an aim to revolutionize the way learning is perceived and teaching is delivered. Headquartered in Patiala, Punjab, Lakshya has four main types of services and products to offer. They offer one and two years classroom training for IIT-JEE, AIEEE and medial entrance examinations, distance learning program which run various test series and correspondence courses, ‘i-Class’ which ties-up with schools to teach their students in their classrooms and regular classroom training for the classes till 10th standard.

Lakshya is also very innovative in their expansion strategy. They have a Business Partnership Model, where they nurture the in-house entrepreneurs. They provide opportunities to the teachers for partnership in the expansion of the business. This brings out the best efforts from the teachers as they become business partners and are equally responsible for the growth of the organization. As a USP, Lakshya provides Yoga as stress buster during test preparations and provides ‘Results Analytics’ which highlights specific needs for performance improvement in students.

How does the business make money?

Test preparation for engineering and medical entrance examinations sector is a very tangible market. Their revenue streams come from 3 sections:

1. One and two year classroom training for IIT-JEE, AIEEE and medical exams. 2. Distance Learning Programs - Test Series and Correspondence Courses. 3. i-Class : Where they go on a contract with a school to train its own students in its premises. 4. Junior Wing: Regular classroom training programs for Pre - 10th standards.

Why is this startup hot?

1. Team: Founders are all graduates from IITs. In all, the core Lakshya team comprises of 7 IITians and 2 graduates from Thapar University. This team has immense capability to leverage its strength and brand in its present field of operation.

2. Sector: Lakshya is in the educational domain with its present focus on Test Preparation segment which is very tangible and commands a clear premium. Also the number of aspirants in this domain is increasing every year.

3. Growth: In two years of its operation Lakshya has demonstrated the effectiveness of its pedagogy by producing 55 selections in IIT-JEE and 200 in AIEEE, highest from any institute in the state of Punjab. They have instructed close to 2200 students till date. They have started a new concept of 'i-Class' in association with three schools and a venture in Pre-10th (9th and 10th standards) training program has also been initiated under the brand - Junior Wing.

4. Scalability: Standardized teaching content and Teacher Training program enables them to scale fast.

5. Brand: Having produced considerable results, Lakshya has a strong brand presence in the northern region. Lakshya has also interacted with over 1 lac students in Punjab, Haryana, NCR and Himachal Pradesh through its concept initiative 'Vedanta', in association with Thapar University.

6. Financials: They have been able to maintain strong cash flows and profitability right from their first year of operation.

Page 3 FinXpress

StartUp in Focus : Lakshya

Page 4 FinXpress

Markets this week

Markets continued their downtrend this week as they fell lower for the fifth consecutive week. The important Nifty supports of 4786 were broken in the process. W-o-W, while the Sensex lost 1.72%, the Nifty shed 2.02% over the same period. Reflecting the negative sentiments, market breadth was negative in three out of the five sessions of the week.

The biggest gainers of this week were Hero Motocorp and M&M with 2.7 and 1.20 gains respectively. JP Associates lost the most with 7.58% followed by DLF which lost 5.76%.

International crude oil prices (WTI) rose 3.78% for the week to close at USD 85.37 per barrel. During the week, crude oil prices exhibited an upward trend.

International gold prices fell 2.96% for the week to close at USD 1797.30 per ounce and exhibited a mixed trend this week.

The US dollar appreciated against the rupee by 0.97% for the week. The Indian rupee plunged to its weakest in more than 11 months tracking broad gains in the dollar as well as a rise in dollar demand from local oil companies for making month-end import payments and for clearing outstanding dues to Iran. Importers bought dollars for their month-end requirements, which put pressure on the rupee.

Other Markets:

It was a solid week for Wall Street, with the Dow and the S&P gaining more than 4%, and the Nasdaq climbing 5.7%. It ends what had been a four-week losing streak for stocks. The markets seemed to have been sharply oversold. Asian stocks rose this week, snapping four weeks of losses, as exporters and commodity shares gained on speculation U.S. Fed Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke would foreshadow measures to shore up the U.S. recovery. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7% this week to 120.3. While Nikkei & Hang Seng index gained 0.9%, Shanghai & Strait Times rose 3.1% & 0.5% respectively.

Some Highlights:

The Swiss franc was in the spotlight last week as the Swiss National Bank (SNB) stepped up its campaign to weaken its currency. The franc has been driven to record highs in recent weeks as market participants and investors have sought a safe haven from the eurozone debt crisis and fears over global growth. The yen hit a record high against the US dollar on Friday, before pulling back to appreciate 0.03% over the week.

The market downturn has left equity mutual funds (MFs) deep in the red with average returns from diversified and large-cap funds dropping 17%-18% so far in 2011. But most equity MFs that invest in high dividend-yielding stocks have been able to weather the storm. All but one dividend-yield MF has made it to the top-50 list. Most funds in the category restricted their losses to 6.5%-12.3%. Only funds that invest in defensive sectors such as pharmaceuticals have done better in 2011. .

The RBI said that there is a need to rebalance demand from consumption to investment by stepping up savings in the economy. In order to achieve a 9% growth in Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17), the investment rate of 40.5% would be required if incremental capital output ratio remains unchanged from 4.5% during the Eleventh Plan.

SAIL to invest ` 10,264 cr to develop mines

In an effort aimed at meeting its future demand for raw material, Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) on Monday announced that it would invest ` 10,264 crore to develop mines to ensure adequate availability of raw material after completion of the expansion programme.

The Maharatna company has already announced a ` 70,000-crore ambitious capacity expansion plan to ramp up its domestic output to 23 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2012-13 from 14.35 mtpa at present.

GVK Power to buy Siemens' stake in BIAL GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited (GVKPIL) has announced that it plans to acquire a further 14 per cent stake in Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) from Siemens, which will make it the biggest stakeholder in the airport operator.

Page 5 FinXpress

News of the Week

The acquisition will bring down Siemens' stake in BIAL to 26 per cent, while enhancing GVK's from 29 per cent to 43 per cent. GVK, which is already the air-port's day-to-day operator, had acquired 12 per cent from Zurich Airport and 17 per cent from Larsen and Toubro in 2009. The deal with Siemens values BIAL at ` 4,384 crore.

UBS to slash 3,500 jobs as part of cost-cutting measures

Swiss banking major UBS on Tuesday said it would slash 3,500 jobs as part of cost-cutting measures, with nearly half of the cuts planned in the investment banking division. This comes at a time when the global sentiments across the globe is starting to experience a downward trend.

Ministry against cap on FDI in pharma sector Pitching in favour of any kind of cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the pharmaceutical sector, the Commerce Ministry has suggested that alternative means could be considered to address the issue of MNCs acquiring dominating nature through the takeover route in domestic firms. Concerns were raised in some quarters over the recent takeover of domestic pharmaceutical companies by MNCs.

In the recent past, the industry has witnessed several high profile acquisitions, including that of Ranbaxy Laboratories and Piramal Healthcare by overseas companies. At present, 100 per cent FDI through the automatic route is allowed in the pharma sector.

India inks tax treaty with Georgia India and Georgia on Wednesday signed a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) for exchange of banking information and to prevent tax evasion.

The DTAA with Georgia provides for taxing business profits in the source state if the activities of an enterprise constitute a permanent establishment (PE) there. The DTAA would enhance recourse to mutual agreement procedure to relieve double taxation in cases involving transfer pricing pacts. The low level of withholding rates of taxation for dividend, and fess for technical services would promote greater investments, flow of technical services between the two countries

Page 6 FinXpress

News of the Week continued...

Warren Buffett to invest $5 billion in Bank of America

Billionaire Warren Buffett threw a lifeline to Bank of America on Thursday, announcing he would invest $5 billion in the beleaguered U.S. banking giant, a move that sent its stock price soaring. Under the terms of the deal, Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway will buy 50,000 shares of BofA preferred stock at $100,000 a share

Food inflation surges to 9.80 per cent

In what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sought to dub as ‘disturbing', food inflation surged to 9.80 per cent for the week ended from 9.03 per cent in the previous week, driven mainly by soaring prices of certain vegetables such as onions and potatoes, fruits, milk and protein-rich items.

Sensex dips below 16000-mark

The Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index, Sensex, tanked below the 16,000-mark for the first time in 18 months, losing 297 points at 15848.83 on Friday against 16146.33 on Thursday, as investors turned cautious globally ahead of the U.S. Fed's statement amid fears of slowdown in world's major economies including the U.S.

All the 13 sectoral indices closed in the red, with realty, metal, oil & gas and bankex leading the fall, while some of them hit new 52-week lows in intra-day trading.

Forex reserves surge to $318.2 b India's foreign exchange reserves surged by $1.615 billion to $318.22 billion on the back of a sharp rise in foreign currency assets (FCAs) for the week ended August 19. Total foreign ex-change reserves had slipped by $621 million to $316.605 billion in the week before. Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the foreign reserves, rose by $1.584 billion to $285.251 billion for the reporting week, the Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly data released on Friday.

Foreign currency assets, expressed in U.S. dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-U.S. currencies, such as the euro, the British pound sterling and the Japanese yen, held in reserves.

Steve Jobs steps down as Apple CEO

Legendary entrepreneur Steve Jobs — the main force behind iconic brands like Macintosh and iPad computers, iPod music play-ers and iPhone mobiles — has logged out as CEO of Apple Inc, a company that started from the garage of his family home about 35 years ago.

He has passed on the baton to run Apple to 50-year-old Tim Cook, who served as acting chief in times of Steve Job’s illness. Mr. Jobs was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 and also went for a liver transplant in 2009, when he had taken a break from the company.

Cartoons

Solve it Now!

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Page 7

**Rush in your entries to :

finniche.imt@gmail.com

First 3 right entries will be given exciting prizes courtesy Pizza Hut, as well as get their name featured in the next issue of FinXpress. So hit the quiz fast & get yourself visible among 1000 odd in the campus.

Set A Match the punchline

Punchline Bank

1) Your right partner Centurian Bank

2) India’s International Bank Deustche Bank

3) A passion to perform Corporation Bank

4) Looking forward to tomorrow Standard Chartered

5) One Bank many solutions Bank of Baroda

Set B What is...

1) Un ique Insurance offered by ARAG?

2) Ba l loon Loan?

3) World’ s b iggest camera manufacturer?

4) NCAER?

CAN YOU SOLVE IT ?

Feel free to write to us at : Drop in your suggestions to the editorial team :

finniche.imt@gmail.com Magazine design/news : ameybadkar@hotmail.com

Articles/quiz : debjyoti.chanda89@gmail.com

LAST WEEK’S FIRST 3 RIGHT ENTRIES WERE FROM

Ashish Sarolia Vaibhav Kapoor Rahul Dutta Gupta

OTHER RIGHT ENTRIES

Ankit Rungta Abhinav Akash Swati Goel

Aparna Vyas Debasis Mazumder Parag Jain

Ankita Mishra Vishal Aggarwal Narayan Negi

Sabyasachi Mandal

Set A -

1) Reckitt Benckiser

2) Marico Industries Ltd.

3) Coca-cola

4) Pepsi Co.

5) HUL

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

Set B -

1) Videocon

2) Unicef

3) Omega

4) Sunfeast

5) Dish TV

Common Link -

Shahrukh Khan

FinNiche Presents

RISCON ‘11

Dear Friends,

FinNiche, the Finance Club of IMT– Ghaziabad, invites you to be a part of its National Risk Management Conclave, RISCON ’11 on the 10th and 11thof September. As a part of the conclave, we bring to you KONKURRENCE, a CASE STUDY competition based on risks associated with Mergers &

Acquisitions.

FOR MORE DETAILS LOG ON TO :-

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