India Inc starts 2008 with a bang, ends with a whimper

NEW DELHI: Bullish on huge profitability and deep pockets, Corporate India started 2008 with an aim to conquer the world and pocket global firms, but ended with blues caused by bitter controversies, be it Tata's Nano, ICICI Bank share debacle, Satyam fiasco or Ambani vs Ambani battle.
    
Misery of the corporate world was further compounded by the slowdown in the economy that forced virtual who's who of the industry resorting to retrenchment, plan closures and other cost-cutting steps including axing of perks and luxuries enjoyed by the top management.
    
The year going by also saw Tatas' euphoria of clinching global trophies like steel giant Corus and auto marquees Jaguar and Land Rover turning into despair caused by fund starvation and political and corporate controversies surrounding the world's cheapest car Nano, which is yet to hit the roads.
    
Who would have heard of a Rs 10,000-crore defamation suit in India if it were not for the no-holds-barred fight between the country's two richest and estranged Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, whose companies collectively lost over Rs 5 lakh crore in market capitalisation to the shock of investors.
    
As if frustrated by elder brother 'sabotaging' his plans to acquire over USD 50-billion South African telecom giant MTN, Anil slapped a defamation suit on Mukesh for the latter's purported comments in an interview to New York Times that the network of lobbyists and spies were overseen by Anil before they split and has since been expunged from his tranche of companies.
    
Through a dogged legal battle, the younger one has also put a spook on gas from the elder brother's prized find at KG Basin, which has delayed commercialisation of the asset.

The end of the year would be best remembered for a corporate bloomer by India's fourth largest IT company Satyam Computers, which apart from being hit by aborted USD 1.6 billion acquisition of the two companies promoted by Chairman Ramalinga Raju's family, is also suffering an eight-year ban from the World Bank on charges of bribery and business wrong-doings.
    
The highs of stock markets in January turned into desolate bourses making India Inc lose more than half of its wealth in terms of market capitalisation of listed firms.
    
While Anil Ambani faced the embarrassment of not being able to salvage the Rs 12,000-crore IPO by the group company Reliance Power -- biggest in the Indian capital market history, country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank was virtually brought onto its knees.
    
The bank's share prices crashed by 20 per cent in a single day due to rumours on the running of the bank and its financial health in the wake of news of its exposure to bankrupt Lehman Brothers, which its Chairman K V Kamath said was the handiwork of 'vested interests'.
    
The stock market crash also forced realty major Emaar MGF Land, Wockhardt Hospitals and SVEC Constructions to withdraw their public offers this year, while a host of other firms that got approval from SEBI for their IPOs are awaiting a better market situation.
    
As if losing the market capitalisation was not enough, firms in manufacturing sector were forced to deal with piling inventories and dropping demands.
   
Big steel makers, including state-run SAIL, Essar, JSW and RINL, were forced to cut output and prices, which at one point had touched a record USD 1,250 a tonne. Tata Steel was an exception as it saw production rising.

In the automotive sector, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra & Mahindra resorted to temporary plans shutdowns, while others like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and General Motors India cut down production. As a result, temporary workers in some companies lost jobs while in some employees had to face salary cuts.
    
The aviation sector also saw turbulence as jet fuel prices sky-rocketed threatening to ground carriers, who made desperate calls to the government to bail them out.
    
Jet Airways' sacking-and-reinstatement drama of 1,900 employees hit the headlines and the carrier came under severe criticism from the government for its handling of the issue.
    
The woes of corporate India could be unending, with even high growth sectors like real estate and automobiles scrambling
for cover and working overtime for getting a bailout package from the government.
    
Nevertheless, the year had its share of positives as well. The credit for good news of the year went to country's largest private sector entity Reliance Industries with its subsidiary Reliance Petroleum creating history when it commissioned an only-for-export refinery in just 36 months at rock-bottom prices to create the world's largest refining hub at Jamnagar in Gujarat.
    
RPL commissioned a 580,000-barrel a day (29 million tonnes a year) refinery adjacent to its parent Reliance Industries' existing 33 million tonne per annum refinery.
    
Other's like India's fifth largest IT firm HCL Technologies also brought cheers by successfully completing the 440 million pounds (approx Rs 3,100 crore) acquisition of UK-based SAP consulting company Axon, after pipping rival Infosys Technologies.

As Tatas would like to see it, ending of the two-year- long controversial stay at Singur meant a new beginning for the Nano project after it shifted to Sanand in Gujarat, which is expected to start production by 2010.
    
In the pharmaceutical sector, Ranbaxy Laboratories saw a change in ownership with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo buying out the promoters -- Singh family -- and acquiring 63.82 per cent stake in India's blue chip drugmaker in a total deal valued around Rs 21,000 crore, the largest-ever in the country's pharma industry so far.
    
On the whole, the year 2008 will go down in history of corporate India as one which began on a promising note but ended in despair.