DP Money Watch – Datamatics Technologies, The Underdog To Watch Out For In ’008

Datamatics Technologies Ltd (DTL ), a pioneer in providing BPO and KPO solutions was incorporated in 1975 by Dr. Lalit Kanodia who is widely known as the founder of the Indian IT Industry. Even before Dr. Kanodia got his Ph.D. from MIT he was selected as a member of the team that developed and designed the first two multi-user operating systems (CTSS & MULTICS), which were precursors to UNIX. His pioneering streak continued and, in 1967, Dr. Kanodia founded and headed Tata Consultancy Services. History was created again when he founded Datamatics in 1975. Today Datamatics is ranked by NASSCOM as the 12th largest BPO company.

With several innovations to its credit, Datamatics had the distinction of establishing the first satellite link from India to the USA in 1989 and boasts of having initiated the “off-shore software factory” concept. The company has executed over 1100 projects in 58 countries for some of the world’s largest organizations, including five of the top ten Fortune 500 companies. Today, its employee strength is over 1600, spread across the multiple continents. Datamatics Technologies operates in the following domains:

• Document Processing
• Finance and Accounting
• Content Management
• Consulting Practice

Datamatics Technologies Limited made an initial public offer in April 2004. The issue was subscribed 27 times, and the shares listed on BSE and NSE on May 7, 2004, at a premium of 77% i.e. at Rs. 195 as compared to the issue price of Rs. 110. But today the share is available at 50 % of its IPO price.

Company’s Financials are given below:

Type	UnAudited	UnAudited	Audited
Period Ending	30 Sep 07	30 Jun 07	31 Mar 07
No Of Months	3	3	3
Description	Value(Rs. million)
Net Sales / Interest Earned / Operating Income	134.03	127.11	177.77
Other Income	21.61	21.56	16.48
Total Income	155.64	148.67	194.25
Expenditure	-119.99	-119.09	-121.78
Operating Profit	35.65	29.58	72.47
Profit Before Depreciation and Tax	35.65	29.58	72.47
Depreciation	-10.88	-10.68	-10.13
Profit before Tax	24.77	18.90	62.34
Tax	-4.35	-3.02	-5.00
Net Profit	20.42	15.88	57.34
Equity Capital	203.58	203.58	203.58
Reserves	2,223.50	2,203.07	2,187.20
Basic And Diluted EPS after Extraordinary item	-	0.39	1.41
Basic EPS after Extraordinary items	0.50	-	-
Diluted EPS after Extraordinary items	0.50	-	-
Nos. of Shares – Public	12,748,381	12,743,131	12,743,131
Percent of Shares-Public	31.31	31.03	31.30
Operating Profit Margin	26.60	23.27	40.77
Net Profit Margin	15.24	12.49	32.26
Cash EPS	0.77	-	-

Financials reproduced from BseIndia

Although the top line is showing a steady growth YOY, but the margins during the last 4 quarters have declined, probably because of Rupee appreciation. However, considering that the company is DEBT FREE and is sitting on cash worth Rs. 55 per share ( same as its CMP ), the company’s financial performance is expected to improve, as 2008 and future years are going to be years of Knowledge Management where DTL has competitive edge over its rivals.

Buy at CMP of Rs. 50 is recommended with atleast one year HOLD.

This report has been prepared solely for information purposes and the information contained herein may not be deemed to be an investment advice. Such information is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person. The information contained herein is not a complete analysis of every material fact representing any company, industry or security. The views expressed may change. While the information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, no responsibility (or liability) is accepted for the accuracy of its contents. Investors are advised to satisfy themselves before making any investments and should consult with and rely upon their own advisors whether and how to use such information in making any investment decision.

Tags: datamatics, tcs, unix, multics, lalit, bpo, kpo, dividend, profit, stocks, equity, buy

Coming Soon: A Super Powered Super Suit

Now, it’s not very often that we start an article with a video, but this scene from 2006 flick Superman Returns brings to life the topic in question. Imagine that, if instead of superman the poilce officer could walk towards the gun without getting harmed then the robber would have never thought of committing the crime. If scientists researching the exciting field of nanotechnology have their way this could soon become a reality.

While Antiballistic materials can stop deadly bullets in their tracks, the force of the impact can still cause severe bruising and even damage to internal organs. But when woven into other materials, carbon nanotubes could work like Superman’s chest, rebounding the force of bullets so that they bounce off. Conventional soft-body pieces of armor, such as bulletproof jackets or explosion-proof blankets, are made from multiple layers of Kevlar, Twaron, or Dyneema fibers — some of which are five times stronger than a piece of steel of the same weight. Long strands are interlaced into a dense net that absorbs the energy of the bullet and disperses it across the interlocking mesh (Source).

Well, such a development would certainly be a boon for policemen and soldiers as they would be able to fearlessly go about their jobs. However, it’ll be interesting to see if the scientists can develop eye lenses that can deflect bullets just like Sups did in the scene above.

Tags: superman, vest, bullets, soldiers, police, nanotech, science

It’s Jingle Bells Time – Some Kewl Facts About Christmas

Once again it’s that time of the year when people all across the world drown themselves in the spirit of bacchanalian revelry, forget all their worries and let their hair down all the way till the new year. This period of festivity starts off with Christmas day on 25^th December, followed by Boxing Day(Saint Stephen’s Day) on 26^th Dec, Saint John the Evangelist’s Day on Dec 27^th and culminates with the grand new year celebration on 31^st December.

If you live in India then you are fortunate to be in a country which is extremely diverse having people belonging to all kinds of religions and faiths. And one of the biggest advantages of this is that you get to celebrate a lot of festivals. So even though, christmas in India is not anywhere close to Diwali there still is a feeling of gaiety in the air, with more and more people celebrating this festival now. Many Indians settled in other countries usually come back during this period and enjoy the holiday season with their loved ones.

So while you enjoy this lovely day with kids, santa and your loved one’s you might want to take some time out and read about some interesting christmas facts. Given the fact that you would be attending a lot of christmas parties today, knowing these facts would surely help you to show off your mighty brain. So let’s check out a few:

• Christmas day is generally associated with the Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, however it’s a little known fact that December 25^th was not celebrated as the birth of christ till 440 A.D
• In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Christmas festivities were banned by Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry on what was supposed to be a holy day to be immoral. Anybody caught celebrating Christmas was arrested. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660.
• Did you know that Christmas trees are edible. Many parts of pines, spruces, and firs can be eaten. The needles are a good source of vitamin C. Pine nuts, or pine cones, are also a good source of nutrition.
• “Jingle Bells” was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.
• In UK, it was the custom to eat goose at Christmas until Henry VIII decided to tuck into a turkey. 93 per cent of the population in the UK will eat turkey on Christmas Day; this means 11 million turkeys being cooked!
• During the Christmas buying season, Visa cards alone are used an average of 5,340 times every minute in the United States.

Now we sure hope that you are more christmas enlightened now.

The DelhiPlanet Team would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let the Jingle Bells Rock !!!

Tags: merry, festivals, celebration, christmas, santa, jingle, bells

Taare Zameen Par – Aamir Brings Class To Indian Cinema

DP Money Watch – Your Chance To Reach The Summit With Everest Industries

In 1934, Everest Industries earlier known as Eternit Everest started commercial production of Corrugated Roofing Sheets.73 years back the company was formed in the name of Asbestos Cement Ltd. a joint venture of ACC and Turner Nowall Ltd,UK. Later on Turner Nowall sold their stake to the Belgian Eternit Group and that’s why the name was changed to Eternit .The company was the first to set up an Asbestos Cement plant in India.

Today, Everest has 5 major production facilities, 300 retail outlets in India, and its exports to countries in Europe,Africa, and Asia are growing at a rapid pace. Everest has a full fledged building materials research Centre in Bangalore and a tie-up with T & N Material Research Ltd. UK. Recently, the Company has announced that it is entering into the business of Design, Manufacturing, Supply and Erection of Pre-engineered Steel Buildings. Pre-engineered steel buildings are accepted as an alternate to conventional buildings in the construction sector. Most of the industrial, infrastructure and commercial buildings are being made using this technology which saves a lot of construction time. This technology is fast, efficient and cost effective compared to conventional building methods.

The Company claims that during the market seed programme, acceptance has been phenomenal across all segments in India. This business is in rapid growth mode and this concept is globally accepted. There is a huge demand and supply gap at present and which will exist for quite sometime. Also the market size is constantly and rapidly growing as more and more people are converting from conventional buildings to steel Pre-engineered buildings.The Company has been in the business of providing building solutions and products for over 7 decades in India and has built up a premium branding over a period of time. This business will provide synergy to its current operations. For undertaking this business, the Company has commenced the setting up of its first plant at Bhagwanpur at Roorkee (Uttarakhand), which will be followed up by other Plants based on market growth.

On the Financial front although company’s top line has grown by 20 % but PAT has shown a downward trend.The most probable reason is company’s investment in R&D to develop the new line of business of pre-engineered buildings which will pay off in the next few years.

Scrip Code : 508906 Company Name : Everest Industries Ltd

Type Audited Audited Audited Audited Date Begin 01 Apr 06 01 Apr 05 01 Apr 04 01 Apr 03 Date End 31 Mar 07 31 Mar 06 31 Mar 05 31 Mar 04 Description Value(Rs. million) Net Sales 3037.7 2530.6 2274.7 1992.5 Other Income 30.4 12.6 21.8 18.2 Total Income 3068.1 2543.2 2296.5 2010.7 Expenditure -2773.6 -2119.8 -1944.7 -1752.1 Operating Profit 294.5 423.4 351.8 258.6 Interest -27.2 -13.7 -5.3 -4.4 Gross Profit 267.3 409.7 346.5 254.2 Depreciation -89.1 -74.6 -57 -58.4 Profit before Tax 178.2 335.1 289.5 195.8 Tax -61.6 -115.7 -98 -117.8 Profit after Tax 116.6 219.4 191.6 78 Extraordinary Items - 91.9 - 517.7 Net Profit 116.6 311.3 191.6 595.7 Equity Capital 148 148 148 148 Reserves 1197.1 1149.8 1042.7 891.2 EPS 7.88 21.03 12.94 40.25 Nos. of Shares – Non Promoters 7386550 7386550 3549990 3549990 Percent of Shares – Non Promoters 49.91 49.91 23.99 23.99 Result Type A

Financials reproduced from BseIndia

The Company’s equity capital is Rs.14.88 crores and based on Last year EPS of Rs. 7.88 , CMP of Rs. 115 is discounted 15 times ( P/E of 15 ). It is expected that the Company’s top line will grow to Rs. 1000 crores by 2010 giving an average growth of 100% in the next two years. Growth in PAT during the next few years can also be close to 100%. During 2009 when the company celebrates its 75th year of inception, it is expected that the company shall reward the share-holders as it had done during 2004 with a dividend of 325% and Bonus shares.

Buy is recommended at CMP with 2 years HOLD.

This report has been prepared solely for information purposes and the information contained herein may not be deemed to be an investment advice. Such information is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person. The information contained herein is not a complete analysis of every material fact representing any company, industry or security. The views expressed may change. While the information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, no responsibility (or liability) is accepted for the accuracy of its contents. Investors are advised to satisfy themselves before making any investments and should consult with and rely upon their own advisors whether and how to use such information in making any investment decision.

Tags: everest, construction, dividend, profit, stocks, equity, buy

Knol – Google Defines The Unit Of Knowledge

Q. Name atleast 4 announcements made by Google in the last 1 month.

Now that’s an easy question isn’t it. Considering the fact that almost every week there is atleast one major announcement by the web giant. Starting of with Android, Google Bidding for the 700 Mhz spectrum, The grand wedding of Larry Page and now Knol. Knol is google’s term for a unit of knowledge and through this initiative it aims to provide people with a way to share their knowledge.

Ever since google made it’s announcement a couple of days back, the web has been abuzz with speculation that knol is google’s answer to wikipedia and how google would be able to create a monopoly if it were to start producing content as well. Till now google has done a great job at making the web searchable, a fact acknowledged by Udi Manber, Google’s Vice President of Engineering.

The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable.

(excerpt from the Google Blog)

A close look at Manbers post gives an insight as to what knol is really about. It doesn’t seem to be google’s answer to wikipedia nor would google want to monopolize the internet with it’s own content, that doesn’t gel well with their philosophy which if one recalls is a very nobel statement “do no evil“. Knol would at best be an alternative to wikipedia and the difference would lie in the quality of the content and the fact that name of the author would be published as well, something which does not happen in wiki. Google feels that by getting people who super-specialize in a particular field to write about aspects known to them would create a much more credible source of information as compared to wiki which at times has been guilty of publishing incorrect information. This example is evident from the knol screenshot released by google, which probably features Udi’s wife Rachel (see here).

Udi clearly states in his post that “We do not want to build a walled garden of content; we want to disseminate it as widely as possible. Google will not ask for any exclusivity on any of this content and will make that content available to any other search engine“. So one can rest assure that Google has no intent of creating any sort of monopoly on the internet. Wikipedia is today as big a brand as google and is managed completely by the users of the internet which by itself is a great feat. Wiki can frankly have no competition because it owned collectively by the internet community and not by any single organization(the wikimedia foundation does own it, but wikimedia is a non profit charitable organization and cannot be compared to any corporate giant). Perhaps the best proof of this fact is that the wiki entry for knol is the best source to read about all the hoopla created around this new term.

Tags: knol, google, wikipedia, books, information, evil

Aamir Khan – The Star You Can Bring Home

Aamir, ShahRukh and Salman, the three khans together form the three pillars of Bollywood. These guys have been around for close to 2 decades now and still manage to attract huge crowds to their movies. While the latter two tend to be in the news quite often it’s the former who’s heard about only once a year.

Unlike any other bollywood actor, Aamir has a strong sense of responsibility, he realises the power of his medium and tries his best to use it in the best way possible. It won’t be wrong to say that all bollywood actors have a great deal of power and influence at their disposal and with “great power comes great responsibility“, a fact that very few stars realise. Sure once in a while shah rukh goes ahead and does a good movie with a real script, like he did with Chak De India, but then he also ends up over promoting his movies like he did with Om Shanti Om, which was really just a dumb entertainer.

A quick look at Aamir’s past few movies and you get a glimpse at the kind of work he does. Most of his movies have been superhits(Sarfarosh, Dil Chahta Hai, Lagaan) and have inspired millions of young people across the country (Rang De Basanti). Aamir is what we would like to call “a human star” as all the others tend to flaunt themselves too much. Aamir never goes to any award functions other than the oscars as he feels that they are all manipulated. He believes that it takes a solid script to make a movie sell and not a song with 31 bollywood actors. Yes, he is probably the brainiest of all actors and is sometimes tagged as the Tom Hanks of Indian Cinema.

So while all the other stars are selling themselves infront of the cameras, Aamir is at home doing what most smart people do these days, blogging. Yes, the actor has a blog of his own where he actually writes about his work and day to day life. A normal entry on Aamir’s blog attracts more than 700 comments and one can even see if the star is online or not. His recent post titled Done, talks about his excitement on the completion of his soon to be released movie Taare Zameen Par, his directorial debut which has been more than 2 years in the making. A few excerpts from his blog go somewhat like this

Have just reached home after completing the last bit of work on the film. I cannot believe it is finally over. Will be checking the print in a couple days, I hope there wont be any technical delays. The last one month has been killing. Can”t wait for it to release now .

In a previous post aamir actually took the pain to reply to a few of the comments on his blog post (a post which got 1373 comments). And if that’s not human enough the actor makes it a habit to watch all his movies amidst the audience at a regular show. How does he manage to do that, well, he walks in after the movie starts and walks out before the interval. He then goes to another theatre for the post interval session and walks out before the movie ends. Quite brainy isn’t it, the only pre-requisite is that you need to know when the interval is gonna start and when the movie is gonna end.

Well, that in our opinion is a true sign of humilty and hats off to this great actor for inspiring us to use our fields of expertise to make a difference to society. Taare Zameen Par is our current Catch This Flick and if you still have any doubts on how good the movie is going to be then do remember do check out our review.

w00t – The Queens English Goes Alphanumeric

w00t!! I just sold my company for a $100 million dollars. w00t, yeah that’s no spelling error it’s an actual english word(or soon to be one) with two zeros in the middle. The popular English-language dictionary Merriam-Webster said Wednesday, 12^th Dec, that w00t had been voted as it’s word of the year. The word “w00t,” spelled using the number zero in place of the letter “o,” placed first in a Top Ten list based on votes by visitors to Merriam-Webster’s website. The word is described as an exclamation “expressing joy, possibly after a triumph or for no reason at all” and is similar to the word “yay.” (Source)

The word was originally a truncated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for “Wow, loot!“. Thereafter the term passed into the net-culture where it thrived in gaming communities and lost its original meaning and is now used simply as a term of excitement, such as “I defeated the dark sorcerer! W00t!” (Source).

A close second after w00t was the social networking monster site, Facebook. Also finishing in the top ten of the competition were the words “blamestorm” and “sardoodledom,” according to Merriam-Webster. A blamestorm is a verb described as a group discussion of why a deadline was missed or a project botched and whose fault it was (something Indian lawmakers are very good at).

Another new word that is sure to be heard about much more in the next few years is “Locavore“, which was voted by the New Oxford American Dictionary as it’s word of the year. Locavore derives itself from the commonly known terms herbivore, carnivore and omnivore. A locavore is someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Local grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources.

So there you have it, four new words just got added to your vocabulary. And although they sound quite cool, it would be a little risky to use them in any formal contexts because these words still don’t have a dictionary meaning as yet.

Tags: w00t, locavore, blamestorm, merriam, webster, oxford, queen, english

Ooyala – Rock The World With Your Own Video Solution

More than a year back Google acquired a small web company that allowed users from around the planet to upload their videos on the web. The company used powerful video transcoding techniques to convert user videos into flash format so that other users could easily watch them without having to download huge amounts of data. Google paid a mammoth $1.65 billion in an all stock transaction to acquire this 65 employee organization headquartered at San Bruno. Well, if you still haven’t guessed, the company in question here is YouTube. In the past one year the YouTube brand has grown by leaps and bounds would certainly qualify as one of the hottest technologies of this decade.

YouTube today is a boon for millions of internet users across the globe. Video sharing was never so easy and youtube videos today form an intrinsic part of many blogs. YouTube is great but in the end it only services the consumers. What if a business owner wishes to create his own propriety video solution having a jazzier Video Player, custom advertisements and the ability to display his own brand as a watermark. Apparently Google has no such enterprise solution to offer. Now, how on earth could a company like google not foresee the requirement of such a solution. Nah it’s not possible, there must be something out there which addresses this problem.

Well there sure is and if you believe in the words of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, “The Truth is out there” and it’s just waiting to be discovered. O.o.y.a.l.a a mountain view based startup founded by ex-google employees Bismarck Lepe and Sean Knapp has introduced a solution that would easily address the problem of the business owner (talked about in the previous para) . Ooyala (which is telugu for cradle ) now offers a offline/online solution called Backlot which would allow enterprises to deliver high quality video coupled with enhanced viewing experience, detailed analytics, controlled syndication, video organization, targeted advertising, branding and intelligent buffering (an amazing feature which would allow viewers to skip to any point in the video without waiting for the entire video to buffer, check out more here ).

The company website states that “Ooyala Backlot is a video management platform that gives you control over the delivery, organization, analytics, and monetization of your online videos. “ What this means is that media companies would now be able to create web versions of their tv channels, so that people anywhere in the world could watch them whenever they wish. So if I somehow missed the latest episode of Smallville on the CW Network I can simply log into their web channel and watch the entire episode online in the exact same form in which it was shown on television.

In keeping with Google’s philosophy of opensource software, ooyala too has kept it’s software free for download. Every download comes with 5 free viewing hours after which one is charged based on the number of hours that users view via the embedded player. Ooyala’s Backlot solution surely has great potential and if the internet does not get clogged up by the year 2010 ( as predicted in this article ), their would be, not one, but hundreds of you tubes on the internet.

Tags: ooyala, telugu, cradle, video, google, youtube, smallville, CW, enterprise, knapp, lepe

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