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Microsoft plans to add another 5,000 partners and take the chunk of solution partners to about 40 per
cent. Mr. Torossian also said that the company will be fast-tracking the localisation of their products.To
suit Indian customers, the company has changed the method of certification of partners and are moving
from US dollar billing to India rupee, Mr Torossian said. “We also now help customers see if they are
using the right software for their kind of business,” he added.
According to him, the SMB market is amongst the biggest contributors to the Indian economy,
contributing about 60 per cent of the GDP and creating a million jobs a year.
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Essar Shipping bags $121 million offshore drilling deal from ConocoPhillips
Essar Shipping Ltd. has won a $121-million contract to drill offshore wells in Indonesia. It will drill 11
offshore wells for the US-based ConocoPhillips. “We won among the deal a field of strong competitors
such as Transocean and Maersk Drilling,” said Mr. A.R. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Essar
Shipping.
Essar Shipping's semi-submersible offshore drilling unit, Essar Wildcat, was mobilised for the contract
and is now deployed with ConocoPhillips.
This company is one of the largest US integrated energy companies with assets of $160 billion.
ConocoPhillips has been present in Indonesia for over 40 years, operating seven production-sharing
contracts comprising 19,348 sq. miles.
Essar Wildcat has earlier drilled for Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd off the east coast of India in
the Krishna-Godavari basin. Thereafter, the rig has been working with Vietsovpetro (a joint venture
between PetroVietnam and Russia's Zarubezhneft) offshore Vietnam for the past year.
“Going forward, we are well positioned to be a respected global player in the oilfield services industry
with an asset base of approximately $1 billion,” he said. The oilfields services business provides contract
drilling services to oil and gas companies across the globe. This business owns one semi-submersible rig
and 12 land rigs.
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HDFC, Pramerica lead race for Fidelity India mutual fund
India’s largest fund house, HDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd, and Pramerica Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd, an
arm of US-headquartered Prudential Financial Inc, have emerged as the frontrunners to buy the assets
of Fidelity’s mutual fund in India—FIL Fund Management Pvt. Ltd.
Out of some 20 bidders, HDFC and Pramerica mutual funds have been shortlisted and their bids are in
the range of Rs.400-500 crore, said two people with direct knowledge of the deal, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.“There is close competition between the two funds and one of them will enter
the binding bid agreement with Fidelity,” said one of the two people. Fidelity MF has about Rs.9, 000
crore of assets under management.
HDFC mutual fund manages Rs.88, 628.02 crore worth of assets. Pramerica mutual fund manages assets
of Rs.2, 084.41 crore in India, mostly through debt-oriented schemes. JPMorgan, Fidelity’s financial
adviser for the deal, had circulated the so-called request for proposal to accept bids from prospective
buyers till 15 February. HDFC and Pramerica are among the top five asset management companies
(AMCs) that have qualified for the second round of bidding to acquire the assets of Fidelity MF in India,
but their bids are higher than others.