India's best companies 2010

India's best companies to work for 2010 The 2010 study reports on how companies have nurtured their human capital in the face of the downturn, while taking some bold initiatives to maintain the top line and bottom line growth.  There are companies out there which believe in the age-old 'home-away-from-home' principle and go all out to create a 'family' of workers, while others maintain a high fun quotient around their core activity.  The Top ten India's best companies to work for 2010:

1.Google India Pvt Ltd

Location: Bangalore
Profile: Online Search, Online Advertising & Online Applications
Number of employees: 1,259
Founded in India: 1998
Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:0.99
Voluntary turnover: 30%

2.MakeMyTrip (India) Location: Gurgaon Profile: Airline tickets, Hotels, Bus and Rail ticket, Holiday Packages Number of employees: 674 Founded in India: 2000 Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:2.55 Voluntary turnover: 23.89%

3.Intel Technology India

Location: Bangalore
Profile: Information Technology
Number of employees: 2,430
Founded in India: 1988
Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:3.99
Voluntary turnover: 4.4%

4.Marriott Hotels India

Location: Mumbai
Profile: Hospitality
Number of employees: 2,433
Founded in India: 1927
Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:9.01
Voluntary turnover: 27.37%

5.NetApp India
Location: Bangalore

Profile: Information Storage Products
Number of employees: 1042

Founded in India: 1992
Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:4.51
Voluntary turnover: 5.95%

6.American Express
Location: Gurgaon

Profile: Financial Services
Number of employees: 5,200
Founded in India: 2006
Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:1.33
Voluntary turnover: 15.00%

7.NTPC

Location: New Delhi
Profile: Energy
Number of employees: 24,708
Founded in India: 1975
Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:8.11
Voluntary turnover: 0.12%

8.PayPal India Location: Chennai Profile: e-commerce Number of employees: 419 Founded in India: 2006 Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:3.6 Voluntary turnover: 0.48% 9.Ajuba Solutions India Location: Chennai Profile: Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management Number of employees: 1612 Founded in India: 2000 Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:1.41 Voluntary turnover: 23.45% 10.SAS Institute (India) Location: Mumbai Profile: Business Analytics Number of employees: 108 Founded in India: 1996 Gender Ratio (F/M): 1:5.75 Voluntary turnover: 13.89%

China is getting cheaper than TamilNadu

China gets Gujarat cotton cheaper than TN mills:

Import from Africa economical for South India.

Chennai-based Loyal Textiles pays Rs 82,500 to get 150 bales (170 kg each) of cotton from Gujarat, country's top producer, to one of its mills in Tamil Nadu by ship. One of its competitors in China gets the same quantity cotton from Gujarat at Rs 22,500!

Even if you add the cost of getting cotton to the ports at Rs 12,500 and port handling charge of Rs 12,000 for shipments to China, it still works out cheaper. By road, sending cotton to Tamil Nadu costs as much as Rs 90,000 for the same quantity.

Truckers demand higher rates since the roads are bad. Mills in South India can get cotton cheaper from North Africa than Gujarat.

Most of the mills in Tamil Nadu are getting cotton through the Shipping Corporation of India vessels. The corporation works out the cost based on road transport rates. The problem is that shipping within our ports can be done only by Indian-owned companies. The Cabotage law prohibits shipping from Indian port to another by vessels of foreign firms.

The industry has been seeking changes to the law but those opposed point to various problems, including monitoring movement of foreign vessels within Indian waters.

Ships that bring containers to our ports with chemicals and other consignments have to return empty if they don't get any orders. Instead of returning empty, they offer to ship cotton at cheaper rates.

Freight charges are highest to Turkey at around Rs 82,000 but still work out cheaper than moving from one Indian port to another or by road.

Retail Sector

Smiles are back on retailers' faces as tills ring louder
Rebound in consumer confidence; margins to remain static.
Sector Outlook:

Shut out by the paisa-punching consumer during the slowdown years, the retail sector is back in its elements in 2010, building upon the recovery that started in 2009. The rebound was led by the value-for-money category and then moved up to the premium level.

The three quarters ending September 2010 saw a 23 per cent growth in revenues and a near-trebling of net profits for listed Indian retailers, helped in part by a lower base.

Demand promise

Rebounding consumer confidence, a step up in corporate hiring together with salary hikes indicate increased disposable income in the hands of the consumer. This points towards a bright 2011 for retailers, armed as they are with healthier balance-sheets to fund expansion.

Premium and value retail will both see demand pick-ups, as consumer spends rise. With Tier I cities fairly saturated, retailers will move to small towns and cities where growth may be higher. Mall activity, previously beset by delays, is also set to improve. Retailers such as Pantaloon are also looking to tap online buying to supplement revenues.

Hypermarkets will see higher activity next year with players such as Pantaloon, Shoppers Stop and Trent stepping up focus on this format, given the high footfalls they bring in and their position as anchor tenants in malls allowing for lower rents.

Expansion plans

Retailers have, in fact, charted robust expansion plans, against their previous cautious stance. For instance, Titan added 60 stores in the first half of FY-11. Shoppers Stop and Pantaloon plan to add about 60 to 70 lakh sq ft space in the next year.

They are also fairly well-placed to bankroll this expansion. As they sought to reduce debt pressures, collective debt:equity went down from 1 time in FY-09 to a comfortable 0.7 times in FY-10. Interest costs so far in 2010 have reduced by 5 per cent , after a 78 per cent increase in FY09. Retailers have also been able to raise funds through Qualified Institutional Placements.

Exclusivity

Returning investor confidence in retail was evidenced by retail initial public offers, which collectively raised over Rs 500 crore in 2010. Two companies that made a debut were – Jubilant Foodworks in food retail and Talwalkars Better Value Fitness in the health and fitness space.

Their exclusivity afforded them a premium in valuations over other retailers, with trailing valuations of 70 and 57 times, against the 20 to 45 times of other retailers. A younger population with the propensity to spend on food and entertainment, as well as an increasingly health-conscious nation support the prospects of these players.

Margins

The retail segment, while holding promise in revenues, may slip up on the margin front. Operating margins in the first half of FY-11 were helped by a drop in raw material costs.

However, cotton and yarn prices and even synthetic fibre prices are northward bound, and could reverse this saving for apparel retailers. Retailers with backward integration such as Page Industries and Kewal Kiran may manage better margins. Food retail could also see squeezed margins as food inflation lead to spikes in raw material costs.

Two, selling and promotion costs, at 4 per cent of sales are up from the 3 per cent in the year before. Increased competition, especially in the smaller towns where retailers are planning to go, may require higher promotion spends. Operating margins, therefore, currently at 7-8 per cent are not likely to show much improvement.

Finally, as retailers step up expansion, interest cost savings that helped a net margin improvement of 2 percentage points in 2010 is also unlikely to persist, and net margins will remain at 3 to 4 per cent.

The outcome of the much-debated FDI in single brand and multi-brand retail is likely to emerge in 2011.

FDI

Retailers may benefit in partnerships to set up store chains, since 100 per cent FDI in either single or multi-brand retail is hardly likely.

Food and grocery retailers, such as hypermarkets Big Bazaar and Star Bazaar, may additionally benefit from supply-chain expertise foreign retailers bring with them.

Floundering retailers such as Koutons or Vishal Retail could receive a boost from foreign investments, whether by private equity players or foreign retailers looking to benefit from these retailers' massive store chains. Valuations of these stocks may thus see some improvement.