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Unite!
You Have Only Your Supply Chains To Lose
Take the case of
teauction.com. It went live two months ago in the hope of saving tea buyers
and auctioneers time and money. Cycle times in the tea industry (this
means from when a tea estate sends its tea sample for evaluation to a
potential buyer and preparing a catalogue by brokers, to finally when
the auction is conducted and the sale is concluded) hover at nine weeks.
Rakesh Bhutoria, CEO, teauction, thinks in the next few months, with transaction
volumes going up, cycle time could go down to four weeks. Transaction
costs, which are around 8% of the value of the tea sold, can similarly
be shaved off by more than half to 3.5%.
Of course, as Azam
Monem, general Manager, Williamson Magor, says, these are still early
days and these savings will take time to fructify. "We've found business
on the site very convenient and have saved on costs, but we need to get
higher prices too. That's when we can get most value out of the site.
And we believe this will happen which is why we are on it," he says. There
are hidden costs like warehousing while transacting on the Net, but managers
like Monem believe spending more is not the issue if they can get higher
value addition through sites like teauction. Which is why they are still
feeling their way around - in the last two months, Williamson Magor has
sold Rs 60 lakh worth of tea, but their total sales come to about Rs 800
crore. Clearly, there's still a long way to go.
Centurion
Bank takes stake in teauction.com
- 27/8/2000
Centurion Bank Ltd. has appointed Mr. Mahesh Vyas, executive director
of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) as one of its directors
on the board of teauction.com, after acquiring a 26 per cent equity stake
in the portal. According to senior officials of the bank, two nominees
have been inducted on the tea auction portal's board. Mr. Dev Ahuja is
the other nominee and Mr. V A Arinivasan, director, is the alternate to
Mr. Ahuja. The bank has spent about Rs 10 crores to acquire the stake.
Set up by Mr. Ayush Bagla of the Hanuman Tea group, the tea portal is
devoted to online trading in tea. Explaining the benefits to the bank,
a senior official said that both buyers and sellers on the portal would
open accounts with the bank for financial settlement. "The financial gateway
of the bank will bring immense speed to operations. Actual financial settlement
in the past used to take about 8 weeks. The bank will settle the deal
in less than two weeks" the official said. The bank is also confident
of increasing its business through the portal and is confident that tea
traders will use credit lines worth Rs.200 crores, the official added.
Trade volumes on the portal have alreahome.aspup to 1.20 lakh tones of
tea from 90,000 kg and trade worth Rs 2 crores per week are being routed
through it. "The bank is also confident that the initial investment in
equity will result in substantial capital gains as we expect the valuation
of the portal to rise sharply rise in the future", the official said.
Centurion Bank with 37 branches has hit the headlines because many private
sector banks have been attempting to acquire the bank. While Ind Global
and HDFC Bank had shown initial interest, they were unable to clinch a
deal. HDFC Bank went on to acquire the Bennet Coleman & Company-promoted
Times Bank. Centurion Bank had a deposit base of Rs 3,867 crores at the
end of March 2000 and its advances stood at Rs 1,840 crores. Promoted
by 20th Century Finance, 30 per cent of the bank's share capital is held
by the Ahujas: the Capel group and International Finance Corporation hold
another 38 per cent, while retail investors own the rest of the equity.
Centurion
Bank forays into Net Financing
- 25/8/2000
Centurion Bank Limited, one of India's fastest growing private-sector
banks and a forerunner in harnessing the latest technology, has acquired
a very significant stake in teauction.com - India's largest B2B portal,
catering to the tea industry. Along with this acquisition of 26% for Rs
11 crores, the Bank has earmarked Rs 200 crores towards financing and
funding the transactions on the site. The Bank also plans to provide an
exclusive payment gateway to the auctioneers as well as the buyers. The
bank is newly appointed Managing Director, M.J. Subbaiah said, "This move
reinforces the bank's commitment to enhance convenience and spur productivity
and efficiency. The new economy is hungry for institutions like our to
invest and assist in their growth. The tea market is growing exponentially
and with our association with teauction.com, we are convinced that the
industry will see more of such tie-ups." Teauction.com brings together
the entire community of buyers, sellers, registered brokers, suppliers,
and associations and substitutes their physical presence at the auctions.
Teacution.com caters to the requirements of the domestic as well as international
tea markets. The company currently manages sales of between 90,000 to
1.2 lakh kilograms of tea per week, translating into trading of about
Rs 100 crores per annum. The company ahs also entered into an arrangement
with a satellite company in USA for obtaining daily weather updates specifically
in tea plantation areas, 6 times a day, five days a week. On the road,
connectivity is also being offered to the bidders and the sellers through
the call center being set up in Salt Lake in Calcutta.
Centurion
forays into net financing
- 17/8/2000
Centurion Bank Ltd. one of the leading private sector banks and a forerunner
sector banks and a forerunner in harnessing the latest technology, has
acquired a very significant stake in teauction.com India's largest B2B
(business-to-business) portal, catering to the tea industry. A press release
issued here stated that along with this acquisition of 26 per cent for
Rs 11 crore, the bank has earmarked Rs 200 crore towards financing and
funding the transactions on the site. The bank also plans to provide an
exclusive payment gateway to the auctioneers as well as the buyers. The
release quoted the bank's managing director, Mr. M J Subbaiah, as saying
that "This move reinforces the bank's commitment to enhance convenience
and spur productivity and productivity and efficiency. The new economy
is hungry for institutions like ours to invest and assist in their growth.
The tea market is growing exponentially and with our association with
teauction.com, we are convinced that the industry will see more of such
tie-ups. As far as Centurion Bank is concerned, this is just a small part
in our endeavor to aid the growth of the new age economy as a whole. The
release stated that teauction.com brings together the entire community
of buyers, sellers, registered brokers, suppliers, and associations and
substitutes their physical presence at the auctions. Through this portal,
tea is available 'online'. It caters to the requirements of the domestic
as well as international tea markets.
Centurion
Bank enters into net financing
- 15/8/2000
Centurion Bank Limited, a private sector banks and a forerunner in harnessing
the latest technology, has acquired a very significant stake in Teauction.com?
India's largest B2B Portal, caterers to the tea industry. Along with this
acquisition of 26 per cent for Rs II crore, the bank has earmarked Rs
200 crore towards financing and funding the transactions on the site.
The Bank also plans to provide an exclusive payment gateway to the auctioneers
as well as the buyers. In his first ever interaction with the media, after
taking over the reins of Centurion Bank its newly appointed Managing Director,
Mr. M. J. Subbaiah said. "This more reinforces to bank's commitment to
enhance convenience and spur productivity and efficiency. The new economy
is hungry for institutions like ours to invest and assist in their growth.
The tea market is growing exponentially and with our association with
teauction.com, we are convinced that the industry will see more of such
tie-ups. As far as Centurion Bank is concerned, this is just a small part
in our endeavor to aid the growth of the new age economy as a whole."
Teauction.com brings together the entire community of buyers, sellers,
registered brokers, suppliers and associations and substitutes their physical
presence at the actions, Through this portal, tea is available - "online"
teauction.com caters to the requirements of the domestic as well international
tea markets. Teauction.com apart from having tied up its first round of
funding is also in discussion with venture capitalists in the United States
with the specific aim of undertaking a wide range of new programmes catering
to specific industry segments. The company currently manages sales of
between 90,000 to 1.2 lakh kilograms of tea per week. Speaking on the
occasion, Mr. Ayush Bagla, Managing Director of teauction.com stated.
"This system of auctioning tea through the portal does away with the delays
and defects of the traditional auction system while putting together faster
and efficient features.
Centurion
Bank invests in teauction.com
- 15/8/2000
Centurion Bank Limited has acquired a very significant stake in teauction.com
- India's largest B2B portal, catering to the tea industry. Along with
this acquisition of 26 per cent for Rs 11 crore the bank ahs earmarked
Rs 200 crore towards financing and funding the transactions on the site.
The bank also plans to provide an exclusive payment gateway to the auctioneers
as well as the buyers. The newly appointed managing director of Centurion
Bank, M J Subbaiah said 'the tea market is growing exponentially and with
our association with teauction.com, we are convinced that the industry
will see more of such tie-ups. As far as Centurion Bank is concerned,
this is just a small part in our endeavor to aid the growth of the new
age economy as a whole according to a press release here. Teauction.com
brings together the entire community of buyers, sellers, registered brokers,
suppliers, and associations and substitutes their physical presence at
the auctions. Teauction.com caters to the requirements of the domestic
as well international tea markets. Teauction.com apart from having tied
up its first round of funding is also in discussion with venture capitalists
in the United States with the specific aim of undertaking a wide range
of new programmes catering to specific industry segments. The company
currently manages sales of between 90,000 to 1.2 lakh kilograms of tea
per week, translating into trading of about Rs 100 crore per annum. The
company has also entered into an arrangement with a satellite company
in USA for obtaining daily weather updates specifically in tea plantation
areas, 6 times a day, five days a week. On the road, connectivity is also
being offered to the bidders and the sellers through the call center being
set up in Salt Lake in Calcutta.
Centurion
Bank picks up stake
- 16 / 8 / 2000
Centurion Bank has acquired 26 per cent stake in teauction.com, a business
to business (B2B) portal catering to the tea industry, for Rs 11 crore.
"The bank has earmarked Rs 200 crore towards financing and funding the
transactions on the site by various tea companies, brokerage firms and
sellers and buyers," Centurion Bank director VS Srinivasan told newspersons
here. A joint committee constituting members from the portal, Centurion
Bank and a rating agency has been set up to conduct appraisals of the
credit applications, he said. The committee has already approved around
Rs 15 crore of credit, the bank's managing director MJ Subbaiah said adding
the disbursements would commence soon. This acquisition was the first
step towards the bank's e-commerce initiative, Srinivasan said adding,
it also plans to provide an exclusive payment gateway to the auctioneers
as well as the buyers.
Centurion
Bank acquires teauction.com
- 14 / 8 / 2000
Centurion Bank has acquired 26 per cent stake in teauction.com, a business
to business (B2B) portal catering to the tea industry, for Rs 11 crore.
The bank has earmarked Rs 200 crore towards financing and funding the
transactions on the site by various tea companies, brokerage firms and
sellers and buyers. A joint committee constituting members from the portal,
Centurion Bank and a rating agency has been set up to conduct appraisals
of the credit applications. The committee has already approved around
Rs 15 crore of credit.
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