Pantaloon Retail Q3 net loss at Rs 20 crore:Opt2Wealth Financials

Pantaloon Retail today posted a loss of Rs 20.41 crore on standalone basis for the quarter ended December 31. The Future Group company had clocked a net profit of Rs 5.64 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Total income stood at Rs 1,289.33 crore whereas the same was at Rs 1,111.48 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, the company said in a release. The current period figures were not comparable with the previous year on account of extension of the accounting period by six months from June 30, 2012, to December 31, 2012, the release said.

During the 18 months ended December 31, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 273.26 crore. Total income stood at Rs 7,015.43 crore for the 18 months ended December 31, 2012. As per consolidated results, the retail giant posted a net profit of Rs 275.67 crore for the 18 months ended December 31. Total income was Rs 20,316.37 crore in the same period.

Improved consumer sentiments, lower interest outgo and higher operational efficiencies marked the final quarter of the financial year for the company. The core retail business turnover increased from Rs 2,893 crore to Rs 3,171 crore for quarter ended December 31, year-on-year basis.

The interest outgo came down from Rs 176 crore for the quarter ended September 30, to Rs 157 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2012. The company witnessed brisk sales in festive season during the quarter vis-à-vis the previous year. After quite a few consecutive quarters of weak consumer sentiments, sales during the festive season improved significantly, it said.

Categories like fashion, footwear, home appliances and home fashion, which were hit hard during the slowdown, posted encouraging sales. The upcoming quarters will provide a clearer indication of whether the demand upswing remains consistent, it said.

Pantaloon ended the December quarter with 16.38 million sq ft of retail space. It added 0.41 million sq ft of retail space during the December quarter. In the lifestyle segment, the company opened two Pantaloon, 4 Brand Factory and 3 eZone stores.

The company said the next court hearing of its petition regarding the demerger of Pantaloons Fashion Format is scheduled on March 1.

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Rajat Gupta asked to repay $6.22 million to Goldman Sachs:Opt2wealth Financials

A federal judge on Monday ordered former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta to reimburse $6.22 million to the bank to help cover its legal expenses related to his criminal insider trading case.

Goldman had sought to recover $6.91 million from Gupta, and U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the bank had proved it was entitled to 90 percent of what it requested.

Gupta is appealing his 15 June 2012 conviction and two-year prison term for leaking boardroom secrets to Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager at the center of a multi-year US government crackdown on insider trading.

Gupta is a former global managing director of the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, and is the highest corporate executive convicted in the probe.

Jurors found Gupta guilty of leaks during the second half of 2008, including news related to a crucial $5 billion investment in Goldman by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc at the height of the global financial crisis.

Goldman had sought to recover fees it had paid its law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in connection with Gupta’s criminal case and related matters. It cited the federal Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, which requires restitution in some fraud cases.

Gupta opposed restitution but Rakoff, who presided over the criminal trial, said nearly all of what Goldman sought was a “necessary, direct, and foreseeable result of the investigation and prosecution of Gupta’s offense of conviction.”

Rakoff said Goldman could also recover legal costs linked to a related U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil case against Gupta, and to the criminal case against Rajaratnam.

He said Gupta’s opposition to the latter “ignores the glaring fact” that he had been convicted of conspiring with Rajaratnam to commit securities fraud.

But the judge said Goldman did not deserve all it sought.

Rakoff said some entries in the “voluminous” 542 pages of billing records he reviewed did not qualify because they involved depositions in civil cases that followed the criminal conviction.

And Rakoff said Goldman on “a few occasions” assigned too many lawyers to the case – “perhaps perfectly appropriate on the assumption that Goldman Sachs wished to spare no expense on a matter of great importance to it,” but more than reasonably necessary under the law.

Goldman spokesman Michael DuVally said: “We are pleased that the court ordered Mr. Gupta to pay restitution.”

Richard Davis, a lawyer for Gupta, said his client plans to appeal.

Rajaratnam is separately appealing his criminal conviction and 11-year prison term, saying FBI wiretap evidence should not have been admitted by US District Judge Richard Holwell at his 2011 trial.

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Rajat Gupta asked to repay $6.22 million to Goldman Sachs:Opt2wealth Financials

A federal judge on Monday ordered former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta to reimburse $6.22 million to the bank to help cover its legal expenses related to his criminal insider trading case.

Goldman had sought to recover $6.91 million from Gupta, and U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the bank had proved it was entitled to 90 percent of what it requested.

Gupta is appealing his 15 June 2012 conviction and two-year prison term for leaking boardroom secrets to Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager at the center of a multi-year US government crackdown on insider trading.

Gupta is a former global managing director of the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, and is the highest corporate executive convicted in the probe.

Jurors found Gupta guilty of leaks during the second half of 2008, including news related to a crucial $5 billion investment in Goldman by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc at the height of the global financial crisis.

Goldman had sought to recover fees it had paid its law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in connection with Gupta’s criminal case and related matters. It cited the federal Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, which requires restitution in some fraud cases.

Gupta opposed restitution but Rakoff, who presided over the criminal trial, said nearly all of what Goldman sought was a “necessary, direct, and foreseeable result of the investigation and prosecution of Gupta’s offense of conviction.”

Rakoff said Goldman could also recover legal costs linked to a related U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil case against Gupta, and to the criminal case against Rajaratnam.

He said Gupta’s opposition to the latter “ignores the glaring fact” that he had been convicted of conspiring with Rajaratnam to commit securities fraud.

But the judge said Goldman did not deserve all it sought.

Rakoff said some entries in the “voluminous” 542 pages of billing records he reviewed did not qualify because they involved depositions in civil cases that followed the criminal conviction.

And Rakoff said Goldman on “a few occasions” assigned too many lawyers to the case – “perhaps perfectly appropriate on the assumption that Goldman Sachs wished to spare no expense on a matter of great importance to it,” but more than reasonably necessary under the law.

Goldman spokesman Michael DuVally said: “We are pleased that the court ordered Mr. Gupta to pay restitution.”

Richard Davis, a lawyer for Gupta, said his client plans to appeal.

Rajaratnam is separately appealing his criminal conviction and 11-year prison term, saying FBI wiretap evidence should not have been admitted by US District Judge Richard Holwell at his 2011 trial.

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