As Reliance and the Adanis fight over green hydrogen, GAIL is likely to build India’s largest green hydrogen plant over the next one year. This will supplement GAIL’s natural gas business with carbon-free fuel. It is looking to build a 10 MW electrolyzer capable of generating 4.50 tonnes of green hydrogen daily. This is the latest buzz word for meeting the world’s energy needs. Hydrogen can be produced through coal gasification, methane or via renewable sources. It will be double the capacity of what NTPC is planning.
Reliance Industries announced that it had polled 98% votes to pass a resolution to appoint Saudi Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan on the board of Reliance as an independent director. Reliance confirmed that RIL and Al-Rumayyan had met all regulatory criteria for the appointment. The California Teachers’ Retirement Fund wanted to vote against the move based on the recommendation of proxy advisory firm, Glass Lewis. This is the first step to sell 20% in Reliance Green Energy to Saudi Aramco for $15 billion.
Bombay High Court instructed Zee Entertainment to call an EGM of shareholders, as sought by Invesco, which owns 17.88% stake in Zee. Invesco has been keen on the EGM as it has been pushing for the removal of Punit Goenka from the post of MD and CEO and have six of its own nominees on the board. However, any resolution at the EGM will be on hold till Bombay High Court passes final order on Invesco’s request. Invesco also has reservations about the merger with Sony for the non-compete pay-out to Chandra family.
SEBI has asked investment advisers to refrain from dealing in digital gold and other unregulated products. Apparently, some of the RIAs were providing a platform for investors to buy and sell unregulated products like digital gold. The exchanges have already instructed members not to deal in digital gold as it did not fit into the definition of securities under the SCRA. As SEBI has pointed out, digital gold units are not issued by any regulated entity. Also, there is no methodology to check the gold backing of the digital gold units.
Bank of Maharashtra doubled net profits on yoy basis at Rs.264 crore in the Sep-21 quarter. The sharp spike in profits was supported by robust interest and fee income. BOM saw net interest income or NII grow by 33.84% to Rs.1,500 crore. The company also recovered Rs.260 crore out of its exposure to DHFL after the case was recently resolved by the NCLT. The gross NPAs fell sharply from 8.81% to 5.56% on yoy basis. During the quarter, BOM wrote off Rs.1,100 crore which included Rs.550 crore exposure to SREI.
Asian Paints stock cracked by 7% during the day after the company reported a 28% fall in net profits on a yoy basis. This sharp fall in net profit to Rs.596 crore was largely on the back of a spike in raw material costs in sync with rise in crude prices. The stock is now trading at its lowest level in the last 3 months. The EBITDA margins fell from 23.74% to 12.73% on a yoy basis due to the raw material spike impact. The good news was that the growth in revenues remained robust at 32.6% on the strength of decorative segment.
Paytm may scrap its proposed pre-IPO equity placement of Rs.2,000 crore due to differences over pricing. Paytm is seeking a valuation of $20 billion while investors are looking at valuations of closer to $17-18 billion. Paytm is yet to decide whether to go ahead with the pre-IPO placement at a lower valuation or to scrap the idea altogether. Paytm is planning to raise Rs.16,600 crore from the IPO market consisting of Rs.8,300 crore by way of fresh issue and Rs.8,300 crore via OFS. This would have been key to IPO pricing.
Tata Chemicals is looking to sell its US based soda ash business and is apparently looking for a valuation of $1 billion or Rs.7,600 crore for the same. Tata Chemicals is already in talks with interested parties that include private equity investors as well as strategic buyers. In the Indian bourses, Tata Chemicals has a market valuation of $3.5 billion. Soda Ash is derived from the mineral trona and is used in a range of daily use products like detergents and pharmaceuticals, apart from use in glass, paper and in water treatment.
