Early estimates indicate that Indian exports for the month of Aug-21 stood at $33.14 billion, 45.17% higher than last year. Export demand for engineering products, petroleum products and gems & jewellery were buoyant. However, exports were marginally lower compared to July 2021. However, the sharp spike in imports to $47.01 billion meant that the trade deficit also increased sharply to $13.87 billion for August. With oil prices above $70/bbl, oil imports continued to put pressure. Gold imports surged to $6.7 billion.
Punjab National Bank has also urged the NCLAT to reject the rescue plan offered by the Kalrock Jalan consortium for taking over Jet Airways. The NCLT had already approved the plan. PNB has alleged irregularities in the deal. Employees of Jet are already up in arms against the deal due to the unfair terms for them. Against PNB’s loan recovery of Rs.1,000 crore, Kalrock Jalan consortium had only accepted claims worth Rs.200 crore. PNB argued that the reduction was arbitrary and illegal. Hearing is on 21-Sep.
Adani Green Energy, the alternate energy company, raised $750 million through issue of green bonds. The issue was priced at a coupon rate of 4.375% and elicited bids worth 4.7X the issue amount. Adani Green will be using these funds for renewable project capex. The notes have been rated Ba3, meaning Stable, by Moody’s. With the latest fund raise, Adani Green has a fully-funded equity and debt program to achieve its target of 25 GW by 2025. AGEL targets to be the world’s largest renewable energy company by 2030.
One of India’s leading jewellery chains, Joyalukkas India Ltd, is considering an IPO to the tune of $400 million. This is most likely to happen in the Mar-22 quarter. Joyalukkas is seeking a valuation of $4.8 billion in the IPO. The company is likely to file the draft red herring prospectus around early December this year. Joyalukkas currently has over 130 jewellery showrooms spread across 11 countries. Joyalukkas had planned an IPO in 2018 but had put it off due to tight credit conditions after the Nirav Modi financial scam.
Recently listed Chemplast Sanmar may have had a disappointing subscription and tepid listing but it has rallied sharply in the last few days. In fact, over the last 1 week, the stock rallied over 21% to touch a price of Rs.621 per share. Chemplast is engaged in manufacture of specialty paste PVC resin and intermediates for agro-chemical, pharmaceuticals and fine chemical sectors. The spurt in the price came after Chemplast announced that, as committed, it had redeemed Rs.1,238 crore NCDs issued by Chemplast in Dec-19.
Reliance Industries scaled a 11-month high of Rs.2,299 in intraday trades on Thursday after reports that RIL may be looking to acquire Europe’s largest solar panel manufacturer. In the last 1 month, RIL gained by 11% against the Sensex returns of 9%. However, RIL has not given specific clarification on the report. The target company is expected to be the REC Group of Norway, which is a solar module manufacturer with links to China National Chemical Corporation. The deal with RIL is estimated to be worth $1.2 billion.
Reliance Retail Ventures assumed full control of Just Dial as per SEBI regulations. On 20-July, RRVL had acquired 1.31 crore shares of Just Dial at Rs.1,020 per share from the promoter, V.S.S. Mani, via block deals, representing 15.63% of its post-preferential issue paid-up capital. While Reliance Retail will be classified as the promoter post the deal, Mani will continue to be the CEO and run day-to-day operations. Just Dial has a database of 3.04 crore listings and consumer traffic of 12.91 crore quarterly unique users.
As the Indian economy gradually opens up, the demand for petrol and diesel is set to hit record levels this fiscal year. A combination of leisure and business travel is likely to boost demand for fuel. There is already a lot of revenge travel happening in popular tourist destinations. In July, annual passenger vehicle sales rose 45% to 264,442 units. This was disclosed by SIAM. This would also mean a surge in refining demand and demand for crude. ICRA expects India’s gasoline consumption to rise 14% to a record 31.9 MT in FY22.