For Jun-21 quarter, ICICI Bank reported 78% higher net profit on Saturday at Rs.4,616 crore, largely on the back of a 62% fall in provisioning for loan losses. However, the bank witnessed higher slippages in the retail loan book. Net interest income or NII was up 18% at Rs.10,936 crore while NIM was 20 bps higher at 3.89%. Provisions for Jun-21 quarter were lower at Rs.2,852 crore against Rs.7,594 crore in the Jun-20 quarter. The bank added Rs.3,604 to its Gross NPAs with fresh slippages of Rs.6,700 crore in retail loans.
Foreign portfolio investors of FPIs sold Rs.5,689 crore of equities in July as they continued to remain tad cautious on emerging markets due to the strong dollar. However, during the first 3 weeks of July, FPIs infused Rs.3,191 crore in the debt segment. Thus, net withdrawal stood at Rs 2,499 crore. FPIs have been worried about a mix of higher crude oil prices and a strong US dollar. However, FPIs have continued to be persistent sellers in equities, although they have been heavy investors in the Zomato IPO last week.
ITC reported 30.2% growth in net profits at Rs.3,344 for the Jun-21 quarter. Revenues were up 35.9% at Rs.14,241 crore in the quarter, led by a boost to cigarette sales. The company witnessed a turnaround in the non-cigarette FMCG business with hygiene products triggering the growth in the EBITDA of ITC. While the agriculture products vertical also grew sales by 50%, the surprising performer was the paperboards segment which saw good traction. The hotels segment, finally saw a turnaround to positive EBITDA zone.
A total of 6 out of 10 most valuable companies by market cap on the Nifty saw combined erosion of Rs.76,641 crore during the week. After the spike in asset quality stress, HDFC Bank was the big loser during the week. For example, HDFC Bank lost Rs.43,578 crore in market value while HUL lost Rs.13,001 crore. HDFC lost Rs.9,543 crore, Kotak Bank Rs.5,393 crore and Reliance Rs.4,184 crore. Among gainers, Infosys gained Rs.15,056 crore, ICICI Bank Rs.11,371 crore TCS Rs.6,436 crore and Bajaj Finance Rs.3,190 crore
More than 8 months after the listing of Gland Pharma, Mumbai based Macleod Pharma is looking at a domestic listing via the second biggest pharma IPO. Macleod Pharma has initiated discussions with BRLMs to evaluate an IPO in FY22. It is expected that Macleod Pharma may raise Rs.3,000 crore via this route. Macleod is cash rich and is among the largest unlisted pharma plays in India. Some of the recently listed IPOs like Laurus Labs, Gland Pharma and Eris Lifesciences have performed extremely well post listing.
With the successful listing of Zomato, investors are getting a little more positive about the valuations of Info Edge, currently having a market cap of Rs.67,000 crore. It will generate a good deal of cash from the small stake sale and its holdings in Zomato also becomes currency for Info Edge. It is well known that Info Edge owns nearly 18% in Zomato, which listed at a market cap of close to Rs.100,000 crore. So just the investment in Zomato is worth 30% of Info Edge market capitalization. It also has a stake in Policybazaar.
India’s most valuable education portal, BYJU’s, acquired after-school learning app, Toppr and upskilling platform, Great Learning, in a cash-cum-stock stock deal. This is the sixth start-up that Byju’s has acquired in 2021. Byju’s had recently raised $1.5 billion from UBS and ADQ, valuing the company at $16.5 billion. Byju’s will pay $600 million for Great Learning and $150 million for Toppr, although these figures are to be confirmed. Till date in 2021, Byju’s has already shelled out $2.2 billion towards a slew of acquisitions.
Reliance Industries will start natural gas production from the MJ field in its eastern offshore KG-D6 block. The production is expected to commence in the last quarter of 2022. RIL and BP PLC will use the floating production system at high-seas in the Bay of Bengal to extract the deepest gas in the KG-D6 block. MJ-1 is estimated to hold a minimum of 0.988 Trillion cubic feet or TCF of contingent resources. RIL has so far made 19 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block. RIL holds 66.67% in the block and while BP holds 33.33%.