Adani Enterprises prices its FPO in the price band of Rs3,112 to Rs3,276 with a discount offering of Rs64 to the retail investors, in what could be the biggest Indian FPO offering ever. The FPO is likely to result in equity dilution to the extent of 3.5% for the promoters. The stock has nearly doubled in the last one year. The payment for the FPO would be made 50% upfront with the balance in two likely instalments of 25% each. Adani Enterprises is the group incubator and will using these funds to bank roll its expansion plans.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, N Chandrasekaran of Tata Sons committed $90 billion to big investments over the next 5 years. He underlined that the Tata group was expecting a 23% growth at a group level in the current year. Its capex is likely to be largely spread across businesses like steel, automobiles, electric vehicles, renewable energy, batteries and electronics over the next five years or so.
Microsoft will be cutting 10,000 employees or nearly 5% of its workforce. Satya Nadella has described the layoffs as inevitable in the light of the tight market conditions. However, even as Microsoft eliminates roles in some areas, it will be adding people in other strategic areas. Nadella underlined that their clients were also trying to optimize their digital spends, post the pandemic, and they were being in sync. In the last few months, such layoffs have been quite rampant across technology and digital companies globally.
Vedanta Ltd will acquire Meenakshi Energy for Rs 1,440 crore from the CIRP. Meenakshi Energy is a 1,000-MW coal-fired power plant located at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. It had been admitted under insolvency resolution in the year 2019. While Vedanta will pay Rs312 crore upfront to the creditors the balance of Rs1,128 crore will be paid via issue of NCDs issued by Meenakshi Energy. This deal will enhance the power portfolio of the Vedanta group. Phase I of the power plant has been completed, while Phase II is pending.
Cargo traffic at state-owned ports rose 10.4% in December 2022 after 3 months of stagnant growth. This was led by a strong rebound in merchandise trade. Across India, a total of 12 major ports handled cargo of 69.5 MT in December; the highest during current fiscal year. This is about 8 MT more than the median of the previous 3 months. Cumulative traffic at major ports touched 576 MT for FY23 to date, which is 9% higher yoy. This is explained by a surge in coal volume with thermal coal using the rail-sea-rail (RSR) route.
CLSA has warned that the financial crisis at Vodafone Idea may be deepening as losses are likely to get deeper in coming quarters. CLSA also expressed scepticism about the ability of Vodafone idea to meet its annual $5-billion spectrum and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payables to the government from FY26 onwards. Currently, VI is losing customers each month and struggling to raise funds. Already, it is at a disadvantage since its capex has been nearly 80% lower than Airtel and equity conversion is yet to happen.
IndusInd Bank Q3FY23 PAT was up 68.7% at Rs1,959 crore, helped by a sharp drop in provisioning and sharply lower gross NPAs. Net interest income (NII) for Q3FY23 was up 18.5% at Rs4,495 crore. The NIM or the net interest margin for the quarter improved by 17 basis points to 4.27% in the quarter. Provisions and contingencies were 35.6% lower at Rs1,065 crore for the quarter. Gross NPAs at 2.06% was sharply better than 2.48% in the year ago period. CASA deposits account for a comfortable 42% of total deposits.
Bharti Airtel announced investment of Rs2,000 crore for setting up a hyperscale data centre in Hyderabad. The group had been in talks with the Telangana Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao. The outlay will be made by Nxtra Data Centres, the data centre arm of Bharti Airtel. First phase will entail a 60 MW IT load and the full project will be deployed over the next seven years. Hyderabad has been emerging in the last few years as a major hub for Hyperscale Data Centres in India with slew of global companies too.
