SBI standalone net profits for Q4FY23 grew 83.19% yoy to Rs16,695 crore on healthy NII expansion and 44 bps surge in NIMs. At Rs55,648 crore net profits for FY23, SBI is the second most profitable company in India after Reliance Industries. Chairman, Dinesh Khara, was confident of further expansion in NIMs due to more room left for MCLR to grow. While advances grew 15.99%, deposit growth stood at 9.2% for the quarter with CASA deposit share standing at 43.8%. Capital adequacy for SBI stands at 14.68% in Q4.
Indian government has asked Pratt & Whitney (part of Raytheon of the US), to supply engines on priority so that grounded planes of Indian carriers are up and running. The reference was to Go First, which was grounded earlier this month due to half its fleet being grounded due to problems in its P&W engines. The DGCA is currently awaiting the resumption plan from Go First. The P&W engines have been a major issue even for Indigo, but in their case, the size of the fleet is very large, so the problem is less severe for them.
ITC reported 23.35% higher net profits in Q4FY23 at Rs5,175 crore led by cigarettes, FMCG and hotels. The share of cigarettes in operating profits is down from 85% to 75%. Revenues from operations in Q4FY23 were up 7.34% at Rs19,058 crore, beating Bloomberg consensus by 10%. ITC board recommended special dividend of Rs2.75 per share, in addition to final dividend of Rs6.75 per share for FY23, taking the total dividend paid to Rs15.50 per share. ITC stock has been among the Nifty top performers of calendar 2023.
As per a survey by Global Data, use of mobile wallets in India is expanding at a rapid space and replacing conventional payments like cash and credit cards. Mobile wallets usage to grow 24% CAGR in next 5 years to touch $5.7 trillion by year 2027 and reach $5.7 trillion. With wallets and UPI, the use of cash has been on the decline. UPI is already the most preferred platform for daily payments. Rapid merchant adoption of QR code payments has also led to the rapid growth in wallets. The move away from cash began in 2016.
S&P Global Ratings affirmed India’s sovereign rating at “BBB-“ with stable outlook. It has underlined India’s strengths as a rapid GDP growth and strong external balance sheet but flagged concerns over the level of fiscal deficit and low GDP per capita. The “BBB-“ rating is the lowest investment grade rating. This is in sync with the rating outlook of the other global players like Moody’s and Fitch also. In FY24, the CAD is likely to be less of a concern for the rating outlook for India. High services surplus has been a big boost.
Domino’s Pizza will launch on government-owned Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform. It was currently working on tech integration ahead of the debut on ONDC. Over last few months, the food segment has been betting big on ONDC to challenge the duopoly of Swiggy and Zomato. ONDC works out more economical and also gives the food outlet more control over customer data. Currently, Swiggy and Zomato charge up to 30% commissions while in the case of ONDC it is just 9%. Delivery cost is an issue.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) will invest $12.7 billion into cloud infrastructure in India by 2030 to meet the growing demand for cloud services. This will support an average of 131,700 full-time jobs in India. These positions, include construction, facilities maintenance, engineering, telecommunications etc. This will take AWS total investment in India buy 2030 to $16 billion. This will contribute $23.3 billion to India’s GDP by 2030. AWS also helps Indian businesses to locally build digital solutions which can be scaled up.
The insolvency of Future Retail attracted lukewarm response with just 6 bidders coming on board. While the names of the bidders were not disclosed, it was clear that Adani and Reliance had opted out of the bid. The deadline to submit resolution plans was May 15th. UK-based travel retailer WH Smith, JC Flowers ARC, Burgundy Hospitality, IDFS Services, Pinnacle Air are among the bidders. The business of FRL had become unviable after the deal to merge with Reliance Retail fell through post objections by Amazon.