Bajaj Finance has reported 30% higher net profits for the March 2023 quarter at Rs3,158 crore. The big push to the net profits came from the sharp growth in net interest income (NII) by over 28% on yoy basis to Rs7,771 crore. Operating expenses as a share of NII also fell by 40 bps on a yoy basis. Overall, the surge in net profits was driven by growth in loans and growth in overall assets under management (AUM). As of the end of March 2023, company had 6.91 crore customers compared to 5.76 crore customers a year ago.
British regulators have blocked the $69 billion deal by Microsoft Corporation to buy video game maker, Activision Blizzard. The concern is that this deal could stifle competition in the cloud gaming market. As a result, the British Competition and Markets Authority (BCMA) has decided to reject the merger. The deal was an all-cash deal and would have been the biggest tech deal in history. However, Microsoft has denied prospects of monopoly and underlined that it remained committed to the deal. It could take a legal turn.
Maruti Suzuki announced a 43% jump in net profits at Rs2,624 crore for the March 2023 quarter and the company has also declared a liberal dividend of Rs90 per share. Overall revenues were also up by 20% yoy at Rs32,048 crore in the March 2023 quarter. Additionally, the company board has also approved the increase in capacity to add another 1 million vehicles capacity to meet the growing demand. For the fourth quarter, Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 5.15 lakh vehicles, which is 5.3% higher compared to Q4FY22 period.
IndusInd International Holdings, a unit of the Hinduja Group, has emerged as the highest bidder for the assets of Reliance Capital at Rs9,650 crore. This was in the second auction conducted. That is higher than the Rs8,640 bid by Torrent Investments in the first round of the auctions. However, Torrent Investments and Oaktree did not participate in the second round of auctions. The minimum bid had been set at Rs9,500 crore for the first round and Rs10,000 crore for the second round. It remains to be seen what COC does.
SBI Life reported 15% higher net profits for the March 2023 quarter at Rs777 crore making it the private sector insurer to report the highest profit in the fourth quarter. Net premiums jumped 14% in the quarter to Rs19,897 crore. The annualized premium equivalent (APE) was up 18% at Rs16,810 crore in the fourth quarter. The value of new business (VNB) margins improved by nearly 420 points to 30.1% in the fourth quarter. It led the market share sweepstakes with 22.3% of the private sector life insurance market share.
ONGC plans to invest up to Rs1 trillion into expanding its petrochemicals capacity by 2030. This expansion will include new facilities to produce chemicals directly from crude. What ONGC is doing is in line with what the government has planned to make India a major petrochemicals hub for the world. Most oilcos are now trying to de-risk their core oil-based business model to get more into value-added chemicals and derivatives so as to handle cycles of price and demand better. Reliance saw pressure on petchem margins.
Bournvita, the flagship chocolate based milk-drink from Mondelez (formerly Cadbury) has come in for a lot of flak. Recent complaints have surfaced about Bournvita alluding to the high levels of sugar in the drink, something very serious in a country like India which is already becoming the diabetes capital of the world. Now, the FSSAI has got involved and will do a detailed scrutiny of Bournvita. Objections have also alleged that the bone and muscle growth claims of Bournvita were also not backed by any sort of data.
The Mankind Pharma IPO got subscribed 87% overall at the close of the second day of subscription. The Rs4,326 crore IPO of Mankind Pharma closes for subscription on Thursday 27th April 2023. Meanwhile, the GMP of Mankind Pharma has nearly fallen to a third from Rs92 to just Rs30. Only the HNI / NII portion has been oversubscribed to the tune of 102%. The QIB portion typically comes in a big way only on the last day. However, anchor portion was 30% absorbed and that is a good signal of QIB demand for the IPO.
