Over the last 4 years, the global defence procurement has gone up sharply, even as defence exports have also gone up, albeit on a much smaller base. For instance, between FY18 and FY22, India’s global defence procurement was up 35.2% at Rs50,061 crore while defence exports were up 173.7% at Rs12,815 crore. A total of 595 industrial licences have been issued to 366 companies in defence sector. The bet is that the defence exports should grow exponentially in the coming year as the PLI systems starts to deliver results.
In the financial world, there are two truths about rumours. Firstly, they travel fast and secondly, there is rarely smoke without fire. The latest is about the Tata group buying a majority stake in UTI AMC to make that big leap in AUM. If the deal happens, the combined entity will have AUM of Rs3.20 trillion positioning the fund as the fourth largest AMC by AUM. Currently, in terms of total AUM, UTI is placed in eighth place while Tata MF is in twelfth place. Both the Tatas and UTI have refused to confirm on any such deal talks.
As per disclosure made to the Parliament bad loans worth Rs10.10 trillion were written off by scheduled commercial banks in last five fiscal years between FY17 and FY22. Needless to say, if one looks at the loan write-offs in FY22, SBI is at the top of the table followed by Union Bank, PNB, BOB, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank in that order. However, the disclosure stopped short of naming specific borrower entities as per RBI regulations. Total recoveries by banks in last five years stood at Rs4.80 trillion.
The Burman family, promoters of Dabur India, may sell shares worth Rs800 crore via block deal. Goldman Sachs will be the broker for the deal to sell up to 4% in the company. Currently, the promoter group holds 67.24% in Dabur, with public shareholders holding the balance. The Burman family is the controlling stake holder in the Dabur group. For the Q2FY23 second quarter, Dabur India reported net profits of Rs490.86 crore on total sales of Rs2,987 crore, as most FMCG companies faced intense margin and price squeeze.
It seems to be the season of promoters monetizing stakes. The latest to sell a stake is Reliance Retail Ventures, which is planning to sell 2% stake in Just Dial to achieve minimum public shareholding. It will be an open market transaction and will be done over next 8 days. RRVL, had acquired Just Dial last year for a sum of Rs3,497 crore. It holds 76.98% and needs to reduce it to 75% as per regulatory norms. Just Dial offers local search and e-commerce services through its website, mobile apps and telephone platforms.
ICRA revised its outlook for banking sector to “Positive” on the back of strong credit growth, lower asset quality pressures and robust capital adequacy as well as solvency position in last 8 years. Despite higher interest rates, bank asset quality is expected to improve in coming quarters. While credit growth is likely to be healthy at 15.2-16.1% in FY23, it is likely to taper by about 200 bps in FY24. ICRA also pointed out that asset quality is at multi-year lows for PSU and private banks with gross NPAs expected at 4% in FY24.
Adani Group launched its consumer platform (Adani One), starting with its airport portal. Through Adani One, customers can book flights, cab, check flight status and even shop for duty-free products. The Adani
Currently runs 7 airports; Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore. Over time, Adani One will become the default platform to take all the products and services pertaining to Adani group on the digital platform. It will eventually become the parallel Adani property.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached Rs907 crore assets of crypto exchanges and arrested 3 persons in a crypto money laundering case. GST officials had detected tax evasion of Rs87.60 crore and recovered Rs110.97 crore, including interest and penalty. ED had seized assets worth Rs290 crore belonging to Wazir-X, pertaining to violation of FEMA provisions. In the case of arrested persons, the ED has also filed cases under the Special Court, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It could be a crypto test case.
