Vodafone Idea, which just completed its successful Rs18,000 crore FPO, is again in talks with lenders for loans worth Rs15,000 crore. This fund raising will be phased over the next 2 years. Some of the PSBs that Vodafone Idea has already approached include SBI, BOB and PNB. Most likely, SBI may lead a consortium of bankers to fund a requirement of this size. The big challenge for Vodafone Idea, amidst a steady loss of subscribers, is to roll out 5G network service and expand 4G coverage, to take on Reliance Jio and Bharti.
Dabur India reported 16.5% higher net profits of Rs341.22 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2024. Total revenues for Q4FY24 were up 5.11% at Rs2,815 crore. The surge in profits owed a lot to the strategy of premiumization adopted by Dabur India Ltd. The board has recommended final dividend of Rs2.75 per share. EBITDA for Q4 was up 14% at Rs467 crore while EBITDA margins expanded by 130 bps to 16.6% in Q4FY24. Currently, premium brands make up 18% of the portfolio and volume growth for FY24 was 5.5%.
For April 2024, India’s crude oil imports fell 8% overall to 4.50 million barrels per day (bpd). However, there was an 18% growth in oil imports from Russia at 1.7 million bpd in April, with Russia now accounting for 38% of India’s total import basket. This is despite reports of narrowing discounts on Russian oil amidst tougher sanctions imposed by the US. Other major crude suppliers, apart from Russia, included Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. India had started buying oil from Venezuela in Q4-2023 after a gap of more than 3 years.
Coal India reported 26% higher net profits for Q4FY24 at Rs8,641 crore, even as revenues from operations fell nearly 2% to Rs37,410 crore. The board also declared an interim dividend of Rs5 per share. In terms of the number of Coal India vis-à-vis analyst expectations; the company did slightly below expectations on the sales front, but better than street expectations on the net profits front. Coal India has been seeing a frenetic growth in demand as its major customer base of thermal power companies see peak demand.
SK Finance Ltd has filed DRHP with SEBI for its proposed Rs2,200 crore IPO. This will include a fresh issue of Rs500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of Rs1,700 crore. Apart from the promoters, some of the early institutional investors will also take partial exit in the OFS. SK Finance Ltd is an NBFC focused on the vehicle finance and business finance segments. The fresh issue portion will be used to augment the capital base of the bank to support future on-lending. Kotak Capital, MOSL and Nomura will be the BRLMs to the IPO.
The board of directors of Coforge Ltd approved the acquisition of a 54% stake in Cigniti Technologies. The deal will happen at a price of Rs1,415 per share, as per the regulatory filing done. Coforge, which is an offshoot of NIIT group, also informed that the entire acquisition process was expected to be completed by the second quarter of current financial year i.e., Q2FY25. Coforge expects Cigniti deal to grow overall revenues to $2 billion by FY27 and also boost operating margins by around 150 to 200 basis points (bps).
Amidst a barrage of news headlines about the imminent exit of ICICI Bank CEO, Sandeep Bakshi, the bank rushed to clarify that the news item was totally baseless. There were several reports that Bakshi wanted to step down from the top job. The bank, in a statement, alluded that such news items could even be an outcome of malicious intent. Under Bakshi, ICICI Bank has grown its market almost 4-fold. Bakshi took over the reins of ICICI Bank, after CEO Chand Kochhar was asked to exit over the conflict of interest fiasco. The government has cut the windfall tax levied as Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) on domestically produced crude from Rs9,600/tonne to Rs8,400/tonne. The windfall tax is normally increased or cut in tandem with the crude oil prices to ensure that the oil extraction companies do not end up making super normal profits amidst a sharp spike in crude prices. The tax rate is decided every fortnight, based on the oil prices and the GRMs in the international market. Windfall tax was first imposed by centre in July 2022.
