Moody’s Investor Services estimates that India may require investments of nearly $385 billion to meet its renewable energy target in the stock market. In this process, the affordability and reliability of renewable energy will be a big factor. This investment will be required over the next 6-7 years if the target of 500 GW of RE has to be achieved. However, Moody’s sees coal as being the major source of power for few more decades in the Indian context. $200 billion outlay will be for RE generation, and $185 billion will be for T&D requirements.
SEBI has issued a warning to ICICI Bank over its inappropriate outreach to shareholders of ICICI Securities to apparently explains the scheme and maximize participation. This came after several minority holders in ICICI Securities had complained to SEBI about the lack of fairness in the swap ratio as well as the manner in which ICICI Bank had gone about putting subtle pressure on the shareholders of ICICI Securities. SEBI noted that the very aggressive outreach program on the last day of voting appeared to be inappropriate.
In another rather controversial corporate restructuring move, shareholders of ITC Ltd approved demerger of its hotels business with 99.6% of the votes in favour of the resolution. The stock of ITC has been a rank underperformer this year after being the top performer in the previous year. The shareholders raised several objections to the demerger in that the parent company retained 40% shareholding in the hotels business. That would mean that shareholders of ITC do not get the full benefit. BAT favoured this move.
The board of Bajaj Housing Finance has approved the raising of Rs4,000 crore through the IPO route. The IPO will include a fresh issue and an offer for sale by shareholders of the company. Bajaj Housing is a 100% subsidiary of Bajaj Finance Ltd, so it could also lead to substantial value discover for the parent company. Bajaj Housing had an AUM of Rs91,370 crore as of the close of the last fiscal year FY24. In FY24, Bajaj Housing Finance saw NII grow by 22% yoy while the PAT grew 38%. It has to mandatorily list by Sep-2025.
SEBI proposes some changes to make life simpler for small investors, especially with respect to managing their demat accounts. One likely change is that the limit of the Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA) will be enhanced from the current Rs2 lakhs to Rs10 lakhs. The other change planned by SEBI is that demat accounts up to a value of Rs4 lakhs will not have any fees and a nominal fee of Rs100 will be imposed if the demat value crosses Rs4 crore. The idea is to spread the demat cult so fees are not a constraint to it.
When the stock markets crashed on Tuesday after the election outcome, it was not just the trader wealth that got eroded, but even mutual funds saw Rs1.40 trillion shaved off their AUM. Interestingly, the small cap funds saw a smaller drawdown in value compared to the large cap funds. PSU stocks and stocks from the capital goods space were the worst hit. In that single day, the equity AUM fell from Rs25.3 trillion to Rs23.9 trillion due to the 4,300 points fall in the Sensex. However, there has been a subsequent recovery.
HDFC Life has crossed its AUM of Rs3 trillion in FY24, making it one of the most influential private insurers in India. It has a debt-equity ratio of 67:33 with 99% of the debt investments in government bonds and in “AAA” rated securities. HDFC Life has always preferred to ensure that high quality debt predominates its investment portfolio so that unitholders enjoy more stability, even if it means slightly lesser returns. In the last few years, HDFC Life has largely focused on product innovation, customer focus and digital play. Zee has secured the go ahead from its board to raise Rs2,000 crore of funds. This has become essential after the massive $10 billion merger with Sony Pictures was called off over leadership issues. While, Zee wanted Goenka to continue as the CEO of the merged entity, as originally decided, Sony was having second thoughts about the idea after the SEBI strictures on Goenka. The fund will be raised through the issue of fresh shares. The fund raising is likely to boost investor confidence, which is quite low currently.
