Government of India banned import of foreign manufactured drones barring those required for defence, security and R&D. This is a key step towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat and to promote local manufacturing. Import of drone components can continue without approvals. The notification was issued by the DGFT and comes into effect immediately. There is already a PLI scheme that provides 20% incentives to the drone manufacturers and to drone components. The allocation made to this PLI scheme was Rs.120 crore.
Tata Power registered 71.6% growth in net profit for the Dec-21 quarter at Rs.426 crore. Overall total revenues also grew by 43.6% yoy at Rs.10,913 crore for the third quarter. The top line got a boost from the expanded operations in Odisha Power Distribution as well as smarter execution by Tata Power Solar Systems. They were the key drivers as Tata Power reported 16% higher EBITDA at Rs.2,499 crore. Profits from the coal mines offset the higher losses in CGPL. Tata Solar has a cumulative portfolio of 900 MW.
The AUM of LIC as of Sep-21 increased to Rs.38 trillion, at par with the entire mutual fund segment in India. The AUM of LIC is nearly 3 times the AUM of all the private life insurers combined. The second largest life insurer, SBI Life, has an AUM of just about Rs.2.40 trillion. As of Sep-21, nearly 61.7% of LIC’s AUM was held in participating policies and 37% in non-participating policyholder investments. The DRHP for its proposed IPO is expected to be filed in this week. Over 90% of LIC equity holdings are in large caps.
Aurobindo Pharma reported 80% fall in net profits at Rs.604.29 crore for the Dec-21 quarter. The major reason for this sharp fall in profits was the high input and freight costs in the quarter. Even the revenues from operations fell 6% to Rs.6,002 crore. Aurobindo is currently facing regulatory hurdles over some of its facilities. Aurobindo, which has been a predominant player in the API market, now wants to foray in a big way into the Indian branded formulations market and other related healthcare opportunities in India.
In a significant milestone for Indian mutual funds, the total number of SIPs folios crossed 5 crore for the first time in Jan-22. SIP flows at Rs.11,518 crore continued the trend of steadily rising monthly SIP flows. In Jan-22, the MF segment added 14 lakh new SIP folios, which is lower than the average of 24 lakh SIP folios added in each of the last five months. However, the broad takeaway from the data is that investors are now adopting a more matured approach to mutual fund investing rather than based on index levels.
Bharati Airtel admitted that while ARPUs were on the way up, they saw the possibility of further rise in ARPU levels in the coming months as tariffs were likely to be hiked once again. Bharti Airtel is open to the idea of leading the tariff hikes in the coming months and expects to take its ARPU from the current Rs.163 to Rs.200 levels. Apart from tariff hikes, Airtel has also taken a conscious decision to scale down on the low value clients and focus more on the high value clients where the ROI per customer can be scaled.
If there is one symbol of the booming equity markets in India, it is the STT collections. As of early Feb-22, the government has already collected Rs.19,200 crore as STT, or 96% of its revised estimates for STT. The original estimate for FY22 was Rs.12,500 crore, which was later revised to Rs.20,000 crore. Now it looks like even that will be taken out by a margin. In FY21, the STT mop-up was just about Rs.13,000 crore, so FY22 collections could be 55-60% higher than last year. A surge in retail trading has helped STT inflows.
Escorts, part of Rajan Nanda group, has confirmed that it will complete the transfer of over 50% stake to Kubota, the Japanese agri-machinery manufacturer. The deal has already been approved by the RBI and the CCI and the SEBI approval is awaited. Only after that, Escorts will do a preferential allotment to Kubota. Post this allotment, the stake of Kubota will increase from the current 9% to 50%. While Escorts had reported higher sales revenues in Dec-21 quarter, the profits had got hit by the sharp spike in input costs.
