Reliance Jio has paid Rs.30,791 crore, as prepayment of its entire deferred liabilities for spectrum acquired in auctions before March 2021. This also includes the accrued interest and includes spectrum acquired in 2014, 2015, 2016 and year 2021. Reliance Jio had acquired 585.3 MHz spectrum via auctions and trading. These amounts were due in annual instalments between FY23 and FY35 and carried interest rate between 9.30% to 10% for average residual period above 7 years. Annual interest savings will be of Rs.1,200 crore.
Air India cancelled a total of 8 flights on India-US routes on concerns over the deployment of 5G internet in North America. This is likely to interfere with aircraft navigation systems. The DGCA is directly working with the airlines and its US regulatory counterparts. The US based Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had warned that 5G interference with the aircraft radio altimeter could disrupt braking systems since the altimeter band is close to 5G system works. Air India directly flies to the East and West Coast of the US.
Bajaj Auto reported 22% lower net profit of Rs.1,214 crore for the Dec-21 quarter. Overall revenues were marginally higher at Rs.9,022 crore despite lower volumes. Bajaj Auto volumes fell 20% at 469,000 units in the domestic 2-wheeler market. However, Bajaj did see a spike in market share by nearly 60 bps. Fortunately, the fall in export volumes at 5% were better. While domestic 2-wheeler market is 45% of the total volumes, the balance 55% is accounted for by exports. Overall volumes in Q3 were 11,81,361 units.
RBL Bank, which has been in the eye of a storm in recent weeks, is now seeking to raise fresh capital in a bid to allay investor concerns over its financial health. The stock had gone into a free fall after RBI nominated a director to the board and the CEO, Vishwavir Ahuja, resigned simultaneously sparking off speculation over an RBI takeover. RBL Bank has apparently approached private equity firms for funds in exchange for a stake and is looking to raise around Rs.1,500 crore. RBL has capital adequacy ratio of 16.3%.
The problems for Paytm appear to continue in the market as the stock has now lost a full 54% from its IPO issue price. The stock has been falling vertically on heavy volumes. Recently, Macquarie had downgraded the price target further to Rs.900 and the stock is now just 10% away from that target. The volumes have also been quite heavy in the equity market indicating aggressive selling in the counter. FPIs held 10.37% in Paytm at the time of the IPO and it is not yet clear how much they still hold as of the December filings.
Adani Green Energy, the world’s largest solar player, hit a new high of Rs.1,956, amidst a weak market. AGEL is the renewable energy arm of the Adani Group, which now has a group market capitalization in excess of $150 billion and is the third most valuable group in India after Tatas and Reliance. AGEL currently has a market cap of Rs.3.04 trillion. The recent spurt came after its quarterly guidance indicated that sale of energy increased 97% in Dec-21 quarter. AGEL signed PPA with SECI to supply 4,667 MW of solar power.
Triveni Engineering, one of the leading sugar and ethanol players in India, touched a new high of Rs.269 on expectations of healthy growth in operating profits and lower financial risk. The stock is already up 21% in the last one month. ICRA expects the revenues this year to remain stagnant since higher distillery revenues would be offset by lower sugar volumes. Financial risk will reduce as higher sucrose diversion towards B-heavy molasses and juice-based ethanol will moderate inventory levels. Triveni has also diversified into grain-based distillery of 60 KLPD to strengthen profile and improve revenue diversification.
According to a recent survey, the proliferation of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) schemes is being driven by GenZ and Millennials. According to the ZestMoney report, most customers were in the 23-26 age group. In fact, overall BNPL transactions on ZestMoney saw 300% increase in 2021. BNPL was used by men to shop for fashion and lifestyle in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities, women from these cities spent on upgrading their electronics and invested in EdTech upskilling courses. ZestMoney has a registered user base of 15 million.