There seem to be positive tidings on the real estate front. Bengaluru-based Sobha saw bookings rise by 40% to Rs.683 crore during the Jun-21 quarter, largely on the back of better demand. During this period, Sobha achieved a total sales volume of 895,539 SFT of super built-up area. While Bengaluru recorded smart volume growth of 37% in the Jun-21 quarter, other cities like Kochi, Thrissur, Pune and Gurugram also did fairly well. Sobha has lined up plans to launch another 13.35 million SFT to capture post-COVID demand.
Gautam Adani is seeking funding to the tune of Rs.7,500 crore in order to refinance the existing debt of MIAL; the Mumbai Airport operator. Adani is already negotiating with Barclays, JP Morgan and Deutsche for the funding. It may be recollected that MIAL has total debt of Rs.8,000 crore and that is first priority for Adani after it bought 23.5% stake in MIAL from two South African companies. GVK still has ownership in the MIAL project, despite being under financial constraints and not being able to infuse fresh funds.
Titan dipped 3% on 07 July after it gave quarterly guidance. In the Jun-21 quarter, Titan recorded 117% yoy growth in revenues, excluding sales of bullion. However, Titan admitted that due to COVID 2.0, the sales from stores that remained open were relatively muted. However, the watches and eye wear segments saw sharp recovery in walk-ins once stores were reopened. Titan expects the pent-up demand of the first quarter to have been postponed by two or three quarters, which is what spooked markets.
The stock of Indian Hotels rallied 6% on Wednesday to touch a 20-month high price of Rs.157 supported by heavy volumes. The stock has surged nearly 11% in the last four trading sessions after the board approved raising up Rs.250 crore on private placement basis via NCDs. India Hotels, which runs the Taj Group of hotels, manages over 196 hotels across 4 continents, 12 countries and over 80 locations. In the Mar-21 quarter, IHCL reported positive EBITDA of Rs.83 crore. Cost prudence went a long way for IHCL.
In a major reshuffle, PM Modi inducted 43 leaders as ministers in the Union Cabinet. This includes 36 new faces, of which 7 were women and 12 first-time MPs. Apart from the 36 new faces, 7 Ministers of State were elevated to Cabinet Rank. Some big outgoing names were Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal. New faces include Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Nisith Pramanik, Narayan Rane, Anupriya Patel and Meenakshi Lekhi.
Zomato has advanced IPO plans and will now launch its IPO next week instead of on 19 April. The IPO is now likely to hit the market on 14 July. SEBI has approved DRHP and only the ROC approval for the RHP is awaited. The indicative demand from the global roadshows appears to be robust with domestic and global investors queueing up for the IPO. Zomato may eye valuations in the range of $8 billion to $ 10 billion post its IPO. Now Zomato will raise Rs.9,000 crore of fresh funds and Rs.375 crore as OFS for Info Edge.
In an interesting move, all the Chinese nationals on the board of Paytm have been replaced by US and Indian citizens, with no change in the shareholding. Representatives of early stage investors in Paytm including Alipay, Alibaba, Ant Financial have all resigned from the board of Paytm as per the regulatory document. Ant Group has nominated Douglas Feagin, a US citizen, on the Paytm board. Some of marquee Paytm shareholders include Ant Group, Softbank, SAIF Partners, T Rowe Price and Berkshire Hathaway.
Jindal Steel and Power will invest more than Rs.100,000 crore over the next 10 years in the state of Odisha to create employment opportunities in the state. This was confirmed by the Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik. A total of five industrial projects in metals and downstream metal worth Rs.146,172 crore have been approved. As part of the expansion, JSPL will expand its 6 MTPA Integrated steel plant at Angul to 25.20 MTPA. Apart from JSPL, Bhushan Steel and Tata Steel are also participating in the Odisha story.