Indiabulls Housing Finance will divest its mutual fund AMC business to online investment platform Groww for Rs.175 crore. Indiabulls now wants to focus all its bandwidth on the core real estate franchise. This will also be in line with their asset light strategy. The deal with Groww is expected to be completed by middle of next year. Groww is an online investment platform that facilitates investments in stocks and mutual fund units. Groww is backed by Sequoia and Ribbit. It could be a boost to low-cost MF products.
Moody’s Investors Service has scaled down India’s FY22 growth projection from 13.7% to 9.3%. Moody’s also warned that the second wave could even derail this projection if not arrested on time. Moody’s noted, while holding India’s rating just above speculative, that high debt burden and weak financial system could exacerbate sovereign risks for the Indian economy. Moody’s is also concerned about the logistical challenges of reaching out to a large rural population, where infections are spreading rapidly of late.
The stock price of JSW Steel reacted negatively to its latest steel production figures announced. JSW Steel had reported crude steel production of 13.71 lakh tonnes in Apr-21, which is 5% lower on a sequential basis. The output was 14.46 lakh tonnes in Mar-21. Even capacity utilization was lower by 500 bps at 91% in April due to prioritizing supply of liquid oxygen for COVID-19 treatment. Liquid oxygen is a critical component required in the manufacture of steel. JSW has an installed capacity of 12 million tonnes a year.
Godrej Consumer Products or GCPL reported consolidated net profits of Rs.366 crore for the Mar-21 quarter, a growth of 59% on yoy basis. Consolidated sales revenues for the Mar-21 quarter was also 27% higher at Rs.2,706 crore on a yoy basis. GCPL sees the second wave of COVID as a tailwind for hygiene and home care products. Godrej also announced that Sudhir Sitapati, former of ED of Hindustan Unilever, was appointed as the MD & CEO effective from mid-October. Q4 EBITDA margins of GCPL stood at 22.6%.
The maiden green bond issue by JSW Hydro Energy received a strong response as it got subscribed 4 times and also at a lower yield than originally anticipated. JSW Hydro raised $707-million via 10-year green bonds, although foreign investors were a little sceptical about Indian debt. While the original indication was of 4.5% yield, JSW finally managed to raise the funds at a much lower yield of 4.125%. Green bonds represent funds raised for sustainable projects and the green bonds have seen a huge spurt in year 2021.
Cairn Energy, which holds the $1.2 billion arbitral award against the Indian government towards retrospective taxes, has clarified that it was confident of its position. This statement came after India has challenged the arbitral award on grounds of infringement of the government’s sovereign right to tax. In the previous week, government had asked PSU banks to ring-fence their global banking and physical assets to pre-empt any attempt to confiscate such monies by Cairn. It is now more of a diplomatic issue.
SEBI plans to rationalise the definition of “Promoter Group” and rather focus on the concept of “Person in Control. SEBI has also made a start in reducing the minimum lock-in period for promoter’s stake. SEBI has also suggested streamlining disclosures requirements. SEBI wants the lock-in reduced to 1 year in the case of offer for sale as against 3 years currently. SEBI also wants to do away with detailed disclosures like financials of group companies, litigations etc. Promoter holdings have been falling consistently since 2009.
Siemens reported 90% growth in consolidated net profit at Rs.335 crore for Mar-21 quarter. The profit growth was driven by a sharp spike in revenues. Total revenues of Siemens grew by 30% at Rs.3,540 crore in the Mar-21 quarter. Siemens saw surge in demand for power transmission, digital grid and distribution systems businesses. Even the machine tools business and process automation vertical saw good traction. New orders were 17% higher at Rs.3,309 crore. The order backlog stands at a robust Rs.12,677 crore.
