Tata Steel reported bumper net profits of Rs.9,835 crore for Mar-22 quarter; yoy growth of 37%. Profits were largely driven by other income. Sales revenues surged 38.4% to Rs.69,616 crore in Q4. Incidentally, the total net profits for the full year for Tata Steel was at Rs.41,749 crore, getting the better of TCS which reported full year profits of Rs.38,750 crore. Tata Steel is achieving this feat after 14 long years. Tata Steel announced Rs.51 dividend plus 1:10 stock split to bring the stock into a more popular trading range.
The recently listed Adani Wilmar announced acquisition of several brands, including “Kohinoor” Basmati brand from McCormick Switzerland GMBH. It will help Adani Wilmar strengthen its food portfolio. The deal size is not known. The Kohinoor acquisition gives AWL full rights over Kohinoor basmati rice and the “Ready-to-Cook & Ready-to-Eat” curries and meals portfolio of Kohinoor. It enhances their value added products. The branded staples and food products segment has been higher on margins and on profits.
Net profits of Titan Company for Mar-22 quarter fell 7.2% to Rs.491 crore, on account of poor show of jewellery sales. In the Mar-22 quarter, jewellery sales fell by 4.1% to Rs.6,132 crore, on account to of store closures during the third wave of Covid-19. For the Mar-22 quarter, revenues were up 3% at Rs.7,352 crore. Full year revenues for FY22 were 36% higher at Rs.26,411 crore. The next big bet is on Akshaya Tritiya sales. Recently, Tanishq made a major expansion into GCC and the US. Watches grew sharply yoy.
Plaza Wires filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI for its proposed IPO. The typical approval process takes about 2 to 3 months. Delhi based Plaza Wires is engaged in manufacturing of wires, aluminium cables and fast-moving electrical goods (FMEG). The IPO will be a total fresh issue of 164.52 lakh shares to the public with no OFS component. Its existing manufacturing facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh has installed capacity of 12,00,000 standard coils a year. Funds will used to add 8.37 SC capacity.
For the month of Apr-22, India’s merchandise exports stood at $38.19 billion, lower than the $42.22 billion exports recorded in Mar-22. This is based on the preliminary data released by the Commerce Ministry. The final data normally comes in around the middle of the month. However, with merchandise imports at $58.26 billion, the trade deficit widened to $20.07 billion for Apr-22. Crude accounted for 34% of total imports in value terms while coal imports surged 136%. Fortunately, gold imports fell 73% to $1.69 billion.
IIFL Finance Ltd, the finance arm of IIFL group, announced joint venture with Open Financial Technologies, Asia’s largest SME focused neo-banking platform. Together, they will launch India’s first Neobank catering to the banking and credit needs of MSMEs. While IIFL Finance will have 51% in the JV, Open Financial will have 49%. Initial capital of the JV will be Rs.120 crore. While Open Financial brings in the technology, IIFL brings in its customer base. The JV will be profitable from the first year itself with $2 billion lending book.
The LIC IPO that opens on 04ths May, is likely to set records domestically and also globally. The $2.7 billion IPO will be the fifth-largest IPO in CY22 so far. LG Energy Solutions of South Korea had the biggest IPO this year of $10.8 billion followed by China Mobile IPO at $8.6 billion. The Dubai Electricity & Water Authority IPO at $6.1-billion and the IPO of China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s (CNOOC) at $5.1 billion were in the third and fourth place. The message is that there is still a lot of money available for quality issues.
The Akshaya Tritiya appears to have come as a blessing in disguise for Indian jewellers. It is estimated that they clocked sales worth Rs.15,000 crore on Akshaya Tritiya day. This was disclosed by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). A slump in gold prices ahead of Akshaya Tritiya also boosted sales. Akshaya Tritiya is considered an auspicious occasion to buy gold and silver. Large jewellers cornered most of the sales with smaller jewellers reporting lukewarm sales. Between 2019 and 2022, 24-Karat gold surged by 46%.