Category: Companies

H2 would be much better, expect loan growth to improve, says Yes Bank’s CEO

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Yes Bank reported better than expected earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 on account of improvement in net interest margins (NIMs) and reduction in operating expenses. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Prashant Kumar, MD and CEO of Yes Bank said that the second half of this fiscal would be much better.

“If we don’t have any negative surprise from the pandemic, our second half would be much better,” Kumar said adding that the bank was seeing better demand from the market in terms of credit.

The bank has been able to bring in large number of new customers.

“We have opened almost 60,000 new accounts on the current account/savings account (CASA) side during September and we are targeting to take it to 1 lakh new customers adding to bank every month and we are going to achieve this by December or January,” he said.

Speaking about repayment of loans, he said 5.5 percent of loans amounting up to Rs 9,000 crore are yet to make repayment. “We have disclosed the entire overdue book, which is overdue for more than 30 days. That is something around Rs 9,000 crore which is 5.5 percent of our loan book,” he said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

IL&FS misses debt resolution target by Rs 7,300 cr in September quarter

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) Group, which had earlier estimated to address debt of around Rs 8,800 crore in the second quarter of FY21, on Saturday said it has been able to address debt of just around Rs 1,460 crore during the period due to COVID-19 related delays. The group said the Rs 7,300-crore shortfall in the September target has been rolled over for achievement in subsequent quarters.

The cash-strapped group has, however, maintained its earlier estimates of addressing more than 50 per cent of the overall debt of over Rs 99,000 crore as of October 2018. “As compared to the previous update, the Rs 7,300-crore shortfall in target for debt addressed by September 2020 is being rolled over for achievement in subsequent quarters,” the group said in a release.

“The delay has been mainly caused on account of significant impact of COVID-19, which has added time and logistical complexities in the process of completing discussions with stakeholders and in obtaining approvals from lenders, regulators and judicial authorities,” it said. Of the Rs 7,300 crore of shortfall in the target of Q2 FY21, around Rs 4,200 crore of debt will be addressed in Q3 FY21 and Rs 3,100 crore in Q4 FY21, the group said.

In July, the group had estimated to address close to Rs 50,500 crore of its debt by March 2021 and an additional debt of Rs 6,500 crore beyond FY21. The Uday Kotak-led board had also shared a quarterly estimates of addressing additional debt of Rs 8,800 crore by Q2 FY21; Rs 18,000 crore by Q3 FY21 and over Rs 6,000 crore by the end of Q4 FY21 — aggregating to Rs 50,500 crore by the end of FY2021.

As of June 30, 2020, it had addressed debt of Rs 17,640 crore. The group, in the release, said by September 2020, an additional debt of around Rs 1,460 crore has been addressed — by way of sale of education business, recovery from non-IL&FS group entities, increase in cash balances and debt repayment in green entities, increasing the overall debt addressed based on cash balances to Rs 19,100 crore.

The group has revised its earlier quarterly estimates for addressing the debt. Of the earlier debt resolution target of Rs 18,000 crore for Q3 FY21, resolution of Rs 10,000 crore is being moved to be achieved in Q4 FY21.

Besides, the group is also expecting to receive claims from concession authorities/pre-payments and recovery of loans and investment to non-IL&FS group in the third quarter. “As per revised estimates, Rs 13,200 crore of additional debt is projected to be addressed by December 2020. This includes Rs 8,150 crore resolved through the proposed InvIT for which an ‘in-principle’ approval from SEBI has been received,” the release said.

The number of entities resolved as of September 2020 stands at 173, that is half the original number of 347 entities of the IL&FS Group, the release said. Elsamex S.A., an IL&FS Group company with 100 step-down subsidiaries, was admitted into insolvency during the September 2020 quarter, thus contributing to the substantial reduction in the number of entities of the IL&FS Group, it said.

On Friday, Punjab and Sind Bank said it has declared IL&FS’s subsidiary IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) as fraud and also reported it to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as per regulatory norms. The bank said IFIN is an NPA account with it and has an outstanding dues of Rs 561.13 crore.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Adani Electricity extends interest-free EMI facility following power outage in Mumbai

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) has announced an extension in the interest-free EMI facility to let the customers pay their bills and avoid inconvenience in the power supply.

The AEML customers who could not avail of these services earlier can do so now by registering at the AEML kiosk, website, call center, customer care center.

The limited EMI-free facility will last till October 30. All AEML customers can avail themselves of three interest-free EMIs to clear their outstanding payments.

Kandarp Patel, MD & CEO, Adani Electricity, said, “Ensuring maximum benefit to our consumers, during these distressing times, we have extended our interest-free EMI option for the current month only. The previous EMI option has received a very positive response across our consumer base and this decision has been undertaken to meet their present needs and requirements.”

The decision to extend the interest-free EMI was followed by the major gird failure that led to a power outage in Mumbai and surrounding areas. The outage delayed college exams and stranded local train passengers.

The facility would not be available for customers who receive joint invoicing or consolidated bills.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Sebi levies fine on Biocon employee for violating insider trading norms

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Markets regulator Sebi on Friday levied a fine on an employee of Biocon Ltd for violating insider trading norms while dealing in the scrip of the firm.

The employee, Vandana Singh (noticee), general manager regulatory affair of Biocon at the time of investigation and also a designated person, is facing a fine of Rs 3 lakh for violating provisions of Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) norms.

An investigation carried out by the regulator found that Singh, who held 9,550 shares of the company, acquired through the exercise of employee stock option plan (ESOP), sold 3,550 shares between May 2018 to September 2018 without seeking pre-clearance from the compliance officer.

“The noticee, by not obtaining pre-clearance from the compliance officer of Biocon, for the transactions in question has violated the provisions of…PIT Regulations,” Sebi said.

In addition, Singh also delayed making requisite disclosures. In terms of PIT Regulations, every promoter, employee, and director of every company shall disclose to the company the number of securities acquired or disposed of within two trading days of the transaction if the value of the securities traded crosses a certain threshold.

In the instant case, Singh’s transactions exceeded the value of Rs 10 lakh on two occasions and were required to be disclosed within two days, but she failed to do so.

Accordingly, Sebi imposed a consolidated fine of Rs 3 lakh on Singh for both the violations — not obtaining pre-clearance and making delayed disclosures.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

JSW Steel Q2 profit falls 37 percent to Rs 1,595 crore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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JSW Steel on Friday reported an over 37 percent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,595 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2020. The company had posted a Rs 2,536 crore profit for the same quarter a year ago, JSW Steel said in a BSE filing.

Total income stood at Rs 19,416 crore as against Rs 17,728 crore in the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal. Expenses were at Rs 16,958 crore as against Rs 17,025 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The company also informed exchanges about acquiring four mine blocks in the auctions held by the Odisha government in February. JSW Steel has signed the mining development and production agreements with regard to all the four blocks and executed the lease deeds.

“Acquisition cost incurred for the mines such as stamp duty, registration fees, and other such cost amounting to Rs 817 crore have been capitalized as intangible assets. The company has also paid upfront premium payment amounting to Rs 1,290 crore, which would be adjusted against the premium payment due to the government,” it said.

Mining operations have started at all the said blocks. JSW Steel further said a resolution plan submitted by its wholly-owned subsidiary JSW Steel Coated Products Ltd for Asian Colour Coated Ispat Ltd (ACCIL), has been approved with certain modifications by the National Company Law Tribunal, New Delhi.

ACCIL manufactures downstream steel products at its facilities located in Khapoli in Maharashtra and Bawal in Haryana.

On the impact of COVID-19, the company said the outbreak of the virus and the measures to curtail it caused disturbances and slowdown of the economic activity. The group’s operations, too, were impacted in the June quarter as the company had to scale down its operations across all plants due to reasons like supply chain constraints, shortage of workforce, etc.

However, with relaxations provided by the government, the company gradually ramped up its production levels.

The company achieved production of 3.85 million tonnes during the quarter ended on September 30. With this, JSW Steel achieved average capacity utilization of 86 percent in the quarter.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Aditya Birla Fashion-Flipkart deal: What it means for the 2 companies

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Walmart owned Flipkart is going to buy a minority stake in Aditya Birla’s Fashion Retail (ABFRL) for Rs 1,500 crore.

Ankur Bisen of Technopak Advisors, Abneesh Roy of Edelweiss, Vaishnavi Mandhaniya of Anand Rathi Financial Services shared their insights on what it meants for both Flipkart as well as ABFRL in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

It is a great deal in the context of how retail and fashion retail has changed in the post-COVID world, said Bisen. “This omnichannel as a reality is now, and here to stay for both e-commerce retailers and brick retailers,” he said.

ABFRL has got some solid brands, a great legacy, it is one of the largest men’s fashion retailer in fashion, and so the deal is a win-win deal for both ABFRL and Flipkart, said Bisen.

“We see significant rerating. ABFRL has one of the highest debt-to-equity ratio in this space and my sense is in the next one year, it will become almost net debt-free,” said Roy.

“Reliance will be relevant in every retail format, second will be Amazon and third will be Flipkart and fourth will be Tata. So all other brands would need to realign themselves otherwise it will become very tough for them to survive. ABFRL gains from here. I would see much higher chances of succession,” Roy said.

Mandhaniya sees a lot of scope for online growth. “The deal will win. However that is more of a longer-term view that will play out. In the short-term, the debt reduction will take place for them on a more immediate basis which will lead to a rerating,” she said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

FY21 volumes seen 15-20% down; Andhra demand strong: Sagar Cements

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The COVID impact has been very strong, said Sreekanth Reddy, ED of Sagar Cements in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“Current year numbers should end up anywhere between 15 percent and 20 percent lower than what we did last year but we strongly think that COVID impact took us back by two years,” he said.

Going into next year, the business should slowly start recovering, he said.

“As the unlocking started, we started doing better volumes on a month-on-month (MoM) basis. The demand has been improving MoM that is the reason we might end up doing only 15-20 percent lower, he said.

The company has seen a strong volume growth and going forward Reddy believes it will sustain on a MoM basis.

The demand from Andhra Pradesh government has been phenomenal, he said. “Even during the COVID time, the government has been strongly consuming cement and the payments were also on time. This reflects we have good times to go ahead in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for sure,” he said.

Maharashtra was under a severe lockdown. Some recovery was seen there. He expects demand in Maharashtra to pick up once the unlocking is complete.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coforge Q2 net profit marginally up; sees order intake of $201 million

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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IT firm Coforge Ltd (formerly NIIT Technologies) has reported a marginal rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 120.7 crore for the second quarter ended September 30. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 119.5 crore in the July-September quarter last year, Coforge said in a regulatory filing on Thursday evening.

The company’s consolidated gross revenue rose 11.1 percent to Rs 1,153.7 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 1,038.5 crore in the year-ago period, it added. On a sequential basis, the net profit was higher by 51.1 percent from Rs 79.9 crore in the June 2020 quarter, while gross revenue was up by 9.1 percent over Rs 1,057 crore.

”The 8.1 percent sequential growth in constant currency terms came on the back of growth across all verticals, all geos and all account-sized based cuts for the firm,” Coforge Ltd Chief Executive Officer Sudhir Singh said. The sharp sequential increase in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), in order intake and order executable, is a testament to the tenacity of and the consistent execution delivered by Team Coforge despite the pandemic-induced headwinds, he added.

”As organisations pivot towards data, cloud and AI-led transformation the space for innovative and agile service providers in the broader tech services sandbox continues to expand,” he said. The insurance vertical expanded 13.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, contributing 34 percent to the quarter’s total revenue, the company said.

The BFS (banking and financial services) business grew 8.5 percent sequentially and contributed 17 percent to the total revenue, it added. The travel segment recorded a quarter-on-quarter growth of 6 percent and contributed 19 percent to the revenue.

Other segments collectively grew 6.7 percent quarter-on-quarter and represented 30 percent of the overall revenue. Among geographies, Americas grew by 11.9 percent sequentially, contributing 48 percent to the revenue mix, EMEA grew by 7.3 percent (contributing 36 per cent) and rest of the world grew by 5.6 per cent (contributing 16 per cent).

”The order intake during the quarter was exceptionally strong, with two large deal wins. The fresh business of USD 201 million was secured during the quarter under review, which is higher on both q-o-q and y-o-y basis,” Coforge said. A total of 12 new clients were added during the quarter.

”On the back of this continued deal signing momentum, the order book executable over the next twelve months increased to USD 489 million, representing a growth of 21 percent y-o-y,” it said. The company had a headcount of 11,162 people with the net addition of 564 people. Attrition was at 10.5 percent.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Petrol demand back to normal; new refinery to cost Rs 25-30K cr: Chennai Petro

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Things are improving, demand is also increasing, SN Pandey, Managing Director of Chennai Petroleum said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“Demand is almost normal, diesel and aviation (fuel) is yet to pick up,” he added.

There is a substantial increase in crude throughput. “Our crude throughput during this quarter was 2.05 million tonne (mt) compared to the last quarter of 1.3 mt,” he said.

In terms of an upcoming refinery in Tamil Nadu, he said, “This is going to be 9 mtpa refinery. Once it gets approved, in four years’ time it will come on stream. The total expenditure for this project will be around Rs 29,000-30,000 crore.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Large deal pipeline robust; aiming leadership in select sectors: Coforge

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Coforge’s second quarter constant currency revenue growth of 1.8 percent is slightly ahead of the guidance and among the best in the industry.

In the post-results investor call, the management guided for at least 6 percent growth in constant currency revenues this current fiscal.

“That confidence comes on the back of the order executable that is locked in. On the back of the fact that despite the pandemic over the last two quarters, we have closed five large deals. The large deal pipeline continues to be robust,” the company’s Chief Executive Officer Sudhir Singh told CNBC-TV18.

“We intend to continue to be specialists as we have presence in a very limited set of verticals,” he added.

“Our exposure to the aviation industry has contracted significantly. At this point in time 51 percent of our revenue comes in from financial services, only 19 percent comes in from the travel sector at this point in time,” he said.

The company has witnessed growth in every vertical it operates in. “Every vertical that we operate in has grown, insurance has grown, BFSI has grown, travel has grown. The growth has been broad-based,” he said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow