Category: Business

Extremely proud of TCS achievement, says Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

After Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s most valued company, created history on Monday when its market capitalisation surpassed the $100-billion mark, N Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons,  spoke to CNBC TV18, says extremely proud TCS achievement.

Your thoughts on becoming $100 billion company?

I am extremely proud. I have always maintained that TCS has enormous potential and the digital transformation is only going to accelerate the market potential for TCS and all the things that we have been saying and things we have been working on is picking up momentum.

You have spearheaded this journey from a market capitalisation of $10 billion to $100 billion. What is next for Indian IT? Over the last three years, you will agree, Indian IT went through a torrid time. Is that well and truly over now and are we looking at blue sky territory now?

 If you go back to my interactions with you over the last three-four years, I have always said that the digital transformation is going to be the biggest opportunity because there is going to be more technology in every industry whether it’s business-to-business (B2B) industry or business-to-consumer (B2C) industry. We have been making these commentaries and also parallelly investing and building capabilities and being ready for this adoption cycle. And this adoption cycle is gaining momentum and if I may say so, it’s the start of next big run for TCS.

You have gotten into double digit at a time when you are already a very-very big company. What were we counting? Your revenue is Rs 130,000 crore or thereabouts, profit Rs 30,000 crore. Double digit on this base and you saying that you are into another big league. So are you talking of 15%?

I cannot give you a number guidance. We cannot talk about it, but the point I am making is that technology adoption especially in digital domain is picking up. I have always said that delay is because of number of factors. It’s not only the capabilities we have; it’s also readiness of the clients and all those things are coming together whether it is in auto, whether it is in financial services, whether it is in retail, everyone of this industries will continue to play big in digital and all of those things are opportunities for TCS.

TCS has the scale, the intellectual property, the platforms as Rajesh (Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO & MD of TCS) and team are articulating that the investment they have made in contextual knowledge that we have been doing for several years. All those things are coming together and this transformation is going to propel growth.

 Can you tell us a little more about this digital led demand because digital is a huge basket, there is cloud, there is analytics. Has the potential peaked in terms of operational benefits for the sector as a whole or is there more to go?

You need to look at the combination of all these technologies that bring about a transformation for a company. Even the number of deals which they won in the last three-four months, which they have announced, all those deals are very integrated in nature. So there is cloud, there is automation, there is analytics and there is customer experience transformation in terms of design.

So all those things are an integrated solutions on tax. TCS not only offering the solutions but are also building platforms where possible and we have been investing on this platforms. It is the timings that matters.

Where does that leave a company like Tata Elxsi for example which is into artificial intelligence, digital, completely separate. What kind of plans would you have for that company there?

I think we should now talk about the moment of TCS.

A lot of investors are now betting big on Tata Elxsi as well. Can that also chart the same path?

 A: I think that is a different conversation.

You know the entire Indian IT space, the global economy is chugging on very well. Do you think this tide can lift many more boats? Of course, the big cruise ship like yours but can this lift many boats, the way the global economy is sticking?

Definitely, there are a lot of good companies are out there and all of them have got a strategy and I cannot specifically comment about companies.

Read more: Analyst tells how TCS can sustain its $100-billon market cap

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

United Breweries sees double-digit growth in super premium brands; plans to launch own craft beer

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Shekhar Ramamurthy, Managing Director of United Breweries (UB), spoke to CNBC-TV18, says industry volume should grow between 5% and 8% over the next 12 months.

“We hope that this year the industry will grow mid to high single digit and that is a positive,” Ramamurthy said.

“It has always been our objective to grow ahead of the market and we have introduced a few new brands over the last couple of years. We are seeing very strong double-digit growth in our super premium brands,” Ramamurthy added.

“We have plans to launch our own craft beer variety hopefully by the end of this year. We have plans to enter the non-alcoholic beverage space. We hope to be in the market by end of the year,” he further mentioned.

Speaking on regional markets, he said in West Bengal the industry is in steep decline of 30-40% and in Maharashtra after the duty hike happened around October-November last year, industry still not stabilised.

He said steep price increase of beer has been a dampener for the company.

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

HDFC results: Focus on fee income, falling NPAs

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Strong deposit growth, a robust fee income growth and a decline in net non-performing assets (NPA) of HDFC Bank in the fourth quarter took precedence over the company’s results, which fell short of  estimates.

Provision coverage ratio of about 70% was the key highlight of the results. While the bank missed street estimates owing to lower than estimated loan growth, strong fee income aided earnings momentum for the bank.

.@HDFC_Bank reports a strong long growth @kothariabhishek is here with the highlights of the quarter #4QWithCNBCTV18 pic.twitter.com/VRqvUpjck1

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) April 23, 2018

HDFC Bank now awaits government’s approval for their fund raising plans owing to higher than Rs 5000 crore being raised from foreign investors.

Net interest margin remained stable owing to healthy share of low cost deposits coupled with growth in high yielding portfolio like business banking, personal loans and credit cards, among other factors.

Asset quality remained stable as annualized slippage ratio was the lowest in five quarters. This has led to annualized credit cost, which refers to provisions on NPAs divided by advances ratio, being the lowest in five quarters.

The bank’s subsidiary continues to perform well and is showing healthy growth.

Strong deposit growth & loan growth largely led by retail portfolio

Deposits for the bank was at Rs 78,8875 crore up 22.6% YoY and up 12.9% QoQ.

The low cost deposit momentum remained strong for the bank. Low cost deposits (CASA) was at Rs 34,3093 crore, up 11% YoY, and up 11.7% QOQ, while low cost deposit share was at 43.5% compared to 48% YoY, and 43.9% QoQ.

While advances were at Rs 65,8333 crore, up 18.7% YoY, and up 4.3% QoQ, retail loan growth momentum remained strong for the bank.

Retail book was at Rs 36,2489 crore up 27.8% YoY, and up 6.8% QoQ.

Net interest income below estimates were due  to loan growth being the lowest in five quarters, however, strong fee income boosted earnings momentum for the bank.

Net interest income was at Rs10,657.7 crore, compared to CNBC-TV 18 estimates of Rs 10,838.5 crore.

This was due to loan growth being on the lower side in five quarters. However, net interest margin for the bank remained stable at 4.3%.

On the positive side, core fee income growth was robust at Rs 3,329.7 crore, up 32% YoY, and 15.9% QoQ.

Profit for the bank was at Rs 4,799.3 crore compared to CNBC-TV 18 poll of Rs 4,881.6 crore.

Annualized slippage ratio is the lowest in five quarters, provision coverage ratio now is about 70%.

Slippages were at Rs 2790 crore compared to Rs 5055.3 crore, down 44.8% quarter-on-quarter.

Annualized slippage ratio is the lowest in five quarters at 1.7%, compared to 3.2% QoQ and 1.75% YoY.

This led to provision requirement being on the lower side, therefore aiding in improvement in credit cost for the bank which was the lowest in five quarters. Annualized credit cost was the lowest in last five quarters at 0.69%, compared to 1.8% QoQ, and 0.71% YoY.

However, the provision coverage ratio now touches 70% level, at 69.8% compared to 66.3% QoQ. Asset quality of the bank also remained stable with GNPA at 1.3% compared to 1.29% QoQ.

How the quarter panned out in terms of numbers:

Q4FY18 – YOY

NII at Rs 10,657.7 crore up 17.7%

Net profit at Rs 4,799.3 crore up 20.3%

Asset quality remains stable – QOQ

GNPA at Rs 8609 crore up 4.5%

NNPA at Rs 2601 crore down 6.2%

GNPA at 1.3% vs 1.29%

NNPA at 0.4% vs 0.44%

Calculated provision coverage ratio at 69.8% vs 66.3%

Balance sheet growth details:

Low cost deposits (CASA) at Rs 34,3093 crore up 11% YoY, up 11.7% QOQ

Deposits at Rs 78,8875 crore up 22.6% YoY, up 12.9% QoQ

Advances at Rs 65,8333 crore, up 18.7% YoY, up 4.3% QoQ

Retail book at Rs 36,2489 crore up 27.8% YoY,  up 6.8% QoQ

Corporate or non-retail book at Rs 29,5844 crore up 9.2% YoY, up 1.4% QOQ

Key ratios (Q4FY18 vs YOY & vs QOQ):

NIM at 4.3% vs 4.3% vs 4.3%

Capital Adequacy Ratio at 14.8% vs 14.6% vs 15.5%

Cost to income ratio at 40.7% vs 41.8% vs 40.4%

ROA at 2% vs 1.92% vs 2%

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