Tag: coronavirus impact

TVS Motor reports Rs 139 cr loss for Q1 as COVID-19 puts brake on sales

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

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TVS Motor Company on Wednesday reported a standalone net loss of Rs 139.1 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, with COVID-19 severely impacting sales during the period. The company had posted a profit after tax of Rs 142.3 crore for April-June, 2019-20.

The revenue on a standalone basis in the period under review declined to Rs 1,434.3 crore from Rs 4,469.8 crore in the year-ago period, TVS Motor Company said in a statement. The company’s overall two-wheeler sales, including exports, stood at 2.55 lakh units during the first quarter as against 8.84 lakh units reported in the year-ago period.

Motorcycle sales stood at 1.19 lakh units in June quarter as against 4.17 lakh units in the same period a year ago, the company said. Similarly, scooter sales fell to 82,000 units from 2.95 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2019, it added.

The total exports of the company plunged to 81,000 units in the period under review, as compared with 2.09 lakh units in the same quarter of the last fiscal, it said. Three-wheeler sales stood at 12,000 units in April-June 2020 as against 40,000 units in the quarter ended June 2019.

The company said it resumed operations from second week of May 2020 in a graded manner across all its factories in Hosur, Mysuru, and Nalagarh. “This quarter is not a representative quarter due to COVID-19 related shutdown for major part of the quarter.Both production and sales were severely impacted during the quarter and therefore reflects what was an unprecedented situation,” it added.

The market is now open barring selective local lockdowns, the two-wheeler major said. “We are witnessing a positive uptake in both domestic retails as well as international markets. Several measures taken by the company helped it to overcome supply chain disruptions and stabilise operations by end-June,” it noted.

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

Ceat registers Rs 35 cr loss in Q1

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

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Tyre major Ceat Ltd on Wednesday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 35.24 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 82.2 crore in the same period last fiscal, Ceat Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

Revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,120.16 crore as against Rs 1,752.10 crore in the year-ago quarter. Ceat Ltd said the group’s manufacturing facilities and operations were shut down following the nationwide lockdown announced on March 24, 2020.

“During the quarter, the group has resumed its manufacturing facilities and is currently in the process of further scaling up its operations. Further, since the lockdown was still in force for a significant period of the current quarter, the group’s operations were impacted,” it said.

The group has recognized Rs 2.58 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, towards unusable semi-furnished inventory and raw materials due to abrupt stoppage of production facilities, it said.

“Further, borrowing costs not capitalised due to temporary suspension related to ongoing capital projects, contract manpower cost and detention charges (for the period attributable to COVID-19 aggregate Rs 17.53 crore for the quarter ended June 30,2020…,” the company said.

Commenting on the results, Ceat Ltd MD Anant Goenka said,”Our primary area of focus over the last quarter was health and safety of our people, our customers, partners and the community. We closely monitored our cash flows and costs and were able to see positive results.”

On the outlook, he said,”Looking ahead we see a path of recovery backed by easing of restrictions and an uptick in the market. We have resumed operations at all our factories and are making concerted efforts towards ensuring we are ready as the demand picks up, while successfully transitioning into a new work environment.”

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

COVID-19 impact: Mitsubishi Motors reports $1.7 billion loss for April-June period

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

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Mitsubishi Motors Corp. reported Monday a 176 billion yen (USD 1.7 billion) loss for April-June, and forecast more red ink for the fiscal year, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed auto demand around the world.

The Japanese automaker had posted a profit of 9.3 billion yen for the fiscal first quarter the previous year. Quarterly sales shrank 57 per cent to 229.5 billion yen (USD 2.2 billion).

The maker of the Outlander sport utility vehicle and I-MiEV electric car expects to chalk up a 360 billion yen (USD 3.4 billion) loss for the fiscal year through March 2021, because of the fallout from the outbreak.

The shaky results come as Mitsubishi Motors’ alliance partners Nissan Motor Co. and Renault of France work to recover from the downfall of their former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.

Ghosn was out on bail, awaiting trial on various financial misconduct allegations in Tokyo, when he fled late last year to Lebanon. He has said he is innocent of the allegations of under-reporting future compensation and breach of trust.

Mitsubishi Motors has denounced Ghosn.

Mitsubishi officials, in a news conference relayed in a call to reporters, promised a turnaround, pursuing growth in Southeast Asian markets, where its profitability is relatively strong, and building on its strength in four-wheel drive and off road performance.

They said they expect the company’s results to recover next fiscal year, once COVID-19 is brought under control. Product development will leverage synergies with alliance partners, and labor costs will be cut through pay cuts, hiring freezes and voluntary retirements, the automaker said.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi also said it’s working on innovative technology, such as improved diesel engines, electric vehicles and autonomous driving. Its electric vehicles are a strength as environmental standards continue to toughen, especially in major markets like China, it 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

Uday Kotak to look for investment opportunities in banking sector; bets big on ‘risk management’ function

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

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Betting big on the ‘risk management’ function across banking, Uday Kotak, managing director & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, on Thursday, said risk management will play a big differentiator for banks and that will help bankers create an edge for themselves in the industry. The banker also said he will look for investment opportunities in the sector.

Talking about a more inclusive eco-system, Kotak said, “This is an era of coopetition. Banks and fintech will continue to co-operate in some areas while competing in the others, however digital players will emerge ahead.”

Speaking at the second day of Global Fintech Fest 2020, that held in virtual mode, he also stressed that policy supervision, regulation and governance have to be ownership neutral and have to be the same for both public sector and private banks.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and chief executive of Salesforce India said, “Digital is imperative, empowering and will give better risk management insights. Digital opens up new market segments and gives them a picture of their lending scenario, with which one can manage NPAs better.”

“Indian banks will have to adapt rapidly to the disruptive changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic through greater data-driven decision making and digitization in day-to-day functioning” she stressed.

Bhattacharya added that banks will have to be ready for the future. The future is going to be different from anything that we have seen in the past.

Banks will therefore have to look at how they approach the entire customer journey—whether they want to be distribution-heavy and branch-light or asset-light, liability-heavy and transaction-heavy, however being digital and data driven will be imperative for banking, she further added.

The Global Fintech Fest has witnessed a participation from 50-plus countries, 100-plus speakers and 10000-plus registered delegates in attendance. Fouty-five were international speakers and 30 percent women speaker participation.

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

India’s tea production likely to dip 13% this year: Report

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

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Tea production in the country is likely to decline 13 per cent in the current calendar year due to restrictions on labour deployment amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and adverse weather conditions, which will result in an increase in production cost, according to a report.

Factors like restrictions on labour deployment due to the coronavirus pandemic have impacted the bulk tea players in northern India in an unfavourable manner during March, April and May 2020, according to the report by rating agency ICRA.

While there were expectations of production returning to normal levels from June, inclement weather conditions and flooding in Assam in June witnessed crop losses ranging from 15 per cent to 25 per cent, it added.

Some impact of the adverse weather conditions on production is likely to be felt in July as well, the report noted.

On the other hand, the South Indian production witnessed only a marginal loss during the lockdown period, it said.

The report also said that as tea is a fixed cost-intensive industry, a decline in the crop will substantially increase the cost of production for the NI bulk tea industry.

“As per our estimates, domestic tea production in CY2020 is expected to decline by 13 per cent on a year-on-year basis, with production from North India being estimated to decline by 160-170 million kg (mkg), while production from South India is expected to show only a marginal decline,” ICRA Vice-President and Sector Head (Corporate Sector Ratings) Kaushik Das said.

Since tea is a fixed cost-intensive industry, the decline in production is likely to increase the cost of production, he added.

“We estimate the cost to increase by Rs 25-30 per kg, that too without considering any increase from the current wage rates,” he noted.

The decline in production from NI has substantially pushed up prices at auction centres, where prices, particularly that of CTC teas, have rallied by around 30-35 per cent in May and June, said the report.

However, the current price trends may not be reflective of the full-year trends, the report added.

It also said production from NI is seasonal in nature — both in terms of quality and quantity.

The crop that has been lost is primarily of the first and second flush, which are the best-quality teas for the year. Such teas are in high demand from packet tea companies to ensure the quality of blend in the packet, it said.

The dearth of such quality tea has resulted in the sharp increase in prices, ICRA said.

Going forward, the ICRA report added that with July being the start of the peak production months in NI, prices are expected to moderate.

However, the extent of moderation would depend on the level of demand — both in the domestic as well as export markets, it added.

While prices of NI teas have witnessed a significant increase, prices at SI auction centres have started increasing only in the past few auctions, ICRA said.

The divergence in price trends is because of the different supply-demand dynamics. Production pattern and quality of SI teas are largely uniform throughout the year — unlike those of NI teas. SI teas, particularly the CTC (crush, tear, curl) variety, is used as ‘fillers’ in blends to control the overall cost per packet.

Also, with a much higher proportion of SI teas being exported, prices are influenced more by global trends.

Coming to production trends in major global centres during the first four months of the calendar year 2020, the Kenyan production has increased significantly by 76 million kg, but the shortfall in production from India and Sri Lanka is likely to result in overall decline in global tea production in 2020, it said.

Nevertheless, the significant increase in Kenyan crop has continued the pricing pressure, as witnessed by the 8 per cent price decline of Kenyan teas in the first half of CY2020, it added.

The report added that this has dampened the export prospects of Indian teas, mainly SI CTC teas to an extent, although the exact grades of tea manufactured by Kenya differ from that manufactured in India.

Indian export volumes have already witnessed a decline of around 18 per cent in the first quarter of 2020. Realisation has also moderated by around 3 per cent in rupee terms, notwithstanding the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar.

ICRA expects that the NI bulk tea industry will continue to face challenges in the current year owing to significant increase in the cost of production on a per Kg basis, given the loss in crop. Any further material increase in wage rates in the near-term would exacerbate the cost pressures, Das said.

“While current tea prices are robust, substantially higher than the estimated likely increase in cost of production, sustainability of the same remains uncertain. The price trend going forward, especially when the industry enters the high-production months when quality typically is impacted, would be the key factor determining the financial performance of bulk tea companies in FY2021,” Das added.

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 will be a terrible year for India, says Goldman Sachs’ Prachi Mishra

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

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Chief Economist of Goldman Sachs Prachi Mishra, in a paper presented to the Delhi headquartered think tank NCAER, has said the biggest worry is that the government has fallen short of outlining a clear strategy to steer the economy out of the COVID-led recession.

“Ratings agencies are more concerned about India not having a fiscal and administrative strategy,” Mishra observes. “With the economy likely to contract by 5% in the current fiscal we are talking about a loss of 20 lakh crore. What’s is the framework, the government strategy to make up for this loss,“ says Mishra.

And it’s the steadfastness to fiscal rectitude, rather than fiscal expansion that could make things harder for India, the economist states.

“This is the deepest crisis for India up to now and policy support has been even less aggressive than measures taken during the Global Financial Crisis”.

“Discretionary fiscal policy support has been very tepid so far and this will hinder economic recovery. Targeted support for businesses and households is very tepid. We have estimated the direct fiscal support at 1.8% of the GDP. The fiscal impulse is actually zero”, says Mishra.

Add to this, the government’s message to ministries to not spend their full budgets, and the actual fiscal impulse is negative, Mishra explains.

“The FY21 budget is totally irrelevant now,” the economist observed.

Prachi Mishra also highlighted, “The virus situation is escalating very rapidly in India, this raises the risk of spread of infection as economies open up. And while 8 states account for 80% of the corona cases, in the last week or two the virus is spreading beyond states of Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat & Maharashtra.”

Mishra lists the pandemic not being brought under control in the next few months as a clear medium-term growth risk.

Add to this, the domestic financial risks arising out of credit guarantee announcements, loan moratoriums, all these will pose a host of implementation challenges.

The risk of regulatory forbearance, rise in NPAs, very poor credit off take, sharp upward pressure on the fisc and lack of a coherent economic strategy, all these are major roadblocks on the road to recovery, she adds.

As Mishra said, “With India showing a rise in daily new cases apart from adjusting for testing and a likely annual GDP contraction of 4.5%, FY21 is going to be a terrible year for India.”

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

Demand for robot cooks rises as kitchens combat COVID-19

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

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Robots that can cook – from flipping burgers to baking bread – are in growing demand as virus-wary kitchens try to put some distance between workers and customers.

Starting this fall, the White Castle burger chain will test a robot arm that can cook french fries and other foods. The robot, dubbed Flippy, is made by Pasadena, California-based Miso Robotics.

White Castle and Miso have been discussing a partnership for about a year. Those talks accelerated when COVID-19 struck, said White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson.

Richardson said the robot can free up employees for other tasks like disinfecting tables or handling the rising number of delivery orders. A touch-free environment that minimizes contact is also increasingly important to customers, he said.

The world’s just reshaped in terms of thoughts around food safety, Richardson said.

Flippy currently costs USD 30,000, with a USD 1,500 monthly service fee. By the middle of next year, Miso hopes to offer the robot for free but charge a higher monthly fee.

Robot food service was a trend even before the coronavirus pandemic, as hospitals, campus cafeterias and others tried to meet demand for fresh, customised options 24 hours a day while keeping labour costs in check. Robot chefs appeared at places like Creator, a burger restaurant in San Francisco, and Dal.komm Coffee outlets in South Korea.

Now, some say, robots may shift from being a novelty to a necessity. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the risk of getting COVID-19 from handling or consuming food outside the home is low. Still, there have been numerous outbreaks among restaurant employees and patrons.

I expect in the next two years you will see pretty significant robotic adoption in the food space because of COVID, said Vipin Jain, the co-founder and CEO of Blendid, a Silicon Valley startup.

Blendid sells a robot kiosk that makes a variety of fresh smoothies. Customers can order from a smartphone app and tweak the recipe if they want more kale or less ginger, for example. Once or twice a day, a Blendid employee refills the ingredients.

Only a handful are now operating around San Francisco, but since the pandemic began, Blendid has started contract discussions with hospitals, corporations, shopping malls and groceries.

What used to be forward-thinking – last year, pre-COVID – has become current thinking, Jain said.

As salad bars shut down, Hayward, California-based Chowbotics started getting more inquiries about Sally, a robot about the size of a refrigerator that makes a variety of salads and bowls. Sally lets customers choose from 22 prepared ingredients stored inside the machine. It can make around 65 bowls a day before kitchen workers need to refill the ingredients.

Prior to this year, Chowbotics had sold around 125 of its 35,000 robots, primarily to hospitals and colleges. But since the coronavirus hit, sales have jumped more than 60%, CEO Rick Wilmer said, with growing interest from grocery stores, senior living communities and even the U.S. Department of Defence.

Wilkinson Baking Co., whose BreadBot mixes, forms and bakes loaves of bread, has also been getting more inquiries.

Randall Wilkinson, the CEO of the Walla Walla, Washington-based company, said the BreadBot serves shifting needs. Grocery shoppers no longer want self-serve options like olive bars, but they still want fresh and local food. Seeing how that food is made also gives them more confidence, he said.

Robot cooks haven’t always been successful. Spyce, a Boston restaurant with a robot-run kitchen, closed in November to retool its menu. Zume, a Silicon Valley startup that made pizzas with robots, shut down its pizza business in January. It’s now making face masks and biodegradable takeout containers.

Max Elder, research director of the Food Futures Lab at the Palo Alto, California-based Institute for the Future, is skeptical about the future of food prep robots once the pandemic has eased.

Food is so personal, and it needs to involve humans, he said.

Elder is also concerned that focusing on automating food preparation during the pandemic will shift attention from other problems in the food system, like outbreaks among meat industry workers or produce pickers.

We can’t automate our way out of the pandemic because the pandemic affects much more than what can be automated, Elder said.

Automated food companies insist they’re not trying to replace human workers. At White Castle, Richardson says Flippy will allow managers to redeploy workers to drive-thru lanes or help them cover a shift if an employee calls in sick. Wilmer, of Chowbotics, says Sally may actually create jobs, since it keeps selling food at times of day when it wouldn’t have been available before.

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