PAN a Must for Investors in Mutual Fund

This July [2007], officials in the Finance Ministry have made it mandatory for investors taking the mutual fund route to furnish their PAN – Permanent Account Number for even a investment as low as Rs 50. Most of the investment these days is coming from smaller cities and towns where people are taking the SIP route to build their nest.

So what happens now ? After July-2007, deadline your fresh investments will be subject to providing PAN. Few months later, even investors with inactive folios where they hold Mutual Fund units will also have to furnish PAN or else their units will be frozen. Recall what happened to DEMAT accounts where PAN was not furnished.

India currently has 3% of it its investors in Mutual Funds, i.e 30 Million or 3 crore.

Kotak Bullish on Crompton Greaves

Crompton Greaves’ fourth quarter numbers are better than estimates. Kotak Securities maintains BUY with a target price of Rs 280.

  • Margin gains were led by higher volumes and material price hedging
  • Standalone order backlogs were up 41% to Rs.20.6 bn
  • The stock has risen 22% since our last upgrade to a BUY. Earnings growth is likely to remain strong, given a healthy order backlog and good demand conditions in Europe.

Crompton Greaves’ standalone order book stands at Rs.20.6 bn up 41%, thereby indicating that current year revenue growth should also be robust.

The investment theme in CGL over the last two years has been that of a strong domestic business environment coupled with synergistic acquisitions in large overseas markets. Apart from access to larger markets, these acquisitions have also helped CGL plus gaps in technology. It has succeeded in turning around the operations at Pauwels and given the favorable demand conditions in Europe aims to replicate the same with Ganz and Microsol.

CGL is currently trading at a P/E ratio of 22.1x and 17.5x FY08 and FY09 earnings (consolidated EPS of Rs.11 and Rs.13.9 per share in FY08 and FY09, respectively)

Praj Industries signs joint venture with Aker Kvaerner

Praj Industries and Aker Kvaerner, global provider of engineering and construction services finalised an agreement to form a joint venture company in Europe that will be called BioCnergy Europe B.V.

The company holds 60 percent in BioCnergy, while Aker Kvaerner holds 40 percent of the shareholding.

The joint venture will provide the technology package, engineering services, equipment and systems, project management services, construction and erection services, and commissioning, as well as turnkey biofuel plant.

Citi Upgrades Reliance and Ups Target Price

In a significant investment update, Citigroup analyst, Rahul singh and Saurabh Handa have upgraded Reliance Industries Ltd to Buy/Low Risk from Hold/Low Risk with a new Target price of Rs 2,005 from Rs 1,450.

They cite the following reasons for the change in Rating. Exploration success leading to switch to traditional multiples for the E&P business. Sustained refining cycle leading to core earnings upgrade (17-19% for FY08-09E) and higher contribution from RPL.

In absence of new refineries in the Middle East, due to cost inflation, which bodes well for RIL’s margins in FY08-09E. Besides, RIL’s differentials over benchmarks have expanded to US$5-8/bbl over the past five quarters, the primary driver of earnings upgrade.

The Sum of Parts Valuation of Reliance Industries Ltd is as follows.

IPCL Rs 29
Reliance Petroleum Rs 243
E&P Assets Rs 631
Organised Retail Rs 125
Total value of investments & other assets Rs 1,027
EV of businesses Rs 826
Net Debt adjusted for key investments Rs (934)
Value of Treasury stock Rs 245

Larsen & Toubro bags Rs 877 crore order

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation has awarded Rs 877 crore turnkey project order to Larsen & Toubro for the NQ re-construction (NQRC) project in Mumbai High North fields.
This Project is the largest brownfield project of its kind awarded in the offshore oil & gas sector in India.

The company bagged the prestigious order on the strength of its proven track record in meeting several stringent requirements, including a tight project schedule.

The Project will be executed on a lump sum turnkey basis with the completion scheduled by 08 May 2009.

Avoid DLF Limited – Review

DLF India – Building India by looting Small Retail Indian Investors IPO is now open for subscription. We at Dalal Street Business, after a careful review put an AVOID Recommendation for DLF IPO.

Kindly Read the Indian Real Estate Stocks and Sector Research reports here.

Sure DLF is a big company backed by few Congressmen in the corridors of New Delhi. However, the issue pricing is expensive. Fair Value of its Land Bank is between Rs 375 to Rs 425.

Financials of DLF:
The company has reported fairly flat topline between 2002 and 2005 at around Rs 550 crore. For the year ending March-31st 2006, the company reported a 100% rise in topline to Rs 1,242 crore and for the following year it reported Rs 4,034 crore. Out of this Rs 4,034 crore, the company has other income component of Rs 1,416 crore which is the value of property sold to promoters group company – A Shady Deal.

DLF reported a net profit of Rs 1,941 crore for year ended March,2007.

The debt-equity ratio as on March 31, 2007 was 2.5:1. It paid interest of Rs.789.6 cr in FY07 on loans of Rs.9,932 cr (incl floating interest loans of Rs.7,489 cr). Any extended slowdown in the real estate industry will hit DLF badly due to its debt servicing obligations. This combined with the fact that DLF had large negative operating cash flows in FY06 and FY07 (Rs.949 and Rs.5831 cr respectively) could impair its capacity to raise large debts on a continuing basis.

IPO Offer:
Fully Diluted Equity after IPO: 170.48 crore shares of Rs 2.0 each
IPO Offer: Price band of Rs 500 to Rs 550 amounting to Rs 8,750 to Rs 9,625 crore

Why should You Avoid the Issue ?

  • DLF is mainly banking for the IPO to sail through on the value of its Land Bank. Cash Flow has been negative as indicated above. Approximately 60% of its DLF’s reserves comprise land for which DLF have not yet obtained a certificate for change of land use.
  • More than 50% of the land reserves is concentrated in NCR, mainly in and around Gurgaon and another 23% is in Kolkata (incl Dankuni project). With very little jobs being created in those Areas, DLF is under increasing threat from oversupply.
  • Shady Deals: DLF has 112 related parties including subsidiaries and associates and substantial inter-company transactions.
  • In anticipation of DLF issue, another comparable stock Unitech made an all time high of Rs 601 on May-29th where it saw substantial delivery based SELLING and the stock currently trades at Rs 490 levels.

Grey Market: It is very unfortunate that a Grey Market which is completely illegal exists for IPOs in India. We advise caution to all our Retail Investors not to go by rumors and get trapped, really especialyl for DLF IPO.

Post-Listing Strategy:
At Rs 550 the issue is really really expensive and you can avoid this. Long Term investors can pick the stock around Rs 425 levels.