Indian Equity Research and Investment Strategy
In a report released just a while ago, Morgan Stanley has expressed its displeasure over India losing its ROE Edge and expects it to slip further down.
India lost its edge over the average EM ROE in 2007. The ROE gap to EM fell to a seven-year low of 4.3% in 2007. This is the second-worst gap since 1995. (more…)
Orchid Research Laboratories (i.e. ORLL – the wholly-owned drug discovery subsidiary of Orchid) and Merck will work to identify and develop novel antibacterial and anti fungal compounds as clinically validated drug candidates. Orchid will undertake discovery and candidate development through Phase IIa human clinical trials. Merck will conduct late-stage clinical development and commercialization if regulatory approval is granted.
Orchid will get an undisclosed upfront sum, and is eligible to receive payments totaling more than US$100 million associated with the achievement of various research and development milestones.
The collaborative pact with Merck – a global innovator, is an landmark achievement for Orchid’s research arm as it had been undertaking efforts to secure business alliances with pharmaceutical multinational corporations. So far as ORLL is concerned, its been developing its pipeline of new chemical entities (NCEs) in the fields of oncology, inflammation, diabetes and anti-infectives.
Dish TV expects the Indian DTH market to grow five times in the next 4 years. Dish TV CEO Vinay Agarwal said,
We believe that the DTH market will grow exponentially and is estimated to touch 30 million subscribers by 2012 from 6-7 million now. We aim to add five million subscribers by March 2009.
In a separate yet related development, the contentious issue of
payment of carriage fees by broadcasters to the cable industry for carrying their channels has brought forward divisions among the various stakeholders while the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) remains undecided on the subject. Some of the new broadcasters have suggested auctioning parts of cable spectrum as a possible solution towards fixing the ground rules for carriage fees that is charged by the large cable operators from broadcasters, Multi System Operators (MSOs) have called for terming carriage fees as placement fees. The direct-to-home (DTH) firms are not keen on fixing any sort of legal norms for carriage fees.
The indefinite delay in taking off of Greater Noida International Airport has impacted the Land Bank of JP Associates and its Yamuna Expressway project. JP Associates has around 3750 acres of land bank along the Yamuna Expressway around the proposed airport. Adding to JP Associates’ woes is the weakening property prics in the NCR region. Merill has thus taken off the value of land bank in sum of parts valuation of JP Associates. (more…)
We first reported about HCL Tech’s bid for Axon on the 4th of Sept. However, subsequently the company denied but we knew from our sources that it was only negotiating with the bankers.
HCLT intends to fund the all-cash GBP441mn ($818mn) deal through a GBP400mn loan and rest from internal cash. If all goes well, the process should complete by 1Q CY09. (more…)
The benchmark Indian indices Sensex and Nifty have corrected ~37% from their peak. However, the BSE Realty Index has fallen by 70% and some stocks in the property index have fallen more than that. Property prices have started correcting every where, Residential was the first one to be hit followed by Commercial and Retail now. Worli and Bandra Kurla Complex have seen big fall in rental values. We present to you the performance of Realty Stocks in the past 9 months. (more…)