Anantraj Industries - Weak Results
Tuesday, June 30, 2009Q4FY09 has been extremely lacklustre for Anantraj Industries (Anantraj) as it did not sell any property during the period. The company reported revenues of Rs153.2m, a decline of 92.9% YoY. Revenues for the quarter consisted of sales from its ceramic division as well as rental income. The company's rental income increased from Rs33.5m in Q3FY09 to Rs50m. This was primarily an account of its Karol Bagh mall property. Other income for the company was quite robust at Rs216m on account of its large cash balance of Rs7.4bn.
Anantraj's balance sheet position is strong as cash on its books (as on March 2009) stands at Rs7.4bn. The company's debt stands at Rs1.21bn. This gives the company greater scope to utilize its cash and further leverage its balance sheet for acquisition of land and property at attractive values.
Anantraj is currently working on its Manesar project which has already started accruing rentals. The Karol Bagh project is also complete and has started contributing to rentals. Besides these two projects, the company has been focusing on certain hotel projects
Published by Webmaster @ 2:35 PM IST.
Below normal monsoon may slowdown the recovery
Thursday, June 25, 2009The much awaited monsoon is now likely to be three weeks late and will be below normal compared to the long term average. The development may slowdown recovery of the Indian economy, which, otherwise has been rather rapid than in most of its peers.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), 2009 monsoon rainfall would be 93% of the long-term average, lower than an earlier forecast of 96%. Even worse part of the development is that the north-western region, which includes India's food-basket region of Punjab and Haryana, could be the most affected one.
The agriculture sector accounts for 17% of the gross domestic product (GDP), and more importantly, provides livelihood to more than 60% of India's 1.1 billion plus population.In this wake, current year's monsoon becomes even crucial for the economy as buoyant rural consumption has been a key driver of growth during the economic downturn. Even the partial failure of monsoon can result in significant decline in farm income, which will hit rural demand. Further, while the country has sufficient food stocks to tide over any crisis, the macro economic situation may worsen further with food inflation rising even higher from the present levels of close to 9%.
Another calamity of the delayed rain would be power availability in the country. Summer months are the peak power demand months due to greater demand from both the domestic and the farm sectors. However, delay in rains will lower the electricity production, thus raising the supply-demand gap in energy availability.
The overall impact of poor monsoon on agriculture, industry and broader economy can be substantial. If there are choppy rains this season, it will bring down the newly found momentum in economy and the GDP growth for the present fiscal, which is expected to range between 6.5-7% may fall down to 5% or even lower levels.
Published by Webmaster @ 10:55 AM IST.
ONGC net profit dips 16% during Q4
Wednesday, June 24, 2009Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has announced its results for the quarter & year ended March 31, 2009.
The company has posted a net profit of Rs 2,206.76 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 against Rs 2,627.10 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, down 16%. The total income for the quarter has decreased to Rs 15,113.13 crore from Rs 17,659.78 crore reported in corresponding quarter of the last fiscal, registering a 14.42% fall.
For the entire fiscal the state-run company has posted a net profit of Rs 16,126.31 crore against Rs 16,701.65 crore in the previous fiscal, down 3.44%. The total income for the fiscal has showed a moderate growth of 6.20% to Rs 68,769.29 crore from Rs 64,752.24 crore reported in FY08.
On a consolidated basis, the Group's net profit has dipped marginally to Rs 19,795.34 crore for the year ended March 31, 2009 against Rs 19,872.26 crore for the year ended March 31, 2008. The total income of the group has increased to Rs 109,615.60 crore from Rs 101,336.49 crore, registering a Year-on-Year (YoY) growth of 8.16%.
The board of the company has recommended a final dividend of Rs 14 per share for the financial year 2008-09, subject to shareholders approval.
Published by Webmaster @ 6:30 PM IST.
Bharati Shipyard hikes offer price for Great Offshore
Tuesday, June 23, 2009Private sector shipbuilder Bharati Shipyard has made an upward revision in its open offer price to acquire 20% stake in the exploration services major, Great Offshore.
The company has hiked its open offer price to Rs 404 per share from earlier Rs 344 a share.
The move comes close on the heels of competitor shipbuilder ABG Shipyard making a counter bid to the company’s earlier announcement to acquire 20% stake of Great Offshore at Rs 344 per share.
ABG Shipyard has made an open offer to acquire up to 1,25,71,072 equity shares representing 32.12% of the diluted share capital of Great Offshore at Rs 375 per share through its wholly-owned subsidiary Eleventh Land Developers which will increase their stake in the company to 34.14%.
At present, Bharati Shipyard holds 14.89% stake in Great Offshore and its proposed open offer is scheduled to begin on July 25.
Published by Webmaster @ 12:39 PM IST.
ABG Shipyard open offer for Great Offshore
ABG Shipyard has made an open offer to acquire up to 1,25,71,072 equity shares representing 32.12% of the diluted share capital of Great Offshore at Rs 375 per share through its wholly-owned subsidiary Eleventh Land Developers.
At present, ABG Shipyard along with its subsidiary holds 7,89,502 equity shares of Great Offshore and if the current open offer is accepted its holding in the latter will go up to 34.14%.
The company's move is a step towards realizing its vision to become integrated marine services entity which will provide services like ship building, ship repair as well as shipping operations services under an integrated platform of ABG Shipyard and Great Offshore.
This open offer will work as a counter bid to Bharati Shipyard's earlier announcement to acquire 20% of the diluted share capital of Great Offshore at Rs 344 per share.
Published by Webmaster @ 10:35 AM IST.
Rain + Water Reserviors - Little Cushion for Comfort
Monday, June 22, 2009While news on the monsoon front remains bleak (rainfall during June 1-17 coming in 45% below normal), another worry is that water levels in reservoirs across the country are dwindling. Latest data monitoring the water stock in 81 key reservoirs across the country that account for 72% of India's total reservoir stock indicate that current storage is 15 bcm - just 10% of full reservoir capacity and 20% of last year's storage. While reservoir levels are typically lower at the onset of the monsoon, they are lower this year even in comparison to the past due to average rainfall last year and the absence of pre-monsoon showers this year.
A much further delay in the monsoons could result in states reducing the supply of water for irrigation, and conserving it for drinking purposes instead (individual states manage the water levels in their respective reservoirs). Thus while 58% of India's net sown area is dependent on the monsoons, dwindling water reservoir levels could impact even the balance 42% of the area not dependent on the monsoons.
Published by Webmaster @ 1:09 PM IST.
Which Company Insiders are Selling in Rising Market ?
Saturday, June 20, 2009Insider sales hit a nine-month high in May as markets recovered and June will also be a month of high insider selling. The spike in sales betrays a likely lack of confidence in the current rally.
Stocks that have outperformed but seen large insider sales could face more downside potential if markets correct. Bharti, DLF, L&T, ITC, Kotak Bank, Shriram Transport, HDFC and HDFC Bank are among the companies that have seen relatively large insider selling in Apr-09 to Jun-09.
Insider selling in the region[Asia Pac] accelerated in May as market rally continued, hitting a record US$2.2bn (a 4x increase from April) - the highest since Sept-08. Even removing the big deals in May - the selling by promoters of DLF and Suzlon - the insider selling in May and Jun will be the highest in the last ten-months.
Published by Webmaster @ 7:24 AM IST.
Monsoon Less Than Normal Till Date
Friday, June 19, 2009YTD seasonal rainfall is 45% below normal. The Met department has indicated that the weakness could continue over the next week. It is early days yet, as June typically accounts for only 20% of the total south west monsoon. But a recovery over the next month is critical, in our view.
Structurally the importance of agriculture as a percentage of GDP has decreased over the past few decades, from nearly 50% in the early 1970s to about 17% now. But the monsoon is still important for the farm sector, as nearly 60% of India’s agriculture is rainfall-dependent.
An analysis of weak monsoons over the past indicates that the earnings impact has been mixed due to various offsetting factors. But consumption-related sectors, i.e. staples,discretionary and telecom, typically underperform both over the July Sept quarter and the fiscal year in which the monsoon has been weak.
Also, in the recent past, rural India has been driving consumption growth on the back of various government stimuli. This segment is vulnerable to a pull back.
Published by Webmaster @ 11:57 AM IST.
TCS third global delivery centre in Queretaro
Thursday, June 18, 2009Leading IT services business solutions andoutsourcing firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has kick-started itsthird global delivery center in Queretaro from Mexico.
TCSwill offer advanced IT services, consultancy, test factory, businessprocess outsourcing (BPO), contact center, IT infrastructure solutions,industrial and engineering services, and solutions to its existing aswell as new clients from the new unit.
It will recruit 500 professionals for the unit in the current financial year.
Themove will help the IT major to expand its rich in Mexico, where italready have over 30 clients from domestic market apart frominternational clients from industries like telecom, banking, finance,retail and manufacture while strengthening its global network deliverymodel.
TCS presently has seven global deliverycenters in Latin America, all with the highest quality standard in theindustry of ‘CMMi 5’.
Published by Webmaster @ 3:54 PM IST.
Tata Communications Sale of undersea cable assets unlikely
Wednesday, June 17, 2009Tata Communications is looking for strategic investors for undersea cable assets, as reported by Moneycontrol.com. This is attributed to the limited options the company has available to raise incremental debt or issue further equity. TCOM had purchased Tyco Global in 2005 for cUSD130m which connects the continents of Asia, North America and Europe. The company so far has invested cUSD600m in its cable assets (HSBC estimates). As per our analysis, the replacement cost of its present undersea cable assets is estimated at cUSD1.3bn.
Undersea cable assets are integral to TCOM's core business and the distressed purchase of Tyco allowed the company to benefit from significant commercial advantages and scale. Moreover, the company has ramped up managed services capabilities in the recent past, which allow it to leverage its investments in undersea cable assets and drive margin expansion. An undersea cable asset is similar to spectrum (and not tower assets) with mobile service providers (which is the raw material for the mobile business), hence we believe the possibility of sale of undersea cable assets is remote.
Published by Webmaster @ 12:23 PM IST.
April IIP at 1.4% against revised (-) 0.4% for March
Friday, June 12, 2009India’s industrial production zoomed into the positive territory with the April Index of Industrial Production (IIP) recording a positive growth of 1.4% against a revised estimate of (-) 0.4% for March 2009.
The growth in the index is supported by all the constituents with electricity production witnessing a growth of 7.1%, manufacturing activity growing by 0.7% and mining output expanding by 3.8% on a year-on-year basis.
Looking at the use based classification, basic goods grew by 4.6% while intermediate goods were up by 7.1%. Capital goods however showed a negative growth of 1.3%, reflecting that despite positive signals being shown by the demand side of economy, investment will probably recover slowly. Consumer goods also recorded a negative growth of 4.7%, primarily due to negative growth in non-durable goods segment at 10.4% while the durable consumer goods grew at 16.9%.
Published by Webmaster @ 12:45 PM IST.
World Bank + IMF cautions against over optimism on economy
Tuesday, June 09, 2009Despite positive signals being seen in major economies around the world, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank seem to be not convinced about a possible turn around of global economy rapidly. The multilateral institutions said that the recovery process was still fragile and over optimism may soon turn into another disaster until the policy makers ensure that inflation stays out of the picture.
The IMF chief Strauss-Kahn said at a meet in Montreal that the forecast of IMF for recovery of global economic in early 2010 was intact although it may not be considered automatic and policy makers needed to ensure that suitable policies for a sustainable recovery were in place.
Some other economists have pointedut out a visible quick recovery in global economy may soon turn into another disaster through sharp rise in prices. If there is another runaway inflation story as was witnessed in first half of 2008, it may become very difficult for developing economies to ensure regular supply of even essential items.
Published by Webmaster @ 12:32 PM IST.
Natural gas tax breaks to put extra burden on tax revenues
Monday, June 01, 2009The proposed tax breaks on natural gas production is likely to cost around Rs 40,000 crore to the government, as indicated by the finance ministry.
Last year, the finance ministry had conveyed that the income tax exemption guaranteed by the Cabinet, on the production of oil and gas from the areas allocated under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), was only for oil production and not for gas. This resulted in a subdued response to the last leg of the auction and delaying of the current auction process.
The revenue secretary is believed to be negotiating with the petroleum minister for a grant of seven years tax break on natural gas production.
It is expected that the tax breaks to natural gas producers like Reliance Industries will put a burden of around Rs 40,000 crore on the tax revenues.
But industry experts opined that the figure is not a realistic one, as it will take around four years for the companies to recover their investments and only after this recovery income tax can be levied. Apart from this, at the estimated revenue of around $4.5 billion, the balance three years will fetch around $1.5 billion as tax to the government.
Published by Webmaster @ 12:33 PM IST.
