Dalal Street

Apparel major Arvind Ltd has come up with a four-point plan in order to reduce its mounting debt burden. The total debt of the company stood at Rs 1172 crore as on March 31 2007.

As per the plan, along with concentrating on more profitable fabrics and apparel business, the company will also focus on retail business and popular brands. The company also plans to unlock value in non strategic assets and use cash flows to de-leverage the balance sheet.

The company expects to get the shareholders’ approval for the plan at the upcoming annual general meeting to be held on July 31. Arvind ventured in to production of denim in 1987 and became the world’s largest producer by 1998. However, as a change in strategy, the company is now looking to reduce its capacity of denim production and concentrate more on retail segment. The company has been undergoing restructuring since 2003.

Era Infra Engineering has failed to make a mark on the BSE despite the company bagged a contract worth Rs 95.5 crore from Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL). The company will be responsible for the civil, structural & architectural work for main power block along with its auxiliaries and BOP for 1×500 MW thermal power station, extension unit # 6, Gujarat State Electricity Corporation at Ukai in Gujarat.

The scrip is currently trading at Rs 555 per share, down 7.6 points or 1.35% on the BSE.

The stock opened at Rs 545 per share as compared to its previous close of Rs 562.60 per share on Friday.

Ranbaxy Laboratories stock was hammered on the bourses by 10% on concerns raised by the US FDA which has filed a motion in a US court seeking access to certain privileged documents related to Ranbaxy’s manufacturing operations as part of an ongoing investigation.

Ranbaxy has stated that the allegations are baseless & intends to file a response on 14 July 08. It has denied media reports of prosecution proceedings being initiated or that its executives have been asked to depose. It maintains that this is a part of an investigation that’s been on for 3 years during which the FDA tested over 200 randomly collected samples of its products without finding any evidence of non compliance.

Thinking out of the box, could Pfizer have had a say in this FDA investigation to derail the Japanese takeover of Ranbaxy ?Last month Ranbaxy promoters sold their stake to Daiichi-Sankyo thus giving the Japanese company the management control of Ranbaxy Labs – India’s largest Pharma company.

It was slowdown in the entire Indian stock broking industry. Edelweiss Capitals‘ volumes were down 26% QoQ, slightly higher than the industry (-17% QoQ). Higher decline in revenues (-38% QoQ) was due to: a) higher derivatives proportion (an industry trend), and b) sharper decline in investment banking revenues (-75% QoQ).

Operating costs (after adjusting for treatment of STT) have declined 55% QoQ. This is significantly higher than the drop in volumes. The company reported a net profit of Rs 63.8 cr a 22.7% decline QoQ and 24.3% below consensus estimates on the street. For the full year, Edelweiss is espected to report EPS of Rs 42.13.