Category: Breaking Corporate India Earnings News

Axis Bank has reported a 70.24% rise in the net profit to Rs 562.04 crore for the June 2009 quarter as against Rs 330.14 crore during the year-ago period.

The bank’s total income has moved up 33.65% from Rs 2891.24 crore for the June 2008 quarter to Rs 3864.13 crore for the June 2009 quarter.

Axis Bank has strengths in both retail and corporate banking and is committed to adopting the best industry practices internationally in order to achieve excellence. As of June 30, 2009, the bank has a very wide network of more than 853 branches and extension counters. The bank has a network of over 3723 ATMs providing 24 hrs a day banking convenience to its customers.

The uptrend in industrial output continued in May with output up 2.7% YoY and 0.6% on a MoM seasonally adjusted basis. This was higher than our (1.6%) as well as consensus expectations (1.4%) but lower than the 1.3% s.a growth last month. Similar to trends seen earlier this year, the April data was revised, BUT this time the revision was downwards from 1.4% to 1.2%. The revision was led by capital goods (from -1.3% to -7.3%) which raises doubts on the much awaited investment recovery.

On a sectoral basis, growth was led by mining up 3.7%, electricity up 3.3% and manufacturing up 2.5%. Worrying sign is the continued contraction in capital goods (-3.6%) for the third month in a row, (ii) While consumer goods came back into the black (1.2%) after three months, consumer non-durables remained in the red with the key drag being food products and beverages.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has announced that United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) has granted its subsidiary an approval for an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for generic Casodex, Bicalutamide tablets.

These tablets are an androgen receptor inhibitor indicated for use in combination therapy with a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analog for the treatment of Stage D2 metastatic carcinoma of the prostate. Bicalutamide tablets are generic version of Casodex tablets from AstraZeneca, having annual sales of approximately $314 million in the US market.

Recently, the company received a tentative nod from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for the generic version of Optivar, azelastine ophthalmic solution 0.05%. The approval will enable the Indian pharma major to market the drug in the US market.

The sterile azelastine ophthalmic solution is the generic version of Optivar Ophthalmic Solution manufactured by Medpointe Pharmaceuticals, which has annual sales of around $48 million in the US market.

The drug is recommended for the treatment of the itching of the eyes associated with allergic conjunctivitis.

Last month, the USFDA seized drug products manufactured by Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Caraco) – the US subsidiary of Sun Pharma – at the company’s Michigan facilities in Detroit, Farmington Hills, and Wixom.

According to the FDA, Caraco repeatedly failed to meet current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) requirements, which guarantee the quality of manufactured drugs. Following this action, the company has been asked to instantaneously stop from further distributing drugs until there is assurance that the firm complies with good manufacturing requirements.

Godawari Power & Ispat’s (GPIL) Standalone Top-line fell by a whopping 34.8% yoy to Rs171.8cr (Rs263.4cr) in 4QFY2009. This de-growth was on account of a 46% decline in the revenue from the steel division, and due to the production cut undertaken by the
company in its Steel Billets and Ferro Manganese segment (for the purpose of increasing the sales volume of the power division). However, the sales from Sponge Iron increased by a massive 235% yoy to Rs84.9cr (Rs25.4cr). For FY2009, the company’s standalone and Consolidated Top-line increased by 24.9% and 35.1%, respectively.

GPIL’s Standalone net profit stood at Rs9.7cr (Rs28.8cr), for the quarter, down 66.2%. This fall was primarily on account of the decline in the operating profit. The company’s FY2009 standalone and consolidated net profits declined by 39.6% and 37.7%, respectively.

Late last evening, the government raised retail prices of petrol by 9% (Rs4/ltr) and diesel by 6% (Rs2/ltr). Although this is still less than current international prices (petrol and diesel would need to be raised by an additional Rs2.5/ltr as margins are negative, the hike is positive, bodes well for the reform process and is a step towards fiscal consolidation.

Given that petrol and diesel have a weight of 2.9% in the WPI, the fuel price hike would have a ~30bps impact on inflation. We expect inflation to cross 4% levels by year end. On rates, we expect bond yields are likely to stay in the 6%-7% range due to the RBI’s continued participation in the borrowing program. We maintain our view that
RBI will reverse its easy money policy next year.

Q4FY09 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