Category: Economy, Markets and Macro Views

Great Offshore’s promoters pledged ~13% of their equity holding with Bharati Shipyard to raise money. The shares are pledged with two wholly owned subsidiaries of Bharati Shipyard. While this does not have a fundamental impact on Great Offshore’s financials, it does raise concerns on the promoter’s ability to withhold a stock liquidation.

Q2FY09 revenue slipped by 5% y-o-y to Rs 1593.4 mn and 21% q-o-q. The decline in revenue was due to a decrease in revenue days as two platform supply vessels and a multi support vessel had to undergo emergency repairs. (more…)

RBI’s Weekend Package included Rate Cuts and Renewed Focus on FCCBs, Exporters and the SME Segment. In line with expectations, the RBI cut both the repo (liquidity injection) and reverse repo (liquidity absorption) rate to 6.5% and 5% respectively. While it may still take time for banks to cut rates meaningfully, what was encouraging was that the RBI has said that it – (more…)

During the past five years (F2003-2008), India has received cumulative inflows of US$224 billion. This serviced India’s biggest ever credit and capital spending cycle. India’s outstanding credit grew from US$189 billion in March 2003 to US$643 billion by March 2008. Over that time, the country spent US$1.4 trillion on investment. It’s no surprise that growth accelerated and averaged nearly 9% during this period.

India’s infrastructure was not ready for this growth, and combined with the surge in global commodity prices (again reflecting unprecedented global growth for mostly the same reasons), inflation surged – a classic case of overheating. Of (more…)

Despite the slowing economy, Jagran Prakashan has demonstrated benefits of market leadership and conservative management in a downturn by posting 18% YoY revenue growth in 2Q.

Jagran reported Q2 FY09 revenue growth of 18%YoY to Rs2.1bn as a 25% growth in local advertising helped it counter slowing growth in national advertising. Company has also said that October was the strongest month on record. (more…)

Due to the recent happenings in Mumbai, Hotels was the most vulnerable sector already reeling under the pressure of economic slowdown and Travel Budget Cuts. The recent attacks will significantly impact business/tourist traffic (occupancy/RevPARs) across India, further deteriorating the earnings outlook for hotels, which witnessed a muted 1H on lower occupancy of 64% (down 300bps) and moderating ARR growth of 12%. (more…)

In the wake of the events in Mumbai last week, investors could turn more defensive. We feel that because of the resilient spirit of the society, valuations in the market and likely other support from investors and governments everywhere, there is some chance [though little] of any lasting economic or market impact, except for in some select sectors, where it is inevitable.

Additionally, with the change of guard in the Finance Ministry will have almost no impact as Dr. Singh was constantly in touch with the developments through his trusted lieutenants in the south block including Dr. Montek Singh and Dr. Rangrajan.
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