Category: Equity Research

Jet Airways has had a strong month in Nov-07 in the domestic and international markets with significant improvement in load factors over 2QFY08. With the holiday season resulting in strong demand, expect December-January to be better than Oct-Nov.

During Nov-07, Jet achieved a load factor of 74.4% in the domestic market, 810bps higher than in 2QFY08. (more…)

ENAM has initiated coverage on Shriram Transport Finance with a BUY Rating. Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd. (STFCL) is one of the fastest growing NBFC with an estimated market share of 20-25% in the pre-owned CV financing business and a total AUM of Rs 148bn (Sep-07). The company has 391 branches and 6,318 employees and enjoys one of the largest networks among NBFCs.

STFCL is also moving towards vertical integration by increasingly offering the entire spectrum of products to its customers besides truck financing. Increasing tie-ups with small financiers will help STFCL improve its market share and ensure rapid growth in its loan book. (more…)

Citigroup has initiated coverage on Deccan Chronicle and Jagarn Prakashan with a BUY Rating. DCHL publishes the fourth-largest selling English newspaper in India and has leadership in the state of Andhra Pradesh. After Chennai, DCHL will expand into the Bangalore market, which will give it a strong foothold in South India.

DCHL is the most leveraged play on Indian print media. Its superior business model rests on: heavy advertising skew which should be sustainable as advertising revenues grow at a 25% 3-yr CAGR; strong profitability (>2x that of listed peers) due to a lean fixed-cost base; and exposure to the English print market, which has higher ad yields. (more…)

India’s Media Giant Zee Entertainment and South Indian controversial media company Sun TV have been upgraded by brokerage houses.

Zee Entertainment Ltd:
Zee Entertainment overtook Star Plus (Rupert Murdoch’s flagship channel) during prime time for the week ended November 25 2007. Zee Entertainment’s flagship channel’s ratings during prime time of 42%, (higher than 30% across time bands) will reflect in its ad revenues in H2FY08. The fall in TRPs during the 10 pm slot last month was primarily due to the end of its reality show Saregama which ended on October 07. Zee owns the property and will start a new season in mid-2008. (more…)

United Phsophorous Ltd [UPL] indicated that it was on course to complete the restructuring and integration of Cerexagri’s French operations by the end of FY08. Besides, it intends to start this process in Spain in the next quarter. With the restructuring of US operations already complete, we expect material upside to reflect in financials from 4QFY08 and act as a key catalyst for the stock.

UPL remains upbeat on its seeds business, Advanta (49% holding), due to low penetration of hybrid seeds in India and better buying ability of farmers on back of the recent buoyancy in food prices. (more…)

Deutshce Bank has initiated coverage on Thermax with a Buy rating. Thermax is a direct play on India’s strong industrial capex boom and increasing investments in the water & environment domains. This global energy and environment engineering company as positioned to ride the booming Indian energy and infra sector with a wide array of power, environment and water-treatment solutions. A strong order book of USD 800mn as on Sep 30, 2007, re-emphasizes the company’s strong earnings growth potential (+37% CAGR) over FY07-10. (more…)