Tuesday, 24 December 2013

Electrosteel Steels gains on inking CDR pact with SBI-led consortium

In a bid to restructure its Rs 6,800-crore long-term debt, Electrosteel Steels has inked pact with SBI-led consortium of 27 bankers. Under the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) programme, the existing debt will be repaid over a 10-year period. The package offers 31 months’ moratorium on repayment of principal long-term debt and 24 months’ moratorium on interest payments.

Further, the company will get a new term loan of around Rs 1,100 crore to complete the balance production facilities and nearly Rs 200 crore working capital refinance.

Electrosteel Steels is engaged in the manufacturing solutions for water supply and sewerage systems. ECL has been certified for ISO 9001:2000 standard by different bodies such as IRQS and BSI for the manufacture of DI pipes for water, sewerage, gas and ash transportation.

IOC strengthens as its LNG project in Tamil Nadu gets clearance from MoEF

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has received clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forests for setting up of 5 million tonne LNG terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu. A committee under the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has given Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance to IOC. The company is planning to supply regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) from the terminal to customers through 10 extensive pipeline network to the existing and new power plants, fertiliser plants, existing and new industries, CNG/LCNG. The company is also planning to supply by road through cryogenic LNG road tankers to customers who are far away and not connected with gas pipeline networks.

IOC is the largest enterprise in the country and the foremost ranked Fortune Global 500 Company in India and has presence in the complete hydrocarbon value chain from downstream refining & marketing, pipeline transportation, Petrochemicals, E&P and Gas Marketing.

HCC extends gain on bagging contract worth Rs 1,597 crore

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), a leading infrastructure construction and development company has received a prestigious contract worth Rs 1,597 crore from THDC India to construct Vishnugad Pipalkoti Hydro Electric Power project in Chamoli district of Uttrakhand. This is an EPC contract (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) for civil works, hydro-mechanical works including penstock steel liner of the hydro electric power project. The project will be completed in 54 months.

Vishnugad Pipalkoti Hydel power project is a 444 MW (4x111 MW) run of river scheme on Alaknanda River, which is a major tributary of river Ganga. The scope of work involves construction of concrete gravity dam (65m high), coffer dam, de-silting chamber, head race tunnel (13.4 km long, 8.8m dia), surge shaft, pressure shaft, underground power house and cavern, surge tank, tail race tunnel and hydro mechanical works. Around 12.5 km head race tunnel will be excavated using tunnel boring machine.

HCC is a leader in engineering and construction space. The company has established a vast presence and gained recognition in the sectors of Hydro Power, Water Solutions, Transportation and Nuclear Power.

Morgan Stanley Asia sells more than 43 lakh shares of Bajaj Finserv

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) has sold more than 43 lakh shares of financial services company, Bajaj Finserv, through an open market transaction. The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 722, valuing the transactions at a combined Rs 314.42 crore.

The scrips were purchased by Valiant Mauritius Partners. Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) sold 35,82,795 shares of Bajaj Finserv, while Morgan Stanley Mauritius Company offloaded 7,72,078 scrips of the company.  At the end of September quarter, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) held 37,57,907, amounting to 2.36%  shares of Bajaj Finserv.

Bajaj Finserv is engaged in life insurance; general insurance and consumer finance businesses and has plans to expand its business by offering a wide array of financial products and services in India. Apart from financial services, the company is also active in wind-energy generation.

Morgan Stanley offloads 5.4% stake in Jindal Saw

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) PTE has reportedly sold 1.45 crore shares or 5.40% stake of Jindal Saw through the open market route. The shares were sold on an average price of Rs 48, valuing the transaction to Rs 71.40 crore.

Meanwhile, Macquarie Bank has also sold 41.30 Lakh shares or 1.5% stake of Jindal Saw for about Rs 19.18 crore.

Jindal Saw is in a commanding position in India's tubular market, being the undisputed leader with a turnover in excess of Rs 7,000 crore. The business operations are highly structured with three strategic business units: large diameter pipes, seamless tubes, and DI (ductile iron) pipes. Every SBU has its own dedicated sales and marketing targets and operations.

Ultratech gets CCI’s nod for Rs 3,800 crore deal with Jaypee Cement

Ultratech Cement has received fair trade watchdog Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) approval for its Rs 3,800 crore deal with Jaypee Cement Corporation to acquire its facilities in Gujarat. CCI said that the proposed combination is not likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India.

According to the deal, the Aditya Birla Group firm will acquire Jaypee’s cement unit in Gujarat comprising an integrated cement plant at Sewagram, limestone reserves, captive power plant and mining leases, among others.

The deal which was executed in September this year, has been pegged as one of the largest M&A deals in recent time and will further cement UltraTech’s numero uno position in the market and give it an entry into Gujarat.

UltraTech Cement manufactures and markets Ordinary Portland Cement, Portland Blast Furnace Slag Cement and Portland Pozzalana Cement. The company has 11 integrated plants, one white cement plant, one clinkerisation plant in UAE, 15 grinding units 11 in India, 2 in UAE, one in Bahrain and Bangladesh each and five terminals, four in India and one in Sri Lanka.

Tata Housing enters into an agreement with Alstom T&D to buy 20 acre land in Bangalore

Tata Group realty firm Tata Housing has entered into an agreement with Alstom T&D India to buy its manufacturing unit spread across 20 acres in Bangalore for 120 crores. Tata Housing is planning to launch an ultra-luxury project on this land. The deal is expected to be completed in next three months. Tata Housing is looking at expanding its presence in the fast growing city of Bangalore as part of long term strategy.

Alstom T&D India is part of Alstom Grid, a global player in electrical grids. The company’s India operations account for over 13% of overall revenues garnered by Alstom Grid’s global operations. Apart from India business, other major contributors are the operations in France, the US, Germany and China.

Torrent Pharmaceuticals to increase borrowing limits to Rs 5,000 crore

Torrent Pharmaceuticals is seeking shareholders’ approval to increase its borrowing limits to Rs 5,000 crore. In this regard, the company has issued a postal ballot notice to its shareholders to approve a special resolution to increase the borrowing limit from the current Rs 3,000 crore.

The company is mulling to increase the borrowing limits for its future growth plans, both organic and inorganic, including the proposed acquisition of identified Indian branded formulation business of Elder Pharmaceuticals.

Earlier in the month, Torrent Pharmaceuticals had agreed to acquire the branded formulation business of Elder Pharmaceuticals in India and Nepal for Rs 2,000 crore to boost its presence in segments such as women’s healthcare and pain management.

Torrent Pharmaceuticals is flagship company of the Torrent group, a leader in cardiovascular and central nervous system segments. It also has presence in gastro-intestinal, diabetology, anti-infective and pain management segments.

LIC sells 2% stake in Ranbaxy

State-owned LIC has cut its stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories by selling more than 2% stake over the past five years. The country’s largest insurer offloaded 45,08,036 shares of Ranbaxy between October 15, 2008 and December 20, 2013 through open markets.

Following the stake sale, LIC’s stake in the company has come down to 6.13% from 8.15%.

During the period from October 15, 2008 and December 20, 2013, Ranbaxy was taken over by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo. The company was also in various regulatory troubles during this period.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, India’s largest pharmaceutical company, is an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines, trusted by healthcare professionals and patients across geographies.

Uniroyal Industries goes for capacity expansion entailing investment of Rs 6.75 crore

Uniroyal Industries is going in for capacity expansion involving an outlay of Rs 6.75 crore. This will enhance the label manufacturing capacity from 736,850 square meters to 870,823 square meters. The enhanced capacity is likely to become operational in April, 2014.

Besides, HDFC bank has sanctioned term loan of Rs 4.90 crore for the same and the balance will be financed through internal accruals.

Uniroyal Industries is engaged in manufacturing of woven labels, tapes, and narrow fabrics for the garment, leatherwear, soft toys, headwear, linen, sports, and furnishings industries.

Andhra Bank surges on receiving Rs 200-crore capital infusion from government

Andhra Bank is currently trading at Rs. 62.50, up by 0.40 points or 0.64 % from its previous closing of Rs. 62.10 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 62.70 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 63.35 and Rs. 62.50 respectively. So far 31278 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 130.00 on 08-Jan-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 47.30 on 03-Sep-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 62.70 and Rs. 58.10 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 3661.51 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 58.00 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 22.97 % and 19.02 % respectively.

Public sector lender, Andhra Bank has received capital infusion of nearly Rs 200 crore from the government. The shareholders of the Bank at the Extraordinary General Meeting held on December 19, 2013, at Hyderabad, had authorised to issue 3,00,34,539 equity shares of Rs 10 each to Government of India (GOI) on preferential allotment basis at Rs 66.59  per equity share (including a premium of Rs 56.59 per share).

As on September 30, 2013, the government held a 58% stake in the bank, while FIIs, DIIs and others held 11.19%, 11.78% and 19.03%, respectively.

Andhra Bank has reported a fall of 78.30% in its net profit at Rs 70.65 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 as compared to Rs 325.63 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. However, total income of the bank increased by 11.74% at Rs 3817.57 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 3416.55 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.

Ramkrishna Forgings to close its plants at Jamshedpur

Ramkrishna Forgings’ Plants at Industrial Area, Adityapur, Jamshedpur will be closed due to current business scenario. The company’s Plant 1 will be closed from December 26, 2013 to December 31, 2013 while Plant III will be closed from December 23, 2013 to January 01, 2014. Besides, the Plant IV will be closed from December 28, 2013 to January 01, 2014.

Ramkrishna Forgings undertakes turnkey development of forgings and stampings from raw samples. It also designs and develops special dies for customers. The company exports its products to Germany, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Japan.

Markets to start in green on penultimate day of F&O series expiry

The Indian markets consolidated in last session and the benchmarks despite a good start suffered profit booking towards the end. Today, the penultimate day of the F&O series expiry is likely to have a positive start, tailing good global cues, however trade may show some volatility in latter half. The rate sensitives’ are likely to remain under pressure as the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that fighting rising prices will continue to be its priority and a call on raising interest rates will be taken after factoring in more data. However, he said that the Reserve Bank will wait for next set of data on inflation and industrial growth before taking a call on interest rates. Meanwhile, the Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said that India will achieve the modest export target of $325 billion for the current fiscal but to enhance it substantially, the country needs to boost its manufacturing capability. There will be buzz in the markets especially in Vedanta Group companies, as the CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal and unknown officials in connection with alleged irregularities in the disinvestment of Hindustan Zinc.

The US markets continued their upmove in the new week taking the Dow and the S&P 500 to new record highs, backed by continued optimism about the outlook for the US economy following IMF’s positive comments. Most of the Asian markets have made a positive start with Japanese Nikkei taking the lead topping 16,000 intraday for the first time since 2007, as data showed better US economic growth.

Back home, Paring most of their initial gains, Indian equity benchmarks ended the session on a flat note on Monday. Sentiments remained up-beat in morning on report that indirect-tax collections grew by 5% in the April-November period of this fiscal, crossing Rs 3 lakh crore mark. But, investors opted to book profit at higher levels in late trade, being the holiday truncated F&O expiry week, though markets managed to end in the green, extending their northward journey for second straight day. Supportive cues from US markets supported the local markets as sentiments remained up-beat their after latest data showed that final reading of third quarter GDP pointed to growth of 4.1%, which was the strongest reading since the economy expanded by 4.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011, and well above the 2.5% gain reported in the second quarter. Moreover, firm opening in European markets too supported the sentiments. Asian markets too ended mostly in the green terrain. Back home, some support also came in from currency front after Indian rupee appreciated on account of dovish comments made by Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan, who underscored that he expects a fall in vegetable prices to likely ease the headline inflation and retail inflation to 6.5 percent and 9.20 percent respectively in December. Rally in public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) too supported the sentiments. Stocks related to power sector too remained on buyers’ radar as the government is working on a proposal where separate entities would handle electricity supply and distribution. The banking stocks too were in action, as the finance ministry has directed state-run banks to recover at least 10% of loans that have gone bad, by the end of this financial year. On the flip side, shares of major tyre companies, MRF, Ceat, Apollo Tyres, JK Tyre Industries, slowed down on profit-booking after reports suggested that the government has hiked customs duty on imported rubber. According to media reports, the customs duty will now be at 20% or Rs 30 per kg, whichever is lower as against Rs 20/kg or 20% whichever is lower, earlier. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 21.31points or 0.10%, to settle at 21101.03, while the CNX Nifty added 10.25 points or 0.16% to settle at 6,284.50.