M&M, Bharti Airtel and GAIL India to see some action today

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) reported a 12.86 percent drop in total sales to 37,869 vehicles in May 2014. The company had sold 43,460 units in the same month last year. M&M’s domestic sales stood at 35,499 units last month against 42,104 a year earlier, down 15.68 percent. Sales of passenger vehicles, including Scorpio, XUV 5OO, Xylo, Bolero and Verito, stood at 18,085 units (22,244 units), down 18.69 percent. Commercial vehicle sales declined 13.55 percent to 12,836 units against 14,848 units. Exports rose 74.77 percent to 2,370 units from 1,356 units. Bharti Airtel is poised to conclude a much-anticipated deal to sell its towers in Africa in seven days, which could help the world's fourth-largest telecom operator rake in as much as $3 billion and help reduce debt. The Sunil Mittal-headed company has already shortlisted buyers from among four tower companies - Helios Towers Africa, IHS, American Tower Corp and Eaton Towers - for the sale. Bharti Airtel's net debt at the end of 2013-14 stood at Rs 60,541.6 crore ($10.4 billion), which would come down following the tower sale, thereby reducing the stress on the company's balance sheet. Over the past year or so, the company has been refinancing large parts of its debt pile by issuing overseas bonds, helping it to lower its net finance payouts. Oil regulator PNGRB has slashed the tariff that state-owned GAIL Indiacan charge for transporting gas through its Dabhol-Bangalore pipeline. GAIL had proposed a tariff of Rs 73.49 per million British thermal unit for the 1,414 km line that connects the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal of the Maharashtra coast with consumers in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) in a May 30 order stated that it had approved a provisional levelised tariff of Rs 44.65 per mmBtu with effect from February 18, 2013, the date of commissioning of the pipeline. The pipeline is to carry up to 16 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas for consumption by users like power plants. Maintaining emphasis on higher sales, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has registered an aggressive sales growth of 11% in May 2014, at 1.06 million tonnes (MT), compared to 0.96 MT in same month last year (SMLY). Rise in exports was to the tune of 76% on a y-o-y basis during the month. Production at SAIL plants kept pace with Hot Metal production of 1.26 MT achieved in May ’14, registering a y-o-y growth of 4%. The company is planning to increase its capacity to 19.5 million tonnes (MT) by September this year. At present, the company’s hot metal capacity stood at 14 MT. Moreover, the company will ramp up its raise hot metal capacity to 23.5 MTPA in the next fiscal. In this regard the company is implementing Rs 72,000 crore expansion programme. MajescoMastek, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mastek, is increasing its focus on the North American insurance sector and expects the segment to contribute about 85 percent of revenues in the next couple of years. The company’s North American insurance business revolves around products and product implementation, and of the total 75 percent, a large part is in Property and Casualty (P&C) and some in Life and Annuity (L&A). MajescoMastek, which has more than 80 customers in North America, will look at increasing customer engagements, improving eco-system and tap cross-sell opportunities. It would also look at increasing growth through partnership with system integrators and increase investments in platforms such as cloud computing and suite deals. About 46 percent of Mastek’s revenue comes from North America, and insurance products and solution contributed roughly about two-third of North American business. Drug firm Ipca Laboratories has inked an agreement with US-based Oncobiologics Inc to develop and manufacture biosimilar products targeting various diseases, including cancer. Under the first part of the agreement, Ipca will in-licence and commercialize biosimilar products for India and associated markets. These products will be developed by Oncobiologics to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and European Union regulatory standards for global commercialization. Initial manufacturing will occur in the US by Oncobiologics and later by Ipca in India. Under the second phase of partnership, Oncobiologics will replicate its Biologics R&D and manufacturing facility in India to create a world-class capability for Ipca for further biosimilar commercialization. The steel plant of National Mineral Development Corporation(NMDC) at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district is likely to become operational by next year. Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh expressed hope that there was a strong possibility that production at the plant might start by the next year. The plant, when completed, would be the second public sector steel plant of the Union Government, after Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), in Chhattisgarh. Lakshmi Machine Works, India's largest and the world's third-biggest textile machinery maker will focus on new export markets, such as Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia and Vietnam, to mitigate risk from growing competition in the domestic market. LMW makes spinning textile machines with a capacity of 3.5 lakh spindles and has a market share of 60% market share (by value) and 70% (by volume) in India. Local power producers, including Jaypee Power Ventures, Lanco Infratech, GMR Infrastructure, and iron ore miner Sesa Sterlitehave offered to sell some of their power plants to India's largest power producer NTPC as lenders put pressure on them to divest assets to slash debt. State-owned NTPC has received more than 30 offers in response to its offer, known in industry parlance as expression of interest (EoI), made in April to purchase coal-fired power plants. Lanco, which has coal-fired power plants with a capacity of about 3,000 MW, had publicly stated its intention to sell some assets. ITI has reported a loss of Rs 344 crore excluding grants for the financial year, 2013-14. This is the lowest loss reported in the last 12 years from 2002-03 onwards, since when it has been into losses. This has been achieved due to tight financial discipline undertaken in the last four years which included many cost reduction measures. Now the company is poised for turning around once the financial assistance in the form of revival package is sanctioned by the Government of India is received. Earlier, the Government of India had sanctioned revival package for upgrading its manufacturing facilities and clearing its balance sheet. Hindustan Motors (HM) released half of the monthly wages of December 2013 as an advance payment to 2,600 employees of its non-operational Uttarpara plant in West Bengal. This has been done on request of the Labour Minister of West Bengal. Funds accrued out of the sale of scrap were used towards disbursing the advance wages. Employees received last wage payment in April for the month of November. On May 24, the management clamped a notice of suspension of work on the plant’s gate, citing fund shortage. Employees are not entitled for wages for the work suspension period. The management is slated to meet the Labour Minister later this week.