Weekly Capsule (Jan 21– Jan 25) and Impact Analysis

News Announcement Impact Analysis
In a setback for defaulters, Supreme Court upholds Bankruptcy Code
  • The petition against the promoter ban on bidding for NCLT companies has been rejected by the SC
  • That means the Ruias will not be now permitted to bid for Essar Steel and the deal will go to Arcelor Mittal
DLF cracked over 5% on Friday after CBI raided the DLF offices
  • CBI carried out searches across the offices of DLF across the capital over alleged irregularities in land allocation
  • This pertained to the case filed by the CBI against Mr. BS Hooda, the former chief minister of Haryana
Maruti net profits slumped by 17% to Rs.1489 crore in third quarter
  • Profits fell on the back of higher inputs costs and higher market costs during the quarter
  • Maruti has also been under pressure due to the weak auto sales, especially in Maruti’s core consumer segment
Zee Entertainment crashed 31% in a single day on Friday
  • The stock cracked after news of raids on an Essel group company for accepting deposits after demonetization
  • Markets were also rife with rumours that the promoters of Zee were aggressively trying to sell 50% of their stake
Net profits at Yes Bank fell by 7% to Rs.1001 crore in the third quarter
  • The company had to take a huge provision of Rs.478 crore on loans pertaining to its exposure to IL&FS
  • The bank also faced some pressure on the net interest margins in the quarter with gross NPAs above 2%
Yes Bank appointed Ravneet Gill as the next CEO of the bank
  • Gill, a former Deutsche Banker, will succeed Rana Kapoor on March 01st this year
  • The RBI had refused to give an extension to Rana Kapoor due to allegations of misstating of NPAs
Graphite companies correct over 50% from their peak of August 2018
  • The underperformance was on the removal of anti-dumping duties leading to higher imports from China
  • Graphite electrodes go into the manufacture of electric arc furnaces used in steel plants
Etihad hires Alvarez & Marshal to help in Jet Airways turnaround
  • Alvarez & Marshal will conduct a due diligence on Jet Airways before Etihad increases its stake in the airline
  • Banks have agreed to restructure loans of Jet Airways subject to funding support from the promoters
L&T reports 37% growth in net profits at Rs.2042 crore in Q3
  • The higher profits were largely driven by strong project execution by the services and infrastructure business
  • Even the top-line revenues from operations were 24% higher at Rs.35,709 crore in the third quarter
Reuters anticipates shift in RBI stance in the February policy
  • RBI is likely to shift its policy stance from a hawkish stance to a neutral stance in the February policy announcement
  • However, Reuters sees any rate cuts only around the middle of the year after the new government is in place
US tries to lobby with India to lift ecommerce restrictions
  • US companies like Amazon and Wal-Mart stand to lose immensely due to the ecommerce restrictions
  • Indian government is not too keen to accommodate the US request considering that this is an election year
Wilbur Ross rules out any immediate trade deal between US and China
  • According to the Commerce Secretary, Ross, there are larger structural changes that the US expects from China
  • However, considering the weak GDP growth, China may not be too keen to accommodate the US conditions
Piyush Goyal takes charge as the interim finance minister
  • Goyal will present the budget in the absence of Jaitley who is currently undergoing treatment in the US
  • The interim budget will be presented on February 01st as against the vote on account in an election year
Vodafone Idea plans to raise Rs.25,000 crore equity funds
  • The funds will be largely raised through the promoter groups; Vodafone PLC and the Aditya Birla Group
  • The funds will be used to pare the debt of Rs.126,000 crore and reduce the interest servicing burden
Moody’s has upgraded IDBI Bank by 2 notches after closure of LIC deal
  • LIC had infused Rs.14,000 crore of capital into IDBI Bank and paid an additional Rs.6,000 crore for the government stake
  • This will give LIC a banking license and give IDBI Bank a much larger and sound balance sheet
Gita Gopinath of IMF warns about any laxity on fiscal prudence
  • Gopinath was referring to India’s fiscal deficit challenge in the sidelines of the WEF at Davos
  • India’s fiscal deficit is likely to go for a toss due to lower revenues and sharply higher welfare expenses
Mutual funds forced to write down IL&FS SPV exposure
  • This was after ICRA downgraded the mutual funds of Aditya Birla AMC, HDFC AMC and UTI AMC
  • The SPV of IL&FS had defaulted on the loans despite having sufficient resources to service the loan
Divestment target for 2019-20 likely to be set at Rs.80,000 crore
  • This will be a mix of minority stake sale, strategic sale, asset sales and SOTP-based selling of divisions
  • The government is expected to fall short of the current year target by nearly Rs.20,000 crore on weak revenues
India emerges as the world’s second largest steel producer above Japan
  • India is in the midst of a major expansion of steel capacity and is expected to triple by 2030
  • However, the overall capacity even in 2030 will only be a portion of the current Chinese capacity of 857 MT
World leaders at Davos rule out the possibility of an economic slowdown
  • Despite IMF projecting 20 bps fall in global GDP growth, CEOs are confident of avoiding a slowdown
  • Interestingly, India is likely to grow at around 7.5%, much faster than China, which is expected to touch 6.3%
L&T buyback was rejected by SEBI on technical grounds
  • The consolidated debt of L&T group was more than twice the combined equity post buyback
  • The confusion arose over the interpretation of debt as consolidated versus stand alone debt