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1.Has Infosys Got its Mojo Back? - LiveMint
Infosys Ltd reported strong first-quarter results on the back of a pickup in business across sectors, particularly from its US clients, signalling that chief executive officer Vishal Sikka’s efforts to turn around the company may be beginning to bear fruit.The strong results prompted India’s No. 2 software services exporter to boost its sales growth forecast for the financial year and lifted its stock to the highest level in over two years.
For the June quarter, its revenue in rupee terms rose 12.4 per cent to Rs.14,354 crore from the year-ago period. Its dollar revenue beat expectations by rising 5.7 per cent year-on-year and 4.5 per cent sequentially to $2.26 billion. The firm’s 7 per cent sequential growth in revenue in rupee terms during the first quarter was the highest in 15 quarters even as its volume growth at 5.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter was the highest in 19 quarter.
Net profit increased 5 per cent from a year ago to Rs.3,030 crore in the three months ended June, matching the median of estimates in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. In dollar terms, net profit declined 4.5 per cent sequentially to $476 million.
2.Warburg to Invest Rs 1.8k cr in Piramal Co - TOI
Global private equity major Warburg Pincus will invest Rs 1,800 crore in Piramal Realty for an undisclosed minority stake in the real estate arm of Piramal Group, making it one of the largest FDI deals in the sector. “An affiliate of Warburg Pincus will invest Rs 1,800 crore or $284 million for a minority stake in the company ,“ Piramal Realty said in a statement.
The proceeds will be used to expand Piramal Realty’s portfolio and acquire marquee land parcels in and around the Mumbai, Piramal group executive director Anand Piramal said.
3.Ananth Narayanan is Myntra’s New CEO; Mukesh Bansal to be Board Chairman - ET
Flipkart-owned mobile fashion store Myntra has appointed McKinsey director Ananth Narayanan as its chief executive officer. He will be taking over from the co-founder Mukesh Bansal who is currently serving as the head of Flipkart’s commerce platform.
Bansal will assume the role of Myntra’s board chairman and will be “actively involved in contributing to Myntra’s vision, strategy and overall direction” the company said in a statement.
Narayanan was previously with McKinsey, leading its product development in Asia and its Automotive Practice in India. He has worked with the firm for 15 years across four offices (Chicago, Shanghai, Taipei and Chennai). He will start working from October 1, 2015 from Myntra’s Bengaluru headquarters and will report to the Myntra board.
4.Sun Pharma Ends 15% Down; Jefferies, Macquarie Maintain Buy on Despite Profit Warning - ET
Global brokerage firms such as Jefferies and Macquarie maintained their positive views on Sun Pharma, despite the company’s profit warning for FY16.The stock ended the day at Rs 805.30, down 14.95 per cent, on the BSE.
Sun Pharma guided for flat sales in FY16, which was significantly below expectation. Management commentary on medium-term, especially product pipeline and Ranbaxy integration, though was very positive
Jefferies, Global Brokerage Firm
“The miss, in our view, is largely due to one-off issues (Halol disruptions and integration costs) and are non-recurring. With business fundamentals remaining intact, our FY17 number sees only marginal downgrade and we retain our buy rating with a target price of Rs 1,100,” added the report.
5.Airtel Has the Least Call Drops in Mumbai: Trai - BS
Bharti Airtel has emerged as the mobile network with the least number of call drops on Mumbai roads, while in Delhi, Tata (CDMA) tops the list, according to two-day drive tests conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
According to the telecom regulator, the quality of service benchmark for the call drop rate had to be less than two per cent.
In Mumbai, the call drop rate for Airtel was 0.97 per cent. At 5.56 per cent, Idea Cellular’s rate was the highest. Except for one operator, none met the prescribed benchmark, Trai said. In Mumbai, the test was carried out between 9 am and 7:30 pm on June 23-24. It covered peak and off-peak hours and about 3,305 calls were made for all six operators. On Trai’s behalf, TUV SUD conducted the drive test, covering various locations in the south and central parts of the city.
6.Bharti Airtel Says No Plan to Exit Africa, Despite Orange Talks - Reuters
Bharti Airtel Ltd, the biggest Indian cellphone carrier, has no plans to exit Africa, it said on Tuesday, despite announcing exclusive talks with France’s Orange to sell four of its units there.
Orange on Monday said it was in discussions to buy Bharti subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone, triggering market speculation that this might be a first step towards a complete Bharti exit.
But the Indian group said on Tuesday that the operations put on the block represented a relatively small percentage of its overall Africa business. A sale, it said, would help it “establish a sharper focus” on the remaining countries.
“We remain fully committed to our Africa operations and will continue to invest in its growth and building a profitable business and accordingly have no plan to exit,” the company said in a statement, in response to a query from Reuters.
7.Weak Rural Demand Sees Hindustan Unilever Sales Slow - FE
Hindustan Unilever on Tuesday reported a net profit of Rs 1,059.14 crore in the three months to March, virtually flat year-on-year, missing analysts’ estimates of Rs 1,135 crore, according to Thomson Reuters data. The profit was subdued partly because the company paid out taxes that were higher by 14%.
The Indian arm of Anglo Dutch group Unilever, which makes Lux soap and Lipton tea, notched up a volume growth of 6 per cent in the quarter, more or less in line with forecasts, while net sales at Rs 7,973.37 crore rose 5.31 per cent year-on-year. The operating profit (before exceptionals) came in at RS 1,431.50 crore, an increase of 14.5 per cent year-on-year with the key personal products portfolio faring well and the company able to rein in costs at Rs 6,673.63, up just around 3 per cent y-o-y.
While the company is understood to have trimmed prices of some products by 5-6 per cent, it also gained from softer commodity prices.
8.Unitech Tanks 13%, Promoters Cut Stake Significantly
Shares of Unitech lost 12.7 per cent intraday Tuesday after the promoter cut its stake in the company by 12.93 per cent at the end of June quarter. Promoter and promoter group has reduced their stake in the real estate company to 32.61 percent in June quarter from 45.54 per cent in March quarter.
“86.47 per cent of promoter’s shareholding continued to be pledged at the end of June quarter, which reduced from 90.9 per cent shares pledged in March quarter,” according to the data available on exchanges.
However, foreign institutional investors raised their stake to 19.69 per cent from 18.95 per cent and domestic institutional investors upped stake to 3.26 per cent from 1.94 percent during the same period. The stock lost 57 per cent in 2015.
9.HDFC Bank Q1 Net up 21%, Bad Loans Rise Marginally - BS
HDFC Bank, the country’s second largest private sector lender, has reported a 21 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 2,695.7 crore on account of robust other income and increase in net interest income. Net profit was a tad below a Bloomberg estimate.
Net interest income (NII), the difference between interest earned and interest expended, increased 23.5 per cent to Rs 6,389 crore in the quarter ended June, compared with Rs 5,171.6 crore in the same period a year ago.
Other income, led by treasury gains, grew 33 per cent to Rs 2,461.9 crore in the April-June quarter compared with Rs 1,850.6 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
HDFC Bank’s healthy NII growth was aided by strong loan growth and stable net interest margins. However, profit after tax was marginally below our expectations on back of higher provisions despite robust treasury gains
–Saday Sinha, Analyst with Kotak Securities.
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