1.RIL Q1 Net Profit up 4.4% at Rs 6,222 cr
Reliance Industries reported a 4.4 per cent rise in net profit for the June quarter as it earned the highest refining margin in six years. Consolidated net profit of Rs 6,222 crore, or Rs 21.1 a share, in April-June quarter of the current fiscal was 4.4 per cent higher than Rs 5,957 crore, or Rs 20.3 per share, in the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement. Its turnover, however slid 23 per cent to Rs 83,064 crore.
The GRM in the April-June quarter was highest in six years and topped $ 10.1 per barrel margin in January-March.
2.Shake-up at Nestle: Suresh Narayanan to replace Etienne Bennet as India MD - ET
Suresh Narayanan is taking over in India with immediate effect, replacing Etienne Benet, who moves to the Swiss company’s headquarters in Vevey. This is the first time in 17 years that an Indian will head the Swiss company in India. The new Nestle India boss sees his mission as twofold — boosting staff morale and engaging with the public.
“My first message to people will be let’s get our self-confidence back, work with speed, continue the element of working as a family,” he told ET. “I am going to step up engagement with all stakeholders, including government, (along with) getting closer to consumers, suppliers.”
Apart from clearing up the Maggi mess, Narayanan will also be looking to boost overall performance. In the past three years, Nestle has gone through its weakest phase with less than 9 per cent growth, compared with a historical average of 14 per cent, despite having marquee brands such as Nescafe and KitKat in its portfolio.
3.Foreign Banks Stay Away from Rs 42,000 crore Divestment Plan - ET
The Modi government’s ambitious disinvestment programme for 2015-16 has run into an unusual hurdle, with its first call for bankers to advise it on the state-run firms’ shares sales eliciting a tepid response, especially from foreign banks that used to vigorously jostle for these mandates in earlier years.
Barring Deutsche Bank, no foreign bank has participated in the bids for the mandate to help the government sell stakes in 10 companies aimed at raising more than Rs 42,000 crore ($7 billion) during this fiscal year, as per ET.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had budgeted an amount of Rs 69,500 crore by way of disinvestment receipts this fiscal year, an all-time high. These include garnering Rs 41,000 crore from the sale of stock in existing state-run companies and another Rs 28,500 crore from the disposal of residual stakes in erstwhile government-owned firms.
4.Black Money Probe Team Pulls up Sebi - BS
A Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) on unaccounted money has come down heavily on the creation of such funds through stock exchanges and participatory notes (P-notes). In a report, the SIT said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) should have an effective monitoring mechanism to study unusual rises in stock prices and the use of stock exchanges to evade taxes through long-term capital gains.
Sebi has also been asked to put in place a mechanism to monitor the beneficial owners of P-notes.
The SIT has recognised the recent steps taken by the regulator to scrutinise cases of tax evasion through exchanges. The SIT advised Sebi to red-flag instances pertaining to trading volumes, entities contributing to trading volume and financial backgrounds of firms through annual returns.
5.Vodafone India Revenue Rises 6.9% to Rs 11,218 cr - FE
Vodafone India on Friday reported a 6.9 per cent increase in revenues to Rs 11,218 crore (1,133 million Pound sterling) for the quarter that ended June. The telecom firm said had Telecom Regulatory Authority of India not lowered the mobile termination rate, the revenue would have grown 11 per cent. In the quarter, data revenue grew 65 per cent and the company added 3.1 million new data customers, taking the total data base to 66.8 million.
The total mobile customers of the company rose to 185.4 million at the end of the quarter, up 1.6 million from the same period of the previous year. The number of 3G subscribers rose to 22 million in the quarter compared with 10 million subscribers in the same quarter last year. However, the company said its call rates have continued to decline as a result of competition.
6.Capgemini Inducts Vemuri into Top Management Body - BS
Following its acquisition of IGATE, Capgemini has elevated the Nasdaq-listed information technology services company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President Ashok Vemuri to the group’s highest decision making body.
Vemuri, believed to have played a key role in driving the valuation of IGATE through multiple initiatives, has now been inducted into Capgemini’s all-powerful group management board, which manages the group’s operations, apart from formulating its strategies.
Vemuri’s induction into the board comes as somewhat of a surprise, as it was widely believed the former Infosys executive might have been planning to leave IGATE after overseeing the integration, something he had hinted at during a recent teleconference. In April this year, Capgemini had announced it was acquiring IGATE for $4 billion, a valuation of 14.5 times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
7.Now, Lupin to Buy German Company -New Indian Express
Pharma firm Lupin Ltd has embarked on an overseas acquisition spree. The country’s third largest drug maker by sales announced its second acquisition in two days and fifth in two years, acquiring Germany-based Temmler Pharma’s specialty product portfolio for an undisclosed sum. The move comes just a day after Lupin pulled off its biggest acquisition - Gavis for $880 million.
The company has entered into a strategic asset purchase agreement with Temmler, part of the Aenova Group, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical contract manufacturers.
This will be Lupin’s third acquisition in two years. Last year, it had acquired Laboratories Grin SA, Mexico’s fourth largest drugmaker.
8.Amazon Stock Surges; Market Value Surpasses Wal-Mart
Amazon.com Inc’s shares surged more than 20 per cent in early trading on Friday, adding more than $46-billion to the company’s market value, after strong growth in the e-commerce giant’s cloud business drove a surprise quarterly profit.
The company’s market capitalization soared to more than $270-billion, overtaking that of Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s biggest retailer. Revenue from Amazon’s cloud operations – Amazon Web Services (AWS) – nearly doubled in the second quarter, indicating that the business was poised to drive sustainable earnings for the online retailer, Wall Street analysts said.
Operating margins at the unit jumped to 21.4 pct from 7.7 per cent.
9.Brookfield May Invest $1bn in GVK - TOI
Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world’s largest investors in infrastructure and real estate, is in talks to acquire a large stake in the debt-laden GVK Power & Infrastructure for as much as $1 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.
The transaction, which is not yet finalized, involves Brookfield investing $650 million through equity and $350 million in debt. The deal could be a game changer and the first instance of a big global investor snapping up India’s troubled infrastructure assets, a major part of the stressed loan portfolio of domestic banks.
The Hyderabad-based G V Krishna Reddy-led infra conglomerate is seeking a white knight to manage debts totalling $3.5 billion and an Australian coal mine acquisition that has gone awry. The listed GVK Power & Infra has a beaten-down market value of $240 million.
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