News digest: Q4 earnings, powering villages, Fortis stake sale, and more

Early birds score on sales, falter on profits; RIL props up Q4 earnings

The March quarter earnings of companies which have reported results so far are a case of robust top line growth. Led by a 38 per cent increase clocked by Reliance Industries (RIL), net sales growth of 136 companies at nearly 18 per cent has been the highest in at least 12 quarters. Top line growth has been secular and even without RIL, revenue growth is the highest in six quarters.

The disappointment, however, is on the net profit front largely owing to muted showing by the banking and financials space, which, coupled with information technology (IT) companies, dominates the early bird list of companies to report results. Read more...

Milestone crossed: Govt meets electrification target of 18,000 villages

The Narendra Modi-led government on Sunday celebrated meeting the target of connecting all villages of the country to the national electricity grid.

The government started electrifying 18,000 villages, which did not have access to power, in 2015 and has already connected them to the central grid ahead of the 2019 deadline. Read more...

Lodha goes past DLF in terms of revenues for the first nine months of FY18

Mumbai-based Lodha Developers has overtaken DLF, the country’s largest real estate player by market capitalisation, in terms of revenues for the first nine months of the previous financial year.

Lodha Developers posted revenues of Rs 66 billion, against DLF’s Rs 53.29 billion for nine months ended December 2017.

In the same period of 2016-17, Lodha’s revenue was Rs 55.72 billion versus DLF’s Rs 59.96 billion. Lodha was closing the gap with DLF in the fourth quarter, with revenues of Rs 79.26 billion, against Rs 82.21 billion of DLF. Read more...

Fortis Healthcare stake sale: Munjal-Burman seek level playing field

Hero Enterprise has criticised the Fortis Healthcare board’s latest decision and has sought a level playing field for all the bidders.

The board will meet on May 10 to select an investor, and the deadline for submitting bids has been extended to May 1. Fortis also said TPG-backed Manipal Hospitals would have a chance to revise its offer till May 6, based on bids received on May 1. This is according to the ‘obligations’ towards the Manipal-TPG consortium, Fortis said. Read more...

Ex-showroom prices: Car firms making a switch to one nation-one price

Confused about different ex-showroom prices of a car in your city and another one? Well, that is soon going to become a thing of the past.

One nation-one price for cars is happening as mass segment players have started shifting to a single ex-showroom price for cars, more than three quarters after the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), which subsumed all local taxes.

Some luxury carmakers had shifted to a uniform all-India price last year, but now the change is visible among mass segment manufacturers. Read more...