New financial year, old story

Despite the changes in the department of disinvestment (DoD) and its rechristening to the department of investment and public asset management (Dipam), things haven't changed much. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) continues to play the white knight. According to sources, LIC bought about Rs 1,300 crore worth of shares in the Rs 2,700-crore NHPC offer-for-sale. The former's stake has now increased to about 8.7 per cent, from 3.4 per cent in the latter. This prompted Samir Arora, fund manager, Helios Capital, to tweet: "NHPC is now formally "PSU (public sector unit) squared": A PSU owned by another PSU."

Another foreign MF on exit route?

A foreign mutual fund house, which has a tie-up with a leading bank, seems to be planning its exit soon. Sectoral sources say it has asked all its marketing people not to collect any money from banks and companies for its liquid funds. This would bring down its assets by about 50 per cent and the fund house will be valued only for its equity corpus. The fund house hasn't made much headway since its launch. Sources say it has also given pink slips to some of its employees.

Parag Milk commands a premium

Shares of dairy company Parag Milk, which is coming out with an issue next week, are changing hands at 15-18 per cent premium in the grey market. Recent initial public offerings (IPOs) Thyrocare and Ujjivan are trading at 50 per cent and 25 per cent premium, respectively. However, not all analysts are enthused by the Parag IPO. "The dairy firm is unlikely to get FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods)-like valuations, as Parag's margins and return ratios are lower as compared to FMCG firms," said an analyst.