Page 45 - Companies

Vedanta looks to refinance $3.8 bn bonds maturing between 2024-2026

Billionaire Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Resources is looking to refinance USD 3.8 billion worth of bonds maturing between 2024 and 2026 with loans of extended maturities and manageable size, a company official said on Friday. The mining conglomerate has about USD 1 billion of bonds maturing in January next year, followed by a similar size coming up for payment in August 2024. Another USD 1.2 billion bonds are due in March 2025 and another USD 600 million in April 2026. "We are looking to put in place a refinancing package that will include deleveraging (some debt), extending maturities and manageable size," said Omar Davis, President Strategy at Vedanta Resources. He did not give details of the refinancing but expressed confidence in being able to achieve well before due maturities. "We want less big towers (size of loans) and longer maturity periods," he said. On Thursday, S&P Global Ratings revised the rating outlook on Vedanta Resources to negative from stable to "reflect the ...

Go First insolvency: NCLT directs RP to file details on recent developments

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday directed the resolution professional of cash-strapped grounded airlines Go First to submit details of the subsequent developments. A two-member bench of NCLT, comprising Mahendra Khandelwal and Rahul P Bhatnagar, directed the resolution professional (RP) to file an additional affidavit in the next 10 days, including the status of the maintenance of the leased aircraft. Moreover, the insolvency tribunal has also asked the RP to file the reply over the pleas filed by three new Go First lessors in two weeks and a rejoinder, if any, by them next week. It has directed to list the matter on September 1 for the next hearing. The three new lessors are - DAE (SY 22) 13 Ireland, EOS Aviation 12 Ireland and Accipiter Investments Aircraft 2 Ltd. Pleadings on the petitions filed by six other lessors have been completed. During the proceeding, Senior Advocate Ramji Srinivasan, representing the RP, informed the tribunal that Go First has approach

Biocon Biologics announces top leadership appointments including COO

Biocon Biologics Ltd on Friday announced key leadership appointments, including those of Rhonda Duffy as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Sandeep Athalye as Chief Development Officer. The company, a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd also announced the appointment of David Gibson as its Global Head - Business Development to lead all licensing, strategic partnering and business development activities. He joins the company from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Duffy will lead manufacturing, quality and supply chain management. She brings over 30 years of experience in the global pharmaceuticals industry, the company said in a statement. On the other hand, Athalye, who has been with Biocon Biologics for over six years as its Chief Medical Officer, has been elevated to Chief Development Officer to head CMC, clinical development and medical and regulatory affairs, it added. "These new additions to the leadership team bring rich, global experience which will help prepare the organisation for the future and

Welspun Corp reports Rs 168 crore net profit in April-June quarter

Welspun Corp on Friday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 168.45 crore in the June quarter, on the back of higher income. It had reported a Rs 95 lakh loss in the year-ago period, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company's total income in the first quarter of the current fiscal rose to Rs 4,118.78 crore from Rs 1,394.51 crore a year ago. Welspun Corp Ltd is one of the world's leading welded line pipe manufacturers and the flagship company of the Welspun Group.

SJVN signs agreement with Sikkim Urja for trading of 180 MW power

State-owned SJVN Ltd has signed a trade agreement with Sikkim Urja Ltd for supply of 180 megawatt (MW) hydro power. As part of the agreement, power will be supplied to distribution licensees and open access consumers, SJVN said in a statement on Thursday. "SJVN inks an MoU (memorandum of understanding) for power trading with Sikkim Urja Ltd (SUL). "As per terms of the MoU, SJVN shall receive 180 MW hydro power from SUL's 1,200 MW hydro electric project in Sikkim to distribution licensees and open access consumers," it said. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has already granted category-I licence for inter-state electricity trading to SJVN, its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Nand Lal Sharma said. "Our trading business is expanding and this MoU will act as a booster to the growth engine of SJVN and enable us to assist the central government in fulfilling its vision of 24x7 power to all," Sharma said. SJVN is a public sector undertaking involved in hydroelectric

Bhel loss widens to Rs 343 cr in June quarter due to higher expenses

State-run engineering firm Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) on Friday reported the widening of its consolidated net loss to Rs 343.89 crore in the April-June quarter compared to the year-ago period mainly due to higher expenses. The company had reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 187.99 crore in the quarter ended on June 30, 2022, a BSE filing showed. Total expenses of the company rose to Rs 5,595.47 crore in the quarter from Rs 5,006.50 crore in the same period a year ago. Total income of the company rose to Rs 5,117.20 crore in the quarter from Rs 4,742.28 crore in the same period a year ago.

Air India CEO meets antitrust chief on pending Vistara merger: Report

The Competition Commission of India has been scrutinising the planned merger of Air India, which Tata Group took over last year, with Vistara, a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines

Brookfield India REIT to raise Rs 400 crore via preferential issue

Brookfield India Real Estate Trust will garner Rs 400 crore by issuing units to sponsor group entity Project Diamond Holdings on preferential basis and also plans to raise up to Rs 750 crore through issue of commercial papers to finance acquisition of two commercial assets in Gurugram and Mumbai. In May, Brookfield India REIT and Singapore's GIC announced an equal partnership to acquire two commercial properties in India for USD 1.4 billion or Rs 11,225 crore. To fund this acquisition, Brookfield India Real Estate Trust had earlier this week raised Rs 2,305 crore by selling units to institutional investors on private placement basis. According to a regulatory filing on Friday, the board of Brookprop Management Services Pvt Ltd approved issuance of up to 1,26,96,800 units of Brookfield India REIT at a price of Rs 315.04 per unit to Project Diamond Holdings (DIFC) Ltd on a preferential basis for consideration other than cash. Brookprop Management Services Pvt Ltd is the manager to ..

Alembic Pharma Q1 consolidated profit rose to $14.6 mn on strong sales

Indian drugmaker Alembic Pharmaceuticals posted first-quarter profit on Friday, boosted by strong sales in its domestic and US markets

DLF's net debt falls 92% to record low Rs 57 cr at end of June quarter

Realty firm DLF's net debt has come down by 92 per cent to Rs 57 crore -- the lowest level -- at the end of the first quarter of this fiscal on better cash flow driven by strong housing sales. According to an investors' presentation, DLF's net debt stood at Rs 57 crore as on June 30, 2023 as compare to Rs 721 crore at the end of 2022-23 fiscal. During the period under review, the company's gross debt also fell to Rs 3,068 crore from Rs 3,840 crore. "We continue to focus on strengthening our balance sheet and cash generation. Strong collections led to a further reduction in net debt during the quarter. Consequently, our net debt now stands reduced to the lowest ever at Rs 57 crore," DLF's Group Chief Financial Officer Vivek Anand told investors. As per the transcript of the investors' call, Anand said, "With these low levels of debt, we have almost achieved our commitment of being net zero and hopefully should end the year with a surplus cash position." Recently, DLF reported a 12 p

JK Tyre & Industries profit rises over 4-fold to Rs 159 cr in June quarter

JK Tyre & Industries on Friday reported an over four-fold rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 158.59 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2023. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 35.13 crore for the same period of the last fiscal, JK Tyre & Industries said in a regulatory filing. Revenue from operations was at Rs 3,718.08 crore as compared to Rs 3,643.03 crore in the year-ago quarter, it added. Total expenses were lower at Rs 3,489.01 crore as against Rs 3,557.97 crore in the same period a year ago. "The financial year 2024 has started on a positive note, in terms of better profitability as a result of our continued focus on premiumisation of the product mix, indeed aided by stable input costs," JK Tyre & Industries Chairman and Managing Director Raghupati Singhania said. He further said, "We are witnessing buoyancy in demand in the replacement and OEM segments across product categories, driven by a healthy macro-economic environment. Export ...

Applied Materials to bring its global suppliers to set operations in India

India is a key market for US-based Applied Materials where the firm plans to invest $400 million over coming years in a new engineering centre in the tech hub of Bengaluru

Meta's AudioCraft will allow users to generate music from text

AudrioCraft is a new generative AI tool unveiled by Meta that can generate audio and music from text prompts

India may restrict e-commerce websites from selling private labels

The move is expected to have a significant impact on companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance and Tata, which have a large number of private labels

Fintech firm Paytm's average monthly users increase by 19% to 9.3 crore

Fintech company Paytm on Thursday said its average monthly users rose by 19 per cent on-year to 9.3 crore. Merchant subscriptions stood at 82 lakhs, with 41 lakh new subscriptions over the year, according to the filing. Sequentially, the company saw merchant subscriptions increase by about 4 lakh in July 2023, Paytm said in a filing. Payment volumes for merchants or Gross Merchandise Values (GMV) rose 39 per cent on-year at Rs 1.47 lakh crore. "We continue to see increase in GMV of non-UPI instruments like EMI and cards. We are focused on payment volumes that generate profitability for us, either through net payments margin or from direct upsell potential," the company said. The fintech platform said it doled out 43 lakh loans in the month of July, making the total value of loans distributed in the month to Rs 5194 crore, at a whopping yearly growth of 148 per cent. The company will discontinue monthly disclosures of operating metrics starting September 2023, since their business

Torrent enters e-mobility infra space; sets 4 charging stations in Gujarat

Torrent Power on Thursday said it has forayed into the electric mobility infrastructure segment with four charging stations in Gujarat. The first set of charging stations have been installed in Ahmedabad, Torrent Power said in a statement on Thursday. "Torrent Power has forayed into the electric mobility infrastructure sector. Initially a set of four EV (electric vehicle) charging stations have been set up in Ahmedabad, while two more will be launched in Surat soon," it said. More cities will be added to the list in the near future, the company said. Torrent Power Director Varun Mehta said the company is working towards an affordable EV charging network on a wide scale. The company has collaborated with Siemens for developing the EV charging network.

Dunzo seller app joins ONDC; aims to onboard 20,000 merchants in 45 days

Quick commerce and logistics app Dunzo's seller arm has joined the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and is looking to onboard over 20,000 merchants across verticals in the next 45 days, the company said on Thursday. The seller app, which joined the ONDC less than two weeks ago, is already witnessing high volumes, according to a senior executive. In addition to being a logistics partner on the network, the seller app will onboard 1,500 local merchants in the next one week. It is targeting to have 20,000 local merchants across food, grocery, pharma among other sectors in the next 45 days. Dunzo Co-Founder Dalvir Suri said since the onboarding on the ONDC, there has been a three-time increase in the number of daily orders for merchants. "It's been less than two weeks since we've been live on the network, and have already hit peak order volumes of more than 3,000 a day for groceries and other essential items through our local merchants," he said. Dunzo had joined the ONDC abo

Radico Khaitan's profit rises by 10% to Rs 68 crore in Apr-June quarter

Liquor maker Radico Khaitan on Thursday reported a 10.11 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 68.26 crore for the June quarter, aided by premiumisation and easing raw material prices. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 61.99 crore in the April-June period a year ago, Radico Khaitan said in a BSE filing. Its revenue from operations rose 26.36 per cent to Rs 4,023.31 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal as against Rs 3,183.80 crore in the year-ago period. During the quarter, "total IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor) volume was 7.36 million cases, up 7.9 per cent", said an earning statement from Radico Khaitan. Radico Khaitan's total expenses were up 26.66 per cent to Rs 3,940.41 crore during the quarter. The total revenue of Radico Khaitan, which owns brands like Jaisalmer, Magic Moments, Morpheus Brandy and Rampur Indian Single Malt, was at Rs 4,024.43 crore, up 26.23 per cent versus a year ago. Radico Khaitan Managing Director Abhi

Karnataka Bank announces net profit of Rs 370.70 crore for June quarter

Karnataka Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 370.70 crore during the first quarter of the current financial year as against Rs 114.18 crore recorded during the corresponding quarter of the previous year, with a year-on-year (YoY) growth rate of 224.66 per cent. A meeting of the board of directors of the bank held here on Thursday approved the financial results for the quarter that ended June 30, 2023, a press release here said citing the figures. The operating profit of the bank stood at Rs 601.17 crore and net interest income stood at Rs 814.68 crore during the quarter ended June 30. The business turnover of the bank was at Rs 1,48,449.27 crore as on June 30, 2023, compared to Rs 1,38,936.17 crore in the previous year, registering a YoY growth of 6.85 per cent. The deposits of the bank stood at Rs 86,959.86 crore with a YoY growth of 7.92 per cent and advances at Rs 61,489.41 crore with a YoY growth of 5.36 per cent. The gross NPAs declined to 3.68 per cent, compared to 4.03 per c

Go First can't fly lessors' aircraft as of now, rules Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court Thursday said scheduled maintenance cannot be understood to include flying of aircraft and restrained crisis-hit Go First airline to continue with maintenance flights. The high court said the resolution professional (RP) appointed under the insolvency law to manage the airline has not been able to show any urgency or any grave imminent threat to the aircraft compelling the RP to fly them suddenly and without any prior notice. Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju, who had on July 28 directed that status quo be maintained in respect of handling/non-revenue flights of the petitioner lessors' aircraft till August 3, extended the interim order till further orders. The high court termed as misconceived the contention of the RP that 2 of the 10 aircraft have been flown by Go Airlines as these were handling flights forming part of the scheduled maintenance activity for an aircraft. The respondent no.9/ RP of Go Airlines has also not been able to show any urgency or any grave ...