Page 43 - Icra

New project announcements shrink 33% to Rs 2.8 trn in Q4 of FY18

Value of revived projects, too, was tepid at Rs 0.2 trillion in Q4 of FY18, down from Rs 0.9 trillion in the corresponding period of FY17

The macroeconomic scene has deteriorated, says Naresh Takkar, MD ICRA

Private sector banks have the capital, but they are going to be extremely selective in funding capital expenditure and large projects

CV, LAP, MSME loan collections remain strong at 95-99% in Jul-Aug: Icra

Despite concerns over the implementation of GST, the monthly collection ratios of loan remained strong

Cement demand growth expected to be around 3.5-4% in FY18, says Icra

ICRA expects the cement demand to rebound from the October-December quarter

Private banks' share in credit to reach 40% by 2020, says Icra

Private banks have been taking the space vacated by capital-short public sector banks (PSBs) in the credit market. Private banks' share in banking sector advances will reach 38-40 per cent by March 2020, from 27.5 per cent in March 2017, according to rating agency ICRA.Indian banking is going through a transition, with private and public sector banks (PSBs) facing different challenges. The latter are plagued with asset quality issues, leading to higher credit costs and losses, ICRA said. As a result, capital-short PSBs have been constraining their lending. Their tier-I capital was 9.7 per cent of risk-weighted assets as on end-June, as against the 9.5 per cent required by regulations by end-March, 2019. PSB advances grew less than one per cent over a year before during the June quarter (Q1) this financial year. In contrast, private banks' tier-I capital was 14.1 per cent as on end-June, well capitalised to capture the lending opportunities ceded by PSBs. Their year-on-year growth in .

Life insurers new business to grow 15-18%: Icra

General insurance industry expected to grow at 20% in FY18

Soft crude prices to keep outlook for Indian upstream sector negative: Icra

OPEC had agreed to cut total crude oil production of its member countries by 1.2 mn a day

Supreme Court order on RECs to give relief to RE players, says Icra

SC further directed REC procurers to deposit the difference between earlier price and revised price

BS-IV, GST led to fall in Q1 commercial vehicle sales, says Icra

M&HCV (truck) and bus sales collapsed by 33% and 23%, respectively during the quarter, says Icra

More trouble for IDBI Bank, as Icra downgrades its debt instruments

The agency has also kept the lender's ratings under watch with negative implications

Masala bond issuance on the rise: Icra

In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal, 39 per cent of overseas fund of $7.39 billion was through rupee denominated bonds, or masala bonds. Since these bonds are raised in rupee, the issuer of the bonds won't have to bear any exchange rate risk and therefore the country as a whole gets into safer zone as far as its overseas commitments are concerned. "The trend of increasing RBD issuance is hence positive for such borrowers, not only from the risk aspect but also from the pricing perspective. This opening up of an alternative borrowing channel and diversity in investor base is positive for Indian companies," said Karthik Srinivasan, group head-financial sector ratings, ICRA Ltd in a note. According to ICRA, some of the recent masala bond issuances have been priced at all-in-cost levels comparable to similar tenor bonds issued by these companies in domestic markets. "Given the attractiveness of RDBs, the growth in such issuances is expected to dampen issuances of foreign currency ...

Surge in FPI inflows into debt unlikely to sustain: Icra

Geopolitical tension and sharp rise in rupee will temper attractiveness of debt, says Icra

Icra reports surge in banks' NPA slippage

Bank loans worth Rs 22,000 crore which were recast under Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) in 2015-16 had slipped into the non-performing asset (NPA) category during the final quarter ended March of 2016-17, according to rating agency ICRA.On a failure in SDR loans, banks have to start making provisions for these on the balance sheet, at a time when revenue growth has been tepid or stagnant and credit costs are going up.SDR rules give lenders an 18-month window for bringing strategic investors for a troubled loan. In this period, the loans are treated as standard assets. It saves banks from having to make provisions for such loans.The bill for NPA provisions might expand substantially -- slippages from SDR accounts are estimated to have more than doubled to Rs 49,500 crore in the April-June 2017 period, according to ICRA. In its sample set, 61 large borrowers having total debt of Rs 245,000 crore are currently undergoing a resolution through the SDR scheme. As on December 31, 2016, .

Infra push to see cement demand improve to 5% in FY'18: Icra

An expected revival in the infra space may help the cement demand to grow to around 4 to 5 per cent in the next fiscal, according to rating agency ICRA. The agency said that FY2016-17 would be a flat year for the sector as demonetisation had a negative impact on real estate and construction activities and the situation is likely to normalise from the first quarter of FY 2017-18 onwards. ICRA is expecting an uptick in demand from road and irrigation projects and the housing segment next fiscal, which would support the cement prices going forward. Meanwhile, it also added that rising costs as transportation is likely to put pressure on the profitability for the next few quarters. "ICRA expects cement demand growth to recover to around 4-5 per cent during FY2018, driven by a pick-up in the infrastructure segment," ICRA Ratings Senior Vice President & Group Head Sabyasachi Majumdar said. The increased budgetary allocation for infrastructure sector, which includes roads, railways,

'Low tariffs in reverse auction signify cost effectiveness of wind energy'

The low tariffs in reverse auction for wind energy projects demonstrate the cost competitiveness of wind based energy generation against conventional energy sources as well as solar power. ICRA in its report said given that a reverse auction based bidding process leads to a cost competitive price discovery, which is favourable for state-owned distribution utilities, such bidding process is likely to encourage state-owned distribution utilities to award wind power projects through a bidding route, instead of a feed-in tariff, going forward. This in turn is likely to enable the distribution utilities (both in states with wind potential as well as in states with limited wind potential) to tie up the power purchase agreements (PPAs) with wind projects so as to honour their respective renewable purchase obligation (RPO) in a timely manner.ICRA was referring to the tariff of Rs 3.46 per unit discovered through reverse auction in the scheme by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) .

ICRA gains on share buyback plan

The stock surged nearly 9% to Rs 4,448 on the BSE in early morning trade

ICRA upgrades long term rating on Patanjali Ayurved

The outlook on the long-term rating is Stable, said ICRA

ICRA launches new credit rating system for infrastructure

The new rating framework will be a comment on the expected loss of a project entity

Lending rates cut leads to balance transfers in home loan market: ICRA

SBI reduced the lending rates for home loans by 50 bps to 8.6% for floating rate loans

Indian pharma industry facing growth headwinds: Icra

Growth from US came down to less than 9% in first half of 2016-17 despite consolidation and currency benefits