Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Recovery gathers momentum as RIL firms up

The market extended its recovery in early afternoon trade. Banks, IT and auto shares were in demand. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) firmed up.

At 12:18 IST the Sensex was up 117 points, at 14,308. It rose as many as 136.47 points, to a high of 14,327.17 at 12:13 IST, surpassing an earlier intra-day high of 14,273.38 struck at 10:45 IST. In early trade, the 30-shares BSE Sensex had tumbled as many as 177.24 points, to a low of 14,013.46.

The market-breadth was strong. Against 1,547 shares rising on BSE, 871 declined. Just 50 scrips were unchanged. Gainers outpaced losers by a ratio of 1.77:1.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 2144 crore.Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.5% to Rs 1376. RIL has a huge 11.3% weightage in the Sensex.

Gravity grips Orchid Chemicals
Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals plunged 7.53% to Rs 248, despite success in raising funds overseas.The counter clocked 2.14 lakh shares on BSE. The stock had slipped to a low of Rs 242, in intra-day trade.

It may be recalled that a lot of shares have declined after fund raising either through FCCBs, GDRs or any other route. The stock had run-up sharply ahead of its placement. From Rs 207.85 on 19 January, it surged to Rs 268.20 by 12 February 2007 as buying continued.

Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals today informed that following approval by shareholders for raising funds overseas, the company had placed a zero coupon foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) offering of $175 million, with a greenshoe option of $25 million, aggregating to $200 million. The bonds are convertible at an initial conversion price of Rs 348.34 and have a maturity period of five years.

Merrill Lynch International acted as the sole bookrunner to the issue.

Recently, Orchid Chemicals’ betalactam unit in Maharashtra received regulatory approval from the UK. The approval for this plant, from UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, will help Orchid market its betalactam product, Piperacillin-Tazobactam, across Europe.

Orchid Chemicals reported an 11% fall in consolidated net profit in the December 2006 quarter to Rs 24.66 crore (Rs 27.58 crore). Net sales for the quarter declined 3% to Rs 248.45 crore (Rs 256.09 crore).

Orchid, the largest manufacturer-exporter of cephalosporins in India, is also amongst the top five producers globally. It has two subsidiaries, Orchid Research Laboratories in Chennai and Bexel Pharmaceuticals in the US, to undertake drug discovery. The company is also developing new chemical entities in six therapeutic areas.

In late October 2006, Orchid Chemicals signed a contract with Swedish biopharma company, Biovitrum, to support its drug discovery activities.

Federal Bank rallies on board's nod to 1:1 rights issue
Private sector Federal Bank surged 5.17% to Rs 250.30, after the bank's board approved a 1:1 rights issue.As many as 70,412 shares were traded on the BSE.The scrip, after surging since mid-December 2006, started slipping in early-February 2007. From Rs 194.85 on 12 December 2006, the Federal Bank scrip appreciated to Rs 265.20 by 6 February 2007, only to drop to Rs 238 by 12 February 2007.

At the current market price of Rs 250.30, Federal Bank trades at 6.38 times its Q3 December 2006 annualized EPS of Rs 39.20.

Federal Bank has posted a net profit growth of 17% to Rs 83.84 crore (Rs 71.64 crore) in Q3 December 2006. Total income for the quarter rose 18% to Rs 232.82 crore from Rs 197.84 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The non performing assets (NPA) of Federal Bank stood at 0.58% during the quarter ended 31 December 2006, down from 1.41% reported last year.

In January 2007, Federal Bank signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) to increase credit to small and medium enterprises (SME) in Kerala. This alliance will focus on extending assistance to six industrial clusters, namely, rice milling, plastic industries, wooden furniture, coir industry, seafood industry and cashew processing.

Under the joint alliance, both banks will jointly identify projects and take up co-financing or exclusive financing of term loans by Sidbi, with Federal Bank dealing exclusively with working capital. The two banks will also focus on joint initiatives in the areas of micro-credit and cluster development.

Sidbi, which has lent Rs 668 crore to SMEs in Kerala, hopes to combine its expertise and the reach of Federal Bank to improve credit flow. Sidbi has so far entered into MoUs with 14 banks in the country.

Federal Bank is planning to increase the credit to SMEs from Rs 5,000 crore to 10,000 crore in three years. About 40% of the total credit of Federal Bank is earmarked for the SME sector. The bank has even carved out a new SME and agricultural credit department to give increased thrust to these sectors.

As a run up to the proposed liberalisation of ownership of nationalized banks by 2009, Australia's Macquarie Bank, promoted by Equinos Partners LP and Kuroto Fund LP, are slowly increasing their combined stake in Federal Bank to a tad lesser than 9% (8.87%), making the duo the single largest shareholders in the Kerala-based bank. Macquarie Bank cannot cross the threshold 10% mark, as it will then have to abide by the Sebi takeover code and make an open offer to the shareholders of Federal Bank.

The Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Equity Fund had also entered the fray by picking up 2% stake in Federal Bank.

Federal Bank, in association with IDBI and international finance service provider Fortis, is set to launch a life insurance company, IDBI Fortis Life Insurance. The agreement was signed between the three parties in July 2006.

IDBI is slated to hold 48% equity in the venture, while Fortis and Federal Bank will hold 26% each. The project, which was slated to become operational by February 2007, could be delayed since IDBI is still awaiting final clearance from the government. On its part, Federal Bank is slated to provide Rs 190 crore over the next seven years as equity capital for the project.

IDBI Bank's 48% holding in the insurance company has stalled the joint venture plans. According to the Banking Regulations Act, banks are permitted a maximum of 30% holding in an insurance venture. IDBI has notified this to the Parliament in December 2006, and asked for permission to go ahead with the present holding pattern. A call on this is expected during the budget session of Parliament in February 2007.

The Kochi-based private sector bank, Federal Bank, has a significant presence in Kerala. Till 1972, in fact, the bank’s presence was only confined to Kerala, after which it spread to all metropolitan centres of India. Federal Bank has a huge non-resident Indian (NRI) client base of over 4.5 lakh. A recent attempt to amalgamate Federal Bank and Lord Krishna Bank failed after the two did not agree on the valuation.

Acquisition agenda spurs Autoline Industries
Auto ancillaries maker Autoline Industries jumped 5.62% to Rs 405.10, on convening a board meeting on 21 February to consider buying 49% stake in a subsidiary.The subsidiary on the company's radar is Autoline Dimensions Software.

The board will also consider a proposal to acquire a domestic/foreign company on the same day along with a proposal to issue share warrants to promoters, directors and other eligible entities for not less than Rs 400 per warrant.

The stock of Autoline Industries rose on a volume of 14.06 lakh shares on BSE. It has been extremely volatile today, moving in a range of Rs 365 - Rs 409.90.

The scrip of Autoline Industries rallied sharply ever since its listing on the bourses. From Rs 257.95 on 31 January, the stock had surged to Rs 430.45 by 7 February. Here, it witnessed profit-booking and slipped to Rs 383.55 by 12 February 2007.

On 6 February 2007, Autoline Industries made a modest debut at Rs 261.15 on BSE on 31 January 2007, compared to the IPO price of Rs 225. It settled at Rs 257.95 on the first day.

Autoline’s IPO was subscribed 17.36 times. The company had priced the IPO at the upper end of the Rs 200 - Rs 225 price band. Qualified institutional bidders (QIBs) applied for 3,04,93,900 shares compared to 18.75 lakh reserved for this segment. Among QIBs, FIIs applied for 1,74,31,425 shares, while domestic financial institutions bid for 90,28,550 and mutual funds for 40,29,775 equity shares.

Autoline Industries supplies complex sheet metal assemblies and sub-assemblies to Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Kinetic Engineering, Mahindra & Mahindra, Walker Exhaust and Fiat India. Tata Motors, which buys components for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, is Autoline's largest customer accounting for about 85% of revenues in FY 2006 (year ended 31 March 2006).

From a turnover of Rs 51 crore in FY-2004, Autoline's revenues scaled up to Rs 118 crore for the eight months of the ongoing fiscal. The sharp acceleration in top line also coincides with the success enjoyed by Tata Motors' Ace minitruck, for which Autoline is the single-source supplier of load bodies.

Funds raised through the IPO will be used to upgrade and expand Autoline's Chakan facility in Pune; set up another manufacturing facility at the same location; relocate and consolidate a couple of smaller units; establish a corporate office; fund acquisitions, and provide long-term working-capital resources.

Autoline has tried to diversify operations. The company is expanding the capabilities of its design-engineering unit for offshore development and manufacturing (ODM) services for foreign companies. Autoline registered a net profit of Rs 7.48 crore on sales of Rs 118.28 crore during April-November 2006.

The post-issue equity capital of the company is Rs 10.36 crore.

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1 Comments:

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9:43 AM  

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