Abhishek Securities

MTS India / Shyam Sistema Telecom (SSTL) reported revenue of Rs 3.2bn, growth of 6.4% QoQ on the back of 6.8% traffic growth and 8.9% data revenue growth . After the cleanup of inactive subscribers, subscriber base contracted by 8% to 9.04mn while MOUs grew by 11% QoQ. Despite low base, SSTL traffic growth is equal to the incumbent’s growth of 5-8%. ARPU grew by 10.3%, which could be partly attributed to the inactive subscriber cleanup. Voice RPM continues to languish at a 40% discount to incumbents at INR 0.20, dropping 1.6% QoQ Sandip Ginodia , Director ABHISHEK SECURITIES We deal in over 60 unlisted companies with 15 years of experience . For latest prices visit :  www.abhisheksecurities.com/unlisted.htm  / call : 09830271248 . Email :  ginodiasandip1@gmail.com

The Mid-East Integrated Steel Ltd (MISL), the first steel project in the private sector at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur years before the place was hailed as the steel hub of Odisha, is readying to shut shop. With the State Government not taking up renewal of Roida-I iron ore mines, the steel plant has run out of raw material and is facing imminent closure. Roida-I mines was leased in favour of MISL and happens to be the only source of iron ore for the project. The MISL was operating it under the deemed extension mode during the second renewal period. However, the mine was closed down, along with 25 others, from May 15 following an order from the Supreme Court. While eight of the mines which were closed down following the apex court’s directive have resumed operations after express orders were passed for renewal of their lease by the Government, the same has not been done for Roida-I, leaving MISL’s fate uncertain. Interestingly, the Indian Bureau of Mines, Nagpur has already...

Equity investment from UK DFI will support expansion strategy and take agribusiness, financial inclusion and SME lending activities to underserved states - CDC Group plc (‘CDC’), the UK’s development finance institution, has announced a US$28m equity investment in Ratnakar Bank (‘RBL Bank’) in India. The investment, which sees CDC take a 4.8% stake in the bank, will support RBL Bank’s expansion into new regions of India and is CDC’s first direct equity investment into a bank in India under its new strategy. Founded in 1943, RBL Bank was traditionally concentrated in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa. In 2010, however, a new management team was brought in to pursue an expansion strategy focusing on financial inclusion, agribusiness financing and lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as increasing the bank’s geographic footprint. Today the bank has a total business size of over US$3.5bn and offers its services to over 500,000 customers. CDC’s investment will ...

Odisha -based Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd is planning to treble its capacity to 3.5 million tonnes in the state with an investment of about Rs 8,000 crore, a top company official said.  The company, also known as Mesco Steel, has a hot metal production capacity of about 1.2 MT, through which it makes pig iron.  "3.5 MT capacity includes existing 1.2 MT capacity. It will take 3-4 years, we will go step by step. We already have land. We are moving for environment clearance and have submitted all the papers," Mesco's chairperson and managing director Rita Singh said on the sidelines of an  Assocham  event.  She said the company will expand its capacity in two phases and the company has secured approvals for the first phase, which will increase the capacity to 2.25 MT.  "That will require about Rs 7,000-8,000 crore (investment). That will be funded through debt for machinery and some other debt to be raised. So we can go to 2.25 MT first and then to 3.5 MT," ...

Reuters reported that Essar Oil, a key Indian buyer of Iranian crude, imported about 13.8% less oil from the OPEC member in February compared with the previous month. Essar's overall shipments from Tehran in the first 11 months of the contract year beginning April 1st 2013 totalled 94,100 barrels per day, marginally lower than the year earlier. India, Iran's top client after China, imported about 36% less oil from Tehran in February than in January because of efforts to meet US requests to restrict purchases from Tehran to 195,000 barrels per day in the 6 months to July 20. Government sources said earlier this week that billionaire Ruias promoted Essar Group, which also operates steel plants in Canada and the United States, could lift 30% more Iranian oil than the contracted volumes of 80,000 barrel per day for this fiscal year. Sandip Ginodia , Director ABHISHEK SECURITIES We deal in over 60 unlisted companies with 15 years of experience . For latest prices visit :  ...

Otis  Elevator Co., the manufacturer and service provider of elevators, escalators and moving walkways, regained its No. 1 position in the sector in India last year. A unit of  United Technologies Corp.  of the US, it had lost its No. 1 position to Johnson Lifts, a Chennai-based company, six years ago. Going down In India, Otis’s legacy began with the installation of the nation’s first elevator at Kolkata’s Raj Bhavan in 1892, which is still running in its original birdcage form. Ever since Otis India’s inception in 1953, the company has enjoyed a high market share and top-of-mind brand awareness. However, as competition (both local and global companies) entered the market, with faster deliveries and cheaper products, Otis India started losing its market share. In 2008, the company lost its No. 1 position. One of the reasons for slower response at Otis India was that operations were centralized and, therefore, a lot of activities went under the scanner of the head o...

State-owned MSTC Ltd was hopeful of recovering Rs 600 crore unrealised from overseas buyers for gold jewellery sales in 2008-09.  "We are making progress on the recovery process. We are winning some of the cases and most of the verdicts are in our favour," MSTC Chairman and Managing Director S K Tripathi said here today.  Speaking on the sidelines of a session of the  Bharat  Chamber of Commerce he said that though the legal process was time consuming recovery was expected to take place.  A parliamentary committee in its report had said that MSTC sold Rs 638 crore in gold jewellery to 47 foreign buyers through six  Mumbai -based sellers in 2008-09.  Of this, Rs 599 crore remained outstanding from 46 foreign buyers in  UAE , Kuwait and  Singapore  who had cited economic slowdown as a cause of failure to repay, the panel noted. Sandip Ginodia , Director ABHISHEK SECURITIES We deal in over 60 unlisted companies with 15 years of expe...

Tuticorin-based lender Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) is following up on the rebranding initiatives it had embarked on some two years ago. The bank, conventionally known as a small traders’ bank, continues to focus on retail lending while targeting new-generation customers. It is awaiting court clearances to hit the IPO market. KB Nagendra Murthy, managing director & chief executive officer of the bank, tells Sajan C Kumar that TMB wants to grow profitably. Excerpts: What has been the impact of the new rebranding initiative? We are continuing to upgrade our technology platform and trying to implement paperless transactions as far as possible. By March 2014, we want to have 1,000 business centres — branches and ATMs. Today, we have 962 business centres, which include 362 branches and 600-plus ATMs. We are focusing on the retail segment and are reasonably doing well. We have already hit our target for agricultural advances, which is 21% of the total portfolio. What are the pl...

In a bid to dispose of its iron ore stockpile, the Goa Government has decided to engage State-owned metal scrap trading firm MSTC Ltd for the e-auction of 3.9 million tonnes (mt) unaccounted and confiscated iron ore. This would be the first sale of iron ore in Goa since October 2012 after the State Government and the Supreme Court banned mining and the sale of the mineral. Formal communication MSTC Chairman and Managing Director SK Tripathi confirmed to  Business Line  on Friday that the State Government formally conveyed the decision to the company last week. ‘Illegally extracted’ ore The State Government confiscated 3.9 mt of unclaimed or unrecorded ore stock at different places in the past few months and placed the details before the court, said sources. This “illegally extracted” iron ore quantity would be put up for e-auction first. The apex court in October last year had also allowed e-auction of 11.48 mt of ore inventories with clear ownership. This auct...

The Mideast Integrated Steels Ltd (MISL) has planned to raise external commercial borrowing to the tune of $ 500 million to fund the brown-field expansion of the steel plant. The borrowing process will start in next financial year for raising the plant’s capacity from 1.2 MTPA to 3.5 MTPA in two phases, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the company Rita Singh said here on Friday. The company is hopeful of good rating by the credit rating agency which would enable it to raise this kind of funding, Singh said adding that MISL enjoys debt free status from banking and financial institutions. The construction will start the moment environmental clearance for the expansion is granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The State Government has already recommended for grant of environment clearance after completion of public hearing at Kalinga Nagar. The flagship company of Mesco Steel Group has also identified some steel companies in Odisha as acquisition targets, Singh said....

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB), which has been declaring a high level of dividends to its shareholders, has not paid dividend  to the tune of Rs 70 crore to its shareholders, as four annual general meetings (AGM) of the bank were not held due to legal disputes between the shareholders. Shareholders from the bank said since AGMs for 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 were not held, the bank did not pay dividend to the tune of Rs 70 crore to them. The AGMs were not held since shareholders, including foreign institutional investors (FIIs), are fighting over voting rights at various courts. The latest development is that FII holdings to the tune of 32 per cent had been frozen by the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court and recently, one of the shareholders filed a petition at the Madras High Court related to the tenure of additional directors in the bank. Sandip Ginodia , Director ABHISHEK SECURITIES We deal in over 60 unlisted companies with 15 years of experience . For...

The Indian Express reported that at a time when the country is leaving no stones unturned to boost exports and bring down current account deficit, Essar Steel is unable to execute a USD 6 billion steel products export deal as the domestic general insurers are reluctant to provide cover to the deal. Such a cover is necessary for the deal to ensure that if overseas buyers fail to pay the export proceeds, the banks which will be funding the deal can recover the amount from insurance companies. Without such a cover, banks and financial institutions will be hesitant to take up financing big export deals. According to industry sources, Essar had approached state-owned Export Credit Guarantee Corporation which has a monopoly in providing such covers but the latter responded with reluctance. A senior ECGC official said that “We were not comfortable with the idea taking up such a big export deal. If we take such a huge cover, it will exceed our exposure norms.” For export credit insurance for ...

New Indian Express reported that the Mideast Integrated Steels Limited has planned to raise external commercial borrowing to the tune of USD 500 million to fund the brown field expansion of the steel plant. Ms Rita Singh CMD of the company said that “The borrowing process will start in next financial year for raising the plant’s capacity from 1.2 million tonne per annum to 3.5 million tonne per annum in 2 phases.” She said that “The company is hopeful of good rating by the credit rating agency which would enable it to raise this kind of funding, MISL enjoys debt free status from banking and financial institutions. The construction will start the moment environmental clearance for the expansion is granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The State Government has already recommended for grant of environment clearance after completion of public hearing at Kalinga Nagar.” Ms Singh said that “The flagship company of Mesco Steel Group has also identified some steel companies in O...

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank has started the process of finding a new Managing Director and Chief Executive in view of the incumbent K.B. Nagendramurthy’s approaching retirement in June. Nagendramurthy, who took over the reins in July 2012, told  Business Line  he is not keen on seeking an extension.His predecessor A.K. Jagannathan demitted office in May 2012, before completing the two-year term, citing health reasons.

Tata Sons has shortlisted candidates for the group chief finance officer (CFO)’s position. The board has been without a finance director in the executive role after Ishaat Hussain became a non-executive director in September at the age of 65. “The shortlisted candidates are not from the group but from outside,” said a source. “The new chief finance officer will have broader responsibility to oversee the group’s mergers and acquisitions,” the person. Earlier, Arunkumar Gandhi was the chief deal maker for the group. He retired last year. “These matters are internal to the company. As and when we have an announcement to make, we will inform you,” said a Tata Group spokesperson.

Even as there is talk of UK telecom giant Vodafone buying out Tata Teleservices (TTSL), the Tata group's holding company Tata Sons  pumped close to Rs 2,400 crore  into it last week by way of convertible preference shares.  The move is aimed at infusing liquidity into the telecom arm, whose capital has been completely eroded.  Tata Teleservices has an equity capital of Rs 4,712 crore as  against accumulated losses  of Rs 6,575 crore for the year ending March 2013. In fiscal year 2012/13, the company reported a turnover of Rs 10,859 crore with a net loss of Rs 4,858 crore.  Banking sources say the additional capital from the promoters was necessary to get any further debt funding from the banks.  But the additional funding from majority shareholder Tata Sons which  holds 36.17 per cent in TTSL, has come with a rider. "The conversion of preference capital into equity will take place before the 24 month maturity period if there is a merger of T...

CRISIL Ratings has assigned a stable outlook to Tata Sons' Rs 630-crore non-convertible debenture (NCD) issue, said the media report. It also maintained the 'outstanding' rating on the company's debt programmes and bank facilities at 'CRISIL AAA/FAAA/Stable/CRISIL A1+.' The stable outlook for the NCDs reflected Tata Sons' financial flexibility as the principal holding company of the Tata group, the agency said in a release. "CRISIL believes Tata Sons' business risk profile will be increasingly dependent on the success of its investments, which carry risks associated with implementation and integration," it said. The rating agency may revise its outlook to 'negative' if Tata Sons' financial flexibility is adversely affected, especially in case of larger-than-expected investments, added the media report. Sandip Ginodia , Director ABHISHEK SECURITIES We deal in over 60 unlisted companies with 15 years of experience . For la...

 A government official has been sentenced to five years in jail by a Delhi court for accepting a bribe of Rs two lakhs from a scrap metal firm to favour it in allotment of lots during e-auction of metal waste.  Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Jain awarded the jail term to 57-year-old Samir Kumar Ghosh, who was Senior Manager with MSTC Limited here, after holding him guilty under the various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.  Sandip Ginodia , Director ABHISHEK SECURITIES We deal in over 60 unlisted companies with 15 years of experience . For latest prices visit :  www.abhisheksecurities.com/unlisted.htm  / call : 09830271248 . Email :  ginodiasandip1@gmail.com