- Hindustan Unilever (HUL) Q2 earnings beat estimates. HUL profit rises by 8.7% to Rs. 2,009 crore compared to Rs. 1,848 crore in the same period last year. Revenue from operations increased by 16.1% to Rs. 11,442 cr in Q2FY21 compared to Rs. 9,852 cr in the corresponding period last fiscal year. The operations and service levels of the company are now back to Pre- COVID levels and have accelerated the pace of digitizing operations under the ‘Re-imagine HUL’ agenda. The board has also declared an interim dividend of Rs 14 per share. The record date for the purpose of determining the entitlement for payment of the interim dividend is fixed as October 29, 2020. HUL has seen much better growth in the rural market than the urban market and they are cautiously optimistic about on-demand recovery.
- Reliance Jio & Qualcomm successfully test 5G solutions in India and achieve a speed of over 1 Gbps. This would support Jio’s 5G credentials and also signifies the entry of Jio and India into the Gigabit 5G NR product portfolio. With 5G technology, users will experience the benefits of higher data rates, low latency communications, and enhanced digital experiences across a wide array of connected devices, from 5G-enabled smartphones to enterprise laptops to AR/VR products to vertical IoT solutions. This would provide the ideal combination for local manufacturing and for accelerating the realization of Atma Nirbhar Bharat for an inclusive 5G nation.
- Axis Bank announced offering home loans at an interest rate of 6.90 percent as part of its festive season campaign. The rate is less than that of industry leader SBI’s 6.95 percent for women or rival Kotak Mahindra Bank’s 7 percent offering. Realty Sector credit growth is trailing below the 6 percent mark despite a flush of liquidity. The festive season campaign also includes giving car loans at 7.99 percent with up to 100 percent on-road funding, personal loans at 10.49 percent, and education loans at 10.50 percent.
- Global med-tech company Siemens Healthineers plans to invest Rs 1,300 crore over the next five years in an innovation hub in Bengaluru. This investment aims to make India a manufacturing center for the company’s emerging market products. They have already invested about Rs 2,500 crore in R&D in India. The innovation hub will be housed in a new campus that will combine R&D and manufacturing to make India a center of competence for the design and development of entry-level products. This investment would be the largest ever made in India by Siemens Healthineers. It will play a key role in taking our business to the next level by driving digitalization. It plans to hire an additional 1,800 skilled digital tech experts to expand its digital capabilities in the next 10 years.
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- Blackstone is in advance talks with Larsen and Toubro Ltd.’s financial subsidiary L&T Finance to completely buy out the mutual fund business of L&T Asset Management Company to expand financial services play in India. The deal, if it goes through, will mark the first buyout of an Indian AMC by a foreign non-mutual fund company. L&T AMC, with 39 MF schemes, has assets worth around ₹63,057 cr as of the September quarter. Blackstone has been aggressively pursuing opportunities in India’s BFSI space as a part of its larger strategy to gain from the growth prospects of lending businesses and investment culture among India’s large but underpenetrated population. Sebi had expressed its comfort with the proposal only in the second week of September. Blackstone had started the discussion in March. If the valuation is agreed upon by both L&T and Blackstone, the deal should get closed before 15 November 2020.
- Vedanta group firm Hindustan Zinc (HZL) reported a 6.7 percent drop in net profit to Rs 1,940 crore for the quarter ended on September 30, 2020, due to high expenses. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,081 crore in the year-ago period. However, the total income of the company increased to Rs 6,050 crore in the July-September period from Rs 5,101 crore in the year-ago period. Total expenses of the company during the quarter increased to Rs 3,428 crore from Rs 3,014 crore. The company’s mined metal production for the quarter was up 9 percent Q-o-Q to 2,38,000 tonnes on account of higher ore production. Mined metal production was driven by higher ore output resulting from better mining planning and effective targetting with the increased use of technology. The board of directors of the company has approved an interim dividend of Rs 21.30 per equity shares, i.e., Rs 1,065 percent on the face value of Rs 2 per share for the financial year 2020-21 amounting to Rs 9,000 crore.
- Rakesh Biyani, Kishore Biyani’s cousin and the MD of Future Retail, could very well pave the way for the Biyani family’s re-entry into the organized retail sector in India. Kishore Biyani and his family have a 15-year non-compete agreement with Reliance Industries as part of its deal to sell its wholesale and retail assets to Reliance Retail Ventures for around Rs 24,700 crore. Rakesh Biyani’s name has been omitted from the non-compete agreement. Rakesh Biyani runs a chain of ethnic wear stores under the brand name of Ethnicity, is the Future Group’s go-to man for fashion retail, and has held a variety of posts for retail bodies across the industry.
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