Sri City in Andhra Pradesh is dubbed the "Cooling City" of India, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the air conditioners (ACs) manufactured in the country. On Tuesday, this industrial hub added one more feather to its cooling credentials. Carrier Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Ltd, the Indian arm of the oldest AC company in the world, Carrier Global, signed a deal to invest around ~1,000 crore for a new manufacturing unit at Sri City.
Thermax reported 13 per cent Y-o-Y revenue growth with operating profit margin decline in Q1FY25. It took a hit of Rs 70 crore on specific projects. The company enjoys a strong order pipeline across sectors like power, steel, refining and petrochemicals.
Global energy giant Shell has acquired Mumbai-based Raj Petro Specialities to deepen its foothold in the world's third biggest lubricants market in the world, a top company official said. Shell, which has already invested over $5 billion in India across the energy value chain -- from LNG import terminals and fuel stations to renewable energy and technology centres -- has acquired 100 per cent equity interest in Raj Petro Specialities Pvt Ltd from Germany's Brenntag Group.
Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies has rejigged his equity portfolios. In his Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio, he has added Axis Bank (5 per cent weightage) and increased holding in Larsen & Toubro (L&T) by one percentage point. This, Wood said, will be paid for by removing the investment in ICICI Lombard General Insurance and reducing the investments in HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries (RIL) by one percentage point each.
Thermax Ltd has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Hong Kong named Thermax Hong Kong Ltd to exploit business opportunities in the Asia Pacific region.
Post-election capital expenditure (capex) has been weak at 2 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in M9FY25. The FY25 revised estimates (RE) indicate 7 per cent growth in FY25 against FY24, implying 21 per cent Y-o-Y growth in Q4FY25 government capex.
'Selling could further intensify and take the index towards 22,800-22,750 in the near-term.'
The company estimates its saving from such activities as Rs 17 lakhs (Rs 1.7 million) in 2006-07, rising to Rs 56 lakhs (Rs 5.6 million) in 2007-08 and Rs 82 lakhs (Rs 8.2 million) in 2008-09.
As order books gain from India's increased capital outlay, some large capital goods and engineering companies are together spending over Rs 11,500 crore in creating new facilities, data shows. Nine engineering and capital goods companies, where data was available, including Siemens, Larsen & Tourbo (L&T) and KEC International, have a combined capital expenditure (capex) of about Rs 11,500 crore or more. Others such as ABB India and Thermax Global are also adding capacities.
Existing optimism about the capital goods sector has been enhanced by the Assembly election results, which were favourable for the BJP. The prospects of political continuity led to renewed interest in the sector. There are demand-supply gaps, especially in power, and visibility of improved pricing and strong order flows, including from private enterprises.
This includes distancing themselves from the new and emerging super-critical technology.
The share of slow-moving orders in the overall order book of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is at a multi-year low. This has led to a renewed focus on fast-moving orders. A mix of factors such as commodity price fluctuations, robust order inflow and strong sectoral demand have put capital goods order book in the fast lane, analysts and company executives said. L&T, with its large presence in the capital goods sector, is often seen as the bellwether for trends in this space.
'The second generation of migrant labourers is not enthusiastic about continuing in this field.' 'The parents of the next generation do not wish their children to be part of this trade.'
IT major HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar has retained his position as the 'most generous Indian' in 2023 as well, with a 76 per cent jump in his donations at Rs 2,042 crore. Wipro's Azim Premji's donations zoomed by 267 per cent to Rs 1,774 crore during the same year, according to the Edelgive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2023 released on Thursday. Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani donated Rs 376 crore in the year, which is an 8 per cent decline.
India's leading capital goods and engineering firms are in the midst of one of their busiest seasons, with the combined orderbook surging past Rs 8 trillion in value. As on September 30, 2023, 13 of India's top 15 listed capital goods and engineering firms, for which data for the September 2023 quarter was available, had a total orderbook worth Rs 8.45 trillion - a number unseen at least since 2018-19. "This intuitively looks like an all-time high factoring in inflation," said Anupama Arora, a senior independent analyst who tracks the capital goods sector.
Operating margins for some companies dipped in Q3, 2021-22 but this sector could be nearing the bottom of the cycle in terms of profits.
The key risk factors would be anti-incumbency, small vote share swings causing large impact on outcomes and the 2004 example.
India Inc could be embarking upon a new phase of capital expenditure (capex) cycle, observed analysts, and suggest its revival would lead to a rerating of industrial stocks. Assisted by a property upcycle, analysts at Jefferies said several government initiatives were likely to drive capex. Indicators, they said, include a private project announcement at Rs 25 trillion for 2022-23 (up 150 per cent from pre-pandemic levels) and credit growth at about 16 per cent, which is closer to pre-pandemic highs.
The engineering and construction (E&C) sector delivered an excellent performance in the last two financial years (FY2021-22 or FY22 and FY23's nine-months) and there's reason to believe that FY24 will also see outperformance. The sector has emerged from the pandemic with stronger balance sheets and more rational cost structures. It has a big order book and it should see new order flows accelerate in FY24.
Some of India's biggest employers are testing for antibodies to either comply with regulatory norms or gauge the effectiveness of precautionary measures.
The four women have a collective wealth of $11.3 billion and account for a little more than three per cent of the total net worth of all on the coveted list whose collective wealth amount to $346 billion.
Software giant Wipro's Azim Premji donated Rs 9,713 crore or Rs 27 crore a day to retain his top rank among Indian philanthropists in FY21. Premji, the founder chairman of the company, increased his donation by nearly a fourth during the pandemic year, as per the Edelgive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2021, which had HCL's Shiv Nadar at second place with contributions of Rs 1,263 crore towards upliftment causes. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, India's richest man, came third on the list with a Rs 577 crore contribution and was succeeded by Kumar Mangalam Birla with Rs 377 crore.
Sachin Tendulkar has recently made an equity investment of $2 million in digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys. The investment further strengthens Tendulkar's relationship with JetSynthesys, as the two already have an existing joint venture for a digital destination for all things cricket, called 100MB, and immersive cricket games Sachin Saga Cricket Champions and Sachin Saga VR. With this investment, Tendulkar joins the bandwagon of existing shareholders of JetSynthesys, who include Adar Poonawalla, Kris Gopalakrishnan, and the multi-billion-dollar family offices of the promoters of Thermax, Triveni Group, Yohan Poonawalla Group and DSP Group.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani retains the title of India's richest man with personal assets of $18.9 billion.
Spending has begun rising in infrastructure, construction and Indian firms have started to benefit.
It's truly women on top as all four Indian corporate leaders featuring in Forbes' list of Asia Pacific's most generous business personalities this year are women.
DRDO's Air Independent Propulsion system will allow Indian Navy submarines to operate for up to two weeks without having to surface to recharge its batteries.
Most have seen decline in cash reserves and deterioration in financial ratios in recent years.
God of Cricket Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and ever-sensual actress Rekha are not the only celebrities nominated to the Rajya Sabha this time. The feat has also been achieved by Pune-based industrialist and social worker Anu Agha.
The combined net sales of 42 listed construction and capital goods companies that have declared their third-quarter results so far were down 2.3 per cent year-on-year in Q3FY21 while core operating profit was up just 4.9 per cent YoY during the quarter.
Orders are flowing for the water and wastewater treatment industry, as leading players in the domestic market such as VA Tech Wabag, Larsen and Toubro, Thermax and IVRCL Infra have bagged over Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) worth of orders in the past two-to-three months.
Asian Paints, Cipla, Bharat Forge, Dabur India, Nicholas Piramal and Satyam Computer Services are among the 20 Indian corporate entities that have found place in Forbes' list of 'Best Small Asian Companies'.
Ahead of the International Women's Day, three Indian women have powered their way to the Forbes list of global billionaires. The three Indian women include Savitri Jindal having a net worth of $8.2 billion, Bennett, Coleman & Co's chairperson Indu Jain at $4.4 billion and Anu Aga of the Thermax group with a net worth of $1.1 billion.
Saudi Arabia is insisting on 'In Kingdom' total value-addition requirements
Industry players said they were indeed seeing a serious fall in capacity usage, though some sectors were seeming to prevent further fall in the overall capacity utilisation.
Women leaders, succession planners and lawyers say doors in family businesses are opening but a stronger push is needed.
Mahesh Londhe, son of a Pune bhel vendor cleared CA in first attempt. Londhe, who was sponsored by Thermax CEO MS Unnikrishnan, now wants to take up a corporate job in a manufacturing firm