Government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has seen substantial gains from its investments in Adani group shares, which have experienced a significant recovery over the past year. The value of LIC's stake in Adani group companies surged by 51.6 per cent, or Rs 22,591 crore, reaching Rs 66,388 crore as of Friday's close. This compares to Rs 43,797 crore on May 31 last year, according to stock exchange data.
Adani group stocks faced heavy drubbing during the early trade on Thursday, with Adani Energy and Adani Enterprises tumbling 20 per cent, as billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors over his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay $250 million bribe to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts. The stock of the group's flagship firm Adani Enterprises plunged 20 per cent, Adani Energy Solutions tanked 20 per cent, Adani Green Energy plummeted 19.17 per cent, Adani Total Gas tumbled 18.14 per cent, Adani Power slumped 17.79 per cent, and Adani Ports dived 15 per cent on the BSE.
Adani group is on track to surpass a combined Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of Rs 1 trillion in the ongoing financial year (FY25) as it prepares for a $2 billion (over Rs 16,700 crore) share sale by its flagship entity Adani Enterprises next month, according to a source close to the matter.
Hemendra Kothari, the former chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch, is set to acquire Ambuja Cements' stake in ING Vysya Life Insurance for around Rs 190 crore.
Swiss cement maker Holcim, which had made an open offer to pick up 36.20 per cent shares of ACC, would also buy out the stakeholding of US-based AIG and GIC of Singapore in Ambuja Cement India Limited
Corporate India is starting to step up its capital expenditure plans amid government incentives and signs of rising demand, company executives and analysts have indicated. This coincides with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently citing a double-digit growth in private capital expenditure. Healthy balance sheets of banks and corporates, along with increasing capacity utilisation and improving business sentiment, are contributing to a favourable environment for sustained growth in private sector investments, the RBI said in its policy last week.
Nestle India has tied up with five cement manufacturing units.
US investment banker JP Morgan has given 'overweight' rating on four Adani group bonds, comforted by ability to scale and grow using internal cash flows which reduces the scope for credit stress. In a report, JP Morgan gave 'overweight' rating on three bond issues of Adani Ports & SEZ and one by Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (a subsidiary of Adani Energy Solutions Ltd). It has taken neutral stand on other five Adani bonds and is underweight on one bond issued by Adani Green Energy Ltd.
With the increased death rate in the ongoing second wave of Covid-19, domestic cement companies are in no better condition than they were in the April-June quarter of FY21 when the country faced nationwide lockdown. "This wave has had high death rate which has impacted the business. "We are in no better situation than last (year) April. "Deaths of drivers, dealers, contractors and also employees have hit the industry really very hard since April (FY22)," M Ravinder Reddy, director of Bharathi Cements said.
Investors became richer by nearly Rs 8 lakh crore on Wednesday as benchmark BSE Sensex surged by 740 points amid value buying in utilities and power shares and a strong trend in global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex surged by 740.30 points or 1.01 per cent to close at 73,730.23.
Adani group saw a 55 per cent profit surge in the fiscal year ended March 2024 as the apples-to-airport conglomerate is back on an expansion spree and eyeing a $90 billion capex over the next decade. Emerging from a damning report of a US short seller, which hit market value of its listed companies, Adani group in 2023-24 (April 2023 to March 2024) fiscal focused on containing debt, reducing founder share pledge and consolidating business in core competencies.
On Thursday, Adani Enterprises announced that it will not go ahead with acquiring Macquarie group's two road companies at an enterprise valuation of Rs 3,100 crore.
Ahmedabad-based firm to fund deal through equal amount of equity and debt.
The government on Wednesday said big cement companies owned by Birlas and Ambuja group have shown interest in buying the non-functional plants of Cement Corporation of India.
None of Adani group portfolio companies, comprising 11 listed firms, have been accused of any wrongdoing, conglomerate's CFO Jugeshinder Robbie Singh said on founder and chairman Gautam Adani's indictment on bribery charges in the US. In a post on X, Singh said the group would make a detailed comment on the US indictment once it gets counsel approvals.
Of the top four companies, which collectively hold more than half of India's market share, two have pitted Shah Rukh Khan and Sunny Deol against each other.
'I believe that as we produce more, our cost will come down further. We will maintain our competitiveness.'
Players like UltraTech Cement more expensive than ITC and HUL; others catching up fast.
Its rich valuation with a PE of 62 times raises downside risk for investors
Equity mutual funds (MFs) deployed maximum in shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) in June at Rs 2,177 crore, followed by Maruti Suzuki (Rs 2,045 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 1,310 crore). Shares of both RIL and Bharti Airtel have been turbulent this month. On July 1, shares of RIL crashed over 7 per cent, following the government imposing windfall taxes on domestic crude oil production and fuel exports.
A sum of Rs 7060 crore is provided in the current fiscal for the project of developing one hundred Smart Cities.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's group on Monday announced its exit from FMCG joint venture Adani Wilmar by selling its entire stake to the Singaporean partner and in the open market for an estimated over $2 billion in a first major deal since the US bribery indictment. In a statement, Adani Enterprises Ltd -- which held 43.94 per cent stake in Fortune brand cooking oil, wheat flour and other food product maker Adani Wilmar Ltd -- said it will sell 31.06 per cent stake to Wilmar International. About 13 per cent will be sold in the open market to meet minimum public shareholding requirements.
SFIO, the investigation arm of the Corporate Affairs Ministry, has been ordered to probe alleged fraud in 83 companies in the last four years, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
Most of the Indian businesses of overseas multinational companies seem to perform better than their parent entities, with many recording good performance in the first three months of 2009.
Stocks to watch: ACC, Ambuja Cements, India Cements, Shree Cement, Ultra Tech Cement.
Swiss cement major, Holcim, promoter of two of India's biggest cement companies, ACC and Ambuja Cements, said there is no escape from increasing the cement prices in the country considering the high energy costs.
S&P Dow Jones has said it will remove Adani Group's flagship firm Adani Enterprises from sustainability indices with effect from February 7 following a media and stakeholder analysis triggered by allegations of accounting fraud. The move comes amid leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE putting three Adani Group companies -- Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Ambuja Cements -- under their short-term additional surveillance measure (ASM) framework. "Adani Enterprises will be removed from the Dow Jones sustainability indices following a media and stakeholder analysis triggered by allegations of accounting fraud," S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a statement.
Stocks of all the ten listed Adani Group firms ended with gains on Wednesday, continuing the positive momentum amid a recovery in the broader equity market. Adani Enterprises stock jumped 14.70 per cent to settle at Rs 1,564.55 on the BSE. In intra-day trade, it rallied 15.83 per cent to Rs 1,580.
Shares of eight of the ten listed firms of the Adani Group ended with gains on Tuesday after taking a beating in recent sessions. Adani Enterprises stock jumped 14.22 per cent to settle at Rs 1,364.05 on the BSE. During the day, it rallied 19 per cent to Rs 1,421.95.
Shares of Adani Group firms continued to remain weak for the seventh day running on Friday amid a host of negative events surrounding the companies. The stock of Adani Enterprises tumbled 20 per cent to Rs 1,173.55 -- its one-year low -- on the BSE. Shares of Adani Ports tanked 10 per cent, Adani Transmission (10 per cent), Adani Green Energy (10 per cent), Adani Power (5 per cent), Adani Total Gas (5 per cent), Adani Wilmar (4.99 per cent), NDTV (4.98 per cent), ACC (4.24 per cent) and Ambuja Cements (3 per cent).
The new entrants comprise Asian Paints, Britannia, Titan, Nestl, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv.
After a $110 billion rout in market value, embattled Adani group got some reprieve on Tuesday after shares of most of its listed firms rebounded on bourses and international rating agencies said there was no credit risk for lenders with exposure to the group. The group, which is in the midst of a political storm after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research's adverse report dated January 24 triggered a meltdown in group stocks wiping out billions of dollars in market value, also had a mixed day with the quarterly results of four of its entities, particularly Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone reporting a 12.94 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,336.51 crore for the December quarter 2022. Shares of flagship firm Adani Enterprises settled nearly 15 per cent higher at Rs 1,802.50 apiece while shares of Adani Wilmar jumped 5 per cent to end at Rs 399.40 on BSE.
Mutual funds predominantly bought engineering, media, pharma, and oil and gas stocks in July
The BSE Sensex on Friday surged more than 6 percent to record highs while the rupee strengthened to an 11-month high against the dollar as the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies were set to sweep the country's elections with a clear majority.
Thirty stocks from various sectors form the Sensex.
Foreign banks and private credit funds are queuing up to fund acquisitions by Indian companies who are buying out their local rivals. The Adani Group, Torrent Group, and the Hindujas have approached several foreign banks and private equity (PE) firms to fund their acquisitions. Global investors have about $2 trillion of funds to invest, and about $100 to $150 billion is set aside for India, according to an estimate by JP Morgan.
