According to some analysts, Reliance has vaulted ahead of others in the queue and now stands a "rock-solid" chance of getting spectrum earlier than expected.
'The announcement has come too late. This should have been done years ago.'
Despite a massive underperformance at the bourses since the last six months, analysts are turning optimistic on Reliance Industries (RIL). Those at Jefferies, for instance, say that the company is a proxy play for India's consumption growth story. The key catalysts for the stock, according to a Jeffries note, include faster-than-expected market share gain in retail, oil-to-chemicals (O2C) stake sale, recovery in gross refining margins (GRM), potential public listing of Jio and even a possible banking licence going ahead. That apart, analysts feel any tariff hike in Reliance Jio (RJio) - its telecom venture - will also aid performance. With balance sheet adequately de-levered, proceeds from a strategic stake sale in the O2C business will create a sizeable war chest for the company, analysts say.
The move will help telcos, including Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular
Montek Singh Ahluwalia supports operators' plea. He tells the finance minister that existing players should not be charged for the remaining licence period.
Of the 23 Indian billionaires mentioned in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, only one saw a reduction in net worth, with the companies owned by most of them outperforming the Nifty 50 index by a big margin.
BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices settled the day 0.7% and 0.9% higher
IndusInd Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding over 3 per cent, followed by HDFC, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement and Tata Steel. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel was the top gainer, rallying more than 4 per cent.
Investors turned cautious weighing weak GDP numbers and continued drop in automobile sales, bringing banking and auto sector stocks under pressure.
The arbitration clause is present in almost 95 per cent of corporate agreements, according to tax and audit firm Ernst & Young.
Vodafone-Idea (Vi) has said the key hurdle it faces in raising fresh funding, despite interest from investors, is the 'pricing situation' which is also the reason why it has asked the Department of Telecommunica-tions (DoT) for another extension of the moratorium on payment of spectrum instalment by one more year. Responding to a question during an analysts' call on Friday after its quarterly results on the reason for the delay in fund-raising nine months after it was announced, CEO & MD Ravinder Takkar said: "We are in discussions with investors. There is continued interest in investing in the telecom sector in the country. "The biggest hurdle is that the overall industry is under stress because of the pricing situation." He said that once tariffs go up, it will create a significant amount of confidence.
Telecom service provider Reliance Communications is close to awarding a contract for implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) integration across its network to eight global telecom companies. The deal is estimated to be worth Rs 700-800 crore. The eight are Tekelec, HP, Intec, Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Lucent and Radio Telecom.
ONGC was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding 4 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, SBI, IndusInd Bank, NTPC, Sun Pharma and ITC. On the other hand, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Auto, Reliance, Bajaj Finserv and Asian Paints were among the gainers.
It is believed that apart from Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, there are four players that have made a bid.
The freebies are now over, but Jio will need to notch up subscriber numbers and margins to prove its sceptics wrong.
Life Insurance Corporation of India has hiked its stake in Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Communications to 7.02 per cent after buying fresh shares worth Rs 1,274.4 crore through an open market transaction.
The court said a 'scam was created when there was none'.
In its letter Voda Idea has warned that it is not in a sound financial state, and added that it would be in a position to meet its liabilities only if the government initiates steps including allowing set-offs for GST credit accumulated so far, and permitting staggered mechanism for payment of balance amount of interest, penalty, and interest on penalty.
Revenues of Airtel and Idea have been hit by falling realisation and analysts said margins would be affected by higher costs.
While Mukesh Ambani-led RIL posted a 108 per cent YoY rise in profit after tax for Q4FY21 at Rs 13,227 crore, it fell short of Bloomberg estimate of Rs 13,704 crore.
Till now, Jio was primarily targeting the prepaid customer base, with only a few post-paid plans. Now, it is targeting post-paid customers, who usually spend over five times their prepaid counterparts and are more company-loyal.
China Development Bank takes Reliance Communications to NCLT over loan default
Idea has slashed prices by up to 67% for 3G/4G internet packs for both post- and pre-paid users.
The development comes a day after RCom posted a consolidated loss of Rs 30,142 crore for July-September 2019 due to provisioning for liabilities after the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.
Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have enough capacity to absorb over 113.9 million Vodafone Idea subscribers who are on 4G if Vodafone Idea has to shut operations.
There was an under reporting of Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to Rs 1500 crore (Rs 15 billion) by the telecom firms, to avoid payment of licence fee, and the government may have lost about Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) because of this, telecom minister A Raja said during Question Hour.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgement on a petition filed by Tata Teleservices challenging the telecom tribunal's order, which classified the company's fixed wireless phone service 'Walky' as limited mobile. TDSAT had ruled that Walky service offered by Tatas was a mobile service, thus the private company was liable to pay a levy called Access Deficit Charge (ADC) to state-owned BSNL as per the interconnect order of telecom regulator Trai.
Although the industry is disappointed with the government decision not to lower spectrum prices at a time telcos are saddled with over Rs 4-trillion debt and an estimated Rs 1.43-trillion licence fee dues, the DCC has relaxed the payment structure to offer some relief to the financially stressed sector.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal tried to put up a brave front over the allegations levelled against him of causing loss to the government by favouring an Anil Ambani-led company.
'All three players in the market are haemorrhaging cash. Average consumer is consuming 12 gigabits (GB) at price points you don't see anywhere else.'
ONGC was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 5 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, PowerGrid, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy's and Maruti. On the other hand, Reliance Industries, Titan, HDFC Bank and ITC were the gainers.
While Reliance has the clout to negotiate prices with suppliers for its e-commerce, not to forget the cost advantage of integrated warehouse and supply chains, Amazon and Walmart are no pushovers, they too have deep pockets.
The government will set up a centre of excellence for visual effects and gaming with help from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.
Bharti has been expanding its spectrum portfolio and now owns 4G data across all 22 circles in India
Observing there was a 'wilful default', the Supreme Court last month held Ambani guilty of contempt of court and ordered the debt-laden company to clear the dues to Ericsson.
Global management consultancy firm McKinsey has moved the Bombay high court against Reliance Industries and Reliance Communications for non-payment of dues of Rs 27 crore
Spectrum was sold at about 68 per cent premium.
Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman and Balesh Sharma the new CEO of the merged entity, which will remain listed.
Reliance Industries will sell 20 per cent stake in its oil and chemicals business to Saudi oil giant Aramco for about $ 15 billion and nearly half of its fuel retail business to BP of UK for Rs 7,000 crore. Aramco, the world's biggest crude exporter, will also supply Reliance's twin-refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat with 7,00,000 barrels of oil a day on a long-term basis, Ambani said.
The ADA Group's recent decision to sell a stake in Reliance Communications and merge its telecom tower business with GTL Infra will help it reduce a mounting debt burden.
