Mumbai: Shares of Apollo Tyres Ltd rose the most in at least a year in Mumbai trading on a proposed repurchase of shares.
The firm climbed 23.81%, the most since 19 November 2007, to Rs18.51 at the close of trading. The shares fell 63% last year, compared with the 52% decline in India’s benchmark Sensex.
The board will consider a plan to buy back shares on 19 March, the company said on Monday in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
- Bloomberg
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Jain Irrigation to raise $45 mn from IFC
Mumbai: The Washington, DC-based International Finance Corp.will purchase two million new equity shares amounting to a 2.6% stake in Jain Irrigation Systems Ltdfor $15 million (Rs77.7 crore), the company’s managing director Anil Jaintold Mint. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group.
“IFC as a shareholder can open a lot of doors for us,” Jain said.
The board of Jain Irrigation, which approved the stake sale on Monday, will soon issue preferential shares to IFC, in line with the guidelines of markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India. IFC will also lend $30 million in two tranches to meet the firm’s capital expenditure, primarily in the micro irrigation division till March 2010. The funds will have to repaid over eight years, Jain said.
IFC had earlier lent the company $30 million between 2007 and 2009. Shares of Jain Irrigation closed 3.69% lower at Rs351 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday.
- Baiju Kalesh
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Power Grid Corp plans to invite bids for bond sale
Mumbai: State-owned Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd will invite bids for at least Rs900 crore of bonds on 5 March, according to a term sheet viewed by ‘Reuters’. The power transmission company’s bonds will carry a coupon of up to 9.3%, payable annually, and are rated AAA by CARE, Icra and Crisil.
The issue, which has a greenshoe option to retain extra bids for an unspecified amount, will be redeemed in 12 equal parts at the end of each year starting from the fourth onwards to the 15th year. Bidding will close on 6 March and investors will be informed about the allocation on 9 March. The company has appointed nine arrangers to the issue.
- Reuters
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UBS asset management arm eyeing India entry
Hong Kong: UBS Global Asset Management is still looking for a passage to India, with an entry into Asia’s third largest economy looking more attractive now than it did a year ago, a senior executive at the firm said.
Christof Kutscher, head of Asia-Pacific at the firm, said expanding its business into India could not be ruled out by the end of this year, though market volatility was making things difficult to predict.
Kutscher had said in June he was interested in leading the fund management arm of Swiss bank UBS AGinto India through a start-up or joint venture, though an acquisition at the time was too pricey.
- Reuters
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Wachovia cuts BPO firms to underweight
Bangalore: Wachovia Capital Markets downgraded the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector to “underweight” from “market weight”, and said offshoring firms would continue to see weak demand with businesses delaying budget decisions.
Demand was very weak during the last two-three months and may only now be bottoming out, analyst Edward Caso wrote in a note to clients.
“We are hearing of consistent price reductions...,” Caso said, adding that pricing pressure was leading to volume discounts and increased fixed price risk taking.
Several top outsourcing companies are struggling to compete for deals against Accentureand International Business Machines Corp., he added.
As part of the sector downgrade, the brokerage cut its rating on the shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd, Syntel Inc. and Wipro Ltd to “underperform” from “market perform”.
- Reuters