Tata Power, Torrent Pharma and Reliance Power to see some action today

Tata Power, the country’s third largest power company, has seen its debt grow as it borrowed to fund expansions and to acquire coal assets in Indonesia to secure fuel supplies. Its debt has quadrupled from Rs 9,114 crore as on March 2008 to Rs 35,177 crore in March 2014. The company is, however, taking various measures to reduce its leverage and finance cost. The recent rights issue and divestment of its holding in one of its coal assets in Indonesia, PT Arutmin, will help bring down debt. Besides, Tata Power Solar (TPS), a 100% subsidiary of Tata Power, and British Gas have commissioned 3,475,000 kWh commercial solar PV installation for Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK). The installation, which was officially switched on August 21 at Toyota Manufacturing UK’s engine production centre at Deeside in North Wales, will feed directly into Toyota UK’s electrical distribution network used to power manufacturing operations at the site, home to European production of Toyota petrol and hybrid petrol engines. The solar plant is set to significantly reduce the site’s carbon emissions and has the potential to generate enough electricity to produce up to 22,500 engines a year.

Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals has secured an exemption from price control for one of its newly developed fixed dose combination (FDC) products. This is apparently the first product to get exemption under the new drug pricing policy, which came into effect last year. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) granted an exemption to Torrent Pharma’s FDC containing prasugrel hydrochloride 10 mg plus aspirin 75 mg for five years. The order is based on a provision of the Drugs Price Control Order, 2013, that allows the exception to products approved as a ‘new drug’ by the drug quality regulator. The idea is to promote domestic investment in research and development of new drugs.

Reliance Power has informed the Supreme Court that it wasn’t interested in setting up its ambitious gas-fired power plant in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, any more and would return about 956 acres of land acquired for the company to the state government. The land has been mired in legal wrangles, with the Allahabad High Court on December 5, 2009, quashing a state move to acquire the land through an emergency clause. This allows the state to waive a clause in the law that mandates the seeking of objections from farmers before acquiring their land. The judgment made it mandatory for the state government to go back and get a no-objection certificate (NOC) from each seller or get them to return the compensation received to the government.

Muthoot Finance has acquired 29.98 percent stake in Asia Asset Finance PLC, Colombo for about $2.1 million or Rs 12.71 crore at the current dollar-rupee exchange rate. AAF is a Sri Lanka based registered financial company which is involved in retail finance, hire purchase & business loans through 11 branches. It is listed in DiriSaviBoard of the Colombo Stock Exchange. Muthoot Finance is seeking synergies by helping the AAF to operationalise loan against gold ornaments in Sri Lanka. Through this investment, Muthoot also expects AAF to improve its lending operations and profitability in the coming years.

Ashok Leyland has been adopting various strategies to cut the debt in its books, from reducing working capital to reducing manpower, selling off non-core assets, however, the best way the company feels is perhaps by increasing profits. The Hinduja Group company hopes that as the market turns around, the company would make some profits. Ashok Leyland is not keen to offer discounts, instead, they have actually raised prices by 4.5 percent in the last four months, and has plans to further raise prices in October and January. The company is growing in exports, initially it was selling only in the SAARC region, but it is now growing outside the SAARC region, in Middle East, Africa and so on.

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), one of the largest players in steel market in India, plans to strengthen its presence in the Punjab retail market. The company is eyeing end users with the Thermo Mechanically Treated (TMT) Rebars for residential and industrial projects in the high seismic zones. The company has 23 stockyards in India and plans to add three more - one for Jammu in north - to expand its retail network across India. The existing stockyard at Ludhiana has excess capacities and the company has a sufficient network of dealers and distributors in Punjab to handle the increase in volume of products. Envisaging a growing demand for steel in housing and infrastructure, the company plans to invest Rs 12,000 crore to ramp up its capacities at the existing plants at Angul in Orissa and at Patratu in Jharkhand.

Bullish on e-commerce potential in India, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is set to expand in this segment with its specialty retail venture ‘Mom & Me’ and also gearing up to adopt franchise model for the next stage of expansion. At present, the group operates 110 company-owned stores and is looking to go franchise route for further expansion of Mom & Me that focuses on maternity and infant care products. The company has recently launched its new range of tractors, which could be fitted with a/c cabins on demand in the Uttar Pradesh market.

Consumer electrical and electronics player, V-Guard Industries has launched a new range of premier electric water heaters in Gujarat market. The company eyes Rs 3.5 to Rs 4 crore sales from the state during this fiscal. With urban infrastructure expanding and new residential projects taking shape, demand for branded water heaters is expected to rise. The organized market for electric water heaters in Gujarat is estimated at Rs 24 crore, while unorganized is Rs 4 crore. V-Guard expects to achieve about 15 percent of the market share in the state by the end of the current fiscal.

As the cement sector picks up and is showing signs of good prospects going forward, Dalmia Group is looking at a merger of its listed cement companies Dalmia Bharat and OCL India. As part of the mega restructuring plan Dalmia Bharat will also merge its unlisted arm Dalmia Bharat Enterprises with itself. Global private equity firm KKR owns 14.5% stake in Dalmia Bharat Enterprises will eventually own a minority stake in the merged listed entity. Dalmia Bharat and OCL India have revived plans of the merger after a failed attempt way back in 2008. Dalmia Bharat owns 48% stake in OCL India and both companies together have a cement capacity of close to 20 million tonnes, Dalmia Bharat being the larger one.