Over `81,000-cr loans given: FM
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has made a stellar debut on the bourses and more than doubled the wealth of investors, as the government-run entity listed at Rs 644 on the BSE as against the issue price of Rs 320.
The stock closed the first day of trading with a steep gain of 127.69 per cent at Rs 728.60 on the BSE and at Rs 727.75 on the NSE. Intra-day it hit a high of Rs 743.80.
The Rs 645-crore initial public offering of IRCTC had received huge investor response, with overall demand at 112 times the shares on offer between September 30 and October 3. The shares of Rs 10 face value were offered to the public at Rs 320 a share.
The market capitalisation of IRCTC at the close of first day’s trading stood at Rs 11,657.60 crore.
Speaking at the listing ceremony on the BSE, Mahendra Pratap Mall, Chairman and Managing Director, IRCTC, said, “We have more than doubled the wealth of investors. This showcases the trust of our customers and stakeholders on the brand called IRCTC and the services it provides. The investor demand exceeded shares on offer by 112 times, making us the most sought after state-run firm.”
“With the company’s diversification plans for future and growing services across categories, IRCTC aims to stand out as a full-service hospitality and tourism brand of India,” Mall added.
Mustafa Nadeem, CEO, Epic Research said, "This is a very unique business model in India that is listed and also very robust numbers in its business segment for the last three years. So for long-term it’s a definite hold.” The government on Monday said loans worth over Rs 81,000 crore were disbursed during the nineday outreach programme, or loan mela, organised by public sector banks from October 1. It also said another outreach programme would be conducted for four days, starting October 21.
The programmes are part of government’s move to address liquidity issues that impact consumption. Briefing the press, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who met public sector bank heads on Monday, said she discussed a host of issues like re-assuring depositors of Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, expediting dues of SMEs and bank mergers.
Sitharaman declared that all public sector banks are flushed with money and are ready to lend to all sectors, including medium and smallscale enterprises (MSEs).
In order to ensure liquidity for small businesses, Sitharaman said banks have been asked to provide bill discounting facility to the MSME sector against payments due from the large corporates. “According to returns filed by the large corporates to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, as much as Rs 40,000 crore is due to the MSME sector. All efforts would be made to ensure that MSMEs get their dues ahead of Diwali by October 27,” she said.
“Credit across all sectors was given by banks, say agriculture and auto sectors, and the total amount of money given by banks stood at Rs 81,781 crore in nine days,” she added.
Benign raw material costs and new effective tax rates helped FMCG major Hindustan Unilever post strong net profit growth in the September quarter. However, volume growth, a key indicator of consumer demand, dipped to single digits.
HUL on Monday reported a 21.18 per cent rise in standalone net profit to Rs 1,848 crore for the quarter ended on September 30, 2019 against Rs 1,525 crore reported for the corresponding quarter last year. The corporate tax cut supported profit growth. Margin expansion was also driven by improved mix and benign commodity price movement in large segments, found Edelweiss Securities.
Standalone sales during the quarter stood at Rs 9,708 crore against Rs 9,138 crore for the same period a year ago, growing 6.2 per cent. Domestic consumer growth was 7 per cent with underlying volume growth at 5 per cent against 10 per cent in Q2FY19. Rural growth, which was at 0.5x of urban growth, kept the volume growth low.
Home care sustained another quarter of robust performance with consistent top line delivery in fabric wash. Within beauty and personal care, personal products showed a healthy show. Foods and refreshment saw broad-based growth across categories. Beverages delivered a good in quarter performance.
“The near-term outlook for demand, especially in rural India remains challenging, said Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, HUL.
. HUL remains well-positioned to unlock the structural FMCG India opportunity while navigating the short-term challenges, he added.
The company said that its board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 11 per equity share of face value Re 1 each. The company also announced the appointment of Willem Uijen as Executive Director, Supply Chain and a member of the HUL board with effect from January 1, 2020. Uijen succeeds Pradeep Banerjee who is retiring after a career of four decades.