Business Trends India

A market leader in two-wheelers, Hero Honda has outpaced rivals with a 12 per cent sales growth in 2008-09, as against a flat growth of 3 per cent for the industry this year. Good growth in sub-125 cc segment and a strong foothold in the semi-urban and rural markets has helped Hero Honda weather uncertainties such as lower credit availability and a slowdown in urban purchases relatively well. 

However, with a 42 per cent gain over the past year (the Sensex declined 32 per cent in the same period), the stock has completely sidestepped the market meltdown and now trades at a sizeable valuation premium over the market. 

Mutual fund major UTI Asset Management Company (UTI AMC) is likely to offload 26 per cent stake to a strategic investor within the next three months.

The company had short-listed three firms for selling the stake, said UK Sinha, chairman and managing director, UTI AMC, on the sidelines of a function to announce the fund’s tie-up with Coopers Wealth Creators and Tower Infotech, for selling a micro pension scheme under the UTI-Retirement Benefit Pension Fund.

Net income for the quarter rose to 10.1 billion rupees ($201 million) from 8.8 billion rupees. That was higher than the median profit forecast of 9.37 billion rupees from analysts surveyed by FactSet Research. 

Total revenue jumped 13% to 64.5 billion rupees from 57 billion rupees, with the key information technology services division contributing more than three-quarters of those revenues. The figures were calculated using Indian accounting standards. 

At 14.19 hrs IST, the markets were witnessing choppy trade with negative bias. Buying interest was seen in FMCG, realty, and telecom stocks while banks, auto, capital goods and metal stocks were witnessing selling pressure.

Stocks like ITC, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, ONGC and BHEL were positive contributors to the Sensex. However, Reliance, Infosys, L&T, ICICI Bank and HDFC were the major draggers.

Shikha Sharma, the MD of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, the largest private sector life insurance company, has been appointed as the new managing director and CEO of Axis Bank, the third largest private sector bank. Incidentally P J Nayak, Chairman & CEO of the bank has put in his papers after dissenting on the decision. He was keen on Hemant Kaul, one of the executive directors of the bank, succeeding him.

Ms Sharma has been appointed for a period of five year. The appointment will be subject to the approval of the RBI and the shareholders.

City Union Bank Ltd has announced that the Bank shall publish the audited financial results for the last quarter ended March 31, 2009 within a period of three months from the end of the last quarter of the financial year (on or before June 30, 2009). Therefore, the Bank is not furnishing the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.

The stock closed the day at Rs.16.86, up by Rs.1.31 or 8.42%. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs.17.15 and low of Rs.15.15.

India's Suzlon Energy Ltd., one of the world's largest producers of wind turbines, faces new blade-production problems, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new concerns come as Suzlon is trying to raise funds, including through selling a stake to private-equity firms. The company may be at risk of breaking debt covenants and has to pay €205 million, or about $275 million, over the next six weeks to complete an acquisition.

India's second largest bank, with $75 billion in assets, is set to get its youngest-ever chief executive on May 1, Chanda Kochhar, 47. When she takes the helm, she'll also become one of India's most prominent female CEOs. 

Kochha started working at the bank in 1984, her first job after B-school. She succeeds veteran banker K.V. Kamath, who repositioned ICICI from a staid corporate lender to India's fastest-growing retail bank on the back of a consumer spending - and lending - boom. But India's economy has lately slowed, and so too the consumer finance market.

Makers of luxury cars are offering hefty discounts and low-interest loans to woo buyers, as they look to fend off competition from new models in a slowing market.

Luxury cars, those priced above Rs 20 lakh, posted a 34% growth in sales last fiscal to 8,313 units, the highest among all car segments. Companies are planning a slew of new launches to push sales and beat the slowdown.

LKP Shares has recommended a buy rating on Rolta India with a target price of Rs 110 in its April 10, 2009 research report.

"Given the relaxation in implementation of AS-11, Rolta can opt not to provide for MTM losses during the current fiscal, which will positively impact its bottom line. Resultantly, it might write back Rs 840 million MTM provided during H1FY09. We expect Rolta to grow in top line & bottom line by around 40% this fiscal, thereby making valuations at 3.7x FY09 attractive.