Market Bizzz

The initial public offering (IPO) of state-run ECGC, India’s largest export credit insurance firm, is likely to be postponed to the next financial year due to volatile export market conditions, said sources. Factors like the Russian-Ukraine war and monetary tightening by central banks may adversely affect the company’s valuation if the IPO is rushed.

India’s capital markets regulator, Sebi, has proposed to reduce the time taken for the listing of shares on stock exchanges after initial public offerings (IPOs) to three days from six days at present. The move is expected to be beneficial to issuers and investors. Sebi has sought input from the public until 3 June on the proposal, which came after extensive tests and simulations involving stakeholders such as sponsor banks, depositories, registrars, NPCI and stock exchanges.

In addition to the issuance of convertible securities and non-convertible debentures, the board also approved raising Rs 3,000 crore through private placement and/or public issuance. The funds will be used to replace short-maturity loans, meet working capital requirements, reimburse capex, and for general corporate purposes. A fresh approval is being sought from shareholders for its previous plan to raise Rs 14,000 crore through the issuance of non-convertible debentures and convertible securities.

On March 17, both the bourses moved NDTV from the second to the first stage of the long-term Additional Surveillance Measure (ASM) framework.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals’ Q4 consolidated profit before exceptional items and tax was INR3.09bn ($37.78m) for the quarter ended 31 March, down 12.3% compared to a year earlier, due to increased input costs and lower demand in the Indian drugs market. The firm posted one-time costs of INR8bn due to settlements over lawsuits in the US related to antitrust issues and consumer protection. While its sales rose 11.5%, the Indian drugs segment reported a 6.4% sales decline, accounting for 31% of its total, while North American sales grew by 15.3%.

The economic shock was anticipated in 2023 and we seem to be in a window right now where we are transitioning from the price shock into the economic shock –we are seeing issues within credit in US and the regional US banks.

​I genuinely believe there is enough opportunity. I have driven programmes which are multi-year programmes, efficiency programmes. So, I do see that kind of opportunity having spent now more than six months in the company, I am very confident that these initiatives or a culture that I want to build of continuous process improvement, be it starting from discounts to food cost, logistics cost, manpower cost, store operations cost and G&A will carry us through irrespective of how the market pans out.

Gold prices on Friday were on course for their biggest weekly drop in 3-1/2 months as recent strong U.S. economic data and hopes for a resolution in the debt debate took some shine off bullion. The fundamentals include strong U.S. job growth numbers and hopes for a resolution in the debt debate, but these factors are likely to be overshadowed by the dollar’s strengthening against other currencies.