Seven Indian firms, including Reliance Industries and Reliance Capital from the two Ambani groups, have been named among Asia Pacific's 20 best companies in terms of expected investor returns over next five years. The list titled "Tomorrow's Winners" prepared by global investment banking giant Morgan Stanley also includes telecom major Bharti Airtel, engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro, Kishore Biyani-led Pantaloon Retail, infrastructure company IDFC and real estate firm Sobha Developers. "Of the companies selected, more than half are listed in either China or India. Many of these are capitalising on major secular trends, such as infrastructure investment and per capita consumption growth," Morgan Stanley said in a report. "The rapid growth of Asian markets, India and China in particular, has led to an unparalleled focus on the region and its businesses," it said, adding that these are the companies "that can build on their competitive edge over the long term and consistently deliver outstanding shareholder returns." "The companies chosen lead their domestic competitors and are strong enough to withstand competition from abroad. The majority operate in industries that have high barriers to entry," the report said. The list was prepared after reviewing companies, their industries and respective competitive advantage. Besides seven Indian firms, there are six listed in Hong Kong, two each in China, Taiwan and Korea and one in Australia. The Hong Kong-listed firms are Belle International, China Mengninu Dairy, Espirit Holdings, Li and Fung, Tencent Holdings and Cayman Islands-based Tingyi Holding Corp. The two Korean firms are Samsung Techwin and Woori Finance Holdings, while those from Taiwan are Foxconn Tech and Gemtek Tech. Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co and Shuanghui Investment, two other companies on the list, are listed in China at Shanghai and Shenzen stock exchanges respectively. About India's most valued firm RIL, Morgan Stanley said that its consolidated net profit and asset base would more than double in next five years.
Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Power on Sunday said it will give three bonus shares for every five shares held by its shareholders. The board of directors at its meeting today considered and approved a bonus issue excluding promoters, as per which three shares would be allotted for every five held. This issue would benefit over four million investors in the company and the cost would be borne by the promoter group by way of diluting its stake.
India's industrial sector is likely to witness a slowdown and will remain in single digit throughout this year, as the country faces various headwinds like appreciating rupee, poor infrastructure and rising borrowing costs, global credit rating agency Moody's said.
Parsvnath Developers and Indiabulls Real Estate have come together to bid for ten prime location plots being offered by the Indian Railways for commercial development across various cities.
The two companies have already submitted the request for qualification (RFQ) for all the ten plots offered by Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) in the first phase.
According to sources, Parsvnath and IBREL have entered into an understanding for the submission and bidding for the land offered by the railway ministry through RLDA and under the agreement, the RFQ for 10 locations have been submitted.
The objective under the agreement would be to design, develop, finance and to market the developed property, they said. The 10 sites which have been selected for commercial development in the first phase are located in Delhi, Kanpur, Gwalior, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, and Bangalore. When contacted, a spokesperson at Parsvnath confirmed the development, but declined to share any further detail.
According to sources, both the companies have decided to join hands to bid for railway plots as IBREL is strong financially, while Parsvnath Developers has project execution capabilities.
There is about 700 acres of railway land in 107 sites across the country that has been shortlisted by the railway ministry for commercial development on public-private partnership basis.
The report of the feasibility study for commercial development of the 10 sites spread over 265 acres of land has been submitted to the RLDA. The study conducted by the IL&FS has recommended construction of group housing societies, integrated township and marketing complex in these places.
RLDA, a statutory authority under the railways ministry, was set up by an amendment to the Railways Act, 1989, for the development of vacant railway land for commercial use.
Having emerged as one of the top performers in the equity markets in 2007, India became the fourth worst performer among all the emerging markets in the first month of 2008, with a loss of close to 16 per cent, according to financial market data provider Standard and Poor's.
"If investors thought the market could only go up, January's wake-up call pulled them back into reality," S&P said in its monthly update on world equity markets. The global stock markets lost a whopping US$5.2 billion as bearish sentiment prevailed across both emerging and developed markets to mark one of the worst ever starts to a new year, S&P said.
"There were few safe havens in January as 50 of the 52 global equity markets ended the month in negative territory, with 25 of them posting double-digit losses," S&P's Senior Index Analyst Howard Sliverblatt said.
While developed markets registered a loss of 7.83 per cent, the loss was even bigger at 12.44 per cent in emerging markets during the month. All the 26 developed markets posted negative returns, with 16 of them losing over 10 per cent. The overall trend in emerging markets was also disappointing despite gains seen by Morocco (10.17 per cent) and Jordan (3.11 per cent).
Among emerging markets, Turkey was hit the hardest losing 22.70 per cent followed by China at 21.40 per cent. Russia lost 16.12 per cent, while India lost close to 16 per cent, S&P said.
"High volatility, quick turnarounds in both the market and investor sentiment, and drastically lower stock prices prevailed throughout the month." Silverblatt said. Among developed markets, the US and UK lost 6.07 and 8.85 per cent respectively.
Public Issue Open: February 04, 2008 to February 07, 2008. Public Issue Type: 100% Book Built Issue (Initial Public Offer IPO). Public Issue Size: 117,389,914 Equity Shares of Rs. 10/-»» Face Value: Rs. 10/-. Public Issue Price: Rs. 725/- to Rs. 850/- Per Equity Share . Maximum Subscription Amount for Retail Investor: Rs 100,000/-. Listing: BSE, NSE.
Analysts say that RPower will have a market capitalisation of Rs 101700 crore compared with NTPCs current market capitalisation of Rs 221630 cr. While RPower has plans to implement 28,200-MW capacity BY 2016 with no assured returns in many projects and little experience in large project execution, NTPC already has 27,904-MW capacity with plans to set up additional 22,100 MW. Most of NTPCs projects enjoy assured returns and it has one of the best track records of power-project execution. From this what do we study??? If Rpower is more than 400 on listing day NTPC should also be more than 400. This is a minimum assumption, so buy NTPC as much as you can and be ready to enjoy high profits within short time.
