Financial Markets , Social Media and what else.. » India Infrastructure

Reliance gets BP to sign the dotted line…

zyakaira — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:18:16 +0000

Reliance gets BP to sign the dotted line. FDI charts up to $30 bln despite a thanda 2010 http://india.advantages.us/a-tired-nation-awaits-with-open-arms-indias-e-0

BHEL with new Partners , livemint.com

zyakaira — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:51:05 +0000

zyakaira notes: BHELs another JV with NTPC is in hot water because of some Intellectual Property concerns. Their going public with a stake sale will definitely help their plans get to an on ground reality. However, I believe Hydro power is not the way forward despite some of its advantages and all UMPPs are thermal – which also is among BHEL supplied goods, and their IPO vluation is unlikely to suffer for that. However at a valuation of 60000 crores ( ballpark based on current sales and some drop in market share – BHE remains an only provider in some underdeveloped markets) or $ 12 billion ( less than half of the Indian Banks’ investment in cash mutual funds in June July and August!)

From Livemint: State-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) will partner private construction firms to build overseas hydropower projects and is in talks with companies including Patel Engineering Ltd. “We are looking at getting EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contracts overseas through this approach,” K. Ravi Kumar, chairman and managing director, Bhel, said. “While we will take care of the electro-mechanical work, the civil work will be done by our selected partner.”

“We have a tie-up with Bhel in India to execute projects in Andhra Pradesh on a similar model. It will be mutually beneficial to both the companies,” said Ashwin Parmar, deputy director, business development, Patel Engineering. For starters, India’s largest power equipment maker is eyeing a $250 million (Rs1,198 crore) contract to build a 72MW project in Katande in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Civil construction usually comprises 60% of the cost of a hydroelectric power plant and such a partnership would help Bhel share the project risk.

Hydropower projects are more complex to build and need specialized technology and design than thermal power plants. “Partnering with a contractor who has done civil work for a hydro project will help Bhel in the pre-qualification stage,” said Girish Solanki, a Mumbai-based research analyst at Angel Broking Ltd.

“There is an immense opportunity in Africa to tap as there is a power shortage there.” “This will be the first of the three project orders we are looking at in Congo. There are a few Indian firms that have shown interest in partnering with us, including Patel Engineering, for the Katande project,” said a Bhel executive who declined being named. “The Congo government also wants us to take up the 70MW Semlika project and partner in the Inga dam project.” Other companies that work on hydroelectric projects in India include Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd and Gammon India Ltd.

Bhel is looking abroad for contracts as it fears that its domestic market share may decline to 50% from the current 60% in five years due to increasing competition from local and foreign companies. Of Bhel’s order book position of Rs1.25 trillion, global orders account for around Rs7,500 crore. West Asia, Africa and Central Asia are the primary international markets for Bhel, which plans to raise exports to Rs10,300 crore by 2012.

Bhel posted a net profit of Rs3,039 crore on revenue of Rs27,505 crore in the fiscal year ended 31 March. It aims to become a $10 billion-plus firm by 2012. Bhel has an annual capacity of manufacturing power equipment that can produce 10,000MW of electricity. The company says it plans to raise this to 15,000MW a year by December.

OIL India Ltd – The India Energy Demand solution

zyakaira — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:21:09 +0000

India’s energy situation in short is that it needs four times more oil than it produces, and thus domestic production has been a focus in India’s Infrastructure story since 2005

The OIL IPO band at Rs 950-1050 just ensures an IPO size of Rs 5000 Crores ($1.02 billion) from 11% new shares and 10% sale of existing stakes of the Government, thus brining the post issue government stake to 78%, very close to the ideal target of 75% promoter stake for listed companies and allowing the government to take down further ownership at a later stage based on market determined prices. The government will further sell another 10% of its stake to IOC (5%), BPCL and HPCL. The IPO monies would thus finance the company’s Cpex requirement for the next 2 years across its exploration contracts in Assam, Rajasthan ( new fields in management contract with Cairn – the first Production Sharing Contract) and even its overseas bids in Libya and Venezuela, not the ones in Nigeria.

OIL is the newest entrant in India’s energy story, following on the footsteps of ONGC Videsh and ONGC while it has purportedly on paper, more market friendly organization values and has reserves of $500 billion in the new NEPC VI fields. However, It has relinquished interest in North Cachar and other Assam fields award in 2004.

In keeping with India’s Infrastructure story’s imperatives and as per the ever increasing financing gap of $384 billion at 2005 prices and $475 billion at current prices (as per EGOM estimates, India Infrastructure Report 2008, IDFC, 3i network) the issue has been super-sized. Unfortunately SEBI has still not uploaded any revised prospectus/offer document since the last one was filed for an issue half the size in December 2007. Since then, while India’s Oil subsidy bill has soared to over INR 100000 crores for both 2008 and 2009, OIL has managed its exploration and distribution activity safely to become profitable and is looking to fund the completion of its exploration projects through this issue.

OIL will be critical to the FTSE India Infrastructure 30 index introduced in 2007 and ETFs around the same will be in high demand once the listing of these shares is completed as Institutional appetite for Indian public sector infrastructure stories will continue to be robust for the more than $10 billion to be raised in the six months since July 2009 and another $20 billion that may be raised in 2010.

With Oil prices currently ruling at $70-75 and OPEC targeting an increase to $100, we are back in an inflationary situation where exporting 20% of our domestic reequirment though cash accretive is still not enough to bring down our costs, while increasing our domestic production remains slow and torturous. OIL remains immune to the imbalance however and will be free to purchase and sell at market prices using more efficient trading mechanisms than currently practiced by the consequent coalitions and thus its financials are likely to be strong. However, they are unlikely to be on par with a private sector Cairn Energy or Reliance in terms of these efficiencies. OIL does share the subsidy bill as under recovery, but it is still likely that because of it being a new corporate, itwill suffer only minor losses on the said account and IOC and HPCL wil maintain primacy with regards to paying the bills

The LNG/LPG situation however in the market today can be easily capitalized by OIL, where neither $4.20 or $2.34 is a fair price, global markets ruling currently at $3.45 ( mid-August 2009) It has reserves of 77 billion cu. mtrs of Gas including contingency reserves primarily in the Rajasthan basin

Also, it had initially suffered losses in production in the Dikom fields with 2007 production being 2.23 million barrels, less than half of its 1999 production. Still, in the face of global competition it has secured 21 of the 46 fields awarded by the government till date under NELP. The Rajasthan fields that it operates under PSC cover nearly 4000 sq. kms. They are a first step in diversification of OIL’s over dependence on Asssam and the single 1220 km pipeline from the terrorist infested areas there in. Of its last known turnover of $1.2 billion, costs include 20% royalties for crude oil and 10% royalties for natural gas and offshore oil, and underrecovery from crude supplied to public sector refineries which is 80% of the company’s revenue. they also pay approx 5% of this revenue to the Assam government in taxes on oil bearing land. Apart from owning the pipeline from Assam ( 44 million barrels in 2007) it also owns 26% in NRL and 10% in BCPL refineries. the current Capex includes exploratory wells and 2D and 3D seismic data acquisition in the fields being developed of the 38000 sq kms awarded to OIL till date ( 75% thru NELP )

[Tags India, India Infrastructure, IPOs, OIL, ETF, EEM, Emerging Markets, Russia, China, Energy]

[Category India, India Infrastructure]

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NMDC update (Divestment + Infrastructure = Mega IPO Tickets)

zyakaira — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:48:44 +0000

As per current Ministry of Steel meetings, the NMDC stake sale is likely to be of 15% in which case it could easily be over Rs 2000 crores ($400m) at CMP of 375 ( $7.50) As also the ones for Adani Power, Godrej, Indiabulls Power..i think it can happen given that each will have $40-50 million from retail investors, but it requires disciplined Institutional Investors who believe the India story..anyway, this kind of volume has not been done ever before in the same year, but then this is the era of Infrastructure.

Foreign portfolio investors have poured in $8.7 billion since April, while speculation is already rife for PSU divestment in Coal India and National Hydro Electric Corp in the Power sector, each easily worth a $1 b for 15-20% stake. Also SBI Infrastructure fund with Macquarie has raised its bucket size to 1.5 billion adding another $500m.

A dani Power is raising $600m. NHPC is going first planning to issue more than 70 crore shares of Rs 10 par value for offer including a existing 5% stake unlikely to be issued at par(despite reports) to net 2500 crores for 15% of the company capital NHPC also plans to invest Rs 28,000 crore by 2012 to position itself as over 10,000 MW utility. At present, its generation capacity stands at 5,200 MW. The proceeds from the IPO would partly be utilised to finance the expansions.

Indiabulls Power seems to have issued earlier capital at a premium and a current QIP at 25% of the Original at Par to raise a further 200 Cr ( $40m) Thus it is curently sitting on unutilised capital of 2200 crores ($440m). It has two Power plants planned in Maharashtra with the first in Nasik of 1335MW capacity (shld cost between (5500 cr to 7000 cr OR $1.1-1.4 billion) It is unlikely to try for any considerable premium if it comes first.

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Adani Power – Will Infrastructure Finance get Public Participation

zyakaira — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:55:38 +0000

Adani Power is coming out with the next Public Issue that will be closely watched in two weeks and with 30 crore shares on offer, it could easily mop up 3000 Crores for its 13.5% post IPO stake on offer. For a total projects of 6600 MW in Mundra, Dahej and Tiroda, the company estimates a cost of Rs 29000 Crores or $ 5.8 b which is a little under Reliance’s estimate of $1m per MW. The promoters are doing a lot of jugglery between the projects as they also own Mundra port et al but they do have preliminary PPA arrangements with Haryana ( Mundra Ph IV) , MP (Tiroda) and Mundra Port, Gujarat, Maharashtra (Mundra, Dahej). these are big ticket issues and one mis-step in the market could easily derail the infrastructure engine for 12-18 months

Adani Power has done some private placements in Mar and even in June and most are at par, with some at a premium of Rs 90, which seems to make for a really large shareholder base and may dilute premium for others? Does that mean they anticipate a weak response to the market? Probably, it is just the cost of long term venture equity. Interestingly out of the @180 million shares post issue, 1450 million would have no lock up or lock in ( lock up) period of less than one year. For the Mndra project, Phase I&II was financed by a consortium of Public Sector Banks borught together by ICICI Bank for Rs 3200 Crores ( $640 m)

[Tags India, India Infrastructure, Power, Indian Economy, Mundra, Ports, SEZ, Financial Markets, Reliance ADA]

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More Capital for Reliance ADA Grp

zyakaira — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:01:50 +0000

At its RNRL and Reliance Capital AGMs today, Anil Ambani announced new Capital raising plans for its Insurance and Infrastructure companies including the Western Freeway Sealink, utilizing the current buoyancy in the markets to “unlock value” Thus efforts continue to overcome challenges to RNRL from the new legal action by customers and Government for actioning RIL PSC (Production Share Contracts)

Reliance ADA Grp made plans public for spending Rs 10000 Crores ($2b) to add 20MT pa capacity in Cement making apart from reiterating its earlier plans for Insurance ( That would be a large 1000 cr, $200m issue before QIP). Reliance also announced that it would be diversifying into Investment Banking later this year. They have recently floated a Domestic Investor focussed Private Equity fund and will obviously learn from previous aborted ventures of Rel Capital when it was more a shared concern of the two brothers as also a direct support line for Grand Ambani plans

In related news, Yes Bank has also organized a $250 m QIP while, IDFC has added 40K ESOPs to its capital and IFCI has acquired Rs 300 cr ( $60m of MCX from the software team at FTIL) The iron is hot, and ADA has always been the more financially literate and savvy teams.

[Tags India, India Infrastructure, IPOs, Infrastructure, Indian Economy, Reliance ADA, Anil Ambani]

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The First Divestment: NMDC

zyakaira — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:47:51 +0000

The NMDC Divestment should proceed smoothly for a 5% stake if approved. Other DRHPs filed include Godrej Properties and Indiabulls Power which may do well despite not very strong management and doubtful assets ( Godrej has most of its land bank in JVs with partners , while Indiabulls Poer is moving into an unrelated field after a not so successful RE and NBFC run) for NMDC if a 5% divestment comes through it would raise around 750 crores at current market prices which already seem to be around their average 6 months value in anticipation and seem like a good starting point for the Divestment to roll.

NMDC is India’s single largest iron ore producer and exporter, presently producing about 30 million tons of iron ore from 3 fully mechanized mines viz., Bailadila Deposit-14/11C, Bailadila Deposit-5, 10/11A (Chhattisgarh State) and Donimalai Iron Ore Mines (Karnataka State) which are awarded ISO 9001-2000 certification.

NMDC has the only mechanized diamond mine in the country with a capacity of 1.00 lakh carats / annum at Panna ( Madhya Pradesh State ). The organization is under the charge of Ministry of Steel, which will continue after the divestment.

As of 31st March 2009, we had 5650 employees producing a profit of INR 6500 Crores ( $1.33 billion). It was categorized as a Navratna (Crown Jewel) in Nov 2008 in preparation for its public issue. The primary Bailadila Ore deposits are supplied to Essar, Ispat Industries and others replacing sponge iron because of their beneficial metallurgy. Others like Kudremukh and Khetri were handed over to third parties to run as independent legal entities ( public or private) the management links its fortune with that of the strong demand led growth of the Steel Industry.

The stock has recently moved from 300 to 375 on news of divestment and has also signed steel companies in Japan and Korea at a long term rate. they signed a JV with Rio Tinto in Aug 2008 to expand their exploration outside India and with South African company Kopana ke Matla for exploration in Africa/SA. The equity base of the company is Rs 396 crores ( $80 million) from a three fold bonus in FY09. NMDC also plans to own 51% of Kudremukh Iron Ore ( KIOCL) for INR 315 crores ( $63 million). NMDC paid a dividend of RS 1200 crores in FY09 ( $240 million)

NMDC is also working with Adani Power, Monnet Ispat and others to plan development of its coal fields. Interestingly, it has also announced plans for a downstream steel plant in Karnataka (10MT) and another in Chhattisgarh (3MT) according to the company MD Rana Som. t present, per capita consumption of steel in the country is 47-50 kg as against the global average of 180 kg. India exported 90 million tonnes of iron ore in 2005-06 out of which 68.5 million tonnes went to China and that exports account for about 60% of Indias iron ore production. (steelguru.com)

[Tags India, India Infrastructure, IPOs, Infrastructure, Indian Economy]

[Categories India Infrastructure]

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India's new boom – Infrastructure, Lifestyle and Entertainment

zyakaira — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:15:00 +0000

If you have been following the India story closely, India’s new developments are focussed on Infrastructure and Retail along with giant leaps in the Entertainment business. You can look closely at the India stories at http://advantages.us/inframils to get a flavor of what’s happening.

ADA Reliance (BIG entertainment) has today announced details of its venture with Dreamworks (Steven Spielberg) planning a 40% stake in the final entity capitalised at approx $830 million ($1b at USD rate of Rs. 40) with Disney holding another 15%. The Company holds a target of producing 5-6 films a year. BIG already has agreements with Nicholas Cage’s Saturn, Jim Carrey’s JC23, George Clooney’s Smokehouse, Chris Columbus’s 1492 Pictures, Tom Hank’s Playtone and Brad Pitt’s Plan B among others

On the other hand Retail Lifestyle businesses are increasingly attracting investors with Rabobank’s India Agribusiness Fund picking up a 25% stake in Kishore Biyani’s Aadhaar Retail. Modern retailing businesses in India are predominantly located in cities with FDI restrictions except for Cash & Carry Businesses (100%) and Single Brand retail (51%) Rural Markets may grow at a faster pace at least on the Drawing board. One such project which extends Bangalore’s urban footprint to Bidadi is the Innovative Film City which also showcases the marriage of the rural and the urban as Bangalore expands to the West and the East and remains the fastest growing City in India. The problems on the ground remain. While the new real estate projects are trying to make a strong statement, the depression blues have not gone anywhere. In the showcased retail fund in ET today, for example, apart from Rabo Bank, the other investors are the usual suspects, IFC Washington a couple of /developed/semi developed state development bank(s) and institutions and select private investors. Where is Investor access? Why is it still on the government to make it happen? The FDI limits and the others are fairly rational policies..but where are the investors? Why are global investors so selective about projects? What does it take for them to find out ground realities and put it in the appropriate framework? At the end of the day India’s share in the Emerging Markets Indices is just 5% and emerging Markets worldwide probably get less than 20% of the global capital flows. One Federal Stimulus by Obama will be enough to keep US bankrupt for the next decade. I am not sure we are doing this right.

Nanos will roll into homes by July end and IPL teams are already applying for trademarks as it looks set to become the greatest sporting extravaganza in the world, already ranked at #2 behind the NFL season in the USA. The 3G challenge will tear at Telecom companies’ profits in the coming years ( MTNL has managed 1000 subscribers in its sneak rollout) while public divestment targets were also subdued in the budget but are firming up. The Global ID cards will be implemented pretty slowly, starting off as a Central database, depending of departmental initiative to share information from tax to passport and BPL ration cards, credit card data and other biometric features to enable security and duplicate allocations etc.

Health and Education have just recently been provided a long lost policy focus. But these investments will also yield success only when the fully integrate into India’s new Lifestyle Economy. Today the same investments are required in the US and the developing world. We need roads, we need power supply, we need an educated performing population and we need affordable healthcare.

There are other things to be done. To quote the Policy pages of The Economic Times ( pg. 11, Arvind Mayaram) – While investments in roads, ports, airports and urban amenities have a cascading effect on the virtuous cycle of stimulating demand..the impact is the quickest and most spread out through investment in tourism infrastructure. India received just 5.37 million foreign tourists as compared to 57.6 million in Spain. Tourism arrivals grew during the recession worldwide as well.

Global collaboration and Private enterprise cannot function without the appropriate investment infrastructure either. Investment flows are still uneven and the tenets of this new dream unpostulated. The new web has however found an entry point in global business with increasing discussions on structuring the global memes that bring in change. The question is, as they say in Hindi – Kaise hoga? How will we make it happen!

India’s ICICI Bank is redesigning itself, taking more control of Investment Banking and Venture Capital business while private sector banking players are watching from the sidelines with Kotak Bank and Yes Bank not having the underwriting power or the global reach to finance and provide institutional support to those like the Innovative Film City in Bangalore or even others in and around New Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore and the growing cities of the country making this new boom more a story on paper yet than on the ground. It will be private enterprise that will win in the end with divestments from the government netting probably Rs 50,000 crores to the government to provide the support ( current target is firming up at Rs 15000 Crores or $ 3.15 billion)

This is our story and we have to make it happen. When it does happen it will be a sterling surprise for India’s citizens. One budget cannot make it happen. But all of us can. And we have already decided to make it happen. Onward we move after Outsourcing, to new avenues for progress and growth. Will the Banking sector step up to the requirement? Will new social media bring in more than awareness and readership? How will we move forward? This is not about enabling policy. This is about hard investments. Anyone who can make a successful investment in India’s Lifestyle story will be able to create a successful brand and a successful business empire. Anyone who supports Private Consumption will have the right project skills to win for Team India.

Tags: Global Investing, BRIC, Emerging Markets, India, India Infrastructure, Retail Lifestyle, Infrastructure, urban infrastructure, rural infrastructure, Power, Roads, Entertainment, Advantage zyaada, zyaada, zyakaira, Lifestyle Economy, Amitonomics

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