EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. On the opening date of Vedanta’s delisting offer (October 5, 2020), ICICI Securities (I-Sec) issued a results research note on Vedanta with the following bizarre statement: “Vedanta has highlighted the SEBI approved book value (ex the revaluation reserves) of Rs 89.3/share.” I-Sec, a listed subsidiary of...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Indusind Bank, once a hot favourite of the market and of institutional investors, is fast losing its lustre. It has fallen by around 21% in the past year, and lost around US$ 1.4 bn for shareholders. But right through this decline, while the market had concerns on...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Despite reporting a 36% yoy fall in 3QFY2021 net profits and being below consensus estimates, Axis Bank’s share price on January 28, 2021 closed 6% up, while the Nifty-50 declined by 1%. The strong and positive response to the bank’s results was surprising, as Axis Bank declined...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. ICICI Bank reported strong profits for 2QFY2022, with standalone net profits increasing by 30% YoY to Rs 55 bn., enthusing the market. The bank has been focusing on retail loans to drive its assets and profits, after heavily haemorrhaging on corporate loans prior to FY2020. The retail...
Hemindra Hazari
The year is not even three weeks old but has already been unkind to financial markets. The stock market is back to pre-Modi levels; the rupee is back to pre-Raghuram Rajan levels.
While global markets absorbed the US Federal hike in late December 2015, the stock market meltdown in...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Under the threat of being pulled up for contempt of court by the Supreme Court of India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) finally disclosed the confidential inspection reports, called Risk Assessment Reports, of some banks requested under the Right to Information Act (RTI), 2005. The reports,...
Romesh Sobti, CEO, Indusind Bank, is a veteran banker with 43 years’ experience. He recently went on record to defend the bank’s substantial bridge loan to the fast-collapsing IL&FS, a systemically important non-deposit-taking core investment company. Sadly, he found this writer’s earlier insight on Indusind to be “nasty” and...
The unseemly public jostling between India’s central bank and the government of India casts a poor light on both institutions. Adhering to unrealistic fiscal deficit constraints has compelled the government to plunder public institutions such as the Life Insurance Corporation of India, ONGC and now the Reserve Bank of...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. This analyst’s research note on September 24, 2021 highlighted HDFC Bank’s disturbing practice of extracting ‘processing fees’ from prospective customers who applied for loans using false/fabricated documents. Following this, the media finally woke up (here and here) from their self-induced slumber. HDFC Bank was forced to issue...
