Business News at 05:30 pm on 13th May, 2024

Let’s begin…Varun Beverages on Monday announced its first quarter earnings for the calendar year 2024 with profit at Rs 547.98 crore, up 24.9 per cent in comparison to Rs 438.57 crore during the same period last year. It posted revenue from operations at Rs 4397.98 crore, up 11.3 per cent as against Rs 3952.59 crore during the same quarter the previous year. The company EBITDA stood at Rs 990 crore, up 24 per cent YoY. EBITDA growth was led by higher gross margins and increased realization. This improvement is in-spite of rise in fixed costs associated with the acquisition of new territories and commissioning of new greenfield plants for the season, the company said in a regulatory filing. Next up, Shares of Cipla surged by over 6% in early trading on Monday as the pharma company reported a 79% jump in the net profit in Q4FY24. The stock rallied by 6.44% to reach an intra-day high of Rs 1,425.95 per share on the NSE. Pharmaceutical giant Cipla announced a net profit of Rs 939 crore for the quarter ending March 2024, marking a significant 79% surge from the Rs 525 crore reported in the corresponding period last year. Revenue from operations also witnessed a 7% year-on-year increase to Rs 6,163 crore during the March quarter. The company’s board proposed a final dividend of Rs 13 per equity share for the fiscal year ended March 2024. Moving on, VA Tech Wabag, a pure-play water technology Indian Multinational Group, on Monday announced that it has secured a repeat order of about $49 million from Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited, funded by Asian Development Bank. The order, it added, entails Design, Build, Operate, towards three Waste Water Treatment Plants in Nepal at Sallaghari, Kodku and Dhobighat to treat about 69 MLD of waste water, and is expected to be completed over a period of 24 months, followed by a 5 year operation and maintenance. The company said in a regulatory filing, quote, ‘Wabag’s proven track-record with the client, coupled with a technically superior bid was instrumental in securing this order win against international competition, thereby further strengthening Wabag’s leadership in the South Asian region, end quote. In other news, 91 cases of the new COVID-19 Omicron subvariant KP.2 have been reported in Maharashtra. Reportedly, the state recorded the cases of the variant in January this year. The Omicron subvariant KP.2 has outpaced the previously circulating JN.1 variant and is now driving cases in several countries. According to media reports, Pune has reported 51 cases and Thane 20 cases of KP.2, which was first detected globally in January. According to Dr. Karyakarte, the state’s genome sequencing coordinator, there hasn’t been any proportionate increase in hospitalizations or serious cases. It is noteworthy that KP.2 is a part of a larger group known as the FLiRT variants. The variants are off-shoots of Omicron and get their name from spike protein mutations. In another development, Biocon Limited announced the signing of a semi-exclusive distribution and supply agreement with Medix, a specialty pharmaceutical company in Mexico. According to its statement, the agreement has been signed for the commercialisation of its vertically integrated drug product, Liraglutide, used in the treatment of chronic weight management. Under the terms of this agreement, Biocon will undertake the responsibility of obtaining regulatory approval, manufacturing and supply of the drug product, and Medix will be responsible for its commercialization in the Mexican market. Medix has been working for more than 70 years in developing solutions to address the overweight and obesity burden in a country where 70 percent of the population is dealing with the disease, to improve their quality of life. Some more market news, Indegene was listed at Rs 655, a premium of 45% to its issue price on the National Stock Exchange. The company raised a total of Rs 1,841.76 crore from investors. It offered investors 40.7 million shares of the company. In the grey market, Indegene’s shares were attracting a premium of 61% to its issue price. The grey market is an unofficial market where stocks of the companies change hands illegally before listing. Investors track grey market premiums to assess the listing price of stocks. Indegene IPO set the price band between the range of Rs 430 to Rs 452 crore. It opened the issue on May 06 and closed it on May 08. Lastly, The benchmark equity indices opened Monday’s trading session in the negative territory. The NSE Nifty 50 opens down by 27.25 points or 0.12% at 22,027.95, while the BSE Sensex drops 187.82 points or 0.26% to 72,476.65 in the opening trade. The broader indices opened in mixed territory. Bank Nifty index opens lower by just 31.30 points or 0.07% to settle at 47,389.80. Cipla, Asian Paints, Divi’s Lab, Adani Ports, and Adani Enterprises were the top gainers in the Nifty 50. While Tata Motors, BPCL, Shriram Finance, ONGC, and NTPC were the major losers in the Nifty 50 on May 13.