Adani Enterprises, Biocon, Vedanta, ICICI Bank, L&T, HCL Tech and others in news

Auto stocks: Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki India, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS Motor Company, Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland, Escorts Kubota, etc. will be in focus ahead of the announcement of sales volume for February.

Adani Enterprises: The company has divested its 100 percent stake in subsidiary Vizag Tech Park to Adani Infrastructure and Developers for Rs 150.81 crore. With this, Vizag Tech Park has ceased to be a subsidiary of the company.

Biocon: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted an inspection at Biocon Biologics’ Biocon Campus (Site 1) facility during February 20–28, which pertains to the rh-Insulin (rhI) drug substance supply to a customer for veterinary use. After the inspection, the US FDA issued Form 483 with four observations. The company will submit a comprehensive Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) plan to the US FDA within the stipulated time and is committed to addressing these observations expeditiously. The outcome of this inspection at site 1 does not impact the manufacturing and distribution of the company’s commercial products in the US market.

Godrej Industries: The company has increased its stake in subsidiary Godrej Capital to 89.48 percent, up from 87.23 percent earlier. It has bought the said 2.25 percent stake from June 2023 to February 2024. Godrej Capital is a core investment company that holds equity shares of Godrej Housing Finance and Godrej Finance.

ICICI Bank: The private sector lender has purchased an additional 25,14,365 equity shares of ICICI Lombard General Insurance for around Rs 431 crore. Consequently, ICICI Lombard has become a subsidiary of the bank. On February 27, it bought 80,98,658 equity shares in ICICI Lombard for Rs 1,356 crore.

Vedanta: The Supreme Court dismissed Vedanta’s plea seeking reopening of its Sterlite Copper smelter plant in Tamil Nadu for judgment. The court said it has to be mindful of the principle of sustainable development, and the health and welfare of the residents of the area are matters of utmost concern.

TVS Motor Company: Subsidiary TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte Ltd. has paid 2 million euros and initiated the acquisition of 8,000 equity shares in Killwatt GmbH. Post-acquisition, the shareholding of TVS Motor (Singapore) in Killwatt GmbH will be increased from 39.28 percent to 49 percent via newly issued shares of Killwatt GmbH.

Larsen & Toubro: The infrastructure major has announced commissioning its first indigenously manufactured electrolyser at the green hydrogen plant at the A M Naik Heavy Engineering Complex in Hazira, Gujarat.

MOIL: The state-run manganese-ore mining company has raised the prices of ferro grades with manganese content below Mn-44 percent by 5 percent on the prevailing prices, with effect from March 1 to March 2024.

Lemon Tree Hotels: The hotel chain has opened Lemon Tree Resort, Kumbhalgarh, in Rajasthan. This is the seventh property in Rajasthan under the company’s umbrella.

Pidilite Industries: The adhesives and sealants maker said the board approved the appointment of Sudhanshu Vats as managing director designate and Kavinder Singh as executive director and joint managing director designate. They will take charge as Managing Director and Joint Managing Director from April 2025, after the completion of the term of the current Managing Director, Bharat Puri.

Chalet Hotels: The hotel chain said it has received approval from the Board of Directors for the acquisition of partners’ shares in Ayushi and Poonam Estates LLP for Rs 315 crore. Ayushi & Poonam Estates is the owning entity of Courtyard by Marriott, Aravalli, in the National Capital Region.

HCL Technologies: The global technology company launched FlexSpace 5G, an advanced digital workplace experience-as-a-service that boosts efficiency and security for global businesses.

Aurobindo Pharma: The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) inspected the injectable facility of Eugia SEZ, a step-down subsidiary of the pharma company at Mahaboobnagar, Telangana, during February 19–29. The health regulator closed the inspection with seven observations that were procedural in nature. Meanwhile, Eugia Pharma Specialties has restarted production in its terminally sterilized product lines at its Unit-III, which was temporarily stopped to address some of the observations of the USFDA in their recent inspection concluded on February 2, 2024. Aurobindo expects to start the production in the aseptic lines of the facility in March 2024.

Tips Industries: After a successful partnership for more than three years, Warner Music has expanded its agreement with music label Tips Industries. This new deal will now see Warner Music take on the commercial and distribution responsibilities for all Tips Music’s frontline and catalog music on all audio streaming apps, which spans across 23 Indian languages and 30,000+ songs.

Siemens: Daniel Spinder has ceased to be the Chief Financial Officer of the company, with effect from March 1, 2024. Hence, Wolfgang Wrumnig has been appointed as the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the company for 5 years, with effect from March 1, and Orban von Fedak has been appointed as the Finance Head of the company’s mobility business.

GPT Healthcare: Foreign investor Nomura Singapore sold 4,53,693 equity shares (or a 0.55 percent stake) in the hospital chain at an average price of Rs 202.46 per share.

CG Power and Industrial Solutions: Murugappa Group Company CG Power, semiconductor solutions company Renesas Electronics Corporation, and Thailand-based outsourced semiconductor assembly and test provider Stars Microelectronics (Thailand) Public Co. Ltd. recently signed a joint venture agreement (JVA) to build and operate an outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facility in India.

BGR Energy Systems: Promoter Sasikala Raghupathy sold the remaining personal shareholding of 30,65,946 equity shares (equivalent to 4.2 percent of paid-up equity) via open market transactions at an average price of Rs 50.9 per share. With this, Sasikala exited BGR by offloading a total of 1,73,14,450 equity shares (equivalent to 23.99 percent of paid-up equity) since February 21.

CMS Info Systems: The business services platform said Rajiv Kaul, Executive Vice Chairman, Whole Time Director, and CEO, has increased his stake in the company from 2.62 percent to 6.20 percent.

Kesoram Industries: The company has entered into a facility agreement to avail financial assistance and a loan worth Rs 1,850 crore from Tata Capital, Tata Capital Housing Finance, and Hero Fincorp. The loan has been taken for refinancing existing debts, transactions, and other expenses.

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank: The Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of S. Ravindran as the part-time chairman of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, with effect from February 29, 2024, until August 2, 2026. The RBI approval is subject to S. Ravindran stepping down from his directorships in Shriram Finance and Bandhan AMC prior to assuming charge as the part-time chairman of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank.

Suven Pharmaceuticals: Suven Pharmaceuticals and Cohance Lifesciences announced the scheme of amalgamation for the merger of Cohance with Suven. Cohance is a leading CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) and merchant API platform. Cohance shareholders will get 11 equity shares of Suven for every 295 shares of Cohance. Advent entities will own 66.7 percent of the stake, and the public shareholders will hold 33.3 percent of the combined entity (pre-ESOP dilution).

Craftsman Automation: The automotive ancillary company will commence the commercial operations of its new plant at Sriperumbudur, with effect from March 1.

Rallis India: The Tata Group company said the board has appointed Gyanendra Shukla as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company for 5 years with effect from April 1, 2024, to take over from Sanjiv Lal on completion of his term on March 31, 2024.

MPS: Subsidiary MPS North America LLC has acquired AJE LLC, including its subsidiary American Journal Online (Beijing) Information Consulting. The company enters the B2C marketplace and significantly enhances its AI capabilities.

Thinkink Picturez: Societe Generale has bought 3,00,837 equity shares in the company at an average price of Rs 78.65 per share, and BofA Securities Europe SA purchased 3,07,654 equity shares at an average price of Rs 78.84 per share. Sunflower Broking picked 3 lakh shares at an average price of Rs 78.52 per share, and Yashwantbhai A Thakker picked 3.5 lakh shares at an average price of Rs 79.05 per share.

Sadhav Shipping: The marine assets operator is set to list its equity shares on the NSE Emerge on March 1. The issue price is Rs 95 per share. Its equity shares will be available for trading in the trade-for-trade surveillance segment.