Stocks to Watch: HUL, Adani Ent, Hindustan Zinc, LTTS, PVR, AUSFB

Hindustan Unilever: Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) on Thursday beat Street expectations with a 12% rise in quarterly net profit, with the maker of household goods gaining from higher demand for products and easing inflationary pressures. The company’s board also approved an increased payout to its European parent Unilever Plc for providing technology, trademark licences and services. This entails paying royalty and central services fees at 3.45% of HUL’s revenue, up from 2.65% in FY22. The new arrangement, which is effective from February, will be in force for a period of five years. Meanwhile, HUL’s standalone net profit climbed to ₹2,505 crore for the three months ended 31 December, from ₹2,243 crores a year earlier. A Bloomberg survey of analysts forecast the company to report a profit of ₹2,488 crore.

Adani Enterprises: Billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd, which is set to raise ₹20,000 crore through a follow-on public offer, expects all its business verticals across roads, airports and industries, to achieve the scale for independent listing between 2026 and 2029. Adani Enterprises is the incubation platform of the group, having spun off businesses across ports, transmission, renewables and city gas distribution into separate listed entities. Adani Enterprises’ six core business verticals including primary industry, Adani Wilmar, the fast-moving consumer goods arm, airports, roads, data centres and Adani new industries are exactly where they should be in their journey, said Jugeshinder Singh, chief financial officer, Adani Group.

Hindustan Zinc: Hindustan Zinc, a subsidiary of Vedanta, on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹2,156 crore for the December quarter, which is 20% lower than ₹2,701 crore reported in the year-ago period. The company also informed that the company’s chairperson and director, Kiran Agarwal has stepped down, with effect from 18 January 2023. Hindustan Zinc’s nomination and remuneration committee has approved the appointment of Priya Agarwal to the position of chairman of the company, with immediate effect. “It is to inform that Mrs. Kiran Agarwal, Chairperson and director of the Company had stepped down from the board w.e.f. January 18, 2023, to pursue Vedanta Group Chairman’s vision to give back 75% of his wealth to the society through his personal foundation,” said the company in its regulatory filing.

L&T Tech Services: L&T Technology Services on Thursday reported a 22% rise in net profit to ₹303.6 crore for the December 2022 quarter. This is against a net profit of ₹248.8 crore in the year-ago period, L&T Tech Services said in a regulatory filing. The revenue of the company grew by 21.4% to ₹2,048.6 crore in the quarter under review from ₹1,687.5 crore a year ago, said L&T Technology Services in the filing. EBIT for the quarter stood at ₹382.9 crore while the EBIT margin was at 18.7%. Growth in the quarter was muted due to seasonality and higher than expected impact from furloughs, especially in the Plant Engineering segment,” said Amit Chadha, CEO & Managing Director of L&T Technology Services Limited.

AU Small Finance Bank: AU Small Finance Bank posted the highest-ever quarterly profit from operating activities in the third quarter of FY23 with PAT rising by 30.1% to ₹392.82 crore compared to ₹302. 04 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Q3 PAT rises by 14.66% from ₹342.6 crore in September 2022 quarter. AU Small continued to deliver strong and consistent performance across parameters in Q3 despite the challenging macro environment. Also, the lender’s asset quality improved further. AU Small said, “Q3’FY23 was another quarter of strong and consistent performance across parameters delivering healthy & calibrated loans and deposits growth, stable margins and asset quality, and sustained traction across credit cards and other digital initiatives amidst a challenging macro environment.”

PVR: PVR announced its third quarter ending December 31, 2022 (Q3FY23) results on Thursday. The leading multiplex operator turned profitable in Q3FY23 by recording PAT to the tune of ₹16.15 crore versus losses of ₹10.18 crore in Q3FY22 and ₹71.23 crore in Q2FY23. PVR witnessed a sharp bounce back from the previous quarter on the back of strong content performance. PVR’s top-line front also witnessed strong growth. In Q3FY23, the company’s consolidated revenue from operations rose by 53.17% to ₹940.69 crore compared to ₹614.15 crore in the same quarter a year ago. The revenue was up by 36.98% from ₹686.72 crore in September 2022 quarter.

Bhel: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on Thursday said that it has won an order for the renovation and modernisation (R&M) of steam turbines at Ukai Thermal Power Station (TPS) in Gujarat. The order valued at ₹300 crore, is for the 200 MW Unit-3 and the 210 MW Unit-5 of the Ukai Thermal Power Station. The order has been placed on BHEL by Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited. BHEL is also the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of these turbines. It is expected to extend the life and reliability of Units-3&5 at Ukai TPS.

Indiamart Intermesh: Indiamart Intermesh Ltd, a B2B e-commerce company, on Thursday reported a 60.68% rise in its consolidated net profit to ₹112.8 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2022. The company had posted a consolidated profit of ₹70.2 crore in the October-December quarter a year ago, it said in a regulatory filing. Its consolidated revenue from operations in the third quarter rose 33.65% to ₹251.4 crore against ₹188.1 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, it added. Commenting on the results Indiamart Intermesh CEO Dinesh Agarwal said it was led by growth in revenue, deferred revenue, paying subscription suppliers and cash flow from operations with healthy margins.

Jubilant Foodworks: Food services company Jubilant Foodworks Ltd on Thursday said it will invest ₹900 crore over 12-18 months to expand Domino’s and Popeyes outlets; improve digital infrastructure; and add food commissaries, back-end units which service its restaurant kitchens. JFL currently has a network of 1,701 Domino’s restaurants across 371 cities across India. In a stock exchange filing, the company that holds exclusive master franchise rights from Domino’s Pizza Inc. to develop and operate the brand in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal, said it plans to open 250 Domino’s stores in the next 12-18 months, and 3,000 outlets of the pizza chain in the medium term.

Sun Pharma: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd on Thursday agreed to buy Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $576 million to access the US company’s experimental drugs for treating skin diseases, including patchy hair loss. Concert Pharmaceuticals has an extensive patent portfolio, including its lead product candidate, deuruxolitinib, a late-stage drug for treating alopecia areata, an autoimmune dermatological disease resulting in patchy hair loss. The deal will help strengthen Sun Pharma’s dermatology product range in the US. The company said its immediate focus is on submitting a New Drug Application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of 2023.