Suzlon's CFO Sumant Sinha quits to start his own advisory firm: ET reports

As I had reported in my previous post about Suzlon's CFO quiting and reasons not known, (ET confirms the news) but now he gives reason...

Sumant Sinha, has decided to step down from the position witheffect from 1st June 2010, he will pursue his own entrepreneurial interest and sets up his own financial advisory consultancy.

His first Signed - up client is SUZLON ENERGY LTD, to provide high level strategic advice and counsel to the board and managment team.

"I want to persue my own enterpreneurial path for sometime now and financial advisory firm allows me to launch off on my own and deeper dive in many interesting areas", Sinha said.

"I look forward to my continued association with Suzlon and I am delighted that it will be my first client," he added.

Suzlon's chairman, Tulsi Tanti, said that "Sinha's contribution in buliding relationships with important stake holders has been very valueable in getting Suzlon back on track where it is now well-positioned to ride through the current turbulance in the global environment and to rediscover success once again"

Mean while Suzlon's results was out as expected not good, giving Sales down by 28% at Rs.6160 cr, and Net Loss of Rs.188 cr vs Net Profit of Rs.315 cr. Group Revenue at Rs.20620 cr ($4.3 bn) for year FY09-10.

NET DEBTS as on 31st March 2010 down to Rs.10153 crs v/s Rs.12189 cr. Consolidated Net Debt Rs.9764 crs.

Company approves Rights issue of face value Rs.2 to its existing equity shareholders.

RE Power FY10 net income up at Euro 57.9 mn (Rs.333.504 cr), But SUZLON's CFO QUITS

RE Power, a subsidiary of Suzlon Energy, has announced its financial year 2009-10 results.

It has reported net income of Euro 57.9 million (Rs.333.504 cr) as against Euro 51.9 million (Rs.298.944 cr) (YoY).

Sales rose 8.5% to Euro 1.3 billion (Rs.7488 cr) versus Euro 1.2 billion (Rs.6912 cr) (YoY).

Earning before interest and tax (EBIT) margin improved at 7.4% versus 6.3%. Order backlog rose 40% to Euro 2.1 billion (Rs.12096 cr) .

REPower Guidance -

-Management expects a 10-20% increase in the overall performance

-Sales guidance of approximately. Euro 1.5 to 1.6 billion (Rs.8640 - Rs.9216 cr)

-EBIT margins seen increasing to 7.5-8.5% .

BUT, Suzlon Energy Ltd's Chief Operating Officer Sumant Sinha has quited today.

Sinha was considered to have been responsible for the company’s recent refinancing of its overseas bonds. An official announcement may be made today, Sinha was previously with Aditya Birla Retail and the Son of fromer finance minister Mr. Yaswant Sinha.....With Sumant quiting future of Suzlon's debt restructuring seems to be in dark........Meanwhile waiting for the official declaration of Suzlons results......

Suzlon Energy's result on 29th May 2010. at 4.30pm Pune, (please notice the timing of post...reported much earlier than all...)

UPDATE : GRASIM IND SAMRUDDHI DEMERGER

Details as on 21-May-2010

Share price- Rs.2,452.95;

Market Cap- Rs.22,370.79 cr;

52 Week- H- Rs.2,988.00; L- Rs.2,005.55;

P/E- 10.24; EPS- Rs.238.26;

Book value – Rs.1,033.36; Industry P/E - 19.26

Dividend – Rs.30; Fv- Rs.10;

Total Share Issued- 9,16,83,571 shares;

Promoter’s holding- 2,33,81,176 shares; Promoter’s holding in %- 25.50%;

As known to everyone earlier in my previous post Grasim has 65% stake while Grasim's shareholders will have 35% direct stake in Samruddhi Cement. So Grasims share price should adjust for 35% of Samruddhi's business.

On MAY 26 2010 (ex- date) by Ultra Tech Cement closing price (May 25,2010) the merger ratio of 4:7 ie 4 Ultra Tech Cement for 7 Samruddhi Cements. based on 26th May 2010 wednesday's closing price Grasim's share price should adjust by Rs.543 (Ultra Tech share price Rs 950x 4/7).

Samruddhi is expected to be listed by June,2010 & be finally merged with Ultra Tech by July,2010 (merger effective July 01,2010). Samruddhi Cements has 26 crore shares with a Face value of Rs.5.00 , Book value of Rs. 250 , Grasim will transfer Rs.2100 crore debts to Samruddhi Cements

My previous post on this topic on GRASIM SAMRUDDHI DEMERGER MARCH 14,2010

INDIA's FIRST IDR: THANKS TO STANDARD CHARTERED BANK PLC.

STANDARD CHARTERED BANK PLC

Standard Chartered PLC (STAN: LN) Bloomberg is all set to be the first foreign company to list in India through an Indian Depository Receipts (IDR) issue. India is the most profitable unit after Hong Kong. StanChart as it is called in short will offer to sell 24 crore IDR’s through public issue on May 25th 2010.

The issue will be 10 IDR = 1 share of Standard Chartered Plc of US$ 0.50. Like Global Depository (GDR’s) & American Depository Shares (ADS’s), IDR are the derivative instrument with shares as the underlying asset, they allow foreign companies to raise money in India.

StanChart expects to raise $500-$750 million (Rs 2250-3375 Crs). Calculation shows that an issue price of Rs 105-115 per share. This will be Stan Chart’s 3rd listing after London & Hong Kong & its next stop is Shangai.

StanChart is in India from 1858 in Kolkata; here it has 94 branches across 37 cities with over 20 lakh customers. It wants to show its commitment towards India which contributes 12 % of its global revenues. StanChart’s Net Profit grew 30 % CAGR in last 3 yrs, while Profit before Tax grew by 38 %. Base on 2009 results, StanChart’s Price to Book = 2 times, much better than 2.5 times of SBI. P/E at 14.6 times v/s 15.7 of SBI & 29.4 of HDFC Bank. Price band will be announced by May 24th 2010 depending on the closing price of the shares listed in UK.

What does IDRs means to an Indian sharesholders in terms of Taxations.....

Like Global Depository Receipts (GDR’s) & American Depository Shares (ADS’s), IDR are the derivative instrument with parent companies shares as the underlying asset, they allow foreign companies to raise money in India. An IDR holder acquires the same rights as a shareholder, except that he/she can neither attend the AGM nor vote on resolutions. NRI’s can trade in the IDR’s.

The biggest question doing the rounds is – what could be the tax implications for the Indian IDR holder? The good news is that IDR does not come under the purview of Securities Transaction Tax. But the IDR holder will have to pay tax on the dividend income earned. It is not yet clear whether the tax payable would be equal to the Dividend Distribution Tax which for the current fiscal stands at 16.61%. So tax seems sure but the rate is yet unsure.

Then there is the question of short and long term capital gains tax?

Currently, Long term gains made from Indian Stock Exchanges (stock held for more than 12 months) is completely exempted from tax while Short term capital gains tax (held less than 12 months) stands at 15%. But the IDR does not fall under the STT, so maybe it will not enjoy the same benefits as the shares listed on the Indian Exchanges enjoys. So this means that IDR’s will be taxed like any other asset –long term tax- held for over 36 months would be around 20%. Short term tax, when asset is held for less than a year, will be like regular income earned, at 30.9%.

There is no real clarity yet on this treatment of tax but surely, the Govt will have to bring a notification soon. A quick resolution on the tax angle is urgent and imperative or else it could undermine the very lure of this IDR.

According to the red-herring prospectus, the legal regime for IDR’s is still to be tested; investors in IDR’s may not get the benefits of a bonus issue or a rights issue; Even dividend income on IDR’s will be taxed in the hands of the investors and long-term capital gains tax will be another additional burden. Standard Chartered Bank has said whenever the company and/or the depository is unable to make bonus issues or rights issues available to the IDR holders, the depository will try and sell the deposited property that is the subject of the distribution on behalf of the IDR holders and distribute the net proceeds thereof as a cash distribution to the IDR holders.

Standard Chartered said it has agreed that for all corporate actions including voting, rights issues, the payment of dividends and other distributions, it will treat IDR holders on an equitable basis vis-à-vis other holders of shares in the home country (the UK). However, it pointed out that in circumstances where certain corporate actions, which are available to the holders of shares in the home country of the company and other jurisdictions where its shares are listed, are not permitted by Indian laws to be offered to IDR holders.

There is also a term called "Fungibility", now what does this means & how it relates to IDR/ADRS ?

The actual meaning of the word fungible is the ability to substitute one unit of a financial instrument for another unit of the same financial instrument. However, in trading, fungibility usually implies the ability to buy or sell the same financial instrument on a different market with the same end result.

Its a financial instrument (i.e. individual stock, futures contract, options contract, etc.) is considered fungible if it can be bought or sold on one market or exchange, and then sold or bought on another market or exchange.

For example, if one hundred shares of an individual stock can be bought on the NASDAQ in the US, and the same one hundred shares of the same individual stock can be sold on the London Stock Exchange in the UK, with the result being zero shares, the individual stock would be considered fungible. There are many fungible financial instruments, with most popular being individual stocks, some commodities (e.g. gold, silver, etc.), and currencies.

Fungible financial instruments are often used in arbitrage trades, because the difference in the price (the arbitrage part) often comes from a difference in location (the fungible part). For example, if the Euro to US Dollar exchange rate was 1.2500 in the US and 1.2505 in the UK, an arbitrage trader could buy Euros in the US, and then immediately sell Euros in the UK, making a profit of 0.0005 per Euro (or $5 per €10,000), because Euros are a fungible financial instrument. Similarly it implies to Stocks IDRs etc.

Suzlon's FCCB holders waives fine...Sets conversion price of Rs.95-100/sh.

Suzlon Energy had sought for the waiver of penalties that have accrued for breaching terms and conditions set by investors in its Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds. The penalties was amounted to 10 per cent of FCCBs, or $30-50 million. Suzlon told the exchanges that it has managed to remove covenants which was required to fulfil under the FCCB agreement in the meeting of bondholders,on April 29, 2010. The company proposed extraordinary resolutions in relation to the trust deeds and certain terms and conditions of the bonds, including the removal of financial covenants and waiver of any existing or prior breaches.

It has been learned that these two sets of FCCBs worth $300 million Zero Coupon Convertible Bonds(due JUNE 2012) and $200 million Zero Coupon Convertible Bonds(due OCT 2012), have three main financial covenants. First, Net borrowings to tangible Networth cannot be more than 1.5 times. Second, full-year EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) cannot be less than 1.33 times the debt service coverage requirement, ie, repayment and service cost. Third, Net Borrowings to Net EBITDA should not be more than four times.

Just to remind that the profit of the company has been under pressure for the last three quarters and hence, it has not been able to meet the Net borrowings to Net EBITDA margin,” this was a concern for FCCB holders as this invited penalty from bondholders. It has been learnt that, the company is not expecting an increase in EBITDA in coming quarters. EBITDA will continue to fall for the coming quarters. Suzlon reported an Ebitda of Rs 408 crore in the 9 months to December 31, down from Rs 1,996 crore a year earlier.

Suzlon has reset the conversion price of bonds between Rs 95-100 per share.Suzlon will become the first company to reset the conversion price of FCCBs after the ministry of finance relaxed the guidelines for companies to price their bonds based on share prices of the past six months. Suzlon will pay 1% fees to bondholders for the waiver. Earlier conversion price was Rs.360-370 per share.The covenants have been relaxed for the entire tenure. This new price is likely to result in a dilution of 15.05% for the company. UPDATE- (Set the price Rs.97.26/sh)

Since, Suzlon has already sold its 23,60,00,000(35.22%) depository interest in Hansen Transmissions International NV - HSN:LN held by AE Rotor Holding BV a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Suzlon Energy Ltd at the price of 95 pence per Depository Interest amounting to USD 350 million, with a locking period for 6 months for the remining stake of 17,46,32,079(26.06%), Which is about to complete by this MAY 2010,this will pegg Suzlon some what around Rs.1000 crs,this will substantially help Suzlon to reduce its current debts of Rs.10,488 crs.

It is awaiting approval from the Reserve Bank of India for the FCCB restructuring.