New Delhi, March 19
Indian companies are selling equity and assets to reduce high debt and improve their credit profile, according to global ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

In a statement, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services said more Indian companies are improving their high financial leverage and boosting their credit profiles by adopting measures such as sale of equity and assets or using their free operating cash flows to reduce debt.

"Besides raising equity and selling non-core assets, Indian companies are also divesting stakes in businesses," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Mehul Sukkawala.

S&P said the companies' main reasons for improving their financial profiles are the weak economy and high interest rates in India, which have adversely affected cash flows and debt-servicing ability. Another reason is companies are refocusing on reducing debt after years of investing significantly on rapid growth.

Standard & Poor's recently revised the outlook on Tata Power and raised the rating on Bharti Airtel after both companies started focusing on lowering debt, in addition to benefiting from favorable regulatory developments.

Tata Steel has also taken steps to reduce its leverage. Many companies in the infrastructure sector with very high leverage are also considering selling assets or stakes in subsidiaries to improve their debt-servicing ability, financial flexibility, and liquidity.

GMR Infrastructure Ltd. has sold two of its road projects in 2014 and signed an agreement to sell its 40% stake in the Istanbul airport. “We believe this would enable the company, and others like it, to withstand the current weak economic environment and position well for future opportunities”, S&P said.

The rating agency also expects companies to reduce debt through positive free operating cash flows. This is because many Indian companies have significantly reduced capital expenditures and expansion plans in the current economic environment. This is especially the case for sectors that typically use high capital expenditures, such as power, metals and mining and infrastructure.

It may be pointed out that the investment cycle recovery has been slow and fresh capital expenditure on new projects has been muted.

New Delhi, March 19
Japanese automobile maker Nissan today re-launched its Datsun brand with a small hatchback “Go” priced between Rs 3.12 lakh and Rs 3.70 lakh.

Making the global re-launch of Datsun with Go, Nissan ensured that other car manufacturers would also have to work hard to keep their market share. Designed on the Nissan Micra platfrom, Go will compete with Maruti Alto, Ford Figo, Maruti Wagon R, Hyundai Santro and Hyundai i10, to name a few.

It will be launched in three variants with the top-end priced at Rs 3,69,999 (ex-showroom, Delhi) and the middle variant at Rs 3.46 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

"Indian car market is very competitive and with Datsun we are entering a segment which we can't address with the Nissan brand. We expect the Datsun brand to contribute half to one-third of Nissan's sales in India," Nissan Motor India CEO Kenichiro Yomura said.

The car comes with a 1.2 litre engine delivering a mileage of over 20 km per litre of petrol.

It comes with a warranty of two years/ unlimited kilometres. Buyers will also be offered an option of extended warranty for additional two years, valid for unlimited kilometres. This makes Datsun the first manufacturer to provide unlimited mileage coverage under extended warranty. The Datsun Go also promises the lowest periodic cost of maintenance among its competitors. The car will be available in four colours — white, silver, sky and ruby.

Mumbai, March 19
Calling for consistency in policies, technocrat-turned-government adviser Sam Pitroda today admitted that the UPA government "messed up" by sending conflicting signals through its decisions such as the retrospective taxation for Vodafone.

"We did mess up during the past few years on policies. We do realise that we need to be consistent in our policies. The Vodafone decision was one such decision sending wrong signals to the global community," he said at a meeting organised by the local Congress unit.

Stating that there could be other cases too where the government might have gone wrong, Pitroda said this is an area that needs to be fixed.

The government's decision to resort to retrospective taxation to make the British telecom giant Vodafone pay over Rs 12,000 crore in capital gains for its February 2007 acquisition of Hutchison Essar after losing the court battle has been controversial. He, however, asserted that with the right decisions, "we can bring back growth to the 8-10%-mark". — PTI

Mumbai, March 19
Shares of TCS today plunged almost 4%, wiping out around Rs 16,000 crore in investor wealth, after the IT major indicated to analysts that weak India business and lower working days could drag down March quarter growth rate.

After falling 5.3% to touch the day's low of Rs 2,015 on the BSE in intra-day trade, it ended at Rs 2,040.95, down. — PTI

Chandigarh, March 19
Faced with soaring non-performing assets (NPAs) in its corporate sector advances, Andhra Bank is now reducing its exposure to the corporate sector. Instead, the bank is focusing on the retail and priority sector lending for expanding its business.

The NPAs in the corporate sector for Andhra Bank is as high as 7%. Almost 50% of the bank’s total advances are to the corporate sector.

Talking to The Tribune, bank’s executive director SK Kalra said the total advances of the bank were to the tune of Rs 1.03 lakh crore, of which almost 51% were in the corporate sector. “In the past one year, we have consciously brought down our exposure to the corporate sector from 54 to 51%. We are trying to further reduce our lending to the corporate sector. The focus areas for the bank will be retail and the priority sector lending,” he said.

He said besides high NPAs in the corporate sector advances, the maximum assets under restructuring for the bank were also under the corporate sector. “At present, the bank has undertaken restructuring of loans worth Rs 10,000 crore. The maximum restructuring is in the corporate sector, besides the restructuring of advances to the power sector,” he said.

Kalra said the bank was also in an expansion mode. “We have 2020 branches across the country and propose to add 500 new branches in 2014-15. Out of these, 50 will be opened in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K and Chandigarh region,” he said. He said they would set up a separate zonal office at Ludhiana which would cater to Punjab and J&K, while the Chandigarh office would cater to the remaining states in the northern region.

BRIEFLY

Banks to remain open on weekend
New Delhi: Bank branches will remain open for full day on March 29, 30 and 31 to facilitate tax collection. While March 29 is a Saturday, March 30 is Sunday and March 31 is the last year of financial year and is a public holiday in some parts of the country. — PTI

A model poses with Nikon Professional D4S camera at its launch in New Delhi on Wednesday. The 16.2-MP camera is priced at Rs 4,19,950. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

CPSE ETF gets bids for Rs 1,800 crore
New Delhi: CPSE Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) has got bids of over Rs 1,800 crore at the end of second day on Wednesday with strong response pouring in from retail investors. The ETF had on Tuesday received bids worth Rs 835 crore from seven anchor investors, including SBI and insurance companies. — PTI

BP, Niko to join RIL arbitration against govt
New Delhi: British energy giant BP and Niko Resources of Canada are likely to formally join their partner Reliance Industries' arbitration against government levying penalties for KG-D6 gas production falling short of target. Faced with a situation where the near double gas rate of $8/unit from next month not accruing to them, BP and Niko are said to be planning to formally issue a Notice of Arbitration. — PTI

SEBI bars FTIL from holding stake in exchanges 
Mumbai: In a major setback to crisis-hit Jignesh Shah-led Financial Technologies group, SEBI on Wednesday ruled it is not "fit and proper" to own stakes in any stock exchange and directed it to divest existing holdings in MCX-SX and four other entities. Besides MCX, it holds equity in NSE, DSE, Vadodara Stock Exchange and MCX-SX Clearing Corporation. — PTI

Toyota to pay $1.2bn over accelerator problems 
Washington: Toyota Motor Corp will pay $1.2 billion to settle US accusations that it sought to cover up an accelerator problem in Toyota and Lexus vehicles tied to numerous accidents and deaths. The US Justice Department said the Japanese auto maker admitted to misleading regulators and the public about the safety problems in its cars in 2009 and 2010. — AFP

RBI allows more banks to import gold 
New Delhi: The RBI has allowed more banks, including Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, to import gold under the 80:20 scheme, a move seen as a precursor to easing restrictions on inward shipments of the metal. — PTI