BPCL up 4.5%; UBS upgrades to buy, ups target to Rs 945

Shares of  Bharat Petroleum Corporation  (BPCL) gained 4.5 percent to hit a life high of Rs 831.60 on Wednesday. Brokerage UBS has upgraded the stock to buy with increased target price of Rs 945. "Our new Rs 945 price target recognises higher marketing business valuations of 7.5x EV/EBITDA (from 6x earlier) on a better marketing business outlook and factors in lower debt as working capital eases. BPCL trades at a premium to peers and at near-peak valuations on P/BV and EV/EBITDA," said the brokerage in its note. While explaining why the BPCL is best among peers, UBS said the state-run oil marketing company has favourable sales mix, in which deregulated fuels contribute 68 percent of volumes; marketing business EBITDA contribution is the highest at 53 percent; and non-fuel business, with revenues of Rs 430 crore, is ahead of peers’. Other positives about the company are its refining margins & benefits from capacity expansion; efficient inventory/working capital cycles; and smaller debt and a limited capex outlook. The brokerage sees a risk that the government might make all marketing SOEs absorb a 3-5 percent share of fuel losses over FY15-17E as their profitability improves. However, it believes BPCL's earnings are least vulnerable as the 16 percent contribution of LPG and kerosene to its sales mix is lower than peers’ 18-19 percent. BPCL's E&P assets (in Mozambique and Brazil) may face risk from delays, but UBS is not concerned. At 12:29 hours IST, the scrip of Bharat Petroleum Corporation was quoting at Rs 825.90, up Rs 30, or 3.77 percent on the BSE.

Reliance Industries FY15 results on April 17, 2015

Reliance Industries board meeting will be held on April 17, 2015, to consider and approve standalone and consolidated audited financial results of the Company for the quarter / year ended March 31, 2015 and to consider and recommend dividend on equity shares of the Company. 



Reliance Industries Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on April 17, 2015, inter alia, to consider and approve standalone and consolidated audited financial results of the Company for the quarter / year ended March 31, 2015 and to consider and recommend dividend on equity shares of the Company.Further, the Company has decided that the close period (i.e. closure of trading window) for Insiders covered under "Reliance Code of Conduct for Prohibition of Insider Trading" would commence from 6:00 p.m. on April 09, 2016 and will end 24 hours after the results are made public on April 17, 2015.Source : BSE 

Aban Offshore allots 6 lakh shares to Deepa Reji Abraham

Aban Offshore Ltd has informed BSE that the Allotment Committee at the meeting held on April 07, 2015 has allotted 6,10,000 shares to Mrs. Deepa Reji Abraham, belonging to Promoter Group pursuant to receipt of balance 75% of purchase price in respect of preferential warrants issued in February 2014.

Petrochemical regions attract investment of Rs 1.06 lakh cr

Petrochemical regions attract investment of Rs 1.06 lakh cr "The target of Modi Government is to achieve an investment of Rs 7,62,000 crore and generate employment for 34 lakh people in PCPIRs in time bound manner. Already there has been an investment of Rs 1,06,000 crore which has generated employment for 2.23 lakh people in various PCPIRs," fertiliser minister Ananth Kumar said.

Petrochemical investment regions in the country have attracted an investment of Rs 1.06 lakh crore so far and the target is to achieve Rs 7.62 lakh crore of investment in time bound manner, Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar has said. Kumar informed this in a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament attached to Fertiliser Ministry held yesterday to discuss the topic of 'Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs)' and Plastic Parks. "The target of Modi Government is to achieve an investment of Rs 7,62,000 crores and generate employment for 34 lakh people in PCPIRs in time bound manner. Already there has been an investment of Rs 1,06,000 crores which has generated employment for 2.23 lakh people in various PCPIRs," Kumar said in an official statement. PCPIR is a delineated area of around 250 sq km for setting up manufacturing facilities for domestic and export led production. In March 2007, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the proposal to set up PCPIRs in four states -- Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. Anchor tenant in Gujarat is  ONGC  promoted OPal, while in Odisha the anchor tenant is IOCL . In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the anchor tenants are  HPCL  and Nagarjuna Oil Corp , respectively. In the meeting, Kumar said the present challenge in the sector is value addition. "For that value addition, milking the crude for further proliferation of the downstream industries is needed." Kumar also informed the members about the government's initiatives to increase the number of plastic parks from 4 to 10 to catch up with the increasing demand. He mentioned that the number of Central Institutes for Plastic Engineering and Technology (CIPET) will be increased from 23 to 100, to create additional capacity for skill development in the area. Kumar said the government is working on reducing the consumption of non-biodegradable plastics, and re-using and re-cycling of other graded polymers. The government has instituted awards for Green Technology in plastic processing, to promote environment friendly efforts in the industry, he added. 

Oil Min allows ONGC to sell gas from small fields via bids

Oil Ministry has allowed national oil companies ONGC   and Oil India   Ltd to sell any new natural gas supplies from their small and isolated fields through an open tender. While the BJP-led government had approved an international gas hub-based formula for all of the domestically produced natural gas in November last year, small and isolated fields were exempt. The Oil Ministry on April 1 issued amendment to the guidelines for pricing of gas from small and isolated fields by allowing producers to sell gas at market rates by inviting competitive bids from prospective consumers. Companies will fix minimum price for their gas, which would be the prevailing government-determined rate, and ask interested buyers to offer more through bidding, officials said. Government had on March 31 announced USD 4.66 per million British thermal unit as the gas price for six-month period ending September 30 based on the approved formula. "In case of new supplies, the price would be determined by NOCs (national oil companies) by calling bids through an open competitive bidding process," the guideline said. The ministry guidelines state that it was imperative that NOCs are able to quickly monetise the output of their discoveries particularly marginal ones where where production is small and fields are isolated. The guidelines defined such fields as ones "whose peak production is less than 0.1 million standard cubic meters per day and they are situated more than 10 km away from the gas grid." Also, "fields whose peak production is less than 0.1 mmscmd and have a gas pressure which is less than the grid pressure" have also been defined as small/isolated fields. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have several such discoveries, which cumulatively produce around 3-4 mmscmd, enough to generate about 900 MW electricity. Officials said while the guidelines issued on April 1 are for additional or new production from small/isolated fields, ONGC had in November last year used e-tendering to finalise a price of USD 10.10-11.20 per mmBtu for sale of gas from new marginal fields in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. ONGC has finalised a price of USD 10.10 per mmBtu for gas from Gamij-GGS-2 field and a rate of USD 11.10 per mmBtu for Gamij-GGS-3 field, both in Gujarat. For the Warosan-4 field in Mehsana basin of Gujarat, it has finalised a rate of USD 10.50 per mmBtu, they said. In case of Triputallu, Kaza, Mandapeta-23, Gokarnapuram and Suyyaraopeta marginal fields in Andhra Pradesh, the firm has finalised a price of USD 11.20 per mmBtu. 

Women directors: 32 PSU firms non-compliant with Sebi norms

Women directors: 32 PSU firms non-compliant with Sebi norms


As many as 32 public sector firms including GAIL  , ONGC  , NTPC  ,  SAIL  and  Punjab National Bank  have failed to comply with regulator Sebi's norms to appoint at least one woman director on their respective boards. Bharat Electronics  , Bharat Petroleum Corporation  , Container Corporation of India  , Power Finance Corporation  , Rural Electrification Corporation  , are among other PSUs that have been non-compliant with Sebi directive, Prime Database said today. Going by information gathered by Prime Database, a total of 180 NSE-listed companies have not appointed a woman director on their respective boards within the due date. These include as many as 32 PSUs (Public Sector Units) and PSBs (Public Sector Banks). "As many as 180 out of a total relevant 1,456 NSE- listed companies or nearly 12 per cent of the companies, had still not appointed a woman director," Prime Database Managing Director Pranav Haldea said. All listed firms were required to have at least one woman director on their boards from April 1, this year, as per a new Sebi directive, as also under the Companies Act, 2013. As on April 1, this year, about 832 women have been appointed to 912 directorship positions in 872 companies. Of these 872 companies, 43 companies already had a woman on the board before the Sebi guideline was announced but appointed a second woman director on their board. Of the remaining 829 firms which complied with the Sebi norms, as many as 278 did so in the month of March this year. "The hope of another deadline extension appearing dim, there was a last minute rush to appoint women," Haldea said. Data further showed that across all 1,456 NSE-listed firms, after the recent appointments of women, there are now 1,222 women presently occupying 1,431 directorship positions. "Of these, more than half (671 women) are holding 713 non-independent directorship positions," Haldea said. The 1,431 women directorships represent 12 per cent of the total 11,935 directorship positions, up from 5 per cent in February 2014, Haldea said. The companies with the highest number of women directors (four each) are Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Indraprastha Medical Corp and Monte Carlo Fashions.