Mylan to pay $133 mn for rest of Matrix Labs-
The drugmaker said it plans to acquire the remaining 29% stake in Matrix Laboratories Ltd for about $133 mn
Generic drugmaker Mylan Inc said on Thursday it plans to acquire the remaining 29% stake in Matrix Laboratories Ltd of India for about $133 million in a transaction that would add to its 2009 earnings.
Pittsburgh-based Mylan, which already owns 71.2% of Matrix, said buying the remainder and delisting the company from Indian stock exchanges would give it more flexibility and efficiencies.
Mylan said it plans to acquire all remaining 45 million shares for Rs150 ($2.97) a share, 27% above Matrix’s closing share price on 26 March, the last trading day before the announcement.
The delisting from the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India is expected to take about 12 weeks, subject to obtaining regulatory approvals, Mylan said.
Earlier this month Mylan said Matrix received tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its generic version of Abbott Laboratories Inc’s Kaletra HIV tablets.--- L.Kannan

Markets on 25th march'09 --- Kannan

Capital goods carry the day
Selling pressure saw most of the stocks slip from higher levels, bar realty stocks that held on to their gains and ended firm.
Market recovered most of the day’s losses towards the close of the session, after shedding 41 points in early trades from the day's high of 9706. Tracking weak global
indices, Sensex opened marginally below its previous close. The mood remained bearish and the market slipped on profit booking in index pivotals, public sector units and health care stocks. The market once again witnessed selling pressure and Sensex touched the day's low of 9430 by afternoon amid a choppy session. However, the index recovered, shrugging off weakness on substantial buying in realty and oil stocks towards the close and ended the session at 9668, up 197 points. Nifty gained by 46 points to close at 2984.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,586 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,263 stocks advanced, 1,219 stocks declined and 104 stocks ended unchanged. Of the 13 sectoral indices, BSE Realty (index of realty shares) flared up by 6.32% followed by BSE Oil & Gas (up 3.66%), BSE Metal (up 3.31%) and BSE Bankex (up 3%). Other indices were up 0.18-1% each.

Among Sensex stocks, JP Associates was the leading gainer and its stock price soared by 7.51% at Rs84.45. Among other stocks, Tata Power advanced 7.12% at Rs740.20, Sterlite Industries jumped 6.48% at Rs347.35, while DLF, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Reliance Communications, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank closed with sharp gains of 3-6%. Among laggards, National Thermal Power Corporation slipped 2.77% at Rs179.95, Bharti Airtel shed 2.05% at Rs591.05, ONGC by 2.02% at Rs763.70, Hindustan Unilever fell by 1.88% at Rs234.70 and Tata Motors lost 1.27% at Rs160.

Over 3.66 crore Unitech shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Cals Refineries (2.62 crore shares), Crompton Greaves (1.27 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.14 crore shares) and Suzlon Energy (1.12 crore shares). ----- L.Kannan

BIOCON LTD --- Kannan

BIOCON LTD.

Contd..

Biocon starts commercial operations under BMS pact

Biocon has commenced a fully dedicated research and development facility for Bristol-

Myers Squibb (BMS), one of the leading global innovator in Biocon Park, Bangalore.

This which was in line with Biocon’s collaborative research pact with BMS during March

2007. In fact, Syngene – the CRO arm of Biocon, entered into an R&D partnership with

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for providing services for discovery and NCE development.

The initiation of the research and development activity will expand the span of the drug

discovery and development process. Syngene would facilitate contract research

services right from the initial stage of lead optimization to early stages of clinical studies

to Phase I and Phase II trials.

The 200,000 square-foot facility at Biocon Park is dedicated to helping advance Bristol-

Myers Squibb’s work in discovery and early drug development, and is currently occupied

by 270 researchers. The facility will house 360 researchers by the end of the year and

could accommodate as many as 450 employees in the future.

This initiative is to add incremental revenues of about Rs

800mn in FY10

With the commissioning of the new research facility and anticipated ramp up in

researchers count to about 360 (since most of the revenues for Biocon are on Full

Time Equivalent (FTE) basis), we estimate Biocon’s BMS pact would add incremental

revenue of Rs 800mn during FY10E. We expect the peak revenue potential from the

pact will be materialised during FY11E with 450 FTEs and revenue worth Rs 1200mn.

Initially the core research activity would earn revenue for Biocon but subsequently the

additional support activities and possible supply opportunities (like supply of sample

batches during the advance development of molecule) would further boost the earning

potential of the BMS pact FY11 onwards.

Certainly going ahead, the commercial commencement of long awaited BMS research

contract would emerge as a money spinner for Biocon, it also projects the research

capabilities of the company in Global pharma industry. Apart from this, Biocon has few

more medium-term revenue triggers that would maintain growth momentum. In fact,

the commencement of Tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil (patent expires in May

2009) API supply to US during Q1FY10 and launching of Glargine (a basal insulin

having market potential of Rs 400mn and only cometitor Sanofi-Aventis) in domestic

market Q1FY10 onwards would power the earnings growth of the company. Biocon

has already got the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) approval for Glargine.

However, looking at the revenue triggers in the pipeline we maintain our positive stance

on Biocon ---- L.Kannan

MLL is second largest private sector shipping company in India with a
diversified business model. The company primarily focuses on international
seaborne bulk transportation and tanker shipping operations. However,
strategically in order to reduce dependence on the volatile shipping
segment the company has ventured into dredging, offshore and coal mining.
Considering the eternal fact that volatility in freight rates and
cyclicality is a given for the shipping industry, we believe MLL's strategy
to diversify revenue sources is very positive. For FY10, we expect
company's non-shipping businesses, namely, dredging, offshore operations
and coal mining to contribute 26% to its revenues and over 35% to its
EBITDA. In this manner, MLL is expected to arrest the impact of cyclicality
to a large extent. We initiate coverage on the stock with an 'Accumulate'
rating.

Key Investment Highlights
.. Addition of a Rig to augment revenues: MLL has recently received
delivery of it's maiden jack up rig from Keppel's and the same shall fetch
$92,700 per day for 3 years as per its contract with Great Ship. Since no
operating costs are involved, MLL shall earn about $34m directly at EBITDA
level every year.

.. Baltic Dry Index appears to have bottomed: Since the beginning of the
Chinese New Year, the Chinese EXIM trade has picked up gradually and
helped the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) recover from its lows. Also with the
Chinese Stimulus packages, the commodity shipments are likely to rebound
in coming months and further boost the BDI. This bodes well for the dry
bulk business of MLL as it has 30% exposure to spot markets.

.. Coal mines and Dredging provides the hedge: Gaining from experience MLL
has been able to improve it's charter yields continuously by managing its
cost of operating dredgers. Dredging business and coal mines which formed
7% and 3% of the revenues in Q3FY09 respectively is expected to double
their share in revenues in FY10, given the full year operations of all 4
dredgers and mines. This shall help MLL to hedge revenues against the
cyclicality of pure vanilla shipping business.

Valuations
We would have liked to adopt a sum of parts valuation basis, wherein
ideally the offshore business would earn higher PE multiples, but in
current market scenario we conservatively stick to vanilla valuations.
Assigning target PE of 3x on FY9e EPS, which is about 0.4x its FY09
estimated book, our target price of Rs 32.5 provides an upside of over 27%
from current market price of Rs25.6.

---- L.kannan

Markets on March 24: Hourly averages intact--Kannan

After a gap-up opening, Indian markets went down due
to selling at higher end and could not hold the opening
gap. Finally, Sensex closed 47 points up, while Nifty ended
flat. However, mid-cap and small-cap indices posted losses
for the day. On the daily chart, Nifty failed in clearing the
upper boundary of the triangle. Further, on the hourly
charts, after kissing the upper boundary of the rising
channel, Nifty slipped back, in the corner of bears. On
the downside, Nifty has good support of 20- and 40-hourly
moving averages, which are nailed at 2883 and 2843
respectively. The daily KST is still in buy mode, which
points today’s fall as a small dip in the current rally. The
market breadth was in favour of bears with 748 declines
and 470 advances.
The hourly KST gave a negative crossover. Our short-term
bias is up for the target of 3050 with reversal pegged at
2815. However, our mid-term bias is still down for the
target of 2450 with reversal at 3111.
Selling was witnessed across sectors, though some stocks
from banking and realty space found favour. From the 30
stocks of Sensex, HDFC Bank (up 6%), ICICI Bank (up 2%)
and HDFC (up 2%) led the pack of gainers, while Jaiprakash
Associates (down 7%) and Hindalco Industries (down 5%)
led the clutch of losers.

---L. Kannan

IKF Technologies--a report

A group of individuals bought a listed company in 2004 and turned it around. The software company they bought, has now expanded into telecom and even into the emerging bio-fuels business.IKF Technologies is today a Rs 180-crore company and growing. In 2004-05, when the company was taken over by Pradeep Dutta and Sunil Kumar Goel, it had a share capital base of Rs 10 crore. Over the last two years, the company has invested in putting together infrastructure and technology, which has paid off. It grew its web development, software and BPO businesses internationally, to Australia and the UK.In 2006, it set up a 31-seat BPO for Tata Teleservices. “The initial couple of years went into restructuring and settling down in the core business,” says Pankaj Garg, director at IKF Technologies, which counts domestic telcos and banks among its clients. Though the promoters realise that they are late entrants in BPO outsourcing, they are looking at new markets.IKF has now set up offices in Germany, Brazil, Dubai and Russia, and is hoping to see growth from these markets over the next two years. The idea of getting into telecom was there since 2006 but “since it was difficult to get a licence at that point in time, it never materialised”, says Garg. But it finally got a Category ‘A’ licence for Internet Service Provider (ISP) by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in January. Since then, it has been busy setting up its network. “We have already spent Rs 4-5 crore, and another Rs 8-9 crore will be spent in the future on developing the network,” informs Garg. As an initial foray in telecom, the company decided to get into VoIP services, a segment, which is not too crowded. That’s how IKF Tel came into being. The company is almost on the verge of launching its VoIP services for the retail market, having already launched the same for enterprise customers.IKF has earmarked $2-3 million for its telecom business, of which, says Garg, $1 million has already been spent over the last one year. IKF expects revenues of Rs 100 crore from its telecom business in the next three years, growing both organically and inorganically. Taking its quest for emerging technologies forward, IKF is into bio-fuels too. “The chairman of the company, Dr RP Singh, who is a former scientist at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, led us into this field,” says Vishal Rawat, president bio-diesel at IKF Green Fuel. IKF Green Fuel is also planning to get into ethanol, solar and wind energy in the near future. For bio-diesel, though, it has signed an MoU with the government of Madhya Pradesh through which it is seeking 200 hectares of wasteland for jatropha cultivation and will also be setting up an oil extraction plant with an investment of Rs 30 crore.It also engages in contract farming on private wasteland. “We have one refinery already at Udaipur, which can produce 3,000 litres a day but at the moment, it is being used for trial runs. We expect commercial production to start by 2010-11,” says Rawat. Commercial bio-diesel production would need a steady flow of jatropha seeds. To this effect, IKF has 10,000 hectares of jatropha under cultivation, both on leased and owned land. “By 2008-end, we hope to reach the 30,000-40,000 hectares mark,” says Rawat. Meanwhile, research is on for better seeds with agricultural universities and other institutions.The company has been granted permission by the government of India for a GDR issue to raise Rs 500 crore. About Rs 200 crore are already been allocated for IKF Green Fuel, indicating the company’s commitment to the growing sector. It is also exploring JVs in Brazil and South Africa for plantation and extraction there. “We want to be the leader in the bio-fuels market by 2015,” says Rawat.IKF Tech plans to grow jatropha in Africa-------IKF Technologies, the country's first corporate jatropha refiner, has formally approached African Governments — Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa — for permission to cultivate the plant. Armed with detailed project reports, the company has also applied for an area of 50,000 acres of wasteland in each of these countries for organised jatropha farming. Mr Mukesh Kumar Goel, a director of the company, told Business Line that official responses, however, were awaited. According to the company's estimates, the cost of acquiring the land (total 1.5 lakh acres), nursing the plants till the first fruition after 18 months, and setting up crushing facilities would be Rs 3,000 crore. In a phased manner If permissions were obtained, the purchases or acquisition of land through lease and taking up the plantation projects would be done in a phased manner over a long period of time. IKF has sought to own the land in Africa, and prefers not go in for contract farming, Mr Goel explained.In India, it has opted for the contract-farming model in Rajasthan, where its existing refinery is located, in an area of 5,000 hectares. In Meghalaya, however, IKF cultivates on its own land.Its refinery was commissioned in March this year. Currently, it is procuring jatropha seeds from the open market since it began farming the plants in Meghalaya roughly 12 months ago.Though the first flush of seeds takes 18 months, jatropha harvests are available twice a year in the period after maturing. One hectare can accommodate roughly 2,500 plants.The yield per tree in one harvest, according to thumb rule, is around 3.5 kg and from one kg of seeds, a little over 300 ml of bio-diesel can be had.The company has a one-year renewable technology agreement with Indian Oil Technologies Ltd, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation, for perfecting mixing grade bio-diesel.Refinery in Gujarat :It has proposed to set up another refinery in Gujarat with a capacity of 1 lakh tonnes per annum at a cost of Rs 50 crore.It has also sought permission for contract farming of jatropha in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.In Rajasthan, it has a refinery running with a capacity to produce 3,000 litres a day.As a Market Analyst, I am strictly recommending this stock.CMP: INR 3. It's future prospect is bright. Stock price will definately touch arround INR 200+ in 2012

IVRCLINFRA a Report

Company Profile:IVRCL operates in infrastructure sectors namely Water & Environment, Transportation, Buildings and Power. It has a large client base, which includes public sector clients (ONGC, BHEL, IOC etc), private sector clients (Birla Institute of technology, Tata projects, Jindal Steel & Power) and Central and State Govt. clients (Airport Authority, Indian Railways, Ministry of Defence etc). Its operations cut across geographical frontiers of the sub-continent, with headquarters in Hyderabad and administrative offices in Chennai, Cochin, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Chattisgarh, Ahmedabad and Goa.Construction Sector:Construction is the second largest economic activity after agriculture in India. Construction sector can be classified into three segments: -1. Real Estate: The sector has suffered a meltdown in 2008 due to high interest rates and demand destruction. However we believe it will improve in the coming months due to the decrease in property prices, falling interest rates on home loans and favorable tax treatment.2. Infrastructure: This constitutes roads, water, ports, airports, freight corridor, power, etc. Investment in the infrastructure is robust and is at the center of the various stimuli that the Government is offering.3. Industrial Construction: This constitutes sectors like steel, textiles, fertilizers, and oil and gas refineries. This is where the maximum fall in demand is taking place and worries remain.Construction sector uses raw materials like steel, cement apart from using large working capital. The stock prices of leading companies dropped by an average 84% for the 6-months to early September 2008 due to the credit crises, slump in the housing market, increase in the prices of construction material, increase in rate of interest and increase in the prices of oil. But due to the decrease in interest rate, inflation and cut in the prices of steel, the sector is beginning to gain strength and deserves an upgrade.Financial Position:For the FY’08 the Net sales increased by 54% to Rs 3867 crore from Rs 2506 crore. The company derived Rs 3693 crore of its revenues from Engineering and Construction and about Rs 259 crore from Real Estate in the FY’08. The EBITDA also showed an improvement by 91.5% to Rs 572 crore. The Net profit registered a growth of 74% to Rs 283.4 crore from Rs 163 crore.For the second quarter of FY’09 the net revenue increased by an impressive 65% to Rs 1137 crore, due to faster execution of projects. The EBITDA grew by 69% to Rs 91.28 crore. The net profit showed an excellent improvement by 90% to Rs 67 crore from Rs 35.25 crore. This was due to high revenues and lower tax rate. Interest cost however more than doubled during the quarter due to high borrowings. The order booked during the second quarter FY’09 was worth Rs 2586.6 crore and backlog of orders during the same period was worth Rs 13,800 crore.The total net worth in FY’08 increased to Rs 2480 crore. The company also has stock options worth Rs 1 crore. The secured and unsecured loans, which the company has, were worth Rs 1725 crore. On the asset side a major portion consisted of current assets. The Debt/Equity ratio as on 31st Mar 08 stood at 0.66.During the year, some of the Foreign Currency Convertible Bond (FCCB) holders have exercised their option of converting their bonds into equity shares. Till the date of the Balance Sheet, amounts aggregating to US $ 18.10 million worth of bonds were converted into 3,545,284 equity shares of the face value of Rs.2 each. Rs 7.1 crore has been debited to the Profit and Loss account during the year towards foreign exchange translation difference on Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds and deposits in foreign currency.Subsidiaries:IVRCL’s major subsidiaries are:-IVR prime Urban Developers Ltd: IVR Prime is dedicated to creating luxury-intensive urban infrastructure. Its net profit for the FY’08 increased by a spectacular 750% to Rs 176 crore from Rs 20.6 crore in FY’07.Hindustan Dorr-Oliver Ltd (HDO): Hindustan Dorr Oliver Limited (HDO) is an Indian EPC company having its core business activities in providing Engineered Solutions, technologies and EPC installations in Liquid-Solid Separation applications. The company’s core business focus is on Water Management. Its net profit for the FY’08 increased by 47% to Rs 22.64 crs. Sector wise order booked in FY 2007-08 accounts for 54% in environment, 27% in minerals, 14% in fertilizers and 5% in pulp and paper. IVR Prime and HDO are listed subsidiaries on NSE.Chennai Water Desalination Ltd: Executing the most prestigious contract of Chennai Sea Water Desalination Plant Project at Minjure, Chennai.Alkor Petroo Ltd: is a Hyderabad based subsidiary of IVRCL engaged in Oil & Gas Exploration & Production. It has an association with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPCL).Investment Positives:IVRCL has a very strong order book, making it an attractive investment. The order book remains extremely healthy at Rs 15500 crore. Recently the company bagged a few more orders, latest being from Bangalore Metro Rail Corp, IOC and Karnataka Water Supply Board in the first week of Jan 09. This will inflate the order book to a massive Rs 16000 crore approx. It has the best Order book to Turnover ratio in the industry. Also, NHAI has been going slow on orders in the last two years and it is expected to complete orders for more than 6000 kms in the one or two months- thrice the orders placed in 2007-08. IVRCL is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this.Steel companies announced a price cut during Sep 2008, which will help reduce the cost of material for construction companies. The price of the cement is also expected to ease in the future. This will shore up margins considerably.Decreasing rates of interest and easing inflation is bound to create a positive impact on the construction companies. With the decrease in rate of interest the cost of borrowing has reduced to a great extent, making the condition favorable for taking more debt to finance the projects.Mid cap stocks such as IVRCL are exposed to infrastructure segment, which is expected to grow in the coming future. India, which is Asia’s 3rd largest economy, is in need of greater infrastructure spending for the next 10 years for economic expansion. India has allocated huge expenditure for the building of airports, highways and for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.Concerns:Any delays in implementation of the projects undertaken by the company may affect its profitability.For more funding requirement the company has to depend on leverage, which will cause increase in the rate of interest to be paid on debt. Increasing interest costs may have a dampening affect on the profits.There is a risk that the government could change certain regulations for the construction sector. The biggest threat relates to availability of 80IA benefit to construction companies. IVRCL has got an award from IYAT in this regard. We believe the government is not likely to enact unfavorable regulations for the sector given the present environment.The table clearly places IVRCL as one of the most attractive bets in the Construction space. The company is growing at a phenomenal pace (change in Net profit of 74%) vis-à-vis its competitors and boasts of some fantastic orders in its kitty.Valuation:IVRCL has shown a good financial performance for the FY’08 and for the second quarter FY’09. The company has a strong order book and currently it is undervalued, making the stock a good investment. In our view it is one of the best plays in the Indian infrastructure.