Companies and stocks to watch: October 19, 2020

Prestige Estates Projects has signed a non-binding letter of intent with certain entities, acting on behalf of funds controlled, managed and/or advised by The Blackstone Group, Inc , which is a global private equity investor. The deal is for the sale of company's direct and indirect interest in certain commercial offices, retail and hotel properties, mall management and identified maintenance businesses.

Pursuant to the terms of the letter, the company has provided to Blackstone, exclusivity in relation to the transactions contemplated in the Letter. The transactions will be consummated through a combination of primary investments, secondary transactions (share purchase / business transfers), partnerships / joint ventures or such other modes, as may be mutually agreed between the parties.

The consummation of the transactions will be subject to completion of due diligence, finalisation of the transaction structure, negotiation and execution of the definitive documents, satisfaction of the conditions precedent in such definitive documents and receipt of approvals, if any required.

Though the company did not specify the deal size, a Reuters report quoting sources said that it is around $2 billion (around Rs 14,500 crore).

Monday will see around two dozen companies declaring their quarterly/half-year results for the period ended September 2020.

Among them are ACC, Bank of Maharashtra, Britannia Industries, Borosil Renewable Energy, CSB Bank, Century Textiles & Industries, L&T Technology Services, Rallis India, Skipper, Tata Metealiks, Titan Biotech, Texmaco Rail & Engineering and Texmaco Infrastructure & Holdings.

Besides results, the board of directors of Hatsun Agro Products will consider fund raising plans (QIP) and bonus issue. The board will also consider forfeiture of Partly paid up Rights Equity Shares on which the First and Final Call Money is still pending receipt even after several reminders and the long extension given for payment considering the Covid 19 situation.

Shareholders will closely monitor the quantum of funds the company plans to raised and the price of the issue. Bonus ratio will also be keenly followed by its shareholders.

The Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX) aims to implement a new advanced Commodity Derivatives Platform (CDP) for its trading and clearing related services.

MCX has invited proposals from interested bidders for supply, installation, implementation, training and support etc. of the derivatives platform. The details and the request for proposal documents are currently available on the exchange web site in the procurement section. The eligible bidders are invited to submit their techno-commercial and financial proposals as given in the RFP, MCX said in a statement. Last date for submission of proposals is Novembe 20, MCX further added.

Shareholders will closely monitor the development further while the shares of the other listed player BSE will also be in focus.

BASF India, which had earlier received demand notices from the Commercial Tax Department, Karnataka, aggregating to R. 670 crore (including interest and penalty) for the periods 2006-2007 to 2015-2016, said that the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal vide has granted a stay on recovery of demand aggregating to Rs 38.86 crore pertaining to the period 2013-2014.

According to the company, the tax department had treated the stock transfers of the company's Mangalore Plant as interstate sales to dealers.

The company, based on the legal assessment, does not consider these stock transfers as interstate sales and is taking all the necessary legal steps to defend the matter, it further said. Shares of BASF India may remain in focus and might see selling pressure.

The Reserve Bank has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 4.5 crore on IndusInd Bank for non-compliance with certain directions issued by it.

The penalty was levied with reference to findings of annual statutory inspection of Bank's pertaining to the position as on March 31, 2019 (FY 2019) conducted in July - September 2019 and the Risk Assessment Report (RAR) pertaining thereto. There is no other monetary impact on the current financial statements / performance of the Bank it further added

The Bank has reiterated its stated policy to be a fully compliant Bank. The bank also said that wherever required, corrected processes have already been put in place.

However, the stock may see a negative sentiment at least for initial hours on Monday.