Mindtree Ltd; Margins Surprised Positively; Deal Intake At Record-High

 

BUY

CMP: Rs2901  

Target Price: Rs3400

* MTCL delivered in-line revenue in Q1FY23, while margins beat estimates. Revenue grew 4.0% QoQ (CC 5.5%) to USD399.3mn, in line with our expectations. EBITDAM expanded marginally by 10bps QoQ to 21.1%, exceeding our estimate by 70bps.

* Deal wins remained solid in Q1 with a record TCV of USD570mn. Management indicated that the deal intake remains well-balanced across annuity and transformational deals, and the deal pipeline is healthy, giving confidence in growth sustainability.

* The company is confident of maintaining revenue growth momentum in Q2 and is cautiously optimistic for H2 amid macro uncertainties and difficulty in predicting clients' spending behavior. MTCL expects to sustain over 20% EBITDAM for FY23.

* We tweaked FY23E/FY24E/FY25E EPS by -0.1%/0.3%/0.4%, factoring Q1 performance. We maintain Buy with a TP of Rs3,400 at 25x Jun'24E EPS, considering strong execution, margin defense and benefits from merger synergies with LTI in the medium term.

Godrej Properties Ltd. Unveils Quantitative research report #HomeLivabilityFactors

 
Key highlights of the report:

·         80% of the homebuyers consider it important to have a home as a place to maintain their health and mental wellbeing

·         More than 80% of the home buyers prefer their homes to be surrounded by open spaces and greens, both inside and outside their house.

·         Greater emphasis on amenities and in-home set-up for work/online classes

·         Hobbies and passions gained more prominence since COVID-19 pandemic

Godrej Properties Ltd. (GPL), has unveiled a quantitative research report #HomeLivabilityFactors which underscores the fundamental shift in homebuyers’ preferences with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the significant alterations that it has brought about in their preference for residential apartments.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic a lot of people were more inclined towards rental housing as homes were just considered as a place to rest and take shelter. However, there has been a value shift in this mind-set and homes are now an abode that can cater to diverse needs of homebuyers. The previous year saw a rise in millennial home ownership and spaces that were located close to essential services. Now people are more specific in their requirements and expect more than just a living space from their homes.

According to the #HomeLivabilityFactors, nearly 80% of the home buyers consider it important to have a home as a place to maintain their health and mental wellbeing. Maintaining good health and leading a healthy lifestyle is becoming an utmost priority for most homebuyers, thus the increasing demand for multifunctional spaces at home. Homebuyers are also looking for a lot of greenery in their residential units. This is also affirmed in the research where more than 80% of the homebuyers stated that they want their homes to be surrounded by open spaces and greens, both inside and outside their homes.

#HomeLivabilityFactors also unveiled that 70% of the homebuyers consider it important to have an office set-up in their home considering that most companies might adopt the hybrid working model. Furthermore, the new found time has given people the opportunity to pursue their hobbies, 69% of the respondents feel that their home is a place to develop their hobbies and passions. From work stations, study rooms, gym spaces, play areas, better lighting for video calls, well-ventilated rooms, and more, individuals are in search of larger and spacious homes which can fulfil the needs of each family member.

Mr. Rakesh Kumar, Chief Design Officer, Godrej Properties, said, “Homebuyers are now going beyond the basic checklist and are on the lookout for very specific, custom-designed, and smart homes which are not only technologically evolved but offer contemporary facilities in terms of safety, security, and more. Home life is now centred around health and wellbeing which has led to a strong significance for an open and safe living environment.”

About Godrej Properties Limited

Godrej Properties brings the Godrej Group philosophy of innovation, sustainability, and excellence to the real estate industry. Each Godrej Properties development combines a 125-year legacy of excellence and trust with a commitment to cutting edge design, technology, and sustainability. In FY 2021, Godrej Properties emerged as the largest developer in India by the value and volume of residential sales achieved. Godrej Properties has deeply focused on sustainable development. In 2010, GPL committed that all of its developments would be third party certified green buildings. In 2020 and again in 2021, the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark ranked GPL #1 globally amongst listed residential developers for its sustainability and governance practices. In 2017, GPL was one of the founding partners of the Sustainable Housing Leadership Consortium (SHLC), whose mission is to spread sustainable development practices across the Indian real estate sector. In recent years, Godrej Properties has received over 300 awards and recognitions, including the Porter Prize 2019, The Most Trusted Real Estate Brand in the 2019 Brand Trust Report, Builder of the Year at the CNBC-Awaaz Real Estate Awards 2019, and The Economic Times Best Real Estate Brand 2018.

Flipkart And CarDekho Partner To Bring Comprehensive “Auto Experience For Flipkart Customers”

~ Through a strategic partnership, CarDekho will extend their tech-enabled auto discovery and comparison options for Flipkart’s ~400m users 

Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, and Girnarsoft, parent company of India’s leading auto search and discovery portals - CarDekho and BikeDekho announced a strategic partnership wherein innovative tools, selections and automobile content such as detailed specs, prices, comparisons and more will be made available on the Flipkart app and mobile website.  

Flipkart is strengthening its focus on the auto category which currently covers accessories, select auto services, automobile spare parts and insurance options. This collaboration with Girnarsoft will allow its users across the country to make informed auto decisions aided by search, research, and comparisons. The interface for Flipkart’s automobile section has been designed to ensure easy navigation, discovery and seamlessness in journey completions.  

Speaking on the collaboration, Sankalp Mehrotra, Vice President - Monetisation, Flipkart, said, "Our association with Girnarsoft is aligned with our customer-centric approach to bring them the best choices, through technology-first measures. With over 400 million users on Flipkart, we are able to draw a deep understanding of their journeys. Our association with Girnarsoft will provide our customers with greater choices and selection in the auto category, as they go through their Car and 2-wheeler explorations. Users will be able to discover and learn more about the vehicle of their choice. This handshake is another step in democratizing access for customers" 

Mayank Jain, CEO - New Auto Business, Girnarsoft, said, “This partnership with Flipkart allows us to offer our proprietary auto search and discovery services to a new and larger set of audience in the country. Flipkart’s reach and our strength in auto-tech solutions together will enable seamless vehicle discovery, research and buying experience for these users. This partnership takes us closer to CarDekho's vision of disrupting the personal mobility space in India.” 

With the growing adoption of e-commerce, this alliance will play a pivotal role in facilitating OEMs and dealerships of all sizes to grow their business, while solving for the growing needs of millions of customers across India.  

Xiaomi India Aims To Create Leaders of Tomorrow Through Its New Initiative - Mission 300

-   Through this program, Xiaomi India is training 300 of the brightest minds in business verticals like After Sales, Sales, Marketing, Supply chain management, and many more

- Mission 300 is the 4th flagship training program by Xiaomi India

Xiaomi India, the country’s No.1 smartphone and smart TV brand, today announced the launch of 'Mission 300', a new training program with the vision of mentoring the young and bright minds of India. Staying true to its people-first approach, 'Mission 300' is the brand's flagship program under which, over 300 students from 100 business schools across India are being trained in business verticals like after sales, marketing, supply chain, category, HR, finance among others.

As part of the initiative, Xiaomi India plans to identify suitable roles for the new joiners wherein they will be placed across different functions based on their skill sets and the business requirements of the respective departments. The select candidates will go through a one-month-long training program and will get an opportunity to engage with the senior leadership. They will give these new joiners a glimpse of the respective departments and their functioning.

Commenting on the new initiative, Varun Madan, Senior Director HR, Xiaomi India said, “At Xiaomi India, we have always focused on investing in homegrown talent and giving an opportunity to the bright and young minds of the country. Through the 'Mission 300' initiative we wanted to scout talent from the remotest parts of the country and create the leaders of tomorrow through rigorous training and development program. As a brand that believes in innovating constantly, we are confident that these young minds will bring a new outlook towards problem solving as they embark on their professional journey. We are excited to welcome this batch of new joiners into the Xiaomi India family."

For 'Mission 300' the brand followed a stringent selection process which was divided into 6 stages:

1. College Identification: A list of suitable colleges was created based on the NAAC, NIRF, and Times Ranking

2. College Collaboration: Basis the finalized list of the selected colleges, Xiaomi shared detailed information with the colleges and placement chairs about the job requirements, roles and responsibilities, compensation, and additional benefits offered

3. Online Assessment Set up: While the selection process was ongoing, the brand partnered with an external vendor to conduct online assessments for all the 6000 applicants who showed interest in the opportunity

4. Qualification Scores: Post the first 3 phases/ stages, the brand followed an intricate scoring process that included 3 core focus areas- Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, and Verbal Comprehension

5. Personal Interviews: The top 800 candidates with the highest scores went through Personal Interviews with 122 unique panelists

6. Shortlisting & Offer Roll out- Taking an accumulation of the feedback post the interviews, the brand rolled out offers to over 300 selected candidates

Xiaomi India has successfully introduced multiple flagship training programs for students and employees from across the country since 2019 including Mi Launch Pad, Ode2Code, and Mi Summit. The Management Training Program, also known as Mi Launch Pad is aimed at empowering students from MBA institutes. Through Mi Summit, Xiaomi India on-boards an average of 30 MBA students annually via campus placements from the top 30 colleges in the country. Spanned out over a year, students get 12 learning interventions over three job rotations in business divisions like Offline/ Aftersales/ Retail/ Distribution; Business - online/ marketing/ category; Enabling - Finance/ HR/ SCM/ Logistics. Receiving a successful response, Xiaomi India will be initiating the fourth edition of the Mi Summit between August - September 2022.

About Xiaomi Corporation

Xiaomi Corporation (“Xiaomi”) was founded in April 2010 and listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 9, 2018 (1810.HK). Xiaomi is a consumer electronics and smart manufacturing company with smartphones and smart hardware connected by an IoT platform at its core. Embracing our vision of “Make friends with users and be the coolest company in the users’ hearts,” Xiaomi continuously pursues technological innovations, compelling user experience, and operational efficiency. The company relentlessly builds amazing products with honest prices to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technology. Xiaomi is one of the world's leading smartphone companies. The company’s market share in terms of smartphone shipments ranked no. 3 globally in the first quarter of 2022. The company has also established the world’s leading consumer AIoT (AI+IoT) platform, more than 478 million smart devices connected to its platform (excluding smartphones, tablets, and laptops) as of March 31, 2022. Xiaomi products are available in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. In August 2021, the company made the Fortune Global 500 list for the third time, ranking 338th, up 84 places compared to 2020.

Xiaomi India is the number 1 smartphone player since Q3 2017 IDC Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

Xiaomi India is the number 1 Smart TV brand since Q2 2018 IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tracker.

Pristyn Care To Increase Its Employee Base By 20% Over Next Year; Plans To Strengthen Its Medical And Patient-Care Team

* 200+ super-specialty surgeons and medical experts also to be hired by 2023

* Hiring across levels in patient care, medical directorate & quality control teams

* Plans to hire top tech talent to expand tech and product teams

Pristyn Care, the leading healthcare provider, is doubling its efforts to provide quality secondary surgery care. The company has announced its plans to increase its employee strength by 20% by 2023.

Pristyn Care has already been hiring across departments such as medical operations, patient care and safety, medical directorate, med-tech, digital marketing, product development, and technology. The next few months will also see 200+ doctors, super-speciality surgeons, and medical experts being on-boarded.

Currently, 400+ in-house surgeons are treating over 50+ diseases across the country. Till date, it has created 20,000 healthcare jobs, including nursing and paramedical staff in its empanelled hospitals and clinics across 40+ cities. The company's hiring plans align with its mission to expand its footprint and presence into Tier 2, and Tier 3 markets in India.

The company also has a comprehensive tech stack of over 30+ tech products to provide maximum benefits to patients, doctors and hospitals. The expanded design, product and engineering teams will be responsible for building long-term tech capabilities for Pristyn Care.

Commenting on the development, Harsimarbir Singh, co-founder at Pristyn Care, said, "We are focused on providing opportunities at every level in the healthcare industry. We have already created 20,000 jobs (direct & in-direct), most of which are in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. The teams play a crucial role in driving world-class innovations. We are committed to making healthcare accessible to everyone. We are excited about the possibilities that a rapidly evolving health-tech space presents and will continue to lead innovations for our patients and doctors across the country.

Commenting on the team expansion plans, Srinivas Reddy P, Senior Vice President, Human Resources at Pristyn Care, said, "We are experiencing unprecedented tailwinds in India. We are looking to capitalize on this by deploying the right resources and increasing our market share. The aim is to create an ecosystem where talent, innovation and newer possibilities emerge. We also want to make sure that we are ready to meet the growing demand in tier 2 and 3 cities and be able to deliver the best healthcare services to our patients. We are excited for this next phase of growth at Pristyn care as we continue to scale our offerings across the country.

The company recently announced that it had doubled its surgical centers to 800 and completed one million+ patient interactions while treating over 100,000 patients. The company's goal is to double the economic opportunities, thereby creating a set-up where highly trained staff serve patients during the surgical processes and take care of their every need.

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Launches ABSLI Fixed Maturity Plan

* A Non- Linked, Non-Participating Individual Savings Life Insurance Plan that gives you FD beating returns

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance (ABSLI), the life insurance subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL), announces the launch of a new-age savings solution ABSLI Fixed Maturity Plan (UIN 109N135V01), a non-linked, non-participating endowment product providing fully guaranteed benefits as a lump-sum on maturity. This plan is designed to offer policyholders short & long-term financial security by integrating FD beating returns and protection.

USP of ABSLI Fixed Maturity Plan

• Simplified Design –  One-time Single Pay (Single Premium Payment Term) with minimum policy term of 5 years, maximum up to 10 years

• Complete Liquidity at no cost –No penalty on early surrender of policy.

• FD Beating Returns –  Up to 6.41%  

• Guaranteed Maturity Benefits – Non-linked, non-participating endowment product providing fully guaranteed benefits

• Sum Assured Multiple Options – 1.25X to 1.77X or 10X to 10.42X 

ABSLI Fixed Maturity Plan provides industry best returns of up to 6.41% along with a life cover. These interest rates are higher than the Fixed Deposit rates offered by most major banks in the country.

Through its new simplified savings solution, ABSLI helps its policyholders get a hassle-free financial guarantee to fulfil their dreams.

The plan is a single pay proposition (premium payment term) like a fixed deposit and allows the policyholder to choose from a wide range of policy terms (5-10 years) to fit individual needs. Also, starting at 100%, the surrender benefit will increase by 1% every year, ensuring policyholders do not lose their money in case they have to surrender the policy. Through its new offering, ASBLI intends to cater to investors who prefer simplified product like fixed deposits.

Commenting on the launch of ABSLI Fixed Maturity Plan, Mr Kamlesh Rao, MD & CEO, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, said, “In this era of uncertainties, we continuously look forward to helping our policyholders with solutions providing them with necessary financial assurance and covering them suitably in the advent of any eventuality. The ABSLI Fixed Maturity Plan gives the required cushion of financial guarantee for all their dreams with industry best returns, allowing them to plan their investments accordingly. It also provides them with a comprehensive life cover which safeguards their family in case of an eventuality. Along with FD beating returns the plan enables the policyholders to benefit from all the conventional features of a life insurance savings plan.”

ABSLI Fixed Maturity Plan offers the benefit of choosing from a range of varied sum assured. The policyholders can either avail of Option A (1.25X to 1.77X sum assured) or Option B (10X to 10.42X sum assured). The returns will depend on the choice of sum assured; thus, Option A will attract higher returns as compared to Option B.

Key features of ABSLI Fixed Maturity includes:

Guaranteed Maturity: Customers to get fully guaranteed benefits irrespective of market conditions. 

Financial Security: Customers to get comprehensive risk cover in case of death of the life insured.

Flexibility:  Customers to get a choice of Policy Terms (5-10 years) and sum assured multiples.

Policy Loan: The minimum policy loan can be Rs. 5,000 and the maximum of 80% for Plan Option A & 65% for Plan Option B of the applicable Surrender Value less any outstanding policy loan balance as on that date

Tax Benefits: Tax benefits are subject to tax laws prevailing at the time of payment of premium or receipt of benefits

The maximum entry age to avail of the plan is 60 years (Option A) and 50 years (Option B), while the minimum age is 8 years. Furthermore, the minimum annualized premium is Rs. 12,000 and minimum sum assured is Rs.15000.

P2P Lender LenDenClub Appoints AU Bank’s Ashish Jain As Chief Business Officer – Investments

* LenDenClub continues to strengthen the leadership team ahead of the next growth phase

LenDenClub, RBI registered NBFC-P2P, India's largest peer-to-peer lending platform, announced the appointment of Ashish Jain as its new Chief Business Officer - Investments. Ashish brings over two decades of market-honed experience across diverse businesses such as FMCG, Mutual Funds, and Banking in the product, business development and sales domain, driving to achieve organizational goals.

At LenDenClub, Ashish would be responsible for enhancing the channel partner network that will help financial advisors provide alternative investment opportunities to allocate their clients’ assets. In addition, expanding key partnerships across the distribution landscape in order to make LenDenClub’s P2P lending offerings more accessible.

Speaking on the appointment, Bhavin Patel, Co-founder & CEO, LenDenClub, said, "We aspire to achieve $1 Billion in Loan disbursals this financial year. In the recent past, we have made certain strategic appointments, and Ashish’s addition to the team solidifies our commitment and focus towards our intended exponential growth. Given his expertise in the leading digital transformation on the retail banking side, Ashish will not just help bring a fresh perspective to our core business strategies, but will be a key driver in the growth of our Investments Business. I look forward to working closely with him and wish him all the best for the future.”

Ashish has previously worked in some of India’s marquee firms like ICICI Bank, Franklin Templeton, and ICICI Prudential AMC across multiple geographies in Sales, Marketing & Distribution, and Channel Management. His last stint was with AU Small Finance Bank, where he was responsible for the product & distribution of investment products and set up the investment practice from scratch. He has been the brain behind setting up sales & distribution across geographies for leading Mutual Fund houses.

Embarking on his new beginning, Ashish Jain, CBO - Investments, said, “Financial awareness and digitization is seeing exponential growth in India led by the fintech revolution. LenDenClub is poised to make the most of this momentum and drive digital adoption for financial products with its innovative product offerings and I am thrilled to contribute immensely to this journey.”

With record disbursements, customer additions, top-line growth, profitability, and distinctive product offerings, LenDenClub has had outstanding operational performance in FY 21–22. The business has also developed a multi-pronged plan to speed up its growth by being the go-to platform for peer-to-peer lending for the underserved investors and borrowers in the nation and helping them with various financial requirements. LenDenClub, in the recent past, selected Atal Agarwal as its Head of Initiatives and New Strategy and Mudit Agarwal as the Chief Business Officer - New Business Initiatives. This crucial strategic appointment will drive the company's growth objectives.

The company recently raised $10 million in a Series A round co-led by a consortium of investors, including Tuscan Ventures, Ohm Stock Brokers, and Artha Venture Fund.

About LenDenClub:

LenDenClub is a leading Peer-to-Peer Lending platform that provides an alternate investment opportunity to investors or lenders looking for high returns with creditworthy borrowers looking for short term personal loans. With 2 million+ investors on board, LenDenClub has become a go-to platform to earn returns in the range of 10%-12%. LenDenClub offers investors a convenient medium to browse thousands of borrower profiles to achieve better returns than traditional asset classes. Moreover, LenDenClub is safeguarded by market volatility and inflation. It provides a great way to diversify your investment portfolio.