20 th August, 2020 BSE Limited Corporate Relations Department P J Towers, Dalal Street Mumbai - 400 001 Scrip Code: 532300 National Stock Exchange of India Limited Exchange Plaza Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai - 400 051 NSE Symbol: WOCKPHARMA Dear Sir/Madam, We wish to enclose herewith the Notice of the Board Meeting to be held on 29 th August, 2020 published in the today’s newspapers. Kindly take the same on record. Thanking you, For Wockhardt Limited Gajanand Sahu Company Secretary Encl : As above
Transcript
20th August, 2020
BSE Limited
Corporate Relations Department P J Towers, Dalal Street Mumbai - 400 001
Dear Sir/Madam, We wish to enclose herewith the Notice of the Board Meeting to be held on 29th August, 2020 published in the today’s newspapers. Kindly take the same on record. Thanking you, For Wockhardt Limited
Gajanand Sahu Company Secretary
Encl : As above
4 COMPANIES MUMBAI | THURSDAY, 20 AUGUST 2020 1>
ISHITA AYAN DUTTKolkata, 19 August
Promoters of Emami may look atselling land parcels and non-coreassets as part of their deleverag-
ing plan. Promoter pledge in Emamihas reduced to below 55 per cent, froma high of 90 per cent, after sale of itscement business.
According to the shareholding pattern filed by Emami with the stockexchanges, as of August 14, 54.26 percent of promoter holding was pledged.Emami’s borrowing against shares isaround ~1,130 crore. Promoters expectpledged shares to come down to the 50 per cent-level shortly. The target is tobring it down further by March.
In an analyst call, Mohan Goenka,director, Emami Group, said in responseto reduction of pledge and borrowings:“We would try to get rid of this by the endof March once the deal concludes for anyof our lands or other assets. Then youwould see the pledge coming down.”
Last month, Emami Group completed divestment of its 100 percent stake in Emami Cement toNuvoco Corporation for an enterprisevalue of ~5,500 crore. Now, with mostof the deleveraging concerns behind,analysts expect promoters to focus onthe core business.
In keeping with the accent on health
and hygiene in the wake of Covid-19,Emami will be focusing on Zandu andBoroPlus, two of its major brands in the segment.
The Zandu brand has seen a 27-30 per cent growth in the past three tofour months. Emami plans to cash in onthe momentum and 20-30 new launch-es under Zandu have been identified.
According to the company’s investorpresentation after June quarter results,the health care range has seen a 23 percent growth in the quarter; in June,growth was at 59 per cent. The BoroPlusrange saw a 28 per cent growth in thefirst quarter and 92 per cent in June.
The deleveraging exercise at the pro-moter level, coupled with growth fromthe health care range amid tight cost con-trol, led to a rerating of the stock.
After it surprised the market bymaintaining profit despite revenue fall,the Emami scrip rose 2.6 per cent, upfrom ~340 apiece and closed at ~349 on Wednesday.
For cost reduction, Emami hadappointed AT Kearney to chart out thecourse, which helped it increase margins during the quarter.
Gross margins increased 230 basispoints (bps) at 66.5 per cent and earningsbefore interest, tax, depreciation, andamortisation margins by 490 bps at 25.5 per cent. The cost reduction targetfor the year is ~50-60 crore.
Emami may sell non-coreassets, land to cut pledge
PEERZADA ABRARBengaluru, 19 August
The recent controversy shroud-ing Facebook in India — on theplatform’s lack of hate-contentmoderation and disinforma-tion — is going to give teeth tothe ‘Facebook ad boycott’movement in the country anddent its business prospects,said analysts.
The Mark Zuckerberg led-social media giant is facingattacks in India from the Con-gress and the CommunistParty of India (Marxist). Thepolitical parties are pushing fora probe by a joint parliamen-tary committee over The WallStreet Journal’s article that thecompany failed to apply hate-speech rules to certain Bhara-tiya Janata Party politicians.
Facebook has stated its poli-cies are applied globally withoutregard to political affiliation.However, all these controver-sies are expected to have a neg-ative impact on the businessinterests and brand of the com-pany in India, said analysts.
“With big players in Indialike Airtel and others revisitingtheir decision on advertising onFacebook, it could lead to moreIndian companies jumping onthe global ‘Facebook ad boycott’bandwagon. These includemultinationals like Verizon,Coca-Cola, Starbucks, TheNorth Face, Recreational Equip-ment, Inc., and Patagonia,” saidSalman Waris, managing part-ner, TechLegis Advocates &Solicitors. The Congress hasalleged that Facebook’s “inac-tion” against hate content “de-stabilises democracy” in India.
Kazim Rizvi, founder of TheDialogue, a tech policy thinktank, said platform accounta-bility is one of the most impor-tant issues that need to be dealtwith and is an ever-evolving
subject of importance, espe-cially in democracies.
“The recent turn of eventsis part of a larger need of ensur-ing platforms are transparentin their procedures and proto-cols when it comes to the take-down of hate content on theinternet,” said Rizvi.
India is the biggest user-basefor Facebook, with around 328million monthly users, whilethe company’s WhatsApp mes-saging app has 400 millionusers in the country — also thehighest in the world. It recentlyinvested $5.7 billion for a 9.99per cent stake in Reliance JioPlatforms. The deal aims to helpReliance dominate the e-com-merce and payments space.
Advertising accounts for
nearly all of Facebook’s $70.7-billion annual revenue. Lastyear, Facebook India had post-ed revenues of ~892 crore, com-pared to revenues of ~521 crore— an increase of 71 per cent. Itrecorded a net profit of ~105crore, up 84 per cent from thelast financial year.
Experts said it is expectedthat organisations with big mar-keting budgets may shift theirads to other platforms such asAmazon, Google, YouTube, andPinterest, after halting advertis-ing on Facebook. It was reportedthat the firm’s CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerbergrecently lost $7.2 billion after sev-eral companies pulled advertis-ing from Facebook. Shares of thefirm fell 8.3 per cent.
FB must hit pause onhate posts, else ad bizwill suffer: Experts
The Competition Commission ofIndia (CCI) has dismissed a caseagainst Facebook’s WhatsApp,saying the company has notabused its dominant position toexpand in the country’s digitalpayments market, according toan official order.
A case in March allegedWhatsApp was bundling its dig-ital payment facility, WhatsAppPay, within its messaging app,for which it already has a largeuser base. The case allegedWhatsApp was abusing its posi-
tion by forcing its paymentsfeature on to its existing users.In a 41-page official order madepublic late on Tuesday, the CCIsaid it did not find any contrav-ention of antitrust laws, addingthe company’s “actual conductis yet to manifest in the market”as it has not fully launched theservice yet.
“As stated by WhatsApp, thenumber of users being servedunder the beta version is limitedto less than 1 per cent of its usersin India,” said the order. REUTERS
WhatsApp Pay: CCI rejectsantitrust complaint
MEGHA MANCHANDANew Delhi, 19 August
The Supreme Court (SC) said onWednesday telecom firms onlyhave a right to use spectrum andit is not an asset they own. Thisobservation was made by theapex court in the adjusted grossrevenue (AGR) case.
Advocate Harish Salve, whorepresented Reliance Jio, saidspectrum is recorded as an assetby virtue of being purchased inan auction and sale of airwavescan only take place with nod ofthe department of telecommu-nications (DoT) when the reso-lution is approved. “There is noother right that can be claimedon spectrum beyond this.Spectrum is not something onecan claim possession over.
Spectrum is just there. The gov-ernment holds this in trust but atelecom company does notbecome a trustee when it is giv-en licence. As a natural resource,spectrum will always vest withthe people,” he said.
Salve argued that the princi-ple held was that the govern-ment cannot sell exclusiverights to natural resources likerivers and beaches, among oth-ers, as they are all held by thegovernment in trust. He added,even the taxpayers’ money isheld by the government in atrust. In fact, the whole conceptof governance is “trust.”
A Bench comprising JusticesArun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer,and M R Shah heard the matterand the next hearing of the caseis on August 20.
On August 18, Salve had sub-mitted before the apex courtthat the right to use licence forspectrum usage can be a sub-ject matter of Insolvency andBankruptcy Code proceedings.
Salve said that the company(Reliance Jio) had cleared all itsdues towards AGR, includingthe charges incurred for using
Reliance Communications’(RCom’s) spectrum under thespectrum-sharing agreement.
The SC said spectrum duescannot be treated as operationaldues by companies as airwavesare the very basis of operations.
Under the revenue-sharingregime currently in place, spec-trum dues cannot be dealt asoperational dues.
Jio said the company haspaid AGR dues, including thosederived from revenue earned byuse of shared spectrum ofRCom. In addition, it has paid0.5 per cent extra as spectrumusage charges for sharing spectrum, according to DoT’s guidelines. Salve also saidJio paid ~195 crore, based on theapex court’s judgment in theAGR case.
On August 14, the SC soughtdetails of operators using air-waves allotted to bankrupt com-panies, including Aircel andRcom. It directed the Centre,Jio’s, and RCom’s resolutionprofessionals to produce docu-ments to ascertain the AGR lia-bilities of RCom.
According to DoT, Airtelowes the exchequer ~43,780crore, of which it has paid~18,004 crore. Vodafone Ideapaid ~7,854 crore of its ~50,399-crore dues. Tata Teleservices haspaid about ~4,197 crore and thebalance is ~12,601 crore. In anaffidavit filed with the SC,Sistema Shyam Teleserviceshad said RCom was liable to payits AGR dues. DoT has evaluateda liability of ~25,194.58 crore forRCom as of March 6.
