Emkay Broker Research reports

The strategic review and potential sale by BP Plc of its lubricant arm, Castrol Ltd, marks a major global corporate development in the otherwise quiet lubricant sector.

Indian Bank has been one of the best performing PSBs for several years now. Our recent interaction with its new MD and CEO Binod Kumar reconfirms the company’s unwavering focus on profitability over growth.

We attended CEAT’s annual analyst meeting. The management retained its mid-single-digit replacement growth guidance. Rural is outpacing urban (key for CEAT’s 2Ws/farm segment) on a favorable monsoon outlook; it is eyeing share gains in PV OEMs amid rising salience of higher-rim size tyres.

We met RBL Bank MD and CEO R S Kumar to discuss the bank’s future outlook following a clean-up act in FY25, due to elevated stress in its unsecured portfolio.

We maintain BUY on Senco with an unchanged TP of Rs500 (25x Jun-27E EPS), as a 4-5% cut in estimates on higher interest expense is completely offset by rollover to Jun-26E TP.

We met new MD and CEO KVS Manian and Consumer Banking Head Virat Diwanji (ex-KMB), who gave assurance of their unwavering focus on addressing Federal Bank (FB)’s long-time pain point (margin) mainly via CASA acceleration.

We assume coverage on Star Cement (Star) with BUY and target price of Rs250, while valuing the stock at FY27E EV/EBITDA of 12x. Star, with the upcoming commissioning of grinding units (GUs) in Silchar and Jorhat (both in Assam) is set to consolidate its leadership position in the Northeast.

Puravankara (PL)’s pre-sales in FY25 were weak, as expected, as approvals were delayed (sector-wide impact). However, despite only 3.6msf new launches, sustenance sales remained strong (up 14% YoY) which was a respite.

We maintain BUY on Kalpataru Projects International Ltd (KPIL) with a TP of Rs1,450 (implying 30% upside). Standalone revenue/EBITDA/PAT grew by 21%/31%/48% YoY, led by strong order book, improved execution, and operating efficiencies.

Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) continued to report a robust performance, with PAT at Rs5.1bn and peer-best RoA at ~1.7%, which the bank guides to uphold, aided by healthy operating profitability and contained credit cost.