ICICI Securities Limited Broker Research reports

We met Mr Praveen Kutty, MD&CEO of DCB Bank (DCB). Management is re-orienting DCB towards being customer-centric, as opposed to being product-centric earlier.

Shree Cement’s (SRCM) FY26 playbook, as articulated by Chairman Mr H M Bangur in a recent media interview (Link), seems decisive and leaves little room for ambiguity.

We attended Premier Energies’ (Premier) analyst meet. Premier is among the only two players who are building and are ramping up solar manufacturing capacity. India is building barriers and fending off Chinese competition.

We recently attended CEAT’s Investor Day to understand its medium-term growth strategy. Over the next two years, CEAT aims to gain leadership position in the PV replacement segment (currently, no. 3 player with 16% market share); it is also targeting ~200bps of market share expansion in the TBR segment.

Vodafone Idea’s (VIL) Q4FY25 ARPU rose 0.6% QoQ (Bharti down 0.1%, RJio +1.4%), on expected lines. However, VIL lost higher-than-expected subs, and data subs dipped marginally by 0.1mn despite initial 4G network expansion.

Century Plyboards (CPBI) reported Q4FY25 consol. revenue growth of 13% YoY. Plywood/laminates/MDF and allied revenues grew 9.6%/ 1.3%/37.2% YoY with volumes up 6.8%/0.5%/39.2% YoY (6-year CAGRs of 10.2%/2.7% / 16.3%), respectively.

Bosch India’s (BOS) Q4FY25 EBITDAM of 13.2% (flat YoY) was in line with consensus estimate. Gross margin improvement of ~300bps was offset by higher other expenses.

Natco’s Q4FY25 result was driven by better traction in gRevlimid and the momentum is likely to continue for next couple of quarters.

Deepak Nitrite’s (DN) Q4FY25 underlying print suggests margin pressure intensified in Q4 with rise in supplies from China, particularly for agrochemical intermediates.

Samvardhana Motherson International’s (SAMIL) EBITDAM at 9.0% was ~100bps below I-Sec estimate. Demand environment for light vehicles remains muted.

Varroc Engineering’s (VAR) EBITDA margin stood at 10.5%, down ~70bps YoY but ~50bps higher vs consensus/I-Sec estimate. Revenue growth was 11% YoY (adjusted), with 13% YoY growth in India operations.

Suzlon ended FY25 on a high with a strong set of result; in Q4FY25, it reported revenue of INR 38bn (+73% YoY), EBITDA of INR 7bn (+94% YoY) and adjusted profit of INR 5.8bn (~2x YoY) - adjusted for deferred tax of INR 6bn. The strong performance was led by execution of 573MW of wind turbines (2.1x YoY).

Cohance Lifesciences’ (Cohance) Q4FY25 pro forma financial performance was below our expectation. Momentum across its pharma CDMO (+31% YoY) was strong, while specialty chemical CDMO business growth (+75%) is beginning to recover.

LIC saw VNB/EV grow 4.5%/6.8% YoY in FY25. Strategic initiatives have tracked well consistently in terms of pushing product mix towards non-participating (28% of individual APE in FY25 vs. 18%/9% in FY24/FY23) and revision in pricing/product strategy to maximise value for all stakeholders with changes like hike in surrender value.

We've been long critical of Colgate India's (consistent) strategy of not investing (enough) for toothpaste category growth (our opinion), not aggressive (enough) in diversifying outside of oralcare (parent has a good HPC portfolio though), over-earning, in our opinion (operating margins at ~37% after adding back royalty).

NHPC has reported a steady result in Q4FY25 – standalone revenue grew 15% YoY to INR 21bn, EBITDA grew 4% YoY to INR 9.4bn while adjusted PAT, at INR 8bn, grew 14% YoY.

IndusInd Bank (IIB) reported higher-than-expected Q4FY25 loss of INR 22.4bn (RoA of -1.74%) burdened by multiple oneoffs, including derivative loss and irregularities in its MFI book while slippages/net NPA jumped QoQ.

Our initial estimates factored in spread compression in FY25 vs. FY24. While, in H1FY25, this played out more than we expected, there was a big recovery in H2.

Power Grid had a strong FY25, adding projects worth >INR 1trn (project cost) to its kitty. It had an impressive run in competitive bids, winning 24 transmission projects (market share of >50%) with estimated cost of INR 920bn; the most notable was Khavda-Nagpur HVDC project worth INR 250bn.

Solar Industries’ (SOIL) Q4FY25 EPS was 5% and 13% ahead of our estimates and consensus, respectively. EBITDA rose 53% YoY to INR 5.4bn. Defence revenue rose 2.2x YoY to INR 4.3bn.