Upgrades

We maintain our BUY recommendation on the stock.

UltraTech Cement’s (UTCEM) commentary on short-term challenges (mainly low demand in Q1FY26 and no comments on price hike sustainability) may unnerve a few investors. However, we continue to believe in our sector revival hypothesis (of reducing competitive intensity) and of UTCEM being its largest beneficiary.

PAT beat estimates, aided by higher non-interest income and lower operating expenses

TVS Motor (TVSL) delivered an in-line operating performance, excluding the PLI benefit. Adjusted PAT grew 42% YoY to INR6.9b, broadly in line with our estimate of INR6.75b.

L&T Finance’s (LTF) reported 4QFY25 PAT grew 15% YoY to INR6.4b (in line). FY25 PAT grew ~14% YoY to INR26.4b. Consol. credit costs stood at INR6.2b (in line), translating into annualized credit costs of ~2.55% (PQ: 2.5% and PY: 3.2%).

PNB Housing (PNBHF) delivered an all-round healthy performance, marked by a healthy retail loan growth of ~18% YoY, an expansion of 5bp QoQ in NIMs, a sustained improvement in asset quality, and recoveries from its retail written-off pool, which resulted in provision write-backs for the entire year.

UltraTech Cement (UTCEM)’s 4QFY25 performance was in line with our estimates. EBITDA increased ~12% YoY to INR46.2b, while EBITDA/t declined 4% YoY to INR1,126 (est. INR1,104).

In May’23, MLIFE had unveiled a strategy of reaching INR 80-100bn of annual residential plus industrial cluster sales by CY28 or 5x in 5 years (CY23-28). While it has achieved FY25 sales bookings of INR 28.0bn, with a healthy launch pipeline having GDV of over INR 390bn as of Mar’25, we estimate FY26/27E sales bookings of INR 36bn/INR 41bn, respectively.

TVS Motor Company (TVSL) continued to move up the profitability curve in Q4FY25. Excluding PLI benefit of previous quarters, Q4 EBITDA margin stood at 12.5%, up ~120bps/60bps. TVSL expects growth momentum to continue; it expects to outperform industry in both ICE and EV segments in FY26.

Cholamandalam Finance’s (Chola) Q4FY25 performance was broadly in line with highest quarterly PBT-ROTA at 3.6% driven by 30bps QoQ NIM expansion, 10bps QoQ each credit cost and operating expense moderation.