The recent case of GTL group companies which suffered heavily on Monday has originated few new issues on the bourses. The concerns revolve around debt repayment, pledged shares and fund raising.
Shares of telecom infrastructure company GTL plummeted Monday due to concerns over debt repayment, pledged shares and fund raising and even the promoters were caught unaware of the difficult situation. The chairman's repeated assurances it had not defaulted and that its business fundamentals remain strong did not help the cause.
GTL shares declined as much as 62.3%, the sharpest in 54 months, to Rs 127.50, and GTL Infrastructure as much as 48.5% to its all-time low of Rs 15.25 in a an already suffering market.
Suddenly, the promoter pledging keyword is causing a big drag on shares. If we go by the trend, the shares of the companies in which promoters have pledged significant part of their holdings, they have corrected more than the broader market.
RBI continues it’s rate hike spree to douse inflation. The recent rate hike on last Thursday was tenth since March 2010.Though the stubborn inflation has not shown any signs of easing, but these rate hikes may lead to new fears for the promoters who have pledged their shares.
The fears are that promoters would be unable to meet the corresponding increase in interest costs resulting in sales by non-banking finance companies (NBFC), which lend to promoters against their shares. A lot of the promoter funding is done by NBFCs which have an appetite for high risk funding at high interest rates. Their own cost of funding has gone up after the rate hikes and promoters’ ability to pay back borrowed money is under question, resulting in a sell-off in many cases.
A lot of NBFCs had been caught on the wrong foot in December 2010, when there was a sharp correction in midcap stocks but this time NBFCs are more alert to the possibility of sudden and deep downward price movements.
Stocks with a high proportion of pledged promoter shares are particularly vulnerable in a bear market. The following is the list of companies on the basis of percentage of promoter holdings pledged with lenders and also the company is operational in the F&O segment.
Out of the 20 scrips mentioned above, 6 are from real estate industry .Companies in the infrastructure and realty sectors are among the worst affected with promoters said to be cutting costs by decreasing spends on advertising and marketing. S Kumars, Orchid and Unitech which are constituents of this list have also faced selling pressure in the last couple of days, though not as vigorously as the GTL duo which continues to suffer.
The stocks operational in the F&O segment suffer a bigger hit in comparison to their non F&O compatriots. The bears start shorting the stock futures first and once the futures become weak, the effect passes on to the stock price as well. The usual differential between the stock price and futures is not more than 1% so any fall in futures leads to a proportional fall in stock price
The falling stock price makes the task tough for promoters as any fall below a certain price level induces a situation of promotes receiving margin calls from lenders. The promoters either has do a part payment of the loan or deposit more shares with the lender, as collateral. If the promoters fail to do either of the two, lenders will dump the shares to recover their money and fulfills the bear’s wishes as they square-off their positions by managing a net profit.
Investor generally rushes in for a buying spree, allured by the falling stock prices and in the process loses money or remains invested in the stock facing a huge loss.
Though the kind of 15-20% intra-day fall in all such companies is not fundamentally justifiable, but one needs to be cautious investing in companies with high proportion of pledged shares.
References:
1) http://www.finalaya.com/
2) http://www.bseindia.com/
3) http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
4) http://www.dnaindia.com/
5) http://www.business-standard.com/
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