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Global Automotive Supplier Sona Comstar IPO to open on June 14, 2021, closes on June 16, 2021

Posted on June 9, 2021 by City Today News (City today.media)

Price Band of Rs. 285 – Rs. 291 per equity share of face value of Rs. 10 each (“Equity Shares”)
Bid/Offer Opening Date – Monday, June 14, 2021 and Bid/Offer Closing Date – Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Minimum Bid Lot is 51 equity shares and in multiples of 51 equity shares thereafter
The Floor Price is 28.50 times the face value of the Equity Shares and the Cap Price is 29.10 times the Face Value of the Equity Shares

Risks to Investors : • The five Book Running Lead Managers associated with the Offer have handled 23 public offers in the past three financial years out of which 8 offers closed below the offer price on listing date.• The Price/Earnings ratio based on diluted EPS for Fiscal 2021 for the Company at the upper end of the Price band is as high as 77.60 as compared to the average industry peer group PE ratio of 73.08 (excluding PE ratio of one industry outlier).• Weighted Average Return on Net Worth for Fiscals 2021, 2020 and 2019 is 35.0%.• Average Cost of acquisition of Equity Shares for the Selling Shareholder namely Singapore VII Topco III Pte. Ltd. Is ₹ 32.34 and the Offer Price at the upper end of the Price Band is ₹ 291 per Equity Share.

Bangalore, June 9, 2021: Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited, one of India’s leading automotive technology companies, is primarily engaged in designing, manufacturing and supplying highly engineered, mission critical automotive systems and components to automotive OEMs. The bid/offer period in relation to its initial public offering of Equity Shares (the “Offer”) will open on Monday, June 14, 2021 and close on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. The price band for the Offer has been determined at Rs. 285 – Rs. 291 per Equity Share. The Company and the Selling Shareholder have, in consultation with the book running lead managers to the Offer (the “BRLMs”), considered participation by Anchor Investors, which participation shall be one Working Day prior to the bid/offer opening Date, i.e. Friday, June 11, 2021.

The total Offer size is up to Rs. 5,550 crores with a fresh issuance of equity shares, aggregating up to Rs.300 crores and an offer for sale of equity shares aggregating up to Rs. 5,250 crores, by the Selling Shareholder, namely, Singapore VII Topco III Pte. Ltd. The Company intends to utilize the proceeds from the fresh issue to repay/prepay approximately Rs. 241.12 crores of its identified borrowings, besides general corporate purposes.

The company is a leading supplier to the fast-growing global Electric Vehicle (EV) markets and derived 13.8% revenue from the Battery EV market and 26.7% from the Micro Hybrid / Hybrid market in FY21. Its global market share of BEV differential assemblies in calendar year 2020 was 8.7%. The company is among the top ten players globally in the differential bevel gear market and in the starter motor market on the basis of respective volumes supplied to its end segments in calendar year 2020 and has been gaining global market share across products. According to the Ricardo Report, it serves 6 of the top 10 global PV OEMs, 3 out of top 10 global CV OEMs and 7 out of top 8 global tractor OEMs by volumes. The company has strong R&D, engineering and technological capabilities in precision forging, mechanical and electrical systems, as well as base and application software development. It is diversified across geographies, products, vehicle segments and customers. According to the Crisil Report, the company has the highest operating EBITDA margin, PAT margin, ROCE and ROE in FY20 as compared to top 10 listed auto component manufacturers in India by market capitalization and has consistently delivered more than 26% EBITDA margin and more than 35% average ROE each year over FY19-21. Its operating income growth over FY16-20 has exceeded the average of the same peer set.

The Offer is being made in terms of Rule 19(2)(b) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957, as amended, read with Regulation 31 of the SEBI ICDR Regulations. The Offer is being made in accordance with Regulation 6(2) of the SEBI ICDR Regulations, through the Book Building Process wherein not less than 75% of the Offer shall be available for allocation to qualified institutional buyers, not more than 15% of the Offer shall be available for allocation to non-institutional bidders and not more than 10% of the Offer shall be available for allocation to retail individual bidders.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited, JM Financial Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited are the BRLMs to the Offer.

All capitalized terms used herein and not specifically defined shall have the same meaning as ascribed to them in the Red Herring Prospectus dated June 7, 2021 (“RHP”) filed with the Registrar of Companies, NCT of Delhi and Haryana at New Delhi (“RoC”).
Disclaimers
SONA BLW PRECISION FORGINGS LIMITED is proposing, subject to receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, to make an initial public issue of its Equity Shares and has filed the RHP with the RoC and thereafter with Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) and the Stock Exchanges. The RHP shall be available on the website of the SEBI at http://www.sebi.gov.in as well as on the websites of the book running lead managers, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited, JM Financial Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited at http://www.investmentbank.kotak.com, http://www.credit-suisse.com/in/en/investment-banking-apac/investment-banking-inindia/ipo.html, http://www.jmfl.com, http://www.jpmipl.com and http://www.nomuraholdings.com/company/group/asia/india/index.html, respectively. Investors should note that investment in equity shares involves a high degree of risk and for details relating to such risks, see “Risk Factors” beginning on page 26 of the RHP. The Equity Shares have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) and, unless so registered, may not be offered or sold within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and in compliance with the applicable state securities laws. Accordingly, the Equity Shares are being offered and sold (a) in the United States only to “qualified institutional buyers” (as defined in Rule 144Aunder the U.S. Securities Act) in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and (b) outside the United States in offshore transactions as defined in and in compliance with Regulation S and the applicable laws of the jurisdiction where those offers and sales are made. There will be no public offering in the United States.

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Rotary’s distribution of 500 Oxygen Concentrators across the country

Posted on June 8, 2021 by City Today News (City today.media)

QNet HongKong enters into collaboration with Rotary to distribute 500 Oxygen Concentrators across India.
At a well attended virtual launch on Monday 7th June 2021, E- Commerce Company QNet Executive Chairman, Hong Kong , Richard Zinkiewicz, in the presence of Rotary International President Elect Shekhar Mehta , announced QNet’s decision to send 500 Oxygen Concentrators to Rotary District 3190, Bangalore, for national distribution.
The first consignment is expected in 7 to 10 days.

Rotary Dist 3190 , with assistance from Rotary Clubs across India,will put these concentrators to use free of cost for the most needy patients in several cities and villages across the country.
Core values of QNet are represented by the acronym RYTHM(Raise Yourself To Help Mankind).
District Governor Nagendra Prasad B.L. thanked QNet and said the much needed concentrators were a big boost to Rotary’s commitment to fight the war against COVID.

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Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham launches Online Labs for School Experiments (OLabs) in Maldives, trains 194 Maldivian teachers

Posted on June 8, 2021 by City Today News (City today.media)

Maldives will integrate OLabs into teaching practice at schools, helping improve learning outcomes
OLabs has been developed by the varsity in partnership with CDAC, Mumbai, based on a research grant by Govt. of India
More than 12,000 schools in India are currently using OLabs. The number of online users has doubled from 16 lakhs in pre-Covid times to 32 lakhs today

May 25, 2021: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, ranked the 4th Best Overall University in India in the 2020 NIRF ranking, has launched its much-acclaimed Online Labs for School Experiments called OLabs in Maldives for all of the island country’s schools. OLabs enables school students anywhere in the world to conduct online lab experiments more efficiently and less expensively through the Internet. It has been developed by the varsity in partnership with CDAC, Mumbai, based on a research grant by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has provided training to 194 teachers and teacher educators from various schools of Maldives to integrate OLabs in their teaching practice. The online training session was attended by Fathimath Naseer, the Minister of State for Education, Maldives; Anil Kumar Pipal, HoD, eLearning Divisions, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India, and Prof. Madhu Parhar, Director, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre For Asia (CEMCA), among others.

Said Prof. Prema Nedungadi, Director, AmritaCREATE, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, who is leading the OLabs initiative at the varsity: “We are extremely delighted to launch OLabs for the benefit of school students in Maldives. The aim is to provide high-quality laboratory access in science, mathematics and English for students and faculty members of Maldives, helping enhance teaching and learning outcomes. Lab experiments are an integral part of science and engineering education. However, access to lab equipment is often limited for school students due to resource constraints. Online labs provide an alternative to physical hands-on labs in schools where such labs are not present or augment existing access to experiments. There is an urgent need for integration of virtual labs into school learning across the world.”

Said Fathima Naseer, Hon’ble Minister of State for Education, Maldives: “Maldives is a nation with many geographical challenges and has few resources such as laboratories in schools. The launch of OLabs in our country is a golden opportunity for our school students to get access to high-quality virtual labs for performing various experiments and excel in their education.”

OLabs enables school students from classes 9 to 12 to understand and perform online laboratory experiments free of cost. The program hosts virtual experiments in physics, chemistry, and biology developed by Amrita CREATE, with content aligned to NCERT, CBSE and State Board syllabus. The Mathematics and English components have been developed by CDAC, Mumbai. The experiments offered on OLabs have been evaluated and endorsed by CBSE.

OLabs is hosted on India’s National Knowledge Network and is offered free of cost to any school. The experiments are available in several languages, including English, Hindi, Malayalam and Marathi. OLabs is also being used in several European countries and its experiments have been translated into Spanish.

Added Prof. Prema Nedungadi: “OLabs can be used as a supplementary resource for schools that have their own labs, as well as a primary resource for schools in rural areas which lack lab infrastructure. It has been hugely useful for school students in Covid times. The number of online users of OLabs has doubled from 16 lakhs in pre-Covid times to 32 lakhs today. The program is currently in use across 12,000 schools in India.”

OLabs was launched in December 2015 by the Hon’ble Minister of MeitY, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad.

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World Food Safety Day

Posted on June 7, 2021 by City Today News (City today.media)

**Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh,**
**WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia**

On World Food Safety Day, the WHO South-East Asia Region calls for intensified whole-of-society efforts to prevent, detect and manage the risk of foodborne disease (FBD). Globally, nearly 600 million people fall sick and 420 000 people die every year due to consumption of unsafe food. The Region contributes a quarter of the global burden of FBD morbidity and nearly 42% of FBD mortality. Safe food is critical to promoting health and ending hunger, two of the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The use of antimicrobials in farm animals is a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – a health and development threat, and one of the Region’s eight Flagship Priorities. The theme of this year’s celebration, “Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow”, highlights the benefits of safe food production and consumption for people, the planet and economies. Food safety is everyone’s business. We must all do our part.

The Region has in recent years achieved sustained, multisectoral progress to enhance food safety. All Member States have established a National Codex Committee to advise government on Codex standards, codes of practice and guidelines. The Region continues to apply a “One Health” approach to food safety, spearheaded by the regional tripartite mechanism, which brings together WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The Region continues to implement a new Framework for Action on Food Safety, which was launched last year, amid the ongoing pandemic response. The Framework highlights the need for all countries in the Region to develop a national policy and strategic plan on food safety. It underscores the value of ongoing monitoring and evaluation of national food control systems.

Importantly, the Framework highlights the increasingly acute risk of FBD outbreaks and other systemic shocks. The world’s food systems are fragile. Food ingredients often come from multiple countries, with each item having travelled thousands of kilometres from a field, farm or factory. Contamination at one end of the food chain can affect populations on the other side of the world. Though COVID-19 has not been transmitted by food, the pandemic has sharpened focus on food safety-related issues, from hygiene, AMR, and zoonotic diseases, to climate change, food fraud and the potential benefits of digitalizing food systems. In line with the Region’s Flagship Priority on strengthening emergency risk management, it is imperative that countries in the Region step up and secure food systems, ensuring they can guard against and meet all challenges.

This year’s World Food Safety Day makes several calls to action. First, to governments: Ensure it’s safe. Prioritize whole-of-government action on food safety and build sustainable food systems that provide safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all. Second, to agriculture and food producers: Grow it safe. Adopt best practices that promote food safety. Use antimicrobials only when appropriate. Third, to business operators: Keep it safe. Safely store and handle food and strengthen food safety management systems. Fourth, to consumers: Know it’s safe. Learn about safe and healthy food and how you can consume it. Fifth, to all people in all sectors of society: Team up for food safety. Food safety is a shared responsibility, to which we must all contribute.

Every opportunity should be grasped. In September, as part of the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN will hold its first ever Food Systems Summit. The Summit will provide a global platform to promote high-level political commitment and concrete actions towards food system transformation, including on food safety. The participation and voice of Member States in the Region will be essential to achieve the necessary outcomes, and for the Summit to serve as a turning point in the world’s journey to fulfil the SDGs. WHO will continue to provide Member States its full support, including through its role as the anchor UN agency for Action Track Two – promoting and creating demand for healthy and sustainable diets, and reducing waste.

We can – and must – deliver. Food systems touch every aspect of human existence. Building food systems that are safe and sustainable, and which work for the benefit of all, has a positive impact far beyond health, driving progress in all areas of development, from ending poverty, to increasing access to safe and clean water and reducing greenhouse emissions. In the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, it must be a core priority. On World Food Safety Day, WHO calls on all stakeholders, at all steps of the food chain, to contribute towards a Region and world in which sufficient, safe, and nutritious food is accessible to all, leaving no one behind. For a healthier, more health-secure future, together we must act.

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Countries, health partners discuss strengthening collective response to COVID-19 in WHO South-East Asia Region

Posted on June 3, 2021 by City Today News (City today.media)

NEW DELHI, 3 June 2021: The World Health Organization today convened a meeting of member countries and health partners to discuss strengthening of collective efforts to control COVID-19 spread.

“Several countries continue to experience high transmission. We are still very much in the acute phase of pandemic. We must continue to aggressively respond, using all tools at our disposal,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, opening the ‘South-East Asia Partners’ Meeting on COVID-19’.

For five consecutive weeks, the Region reported rapid surge of COVID-19, registering over 2 million new cases.

Lives and livelihoods are at stake, as is the sustainable development of a Region that is home to over 2 billion people – one-fourth of the world’s population. It is only through solidarity, and by sustaining Region-wide resolve, that we can drive infection down, prevent new waves, and bring evidence-based treatments and technologies to all who need them, the Regional Director said.

“There remains a clear and ongoing need in all countries of the Region to strengthen health system capacity, including access to critical supplies such as oxygen,” she said.

To fill those gaps, WHO in recent weeks provided over 340 metric ton of essential medical supplies worth over US$ 50 million and continues to mobilize more, she said and emphasized on the need for equitable distribution and availability of equipment and supplies.

WHO is committed to increasing supply chain resilience, including through local manufacturing to secure equitable access to therapeutics, diagnostics, personal protective equipment (PPE) and other supplies.

On COVID-19 vaccine equity, the Regional Director said this demands extraordinary action and global collaboration. While the development of COVID-19 vaccines has been exceedingly fast, the supply cannot currently meet demand. This has resulted in a slowing down of vaccination in several countries, including those reliant on COVAX vaccines.

WHO will continue to support all countries to implement evidence-based public health and social measures; to enhance social and economic protections; and to maintain equitable access to essential health services – a core priority from the beginning of the response, which requires sustained and scaled up support.

Lauding the partners, Dr Khetrapal Singh said their support has enabled WHO implement a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained response.

With assistance from partners, WHO in the Region has been able to deliver over 2.2 million sample collection kits, 1.9 million manual PCR tests, 2.1 million gloves, 7 million medical masks, more than 500 000 gowns, and more than 600 000 respirators since the start of the pandemic.

This is in addition to their support to the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund which is being used to fund emergency preparedness as well as response measures in the Region.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from ministries of health, ambassadors, UN Regional Directors, UN Resident Coordinators, representatives from International Financial Institutions and Development Banks; members of the Red Cross Movement, GAVI the Vaccine Alliance, and The Global Fund; members of international NGOs, philanthropic foundations and partners.

“To all partners, my message today is one of steadfast solidarity, and steely resolve: Together, we must stay the course and see this challenge through,” the Regional Director said reiterating WHO’s commitment to collaborate and coordinate to end this pandemic.

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