India: Bandhan Bank Ltd, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, Fino Payments Bank Ltd, Welspun India, Eclerx Services, Indigo Paints, Varun Beverages Ltd, IDFC Ltd and more

• We interact with four DSC managers of Bandhan Bank, two managers of AU Bank and Manappuram Finance. 
• For Bandhan Bank Ltd (BANDHAN IN) and Manappuram Finance (MGFL IN) collections remain a challenge. 
• For AU Small Finance Bank Limited (AUBANK IN) loan growth in Wheels segment could be challenging. 

The strong growth potential of Indian non-life insurance remains the key investment argument of ICICI Lombard (ICICIGI). The company’s RoE and market share remains stable and there are several available levers which could potentially result in positive earnings cycle over next two years.

We initiate coverage on Fino Payments Bank (Fino) with BUY rating and TP of Rs475. Fino is uniquely positioned to capture growing opportunities in rural India, led by deep-rural products like MATM (~51% market share as on Aug’21) & AEPS, tailor-made CASA accounts for under served population, and payment app called “FinoPay” targeting rural population

• Welspun India Ltd. (WIL) – a part of the Welspun Group of companies is one of the largest Indian Home Textile companies
• It has a strong export presence in the USA and European markets with ~90% of the revenues contributed by exports
• We recommend BUY with a TP of Rs 175/share

• eClerx Services (eClerx) provides business process management, automation and analytics services.
• It caters to financial services, communications, retail, media, manufacturing, travel and technology companies
• We roll over valuations to FY24E and value eClerx at Rs 2900 i.e. 21x P/E on FY24E EPS

• Indigo Paints (INDIGOPN) is the fifth largest company operating in the INR542b (USD7.2b) Paints industry in India
• We expect INDIGOPN to continue with its robust strategy and thereby deliver a sales/EBITDA/PAT CAGR of ~28%/35%/41% over FY21–24E
• We initiate coverage with a Buy rating, with TP of INR2,270 (55x FY24E EPS).

Based on our channel checks, we believe Varun Beverages is likely to maintain strong double-digit volume growth, in line with earlier quarters. It has not yet raised prices of its products in spite of inflation in key raw materials such as sugar and PET (packaging material). It plans to focus on Eastern states and is on track to set up a new plant in Bihar.

• IDFC Ltd is registered with RBI as NBFC – Investments. Besides banking, it also has investments in diverse businesses such as asset management, and infrastructure debt fund.
• IDFC Ltd has jumped over 11% with the reverse merger news coming in; while in the past one year, the stock has increased over 50%
• In our SoTP, IDFC First Bank is valued at ~1.6x FY23E ABV and AMC business at 4% of AAUM to arrive at a revised target price of Rs 70 per share for IDFC Ltd