Gateway Distriparks (GDL): A long haul on India’s trade and infrastructure

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When it comes to the infrastructure space, it is often only construction stocks that come to our mind. But there are many segments such as the gas pipeline network, power grid, LNG terminals that qualify as important segments in infrastructure. One of the major infrastructure projects that has been commissioned recently is the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and a section of it has been opened for freight movement in January 2021. When a freight corridor opens, there are multiple other industries that thrive and grow on it.  While the DFC is owned and operated by Indian Railways, here is a mid-sized company that is a proxy play on the DFC.

Gateway Distriparks (GDL)

Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC): DFC is a railway transport corridor meant to decongest traffic in the regular railway network. It is meant for fast, safe and efficient freight transportation of goods to and from industrial areas to ports.  The project involves two freight corridors; 1506 Route km long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) and 1875 Route km long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC). The WDFC will provide connectivity from Dadri in the state of Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra.

It will traverse through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat.  The EDFC will start from Sahnewal, located near Ludhiana in the state of Punjab and it will pass via Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand before terminating at Dankuni in the state of West Bengal. While the ~650 Km stretch of the WDFC from Rewari to Palanpur is operational, the entire WDFC is expected to be operational by June 2022. It is the key stretch from Vadodara to Nhava Sheva (JNPT) that has been facing significant delay.

The freight corridors will increase the average speed of goods trains from the existing 25 kmph to about 100kmph, allowing heavy haul double-stack container trains that can carry higher load and bring down cost of transportation. The DFC project is also expected to increase the share of rail transportation from the existing 30% to 45% due to dual benefits of faster turnaround and lower cost of transportation

Gateway Distriparks (GDL) is a prominent company in the logistics sector. What started off as a single container freight station (CFS) facility to serve containerized imports of paper rolls to India in 1994, post the economic reforms of 1991, transformed into a key logistics player in India’s export-import (EXIM) trade. The company has gone through many ups and downs in the past since its listing in 2005, but its fortunes seem to be reviving with the commencement of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). With its presence along the Western DFC, GDL seems to be in a sweet spot to play a bigger role in India’s EXIM trade.

Business

GDL is an integrated multi-modal logistics player with CFS, rail-linked ICDs, movement of containers over rail to major Indian ports and also movement of goods by road to final destination.

Container Freight Station (CFS) AND Inland Container Depots (ICD): CFS is an off-dock facility located near the servicing ports which helps in decongesting the port by shifting cargo and customs related activities outside the port area. An ICD, on the other hand, is generally located in the interiors (outside the port towns) of the country away from the gateway ports. ICD is formed to help importers and exporters to handle their shipments near their place of location.

TEU: In container transportation, the volume of containers is measured in Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU). One 20-foot container equals one TEU whose internal dimensions measure about 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 8 feet tall.  Large container ships typically transport more than 18,000 TEU. 

Gateway Distriparks (GDL)

Source: Company presentation

GDL operates two CFS at Navi Mumbai and one each at Chennai, Krishnapatnam, Kochi and Visakhapatnam with a total capacity of over 700,000 TEUs.  Its rail freight business, housed under wholly owned (99.93%) subsidiary Gateway Rail Freight Limited (GRFL), is emerging as the key growth driver pursuant to commencement of Western DFC. It provides inter-modal logistics and operates its own rail-linked ICDs at Garhi Harsaru (Gurugram, Haryana), Ludhiana (Punjab), Piyala (Faridabad, Haryana), Viramgam (Ahmedabad, Gujarat) and Kalamboli (Navi Mumbai). 

The company provides rail transportation of containers to and from ports, stuffing & de-stuffing of cargo at the ICDs, bonded warehouse for container storage and dispatch, air-conditioned warehouse for temperature sensitive cargo, transit facilities, customs clearance and also office space to customs agents, freight forwarders, and transporters at all its terminals.

GRFL owns and operates a fleet of 31 trains and 531 road trailers at its rail linked terminals. It operates regular container train service from these ICDs to India’s major ports at Nhava Sheva (JNPT), Mundra and Pipavav, transporting import and export as well as domestic containers.  

With the reverse merger of Gateway Distriparks into Gateway Rail Freight, as approved by shareholders on 28th September 2021, the company will become an integrated multi-modal logistics player with all infrastructure and assets under one company. 

GDL also offers cold chain logistics with 35 temperature-controlled warehouses in 15 cities through its 40% associate Snowman Logistics.  Its clientele comprises brands from industries like pharmaceuticals, meat & poultry, seafood, fruits & vegetables, ice cream, dairy products, quick service restaurants, processed foods, etc. The company was also engaged in vaccine distribution recently.

Positives

#1 Positioning along the Western DFC

GDL is well positioned across the Western DFC with its ICDs as shown to the right of the map image below.  The ICDs are located at strategic points that cover the entire industrial corridor of Northern India from where GRFL operates container trains to JNPT (Nhava Sheva), Mundra and Pipavav ports.  The Western DFC will connect Mumbai with Dadri in UP along the route shown in map on left, below.

Gateway Distriparks (GDL)
Gateway Distriparks (GDL)

The ICDs at Gurgaon, Ludhiana and Faridabad are strategically located to cover the industrial hubs in National capital region (Gurugram, Manesar, Faridabad, Ghaziabad), Punjab and Northern belt (Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir) and Uttar Pradesh (Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Palwal and Noida). Gateway Rail Freight runs frequent services to Nhava Sheva, Mundra and Pipavav from these terminals. The ICD at Ahmedabad will act as a hub for the company in the Western Region from where it can divert containers to JNPT as well as Mundra and Pipavav ports. It is also strategically located at the new industrial development of Ahmedabad and is equipped to handle 100,000 TEUs per annum. 

Even before commencement of DFC, GRFL was a key logistics solution provider to exporters and importers in the North. While it has a market share of ~13% across key industrial hubs in the North, the market share is as high as ~35% in the upper North belt comprising Haryana, Punjab, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh and UP.  With its positioning along DFC, the company is well poised to gain further dominance in this space.

#2 Significant growth opportunity with higher asset utilization

GRFL has enough capacities available at its major ICDs to handle additional volumes with growth in manufacturing and trade. While it will have to invest in additional equipment, the land is already available at existing locations. The company is planning two more satellite terminals in North India in the next two years, to enable aggregation of cargo through its flagship terminal at Garhi Harsaru, at a capex of Rs. 120 crore.

Below are the details of potential capacity (design capacity) of ICDs and present container handling capacity (installed capacity). The company has room to double its installed capacity across its major terminals in the North with improving demand.

While GRFL has increased its rail container volumes by 52% to 1,57,000 TEUs in the first half of FY22 over the first half of FY21, it is eyeing further increase in volumes over the next 2 years due to commissioning of the entire Western DFC. This is despite container shortages and high container rates at this point of time. The container volumes are set to cross over a lakh TEUs soon from ~82,000 TEUs at present. While this will come mainly on the back of DFC roll-out and shift from road to rail transportation, the long-term growth will come from shift to rail transportation, containerization of cargo and overall growth in India’s merchandise trade.

  • Shift from road to rail transportation: On 15th August 2021, the Indian Railways ran first train under new “freight express scheme”, which assures transit times from ICDs to ports with GRFL. The train from its ICD at Garhi-Harsaru can reach Mundra port in 22 hours & 10 minutes, down from 40 hours earlier. High speed double-stack container trains will lead to significant operational efficiencies for train operators as well as industries by providing significant advantage on cost and time. Along with this, increase in containerisation of goods will also aid in volume growth going forward.
  • Growth in merchandise trade: India’s merchandise export has been stagnant for the last decade, at around $300-340 billion. But the same is expected to take off with recovery in the global economy and the Rs. 2 lakh crore PLI scheme for electronics, automobile parts, textiles, etc. While the government has set a target of $400 billion exports for FY22, exports have already touched $198 billion in the first six months giving signal that the target is achievable. The government is now looking for a significantly higher target of $450-500 billion for FY23. 

With strategically located infrastructure and ability to provide total logistics solutions, GDL is well placed to benefit from the growth in India’s merchandise trade.

#3 Early mover in rail freight with improving performance

GRFL started operations as early as in 2008 and has been offering services for more than a decade. It has also created the valuable ICD infrastructure across Northern India by rolling them out one by one since 2008, adding to its early mover advantage.  According to management, it takes anywhere between three to four years to set up an ICD comprising land acquisitions, getting approvals from railways and setting up the terminals.

In its first full year of operations in FY09, the company posted revenues of Rs 182 crore with an EBITDA of Rs 14 crore while reporting loss of Rs 25 crore. The business has come a long way since then and is one track to touch Rs.1,000 crore in revenue with EBIDTA of Rs. 300 crore and PAT of nearly Rs.200 crore in FY22.  The margin on the business has also moved up towards desired levels per TEU while the EBIDTA margins are stabilizing around 30%. 

Below is the standalone financial performance of GRFL

#4 Cold chain expansion through associate company to add value

GDL owns 40% of listed play Snowman Logistics, a PAN-India integrated temperature-controlled logistics service provider. It offers 5 temperature zones between +25 degrees and -25 degree Celsius in both warehouses and trucks. The company has been one of the players involved in vaccine transportation. Snowman has lined up aggressive expansion plans with an investment of Rs.425 crore over the next 3 years to augment its capacity by almost 80% from 107450 pallets to 200000 pallets. 

Snowman Logistics listed post IPO in August 2014, but the stock price is still languishing near its IPO price. While the warehousing business is highly profitable, the transportation business eats into the profits.  The company has directed its future investments towards warehousing while it has launched an online refrigerated truck aggregation platform “Snowlink” to reduce investments in this area in future. The company has decided to go with debt and internal accruals to fund its expansion while putting its QIP plans on hold.

Expansion plans with focus on profitability may make this business valuable to GDL in the long run. Snowman reported revenue of Rs. 240 crore and EBIDTA of Rs.69 crore in FY21, while it has a market Cap of Rs.750 crore. GDL may also look to hike its stake from 40.25% to 51% and make it a subsidiary. If it does, it will become revenue accretive to GDL on a consolidated basis.

Concerns

#1 Port owners getting aggressive on logistics

Leading private logistics players have expressed interest to bid for the contract to build and operate private cargo terminals along the DFC during the pre-bid meetings since February 2021.  This includes Adani Logistics, CONCOR, DP World, JM Baxi, PSA International, TVS Logistics and GRFL. According to the plan, the contract will be for around 30 years to handle freight loading and unloading for the DFC. In the first 10 years, the winning company will have exclusive rights to handle cargo at the station after which it will be opened to other users as well.

Aggressive entry of port owners and other leading logistics players is likely to increase the competitive intensity and whether port owners will eat into any business of the company need to be seen.

#2 Delay in commissioning of remaining stretch of Western DFC

While the currently rolled-out ~650 km stretch of DFC between Rewari in Haryana to New Palanpur in Gujarat connects Mundra and Pipavav ports with industrial hubs in the North, India’s largest container port JNPT (Nhava Sheva) is at a dis-advantage.  It is losing market share on cargo from the NCR region as a result of this. Even Mundra Port has overtaken JNPT in FY21 on volume of container handled while JNPT has re-captured its pole position in H1FY22.  The 738-km long Palanpur-Makarpura-JNPT section of the DFC is expected to be completed by June 2022. This is critical for the company to take full advantage of the DFC opportunity and grow its volumes while taking competition from port owners head-on.

#3 Policy threats

In 2016, India introduced Direct Port Delivery (DPD), a system that allows a select group of importers to clear cargo directly from the port within 48 hours of arrival. It is an alternative to the CFS model. The objective behind DPD was to reduce time and cost for importers, decongest ports and, in the process, facilitate faster trade. The DPD model was first introduced at JNPT and has since been extended to other ports. This has resulted in existential threat for standalone CFS players while those offering total logistics solutions will still survive. GDL also faced the heat from this policy although the business is recovering now as it has transformed into a complete logistics solution provider.

#4 Any ambitious expansion plans will come with high leverage and risk

The company has gross long-term debt of ~Rs.516 crore at the end of H1FY22 mainly comprising Rs. 180 crore of term loans and Rs.280 crore of NCD (maturity spread over FY23 to FY27). The NCDs were issued in April 2019 at 11.5% for Rs.440 crores. The company is just adequately placed for growth as well as its ability to fund its planned capex plans over the next 3 years. Below is a break-up of debt and capex plans over the next 5 years.

While the future looks bright for the company with better profitability and return ratios followed by gradual and planned debt-reduction, any ambitious expansion plans may have to be looked at with extreme caution. Below is a glimpse of corporate issues the company went through in the past.

Past Corporate Issues

GDL has gone through significant ups and downs in the past like many other infrastructure players. While its diversification to rail transportation in 2008 was rightly timed, resource constraints made it dependent on PE investors. Global PE major Blackstone invested Rs.300 crore in the company in FY2010 for 49.90% stake. The deal had riders (put-option) to buy-back stake after a certain period. After the global financial crisis and down-turn in CFS business, GDL had trouble honoring the commitment though it finally managed to buy-back Black-stone’s entire stake for Rs.850 crore at the end of FY2018. (Blackstone even initiated arbitration proceedings against the company). 

As a result, GRFL became a wholly owned subsidiary of GDL. The Company funded this with borrowings through banks and NCD, and was exploring options to de-leverage. Consequently, it struck a deal to sell its entire stake in Snowman Logistics to Adani Logistics which was later called-off in the aftermath of COVID.  

GDL is now a completely family-controlled business with experienced CEOs in the rail freight and cold chain businesses.  While promoters own 32%, institutions, including mutual funds and FPIs own ~41% in the company.

Financial Performance

While the CFS business has been struggling since FY18, it is showing signs of recovery. Rail freight business is the driver for earnings growth. Overall earnings growth is picking up and is expected to continue on a growth path from FY22 with better return ratios.

Valuation

Shareholders have approved the merger of GDL into its wholly owned subsidiary GRFL in the ratio of 4 shares of Gateway Rail Freight for every 1 share of GDL. Consequently, GDL will get delisted while GRFL will get newly listed on exchanges. The process may take time so the stock may not be traded in exchanges for a period of 3 to 6 months.

The company is valued at ~19 times FY22 annualized EPS and 11X EV/EBIDTA at current price of Rs. 279. As opportunities stand, earnings and return ratios are poised to move higher from FY22. A planned debt reduction with no further mis-steps in corporate actions will be key to improving valuations. Post the proposed reverse merger, Gateway Rail Freight is expected to list around Rs.70 per share, subject to market conditions.

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RA shall redress grievances of the client in a timely and transparent manner. Any dispute between the RA and his client may be resolved through arbitration or through any other modes or mechanism as specified by SEBI from time to time.

If the client is not satisfied with the response of the RA, he/she can lodge his/her grievances with SEBI at scores.sebi.gov.in. Alternatively, the client may also write to any of the offices of SEBI. For any queries, feedback or assistance, please contact SEBI Office on Toll Free Helpline at 1800 22 7575 / 1800 266 7575

Details on grievances are available on the Website as follows: https://primeinvestor.in/ra-grievance/

10. Additional clauses:

Scope of the Research Service: The Research Services will be limited to providing independent research recommendation and shall not be involved in any advisory or portfolio allocation services. The Research Services are not meant to be tailor-made or customized solutions that specifically apply to each client based on his/her risk profile.

The RA never guarantees the returns on the recommendation provided. Investor shall take note that investment/trading in stocks/Index or other securities is always subject to market risk. Past performance is never a guarantee of same future results. The RA shall not be responsible for any loss to the Investors.

This service is not directed for access or use by anyone in a country, especially the USA, Canada or the European Union countries, where such use or access is unlawful or which may subject PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The Research Service, including recommendations, research reports, updates, and other information will be accessible through the RA’s website https://primeinvestor.in only. Such recommendations and updates will not be provided over phone calls.

Fees: Our current fee structure, the term and duration of our subscription for our Research Service, can be viewed on our website: https://primeinvestor.in/prime-pricing. Eligibility for any discounts is ascertained at the time the client subscribes. Any such discount and its tenure shall be at the discretion of the RA.

Subscription and access to content services fall under the purview of Goods and Services Tax (GST) as per the current indirect taxation policy, Government of India. Unless otherwise indicated, prices stated on our website are exclusive of applicable GST, any applicable value added tax (VAT) or other sales taxes. We are a business-to-consumer (B2C) service provider and we do not commit to provide any input tax credit on GST charged on subscription to our Research Service.

We may change the Subscription Fees and charges then in effect, or add new fees or charges which will take effect at the end of the client’s subscription period, by giving notice in advance and an opportunity to cancel renewal of the subscription.

Subscription Access & Renewal: Subscription to the Website commences immediately on the realisation of payment of the Subscription Fees. Subscriptions are set to be renewed automatically at the end of the subscription period.

Unless the client notifies us before the end of his/her subscription period, or the client cancels the auto-renewal mandate within the period specified by law, that the client does not wish to renew his/her subscription, the client’s subscription will renew for the period defined by the client’s subscription plan. We will charge the subscription using the same payment method that you previously used.

Although the client may notify to us his/her intention to his/her subscription, such notice will only take effect at the end of his/her then current subscription period, and he/she will not receive a refund other than as set out under Clause 8 in these Terms.

The client may notify us of his/her wish to cancel his/her subscription by sending an email to [email protected]. The client must provide at least 5 business days advance notice for this to be implemented.

Refunds: There can be no cancellation and refund of subscription fee paid once the subscription is active, other than as stated in Clause 8 of these Terms. If the client is entitled to a refund as specified under Clause 8 of these Terms, the RA will credit that refund to the card or other payment method used by the client to submit payment, unless it has expired - in which case the RA will contact the client to proceed with the refund. If we do issue a refund or credit due to circumstances outside the obligations specified under Clause 8, we are under no obligation to issue the same or a similar refund in the future.

General disclaimers: The recommendations made herein in the Research Services are expression of views and/or opinions and should not be deemed or construed to be advice for the purpose of purchase or sale of any security, nor a solicitation or offering on any investment/ trading opportunity on behalf of the company, AMC, insurance company, or issuer of security referred to herein.

The content and research reports generated by the RA does not constitute or is not intended to constitute an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation to an offer to buy or sell financial products, units or securities.

The information/ opinion/ views mentioned in research reports or by the RA are not meant to serve as a professional guide to the client or recipients of this Report. The research report, recommendation, or any other content published by the RA do not assure or guarantee any minimum or fixed returns to the client or recipients of the reports/ recommendations/ content.

Use of this information is at the client’s own risk. The client must make his/ her own investment decisions based on his/her specific investment objective and financial position and using such independent advisors as he/she believes necessary. The services rendered by the RA are on a best-effort basis. All information in the content or research report of the RA is provided on an as is basis. Information is believed to be reliable but the RA does not warrant its completeness or accuracy and expressly disclaim all warranties and conditions of any kind, whether express or implied.

While due care has been taken to ensure that the disclosures, information, and opinions given are fair and reasonable, PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd and/or none of its officers, directors, partners, employees, agents, subsidiaries, affiliates or business associates shall be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, including lost profits arising in any way whatsoever from the information/ opinions/ views contained in the research report and recommendations that form part of the Research Service, and/or mails, social media or notifications issued by PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd or any other agency appointed/authorised by PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd. Returns and performance figures mentioned in the research report represent past performance and should not be constituted to be future returns or guaranteed returns.

Any agreements, transactions or other arrangements made between the client and any third party named on (or linked to from) the Website are at your own responsibility and entered into at your own risk. Any information that you receive via the Website, whether or not it is classified as “real time”, may have stopped being current by the time it reaches you. Market price information may be rounded up/down and therefore may not be entirely accurate.

The purpose of these disclosures is to provide essential information about the Research Services in a manner to assist and enable the prospective client/client in making an informed decision for engaging in Research Services before onboarding.

History, present business and background: PrimeInvestor Financial Research Private Limited is registered with SEBI as Research Analyst with registration no. INH200008653. The Research Analyst got its registration on August 19, 2021 and is engaged in offering research and recommendation services.

Disciplinary history: There are no pending material litigations or legal proceedings against the Research Analyst. As on date, no penalties / directions have been issued by SEBI under the SEBI Act or Regulations made thereunder against the Research Analyst relating to Research Analyst services.

Details of the RA's associates: No associates.

Usage of Website Content: This Website is controlled and operated by the RA. All material, including research reports, recommendations, portfolios, ratings, lists of financial products, illustrations, statements, opinions, views, photographs, products, images, artwork, designs, text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio and video clips and software (collectively, “Content”) are protected by copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights that are owned and controlled by the RA or by other parties that have licensed their material to us.

Except where otherwise agreed in writing with the RA, material on the Website is solely for the client’s personal, non-commercial use. Except as provided below, the client must not copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit or distribute such material in any way, including by e-mail or other electronic means and whether directly or indirectly and the client must not assist any other person to do so.

Without the prior written consent of the RA, modification of the materials, use of the materials on any other web site or networked computer environment or use of the materials for any purpose other than personal, non-commercial use is a violation of the copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights, and is prohibited. Any use for which the client receives any remuneration, whether in money or otherwise, is a commercial use for the purposes of these Terms.

The client may occasionally distribute a copy of a research report, or a portion of the same, from the Website in non-electronic form to a few individuals without charge, provided the client includes all copyright and other proprietary rights notices in the same form in which the notices appear, original source attribution, and the phrase “Used with permission from PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt. Ltd.”

While the client may occasionally download and store research reports or information from the Website for his/her personal use, he/she may not otherwise provide others with access to the same. The foregoing does not apply to any sharing functionality we provide through the Website that expressly allows the client to share Content or links to Content with others. In addition, the client may not use Content he/she has downloaded for personal use to develop or operate an automated trading system or for data or text mining.

The client agrees not to rearrange or modify the Content available through the Website. The client agrees not to display, post, frame, or scrape the Content for use on another website, app, blog, product or service, except as otherwise expressly permitted by these Terms. You agree not to create any derivative work based on or containing the research products and Content. The framing or scraping of or in-line linking to the Services or any Content contained thereon and/or the use of webcrawler, spidering or other automated means to access, copy, index, process and/or store any Content made available on or through the Services other than as expressly authorized by us is prohibited.

The client further agrees to abide by exclusionary protocols (e.g., Robots.txt, Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), etc.) that may be used in connection with the Research Services. The client may not access parts of the Research Services to which he/she is not authorized, or attempt to circumvent any restrictions imposed on your use or access of the Services.

As a general rule, the client may not use the Content, including without limitation, any Content made available through one of our RSS Feeds, in any commercial product or service, without our express written consent.

The client may not create apps, extensions, or other products and services that use our Content without our permission. The client may not aggregate or otherwise use our Content in a manner that could reasonably serve as a substitute for a subscription to the Website.

The client may not access or view the Services with the use of any scripts, extensions, or programs that alter the way the Services are displayed, rendered, or transmitted to you without our written consent.

The client agrees not to use the Services for any unlawful purpose. We reserve the right to terminate or restrict the client's access to the Website if, in our opinion, the client's use of the Services may violate any laws, regulations or rulings, infringe upon another person's rights or violate these Terms.

Prohibited content: The Website includes comments sections, blogs and other interactive features that allow interaction among clients and between clients and the RA. We call the information posted by or contributed by users “Contributed Content.” In the course of availing of the Research Services or uploading any post or comment on the Website, the client shall not post any Contributed Content that (i) contains nude, semi-nude, sexually suggestive photos, (ii) tends or is likely to abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate or intimidate other users of the Website and/or Research Services, (iii) is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely to use or have access to the Website and/or Services, or (iv) otherwise violates, is prohibited or restricted by applicable law, rule or regulation, is offensive or illegal or violates the rights of, harms or threatens the safety of other users of the Website and/or Services (collectively “Prohibited Content”).

We reserve the right to cease to provide the client with the Research Services or access to the Website, or terminate your subscription, with immediate effect and without notice and liability, for violating these Terms, applicable law, rules or regulations and reserves the right to remove Prohibited Content which is in violation of these Terms, or is otherwise abusive, illegal or disruptive. The determination of whether any content constitutes Prohibited Content, violates these Terms, or is otherwise abusive illegal or disruptive, is subject to the sole determination of the Firm.

Changes to Research Services: We are constantly endeavouring to improve the quality of Research Services provided to our clients. Due to this, the form and nature of the Research Services provided may change from time to time without any prior notice to the client. We reserve the right to introduce and initiate new features, functionalities, components to the Website and/or Research Services and/or change, alter, modify, or discontinue existing ones without any prior notice to the client.

Warranty and liability disclaimer: The Website, Research Services, and all the materials and services, included on or otherwise made available to the client through this Website is provided by the RA on an “as is” and “as available” basis without any representation or warranties, express or implied except otherwise specified in writing. Without prejudice to the foregoing paragraph, the RA does not warrant that:

  • This Website and/or Research Services will be constantly available, or available at all;
  • The information on this Website or provided through the Research Services is complete, true, accurate or not misleading; or
  • The quality of any products, services, information, or other material that you obtain through the Website or Services will meet your expectations.

The RA, to the fullest extent permitted by law, disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, including the warranty of merchantability, fitness for particular purpose and non-infringement. The RA makes no warranties about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the Website, Research Services, Content, Contributed Content, Services, software, text, graphics and links.

The RA does not warrant that this Website, Research Services, information, content, materials, or any other material included on or otherwise made available to you through this Website, their servers, or electronic communication sent by the RA are free of viruses or other harmful components.

Nothing on this Website constitutes, or is meant to constitute, advice of any kind.

Indemnification: The client:

  1. Represents, warrants and covenants that no materials of any kind provided by him/her will:
    1. Violate, plagiarise, or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights; or
    2. Contain libellous, Prohibited Content or other unlawful material;
  2. Hereby agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the RA and all of the RA’s officers, directors, owners, agents, customers/clients, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees (collectively, the “Indemnified Parties”) from and against any and all liability and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable advocate’s fees, incurred by the Indemnified Parties in connection with any claim arising out of any breach by the client of these Terms or the foregoing representations, warranties and covenants. The client shall cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defence of any such claim. The RA reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by the client.

Applicable law: This Website, including the Content and Contributed Content and information contained herein, and the provision of Research Services shall be governed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, laws of the Republic of India and the courts of Chennai, India which shall retain exclusive jurisdiction to entertain any proceedings in relation to any disputes arising out of the same. As such, the laws of India shall govern any transaction completed using this Website.

Information gathered and tracked: Information submitted or collected on the Website or pursuant to the use of the Services is stored in a database. Specifically, we store the username, name, e-mail address, contact number, as submitted or collected on our Website or through the provision of the Research Services. We may use such information to send out occasional promotional materials, including alerts on new Services available, or other promotional and marketing material relating to our clients and customers.

In accordance with the Information Technology Act 2000, the name and the details of the Grievance Officer at PrimeInvestor is provided below:

Mr. Srikanth Meenakshi
PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt. Ltd., Registered office: 659, 4th Avenue, D-Sector, Anna Nagar Western Extension, Chennai 600 101.
Email: [email protected]

11. Mandatory notice:

Clients shall be requested to go through Do’s and Don’ts while dealing with RA as specified in SEBI master circular no. SEBI/HO/MIRSD-POD-1/P/CIR/2024/49 dated May 21, 2024 or as may be specified by SEBI from time to time.

12. Optional Centralised Fee Collection Mechanism:

SEBI has operationalized a centralized fee collection mechanism for IA and RA. Under this mechanism, clients shall pay fees to IAs/RAs through a designated platform/portal administered by a recognized Administration and Supervision body. This is an optional mechanism for the registered entities. At this time, PrimeInvestor has opted out of this fee collection mechanism. Therefore, all subscription payments for the Research Services will be through the modes as specified in Clause 5 of these Terms.

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