RITES inks pact with Indian Railway Finance Corp, DNV Business; shares slip up to 4%. Details here

RITES Ltd on Thursday signed separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd (IRFC) and DNV Business Assurance India. The MoU with IRFC would explore mutual areas of collaboration. In an exchange filing, the railway engineering consultancy firm said: "RITES has entered into an MOU dated July 27, 2023, with IRFC. The scope of MOU is identifying mutual areas of collaboration for expanding IRFC's role in providing financial assistance to projects/ institutions that have got backward and/ or forward linkages with Railways. RITES will be providing assistance to IRFC in ascertaining the technical and financial viability of the projects, providing advisory and consultancy services."

The other MoU, signed with Norway-headquartered DNV Business Assurance, would explore business avenues in the areas of Independent Safety Assessments (ISA). "Under this arrangement, RITES and DNV will collaborate, synergize their efforts by complementing their respective strengths for identification, securing and execution of Railway Assurance & Advisory Services for Railway Rolling Stock & Signaling and train control system domain with applicable standards for Metro, Mainline and Generic products," RITES stated.

DNV has global presence in maritime and transportation segment including ISA certification of rail transport, energy value chain including renewables, oil & gas and energy management, it added.

Deepak Tripathi, Director Technical, RITES said, "The partnership with DNV will provide a platform to explore business opportunities and will facilitate knowledge sharing in other business areas."

RITES' stock today slipped 3.92 per cent to settle at Rs 477.80. It has declined 6.28 per cent from its 52-week high of Rs 509.80, touched in the previous session. Although, the scrip has gained 90.89 per cent from its one-year low price of Rs 250.30, a level seen on July 27 last year.

On BSE, around 83,000 shares changed hands, which was higher than the two-week average volume of 1.76 lakh shares. Turnover on the counter stood at Rs 4 crore, commanding a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 11,481.62 crore.

For IRFC, the stock also fell today. It settled 1.16 per cent lower at Rs 34.82. 31.09 lakh shares were exchanged, higher than the two-week average volume of 59.64 lakh shares. Turnover came at Rs 10.85 crore, with a m-cap of Rs 45,504.54 crore.

Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks traded lower today, dragged by bank, financial, automobile, consumer and energy stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack slumped 440 points or 0.66 per cent to settle at 66,267, while the broader NSE Nifty index moved 118 points or 0.60 per cent lower to close at 19,660.

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