Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee - that launched in India only in December 2021 - has decided to close operations in the country. The official reason given by Shopee, which is controlled by NYSE-listed Sea Ltd, is changing global sentiments. In a statement, it said, "In view of the global market uncertainties, we have decided to close risks of our early-stage Shopee India initiative." The e-commerce platform has been hit by growing opposition from trade associations led by Praveen Khandelwal as well as homegrown social commerce start-ups.
The slot constraint in Indian airports is also going to play a role in pushing airlines to have wide bodies.
Is the worst over for Indian banks? The past two years saw them ride on treasury trades as deposits soared and credit growth dipped sharply. Gross and net non-performing assets (NPAs) moved south, and the provision coverage ratio (PCR), capital buffers, and profitability indicators are back at pre-pandemic levels. So, what's the plot ahead?
Loans for Indian airlines have dried up as banks have become cautious to lend to the sector.
French aerospace major Thales Group is eyeing major expansion in India. The group has started planning to set up a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) organisation in India to support Indian airlines - many of which are its customers for avionics support. "We are looking to set up an MRO, so that they don't have to travel to West Asia or Singapore. "Final decision is yet to be taken, but this is a clear intent showing the growth potential in India that we are looking to set up a sub-centre here," said Yannick Assouad, executive vice-president, avionics at Thales, who was on her maiden visit to the group's India office at Bengaluru since taking charge.
Seven months after it was launched in India, Apple is expected to start manufacturing the iPhone 13 at the Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai from April, according to sources. The phones will be for both the domestic and export market. The production of the iPhone 13 in the Chennai plant was meant to start from January but had to be postponed after Apple suspended production following protests in December by women workers about food poisoning. An Apple spokesperson did not respond to an e-mail query.
Oberoi Realty has hit the top slot in Mumbai's ranking of the top-20 developers in terms of sales in 2021, evicting the Runwal group which was number one last year. The Lodha group which had occupied the top slot three out of five times since 2017 slipped to second place in 2020 and continues to be in the same position in 2021. The Oberoi group was in fifth place in 2019 and fourth place in 2020. This is the first time that it has occupied the number one position. The Runwal group which took the top slot in 2020 is down to third place in 2021.
The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will revamp its banking application (app) YONO and position it as a complete digital bank (DB) under a new rubric 'Only YONO' for enhancing customer experience and ease of use. The bank plans to bring in a consultant to help draw up the project plan, keeping in mind business goals for the next five years. With 54 million monthly active users (MAUs), SBI YONO has seen growth of over 35 per cent in MAUs in 2021.
Amid a rush of sport utility vehicle sales, Volkswagen is betting on its premium mid-sized sedan - the Virtus - to gain market share in India. The Volkswagen Virtus is the second product under the India 2.0 project being developed on the MQB-A0 IN platform, with up to 95 per cent localisation levels. In February, the company registered an 84 per cent year-on-year growth in sales, primarily driving on the Taigun it launched last year.
With the international markets facing uncertainty after Russia invaded Ukraine and Western nations retaliated with sanctions, Indian companies are putting their international fundraising plans on hold as they wait for the markets to recover. Bankers said apart from the geopolitical crisis, international rates are hardening in anticipation of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve to control rising prices in the US. The Ukraine situation has implications for the market. In such a situation, international investors try to shift to safe haven assets by exiting from emerging markets.
Reliance Industries has put together an aggressive plan to build its drone business which includes expanding manufacturing capacity five-fold, participating in the new drone production linked incentive scheme, and experimenting with limited logistics payloads to deliver goods. The target is to become a key player in the expected $5 billion market in India by the end of the decade. The drone business is being carried out through a Bangalore-based start up, Asteria Aerospace, in which Reliance has taken a majority stake. Asteria is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd.
Zombies a.k.a perpetually loss-making firms in India seem to have dampened the effectiveness of monetary policy at the margin as they use borrowed resources more for their survival than for undertaking new investment, according to a RBI study. The monetary policy does not hinder the creative destruction process by misallocating credit flows to zombies during periods of economic slowdown, showed a study by officers of Reserve Bank of India. It has been published in RBI's bulletin for February 2022. In India, zombie firms are estimated to account for about 10 per cent of total debt of the non-financial corporate sector.
Commercial banks in the country continued with their improving asset quality trend in the October-December 2021 quarter with slippages remaining under control coupled with healthy recoveries and upgradation of asset classification. The 28-listed banks reported improvement in bottom line with net profits rising 64.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 21.5 per cent sequentially. This is mostly on account of a fall in provisions and contingencies.
'Government shouldn't be in the business of running airlines, instead it should develop the ecosystem of civil aviation.'
Chinese giant Xiaomi is going for the premium segment with a view to grabbing market share in the Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 smart phone market as well as having offerings up to Rs 70,000 where players like One Plus, Samsung, Vivo and Apple are key players. "Two years ago, the Rs 20,000 plus smart phone market which is considered premium in India was very small. "Out of every 100 phones sold, only 10 were above this price mark. "However, in the last two years, it suddenly grew and we thought it was big enough for us to focus on now," said Manu Kumar Jain, managing director, Xiaomi India.
This is following revival of demand from the corporate sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), even as a nascent economic recovery is taking shape. Credit growth of scheduled commercial banks had accelerated to 9.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) by the end of December 2021 after breaching the 7 per cent-mark in November, for the first time since April 2020.
Ford, which had announced to quit the Indian market last year, said it was exploring the possibility of using one of its plants in India to produce electric cars for exports.
The Tatas have the know-how to quickly close deals which can otherwise get caught in legal wrangle. In 2018, on the day the National Company Law Tribunal declared Tata Steel as the winner of the bid for bankrupt Bhushan Steel, Bhushan promoter Neeraj Singhal was planning to file for a stay order. He did get the case listed for the following day, but the judge did not admit it, deferring it until the following week. The Tatas used the narrow window of 48 hours to close the deal and take control of the company.
The consortium of UAE-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and UK-based private equity fund Kalrock Capital is rushing to restart Jet Airways' operations, even though differences have emerged over who will fund expenses before operations commence, sources said. The airline applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for recertification of its air operator certificate in the last week of January. The regulator is likely to inspect the airline's preparedness to operate a flight in the middle of this month, after which it will be asked to operate a proving flight to demonstrate its ability to conduct flights safely and in accordance with rules.
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