Dubai-headquartered Baer Capital Partners is planning to launch 2 India-centric hedge funds this year. The two funds - Beacon India Opportunities Fund with a corpus of $400 million and the $100 million Beacon India Growth Fund - will invest in listed companies. It is also planning an exclusive $100 million FMCG fund. These funds will invest across sectors including IT, pharma, FMCG, banks and auto. It has got approval from Sebi. These funds will not involve momentum trading.
L&T is planning a foray in PE fund in the real estate market with a Rs 4500 crore fund.
The sub-prime loss-hit Citigroup is on a cost-cutting exercise in its Indian operations. CitiFinancial, its consumer finance unit, which is also reeling under the burden of rising bad loans, is considering closing about 100 of its 450 branches in India.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a restricted banking licence to American Express Bank (Amex) to conduct credit card and travel-related businesses in India.
Sebi has proposed waiving off stamp duty on e-issuance of bond to the ministry of finance.
Half of the 10 IPOs to have hit the market since the beginning of this year have been from the real estate space. J Kumar Infra Projects, KNR Constructions, SVEC Constructions and the now withdrawn Emaar MGF are the worst hit, according to analysts.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) denial of permission to Swiss bank UBS to acquire Standard Chartered Asset Management Company has come as a blessing in disguise for Standard Chartered Bank.
The IPO by J Kumar Infra, which closed on Wednesday, managed to scrape through, with the issue getting bids for 2.7 times. This is in sharp contrast to the recent IPOs, which were getting subscribed many times over.
Following this order, Heidelberg Cement will need to pay only Rs 58 per share, instead of the earlier agreed Rs 72.50 apiece. This 25 per cent premium was agreed as a "non-compete fees" to the Indian promoters when the German major took majority control in Mysore Cements in 2006. Sebi said it did not find merit in the non-compete fees arrangement as the "sellers/promoters to whom non-compete consideration has been paid consist of trusts and charitable institutions."
Foreign banks operating in India want the Reserve Bank of India to prepare a vision document on policy changes they can expect after March 2009.
In this financial year so far, insurance companies have invested around Rs 36,000 crore in the stock markets against around Rs 60,000 crore invested by the FIIs.
Citigroup Venture is planning to buy an equity stake in PINC for Rs.400 cr.
Reliance Power, which is hitting the market next week with an offering of nearly Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion), will set the trend for a slew of power IPOs from other companies including Sterlite Energy (Rs 4,000-8,000 crore or Rs 40 to Rs 80 billion), JSW Energy (Rs 4,000 crore or Rs 40 billion), JP Associates (Rs 4,000 crore or Rs 40 billion) which have already announced big share offer plans.
About 35,000 credit card customers of Citibank received free tickets worth Rs 23 crore (Rs 230 million) in early 2007 under the 'Fly for Sure' promotional campaign undertaken by the bank in 2005. The customers became lucky after the bank was cautioned by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about consequences if customer complaints were not redressed and commitments made under the promotional scheme not honoured, banking sources said.
This will allow investors the freedom of choice based on the services they get from a distributor.
The money mule scam has reached Indian shores. Banks have noticed instances of fraudsters based overseas, posing as global payment companies, luring gullible people into joining them as "money transfer agents" and using their bank accounts to route ill-gotten money.
Suzlon Energy, one of the top five wind energy manufacturers in the world, plans to raise $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) through the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) route to fund its expansion plans.
Standard Chartered Bank, which bought a 49 per cent stake in UTI Securities from Securities Trading Corporation of India early this year, is likely to hive off the commodities broking business into a separate company and put this division for sale.
San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (SFERS), Brown University and Texas Investment Management have joined the list of global pension, endowment and universities' funds attracted by the Indian stock markets.