Interestingly, mutual funds had increased their holdings in Satyam to 38.6 million shares in December, after its controversial proposal to acquire promoter-family firms Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties was blocked by institutional players. Fund managers believed then that Satyam was available cheap. However, on January 7, Ramalinga Raju delivered a fatal blow by declaring he had fudged the company's balance sheet for seven years.
Depressed markets, Sebi queries, change in guidelines halt launches.
Share transfer agents have come under the Securities and Exchange Board of India's scanner after the market regulator received several complaints about their misconduct.
Most of these deals include outstanding payments for acquisitions or stakes in companies. Market experts explained that these Indian firms were keen to settle their deals, even at a discount as they feared that payments might get delayed indefinitely, in case the matter reached court. Lehman's assets in India are currently valued at over Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).
The Income Tax Department has moved the Bombay High Court to recover nearly Rs 500 crore from top stock brokers, who have managed to avoid paying income tax on the pretext of claiming depreciation on their Bombay Stock Exchange membership card.
Though the government in 2005 put an end to dividend stripping by enacting a law, disallowing the sale of mutual fund units within nine months if they were purchased three months prior to the dividend record date, the I-T department has been trying to recover taxes from several assessees, who exploited this loophole prior to the enactment of the new law and evaded tax.
In a few months, private sector lender IndusInd Bank may have a new identity. The move was in line with the repositioning exercise initiated by the new management team led by Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Romesh Sobti.
Cash-strapped Royal Bank of Scotland is reviewing its branding agreement with cricketer Sachin Tendulkar a year into the deal.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is considering its Primary Market Advisory Committee's recommendation to introduce a uniform face value system for all listed companies. At present, companies decide their individual face value between Rs 1 and Rs 100.
Eight years after it was indicted by the market regulator for 'profiting from advance knowledge' of news website Tehelka's market-moving exposs, brokerage house First Global says it has procured documents under the Right to Information Act that show how the regulator fabricated a case against it.
Public sector banks could see higher pressure on their net interest margins in the coming months as they have mopped up large amounts of deposits at higher rates and have also effected steep cuts in lending rates between November 2008 and January 2009.
Rules governing short-selling in various jurisdictions continue to generate controversy among regulators, lawmakers and market participants. While the US capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission has banned short-selling of financial shares after it was blamed for the collapse of Lehman Brothers, in India, the practice had come under the scanner as foreign institutional investors were lending stocks overseas to facilitate short-selling.
As per Sebi's new guideline, all companies will have to disclose information about shares pledged by promoters within a period of seven days after the promoters give the companies an intimation. Analysts are of the view that most of the promoters were hesitating to disclose this information as there is a fear among investors that the pledging of shares would cost promoters dear.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, requires all financial institutions, banks and intermediaries like merchant bankers, FIIs and stock brokers to submit reports on suspicious transactions above Rs 1 million in Indian or foreign currency. According to FIU's annual report for 2007-8, while the agency received 2.2 million such cash transaction reports from banks, other financial intermediaries put together have submitted only 2,500 suspicious transaction reports.
With real estate prices moving southwards, several banks and financial institutions are buying their own properties and shifting from rented and leased premises.
The country's largest life insurer has been inundated with applications from companies, including heavyweights such as Reliance, as the deepening credit crisis forces India Inc to look for new sources of funds. Many companies are issuing NCDs largely to meet their working capital requirements as well as long-term capital expenditure plans.
Standard Chartered CEO-Asia Jaspal Bindra spoke to Anirudh Laskar and Sidhartha about the bank's plans and his assessment of the situation.
Making cash payments at bank counters to settle your credit card dues is getting expensive. Credit card issuers led by ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have started levying a fee on such payments.
On the last day of Satyam's stint in India's benchmark indices - the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex and the National Stock Exchange S&P CNX Nifty - its shares turned out to be a punter's delight.
Former economic affairs secretary E A S Sarma has written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India questioning the delay in investigating Satyam Computer even after he had alerted the regulator 'well in advance' about certain irregularities in the company's books of accounts after the Maytas deal was called off last month.
