Even as several SEZs are struggling to get off the ground, the Mahindras have managed to kick off their second SEZ at Jaipur, after their first one in Chennai.
Global crude oil prices have dropped 14 per cent in less than a fortnight, but the three public sector oil marketing companies could still end up borrowing more in the domestic market and put further pressure on liquidity. With the three OMCs still saddled with under-recoveries, estimated at Rs 820 crore (Rs 8.2 billion) a day, they have no option but to use bank credit lines in the coming days as they have run out of their stock of oil bonds.
Companies are reactivating their dormant fixed deposit schemes by realigning their interest rates with the market following the footsteps of the lenders. The Reserve Bank of India has raised its benchmark interest rate to 8.5 per cent - the highest in more than six years - to stem inflation, forcing the banks to raise their prime lending rate to as high as 15.5 per cent.
The Supreme Court judgment last week allowing Tata Power to retail power to consumers in Mumbai could pose a few regulatory challenges, experts feel.
Banks are reluctant about disbursing loans for aviation studies on fears that a slowdown will hamper the job prospects in the aviation sector. The move, say analysts, may affect the fortunes of aviation training institutes.
After a string of foreign deals in the last few years, including Tata Motors' purchase of Land Rover and Jaguar brands from Ford for $2.3 billion this year, attempts by Indian companies to acquire assets abroad are increasingly hitting roadblocks. At least, the recent attempts by Indian companies suggest so.
The worldwide softness in the sector has ensured there are few takers for these aircraft; those who had leased the aircraft to Indian carriers will invoke a hefty penalty if the machines are sent back to them.
Akruti City, Omaxe, Sobha Developers, among other property developers, are pledging shares with lenders to provide additional security, apart from hypothecating properties to borrow funds, according to information submitted to the stock exchanges. Promoters of Akruti, Omaxe and Sobha have pledged their shares with Indiabulls Financial Services, financiers like Dubai-based BankSarasin & Co and Credit Suisse as a liquid security for loans against properties.
Sensing a correction in the real estate sector, commercial banks have become selective in lending to new residential and commercial real estate projects.
The oil marketing companies are driving credit growth. The banking sector -- which typically sees credit contraction in the initial months -- has managed to buck the trend and has added nearly Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion) of advances in the first seven weeks of the current financial year thanks to the demand from the two sectors.
The Rs 9,500-crore Dharavi makeover may be postponed by a few months as the scheme will have to be amended to increase the size of the flats, to be given to slum-dwellers, from 225 sq ft to 269 sq ft, according to builders close to the development.
The amount is almost double the Rs 220 crore (Rs 2.2 billion) that a consortium of Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank earned for its life insurance tie-up with the UK-based wealth and investment company, Legal & General Group (see table). The entry premium is a result of regulations that require foreign insurers to tie up with Indian partners. SBI will hold 74 per cent in the non-life insurance company and IAG the remaining 26 per cent.
HR firm Hewitt Associates, however, estimates average salaries in India rose 15.2 across sectors for 2008-09 in line with the increases last year (15.1 per cent) and better than the year before (14.4 per cent) despite slowdown in many sectors. At 15.5 per cent, salaries of people in junior management (up to seven years) rose the fastest, followed by middle management (seven to 12 years) at 15.2 per cent, senior management (12 years+) at 14.5 per cent.
SBI's move may not have moved the farmers, who had stopped paying their monthly installments ever since Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced a Rs 60,000-debt waiver plan, but it did create a furore in political circles. Finally, Chidambaram, by his own admission, had to intervene and get SBI to roll back the move. For the 57-year-old SBI chief, who has earned an unprecedented five-year term, it proved to be a rare instance of being 'misunderstood'.
James Scott, Metro Cash & Carry's regional operating officer (Asia) based in Singapore, virtually lives out of a suitcase. With the regional headquarters in Hong Kong and operations across China, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, Scott travels through the week and gets back home only on weekends.
Leading Indian public sector banks State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Syndicate Bank are close to committing a part of the $3 billion bridge loan that Tata Motors has to raise to finance the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.
Though the Reserve Bank of India decided to reduce the risk weight for home loans between Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) and Rs 30 lakh (Rs 3 million) to 50 per cent, the possible benefit for banks seems to be more than neutralised by 75 basis point rise in cash reserve ratio and increase in the cost of resources, which is linked to yields on government bonds and competition, bankers said.
Real estate developers are feeling the liquidity crunch -- the sources of funds are drying up even as they get squeezed from both sides: high interest rates and property prices have hurt offtake while rising steel, cement prices have pushed up input costs 20-25 per cent, which developers have to absorb for now.
With little clarity on the list of companies that have mark-to-market losses on derivatives transactions, banks are now asking their corporate banking departments to scan the books of borrowers and also seek details of their foreign exchange exposure. Within this pie, banks are segregating companies with turnover of Rs 30-40 crore (Rs 300-400 million) to Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) and those which are above this threshold.
The Delhi-based Parsvnath Developers received $47 million (Rs 186 crore) from twoSaffron Group funds to develop a residential and shopping complex on a now-defunct bus depot at Kurla in central Mumbai. The Mumbai-based Lodha Group got $54 million from a HDFC-sponsored, Mauritius-based fund. The fund will take a 45 per cent stake in a special purpose vehicle, which will develop projects in Hyderabad, Lodha said in Mumbai on Thursday.
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