Sabare International, a Karur-based home furnishings company, has taken ICICI Bank to court over a foreign exchange derivative contract. The company has requested the Karur civil court to declare the contract void. This is the second company to have gone into a legal dispute with ICICI Bank after the Chennai-based Sundaram Multi Pap, which had alleged "mis-selling of certain foreign exchange derivative contracts for speculative purposes".
Richard Heald, Vice-Chairman and Amitabh Malhotra, Director of Rothschild spoke about the volatile market, its implications and how this is an opportunity for Rothschild in India. Heald said that rising commodity prices are worrisome. The inflationary pressures are a concern. He advised that corporates should be open to all financing options. Investors in general want to invest in cash generating assets and commodities. With no decoupling other markets will impact India too.
It is a real life story. A story of an insurer that has managed to hold on to its lead in the marketplace for seven years.
What could compound the problem is that many of these firms do not account for the debt. In other words, they are not providing for the borrowings on an annual basis over the life of the instrument. According to a study by a leading brokerage, accounting for the loan and the interest would, on an average, knock off at least 12 per cent of the profits in FY09 and about 10 per cent in FY10.
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.
Nilesh Shah aired his views on the sub-prime crises, after effects of the Budget and FIIs. He thinks Brazil is the best bet amongst upcoming markets due to its natural resources.
L&T is planning a foray in PE fund in the real estate market with a Rs 4500 crore fund.
The magazine hopes to ramp up its advertising and circulation figures in the country.
Sun Pharma has increased its stake in Israel's Taro by buying 9.5% more, raising its total holding to 34.4 per cent.
With sales growth in older stores and margins both falling, Pantaloon needs to keep costs in check.
BSE data suggest 2 demerger proposals a month in the last 2 years.
Sebi has proposed waiving off stamp duty on e-issuance of bond to the ministry of finance.
The credit growth in the current financial year has slowed down to 22.6 per cent at the end of January 2007 compared with nearly 30 per cent a year ago. While that in itself is not too worrying, most of the demand stems from companies with retail offtake in low double digits.
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."
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.