Kotak Mahindra Bank has acquired the non-performing portfolio of Barclays Bank's credit card business in India. The deal, experts said, gives momentum to the sale of stressed loan market in the country which has been having a dry run following stringent regulatory norms introduced in 2007.
Bankers and industry analysts say a number of public and private sector banks have expressed willingness to offer fresh loans to Indian companies to help them repay their overseas dues maturing in the near term.
Barclays Finance, the non-banking finance arm of Barclays Corporate in India, plans to close the majority of its branches here, as part of the lender's plan to scale down retail operations in the country.
United Spirits Ltd (USL), flagship spirits company of the UB Group, has finally decided on foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) to raise as much as $225 million (Rs 1,190 crore). The plan is to raise up to $175 million, plus an over-allotment option of $50 million.
Bank will charge floating rates of interest from January.
The corporate headquarters, christened Britannia Gardens, sprawls over nearly seven acres on the Old Airport Road, leading on to Whitefield, one of the major technology hubs towards the east of Bengaluru.
According to sources familiar with the developments, the bank may sell more than Rs 3,000-crore (Rs 30-billion) worth of retail assets in India comprising mortgage loans, personal loans and loans to small businesses.
The deal, which will be signed this week, will see Standard Chartered Bank adding 170,000 cards to its existing portfolio of 1.1 million cards. The foreign lender will also become the fifth largest card issuer in the country after HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank and State Bank of India.
While most bankers see advances growing 16-18 per cent this financial year, they expect credit expansion to slow to less than 16 per cent in 2012-13.
Move comes as stringent regulation chokes biz growth.
Link loan disbursals with firming up of steady supply of raw material.
According to senior officials of the National Highways Authority of India, this project is part of a larger 245-km highway development project connecting Hyderabad and Solapur.
Fears of banks' earnings plummeting in a deregulated savings deposit rate regime appear to have gripped investors, with most analysts hinting that profitability may come under pressure due to higher cost of funds amid slowing growth in advances.
GMR Infrastructure, which manages two airports in India, at Delhi and Hyderabad, seems hungry for more.
We are looking to target individuals who have the potential to become high-value clients in the future. It is possible to target this segment with the help of powerful data analytics.
The regulator had earlier asked these banks to submit a road map and give a time frame for paring promoters' shareholding to 10 per cent.
Volatility in local share markets have hit India Inc's equity fund-raising plans, with the total deal value this year set to fall below the level seen in 2008.
Standard Chartered Bank appears to lead the race to acquire Barclays Bank's credit card business in India, six months after the British lender decided to sell it, three people familiar with the development said.
Sources familiar with the developments said the clearance came a few days earlier. While the details of the revised structure were not known, the sources said it would remain an all-stock deal.
Discussions have been initiated to sell the company to a Mumbai-headquartered, highly diversified, multi-billion dollar corporate group which has interests in retail and logistics, among various others.
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