UV Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd has made the highest bid of Rs 16,000 crore to buy Anil Ambani group's Reliance Communications and Reliance Telecom, which are in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Last year it was the highest bidder for taking over Aircel's assets for an upfront payment of Rs 150 crore. Surajeet Das Gupta and Dev Chatterjee dig deeper to find out more about this little known company.
Bankers said they are looking outside the bankruptcy courts and will be able to resolve a few debts in the power sector before January-end.
'While the march of globalisation is perhaps inevitable, what is certain is that the world is no longer flat as, the emerging pattern of trade is more regional. 'This new trend of 'slowbalisation' raises some questions that challenge conventional wisdom on how businesses should distribute their capacities,' Birla said.
Uttam Prakash Agarwal alleged that Citax and Braich offers were incomplete and did not include firm commitment as to the price, size, timings, confirmation from the banks about availability of the funds.
This is the biggest equity-raising exercise by an Indian corporate within a financial year. The fundraising - led by Citibank, Goldman, Kotak and Axis Capital as bankers - will see participation by foreign and domestic institutional investors.
As much as Rs 8,000 crore worth of mobile phones in this segment - out of a total of Rs 15,000 crore - come into the country through the grey market. The government imposed the duty on these phones primarily to encourage domestic production but the strategy has failed as the bulk of high end mobile phones are currently imported.
The key driver of this expansion will be not car-hailing but bike-taxi service. The company is willing to partner local players that have a similar offer and would like to come on their platform.
SBI and other public sector banks have decided to lend Rs 4,000 crore to Patanjali Ayurved for the acquisition of Ruchi Soya, which was facing bankruptcy proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The money lent by banks will help the PSBs to settle their exposure to Ruchi Soya with a haircut of 65 per cent. Banks led by SBI and others had earlier made claims of over Rs 12,146 crore against Ruchi Soya after the company failed to repay its loans.
If Vodafone Idea shuts, a bulk of the high-paying ARPU customers will move to Airtel as Reliance Jio does not have a comprehensive postpaid offering like it, and have aggressively preferred to play in the prepaid market. The bulk of Vodafone Idea customers use 2G phones and only a few of them use data. It will be easier for Airtel to woo these customers as they can shift seamlessly to its 2G network without changing handsets or even SIM cards,
The three companies for sale are Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel.
Cut-throat competition, high spectrum costs, and frequent flip-flops in government policies have made it difficult for Vodafone to make money in the country.
Collapse of the mobile operator could translate into total loss of nearly Rs 44,000 crore for the AV Birla group.
Airlines say that they are keeping their fingers crossed for December - another peak period - when, based on current bookings, the air fares for those who buy early are more or less in line with last year.
However, the government is readying a relief package and it could include a cut in the licence fee to 5 per cent, two years' moratorium on paying spectrum charges with interest, and referring the GST tax refund issue to the Council.
It is believed that apart from Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, there are four players that have made a bid.
The collapse of Jet Airways has everything to do with the falling number of wide-bodied aircraft.
Despite sanctioning the loans, bankers are worried whether to disburse the loan because of absence of an investment grade rating.
'12% of all our global trips are done in India.'
Analysts have pointed out that with the dues arising out of the SC judgment there could soon be only two private telcos in the country, and not three - Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - as now.