Global rating agency Fitch said on Monday that bank credit growth in excess of 13 per cent year on year in FY23 could put pressure on core equity tier ratios (CET1) of banks, especially public sector lenders. It may limit the buffers of Indian banks to absorb potential future losses. Bank credit expanded by 11.5 per cent in FY22. Full-year loan growth for FY23 will represent a modest slowdown from the 17 per cent YoY pace in H1FY23.
After securing a euro 150 million Credit line for solar energy finance from a German financial institution, State Bank of India is in talks with european Investment Bank for about euro 200 million to fund climate finance. Recently the country's largest lender obtained euro 150 million in green funding from German government-owned KFW on soft terms and a long repayment period. SBI will use funds to finance solar energy projects.
American writer HP Lovecraft famously said that the oldest and strongest of fears is the fear of the unknown. For present-day advertisers and celebrities, this fear is showing up in the response they receive from social media to their brand communication. This is something AU Small Finance Bank and online food delivery platform Zomato recently experienced with their advertisements.
Sony India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) have agreed to sell three Hindi channels--Big Magic, Zee Action and Zee Classic--to address anti-competition concerns arising out of their proposed merger. The broadcasters submitted their proposal to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which gave a conditional approval on October 4. On Wednesday, the CCI made public its detailed 58-page order, specifying the channels that would be dropped.
After losing two festive seasons to Covid-led restrictions, 2022 is seeing an uninhibited celebration of festivals. This is pushing up discretionary spend, which is attracting advertisers and brands, who are ready to capitalise on the momentum. The festive season has begun with Onam and Ganesh Chathurthi held earlier this month in Kerala and Maharashtra, respectively.
'Devika is a people's person, who simply loves what she does. This reflects in her work; the insights she brings to the table and the way she interacts with people and clients. She has the demeanour of a good captain. Her success is well-deserved.'
Media company New Delhi Television (NDTV) recorded its highest-ever consolidated profit at the group level in over a decade for financial year 2021-22 (FY22), said co-chairpersons Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy in the firm's latest annual report. Addressing shareholders, the Roys, founder-promoters of NDTV, said the company had emerged financially strong in FY22, continuing the turnaround of recent years. "Both the television and digital branches of the NDTV group reported their highest-ever profit. NDTV Ltd (television arm) recorded a profit of Rs 59.18 crore.
In the centre of an ownership battle with Adani Group, New Delhi Television (NDTV) can prevent a takeover by the group if it can buy more shares from public shareholders, corporate lawyers told Business Standard. On Tuesday, the media arm of Adani Group said it had exercised rights to acquire an indirect stake of 29.18 per cent in NDTV through conversion of loans into equity in a promoter group entity of NDTV. This will trigger a mandatory open offer for an additional 26 per cent stake in NDTV, even as the broadcaster said its founder promoters had neither consented to the exercise of rights nor was any conversation or input given on the matter.
The next auction for bauxite blocks in Odisha may see heightened interest with Adani Group charting an entry into alumina refining and existing players looking to boost capacity. Hemant Sharma, principal secretary, Odisha industries department, said that three bauxite blocks have been scheduled for auctions this year. Adani Group - which will be setting up a 4-MMTPA alumina refinery and may enter aluminium production - is expected to bid for mines, though raw material linkages shall be available from Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
This is the fourth time in three decades that Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar have had movie releases on the same day.
A long and bitter funding winter in the start-up world is beginning to take its toll on start-up advertising across properties. Earlier this week, Mastercard replaced Paytm as the title sponsor for all international and domestic cricket matches organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). But this is just one part of the story. The other side is that organisers of high-impact shows and events on Hindi general entertainment channels, too, are feeling the winter chill.
The money sent home by Indians from West Asian countries took a beating in 2020-21 due to the pandemic. On the other hand, overseas Indians in advanced nations - the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore - emerged as important sources of remittance, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) survey. Indians working in informal sectors in West Asia seem to have been impacted the most due to the lockdowns and subdued crude oil prices as well as slower pace of migration in recent years.
Hindustan Zinc (HZL), a subsidiary of Vedanta, announced an interim dividend of Rs 21 per share last week, resulting in an outflow of Rs 8,863 crore. The announcement has turned the spotlight on India Inc's dividend-paying policy - more so for reasons driving the generosity of firms. An analysis of BSE 500 companies by Business Standard Research Bureau shows that some of the top 20 dividend-paying companies in 2021-22 (FY22) include Vedanta, Tata Consultancy Services, HZL, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil), Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Reliance Industries (RIL), and Bajaj Auto, among others.
After the finance minister directed public sector banks to join the account aggregator (AA) ecosystem, 5-6 major ones, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda are expected to go live by July-end. Sahmati, an industry alliance for the AA ecosystem, has been working with PSU banks to get them onboarded for quite some time now. So far, Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have gone live on the AA ecosystem. While Union Bank has been live for a while, PNB went live earlier this month.
As the Indian currency hovers around its lowest versus the US greenback, several smaller and mid-sized companies are expected to face rough weather as almost 44 per cent of the foreign loans taken by Indian companies remained unhedged. According to the data sourced from the Reserve Bank of India, Indian companies raised around $38.2 billion in the financial year ended in March. Of this, only 56 per cent of the loans are hedged while the rest of the foreign loans remain unhedged, thus risking the companies to forex volatility.
Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) handed out a pay cheque of Rs 61.27 crore to its chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) SN Subrahmanyan in the last financial year (FY22), which is a near 115 per cent hike over FY21, as executive compensation at India Inc comes under sharp focus after two years of Covid-19. In fact, the total compensation of L&T's executive directors (including Subrahmanyan) in FY22 was 120 to 670 times the median remuneration of the company's employees, data from its FY22 annual report shows. This points to sharp hikes that the top management saw in their remuneration during the period, experts in human resources said. In FY21, L&T's executive compensation was 56 to 337 times the median remuneration of company employees.
'The second half of 2022 definitely looks stronger for Bollywood.'
The depreciation in rupee may pose a problem for students who have taken loans from Indian lenders.
Spending on international travel tripled in April 2022 as Covid-related curbs were eased in various countries in FY22.
There are loans to salaried people where the borrower is employed, but has failed to make repayment. Such loans would be identified and sold in a pool to ARCs.