Foreign banks and private credit funds are queuing up to fund acquisitions by Indian companies who are buying out their local rivals. The Adani Group, Torrent Group, and the Hindujas have approached several foreign banks and private equity (PE) firms to fund their acquisitions. Global investors have about $2 trillion of funds to invest, and about $100 to $150 billion is set aside for India, according to an estimate by JP Morgan.
The Hinduja group is learnt to have backtracked from making a minimum Rs 8,950-crore offer for Reliance Capital (RCap) - a deal that it had belatedly put forth in December, after Torrent Investments emerged as the highest bidder for the bankrupt firm in the challenge process. The Hindujas' latest move has put Indian lenders, with an exposure of Rs 24,000 crore, in a spot as it was the former's revised offer that led to a call for a second auction and litigation by Torrent, which had placed a bid of Rs 8,649 crore in the first auction. Torrent has moved the Supreme Court and plans to wait for the apex court verdict before participating in any fresh auction. A banking source said there was an informal meeting of a few lenders of Reliance Capital with the bidders - the Torrent group and the Hinduja group on Friday when the latter changed its stand. The meeting of RCap's committee of creditors (CoC) is scheduled for Monday.
Tata AIG, ICICI Lombard and Nippon Life have evinced interest for the profit-making insurance arm of Reliance Capital (RCap), joining several prominent financial companies from India and abroad in the race for RCap's assets. The final day to submit an expression of interest (EoI) was March 25 and the bidders will now get access to the latest information about RCap before they make financial bids.
The insolvency process of debt-ridden Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL) on Tuesday hit a roadblock as the NCLT Mumbai has stayed the resolution process on the plea of Torrent Group. The stay order was issued by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as the Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group challenged the revised bid from Hinduja Group, sources said. Torrent Group, which emerged as the highest bidder with an Rs 8,640 crore offer, had moved the NCLT-Mumbai against Hinduja Group's late revised bid, which it had submitted after the completion of the e-auction process on December 21.
Aided by the $57.8-billion merger of HDFC Bank and HDFC, India Inc reported its highest ever mergers and acquisitions in calendar 2022 at $171 billion as against deals worth $145 billion announced last year. The acquisition by the Adani group across cement, media and ports dominated the headlines with the conglomerate making its foray into the cement sector by buying Swiss materials firm Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements for $6.5 billion. The Adani family's additional $4-billion open offer for Ambuja did not get a response because shareholders preferred to stay invested with the new owner.
The two troubled subsidiaries of Reliance Capital have over Rs 20,000 crore debt of both the companies. Reliance Home Finance has a debt of Rs 11,500 crore and Reliance Commercial Finance owes Rs 9,000 crore to lenders.
Reliance Capital has two credit verticals -- Reliance Commercial Finance and Reliance Home Finance -- with a cumulative asset of over Rs 25,000 crore.
This deal will make Music Broadcast, which currently operates 39 channels, the largest private FM Channel operator.
Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance said that PWC cited the companies' failure to convene audit committee meetings within the expected time, despite multiple letters of intent sent to them, as one of the reasons for the resignation.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said underlying economic activity in India continues to be strong, but external factors will cause some "dent" to the economy. Speaking at the BFSI Insight Summit 2022 organised by Business Standard, Das said the RBI tracks 70 fast moving indicators and most of them are in the "green box". It is the external sector, mired by a fear of recession or clear visibility about slowing growth in a large part of the world, where the challenges lie, he said, adding that the impact of external demand will "dent" the economy.
The Reserve Bank of India's action against Reliance Capital comes at a time when the Anil Ambani group was planning to make a comeback with the group company, Reliance Infrastructure, raising funds from the promoter family. As part of the comeback plan, Reliance Infrastructure received Rs 550 crore fund infusion from the Anil Ambani family. A month earlier, Reliance Power, a listed subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, also raised funds from its parent by issuing preferential allotment of shares thus increasing the stake of Reliance Infrastructure in the company.
The deal gives a valuation of over $4 billion to Paytm, which is already backed by Alibaba group as a strategic investor.
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group sells multiplex business to Carnival Cinemas.
The planned deal will reduce Reliance Capital's stake in Reliance Life Insurance to 51 per cent from 74 per cent.
Reliance Capital, the financial services arm of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, has also listed several other concerns with regard to MXC deal.
Veterans in the travel industry, a well-known corporate lawyer, and a marquee US-based hedge fund have backed the upcoming low-cost airline Akasa Air. Founded by former Jet Airways chief executive officer (CEO) Vinay Dube, the venture counts ace stock trader and investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as its biggest financial backer with an investment of around Rs 300 crore. A person with knowledge of the development said most of the people were well known to Jhunjhunwala and Dube, who approached them during the conception stage.
The junior Ambanis - Anmol and Anshul - were inducted on the board to respect the wishes of the shareholders who during the recent AGM asked the management to get fresh blood into the company by bringing them on board.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Friday reported a 43 per cent jump in its September quarter net profit as its businesses from oil to retail fired on all cylinders, growing both sequentially and on a year-on-year basis. Net profit of Rs 13,680 crore, or Rs 20.88 per share, in July-September compared with Rs 9,567 crore, or Rs 14.84 a share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a statement. While better realisation and a sharp rise in crude oil prices benefited the old-economy business, retail saw footfalls at stores reach pre-Covid levels and per user earning from telecom business rose.
Readying itself for a bank licence, Anil Ambani-led group's Reliance Capital on Wednesday said Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Bank and Nippon Life would become its strategic partners in the proposed banking venture, with each having 4-5 per cent stake.
The exposure, which is for the period ended September 2019, is across various platforms such as life funds, pension funds, and unit-linked funds.
Reliance Capital on Wednesday said it has got approval from the Indian market regulator Sebi and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for Rs 1,450-crore (Rs 14.5 billion) stake sale in its mutual fund business unit to Japan's Nippon Life.
The new executive director of Reliance Capital has big shoes to fill in every way.
Reliance Group, recently, accused L&T Finance and Edelweiss Group entities of "illegal" and "motivated" actions in invoking the pledged shares of Anil Ambani group's three listed firms and selling them in open market causing a steep fall in share values.
Reliance Capital, the financial service arm of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has already started the due diligence process and is expected to complete this by the end of this financial year.
Hamsini Karthik reveals why the ongoing business rejig will help unlock value for shareholders of Grasim, Reliance Capital and Tube Investments
Here's a quick at the two cousins, Akash and Anmol.
EPFO is managing a corpus of Rs 6.5 lakh crore.
Ghosh, who led the ramping up of German insurer Allianz's Indian insurance ventures, has assumed charge as Reliance Capital CEO from today, the company said. He would report to Reliance Capital Vice Chairman Amitabh Jhunjhunwala. Reliance Capital has also crossed the 14 million customer-mark across all its businesses, according to industry sources.
Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Capital Partners on Tuesday said it along with two other group companies has acquired an additional 4,081 equity shares representing 0.01 per cent stake in Fame India, hiking their stake in the multiplex chain to 13.8 per cent.
New norms are in place to strengthen regulations for this set of lenders which has been playing a critical role in Asia's third largest economy, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Even if the Paytm fiasco does not mark the end of the bull run, at least some sanity will return to the wild IPO market, observes Debashis Basu.
Debt-ridden Reliance Capital ready to cede control in home finance - Blackstone, Carlyle, Brookfield, and Piramal group are in talks to buy a large stake in Reliance Home Finance.
The Anil Ambani Group's financial services arm Reliance Capital on Wednesday said it has received in-principle approval from insurance sector regulator Insurance Regulatory Development Authority for its proposed 26 per cent stake sale in Reliance Life Insurance to Japan's Nippon Life.
The banking entity of the group could be called Reliance Bank, Ambani told the shareholders of Reliance Capital.
While RCom owes Indian banks close to Rs 45,000 crore, Ambani has lost close to $408 million of personal wealth year-to-date until Tuesday.
Industrialist Anil Ambani on Tuesday said that his group was looking to unlock value in its life insurance venture through listing of Reliance Life as a separate company on the bourses.
Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Capital has acquired a 4.98 per cent stake in an infra developer Trinethra Infra through an open market transaction.