A Hinduja Group firm on Wednesday emerged as the highest bidder with an offer of Rs 9,650 crore to take over debt-ridden Reliance Capital in the second round of auction, sources said. The bid by IndusInd International Holdings Ltd (IIHL) is higher than Rs 8,640 crore offer made by Torrent Investments in the first round of auction held in December last year. The other two suitors -- Torrent Investments and Oaktree -- did not participate in the second round of auction, sources said.
As many as 48 companies, including Reliance Retail, Jindal Power Ltd and Adani group, are in the final list of eligible prospective resolution applicants for acquiring debt-ridden Future Retail Ltd. The Resolution Professional of Future Retail Ltd (FRL), which is currently going through an insolvency resolution process, on Monday came out with the final list of 'Eligible Prospective Resolution Applicants'. On April 10, FRL's RP updated a list of 49 companies, which had submitted Expressions of Interest (EoIs) after the company's lenders decided to invite fresh bids after dividing its assets into clusters.
The government and Life Insurance Corporation's (LIC's) strategic stake sale in IDBI Bank is expected to move to the second stage by the first quarter of FY24, said two people in the know. They added that considering the progress of the ongoing deal, financial bids are expected to come in by June this year. The proposed IDBI Bank stake sale is divided into two sequential stages.
The government may take a fresh look at BPCL privatisation, including revising the terms of sale, an official said. "We need to go back to the drawing board on BPCL. "There are issues in terms of consortium formation, geopolitical situation and energy transition aspects," an official said. The government is selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL for which three expressions of interest (EoIs), including one from billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group, have been received.
On June 30, mining and metals giant Vedanta, announced that it had decided to initiate a strategic review of its steel and steel-making raw material businesses. The review would begin immediately and evaluate a broad range of options, including but not limited to a potential strategic sale of some or all of the steel businesses, the company said in its stock exchange filing. The signs have been there - approaches had been made to steel players over the past year. Last December, Anil Agarwal, chairman Vedanta group, told Business Standard that the steel plant capacity was about 3 million tonnes (mt).
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.
Ahead of the Budget, the government has achieved almost half the divestment target of Rs 65,000 crore. FY23 divestment receipts are unlikely to be anywhere close to the budgeted target.
'An area of land has already been earmarked for their protected habitation.' 'There are also steps being taken to take care of the coral zone and mangroves.'
The government on Thursday withdrew its offer to sell its entire 52.98 per cent stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, saying that majority of bidders have expressed their inability to participate in the current privatisation process due to prevailing conditions in the global energy market.
The needs of Indian athletes during multi-sporting events are a tad more hard to satisfy than others, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Acting [resident Anil Khanna said on Thursday, referring to the controversy surrounding Lovlina Borgohain's coach Sandhya Gurung.
The HC sought the information from the Morbi municipality while hearing a suo motu (on its own) public interest litigation on the collapse of the bridge.
Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday indicated that the much-delayed privatisation of oil major BPCL may not happen in the near future, saying there is "no proposal whatsoever" on his table for now. As part of its asset monetisation plan, the government had in November 2019 put Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) on the block and said it would completely sell its 52.98 per cent stake in the country's second largest state-run oil refiner and marketer. Though it had received three tentative bids, it got only one financial bid from Vedanta group, forcing it in May 2022 to shelve the plan pending a "comprehensive review".
After Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal claimed that Mumbai has received a bid from Pfizer in response to its COVID-19 vaccine procurement tender, Pfizer issued a statement clarifying that it has made no such bid.
Till date eight cases of the disease have been detected in India, out of which five have foreign travel history, the minister of health and family welfare said.
Paving the way for takeover of crisis-ridden Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC), the Reserve Bank of India on Friday granted in-principle approval to the Centrum Financial Services to set up a small finance bank. Centrum Financial Services was one of the applicants for takeover of the PMC Bank. "This 'in-principle' approval has been accorded in specific pursuance to the Centrum Financial Services Limited's offer dated February 1, 2021, in response to the expression of interest notification (November 3, 2020) published by the PMC Bank Ltd," the RBI said in a statement.
Reliance Industries (RIL) is likely to be the lone bidder for Mangalore-based JBF Petrochemicals, which is up for sale after defaulting on bank loans worth Rs 5,000 crore. The lenders for the second time extended the deadline for submission of bids, which had ended on August 20, as several players, including public sector companies, were redrawing their acquisition plans, said people in the know. "There were several companies which had submitted their expressions of interest (EoIs) for the company but after due diligence decided to exit the race," said a source close to the development. "The new deadline for submitting financial offers is August-end," the source said.
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 government will start working on selling the ground-handling arm of erstwhile national carrier Air India and the Expression of Interest (EoI) is expected in the next fiscal, an official said. "We already have the Cabinet approval for selling the subsidiaries of Air India. "So we will come out with an EoI inviting bids for one of the ground-handling arms in the next fiscal," an official told PTI.
The central government has for the first time allowed a private company, Bajaj Healthcare, to process opium to extract alkaloids used to make pain-killers, cough syrups, and even cancer drugs. Two government factories in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, and Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, do the work yet, processing some 800 tonnes of opium gum annually to extract alkaloids. The government on Tuesday gave Thane-based Bajaj Healthcare an initial contract to process 500 tonnes of opium gum annually and wants production to be at 800 tonnes per annum (tpa) in the next five years, indicating the state's exit from the highly-regulated sector.
The Maharaja was Air India's original symbol and Dominic Xavier is rooting for the airline to be snapped up by the Tatas and returned to its old glory.
The vehicle can be used as an aerial target for evaluation of various missile systems.
The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune under the ICMR has isolated the monkeypox virus from the clinical specimen of a patient, which can pave the way for development of diagnostic kits and vaccines against the disease, officials said on Wednesday.
Privatisation of BPCL, which was dubbed India's biggest ever, has been stalled with just one bidder left in the fray after two others walked out over issues such as lack of clarity in fuel pricing, a top source said. The government had planned to sell its entire 52.98 per cent stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and invited Expression of Interest from bidders in March 2020. At least three bids came in by November 2020 but only one remains now after the others withdrew from the race.
The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will revamp its banking application (app) YONO and position it as a complete digital bank (DB) under a new rubric 'Only YONO' for enhancing customer experience and ease of use. The bank plans to bring in a consultant to help draw up the project plan, keeping in mind business goals for the next five years. With 54 million monthly active users (MAUs), SBI YONO has seen growth of over 35 per cent in MAUs in 2021.
"Financial bids for Air India disinvestment received by Transaction Adviser. Process now moves to concluding stage," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
No response has been received for the Expression of Interest floated for the strategic divestment of Air India
With the Adani and Jindal groups and Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries joining the race to buy Videocon Industries' (VIL's) assets, lenders are expecting aggressive bids for VIL's consumer durables and overseas oil assets, which are to be sold in separate auctions. The entire asset sale exercise is expected to be completed in the next six months, said a banker. A promoter entity of Naveen Jindal-owned Jindal Steel and Power has also evinced interest in the second round of bids for VIL's consumer durable business. The deadline to submit bids for VIL's assets ended on February 2.
Synergy Group, the sole potential bidder for Jet Airways, had sought more time to take a decision on investing in the grounded airline.
Apart from being the most successful cases under the IBC, Bhushan Steel and Essar Steel are among the best steel assets in the country. They also ended up helping their lenders get back a significant chunk of the money while allowing Tata Steel to consolidate its position and giving the world's two largest steel makers - ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel - a strong foothold in India. A significant contrast was the pace at which these two cases were resolved under the bankruptcy code. In the annals of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Essar Steel may go down in history as the most noticeable resolution with the world's largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, and the incumbent, Ruia family, locked in an intense battle spanning more than two years and ultimately resulting in full recovery of the principal amount for the financial creditors.
Tata Group is in discussions with some major international companies, including those from Taiwan, for its foray into the semiconductor chip business. The Union government had earlier tried to bring in Taiwanese manufacturers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) for chip manufacturing in India. A person close to the development said the Tatas have now opened a separate channel for a possible tie-up. Currently, India mostly imports chips, which are fabricated and assembled to put into various applications, including automobiles, renewable power, mobile phones, televisions, and other electronic items.
A technical advisory group of the World Health Organisation was on Tuesday reviewing data on Covaxin for the emergency use listing of India's indigenously-made vaccine and it could pronounce its decision within the next 24 hours or so, a spokesperson said.
Merely bringing down the government stake below 51% may not find any taker for the PSBs. The government must bring down its holding to at least 26%, recommends Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
SBI will auction two non-performing accounts (NPAs) next month to recover dues of over Rs 313 crore, according to a notice by the lender. The two accounts to be put up for e-auction on August 6 are Bhadreshwar Vidyut Pvt Ltd (BVPL) with a loan outstanding of Rs 262.73 crore and GOL Offshore Ltd with Rs 50.75 crore dues. "In terms of the bank's policy on sale on financial assets, in line with the regulatory guidelines, we place these accounts for sale to ARCs/banks/NBFCs/FIs, on the terms and conditions indicated there against," SBI said in the notice. The reserve price for the auction of Bhadreshwar Vidyut is set at Rs 100.12 crore and for GOL Offshore at Rs 51 crore.
Ruia, a chartered accountant whose business ranged from sugar to textiles and heavy engineering to tyres, refused to comment on queries about his interest in Air India.
No other corporate house in India is in a better position than Tata group for the takeover of debt-laden airline Air India, former deputy chairman of erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Thursday. Tata Sons has emerged as the top bidder for the takeover of the state-run airline but the bid is yet to be approved by a group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah. "You can't have a better corporate, with a better position than the Tatas, we can hand it (state-run airline Air India) over," he said while replying to a question in a virtual event.
"As on 31.12.2020, the total Air India dues against various Government Departments on account of airfare including dues towards VVIP Operations were Rs 498.17 crore," the GoI said in a written reply in Lok Sabha
The government on Thursday permitted 100 per cent foreign investment under the automatic route in oil and gas PSUs which have received in-principle approval for strategic divestment. The move would facilitate privatisation of India's second biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL). The government is privatising BPCL and selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in the company.
A proposal in the Union Budget 2022-23 to raise excise duty on dirtier, unblended retail petrol and diesel has met with some resistance from the petroleum ministry. However, finance ministry officials say no such communication arguing against the levy of extra duty on diesel has been received from the oil ministry. Until there are discussions between the two departments, the proposal will not be tweaked in the Finance Bill. The Rs 2 per litre additional excise duty proposed on unblended fuels in the Finance Bill will result in a uniform hike of diesel prices across the country from October 1.
The government is set to initiate consultations with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to devise a new security clearance framework for screening potential bidders of public sector banks (PSBs) as it kick-starts the privatisation process, beginning with the strategic divestment of IDBI Bank. As the government is moving ahead with strategic divestment of IDBI Bank and is looking to privatise two PSBs, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is looking to put in place an appropriate framework as the potential buyers will have to meet the RBI's fit and proper criteria, said an official. The process of bank privatisation would be different from the sale of any other public sector undertaking (PSU), and more restrictions and measures will have to be put in place, the official said.
The technical advisory group will now meet on November 3 for a final assessment.
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