Reliance Industries Ltd, the nation's most valuable company, on Thursday said it has raised $4 billion (around Rs 30,000 crore) in debt through the largest ever foreign currency bond issuance by an Indian entity. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate plans to use the proceeds of the three tranche issues to retire existing borrowings. The issue was "nearly 3 times oversubscribed with a peak order book aggregating around $11.5 billion," the company said in a statement. This is the largest ever foreign currency bond transaction in India, eclipsing ONGC Videsh Ltd's $2.2 billion US dollar bonds issue of 2014.
According to data reviewed by Business Standard, the dues from UB Holdings alone to USL shot up by 4.3 times to Rs 1,188 crore (Rs 11.88 billion) by the end of the last financial year, compared to an outstanding of Rs 272 crore (Rs 2.72 billion) by the end of FY12.
Joint venture to take on Amazon will be announced next week.
However, some of the provisions in the draft Bill needs scrutiny, as these could scare away international investors
In the first of a two-part series, Tamal Bandyopadhyay explains why the ICICI Bank's board first rushed to deny all allegations against Kochhar and then took the extreme steps against her.
Case relates to alleged irregularities in '08 sanction to MCX-SX; Shah grilled in NSEL case.
'The RBI has not allowed any commercial bank to fail in the past three decades.' 'It has always played the role of a matchmaker, but this is the best deal it has stitched,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Banks have Rs 10 trillion in stressed assets - Rs 7.8 trillion of bad loans and Rs 2.2 trillion of restructured ones.
Seeking ArcelorMittal be declared ineligible to bid for Essar Steel, the petition cited Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code which bars promoters of defaulting companies from bidding for stressed assets.
'The snakes and ladders game will continue till the consolidation process is complete simply because we don't know how bad the scene is, with some of the banks being merged,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Processes are at an advanced stage for a number of assets of the Centre and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to be monetised. The assets include office space, apartments, factories, land, power transmission assets, sports stadia, gas pipelines, and telecom assets.
'We do not know when we will get to the business-as-usual mode.' 'Many borrowers may not be able to pay up.' 'The incidence of cheque bouncing has doubled or even trebled, some lenders say,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Under the watchful eyes of five wise men, who know the industry well, banks will not find it easy to hoodwink the system, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Kolkata-based business tycoon Sanjiv Goenka's RP-SG Group claimed the Lucknow franchise for a whopping Rs 7090 crore, while international equity investment firm CVC Capital won the bid for Ahmedabad with a Rs 5600 crore offer.
As lobbying and counter-lobbying intensify, right now, it looks like a T20 match, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
As his personal wealth started booming, Mallya went on a buying spree.
Most of the NBFCs do not take public deposits but that does not mean they cannot create systemic risks. The banking system has at least Rs 57,000 crore exposure to IL&FS. Haven't the banks invested public money in IL&FS papers, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Admiral Gorshkov, expected to join the Indian Navy later this year, is already late by five years and its price has risen three-fold, from $947 million (about Rs 5,735 crore) in 2004 to $2.3 billion (Rs 13,928.8 crore) today.
The recently anointed managing director and chief executive officer at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd tells Business Standard how he intends to get back to over 50 per cent share in the domestic market, apart from a larger role in the parent's global operations.
Norms limiting airlines' stake in SPVs managing airports to hurt Tatas.
'As banks grapple with risk aversion and savers see an erosion in the value of money, the P2P platform can be a win-win for both borrowers and lenders,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Default in payment of royalties to McDonald's India for nearly two years was the key reason behind the fast-food chain's decision to terminate franchise agreement
Maharashtra, the country's largest cane and sugar producer after Uttar Pradesh, had, over the past few years, weathered adverse market dynamics brought about by a domestic and global sugar glut, mounting arrears and muted exports.
Alipay payment service is about bringing the world's consumers and businesses together.
The product will enalble Japanese companies to jumpstart their business operations in India in a short time.
'We can't have the best of both worlds -- large, efficient, world class government-owned banks, doing social banking and making profits. 'Why not set them free from the shackles of such obligations and run them as business units?' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Lt Governor says discoms must cooperate or face cancellation of licences. Ficci cries interference.
If the CBDCs don't offer interest, why will people shift from cash to CBDCs?, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Infra experts say govt will first need to figure out how to exploit real estate along the proposed routes.
TAL Manufacturing Solutions expects its indigenously made affordable industrial robot, the Brabo, to boost the robotics vertical and contribute almost 40 per cent of its overall revenues in the next five years. Sohini Das reports.
The infra-major going belly up cracked open some major flaws in the system - the most evident being weak corporate governance and how layers of corporate structures could be formed adding to the opaqueness of the group.
Enforcement Directorate to approach court to attach industrialist's properties worth Rs 4,000 crore
Fintechs need to behave with responsibility and transparency. A lot of mis-selling has been happening. Other issues have been plaguing the fledgling industry -- high interest rates, even higher processing fees, harsh collection process and, most critically, data leakage leading to rampant frauds, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
If the deal is indeed being considered, this will be the first time that Ambani will be putting his money in a print media venture since he and his younger brother, Anil Ambani, split businesses to form their own groups
Why do we need a bad bank, owned by the banks themselves when there are at least 28 ARCs around, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Bankers and executives involved in ATM operations said challenges abounded in this segment.
If banks cannot charge interest from borrowers during the moratorium, who will bear that cost? Should the depositors subsidise the borrowers by foregoing interest on deposits? In that case, we will turn banking on its head! notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Maruti Suzuki is keen that the Gujrat government revises payment condition in the agreement it signed with the former for setting up a plant in Hansalpur.
HMT Watches has been making losses for the last 15 years.
The Indian regulatory framework forced Citi to hibernate -- contrary to the claim that it never sleeps!