While India won't be immune to global spillovers, we need to create the macro preconditions for sustained growth. Policy agility, prudence, and resilience will be key, suggests Sonal Varma.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday reviewed the performance of public sector banks (PSBs) on various financial health parameters and their resilience in the wake of the current global financial scenario emanating from the failure of some international banks in the US and Europe.
India is Asia's other bad debt headache.
Billionaire Gautam Adani-led group's renewable energy firm on Thursday announced plans to raise Rs 12,300 crore through a share sale to investors as the group continues to build on a comeback strategy to emerge out of allegations of fraud levelled by a US short-seller. Adani Green Energy Ltd in a stock exchange filing said its board has approved raising up to Rs 12,300 crore through an issue of equity shares by way of qualified institutional placement (QIP). The funds are intended to be used for meeting capital needs of the company's expansion plans.
Billionaire Gautam Adani has said the decision to withdraw a fully subscribed share sale of the flagship firm of his group was primarily because of volatility in the market. Adani Group company stocks have lost over $90 billion in value since a US short seller made damning allegations. Adani Enterprises Ltd's Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer managed to get investors on the last day of the share close on Tuesday.
In August, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das held a meeting with chief executive officers/ managing directors (CEOs/ MDs) of large non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs). The discussions included diversifying borrowing sources for NBFCs and housing finance companies (HFCs) to contain increasing reliance on bank borrowing, risks associated with high credit growth in retail segment in unsecured loans, prioritising IT upgrades and cyber-security, improving provisioning, monitoring of stressed exposures and slippages, ensuring robust liquidity and asset-liability management, ensuring transparency in pricing, creating robust grievance redress mechanisms.
'Considering Pai is putting his own personal money in Byju's, stakeholders in the company can look forward to more governance and transparency.'
The latest fraud is a failure of management supervision and accountability, as no bad debt was generated and no cash was involved
Shares of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India hit fresh record lows amid sustained decline in Adani Group stocks. Its stock finished at Rs 567.8, down 2.9 per cent over its previous close. The state-owned insurer's market value is now down Rs 2.4 trillion, or 40 per cent, compared to initial public offering levels.
To tackle increasing demand, the Union Ministry of Power has urged central and state public-sector power-generating companies (gencos) and state power and energy departments to pick projects that are undergoing insolvency proceedings. The power ministry is looking at a quicker turnaround of these stressed power plants and enhancing power supply. Increasing demand is pushing states to scout for more power sources. "It is requested that state-owned gencos may be encouraged to participate in the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of stressed power assets, which are of strategic and commercial significance to the capacity addition plans of the states concerned.
It will take over large non-performing assets of banks and help in revive companies ridden with bad debts.
Debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Tuesday approved the allotment of equity shares worth Rs 16,133 crore to the government, which post-allocation has become the largest shareholder with a 33.44 per cent stake in the company. The shares have been allocated to the government in lieu of conversion of interest dues arising from deferment of adjusted gross revenue and spectrum auction payments, the company said in a regulatory filing. "...it is hereby informed that the board of directors of the company has, at its meeting held today approved the allotment of 16,133,198,899 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each at an issue price of Rs 10 per equity share aggregating to Rs 161,331,848,990 to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, Government of India," the filing said.
Moody's Investors Service on Friday affirmed India's rating at the lowest investment grade of 'Baa3', with a stable outlook, saying high growth will support a gradual increase in income levels, but flagged risks of populist policies due to rise in political tensions. Moody's said although India's potential growth has come down in the past 7-10 years, the growth would outpace all other G20 economies through at least the next two years, driven by domestic demand. Moody's said the restoration of robust growth prospects post-pandemic, the effective commitment to inflation targeting and the rehabilitation of the financial system aided by reform supports its view of strengthening monetary and macro policy effectiveness.
The Essar group, Jindal Steel and Power, Monnet Ispat, Bhushan Steel and the Avantha group have been asked to close deals by March-end.
Defence public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been asked by the Centre to hold roadshows in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to share their financials and business plans to reel in investors. Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Bharat Dynamics (BDL), Bharat Electronics (BEL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), and Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MIDHANI) have informed stock exchanges that they will conduct investor outreach programmes and participate in 'non-deal' roadshows and meetings with prospective investors from September 12-15. They will share their short- and medium-term growth plans, financial metrics, improvement in their stock performance/ market capitalisation - and make a pitch of sorts to prospective investors.
Embattled billionaire Gautam Adani on Thursday spoke publicly for the first time since his ports-to-energy conglomerate publicly battled a short seller's accusation of stock manipulation and accounting fraud, saying the abrupt move to withdraw a fully-subscribed share sale at his flagship firm was due to market volatility. His group continued to lose on the stock market, with the cumulative rout now nearing $108 billion in a week -- one of the biggest wipeouts in India's history. "After a fully subscribed follow-on public offering (of Adani Enterprises Ltd), yesterday's decision of its withdrawal would have surprised many.
HDFC Equity, the largest equity fund, also managed by Prashant Jain, with a corpus of Rs 10,445 crore, has 9.4 per cent of its assets in SBI.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is in the process of issuing a standard operating procedure (SOP) for designated depository participants (DDPs) regarding disclosures and onboarding of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), according to a regulatory document seen by Business Standard. DDPs act as a link between the markets regulator and overseas investors. The SOP, framed in consultation with the industry, aims to bring consistency across all players and avoid any form of regulatory arbitrage.
With the stock market entering a bull phase, many believe the Singals can bring in the much-needed equity capital and reduce their debt.
Report points out corporate vulnerability indicators remain elevated.
Analysts were expecting the government to propose higher capital infusion for banks.
Most economists expect the global economy to weaken in the coming year amid political and financial volatility, but a large majority of over 90 per cent are confident of moderate or strong growth in South Asia, notably India, a survey showed on Friday. At the same time, the outlook for China has dimmed following signs of deflationary pressures and fragility in the country's real estate market, the World Economic Forum's latest 'Chief Economists Outlook' report said. As the world grapples with political and financial volatility, almost six in 10 believe the global economic outlook will undermine progress towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with 74 per cent saying geopolitical tensions will have the same effect.
'If some measures are implemented quickly, they can help revive growth.'
The banking sector's credibility is on thin ice. Unless the government takes strict steps, things could get worse.
Investors need to evaluate how they stack up against other high credit quality fixed-income options before putting money in them.
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The NPAs of banks stood at over Rs 3 lakh crore as on December 2014.
Richest Indian Gautam Adani's ports-to-power-to-cement conglomerate is "deeply overleveraged" with the group predominantly using debt to invest aggressively across existing as well as new businesses, CreditSights, a Fitch Group unit, said on Tuesday. In a report titled 'Adani Group: Deeply Overleveraged', CreditSights said, "In the worst-case scenario, overly ambitious debt-funded growth plans could eventually spiral into a massive debt trap, and possibly culminate into a distressed situation or default of one or more group companies." Starting out as a commodities trader in the late 1980s, the Adani group has diversified from mines, ports and power plants into airports, data centers and defence.
Highly-rated finance firms and housing finance companies are expected to benefit from the absence of Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) from the bond market once it merges with the HDFC Bank in early FY24. Post merger, the bond market is expected to become less crowded, which will ease fund raising conditions for other players in the field. It may perhaps also compress the spread for debt instruments floated by housing finance companies (HFCs) over 10-year government bonds, subject to demand and supply conditions.
India Inc is staring at significantly higher compliance and governance costs, following the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) latest tightening of disclosure norms and regulations around the filling of key positions, the materiality of information, and third-party transfers. Recently, the securities market regulator amended the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) to introduce a raft of changes that will affect how listed companies go about transparency and disclosures. The new framework will further empower public shareholders and soon move towards a 'comply or be penalised regime or comply or explain' in the case of high-value debt-listed entities.
Lack of decisiveness and courage to deal with PSBs may turn out be the biggest impediment to the Modi government's economic initiatives, says Debashis Basu.
For the time being, digital lending remains a grey area, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
US-based boutique investment firm GQG Partners along with other investors on Wednesday bought an 8.1 per cent stake in Adani Power Ltd for over Rs 9,000 crore ($1.1 billion) as the marquee investor shrugged off damning report of a US short seller to invest in billionaire Gautam Adani's group.
'They have started becoming an important player, but not at the same level as they were in the earlier part of the decade.'
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Companies are legally allowed to invest in markets in India, but the practice has seldom stirred central bank concern until recently, when they have become much more active players.
The MPC states that the 4 external members will have a tenure of four years each.
The stock market regulator's definition of large, mid, and small-cap companies has irked mutual fund managers, reports Samie Modak.
The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, chaired by Justice B N Srikrishna, has suggested a non-sectoral, principle-based approach to revamp the existing framework.
The value of MF exposure to REITs and InvITs which was at Rs 734 crore at the end of March 2020, rose to Rs 5,200 crore by the end of March 2023.
Mr Adani has a fight on his hands. It is not a fight to the death, asserts T N Ninan.
Gautam Adani was the world's third and Asia's richest man a month back but a damning report by a US firm triggered a massive sell-off in shares of his apples-to-airport group, plunging his own wealth by $80 billion and the tycoon slipping to No.30 on the world billionaire index. Adani's sprawling conglomerate, which spans from sea ports to airports, edible oil and commodities, energy, cement and data centres, is under attack by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, which successfully deflated electric-vehicle maker Nikola Motors in 2020. Hindenburg, which held short positions in unidentified shares of Adani Group firms through its US-traded debt and offshore derivatives, on January 24 accused the conglomerate of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" and using a number of offshore shell companies to inflate stock prices.
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