The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the CBI on a bail plea filed by former DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan in an alleged Rs 34,926 crore bank fraud case. A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi issued notice to the agency and sought its response.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has barred Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd's (DHFL) former promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan for five years from the securities market for alleged diversion of funds. They have also been barred from holding any key position in a listed company.
Wadhawan Holdings (WHPL), promoters of Spinach retail chain, is entering lifestyle retailing with the launch of global brands such as Ed Hardy, Christian Audigier and Kitson. The company has floated a subsidiary, Wadhawan Lifestyle Retail (WLRPL), which will invest nearly Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) to open around 100 outlets in the next seven years.
The two signed the deal almost six years after a business restructuring announced by them.
When French Retailer Carrefour enters the Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) cash and carry segment in 2009, it would face tough competition from established players such as Germany's Metro, Bharti-Wal Mart, Reliance, Pantaloon, Wadhawan Retail and others entrants like Tesco and Costco.
While some like RPG's Spencer's and Wadhawan group's Spinach say it will encourage them to invest more in cold chains, others such as Aditya Birla Retail and Future Group said the announcement has come too late and helps fresh produce and chilled product suppliers more than retailers.
Indian retailers put cash & carry on backburner
The CBI has been carrying out searches at various locations for the past few days to locate assets acquired from the proceeds of the scam, officials said.
To cut its debt, promoter Kapil Wadhawan and promoter group Wadhawan Global Capitalhave resorted to measures such as sale of assets of group companies as well as securitisation of retail assets of DHFL to bring in liquidity.
The ED, which is probing the DHFL promoters' role in financing funds to gangster Iqbal Memon (alias Iqbal Mirchi), said Kapil Wadhawan, former chairman and managing director of the debt-laden company, played a very crucial role in these "nefarious transactions" by way of money laundering.
The coins can have the face and names of the owner embossed on them.
Move raises doubts about the viability of the business model in organised retail.
When the third round of bids was opened, Oaktree's offer was the highest, but with several riders. While Piramal offered higher upfront cash and offered to merge its financial business with DHFL, Adani was ranked third in the race, reports Dev Chatterjee.
This pertains to certain irregularities in loan disbursements towards the development of two Slum Rehabilitation Authority projects undertaken by the company in the past.
The Reserve Bank has revoked the deposit-taking status of Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL), the first financial services firm to go for bankruptcy proceedings, and has reclassified it as a non-deposit taking housing finance company, before approving the Piramal group's bid to take over it towards the end of the resolution process. The revelation comes in the June 7 NCLT Mumbai order that has approved the Rs 35,250-crore bid for the once second largest mortage lender by Piramal Capital & Housing Finance, forcing over 65 per cent haircut on the creditors and just Re 1 to its NCD holders to whom it owes more than Rs 45,000-crore. On the 14th page of the 86-page NCLT order by HP Chaturvedi and Ravikumar Duraisamy, it says DHFL no longer is a deposit taking NBFC but a non-deposit taking one.
The stakeholders want protection from any litigation which might arise due to fresh claims against the company, especially after PE funds have bought stake in the company and the resolution plan has been cleared by the bankers.
The BSE Realty Index is on a downhill journey.
'MFs acted as reckless lenders and not as prudent investors.' 'Clearly, how debt funds are being run is a systemic issue,' warns Debashis Basu.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India does not seem to have understood the enormity of what funds have been up to. If Sebi does not crack down on mutual funds using cooked-up credit ratings to hide behind promoter funding, this is bound to grow into a systemic menace, says Debashis Basu.But MFs decided to become lenders without the legal backing to secure themselves, or the skillset to assess lending risk. If Sebi does not crack down on mutual funds using cooked-up credit ratings to hide behind promoter funding, this is bound to grow into a systemic menace, says Debashis Basu.
Rajan's deputy Khan cautions against early celebration of falling inflation, unhedged forex exposure.