Shares of Bajaj Finance sprinted 4.7 per cent to Rs 7,732 per share on the BSE in Thursday's (January 4) intra-day trade as the non-bank finance company's (NBFC's) December quarter business update reflected minimal impact of the Reserve Bank of India's ban on two of its lending products. The shares, eventually, ended 4.4 per cent higher at Rs 7,710 per share as against 0.69 per cent gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. The NBFC's asset under management (AUM) topped the Rs 3-trillion-mark at the end of December 2023, swelling by roughly Rs 20,700 crore (35 per cent year-on-year) to hit Rs 3.11 trillion-mark.
Fair-trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Thursday cleared the proposed merger of Credit Suisse Group AG with UBS Group AG. Both Credit Suisse Group AG (Credit Suisse) and UBS Group AG (UBS) are multinational investment banks and financial services companies founded and based in Switzerland.
Base metals major Hindalco's overseas subsidiary, Novelis, has submitted a draft registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the proposed public offering of promoters' shares. Novelis' sole shareholder, AV Minerals (Netherlands) NV, is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Hindalco. Novelis would not receive any proceeds from the sale. Assuming SEC clearance could go through in about 6 months.
The contracts for the procurement of the platforms and weapons systems were signed in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and defence secretary Giridhar Aramane, under whose guidance these deals fructified, an official readout said.
A dozen land parcels in Ranchi measuring about 8.5 acres in total are in 'illegal possession, occupation and use' of arrested former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and are proceeds of crime under the anti-money laundering law, the Enforcement Directorate has claimed.
'The deal pipeline across products is robust for 2024.'
After a sharp rally in the equities market this year, investors could be better off rotating some funds towards the debt market. Experts believe several tailwinds could spur bond market returns over the next 12-18 months. These include India's robust macroeconomics, declining inflation, and the imminent passive flows of close to Rs 2.5 trillion on account of domestic sovereign bonds getting included in the JP Morgan global indices.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in India are expected to stay buoyant, seen over the last three-four years, despite a slowdown in the first seven months of the calendar year. "M&A is a lumpy business activity, and we may suddenly see large deals taking place during the next two quarters of the calendar year. "This would help maintain the streak of strong M&A activity.
The fair market value of an immovable property will be higher from the acquisition cost.
'Byju's financials only reflect the core business. At a group level, they are experiencing substantial losses.'
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday in an effort to secure energy assets, including UK-listed Imperial Energy Plc.
HUL believes that post Covid, the awareness about health and wellbeing and selfcare, has exploded and there is a mindset change from health as absence of disease, to health as a part of lifestyle.
Disney Star India, bought at a valuation of $15 billion, could be on the block for roughly one-third that amount.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
Nikkei 225 index hit the 40,000 mark for the first time ever on Monday, continuing its bull-run that saw the index reclaim its 1989 peak of 34,000 levels in February. as global investors latched on to Japan's biggest companies on improving shareholder returns, the weaker yen and booming corporate profits. Analysts remain bullish on Japan, mostly aided by gains in technology shares. Adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a note by Morgan Stanley, is likely to benefit Japanese companies, which is almost at par with the US-based companies.
The charge sheet has been filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi and the court has listed the matter to be heard on January 16, the sources said.
Steel major Jindal Stainless on Tuesday announced the acquisition of a cold rolling plant in Indonesia for a consideration of $32 million (about Rs 150 crore).
Deal comes within days of Abu Dhabi's TAQA pulling out of agreement.
Axis Bank's results for the fourth quarter of the 2022-23 financial year (Q4FY23) were skewed due to large one-off charges related to its acquisition of Citi's retail business. Axis reported a loss of Rs 5,730 crore on account of exceptional items of Rs 12,350 crore (net of tax) towards Citi's acquisition, policy harmonisation etc. Excluding this one-off, the adjusted net profit or profit after tax (PAT) would be Rs 6,630 crore, up 61 per cent year-on-year (YoY).
Axis Bank has strengthened its positioning -- on both the assets and liability side -- and it may be set to deliver sustained improvement in performance. The valuation gap between Axis Bank (which trades at 1.4x core book value (or BV) and peers like ICICI Bank (valued at 2x BV) is expected to narrow.
Mistry's strategy appears to be the opposite of the group's stance in the heady days of 2007
Twenty-six immovable properties worth Rs 101.45 crore, and bank balance totalling Rs 2.28 crore in 22 accounts have been attached provisionally under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Lucknow zonal office of the agency, they said. The Greater Noida-headquartered Bike Bot taxi service is accused of scamming about Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 crore from 2.25 lakh investors in multiple states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.
The government may exempt investments in asset reconstruction companies from income tax in the forthcoming Budget to boost the bad assets recovery business.
The Bank of Baroda on Thursday expressed its desire to acquire a bank in south or east India and said it was open to reduce the prime lending rate by 0.25-0.50 per cent.
The government is mulling hiving off ONGC Videsh Ltd, India's flagship firm for overseas oil asset acquisition, from Oil and Natural Gas Corp into a separate entity to be owned jointly by public sector oil firms.
Tata Steel, India's largest steelmaker, has consolidated all its overseas assets including Corus under a new holding company, Tata Steel Global, to raise funds for its overseas expansion including future acquisitions.
The Hinduja group is learnt to be looking at alternative means of financing, including private credit, to fund its Rs 9,661 crore all-cash offer to acquire Reliance Capital. The regulator, Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India (Irdai), had earlier rejected the collateral offered by the group to raise funds. The Hinduja group was in talks with Barclays, JPMorgan, Cerberus Capital Management and Apollo Global Management to raise up to $850 million.
The firm bought the 87,444-sq ft feet property -- 22, Hanover Square -- from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (part of Aberdeen Asset Management), which had put the building up for sale in April through consultancy firm H2SO.
10 costliest buys that stirred the cash-rich league.
Byju's plans to raise funds at a lower valuation of $7-8 billion as the embattled edtech major looks to shore up its financials with adequate liquidity, a senior company executive said on Tuesday. Banking on overall "improved performance", Think and Learn, the parent of Byju's, is hopeful of a higher valuation ahead of its rights issue being planned in February to raise funds. Byju's India chief financial officer Nitin Golani said the company is in need of funds and plans to raise it at a lower valuation to make the offer lucrative for investors as well as ensure adequate liquidity support for the edtech firm.
'There is no reason why we should break this business up.'
rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) will answer your personal finance-related questions.
The new land Acquisition Bill has many implications.
This is being done keeping in mind the urgency of these transactions, and it would help the ongoing insolvency cases, including the 12 accounts referred by RBI to banks.
'Just the amount of work which is there just to become more and more successful in banking. For this to happen you need to have leaders who understand technology.'
Vrde currently manages about $14 billion globally, and has invested nearly $500 million in India in the past five years
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 possible acquisition of Holcim India business will be one of the biggest inbound corporate deals in the country. Currently, Walmart Inc.'s $16-billion acquisition of Flipkart Online Services in 2018 remains the biggest acquisition of an Indian asset by any acquirer, followed by BP plc acquisition of 30 per cent stake in Reliance Industries' 23 oil and gas production blocks in 2011 for $7.2 billion. Bloomberg reported late on Wednesday night that Holcim - the world's biggest cement maker - is considering a potential sale of its India business and gauging interest in its controlling stake in Ambuja Cement.
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.
rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) answers your personal finance-related questions.