Taking a cue from Zomato's stellar initial public offering (IPO), through which it garnered a valuation of Rs 1 trillion, the government has asked its advisors and valuers to ascertain if the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) should be valued at Rs 10 trillion or more. The government is looking to offload about 10 per cent stake in LIC through the IPO. At that valuation, the government stands to net at least Rs 1 trillion from LIC's proposed IPO, which will boost the Centre's efforts to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 trillion for the current financial year.
The government is working towards further review and simplification of the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to facilitate the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Anurag Jain said on Thursday. The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet. The industry department is working together with the finance ministry's department of financial services (DFS) and department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) towards a successful listing of the life insurer on the domestic bourses, which is expected to be the largest in India.
Sebi's stewardship code for mutual funds and alternative investment funds lays down six principles to improve corporate governance standards in their investee companies, reports Jash Kriplani.
Among the major projects affected are the proposed steel plants of Videocon, Bhushan Steel and the Abhijit group. Neeraj Singhal, managging director of Bhushan Steel, said it would be difficult to acquire land wihtout government support. The decisin would also impact a host of projects lined up by New Kolkata International Development, a special purpose vehicle promoted by the Salim Group of Indonesia and the Universal Success group.
India may adopt norms similar to the US Federal Reserve model, which regulates conglomerate-led banks in the country.
The market price action seems to point in this direction. Let's hope we finally break out. It is about time! asserts Akash Prakash.
Aditya Birla Nuvo is in talks with global private equity players Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR to sell shareholding in its proposed holding firm for its financial services business. The financial services holding company will house its asset management, insurance, stock broking, wealth management and private equity businesses.
As the FM said, this is a Budget that lays the foundation for the next 25 years, observes Kumar Mangalam Birla.
In 2020-21, Indian firms offered to buy back shares worth Rs 39,295 crore, or 97% more than Rs 19,972 cr proposed in the previous financial year.
The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to provide Rs 30,600 crore government guarantee for security receipts issued by the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) as part of resolution of bad loans, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. The proposed bad bank or NARCL will pay up to 15 per cent of the agreed value for the loans in cash and the remaining 85 per cent would be government-guaranteed security receipts. The government guarantee would be invoked if there is loss against the threshold value.
With a budget of Rs 60 crore, Business Blasters, which is part of the Delhi government's Entrepreneurship Mindset curriculum, aims to nurture entrepreneurial skills among students, including taking calculated risks and bouncing back from failure.
The group, headed by former RBI deputy governor H R Khan, has also pitched for liberalised investment cap, review of prohibited sectors for foreign investment for FPIs, permitting FPIs for off-market transactions and review of restriction on sovereign wealth funds for investment in corporate debt securities.
Sebi has amended rules pertaining to delisting of equity shares of a company following an open offer as part of efforts to make merger and acquisition transactions for listed companies more convenient. Under the new framework, promoters or acquirers need to disclose their intention to delist the firm through an initial public announcement, according to a notification. If the acquirer is desirous of delisting the target company, the acquirer must propose a higher price for delisting with suitable premium over open offer price. In case the open offer is for an indirect acquisition, the open offer price and indicative price will be notified by the acquirer at the time of making the detailed public statement and in the letter of offer.
All banks are eligible for privatisation. A committee of secretaries will decide which banks will be privatised, says Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Friday said it has signed an agreement to buy Vodafone's 4.7 per cent stake in Indus Towers on the condition that the proceeds will be used for investment in Vodafone Idea and clearing its dues towards the mobile tower company. Debt-ridden Vodafone Idea (VIL) has been unable to pay dues to Indus Towers and both VIL and promoter Vodafone have proposed a payment plan to clear the outstanding amount by July 15. In the meantime, VIL has committed to pay certain minimum amount each month to Indus Towers.
Two associations representing pilots and engineers have written to SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar proposing that they would take over the airline and can bring in up to Rs 7,000 crore.
Posting photos on Twitter, Piyush Goyal wrote, "Envisaging an enriched passenger experience with complete integration of different modes of transport, take a look at the future of New Delhi Railway Station."
Sebi on Friday imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh on Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (AMC) and barred the fund house from launching new fixed maturity plan (FMP) scheme for six months for violating regulatory norms. The markets regulator has directed the fund house to refund a part of the investment management and advisory fees collected from the unitholders of the six FMP schemes along with a simple interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum. The case relates to the fund house's investment in certain FMPs. These FMPs of Kotak AMC had invested in Zero Coupon Non-Convertible Debentures (ZCNCDs) issued by Essel Group entities.
The broader NSE Nifty sank 177.65 points or 1.53 per cent to 11,419.25.
The finance minister may stagger some of the recommendations.
'On an average we have been getting four to five such proposals a month, but we aren't pursuing them as they don't tick the boxes.'
The government expects to realise Rs 35,100 crore from the partial sale of Bharatnet fibre assets and around 13,500 mobile towers owned by state-run telecom firms as part of its national monetisation pipeline released on Monday. Government think tank Niti Aayog has valued over 2.86 lakh kilometre of optical fibre assets laid by BBNL and BSNL under rural broadband project Bharatnet at Rs 26,300 crore, according to the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) document. According to the document, BSNL's 13,567 mobile tower assets and MTNL's 1,350 towers have been valued at Rs 8,800 crore.
However, a net amount of Rs 11,119 crore was withdrawn from the debt segment during the same period. This translated into a net investment of Rs 1,003 crore.
A social stock exchange, broadly, is understood to be a platform that allows investors to buy shares, bonds or units in a social enterprise that has been vetted by the exchange. These allow firms operating in sectors such as health, environment and transportation to raise risk capital.
The Centre has conceded most of the demands of potential buyers of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL). These include lowering the lock-in period for sale of assets to one year and allowing the new buyer to undertake the amalgamation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) into NINL. An inter-ministerial group led by Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey and the core group of secretaries on divestment (CGD) headed by Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba have decided that the lock-in period can be reduced to one year from the date of completion of sale, from the earlier three years proposed by Dipam, an official in the know said.
The final policy may be out only after formation of the new government, according to sources
Smaller Singapore- and US-based venture capital funds, retail associations and trader bodies such as the CAIT and SJM are all planning to approach the government to put pressure on the commerce ministry.
Asian Paints was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, spurting over 4 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank and Maruti. On the other hand, Titan, HCL Tech, Infosys, Sun Pharma and M&M were among the laggards.
The government is considering a provision to provide an exit window to holders of cryptocurrencies (cryptos), keeping in mind that banning them outright could deal a blow to investors sitting on them for years. According to sources in the government, the framework in the making may propose a grace period of three to six months for investors before prohibiting the possession, trading, mining, and issuing of cryptos. A group of secretaries chaired by the Cabinet secretary is learnt to have met in mid-March and discussed issues associated with cryptos, including the consequences of banning them and also on possible substitutes of blockchain technology - an advanced technology Bitcoin uses.
The assets in control of MFs soared to a record high of Rs 17.9 lakh crore last month
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.
With the O2C business outlook on the mend, the Street is also looking forward to news on RIL's proposal to sell up to 20 per cent of the O2C business to a strategic investor like Saudi Aramco.
Public shareholders of Cairn India will lose out on a whopping Rs 3,570 crore (Rs 35.7 billion) to the promoters who would be only beneficiary of a non-compete fees to be paid by its suitor, London-listed Vedanta group.
The government is considering blocking internet protocol (IP) addresses of companies/exchanges on which trading in cryptocurrencies is happening, said a source in the know. Two months ago, the government had said it intended to bring a Bill to ban private cryptocurrencies and introduce India's own digital currency in line with what China and other countries had done. This move is part of that. The government had also proposed to promote technology like blockchain. Industry, however, says banning decentralised currencies like bitcoin and ethereum is not possible.
Its obsession for growth, chasing corporate clients and giving up its original mandate of meeting the needs of local trade and businesses. A quarter of its loan book has gone bad. That's an error of business strategy, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
China, the Ukraine crisis and Quad will dominate the discussions, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
In a significant development, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday suspended its more than two-year-old approval for Amazon's deal to acquire stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd and also imposed a Rs 202 crore penalty on the e-commerce major for certain contraventions. This comes amid a bitter legal battle between Amazon and Future Group over the latter's proposed Rs 24,713 crore-deal with Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL). Against this backdrop, Future Group had complained to the CCI.
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.
After missing two self-imposed deadlines, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday announced recalibration of a proposed $15 billion deal to sell 20 per cent stake in its oil refinery and petrochemical business to Saudi Aramco, saying the two firms have agreed to re-evaluate the proposed investment in light of the Indian firm's new energy forays. The stake sale talks, which were first officially revealed in August 2019, are being reset in light of Reliance making forays into new energy business in recent months by investing $10 billion in alternative energy over three years. To pivot to green energy, it has already bought a German maker of photovoltaic solar wafers and signed a deal with a Danish company to manufacture hydrogen electrolysers in India.
No longer Bengal's finance minister, Amit Mitra, Mamata's principal chief advisor, will still advise and aid the 'chief minister and finance department on all matters relating to management of state finance', represent the 'state government in national and international events/meetings/committees' and examine 'important proposals/files and policy issues relating to financial matters referred to him for advice/views'.
