rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) will answer your personal finance-related questions.
The board of Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Tuesday approved a proposal to issue shares worth Rs 12,841 crore to parent company Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) for acquiring Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG). The Gujarat manufacturing plant - with an annual capacity of 750,000 units - is owned by SMG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMC. The shares issued to SMC will raise its ownership in MSIL from 56.48 per cent to 58.19 per cent--India's largest carmaker stated in a notice to BSE.
The story of Sahara India Pariwar founder Subrata Roy, who died in Mumbai on November 14 aged 75, is the stuff of movies - of a spectacular rise and an equally spectacular fall. Born in Araria, Bihar, Roy was 30 when he set up Sahara in 1978. He started with a capital of about Rs 2,000, a peon, a clerk and his father's Lambretta scooter in Gorakhpur, eastern Uttar Pradesh, writes Tamal Bandyopadhyay in his 2014 book, Sahara: The Untold Story. Sahara was not his first venture.
While Emami is still struggling to push growth, given weak rural demand, the sale of the group's stake in AMRI Hospitals should ease investor concerns about stake pledges by promoters. It has also carried a series of stake acquisitions which should enable the expansion of its brand portfolio. The Q2 results are likely to see flat volumes and low revenue growth alongside some gross margin expansion.
It was August 2007. Tata Steel was turning 100. Jamshedpur, its hometown, had an air of celebration. The line-up for the special event included the launch of Air Deccan's commercial flight connecting Kolkata and Jamshedpur, and release of Russi Lala's new book, Romance of Tata Steel. There was also the screening of The Spirit of Steel, a 20-minute documentary directed by Zafar Hai showcasing Tata Steel's legacy, and a corporate anthem penned by Javed Akhtar and composed by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) has ambitious plans to increase capacity. It is also seeking shareholders' approval for a complex swap transaction, which would acquire Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) through a preferential offer. SMC already holds 56.37 per cent of MSIL's equity.
Reliance General Insurance Company (RGIC), a subsidiary of Reliance Capital, finds itself in a bind as the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has issued multiple Show Cause Notices (SCNs) amounting to Rs 922.6 crore. This development comes at a time when Reliance Capital is currently undergoing a debt resolution under the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) process in which the Hinduja group has emerged the winner. The Hinduja acquisition is currently awaiting the Supreme Court's approval after the Torrent group, the winner of the first round, challenged the second auction conducted by the lenders of Reliance Capital.
As many as 267 of 453 companies from the BSE500 index are trading above their consensus price targets, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. Not all companies in the BSE500 index are tracked by analysts.
Of the 156 choppers, 66 would be inducted by the Indian Air Force while the rest 90 would be acquired by the Indian Army.
Air India on Friday said it has completed the acquisition of its first A350-900 aircraft by way of a finance lease transaction with HSBC through the GIFT City. This is also the first wide body aircraft to be leased through the GIFT City, the country's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). In a release, the airline said the transaction was facilitated by its wholly-owned subsidiary AI Fleet Services Ltd (AIFS) and is also the first financing transaction from the orders for 470 aircraft that were made earlier this year.
It is when one looks away from the immediate song and dance and at the granular detail of what has been going on since 2014 that one realises what the quality and competence of thinking and execution is in this project we call New India, asserts Aakar Patel.
Tata Steel UK is reformatting its operations in Port Talbot by investing 1.25 billion in an electric arc furnace facility with the UK government contributing 500 million. The project will take around three years to complete, if all the regulatory clearances come through. The facility will use scrap and be classified as green since it will utilise renewable power and cut carbon emissions considerably.
Entities belonging to the Burman family, the promoter of Dabur India, on Monday announced a Rs 2,116 crore open offer to shareholders of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) to acquire up to an additional 26 per cent stake in the company as part of its strategy to enter the financial services space. Post the open offer, the family's stake in the financial services firm is expected to increase to 51 per cent. The open offer is made to increase the family's stake and take control of REL and this will mark the entry of Burmans into the financial services space.
Nirma has roped in BCG and KPMG to advise it on the fundraising options for the acquisition. The company had earlier informed banks that it would raise Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore in the current financial year for the acquisition. Bankers said the company will rely on its funds and future GLS dividend to repay its debt for acquisition.
'To sustain our growth trajectory, we must continue to explore and capitalise on growth opportunities.'
The launch of 5G services in India turbocharged mobile download speeds here, pushing the country's ranking 72 notches higher to 47th spot in Speedtest Global Index, ahead of nations like Japan, the UK and Brazil, according to Ookla. India's speed performance has zoomed up 3.59 times since the introduction of 5G, it said dubbing the country's 5G advancement as "remarkable". In this global pecking order, India ranked not only ahead of its neighbours like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, but also some G20 countries, such as Mexico (90th), Turkey (68th), the UK (62nd), Japan (58th), Brazil (50th place), and South Africa (48th place).
Excerpted from Sahara: The Untold Story by Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The sector may be overcrowded with a fair number of large players and the entry of the Adani Group through its two key acquisitions, followed by the takeover of majority stake in Sanghi Industries via Ambuja Cements. Since every major player is in expansion mode, there could be a capacity surplus and hence, price wars.
The value of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in India has plummeted by 69.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in the first nine months of 2023 to $50.8 billion (until September 25). This decline could be attributed to bearish investor sentiment amid rising global interest rates and geopolitical volatility. The value of M&A deals thus far in CY23 is the lowest in the past eight years, according to data from Bloomberg.
JSW Steel's plans to acquire the coal company owned by Teck Resources, a Canada-based company, at a total valuation of $8 billion have stalled as diplomatic relations between the two countries have deteriorated in the past few days. The group firm was in talks with European and Japanese banks to raise funds for the acquisition, but the diplomatic standoff has come as a dampener, according to bankers close to the transaction.
'AI is not a new thing for us. We started our AI journey in 2015.'
Electric vehicle (EV) sales in India topped the 1 million mark in less than nine months in 2023, a milestone that took an entire year in 2022. According to data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' Vahan Dashboard, 1,037,011 EVs were registered with regional transport offices till September 19, accounting for 6.4 per cent of the total automobile sales in the country this year. The sales surge can be attributed to increased individual purchases as well as business-to-business (B2B) acquisitions by EV fleet operators, industry sources said.
IndiGo's size should be compared with global carriers, and not other domestic airlines, chief executive officer Pieter Elbers said on Tuesday, adding that such benchmarking will help India transform its airports into aviation hubs. Elbers flagged the tendency to scrutinise domestic competition, assess fares on domestic routes, and determine if they are high. "But if we want to build some hubs, we should have a broader look," he said during a panel discussion at a convention organised by All India Management Association (AIMA).
'This segment has performed very well for us and this is reflected in our bounce rate which is about three to four per cent.'
French energy giant TotalEnergies SE's $300 million investment in clean energy projects of Adani Green Energy Ltd has taken the total investments poured in by global investors in India's largest renewable power producer to $1.63 billion or about Rs 14,000 crore, sources close to the company said. Last week, Total announced it will hold a 50 per cent stake in the new joint venture firm where Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) will hold the rest. The joint venture will hold a portfolio of 1,050 MW, including 300 MW of already operational capacity, 500 MW under construction and 250 MW under-development assets with a blend of solar and wind power.
A total of nine procurement proposals were approved by the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, officials said.
From those highs, the Bengaluru-headquartered company founded in 2011 is now looking to sell two companies it lists as "well-known acquisitions" on its website - Epic and Great Learning. But strategic buys have been critical to its quick expansion. The company got a valuation of about $8 billion by January 2020 after becoming a unicorn in late 2017.
'Our armed forces are prepared for any eventuality, and God forbid if the balloon goes up, people will get a bloody nose from us'
The bench said most of the allegations in the corruption case registered by the CBI against Sisodia were "hearsay", based on the statements made by approvers and would not pass scrutiny before the trial court without any concrete material.
Emphasising the importance of sustaining food and energy security, the G20 leaders called for the "cessation of military destruction or other attacks on relevant infrastructure".
The International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) plans to operationalise the framework for direct listing of companies at International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) exchanges by the end of the year, said Chairperson K Rajaraman. He added that the amendments would be notified within three months. Further, the GIFT City regulator is also considering the launch of separate payments system regulations - similar to that of the real time gross settlement (RTGS) for banking within a few months.
The Competition Commission of India has introduced draft regulations for combinations or mergers, under the new competition Act, to bring global deals in the digital space, including those involving Big Tech companies, under its scanner. The draft regulations would provide guidance on the valuation of merger transactions and the criteria for assessing sustainable operations in India for companies. The proposed rules mention that if the number of users and subscribers, or the turnover or gross merchandise value in India is over 10 per cent of the global figure, the company would be considered to have substantial business operation in India and would need CCI approval for the merger.
The proposal to merge the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) units of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE has reached an advanced stage, and both bourses could file an application before the National Company Law Tribunal as early as this month, according to a top regulatory official. Sources indicate that the merger proposal has received approval from their respective boards. Both the NSE and BSE are arch rivals when it comes to onshore trading.
The board of Nazara Technologies, a listed online gaming company, has approved the issue of shares worth Rs 100 crore to firms managed by Zerodha founders Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday. The company is proposing to issue 1,400,560 equity shares at a face value of Rs 4 each, for Rs 714 per equity share. This will amount to Rs 99,99,99,840 and will be proportionately allotted to M/s Kamath Associates and M/s NKSquared.
India's third-largest pharmaceutical company by revenue, Cipla, is up for grabs in a three-way fight between Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) and private equity (PE) giant Blackstone. Analysts say it is more likely for a strategic investor like Torrent or DRL to acquire Cipla than a PE firm, which may not derive healthy returns at Cipla's current market price (CMP) after the recent gains.
At a media briefing, French President Emmanuel Macron said the G20 leaders' declaration "confirms" Russia's isolation for its attack on Ukraine and that the bloc is committed to "just and lasting" peace in the war-torn country.
Billionaire Gautam Adani-led promoter group has increased stake in two of the group's listed companies, as the ports-to-energy conglomerate continues to work on a claw back strategy after being hit by damaging reports. The promoter group has increased stake in flagship Adani Enterprises to 71.93 per cent from 69.87 per cent, according to stock exchange filings. This is the second time in less than a month that the promoters have raised stake in the flagship firm that incubates new businesses.
'Adani can attract vessels at a much lower cost to Vizhinjam as he has the financial muscle to do so.'
French banking major BNP Paribas is planning to sell its domestic retail broking unit, Sharekhan, according to news reports on Tuesday. The reports even named leading financial institutions as possible suitors. "We would not be able to comment on the mentioned queries at this time," said a company spokesperson in response to a query from Business Standard seeking clarification on the news item.
The promoter entities of JSW Group are in talks with several electric-car manufacturers in China to launch an electric car for the Indian market at Rs 15-20 lakh, a source close to the development said.