QBiz: Govt Cuts Market Borrowings; RBI Cracks Whip on Bandhan Bank

Catch the latest business stories of the day here.

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(Photo Courtesy: iStock/Altered by The Quint)

1. Modi Govt Cuts Gross Market Borrowings by Rs 700 Billion for FY19

Armed with augmented resources from small savings, the government will cut gross market borrowings by Rs 700 billion for 2018-19 to finance its fiscal deficit, which is expected to remain within the targeted 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The move, along with measures of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is expected to ease pressure on bond yields and liquidity. For the second half, the government will mop up Rs 2.47 trillion as market borrowings, which will include issuances of inflation-linked bonds. While the target of net market borrowing will be retained, that for buybacks will be reduced.

Also, small savings will give additional resources to the government, after raising interest rates on them.

(Source: Business Standard)

2. KKR, Blackstone Group Weigh $3 Billion Shriram Deal

KKR & Co and Blackstone Group LP are among suitors that have expressed interest in acquiring a stake in Shriram Group, the Indian finance conglomerate backed by billionaire Ajay Piramal, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The two private equity firms have each held preliminary talks in recent months about buying stakes in Chennai-based Shriram Group owned by Piramal Enterprises Ltd., TPG and an employee trust, according to the people.

An investment could total about $3 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

(Source: Livemint)

3. WhatsApp Message Destroys 71% of Indian E-Commerce Firm’s Value

India’s Infibeam Avenues Ltd lost 71 percent of its market value on a single day after a WhatsApp message circulating among traders raised concerns about the online iPhone and iPad retailer’s accounting practices.

Speculation mounted before a shareholder meeting on Saturday after a message attributed to brokerage Equirus Securities Pvt. began to be distributed on WhatsApp, said Bhavin Mehta, an analyst at Dolat Capital Market Ltd. The message was sent a few months ago by an Equirus analyst to some clients and resurfaced on the messaging platform Thursday, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as they aren’t authorized to speak on the issue.

(Source: BloombergQuint)

4. Wipro Vice-President Quits in Second High-Profile Exit in Two Months

Ankur Prakash, Wipro Ltd’s vice-president, manufacturing strategic business unit and Latin America, has resigned, marking the second senior management exit in as many months at the information technology (IT) company. Wipro’s healthcare and life sciences head Jeffrey Heenan Jalil put in his papers last month.

Wipro has entrusted Anand Padmanabhan, president and global head of strategic sales and geographies, with additional responsibility of overseeing the Latin American business. Communications head and president Milan Rao has been asked to oversee manufacturing.

(Source: Livemint)

5. RBI Bars Bandhan Bank From Opening New Branches

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred Bandhan Bank from opening new branches without its approval and ordered the bank to freeze the salary of its chief executive Chandra Shekhar Ghosh over its failure to meet shareholding rules, Bandhan informed the stock exchanges on Friday, 28 September.

“RBI has communicated to us that since the bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of Non Operative Financial Holding Company to 40% as required under the licensing condition, general permission to open new branches stands withdrawn and the bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD and CEO of the bank stands frozen at the existing level, till further notice,” the bank said in a notification to BSE.

(Source: Livemint)

6. Shareholders Reject Neeraj Kanwar’s Re-appointment as Apollo Tyres MD

Minority shareholders rejected the re-appointment of Neeraj Kanwar as the managing director of Apollo Tyres Ltd in a rare rebuff for a promoter in India.

The special resolution to re-appoint Kanwar was defeated in a postal ballot held on 12 Sept, according to the nation’s second-largest tyremaker’s filings to the exchanges. That’s because more than half of the public institutions that voted were against it even as promoters and non-institutions supported the move.

As a result, 72.71 percent of the votes polled were in favour of the special resolution, falling short of the mandatory 75 percent. The reason that institutions didn’t fully back the re-appointment was higher pay to Kanwar, one such investor told BloombergQuint requesting anonymity. Kanwar is currently also the vice-chairman of the company.

(Source: BloombergQuint)

7. Google CEO Sundar Pichai Will Testify Before US House on Bias Accusations

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has agreed to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee later this year over Republican concerns that the company is biased against conservatives and will also attend a meeting with President Donald Trump, government officials said Friday, 28 September.

Republicans want to question Google, the search engine of Alphabet Inc, about whether its search algorithms are influenced by human bias. They also want to probe it on issues such as privacy, classification of news and opinion and dealing with countries with human rights violations.

(Source: Financial Express)

8. Tata's Indian Hotels Outbids ITC, Retains Taj Mansingh for Another 33 Years

Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) will retain the capital’s iconic luxury hotel Taj Mahal (popularly known as Taj Mansingh after the road on which it is located) for another thirty-three years. The Tata Group company, which operates a chain of luxury hotels under the Taj brand, emerged winner in an e-auction conducted by NDMC, the city’s civic body. IHCL outbid ITC, the only other bidder for the hotel on Friday, 28 September.

Even though the result of the auction was declared after close of trading hours, the stock price of IHCL seems to have factored in a win. The share price surged more than seven per cent in intra-day trade at the BSE and closed at Rs 135.45, up more than five per cent. Shares of other listed hotel companies like EIH and Lemon Tree closed in the red. The hotel is one of the key assets of IHCL and it brought revenues of Rs 2.2 billion in FY17.

(Source: Business Standard)

9. GST Mop-Up: 25 States in the Red, but National Shortfall Comes Down

Twenty-five States and Union Territories have reported a shortfall in GST collections during the first five months of this fiscal despite the national average shortfall narrowing down to 13 percent from 16 percent in July 2017-March 2018.

Leading the ranks in shortfall in GST collections is Puducherry with 42 percent. Reporting surpluses are Andhra Pradesh and the five North-Eastern States.

The GST Council reviewed the revenue position during its 30th meeting here on Friday. The shortfall is calculated on the basis of a projected growth rate of 14 percent.

States are compensated fully for the shortfall through a compensation cess that a Constitutional Amendment has assured for five years.

(Source: Business Line)