General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - November 2015

Nov 2015

Apr 14, 2021

CCI Approves APSEZ Acquisition in Gangavaram Port

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved acquisition of 89.6 per cent of equity shareholding in Gangavaram Port Ltd (GPL) by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd (APSEZ) under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act 2002.
APSEZ is an integrated port infrastructure services provider currently present across 11 domestic ports in six maritime states of Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha.
GPL is engaged to own, develop and operate the deep-water port at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh pursuant to a concession agreement on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer basis with the government of Andhra Pradesh for a concession period of 30 years from the date of commercial operations and entitled for a further period of 20 years (two periods of 10 years each).

Punjab National Bank Launches Digital Initiative PNB@Ease

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) launched a digitial initiative PNB@Ease under which every transaction undertaken by a bank branch will be initiated and authorised by customers themselves. The service can range from savings accounts opening to availing various loans and more, without visiting a branch or help from the bank employees.

NCDC Secures Loan from Deutsche Bank

The National Cooperative Development Corporation, NCDC secured Rs. 600 crore loan from Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, for onward lending to cooperatives in the country. An agreement in this regard was inked between NCDC and the German Bank in presence of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi. The Minister also presided over signing of an agreement between the Indian Chamber of Commerce and NCDC to boost farmers linkages with markets.
This is for the first time that one of the largest European banks in the world is lending to the NCDC, thus reflecting the confidence of the global financial institution in the Indian development finance institution, particularly at a time when global economic turmoil created by the Covid-19 crisis has made lending a challenging proposition.

Pine Labs Enters Consumer Payments with Acquisition of Fave

Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs acquired Southeast Asian fintech platform Fave in a transaction valued at $45 million. "The acquisition will help both companies accelerate their growth in the Asia region and unlock massive consumer opportunities across retail, F&B, fashion, and FMCG markets. Joining forces with Pine Labs will reinforce Fave's market position in Southeast Asia.
Fave's founders will have their roles expanded to lead the overall consumer platform for the group across Asia. Fave will also be hiring over 100 new employees in Southeast Asia (SEA) and India to accelerate cashless payments and smart savings across the region. The firm claims to have enabled 6 million consumers in SEA to save over $400 million across 40,000 retailers since 2016.
According to Pine Labs, the introduction of the Fave app in the country comes at a time when UPI has grown to 2.7 billion transactions. Pine Pabs claims to have recorded a growth of 171% in UPI transactions over the last two quarters.

Apr 13, 2021

Airtel Payments Bank Launches Rewards123 Savings Account

Airtel Payments Bank announced a new type of savings bank account on its platform. The newly introduced bank account is called Rewards123. The company claims that its newly introduced saving account is designed to offer consistent value, with assured rewards on different types of digital transactions throughout the year.
The Rewards123 savings bank account gives multiple benefits to users with annual earnings of up to Rs. 960. In addition to that, users will get 1% cashback when they load Rs. 1,000 through UPI in their account. Users will get a maximum of Rs. 10 per month as a part of this benefit.
Users can open or upgrade to Rewards123 savings account using the company's Airtel Thanks app. Users will have to do a Video KYC to upgrade their Airtel Payments Bank accounts.

India's First Floating LNG Storage and Regasification Unit

India's first Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) arrived at H-Energy's Jaigarh Terminal in Maharashtra, which sailed from Keppel Shipyard, Singapore.
This will also be the first year-round Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Maharashtra, the statement added. The LNG terminal is located at JSW Jaigarh Port in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, on the west coast of India. The port is the first deep water, 24x7 operational private port in Maharashtra.
The 2017-built Höegh Giant has storage capacity of 170,000 cubic metres and installed regasification capacity of 750 million cubic feet per day (equivalent to about six million tonnes a year). H-Energy has chartered the FSRU for a 10 year period.
Höegh Giant will deliver regasified LNG to the 56-km long Jaigarh-Dabhol natural gas pipeline, connecting the LNG terminal to the national gas grid. The facility will also deliver LNG through truck loading facilities for onshore distribution, the facility is also capable to reload LNG onto small-scale LNG vessels for bunkering service.

Flipkart Inks Pact with Adani Group

Flipkart entered into a commercial partnership with the Adani Group to strengthen logistics and data centre capabilities of the Walmart-owned company and create about 2,500 direct jobs.
In this two-pronged partnership, Flipkart will work with Adani Logistics Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, to strengthen its supply chain infrastructure and further enhance its ability to serve its rapidly growing base of customers.
In addition, Flipkart will set up its third data centre at Adaniconnex's Chennai-based facility, leveraging the latter's expertise and industry-leading data centre technology solutions.
Adaniconnex is a new joint venture formed between EdgeConneX and Adani Enterprises Ltd.
As part of this partnership, Adani Logistics Ltd will construct a 5.34 lakh sq ft fulfilment centre (warehouse) in its upcoming logistics hub in Mumbai that will be leased to Flipkart to address the growing demand for e-commerce in western India and support market access of several thousands of sellers and MSMEs in the region.

SEBI Fines Yes Bank in AT-1 Bonds Case

Markets regulator SEBI imposed a penalty of Rs. 25 crore on Yes Bank in the matter of misselling the lender's AT-1 bonds few years ago.
Besides, the watchdog has imposed a fine of Rs. 1 crore on Vivek Kanwar, who was the Managing Director of Yes Bank, Rs. 50 lakh each on Ashish Nasa and Jasjit Singh Banga, who were part of the bank's private wealth management team at the time of violation.
As per SEBI order, they need to pay the penalty within 45 days.
Yes Bank and certain officialsdevised the "devious scheme to dump the AT-1 (Additional Tier-1) bonds on their hapless customers", the regulator noted.

Coforge Acquires BPM Firm SLK Global

Mid-sized technology services firm Coforge Limited acquired SLK Global Solutions Private Limited for Rs. 918.3 crore. The acquisition is expected to expand Coforge's BPM operations, strengthen its financial services business, and increase presence in North America.
SLK Global is a business process transformation enterprise offering business process management and digital solutions for the financial services industry. The firm has deep domain expertise in the banking and insurance businesses in North America.
Coforge, earlier known as NIIT Technologies, said it would initially acquire 60 per cent stake in SLK Global, whose founders will completely exit. Fifth Third Bank, the largest customer of SLK global and a significant minority shareholder, will have its stake in the company reduced to 40 per cent and will continue at that level for the next two years. Coforge will acquire an additional 20 per cent stake from Fifth Third Bank after the completion of 2 years.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan Launch Construction of Trans-border Trade Center

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have launched the construction of an international center for trade and economic cooperation named 'Central Asia' on the borders of the two countries. Uzbekistan Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov and his Kazkazhstan counterpart Askar Mamim, laid a capsule at the construction site of the logistic centre, which is located in the vicinity of the border check post Gisht Kuprik.
The center, which occupies 400 hectares of land, will have a capacity of accommodating 35,000 people and 5,000 trucks per day in both directions. The center is intended to become a large industrial, trade and logistics platform for the implementation of joint investment projects of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the news release said. It added that the most promising areas of industrial cooperation are the manufacturing sector, agro-industrial complex and light industry. Kazakhstan is Uzbekistan's third largest trade partner after China and Russia.

OneWeb to Provide Satellite Internet in Kazakhstan

Bharti Group-backed internet provider OneWeb signed a formal agreement with the Kazakhstan government and local firms to provide satellite internet services in the country.
The formal agreement covers several areas of cooperation that include the use of OneWeb's low latency, high throughput satellite connectivity platform to provide broadband to remote and hard-to-reach rural communities, building a ground station to provide connectivity to Central Asian countries and localisation of the supply chain for the firm's low-Earth orbit satellites.
OneWeb has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with subsidiaries of the Kazakhstan government's Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry: national satellite operator Republican Centre of Space Communications JSC, National Company Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary and Ghalam LLP, a spacecraft component supplier.

Apr 12, 2021

Morgan Stanley India Infra Invests in iBus

Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure acquired a stake in iBus Networks for $21 million (around Rs. 150 crore).
iBus offers in-building wireless solutions, outdoor small cells and other last-mile connectivity solutions to mobile operators to enable them to serve their customers seamlessly. With Covid forcing professionals and companies to adopt to WFH, the demand for robust in-building connectivity has increased manifold. The need for low latency, high-speed internet is being demanded be it for running schools and colleges online or WFH, e-comm, online transactions and remote health monitoring has never been felt so urgently before.
iBus, through its coverage of 277 million sq ft across top 10 cities, serves approx four million customers. The company currently deploys its infrastructure across 233 commercial, residential and retail sites across the country.

L&T's Arm Bags Order to Set up Solar Power project in Saudi Arabia

The renewable arm of Larsen & Toubro's Power Transmission & Distribution Business has bagged an order to set up Sudair solar power project of 1.5 GW in Riyadh province of Saudi Arabia.
The EPC (engineering procurement construction) contract, was awarded by the consortium of ACWA Power and the Water and Electricity Holding Company, a subsidiary of the Public Investments Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).
L&T has been a provider of EPC services for several green projects in recent years. The L&T has over 2.1 GW of Utility Scale Solar projects commissioned and are also operating and maintaining several of them.

Saudi Aramco Agrees $12.4 Billion Deal

Saudi oil producer Aramco has agreed a $12.4 billion deal to sell a 49% stake in its pipelines to a consortium led by U.S.-based EIG Global Energy Partners.
It is the company's largest deal since its record $29.4 billion initial public offering in late 2019.
The lease and leaseback agreement includes a 49% stake of newly formed Aramco Oil Pipelines Co and rights to 25 years of tariff payments for oil carried on Aramco's pipelines, it said in a statement.
Aramco will retain a 51% stake in the new company.

Apr 11, 2021

Infosys and ArcelorMittal Announce Strategic Tie-up

IT major Infosys announced a strategic long-term partnership with ArcelorMittal to help accelerate the company's digital transformation journey and enable next-generation application management and business process management (BPM) services for ArcelorMittal Europe.
Through this engagement, Infosys will work with ArcelorMittal Europe, share best practices around next-generation application management services to optimise, stabilise, and transform ArcelorMittal's IT landscape.
Infosys will also establish a robust, state-of-the-art Business Process Management (BPM) service in ArcelorMittal Europe's Business Center of Excellence (BCoE) shared services center.
The collaboration will further strengthen Infosys' presence in Europe and will enable it to maximise synergies across the ArcelorMittal Group worldwide.

ADB Approved 484 Million USD for CKIC Project

The Asian Development Bank approved 484 million USD for CKIC (Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor) in Tamil Nadu.
The project will upgrade 590 km of state highways in the CKIC influence areas.
The Climate Change adaptation measures are to be incorporated in the highway upgrades. This includes improved drainage, resizing of bridges and culverts, raised road embankments in critical sections.
The project is to strengthen road safety programmes through advanced technologies for road monitoring.
CKIC is a part of East Coast Economic Corridor.
The main objective of CKIC is to increase the participation of manufacturing industry in production networks and create jobs along the corridor.

NBCC, Suraksha Group Submit Revised Bids to Acquire Jaypee Infratech

State-owned NBCC and Mumbai-based Suraksha group have submitted revised bids to acquire debt-laden Jaypee Infratech through the insolvency process, as per the direction of the Supreme Court.
Last month, the Supreme Court remitted to the Committee of Creditors (CoC) the issue of approval of resolution plan for Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL), saying no new expression of interest will be entertained for taking over the firm and only NBCC and Suraksha Realty may file revised proposals.
The apex court also directed to extend the resolution process by 45 days.

U Gro Capital Ties up with SBM to Launch Credit Cards

Non-bank lender UGro Capital said that it is hoping to sell up to 15,000 small businesses-focused credit cards launched through a tie-up with SBM Bank India in the next few years.
Eligible customers identified by U Gro will have to open a fxed deposit with SBM and the credit limit is fixed at 90 per cent of the FD amount.
The BSE-listed company's executive chairman and managing director Shachindra Nath said it will be doing the distribution and customer due diligence of the customers, while the Mauritian government-owned lender will be taking the credit risk.

Apr 10, 2021

Toshiba Confirms $20bn Takeover Bid from British Fund

Japanese conglomerate Toshiba has received a buyout offer from a British private equity fund in a deal that could be worth about $20bn (£14.5bn).
The scandal-hit firm's shares were temporarily halted on Tokyo's stock exchange after it confirmed the bid by CVC Capital Partners.
If successful, it will allow Toshiba to focus on renewable energy and other core businesses.
Toshiba's US-listed shares rocketed almost 20% after the bid was revealed.
The conglomerate has been at the centre of a number of scandals in recent years, including false accounting and huge losses linked to its US nuclear unit.
It was forced to sell its profit-making chip sector to make up for huge losses.

RBI Allows Card Issuers, White Label ATMs to Take Direct Membership in CPS

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that it will allow non-bank payment system operators like Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) issuers, card networks, White label ATM operators and Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platforms regulated by itself, to take direct membership in central payment systems (CPS).
The central payment system constitutes real-time gross settlement (RTGS) and national electronic fund transfer (NEFT). Only banks and few other players were allowed to take direct membership of CPS.
This facility is expected to minimise settlement risk in the financial system and enhance the reach of digital financial services to all user segments.

High Court Allows China's ByteDance to Operate Indian Bank Accounts

The Bombay High Court permitted Chinese company ByteDance to operate its Indian bank accounts that had been frozen by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities over alleged tax evasion, after depositing a sum of Rs. 78.91 crore in a state-run bank.
A Bench of Justices SP Deshmukh and Abhay Ahuja directed ByteDance to deposit Rs. 78.91 crore in any nationalised bank towards the demand raised by the GST authorities and said the company could operate its other Indian bank accounts and utilise the remaining funds.
The indirect taxes department has accused ByteDance of evading taxes and not paying its GST dues in full, a charge denied by the Chinese firm which owns the popular video app TikTok that was banned by the Indian government last year.

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