General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

May 28, 2021

Paytm Plans to Launch India's Biggest IPO

Digital payments provider Paytm is all set to make its market debut as early as this year, with an aim to raise $3 billion (around Rs. 22,000 crore). If successful, this could be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) by an Indian company, breaking Coal India's 2010 record of Rs. 15,475 crore.
According to reports, the board of One97, parent company of Paytm, is all set to meet to formally approve the IPO plan.
Paytm -- backed by investors like SoftBank Group, Ant Group and Berkshire Hathaway -- is targeting a valuation of $25 billion to $30 billion, 1.5-1.8 times the current valuation of $16 billion.
Paytm has emerged as one of the largest digital payments players in the country and ranks third in terms of UPI payments with a market share of around 12 per cent.

Yes Bank Implements TransUnion's Onboarding Solution

Private sector lender YES Bank announced the implementation of TransUnion's onboarding solution, which will enable it to onboard its credit card customers seamlessly.
The solution has been uniquely designed to enable a digital, streamlined onboarding process that delivers the experience consumers prefer such as fewer customer information fields to input, no physical paperwork, and comparatively lesser time required for completing the credit card application.
An in-person interaction with customers for physical documentation and processing is now replaced with a digital process wherein a digital application link is sent to the customer, which the customer can complete along with a video KYC.
The solution also reduces the integration time and effort for the bank, while encompassing credit and risk decision workflow for digital end-to-end on-boarding.

Amazon Buys MGM

Amazon is going Hollywood. The online shopping giant is buying MGM, the movie and TV studio behind James Bond, 'Legally Blonde' and 'Shark Tank', with the hopes of filling its video streaming service with more stuff to watch.
Amazon is paying $8.45 billion for MGM, making it the company's second-largest acquisition after it bought grocer Whole Foods for nearly $14 billion in 2017.
The deal is the latest in the media industry that's aimed at boosting streaming services to compete against Netflix and Disney+. AT&T and Discovery announced on May 17 that they would combine media companies, creating a powerhouse that includes HGTV, CNN, Food Network and HBO.

Maruti Suzuki Ties up with Three Firms for Production of Oxygen Generators

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki is collaborating with manufacturers to boost production of oxygen generators in the country.
Maruti has tied up with three small-scale companies, Airox Nigen Equipments, SAM Gas Products and Gaskon Engineers, for producing oxygen generators.
Maruti Suzuki decided to involve itself in scaling up production of oxygen generators by small scale units to help overcome the critical shortage of oxygen.

May 27, 2021

Lithium Buys Pune-based SaaS Mobility Platform Company

Bengaluru-based electric mobility start-up Lithium Urban Technologies has bought employment transportation software platform SmartCommute. The International Finance Corporation- and LGT Capital-backed company, which claims to be the biggest owner of electric vehicles in the world outside of China with 1,200 units, is diversifying its portfolio from employee transportation to public transport as well.
With the acquisition, Lithium would be able to provide a full range of transportation solutions across all vehicle categories including the conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

Singapore Airlines Not to Go for M&A

In a further indication that Singapore Airlines will not join Tata Sons for the bidding of Air India, the company has said that it is not going to go for any merger & acquisition with the fund it has raised and instead will use it to shore up liquidity of the company. This comes as the process for financial bidding of Air India has started. Tata Sons with whom SIA owns and operates Vistara is one of the frontrunners to acquire the state-owned carrier.
The company however will continue to invest in Vistara and said that the airline's fleet will grow to 70 by mid of 2023. Vistara currently has 47 planes with a mix of Airbus A320 family and Boeing 787.

Hitachi ABB Power Grids in India to go Carbon Neutral by 2030

Hitachi ABB Power Grids in India announced it would achieve carbon-neutrality targets by 2030 in its own operations. It has already signed power purchase agreements with some of the green power generators in Gujarat including Amplus Solar Solutions and will be signing more such contracts to move to 100 per cent green energy by March 2022.
As part of its drive to 'build back better', the company is adopting a three-dimensional approach to decarbonization. The programme is designed to reduce the carbon footprint of its own operations and in the products that it delivers.

BPCL Declares Rs. 12,581 cr Dividend Ahead of Privatisation

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) declared a record Rs. 12,581 crore dividend, more than half of which will go to the government, ahead of the privatisation of the company.
The board of directors has recommended a final dividend of Rs 58 per equity share (including one-time special dividend of Rs. 35 per equity share of Rs. 10 each) for the financial year ended March 31, 2021 subject to the approval of the shareholders.
The government, which is selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL, will get Rs 6,665.76 crore plus dividend distribution tax.

May 26, 2021

RIL, TCS, Infy and SBI Common Thread in India's M-cap Milestones

Reliance Industries (RIL), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and the State Bank of India (SBI) are the only four consistent names in the list of top 10 companies when India hit the milestone of $1 trillion, $ 2 trillion and $ 3 trillion in market capitalisation. India first hit the $1 trillion m-cap mark in May 2007. Over a span of 14 years, the top 10 list has undergone considerable change with names like Reliance Communications, ONGC and NTPC disappearing from the list and new names like Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finance stamping their authority. The current list and the list when India hit the $2 trillion milestone in July 2017 are fairly identical as they share seven companies.

HDFC Further Sells Reliance Infra Shares

The country's largest mortgage lender HDFC Ltd has sold further shares of Reliance Infrastructure worth over Rs. 43 crore, which were held by it through the invocation of pledged shares.
The corporation has further sold 81,05,677 shares representing 3.08 per cent of the share capital of Reliance Infrastructure.
The sale was carried out through stock exchanges at the prevailing market price.
Earlier this month, the corporation had sold 52,88,507 shares, equivalent to 2.01 per cent, of Reliance Infrastructure for over Rs. 22.86 crore.
HDFC acquired shares of the Anil Ambani controlled engineering and construction major on account of invocation of pledge through Axis Trustee Services Ltd.

PharmEasy Acquires Medlife

PharmEasy has acquired Medlife for an undisclosed amount. The deal will make PharmEasy the largest player in the domestic online pharmacy sector, with the combined entity set to serve 2 million customers a month.
This acquisition spells the end of Medlife as a brand. Medlife customers just need to login to the PharmEasy app to start using their Medlife account via the same mobile number. All digitised prescriptions and saved addresses dating back to a year will be available," he added. Besides users, PharmEasy will also onboard Medlife's retail partners.

UK Considering all Options for Liberty Steel

As per reports, Britain is considering all options for Liberty Steel after the collapse of its main lender Greensill Capital, but nationalisation was the least likely route.
Liberty Steel, which employs 3,000 people in Britain, was planning to sell three 'non-core' UK plants as part of a major restructuring.

India Attracts Record FDI in FY21

According to data released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), foreign direct equity investments (FDI) inflows grew by 19 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in financial year 2020-21 (FY21) to a record $59.64 billion.
Despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in FY21, India attracted the highest ever total FDI inflow, which includes equity capital of unincorporated bodies, reinvested earnings, and other capital. Total FDI stood at $81.72 billion, up 10 per cent YoY.
Gujarat was the top recipient of FDI among states, with 37 per cent share of total FDI equity inflows, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka with 27 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.

Guidelines for Merging District Central Co-op Banks with State Ones

The Reserve Bank will consider amalgamation of District Central Co-operative Banks (DCCBs) with State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) subject to various conditions, including that a proposal should be made by the state government concerned.
The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2020 has been notified for the StCBs and DCCBs with effect from April 1, 2021. Amalgamations of such banks need to be sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India.
RBI has come out with the guidelines after a few state governments approached it for amalgamation of DCCBs with StCBs as a two-tier Short-term Co-operative Credit Structure (STCCS).
As per the guidelines, RBI will consider proposals for amalgamation when the state government of the state makes a proposal to amalgamate one or more DCCB/s in the state with the StCB after conducting a detailed study of the legal framework.
Besides, there should be a an additional capital infusion strategy, assurance regarding financial support if required, projected business model with clear profitability and proposed governance model for the amalgamated bank.
The scheme of amalgamation has to be approved by the requisite majority of shareholders. Also, NABARD has to examine and recommend the proposal of the state government.

May 25, 2021

Liberty Steel to Sell UK Plant in Restructuring Plan

Liberty Steel, the company led by British Indian businessman Sanjeev Gupta, announced very constructive and productive meetings as part of its ongoing restructuring plans, which will result in the sale of its Stocksbridge plant in south-east England to help pay back lender Credit Suisse.
Gupta and his newly-formed Restructuring and Transformation Committee held advanced discussions with Credit Suisse Asset Management (CS) in Dubai to reach a formal standstill agreement on its Liberty Primary Metals Australia business while refinancing is completed that will repay Credit Suisse out in full.
The investment bank has, meanwhile, agreed to pause court proceedings against Gupta's empire while the sale of Stocksbridge is conducted.

Version 3.0 of MCA21 Launched

The first phase of India's first mission mode e-governance project, MCA21 was launched on by Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Anurag Thakur. This version of MCA21 is data analytics driven.
MCA21 version 3.0 was highlighted during budget 2021-2022. This project makes use of new technologies to streamline corporate compliance and experiences of stakeholders. It will be implemented in two phases for which second and third phase will be launched in October 2021. First phase of the project consists of new email services for MCA officers, revamped website, eBook and eConsultation.
Version 3.0 of MCA 21 was launched to: Promote Ease of Doing Business, Strengthen the enforcement, Facilitate seamless integration, Exchange data among regulators and Enhance user experience.

Zeta Enters Unicorn Club

Banking technology startup Zeta is the latest entrant to the unicorn club after raising $250 million in its Series C round from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Sodexo participated as an additional minority investor in the round.
Founded by serial entrepreneur and billionaire Bhavin Thurakia, the startup is now valued at $1.4 billion. It is the 14th company this year to cross the $1 billion valuation mark after Meesho, Cred, Pharmeasy, ShareChat, Moglix and others.
The proceeds of this funding round will be used to accelerate Zeta's growth in the United States, Europe and India, including scaling its operations, team, and platform to meet the demands of its expanding customer base.

Foreign Direct Investment Jumps in 2020-21

According to the commerce and industry ministry, foreign direct investments (FDI) into the country grew 19 per cent to USD 59.64 billion during 2020-21 on account of measures taken by the government on the fronts of policy reforms, investment facilitation and ease of doing business.
Total FDI, including equity, re-invested earnings and capital, rose 10 per cent to the "highest ever" of USD 81.72 billion during 2020-21 as against USD 74.39 billion in 2019-20.
FDI equity inflow grew by 19 per cent in 2020-21 (USD 59.64 billion), compared to 2019-20 (USD 49.98 billion).
In terms of top investor countries, Singapore is at the top with 29 per cent share. It was followed by the US (23 per cent) and Mauritius (9 per cent) during the last fiscal.

Bank of Baroda's New Cheque Payment Rule

Bank of Baroda has issued a new notification for its customers regarding the stringent rules of cheque payment that is going kick in from the beginning of next month.
The bank from June 1, the bank is going to make Positive Pay confirmation mandatory. Under this, if the payment of more than Rs. 2 lakh is made through cheque, then the customer will have to confirm again. The transaction will be completed only when this process completes. Otherwise the cheque will be cancelled.
The bank said that confirmation can be done by the bank for cheque worth more than Rs 50,000. Customers can give confirmation by net banking, mobile banking, branch phone or SMS. For this, it will be necessary to share the name of the beneficiary, the amount (in rupees), the date of the cheque when it was issued, the amount numbers, the account number and the cheque number.

Olectra Greentech Lowest Bidder for Supply of E-buses

A consortium of Electric bus manufacturer Olectra Greentech and its sister concern Evey Trans Pvt Ltd has emerged as the least quoted bidder for the supply of 100 electric buses.
Consortium of Evey Trans Pvt Ltd (EVEY) and Olectra Greentech Ltd has been declared as least quoted (L-1) bidder for another 100 electric buses (for Inter-City Operations) by one of the State Transport Corporation under the FAME-I1 scheme of Government of India.
Value of this tender is approximately Rs. 250 crore.

May 24, 2021

Leonard Blavatnik UK's Richest Person

Leonard Blavatnik has topped the latest Sunday Times Rich List, having seen his fortune swell to £23bn.
The Ukranian-born oil and media magnate, who also owns Warner Music, saw his wealth surge by £7.2bn during the year.
He took the title from Sir James Dyson, whose wealth rose by only £100m to £16.3bn, leaving him in fourth place.
There are now a record 171 billionaires in UK, with their wealth rising 21.7% during the pandemic to £597.2bn.
Mr. Blavatnik made his fortune in Russia where he owned stakes worth billions of pounds in companies selling metal and oil. He is a notoriously-private man, and holds both US and UK citizenship.
His wealth was boosted by the proceeds of a £1.37bn stake in Warner, which he received when it listed on the stock market in the US last year.

SC Allows Banks to Invoke Personal Guarantees of Defaulters

In a significant verdict spelling troubles for personal guarantors to corporate debtors, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Centre's notification allowing banks to proceed against such persons for recovery of loans given to a firm under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
A Bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat held that approval of the resolution plan for revival of sick companies under the IBC does not discharge personal guarantors of their liability to pay back the banks or financial institutions (FIs) as they are bound by separate contracts.

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