General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

May 08, 2018

Nestle to Sell Starbucks products

Swiss-based food giant Nestle will pay Starbucks $7.15 billion in cash for the rights to sell the US coffee chain's products around the world in a global alliance aimed at reinvigorating their coffee empires.The deal for a business with $2 billion in sales reinforces Nestle's position as the world's biggest coffee company tries to fortify its place atop a fastchanging market.

Blackrock Exits Indian Mutual Funds Market

BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, said on Monday it will sell its 40% stake in DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd to joint venture partner DSP Group, marking the exit of yet another foreign asset manager from the Indian mutual fund industry.

Carlyle to Sell 4.8% Stake in PNB Housing

Quality Investment Holdings, an arm of the global private equity giant Carlyle, is selling 80 lakh shares of PNB Housing Finance, translating into about 4.8% of its equity, for around Rs 1,040 crore ($153 million) through block deals. The stake is being sold through the accelerated book-building method, for which Morgan Stanley and Citibank are joint book runners. After the deal, Carlyle will hold about 32.5%, with public sector lender PNB which has 60.3%.

Rupee Hits 15-month Low against US Dollars

The rupee weakened past the 67-mark to hit a 15-month low against the US dollars on fears that surging oil prices may impact the country's macroeconomic fundamentals and lead to further outflows from domestic financial markets. The rupee closed at 67.14 against the dollar.

Sachin Bansal to Sell its Entire 5.5% stake to Walmart

Sachin Bansal will sell his entire 5.5% stake in the company he co-founded to Walmart, as he departs from the country's most valuable internet firm. Sachin is set to step down from the Flipkart board as Walmart prepares to invest $12-15 billion in the homegrown web retailer, valuing it at $20 billion. Binny Bansal will stay on as the group CEO and will be additionally appointed as the new executive chairman of the Bengaluru-based e-tailer.

Besides Sachin, SoftBank, which is currently the largest investor in Flipkart with a 23-24% stake, along with early backer South African media and internet giant Naspers, which holds 13%, are likely to exit the online retailer completely. Tiger Global, the New York-based investment fund, which has rallied behind Flipkart for years, as its most key shareholder, along with other early investors, are expected to liquidate 70-80% of their shares to Walmart even as plans are afoot to facilitate an IPO for the Indian e-tailer. From among 50 investors at Flipkart, only Tiger and Tencent are expected to get a board seat each.

May 07, 2018

Indian Companies Invest in South Africa

According to a report, as many as 140 Indian companies with operations in South Africa have invested more than USD 4 billion and created 18,000 direct jobs.

The report noted that value of bilateral trade has increased from USD 2.5 billion in 2003-04 to USD 11.79 billion in 2014-15, a growth of more than 400 in ten years.

May 06, 2018

R. M. Malla joins Adani Capital

Adani Capital, the non-banking finance arm of the diversified Adani Group, has appointed R.M. Malla, the past chairman and managing director of IDBI Bank, as an independent director. The Gautam Adani-run company also appointed Sunil Gulati as another independent director.

GE Shipping Loss Widens

The Great Eastern Shipping Company (GE Shipping) reported widening of net loss to Rs. 418.18 crore during the quarter ended March 31.

The company's total income in quarter also fell to Rs. 815.24 crore from Rs. 873.23 crore earlier.

GE Shipping is the country's leading private sector shipping service provider.

Welspun Corp Ltd Gets Tax Demand

The Gujarat government's tax department has slapped a demand of Rs. 178.79 crore on Welspun Corp applicable to two financial years, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Welspun Corp Ltd. is the flagship firm of Welspun Group.

May 05, 2018

ONGC Floats First Tender to Sell Brazil's Ostra Crude

India's top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp floated a mini tender to sell Brazil's heavy oil Ostra in June-November.

The tender will close on May 15 with bids remaining valid till May 17.

ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, owns a 27 percent stake in BC-10 block in Brazil.

May 04, 2018

Hedera Consulting Acquired by Cognizant

Cognizant has acquired Hedera Consulting, a firm specialising in business advisory and data analytics services across industry sectors.

Based in Kontich, Belgium, Hedera Consulting works with leading brands across various industries. Hedera's consultants and data scientists specialise in helping clients with growth strategy, innovation, marketing, sales and customer service.

Tata Motors to Sell Defence, Aerospace Business

Home-grown auto major Tata Motors (TML) announced that its board has approved the move to sell defense and aerospace business to a group company, Tata Advance Systems (TASL).

The sale of its defense business to group entity TASL will not include the pure civilian vehicles which will continue to be with TML.

Flipkart Does $350m Buyback

Flipkart has executed a buyback of shares from a group of investors to convert the e-commerce company into a private limited firm under Singaporean laws. According to regulatory filings made by the e-commerce major in Singapore, and sourced through data platform Paper.vc, Flipkart has paid a set of investors �" including T Rowe Price and Valic �" about $350 million to purchase 18,95,574 preference shares.

In 2014, Flipkart had applied to Singapore's registrar and regulator, where it is incorporated, for conversion into a public company as it was a mandatory procedure for entities with more than 50 shareholders.

Decline in Agricultural Exports

As per reports, India's agricultural exports have declined by a massive 10 per cent in the last five years.

Agri exports had declined to $33.87 billion in 2016-17 from $43.23 billion in 2013-14.

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