Saturday 30 July 2016

Hit by NPAs, PNB to focus on lending to better-rated firms

MD and CEO of the Punjab National Bank,
 
Usha Ananthasubramanian
Impacted by asset quality woes, state-run Punjab National Bank today said it will focus on lending to better-rated corporates for credit growth.

"We are looking for highly rated accounts like AAAs and AAs, but it does not mean we will shy away from the B-rated accounts.


"However, the preference is always for the higher rated corporates," the bank's Managing Director and CEO 
Usha Ananthasubramanian told reporters here. 

She said even if income is going to be less from such accounts, there is stability in this segment as the capital charge is reduced. 

"We also encourage the B-rated companies because that rating does not mean they are bad. The only thing is that where the capital charge is more, we re-look and want them to be supported by collateral," Ananthasubramanian said. 

Although the bank gets proposals from sectors which are not performing well, it takes a conscious decision not to get into them, she said. 

"We do not want iron and steel but where we are already in, it is difficult to come out. Thermal power, gas-based power plants are some of the sticky areas. The old projects we have to continue and should support but we are not keen on incremental fresh exposure," she said when asked which sectors the bank is more cautious about. 

The bank had yesterday reported a 58 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 306 crore for April-June period on account of rising bad loans. 

Provision for NPAs jumped almost three-fold to Rs 3,620 crore from Rs 1,291 crore in the same period a year ago. GNPA ratio shot up to 13.75 per cent.
Speaking about recoveries, Ananthasubramanian said the 

bank is trying to recover non-performing loans which have turned bad. 

"How it improves our asset quality is a thing we have to see and one quarter will not decide it. So going forward, if you are able to control the slippages and improve the recoveries to outnumber the slippages, then it will reflect in the asset quality of the bank," she said. 

The bank has identified some bad loans to be sold to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs). 

"We have already lined up about 72 accounts which have been identified but it is not known how many of them will actually be put on sale," she said. 

The bank has enough security receipts (SRs) and is fine with the SR route as well, she added. 

"It is a misconception that the bank is always after full upfront cash purchases by ARCs," she said.

Asked whether bank has identified accounts under the scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets (S4A), Ananthasubramanian said the accounts are run by a consortium of lenders and not by one bank. So, most of the accounts where the bank would like to invoke S4A, there are other consortium lenders. 

She, however, said only completed projects which have commenced operations are eligible for S4A. 

"Unless they generate a positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), it will not be possible because the servicing of the loan starts the day you identify the sustainable debt and the unsustainable debt," she added.

Royal Enfield to invest Rs 600 cr in new plant

Company wants to build manufacturing plant, in product development and R&D centres

Managing Director and CEO of Eicher Motors Siddhartha Lal during his visit to the Royal Enfield's manufacturing factory at Oragadam near Chennai on Friday

Royal Enfield (RE), motorcycle division of Eicher Motors, is to invest Rs 600 crore this financial year in a new manufacturing plant, in product development and research & development (R&D) centres.

Speaking to reporters at its Oragadam facility, 40 km from here, Siddhartha Lal, managing director of Eicher Motors, said by the end of this year, total capacity would be around 675,000 units, about 200,000 more from last year.


The first phase of the Vallam Vadagal facility, seven km from the one at Oragadam, will be ready by September 2017. This will take the company's total annual manufacturing capacity to 900,000 units.  

Asked if capacity expansion would bring down the waiting period, Lal said this had come down to three months, from a peak of 10-11 months. The company wishes to bring it down further, he said, while giving no numbers. A part of the proposed Rs 600 crore investment will go into the new facility. The balance will be for new engineering centres at Chennai and Britain, and for product development.

Lal said the company would be operating on two or three platforms at any given point. RE plans to bring the entire engineering team under one roof by stationing them at the new facility at Old Mahabalipuram Road, this metropolis' information technology 'corridor'.

Initially, this centre will have about 300 people and can accommodate up to 1,000. The UK centre will have 70 people.  

The company's Himalayan brand, the recent addition, is selling around 1,000 units a month. Lal said RE's focus would be the 250-750cc range of engines. Besides India, it will focus on Southeast Asia and Latin America.

RE, he added, had maintained strong volume growth in the first quarter of 2016-17, continuing to take more orders than monthly supply. It is also adding at least two dealerships every month, the current total being 566.

“Our immediate business outlook remains strong and Royal Enfield continues to grow consistently, competitively and profitably, towards leading and expanding the mid-sized motorcycle segment globally,” he said.

In June, RE opened a store in Manila, Philippines, with its global retail identity. That country is among the largest two-wheeler markets in the world. With a large chunk of the population using commuter motorcycles, there is an enormous potential for upgrading to mid-sized ones, the segment Enfield is in.  

In Europe, it participated in Wheels & Waves, one of the most popular motorcycle customisation and surfing festivals, organised in Biarritz, France.


THE ROAD AHEAD
  • Royal Enfield to invest Rs 600 crore in 2016-17 last year it invested around Rs 500 crore
  • Company to increase its production capacity to 6,75,000 by end of March 2017; up by 200,000 units against last year
  • Investment includes enhancing capacity, to set up engineering centres & for product development
  • By end of 2018, after Vallam Vadagal project’s phase-I completes, total capacity will increase to 900,000 units. New centres in Chennai and the UK will initially have 300 and 70 engineers respectively
  • Company’s focus will continue to be in 250-7500cc segment
  • To replicate India model, it would first strengthen presence in main cities and then expand in and around Latin America and Southeast Asian countries

Thursday 28 July 2016

We are AA+ rated, we want to be rated AAA: Rana Kapoor (MD & CEO of Yes Bank Ltd)

Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO of Yes Bank Ltd.
Rana Kapoor, managing director and chief executive officer of Yes Bank Ltd, comments on the bank's first quarter earning in an interview.

Let me come first of all to the growth, asset quality is not a problem with Yes Bank but 33% loan growth is a very impressive number at time when growth is scarce. Is this repeatable? 
    If you see last year, which was a very tough year, FY15-16, we grew the loan book at 30%. The fact is that our overall denominator is still like a medium-sized bank which is now leaning towards a small large bank.
So, our growth last year was 30% and we have reason to believe that with the sectoral and fairly well fine-tuned segmented, geographic as well as sectoral strategies we can address the credit demand in some sectors which is resurfacing. 

 So, this 33% is manageable?
   Thirty-three percent is not sustainable beyond a point but we have reason to believe that next four years, which is the third phase of Yes Bank’s lifecycle of growth from a small large bank into a medium large bank till 2020, we have reason to believe that we can sustain between 27-30% credit growth and because of these sectoral strategies we have, there is reason to believe that with good credit filters, relationship management, intensified product penetration that this can be done. 

   Where did this 33% growth come from? 
Fundamentally the growth is coming in from the sectors we focused on literally from inception. Some of them continue to be sunrise sectors like agri-business. We have reason to believe that in renewable energy we have a fairly significant market share apart from substantial market and mind share in that particular business. 

Broadly is it corporate, retail, small and medium enterprises, midcap? 
The engines are all moving, the interesting thing is that the corporate businesses, because of our proven track record and relative resilience in asset quality, give us an opportunity with that proven track record to build market share and mind share. At the same time all the growth engines and what we like to believe in our SME businesses which is not small anymore -- it is 23% of our total advances -and if you look at even the consumer and commercial retail, which is clubbed as retail banking, is almost inching up to double digits, it is about 11%.
So, with the overall branch banking driven growth and strong growth in retail liabilities and with credit cards, which is the last mile product launch, we are going to be a very comprehensive retail bank this year. 

Other income has contributed substantially to your profit, it straightaway goes to the bottomline. The notes to accounts gave us very broad ideas that it comes from guarantees, letters of credit, financial advisory, selling of products, can you give me a breakup, did a substantial amount come from sale of securities, investments? 
Overall if you look at the composition of our earnings in this quarter, we were approximately 60% driven by net interest income and just around 40% by non-interest income. This was a very good quarter because what we are seeing is increased market share on corporate banking and in corporate finance, the reason is that our branch that we set up in Gandhinagar—the international banking unit—that is giving us new breakthroughs in clients like pharmaceutical sector which was difficult to compete with when we did not have an offshore loan book. 

How much of equity dilution will come because of the qualified institutional placement? What are you prepared for as an upper limit? 
When we discussed this three months ago, I had shared with you that we expect overall dilution of around 12-13.5%. So, I will pretty much stick to that number, may be 12-13%. The fact of the matter is that the continued resilience of the asset quality of the bank, the sustained profitability of the bank, increased market share of the bank, the outreach of retail and branch banking is in a way helping to rerate the bank. We have had a soft landing on asset quality. 

If it is 12-13% equity dilution, your return on equity (RoE) at the moment is about 21%, how many months will it take or how many quarters will it take to come back to 21%?
 When we meet investors this question comes up invariably in every meeting. Equity capital raising for a bank like ours is value and earnings accretive from day one. So, we have reawatch son to believe that give or take 6-8 quarters we can restore RoE back to 20% and at the same time because our RoE is a 20% and our dividend payout policy is about 80% retention and 20% dividend payout, that in itself gets us about 20% of organic growth through retention of profits.
So, the incremental capital that comes in is going to help us to grow at 30% and with that we can become RoE competitive in less than 6-8 quarters.
We have done it in the past, if you see our 2010 capital raise, $225 million, within 4-5 quarters we were back to 20%. If you look at our $0.5 billion capital raise in May 2014, which was a very big success, it has doubled in value since then; that also enabled us to get back to 20%t RoE in less than 8 quarters. So, it is value and earning accretive. 

Will you be wanting to take over a microfinance or a small bank?. We just saw IDFC do that. Small bank business is fairly lucrative, look at the way Equitas and Ujjivan are doing. Will inorganic be a thought? 
I must confess that the DNA of Yes Bank, which has been in a way personifying in itself over the last almost 12 years, is driven by hardcore entrepreneurship, what we call professional entrepreneurship. So, the ability to create building blocks within the bank, to make them profitable within reasonable timeframes is the real entrepreneurial joy of our top management.
So, we will look at acquisitions as and when they come through but there is a fair amount of organic capacity, bandwidth, bench strength, the bank has to be able to build businesses organically.
We are building a securities business as a subsidiary which is going to be more in retail, broking and asset management in course of time; we have got a licence. So, our ability as a bank with a professional DNA, as the professionals bank of India, is really organic. What happens is HR in India needs to be very homogenous and sometimes when you address it and put a shock in the system it can take a couple of years to recuperate. The systems have to synergise, IT has to be very friendly on the interfaces involved. So, a bank like ours which is still like a brand new bank even though we are 12 years old has the ability to engineer new businesses organically. 

So, your preference is organic? 
Prefer that, more weightage on that but if there is a very sweetheart deal, why not? 

There will always be one or two sceptics out there who would feel that if you are growing 33% at a time when the economy is still difficult, have you become a little more, shall I say, courageous in lending? What are yourself given targets on non-performing loans (NPLs)? Do you think you will go maximum to 0.8-0.9%, how might the subsequent quarters look like?
 The guidance on gross (NPLs) is that we should not exceed 1%. We have a minimum provisioning policy literally of 60% and right now our overall provisioning coverage is 64.2%. Which means net-net we should not fall or increase net NPAs beyond 40%.
At the same time there is a lot of focus and visibility on recovery of losses, recovery of NPAs, reducing restructurings; as you will see in our numbers, we have made significant progress in reducing restructurings overall. In sale of assets to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), security receipts, when you look at the totality of the asset quality, I can promise you today, we are outperforming the perceived retail banks in the country.
We are AA+ rated but we want to be AAA but I am sure you are talking in equity context.


Wednesday 27 July 2016

Suggestions on takeover of loan accounts: A.K. Roychoudhary (Director of Sun Capital Advisory Services & Ex Banker PNB)


The present guidelines issued by banks for takeover of account by another bank is causing lot of hardships to SME segment
SME client wants to shift his account from his present banker for various reasons as given below;
·         With the change in manager of the branch he suffers on account of rigidity in the approach of new manager on genuine issues. Now that the new manger is going to be here for next 3 years he wants to avoid wasting his time in visiting branch for every small or big issue.

·         For customers with large facility, with the change in set up at RO/CO/ZO he is again at the mercy of new Senior officers who are not very supportive- say his genuine request for enhancement in facilities is not agreed to by RO/CO/HO. his request for some ad hoc/concessions in charges/ reduction in interest etc are not considered.
There can be many other reasons also for shifting of the bank by the customer.
A number of present guidelines come in the way for shifting of these clients to a new bank. Due to lack of support, the customer suffers and in our opinion due to rigidity on the part of local branch manager or a new Regional Manager the account ultimately slips into NPA category.
I would therefore suggest as under to take care of genuine difficulty in takeover cases:

1.    That banks should be free to take accounts from other banks especially in respect of SME segment.
2.    Presently shifting of accounts from ex-banks where from either CMD or ED’s have come to new bank is not allowed. The above rule at best may be applied where the account is over Rs.100 Cr. 
3.    The power to take over account for SME segment be permitted by the Manager of the new bank, in whose power it falls. Presently next higher authority is required to give permission. 
4.    When a manager can sanction a fresh loan to any new customer who is yet to start business and whose track record is not known, it is not understood why higher officer has to permit the takeover case when party’s track record is already available by going through the conduct of account from his ex bank. 

5.    Presently the permission of higher ups is not required if the customer pays off his limits with ex-bank and waits for three months to take limit from new bank. Knowing the fact that banks take generally longer time to sanction limits, this stipulation (3 months period) should be reduced to ONE month.

Treat HFCs on par with private banks: Assocham to SEBI

Assocham has asked SEBI to treat housing finance companies (HFCs) on par with the private banks and public financial institutions (PFIs).



Assocham said in a statement on Tuesday that the move will strengthen the role of HFCs in the government's mission of "Housing for All by 2022".

 "Debt investments in HFCs should be exempted from sectoral limits and securities issued under AAA rating for long-term instruments and A1+ for short-term instruments by HFCs should be treated on par with AAA rated securities and certificate of deposits issued by private banks," Assocham said in a communication to the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairman U.K. Sinha.

 Assocham said that mutual fund investments in AAA rated pass through certificates (PTCs) backed by mortgages should not be considered as exposure to the HFCs as these are serviced and secured by underlying pools of granular secured housing loans.


Tuesday 26 July 2016

VSoft develops app for instant transfer of money


VSoft Technologies, a banking technology solutions firm, has developed an app for smoother transfer of money. Unlike in mobile wallets, the app doesn’t require people to store money in it. The app helps people to transfer and receive money instantaneously.

“With ‘Jeb’, money remains in the respective accounts and thus continues to earn money unlike in mobile wallets where you are supposed to store money for payments,” Murthy Veeraghanta, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VSoft Technologies, said. It enables transactions based on the United Payments Interface, promoted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a common body for all retail payment systems in the country.

Showcasing the app here, he said the app has a one-time registration to come on board the technology platform.

“People can link their bank accounts using their phones, virtual ids and QR code (generated with the help of the respective banks) and Aadhaar card. The transactions are secured with a PIN number,” he said.

“Even in cases where the users do not possess cash and credit or debit cards and need to make an urgent purchase or transaction, the app comes in handy and empowers the users to instantly transfer money into the merchant’s bank account by the means of a mobile phone,” he said.

The firm is in talks with banks, financial institutions and retail businesses to promote the app, he added.

It will also be given as a white-label (banks and other institutes can brand it as their own) product, he said.





Federal Bank hopes to cash in on better credit growth in FY17

MD and CEO Shyam Srinivasan says NPA slippages are coming down and credit is picking up


Federal Bank posted first-quarter numbers above Street estimates, with profits rising 18.4 per cent to 167 crore albeit with some uptick in NPAs. Speaking to Bloomberg TV India, Federal Bank Managing Director and CEO Shyam Srinivasan says NPA slippages are coming down and credit is picking up. The bank aims to sustain credit growth of 19 per cent in FY17, he said. Excerpts:

Federal Bank’s profits have increased quite substantially. What contributed to the robust results?

The quarter began quite well from our stand-point — in terms of the areas where we wanted to see improvement. Operating profit grew close to 16 per cent and overall net profit grew by over 18 per cent.

The important features of the quarter were certainly in the balance-sheet growth — both the credit-deposit ratio and the asset portfolio grew way above the industry averages, and the assets growth was close to 19 per cent. The credit-deposit ratio expansion was close to 73 per cent. So we saw good utilisation.

And in terms of margin expansion, it was driven by few fundamental features such as credit deployment and the lower cost of deposits.
So the margin expansion, lower slippages leading to lower credit cost and good cost management saw improvements in net interest margins, profitability and our cost-income ratio, which showed up in the P&L (profit and loss statement).

Asset quality has not improved much as the NPAs in this quarter have been fairly flat. What is the outlook going forward for FY17?

The crucial part is to look not just at the (NPA) ratio, because the ratio is sometimes flattened if you have any sale to asset reconstruction company (ARC) or a technical write-off or a combination of both.

So the important part is to see the absolute movement in slippages. As against some 1,670 crore slippages in last quarter (Q4), the first quarter of FY17 saw the overall gross NPAs at 1,747, which is roughly about 80 crore increase in the slippages. So we think that trend is the most important one.

Importantly, the slippage for the quarter was almost half of the previous two quarters of FY16 — 280 crore was the slippage during this quarter. That is the improving trend we would like to continue. And if the trend continues, the outcomes are going to be better during FY17. So, what is important is to ensure that the slippages remain in control, and that trend is possible.


What is your outlook on the advances and deposit growth?
Last year (FY16) our credit growth was 19 per cent and we would certainly like to keep that trend. Credit growth has been quite robust during the last three quarters, including Q1 of FY17. A good proportion of that was largely driven by a good pick-up in our corporate lending in last year’s Q4. And we see that opportunity very much in the market on account of some banks being distracted and our own internal strength being enhanced.
So I see the ability to grow credit in and around the region of what we did in the first quarter. That’s quite possible.

What are your expectations on the upcoming credit policy?

I’m not going to second guess what the RBI Governor is intending to do. I think the liquidity is pretty strong.

So the decision to lower rates will be driven by many other factors. From our point of view, it is a very encouraging sign at where the bond yields are now and that would mean the treasury book will see some gain. And the focus is on leveraging the opportunity of good-quality liability profile and ensuring credit growth.

Solar power tariffs expected to fall to as low as Rs3.50 a unit in 3 years

Fall in solar power tariffs would be a shot in the arm for the government, which has pushed renewable energy to the top of its energy security agenda



Solar power tariffs in India, which have fallen below Rs.5 per unit since November, are expected to fall further as the industry doubles volumes every year and the cost of producing power continues to decline.

At least three industry experts Mint spoke to said that tariffs will fall to as low as Rs.3.5 per unit in three years owing to better use of technology, higher volumes, increased competition and a favourable regulatory environment.
“There is no question about whether they (tariffs) will go down or not. Typically we are seeing a 3-4% increase in efficiency and about 3-4% reduction in costs. So we expect that solar tariffs will continue to go down by 5-8% year-on-year,” said Vikram Kailas, managing director at renewable energy producer Mytrah Energy Ltd.

Solar module prices have already fallen sharply, down by 10% in the first half of 2016 , leading to higher margins and reviving projects which were termed unviable earlier, Mintreported on Monday.

“The cost of production continues to come down. The challenge of course is by how much and whether it becomes unsustainable in specific points in time,” said Vinay Rustagi, managing director, Bridge to India, a consulting firm.
Bridge to India sees tariffs falling by at least 5% annually and calls a sub-Rs.4 per unit tariff a realistic number.

“Other subsectors within power generation do not expect (a) decline in prices. So from grid-parity or competitive aspect, solar is the most attractive source of energy for long-term,” added Rustagi.

A fall in tariffs would be a shot in the arm for the government, which has pushed renewable energy to the top of its energy security agenda and has been looking to provide green power at less than Rs.4.50 a unit. India has targeted 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 60GW of wind energy capacity by 2022. It currently has about 8GW of solar capacity and about 27GW of wind power capacity.

Bigger factories and lower cost of manufacturing will ultimately lead to a reduction in tariffs over the next few years, said Pashupathy Gopalan, president, Asia Pacific, SunEdison Inc., which has over 1GW of operational and under-construction solar projects in India.

Indeed, solar tariffs hit a record-low in November last year when SunEdison bid Rs.4.63 per unit in a reverse online auction and fell to Rs.4.34 in Finland-based Fortum’s bid at a January e-auction.

To be sure, many have called the falling tariffs “unviable” and “suicidal”, citing instances of companies unable to find financial closure for their projects.
Power producers argue that they have been able to bid aggressively at government-provided solar parks thanks to ready-to-use infrastructure such as land and transmission facilities. Global firms such as Fortum, SoftBank and SunEdison have also used aggressive bidding as a means to get a foot in the door of this nascent sector.

Between 2010 and 2015, solar capacity addition had doubled annually. It is expected to grow even faster to touch 12GW by the end of this year. India will then become the fourth largest solar market, overtaking the UK, Germany and France.

While lower tariffs will be a positive for consumers and the environment, there are concerns that investors won’t get the returns they want. “This is, end of the day, a commodity industry,” SunEdison’s Gopalan said. Returns in the sector range from 12% to 16% depending on tariffs and other factors.

In India, which holds reverse auctions for tendering solar projects, the role of the buyer and seller is reversed and a business bid is won by quoting prices downwards. “In any other country, bidding is a double-edged sword, so they have a condition that one cannot bid below a certain price or IRR (internal rate of return). But India does not have any such condition. We believe that people will continue to be aggressive,” Mytrah’s Kailas said.

Tariffs will go down only if there will be a decrease in the overall cost of setting up solar projects from Rs.5.5 crore per MW to Rs.3-4 crore and plant load factors increase from the current 15-20%, said Anubhav Gupta, an analyst at Maybank Kim Eng Securities India.

Monday 25 July 2016

India Weekly Market Updates from 16 July to 22 July 2016


India Market Weekly

Economy:


  • Service tax collection by the city zone department in the first quarter has increased by 23 per cent, which has helped it surpass the target by nearly 4 per cent for the period. http://buff.ly/2a4Bta0
  • Foreign investors have brought in over Rs 9,700 crore into the Indian capital markets in the first two weeks of this month on improving prospects for the economy. http://buff.ly/29Lkvtx
  • Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that the tax-rate cap on GST in the Constitution bill sought by the Congress was not feasible but hoped that the GST bill will be passed. http://buff.ly/2a4Cqzn
  • Amid a clamour among bankers for immunity from action by agencies like CBI and CVC, RBI Guv Raghuram Rajan has disapproved of any "blanket sort of relief." http://buff.ly/29VhU4o
  • Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has said the EPFO may invest up to 12 per cent of its investable amount in equities over a period of time. http://buff.ly/29VhJGh
  • Companies will now have to ensure that all statements annexed with the cost audit report are first approved by their board of directors before final submission. http://buff.ly/2a7aL2p
  • Introduction of the much-awaited GST is likely to address issue of cascading and dual taxation impact on Indian media and entertainment industry, a sunrise sector, says report. http://buff.ly/29RTeGv
  • Imports will become easier from the next year as the CBEC is planning to go paperless and move towards a completely integrated Customs system for facilitating documentation and fast-tracking clearances of consignments. http://buff.ly/29QHQQh
  • Banks and financial institutions have sanctioned about Rs 78,830 crore funding for clean energy projects, of which Rs 33,482.83 crore has been released till March end this year, Parliament was informed on Monday. http://buff.ly/2a4nEZl
  • In a bid to shore up cash- strapped public sector banks, the government on Tuesday injected Rs 22,915 crore capital in 13 lenders including SBI and Indian Overseas Bank to revive loan growth that has hit a two-decade low. http://buff.ly/29VpbBn
  • GSMA launches mobile connect in India. At present, around 42 operators in 22 countries around the world are implementing Mobile Connect, making it available to nearly three billion customers. http://buff.ly/2a7QvvX
  • The payments landscape in emerging markets, including India, is expected to transform in the wake of accelerating growth in electronic payments with advent of new and disruptive market players and alternative business models, a PwC report said. http://buff.ly/29SZ3EN
  • The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slightly trimmed India's growth projections to 7.4 per cent for 2016 and 2017, a drop of 0.1 per cent from its previous forecast, attributing it to a more sluggish investment recovery while declaring Brexit as a "spanner" in the global economic recovery. http://buff.ly/2a7YY2c
  • Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Tuesday it expects Indian airlines to order 1,850 new aircraft worth $265 billion over the next 20 years. http://buff.ly/29NUeuP
  • The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Tuesday said it would issue bids for construction of roads and highways with a total length of 10,000 km by the end of the current fiscal. http://buff.ly/29UHvJG
  • Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Tuesday, quoting the Financial Stability Report of RBI, said bad loans of public sector banks may rise to 10.1 per cent by March 2017. http://buff.ly/29NVaPF
  • In face of a CAG report drilling holes into subsidy savings made on LPG, the government on Wednesday asserted that over Rs 21,000 crore was indeed saved in two years by directly transferring subsidy to user bank accounts. http://buff.ly/2a0xSuf
  • Tesla motors on Saturday said that India will "definitely" be a market for their next generation low-cost sustainable model-3, with the Union road and transport minister Nitin Gadkari asking the iconic company to outline their proposals for entry into the Indian market. http://buff.ly/2a75FTu
  • Negative global cues, combined with a logjam in parliament and disappointing quarterly results, subdued the Indian equity markets on Friday. http://buff.ly/29RvHW
  • The additional capital infusion of Rs 22,915 crore into 13 weak banks announced recently by the central government is positive for them but the actual capital needs were much more higher, said global credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service. http://buff.ly/29SV89t
Corporates:


  •  Fashion apparel brand Spykar, which is expanding its presence in the women''s wear segment, is aiming to double its sales to Rs 700 crore in the next four years. http://buff.ly/2a79rfS
  • In a bonanza to oil producing states like Assam, the government has ordered state-owned ONGC and Oil India to pay royalty to them on the gross price for crude oil and not the net rate they actually realise. http://buff.ly/29RHrrm
  • Bandhan Bank on Monday further eased the micro lending rate by 60 basis points to bring interest rate down to 19.9% with immediate effect. http://buff.ly/29V5FET
  • Homegrown FMCG major Dabur on Monday said it has acquired South Africa-based Discaria Trading (PTY) Ltd, a firm engaged in manufacturing and trading of cosmetics, for an undisclosed amount. http://buff.ly/29V6y0k
  • Shares of Reliance Industries on Monday rose by nearly 3 per cent after the company reported a bigger-than-expected 18 per cent jump in June quarter profit. http://buff.ly/29VlDPn
  • Infosys co-founder and former CII president Kris Gopalakrishnan has said that almost 70% of startups globally will fail and only 5 to 10% will become large and scale up. http://buff.ly/29VryUy?
  • Storage battery major Exide Industries will be investing Rs 1,400 crore over the next two years, of which Rs 700 crore will be at Haldia in West Bengal to introduce high performance automotive batteries with new-age punch-grid technology. http://buff.ly/2a4PxAe
  • Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has received final approval from the US health regulator USFDA for rosuvastatin calcium tablets, used in lowering cholesterol. http://buff.ly/2afSyPE
  • Adani Group flagship Adani Enterprises on Wednesday said it plans to raise up to Rs 6,000 crore via issuance of securities to sustain rapid growth. http://buff.ly/29NjaXz
  • Piramal Enterprises on Thursday said it is looking to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore through issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis. http://buff.ly/29XSH6X
  • Ford Motor Company is in the process of setting up a Research and Development (R&D) centre here, the first such facility to be located outside of the US, Finance Minister O Panneerselvam told the House. http://buff.ly/29Ybh2T
  • ITC Ltd has planned multiple projects with an outlay of Rs 25,000 crore over the next five years, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Y.C. Deveshwar told shareholders on Friday. http://buff.ly/29YtDAL



Global events:


  • The United States and India have agreed to take several key steps in petroleum and energy sector, aimed towards achieving the ambitious goal of energy independence. http://buff.ly/29ThLjN
  • State-owned Saudi Aramco says it has signed a deal for a new gas project that will be worth more than 50 billion Saudi riyals (USD 13.3 billion) when complete in 2019 aimed at meeting the kingdom’s growing domestic demand for energy. http://buff.ly/2a129ZU

Politics:


  • American Ports have evinced a keen interest in a comprehensive port-led development, especially the ambitious Sagarmala programme, Indian officials said as the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari concluded his week-long trip in Los Angeleshttp://buff.ly/2a5zVvt

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