News digest: Goyal meets PSB heads, markets turn negative, and more

The chiefs of PSBs discussed issues faced in taking bad loan cases to NCLT along with ways to boost credit, particularly for MSME

Public sector banks to turn more profitable: Piyush Goyal after review meet

Public sector banks (PSBs) will become more profitable and proactive in the days to come, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said after holding a review meeting with the lenders on Monday, days ahead of the interim Budget.

The chiefs of PSBs discussed issues faced in taking bad loan cases to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) along with ways to boost credit, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and improve recovering bad loans. Read more here 

Markets drop as investors dump firms with high debt levels, share pledging

The domestic markets witnessed a sharp sell-off on Monday with the benchmark indices falling around a per cent and the broader market cracking nearly 2 per cent, as investors turned wary of companies with high debt and promoter share pledging.

The panic was triggered by developments at the country's largest TV network, Zee, where a sharp fall in shares of the group companies, coupled with high promoter pledging, put lenders, especially mutual funds, in a spot. Read more here 

Zee Entertainment, Dish TV shares bounce back day after deal with lenders

Investors in Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Dish TV appear to have been placated following a weekend-long engagement with lenders resulting in a “written” agreement on payment of loans.

After Friday's rout — Zee and Dish TV crashing 26.43 per cent and nearly 33 per cent on the bourses, respectively — the stock recovered some ground on Monday, rallying nearly 17 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, on BSE. Zee closed trade at Rs 372.50, touching an intra-day high of Rs 380.8. Dish TV stood at Rs 23.85 at the end of the day after hitting an intra-day high of Rs 24.85. Read more here 
 

Jet Airways seeks shareholders' nod to turn debt into equity, EGM on Feb 21

Jet Airways is seeking shareholders' nod to convert its debt into equity, appoint bank nominees on the board and increase the authorised share capital of the company to enable the issue of fresh preference shares. An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders has been called on February 21 to seek approval for these proposals. 
 

The move comes as the airline's founder-chairman Naresh Goyal is negotiating a debt restructuring and fundraising plan. Read more here

Rahul Gandhi promises minimum income guarantee for poor if voted to power

Somewhat reminiscent of his grandmother Indira Gandhi’s poll promise of garibi hatao (remove poverty) for the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said, if voted to power, his party would implement a minimum income guarantee (MIG) for the poor.

He made the promise while addressing a public meeting in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur. Party sources said a MIP for the poor, and not universal basic income (UBI), would be their key manifesto promise for the upcoming polls. Details, they said, would be made public in the weeks to come. Read more here