News digest: IL&FS board meeting, bruised stock mkt, rupee rescue and more

The newly constituted board of IL&FS will hold its first meeting today

Macro headwinds continue to roil markets as rupee plunges to new low

India’s stock markets saw a fresh round of sell-offs on Wednesday after Brent crude prices climbed to a four-year high of $85 a barrel and the rupee dropped to a new low of 73.34 against the dollar. 

Investors pulled out of equity markets on worries that the spike in oil prices and fall in the rupee would adversely impact the economy. Investor sentiment has already been fragile following defaults by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), a lender to the infrastructure sector. Read more 

As rupee breaches 73 level, RBI allows OMCs to raise dollar from abroad

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday allowed oil-marketing companies to raise dollars directly from overseas markets without a need for hedging. 

In a post-market notification, the RBI said the minimum maturity profile of the borrowings should be three years and five years, and the overall cap under the scheme would be $10 billion. The central bank relaxed criteria for this. Read more

New IL&FS board to meet on Thursday, discuss issues plaguing group 
 

The newly constituted board of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) will hold its first meeting on Thursday in Mumbai to take stock of the situation at the beleaguered group, according to a senior official of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The board is also expected to discuss issues such as the appointment of the management team. Read more

Govt mulls one-time fund infusion into stalled road projects of IL&FS

 

The government might go for one-time fund infusion into the languishing national highway projects of IL&FS, senior officials told Business Standard. They, however, declined to share the proposed fund infusion plan. 

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, they added, was not considering a takeover of the firm’s projects via the National Highways Authority of India. Read more

CEO Masayoshi Son offers free power from Softbank's solar plants in India

The Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank group has proposed offering free power from its solar plants in India, after 25 years of service period under power purchase agreements. Recently, the Union government had cancelled a bid by SB Energy, a  unit of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, for a solar power project, saying it was “too high’’.

Speaking at the second Re-Invest conference on Wednesday, Son, SoftBank CEO, announced that SB Energy’s solar power plants would extend the free-power offer to all member countries of the International Solar Alliance (ISA). Read more