News digest: Market borrowings, Taj Mansingh auction, IL&FS mess, and more

Tata group's Indian Hotels Company will retain control of the Taj Mahal hotel, popularly known as Taj Mansingh, for another 33 years

Modi govt cuts gross market borrowings by Rs 700 billion for FY19  

Armed with augmented resources from small savings, the government will cut gross market borrowings by Rs 700 billion for 2018-19 to finance its fiscal deficit, which is expected to remain within the targeted 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The move, along with measures of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is expected to ease pressure on bond yields and liquidity. Read more

Tata's Indian Hotels outbids ITC, retains Taj Mansingh for another 33 years

Tata group’s Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) will retain control of the Taj Mahal hotel, popularly known as Taj Mansingh, for another 33 years.  

IHCL, which operates a chain of luxury hotels under the Taj brand, emerged winner in an e-auction conducted by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Friday. The company outbid ITC, the only other bidder in the auction, for the prime property located on Mansingh Road in the capital. Read more 

Crisis-hit IL&FS can raise Rs 700 billion by selling assets, says LIC

Beleaguered IL&FS can raise up to Rs 700 billion by selling its assets, the Life Insurance Corporation of India Chairman V K Sharma said in New Delhi on Friday. LIC was open to raising stake in the company by participating in its rights issue, he added.

Sharma, along with State Bank of India Chairman Rajnish Kumar and Central Bank of India Managing Director Pallav Mohapatra, met Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg in the finance ministry on Friday to discuss options to bail out IL&FS. Read more 

Midcaps, smallcaps plunge to new lows in biggest monthly drop since 2008

The BSE Smallcap and Midcap indices have plunged 16 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, in September — their biggest monthly fall since October 2008. 
 

The broader markets have marked with mayhem the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the very month it happened. Unlike in 2008, when the Sensex too had crashed 24 per cent, the headline indices fell 6.3 per cent this month, their worst monthly performance in 31 months. Read more

RBI cracks whip on Bandhan Bank for violating shareholding norms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has withdrawn the “general” permission given to Bandhan Bank to open branches and has frozen the remuneration of its managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Chandra Shekhar Ghosh (pictured), at the existing level, after it failed to comply with the norm of bringing down promoters’ shareholding to 40 per cent by the deadline of August 23. However, the bank can open branches with the approval of the regulator. Read more

From Gopal Vittal to Sudhir Mehta, CEOs rake in moolah amid falling profits

A special resolution to reappoint Neeraj Kanwar managing director of Apollo Tyres did not go through as minority shareholders were not in approval.  

“Apollo Tyres’ board of directors will discuss the resolution in the next meeting and determine the course of action to be taken,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

Only 72.72 per cent of shareholders voted in favour of the resolution, which required a minimum of 75 per cent shareholders voting for it. Read more