News digest Walmart Flipkart bid NCLT Binani row EPFO hack and more

Amazon offers to buy 60% stake in Flipkart, but Walmart still ahead

American e-commerce major Amazon has formally entered the battle for Flipkart, a move that may slow down rival Walmart’s effort to buy a controlling stake in the Bengaluru-headquartered firm. Sources indicated that Amazon, which aggressively competes with Flipkart in the India market, has put in a matching bid along with a $2-billion breakaway fee. While a competing bid could possibly raise Flipkart’s valuation, thereby helping investors, Walmart is learnt to be determined to strike a deal with India’s e-commerce poster boy. Read More

NCLT Kolkata bench orders Binani lenders to consider UltraTech plan

The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal on Wednesday ordered the resolution professional of Binani Cement to accept the revised offer of Rs 79.60 billion from UltraTech Cement and place it before lenders for their consideration. 

This can potentially set a precedent for lenders to negotiate with an unsuccessful bidder for maximisation of value under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Read More

9 cos in fray for 55 blocks under first OALP auction; Vedanta bids for all

Nine companies, including private players Vedanta, Sun Petrochemicals, Hindustan Oil Exploration Company and Selan Exploration Technology, have submitted bids in the first round of oil and gas auctions under the open acreage licensing policy (OALP).

The government has received a total of 110 electronic bids, while Vedanta has submitted bids for all the 55 blocks on offer. Read More

IndiGo share price fall before Aditya Ghosh's resignation under Sebi lens

The sharp fall in the share price of InterGlobe Aviation, the company that operates IndiGo, has come under the regulatory scanner. 

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked stock exchanges to furnish information on the company’s share price data for the last one month to check for any possible violation of insider trading norms, sources said. Read More 

EPFO temporarily shuts Aadhaar seeding portal after reports of data theft

Confidential data from one of the Aadhaar-seeding portals of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has been stolen by hackers, leading to a shutdown of the facility over a month ago.

The incident came to light after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) informed the Labour and Employment Ministry in March about the data theft from the EPFO’s web portal, which helps subscribers link their provident fund accounts with their Aadhaar numbers. Read More