Top 10 business headlines: Jet Airways crisis, RIL Q4 results, and more

From Jet Airways crisis to RIL Q4 results, Business Standard brings you top 10 business stories that made news on Thursday

In a bid to attract buyers, banks ask govt to protect Jet's prime slots

The lenders’ consortium, led by State Bank of India, has sought protection of prime airport slots of Jet Airways so that the value of the suspended airline does not erode further. In a communication to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the lenders have made a case for protecting the Jet slots.

"Adequate number of slots at metro airports will be protected by the government. These will only be given temporarily so that adequate number of seats are available,” said a person aware of the development. Read more...

Q4 results: Jio, retail aid RIL net growth of 10%; standalone PAT down 1.6%

Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries (RIL) reported a 9.8 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 2019, backed by better numbers in its retail and telecom business.

The quarter under review also saw significant debt reduction with a 21 per cent decrease sequentially in net debt, down to Rs 1.54 trillion at the end of the March 2019 quarter. Read more...

Reliance Jio Q4 net profit rises 65% to Rs 840 crore; revenues up 55%

Jio, Reliance Industries’ telecom arm, on Thursday reported 64.7 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 840 crore in the March quarter of 2018-19 on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.

However, Jio missed the Street estimates for the fourth quarter, sequentially posting flat growth after its average revenue per user (ARPU) fell by 3 per cent sequentially to Rs 126.2. Read more...

Rivals see runways of opportunity as Jet Airways suspends operations

The suspension of Jet Airways flights has opened new opportunities for competition such as Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo and AirAsia India. These airlines are ready to fill in the gap, especially in metros, by adding flights both to international and domestic destinations.

Air India chief Ashwani Lohani, for instance, has offered to take five grounded B 777s of Jet on wet or dry lease, it is learnt. Read more...

Reliance Retail's strong run continues, revenue crosses Rs 1.3 tn in FY19

Reliance Retail continued its strong run for the past few quarters, posting a profit before depreciation, interest, and taxes (PBDIT) of Rs 1,923 crore for the quarter ended March, up 14.5 per cent sequentially on 3.1 per cent revenue growth on expanding retail footprint and same store sales growth. Read more...

India's telecom subscriber base hits 1,205 mn in Feb, thanks to Jio, BSNL

Reliance Jio and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) together added a net 8.639 million mobile telephone subscribers in February, according to data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

The other telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, lost a big chunk of their respective subscribers. The country's total subscriber base, thanks to Jio and BSNL, grew marginally, to 1,205 million. Read more...

RBI governor Das flags growth slowdown, Viral Acharya advocates caution

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das rooted for a rate cut citing falling growth and loss in investment traction, while his deputy Viral Acharya advocated caution citing rising oil prices and a risk of inflation spike as a result of fiscal assistance to alleviate rural distress, edited minutes of the monetary policy committee (MPC) showed on Thursday. Read more...

The golden age: PE/VC flow may touch $65 bn by 2025

India is well positioned to attract a disproportionately higher share of global private capital. Experts say if political and policy stability permit, Indian PE/VC investment levels could cross the threshold of $65 billion by 2025. Read more...

CBDT identifies 20.4 million non-filers, asks I-T dept to take action

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has directed the Income-Tax Department to initiate penalty proceedings by June 30 against non-filers and ‘drop filers’ of tax returns.

According to the non-filer monitoring system (NMS) of the I-T department, data for 20.4 million non-filers has been obtained between 2013 and 2017, of which 2.5 million are those who are inconsistent — popularly known as ‘dropped filers’. Read more...

Indian broadcasters fret over Nepal’s proposal for ad-free foreign channels

Nepal’s proposed Bill to make foreign broadcasters air their channels without advertisements has got Indian players worried, according to The Hindu BusinessLine.