Top headlines today: Brokers under lens for fund abuse, RCom sale & more

From SpiceJet liquidity crunch to Paytm raising $1 bn, here are the top 10 business headline of the day

1. Karvy a tip of iceberg: Lens on 3 dozen brokers for Rs 10k-crore fund abuse

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has trained guns on more brokers for indulging in the practice of using clients’ shares. Sources say the issue is not limited to just Karvy Stock Broking, with over three dozen more brokers under lens for misappropriating client funds to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore. Read More

2. SpiceJet faces liquidity crunch, plans to raise Rs 750 crore via QIP

SpiceJet, India’s second-largest airline, is planning to raise around Rs 750 crore by selling new shares, three people aware of the development said. The airline is considering a qualified institutional placement (QIP) as a prolonged grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and a severe fare war have put the airline’s balance sheet under pressure. Read More

3. Reliance likely to make bid for RCom and its related companies today

Having asked for a 10-day extension from a Resolution Professional, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group is expected to make a bid for his brother Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCom) and its related companies on Monday. The companies are up for grabs as going concerns from the Anil Ambani stable under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process. They include RCom, Reliance Telecom (which has the spectrum), and Reliance Telecom Infrastructure which houses the tower and fibre assets. Read More

4. Karvy Group's mistakes likely to cost firm stock broking business

When the issue of delay in client payouts started figuring in social media posts a couple of weeks earlier, C Parthasarathy, chairman and managing director of Karvy Group, told his stockbroker group in Hyderabad that everything was alright with his business. He continued to be in denial of any issues or actions of a non-compliant nature involving Karvy Stock Broking (KSBL) even after the Stock Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi)’s Friday order. Read More

5. Paytm raises a billion dollars at a valuation of $16 bn, plans expansion

In a mega funding round, Paytm, the country’s top financial technology entity, has raised a billion dollars (Rs 7,200 crore), at a valuation of $16 billion, from existing shareholders Ant Financial, Softbank Vision Fund and also new investors, including funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price Associates, among others. Read More

6. DoT sets up committee to examine the impact of telecom tariff hike

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has set up an internal committee to examine the impact of the increase in tariff hikes that Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Jio have announced and will come into effect on December 1. It is learnt that even though the subject is under forbearance (meaning market forces to operate), the government may intervene if the rise is ‘exorbitant’. Read More

7. Submit Maharashtra Governor letter on govt formation today: SC to Centre

The Supreme Court on Sunday asked the Centre to place before it by 10.30 am on Monday morning the letter of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari inviting Devendra Fadnavis, as also the letters the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader submitted, staking his claim to form the government in the state, including the letter of support that Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP’s) Ajit Pawar furnished. Read More

8. Post Karvy, Sebi looks to impose limits on brokers

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is examining if brokers should be barred from offering clearing and settlement services, after the regulator found Karvy Stock Broking had illegally sold client stocks pledged to it for loans, Mint reported. 

9. Indian economy is firming up, banking system safe: SBI, HDFC Bank chiefs

There is no cause for despair about the Indian economy though it is going through a phase of slowdown, said two top-most bankers of the country in a fireside chat at the Business Standard Annual Banking Forum last Friday. Companies have started enquiring about fresh loans, and there are signs that economic recovery is taking shape, according to Rajnish Kumar, chairman of country’s largest, public-sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI), and Aditya Puri, managing director of the largest private-sector bank, HDFC Bank. Read More

10. Rs 4,000 crore PF scam: Yogi govt underwrites 'illegal' investment in DHFL

Averting a major showdown with the Uttar Pradesh power employees on the illegal investment of their provident fund (PF) in Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), the Yogi Adityanath government has announced to underwrite the outstanding corpus. Read More