Page 94 - Business Finance

Porsche to recall over 42,000 cars

Porsche will recall more than 42,000 vehicles sold in the Chinese market due to potential fire risks, Xinhua reported on Sunday.

Shalimar Paints poised for turnaround in FY'20

Shalimar Paints Ltd, the country's oldest paint manufacturer, was aiming for a turnaround in the current fiscal after passing through financial turbulence in the last few years, a top company official said. The company had incurred huge financial losses owing to multiple reasons, including incidents of fire in Howrah and Nashik factories in 2014 and 2016 respectively, he said. It had impacted business operations leading to lower production and sales, lower margins, higher working capital cycle and reduced engagement with channel partners. "We will be back in profit for the full year in the current fiscal. We are aiming at Rs 450 crore topline in 2019 -20," Shalimar Paints vice-chairman Ashok Kr Gupta told PTI. He, however did not quantify the profits the management was aiming at. Asked about the strategy and drivers for growth, he said, "We have to be in profit for survival by working in all directions." With the company being able to overcome working capital constraints

Jaypee Infratech home buyers may stop paying EMIs

As the voting process on the NBCC's bid for Jaypee Infratech (JIL) ends on Monday, with no signs of the public sector enterprise getting through, sources say, home buyers plan to stop paying the ongoing EMIs (equated monthly installment) as many of them have "lost hope of a resolution".

Timely clearance of goods at ports, availability of credit to help increase export: TPCI

The government should take six concrete steps such as reducing cost and time of port clearance for goods and enhancing availability of credit with a view to boost exports, TPCI said Sunday. Suggesting the six point agenda to push exports, Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) said identifying new product basket which can easily find world market would have inherent advantage over India's global competitors. Besides, it asked for promotion of Indian products to new and emerging markets creating a national portal for global trade inquires and providing incentives to exporters based on their performances. "Indian port charges should be reduced as it make exports less competitive compared to rest of the world. India has one of the highest port charges, number of days for port clearance and delivery as compared to our major competitors," TPCI Chairman Mohit Singla said in a statement. The logistic cost per kilometer of road transport for India is high as compared to China, Bangladesh, ...

Lenovo India bags order from Tamil Nadu for 1.5 mn laptops

Lenovo India has bagged an order from the Tamil Nadu government for providing over 1.5 million laptops to students in the state, according to a company official. "We have won a large order from the Tamil Nadu government for supplying over 1.56 million laptops for free distribution to students in the state. This entire order is expected to be completed over the next few months," Lenovo India Director (Commercial Named Account Business) Stephen Sequeira told PTI. He, however, declined to comment on the financial details of the deal. Sequeira said state-owned ELCOT - the nodal agency for procuring electronic hardware and software for the state government and its schemes - finalised the tender where Lenovo outbid the other brands. Talking about the other initiatives, Sequeira said, the company has launched the second variant of its ThinkShield cyber security solutions. ThinkShield is Lenovo's portfolio of secure 'Think' devices, software, processes, and services. "ThinkShield goes beyond .

SIAM, CII urge govt to hold wider consultations, follow practical approach on electric vehicles

The government should follow a well laid out roadmap and a practical time frame for rollout of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country, auto industry body SIAM said Sunday. Industry chamber CII also said the government should carry out wider consultations before finalisation of goals and time lines for electric mobility. "What is required is a well laid out roadmap for an ambitious EV rollout over a practical time frame along with an integrated plan for setting up the necessary infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country, in consultation with all stake holders," Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Rajan Wadhera said in a statement. Both the bodies were reacting to reports that the government was planning to ban sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) three-wheelers by 2023 and less than 150 cc two-wheelers by 2025. SIAM said the industry fully supports the ambitious aspiration of the Niti Aayog to bring in electric mobility in the country as ...

Nailed RBI turns blase on IL&FS charge sheet despite court acceptance (IANS Exclusive)

During his policy review last week, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das denied having received any SFIO investigative report on IL&FS -- "We are not aware of the SFIO charge sheet, if any authority refers it to us, we will look at it." Almost around the same time (on Friday) the Mumbai Sessions Court accepted the charge sheet filed by SFIO. A case of forefinger not knowing what thumb is doing. This charge sheet has brought to light the inspection report by RBI for FY 2016-17 which has revealed a series of flaws in IL&FS managements conduct and the central banks strange refusal to enforce failsafe measures highlighted by it.

Natco Pharma bullish on India, Brazil, Canada biz for FY20

Natco Pharma expects India, Brazil and Canada markets to be its revenue drivers during the current financial year, recording growth of 30 per cent to 40 per cent, according to a top company executive. The India business alone was likely to grow by about 15 per cent to 20 per cent, Natco Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Nannapaneni has said. "...the second driver will be Brazil, so Brazil did not do well for many years, so we had some very good launches this year and so that should drive earnings," he said replying to a query during a recently held Earnings Call of the company. Talking about Canada, he said Natco was anticipating a couple of launches and a couple of "favourable settlements". If they all come through, the city-based drug maker expected the three markets to grow at 30 per cent to 40 per cent, he added. ...India is expecting about eight to 10 launches this year. Brazil we are expecting about three to four launches. Canada also we are ...

Student housing startup Stanza Living to invest Rs 250 cr for expansion in 7 new cities

Stanza Living, which is into student housing, has chalked out an investment plan of Rs 250 crore to enter and expand its operations in seven new cities. Established in 2017, Stanza Living already has operations in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Jaipur with 12,000 beds. Now, the company has initially launched 10,000 beds in seven new cities -- Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Indore, Pune, Baroda and Dehradun. With entry in these seven cities, the company has reached a national inventory of 22,000 beds across 10 cities. It has set a target to reach over one lakh beds by 2021. "We have earmarked Rs 250 crore for expansion of our operations in seven new cities," Stanza Living co-founder Anindya Dutta told PTI. The company has set up 60 hostels comprising 10,000 beds initially in these seven cities and looking to add more, Dutta said. Stanza Living had posted a ten-fold jump in its revenue to Rs 20 crore during the last fiscal and, is targeting to grow its revenue through expansion. "We aim to ..

NBFC wounds need salve (Column: Market Watch)

Markets began the week on a strong note and registered new lifetime highs on June 3. They surrendered some of the gains on the same day and all of it and a little more by the end of the week to register minor losses. The four-day trading week saw BSE Sensex close at 39615.90 points a loss of 98.30 points or 0.25 per cent, while NIFTY closed at 11,870.65 points a loss of 52.15 points or 0.44 per cent.

WNS plans USD37 mn capex this fiscal to add capacity

Business process outsourcing company WNS is investing USD 37 million in various expansion activities in fiscal 2020, including building new centres, a top official has said. The city-based company, which employs over 35,000 globally, will also continue investing in technologies, chief executive Keshav Murugesh told PTI here in a recent interaction. With respect to capital expenditure, we plan to spend up to USD 37 million in the current fiscal year, he said. The investments will be for setting up new centers and expanding the existing ones, he said, citing Gurgaon, Mumbai and Pune as some centres where it will expand. The company is also planning to ramp up its focus on international markets by increasing its presence in the US and the Philippines, he said, adding unlike the IT services sector, it is not impacted by visa regulations in the US. Murugesh said the company has been hiring local talent wherever needed for a long time now and has also been using centres in ...

DIPAM seeks EoI from global realty consultants for asset monetization of CPSEs

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has sought Expression of Interests (EoI) from international property consultancy firms or normal consultants to offer advisory services in its CPSE land and building asset monetization drive to set the process of non-core asset selling to generate revenues .

Cut down on contract labour: BSNL to circles

State run BSNL, which is trying to overcome liquidity crunch and financial squeeze, has undertaken fresh measures to cut avoidable expenditures on contract labour and do a cost-benefit analysis of the legacy landline and broadband exchanges as well as towers to achieve network optimisation.

Pak economic growth expected to hit 3.3 per cent, well below target of 6.3 per cent: Survey

Pakistan's economic growth in the financial year ending in June is expected to hit 3.3 per cent, well below the target of 6.3 per cent, as the government failed to meet targets in nearly all sectors, according to the Economic Survey. The details of the Economic Survey of 2018-19, scheduled to be officially released a day before the next year's budget on June 11, were published by Dawn on Sunday. The survey indicates that livestock is the only sector whose growth went slightly above the official target while all other sectors performed below expectation, the report said. A sharp decline was witnessed in the industrial sector that registered a growth of 1.4 per cent against the target of 7.6 per cent despite the fact that power generation witnessed an increase as several power plants and other power sector projects were completed. Also, the manufacturing sector slid by 0.3 per cent and the large scale manufacturing (LSM) showed a negative growth of 2 per cent against the target 8.1 per .

Need a relook at tax on hybrid vehicles in India: Toyota

Hybrid vehicle sales in India are restricted by high taxation and unless it is reduced, volumes of such cars will remain low, a top official of Toyota Kirloskar Motor said. The company, which has been advocating technology agnostic approach towards popularisation of clean energy fuels, said under the current circumstances further investments on hybrid vehicles in India are not feasible. "If we have to popularise hybrid technology in India we need to look at that taxation system," Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Managing Director Masakazu Yoshimura told PTI in an interview. The total tax incidence on hybrid vehicles is 43 per cent, which is inclusive of GST, he said. TKM currently sells its Camry hybrid priced at Rs 37.50 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). It is assembled at the company's Bidadi plant in Karnataka. When asked if the current tax structure is discouraging Toyota from launching more hybrids in India, he said,"We want to bring, we have products (in Toyota's global portfolio) (but) at .

Central Bank of India plans to raise Rs 5,000 cr this fiscal to meet Basel III norms

Central Bank of India (CBI) is planning to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore in the current fiscal through various means, including rights issue and FPO, to meet Basel III norms by March 2020. The bank will raise capital through follow on public offer, rights issue or qualified institutional placement (QIP) and will seek permission from shareholders in the ensuing annual general meeting to be held on June 28, it said in its annual report 2018-19. The bank will create, offer and allot such number of equity shares up to the value of Rs 5,000 crore, whether at a discount or premium to the market price, in one or more tranches, it said. As per the Basel III regulations, Central Bank said, it will be required to maintain minimum common equity tier I ratio of 5.50 per cent and capital conservation buffer of 2.50 per cent in the form of equity capital, and tier I ratio of 9.50 per cent and overall CRAR (capital to risk weighted assets ratio) of 11.50 per cent by March 31, 2020. "The Bank will be ...

Greater participation of MSMEs boosts domestic, global trade: Piyush Goyal at G20

At a meeting of the G20 Summit, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal said that a greater participation of the medium and small scale enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries, like India, will boost the domestic as well as the global trade."A greater participation of MSMEs in developing countries will boost both domestic and global trade because they are crucial for jobs and income generation on which the livelihood of millions is dependent," Goyal said.Goyal made the remarks on Saturday while participating in the G20 ministerial meeting on Trade and Digital Economy, held in the Japanese city of Tsukuba.The meeting focused on the ways to promote trade and cooperation among the G20 countries in order to harness the potential of the digital economy.The Minister also noted that a large number of nations are still struggling to effectively integrate into the global trading system which raises doubts about their efficacy."When we are committing ourselves to promoting ...

Searches resume at J&K Bank corporate headquarters

A team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) resumed searches on Sunday at the corporate headquarters of the J&K Bank here, after completing a nearly 10-hour raid the previous day.

Inflation figures, industrial growth to induce volatility (Market Outlook)

Stormy weather awaits India's key equity indices, as volatility is bound to flare-up on concerns regarding a delayed Monsoon and upcoming macro-economic data points on industrial production and inflation.

China may restrict tech access in spiraling US trade dispute

Chinese state media say the government will create a system to protect China's technology as the US restricts the access of Chinese companies to American technology in a spiraling trade dispute. The People's Daily newspaper said Sunday that the system will build a strong firewall to strengthen the nation's ability to innovate and to accelerate the development of key technologies. No details have been released about what China is calling a national technological security management list. The official Xinhua News Agency says the aim is to forestall and defuse national security risks more effectively. It says detailed measures would be unveiled in the near future. The initiative follows U.S. moves to restrict sales to Huawei Technologies and other Chinese tech firms on national security grounds.