QBiz: Vedanta’s Sterlite Plant Closure ‘May Cost $100 Mn’ & More
Here are the top business stories of the day.
1. Flipkart, Hotstar Join Hands for Ad Platform
India’s largest online retailer Flipkart has forged an alliance with video streaming service Hotstar and launched a video advertisement platform on Friday, 20 July — part of a broader strategy to generate more revenue from the booming video advertising business.
The new platform, Shopper Audience Network, will allow brands to target consumers through personalised video ads on Hotstar. Flipkart plans to leverage data from its massive user base and help brands connect with potential consumers using these targeted ads.
(Source: Livemint)
2. Bajaj Finance Sees ‘Large Growth Opportunity’ If Risk Ratios Remain Healthy
Consumer finance company Bajaj Finance Ltd expects an income growth of least 22-23 percent this year.
“We remain in the business of risk, not in the business of lending. If risk metrics and ratios are not representing a risk to us, the opportunity is very, very large,” Bajaj Finance Managing Director Rajeev Jain told BloombergQuint in a post-earnings interaction.
The Pune-based non-banking finance company reported an 81 percent year-on-year jump in its net profit to Rs 835.9 crore in the June quarter.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
3. 15th Finance Commission May Need to Work Like It's the First: Subramanian
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on Friday stressed the importance of the 15th Finance Commission in dealing with Centre-state issues even as India comes to terms with the common market formed through the goods and services tax (GST), as a result of which taxation powers have shifted more in favour of the Centre.
He suggested there was much to learn from the lessons of economic integration in Europe while dealing with India’s unique concerns.
(Source: Business Standard)
4. Sterlite Copper Plant Shutdown Could Cost $100 Million: Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal
Vedanta Ltd would suffer a loss of about $100 million if its Thoothukudi Sterlite copper plant in Tamil Nadu continues to remain shut for a year, chairman Anil Agarwal told television channel ET Now on Friday.
The Sterlite copper plant has been shut since May after the Tamil Nadu government cut power supply to the unit, following violent protests over alleged pollution resulted in the death of 13 people in police firing.
Vedanta has sought a permanent injunction against the state government from interfering with the operations of its copper smelter, according to a petition filed with the country’s environmental court.
(Source: Livemint)
5. Tata Motors in Talks to Sell Engineering Unit Stake
Tata Motors Ltd, the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, has restarted talks on the sale of a stake in its engineering unit just months after a deal with Warburg Pincus was called off, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The carmaker has started preliminary discussions with a private equity firm that expressed interest in buying a stake in Singapore-headquartered Tata Technologies Ltd, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Tata Motors plans to use proceeds from the sale on capital expenditures for its domestic automotive business, one of the people said.
(Source: Livemint)
6. Trump Ready to Put Tariffs on $500 Billion of Chinese Imports, CNBC Reports
US President Donald Trump on Friday, 20 July said he was poised to impose tariffs on $500 billion of goods from China, threatening in an interview with CNBC to escalate the current trade clash with the Asian nation.
“We’re down a tremendous amount,” Trump said in the interview, which was recorded on Thursday, about trade imbalances with China. “I’m ready to go to 500.”
(Source: Moneycontrol)
7. SEBI Pushes Large Corporates to Borrow More From the Bond Markets
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has joined the effort to diversify borrowings of Indian corporates by asking them to raise at least a quarter of their incremental funds from the bond markets.
Policymakers, including the government and the Reserve Bank of India, have been pushing the case for bond market borrowings as a way to reduce the concentration of risk in the banking sector. Large corporate borrowings have contributed nearly 80 percent of the bad loans in the current cycle. To prevent a repeat of this in future years and to push for greater transparency in borrowings, regulators want corporates to borrow more from the bond markets.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
8. NPCI Asks Banks to Stop Aadhaar-Based Payments via UPI, IMPS
The National Payments Corporation of India asked banks to discontinue Aadhaar-based payments through the real-time Unified Payments Interface and Immediate Payment System.
The umbrella body of India’s payment systems asked banks to remove the ‘Pay to Aadhaar’ functionality both as remitter and beneficiary from 31 August, according to a circular dated 17 July reviewed by BloombergQuint. All interfaces that currently offer this functionality, such as UPI and third-party apps, have been asked to remove the option.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. Microsoft Boosts Cloud Belief and Shares With Results
Microsoft Corp’s earnings report and forecast cheered investors, providing further evidence the company can increase cloud sales and squeeze more profit from the area while cutting into Amazon.com Inc’s massive industry lead. The shares rose to a record.
Profit and revenue in the period ended 30 June exceeded analysts’ estimates, as did Microsoft’s projection for cloud sales in the current quarter. Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood pledged that commercial cloud margins would improve overall and for each of the products that make up the area —Azure, Office 365 and cloud-based customer software.
(Source: Livemint)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)