QBiz: Vedanta-Adani $9 Bn Mine Bid; TRAI May Reject Jio’s ITR Call

The Quint’s roundup of the top business news of the day.

Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo: The Quint)

1. Vedanta, Adani May Bid for $9 Billion Madhya Pradesh Diamond Mine Left by Rio Tinto

Indian resources conglomerates Adani and Vedanta are considering bidding for a $9 billion diamond project in the country that was abandoned by global miner Rio Tinto this year, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

Madhya Pradesh was likely to invite bids in the first week of November to explore the deposit, which is estimated to hold around 32 million carats of diamonds, a senior state government official said.

“We’re advertising only for that area in which (Rio Tinto) have prospected and established availability of diamonds,” Manohar Lal Dubey, Madhya Pradesh’s top mineral resources official, told Reuters by phone.

(Source: Livemint)

2. TRAI May Reject Reliance Jio's Demand to Slash ITR

The telecom regulator is unlikely to reduce international termination rates (ITR) – a charge paid by operators to networks that receive calls – to the level of the local equivalent, as demanded by Reliance Jio, because the method of calculating costs varies in both cases.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India slashed the local interconnection usage charge (IUC) – paid by operators from where calls originate – by 57 percent to 6 paise a minute from 1 October.

(Source: The Economic Times)

3. Asia’s Oldest Railway Opens Door to Private Steel Producers

Indian Railways has floated a global tender to procure rails, a move that may end the monopoly of state-run supplier Steel Authority of India Ltd as Asia’s oldest network seeks to plug a supply shortfall.

The state-run freight and passenger carrier is seeking to buy 700,000 metric tons of rails for track upgrades, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said.

The move will ensure steady supplies and competitive prices. Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, one of the biggest non-state steelmaker, may benefit as it’s the only other local producer of this grade, according to Goutam Chakraborty, an analyst at Emkay Global Financial Services.

(Source: BloombergQuint)

4. ICICI Bank Now Awaits RBI Litmus Test on Bad Loan Divergence

ICICI Bank Ltd dodged a bullet in the September quarter on the asset quality front as the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) report card on the lender’s books was not out.

The central bank’s report will state which loans need to be termed toxic as of March 2017. Recall that a similar exercise for fiscal year 2016 (FY16) had thrown up substantial divergences between RBI and banks on bad loans. Then, ICICI Bank had under-reported bad loans to the tune of Rs 5,105 crore for FY16, according to the RBI report.

This report card is out for Axis Bank Ltd and YES Bank Ltd, and disclosed that both lenders had grossly under-reported bad loans in FY17.

(Source: Livemint)

5. Bank Recap Plan ‘Appropriate’, Has No Fiscal and Monetary Strain, Says YV Reddy

Former Reserve Bank of India Governor YV Reddy on Friday welcomed the government's Rs 2.11 trillion recapitalisation plan for state-run banks as a “perfectly appropriate” decision acceptable from a fiscal and monetary standpoint.

“The solution that is being done is different, perfectly appropriate. In fact it could have been done before also but for whatever reason it is being done now. In terms of fiscal and monetjavascript:void(0)ary implications, this is acceptable,” he told reporters in Mumbai.

(Source: PTI)

6. ITC’s Margin Contracts, Says Demand Remains Sluggish After GST

ITC Ltd said its two main businesses – cigarettes and consumer goods – remain under pressure as it reported subdued quarterly earnings.

Demand for fast-moving consumer goods remains sluggish after the Goods and Services Tax disrupted the distribution channel, the company said in a statement. The cigarette segment, which contributes half of its revenue, is also under “tremendous pressure from sharp increase in taxes over the last few quarters”, it said.

(Source: BloombergQuint)

7. Dassault to Invest €100 Million In Indian Venture With Reliance

French major Dassault Aviation will invest over 100 million euros in a joint venture with Reliance Aerospace to manufacture aircraft components as part of the ‘offset obligation’ connected to the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.

The Dassault-Reliance joint venture represents the largest ever foreign direct investment in the defence sector in India, the companies said in a joint statement.

(Source: PTI)

8. State-Run Fuel Retailers Indian Oil , HPCL, BPCL Expand LPG Supply Network

Fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd are expanding their network of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) dealerships by appointing more than 6000 new distributors, the oil ministry said on Friday.

This will mainly be in rural areas and in addition to the locations for which selection has already been made and the process of commissioning distributorship is underway, the ministry said in a statement.

(Source: Livemint)

9. Anil Khaitan Is New PHD Chamber President

Anil Khaitan, Chairman of SNK Corp, has taken over as the new president of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry following the conclusion of its 112th Annual Session in New Delhi on Thursday.

Khaitan, an MBA from IMI, Geneva, has diversified business experience in jute, paper, pharmaceutical, copper and steel, apart from the international operations, a PHD Chamber release said. Prior to becoming the President of the PHD Chamber, Khaitan was its Senior Vice President.

(Source: The Hindu)