1. Billionaire Ambani Topples Jack Ma as Asia's Richest Person
Mukesh Ambani overtook Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma to become Asia’s richest person as he positions Reliance Industries Ltd to disrupt the e-commerce space in India.
The chairman of India’s refining-to-telecoms conglomerate, Ambani was estimated to be worth $44.3 billion on Friday, 13 July with Reliance Industries Ltd rising 1.6 percent to a record 1,099.8 rupees, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ma’s wealth stood at $44 billion at the close of trading Friday in the US, where the company is listed.
Ambani has added $4 billion to his fortune this year as Reliance doubled its petrochemicals capacity and investors cheered the success of his disruptive telecom upstart Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. Then earlier this month, the tycoon unveiled plans to leverage his 215 million telecom subscribers to expand his e-commerce offerings, taking on the likes of Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Ma has lost $1.4 billion in 2018.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
2. Not A Good News For Amazon, Google, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter! Here Is What Income Tax Dept Is Planning
Seeking to tax overseas online companies deriving economic value in India, the I-T department today sought industry views on the revenue and user thresholds to determine if they have ‘significant economic presence’ in the country. Companies like Amazon, Google , Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, provide online services and have large user base in India.
Through the Finance Act, 2018, the government had introduced the concept of ‘Significant Economic Presence’ (SEP) in the Income Tax Act under Section 9(1)(i) for taxation of non-residents in India by increasing the scope of the definition of ‘business connection’. The definition clarified that a non-resident’s SEP in India shall constitute ‘business connection’ of the non-resident in India.
(Source: Financial Express)
3. IHH Bags Fortis For ₹4,000 Cr
Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) has approved IHH Healthcare Berhad's proposal to invest Rs 4,000 crore through preferential allotment at the rate of Rs 170 per share.
Malaysia-based IHH Healthcare has trumped Manipal-TPG combine to emerge as the winner in the race to acquire a stake in the beleaguered FHL group.
“The proposed investment of Rs 4,000 crore offers a comprehensive equity solution addressing Fortis’ liquidity requirements, obligations towards RHT acquisition and providing an exit to private equity investors of SRL,” the company's filing to the stock exchanges said.
(Source: Business Line)
4. PNB Aims For Biggest Bank Profit After Nirav Modi Fraud
Punjab National Bank that saw its earnings wiped out by an unprecedented fraud aims to report the nation’s biggest bank profit by selling some assets, according to people familiar with the matter.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) is targeting net income of more than Rs 5,000 crore ($730 million) for the three months through 30 September, boosted by asset sales and bad-loan recoveries, the people said. Much of the record earnings will come from a planned sale of PNB’s stake in its housing finance unit, they added, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
The 124-year-old PNB is trying to regain its financial health and credibility following the uncovering of a $2 billion fraud this year. The scam caused it to slip one spot to become India’s third-largest state-run bank by assets and analysts, including those at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, cut profit estimates for the lender.
(Source: Livemint)
5. India’s Trade Deficit Soars To Five-Year High In June
India’s trade deficit in June widened the most in five years on the back of a surge in crude oil imports.
The trade deficit – the gap between exports and imports – stood 28 percent higher over a year ago period at $16.6 billion, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce. That was led by a 56.6 percent surge in imports of petroleum products, the data showed. India imports about two-third of its oil needs.
Inbound shipments grew 21.3 percent from last year in June to $44.3 billion. Crude and petroleum products continued to inflate the import bill, followed by higher incoming shipments of machinery, coal. Imports of pearls and precious stones, however, declined last month.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
6. Netflix Subscriber Growth Faces Test After $43 Billion Rally
Netflix Inc will get a chance next week to validate the more than $40 billion added to its market value since the company’s blowout earnings report in April.
The main question hanging over Netflix’s second-quarter results – much like the first – is whether the company can add enough streaming subscribers to satisfy investors, whose bullish bets have made the stock the second-best performer in the S&P 500 Index this year. Netflix silenced critics in the first quarter, adding almost 1 million more subscribers than analysts projected. But analysts have made that task more difficult in recent months by raising subscriber estimates, even as some question the stock’s valuation.
“It’s possible expectations have gotten ahead of themselves,” Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen said in a research note ahead of the results. “It may take a solid beat to keep the stock momentum going.”
(Source: BloombergQuint)
7. Bank Of Baroda Gets Shareholders’ Nod To Raise Up To Rs 6,000 Cr
Public sector lender Bank of Baroda on Friday, 13 July, said it had received approval from shareholders to raise up to Rs 6,000 crore through equity capital by way of either qualified institutional placement (QIP), a follow-on public offer (FPO), preferential issue, rights issue, ADR-GDR, private placement, compulsorily convertible debentures or a combination of these.
“The shareholders approved the capital raising at the 22nd Annual General Meeting of the bank that was held today (Friday) at Sayajirao Nagargriha, Akota, Vadodara,” the bank said in a statement. The bank’s capital adequacy ratio under Basel-III norms stood at 12.13% at the end of March quarter of FY18.
(Source: Financial Express)
8. Life Insurers See 15% Rise In New Premium In June
New premium collection of life insurance companies rose by nearly 15 percent to Rs 16,611.57 crore in June compared to the same month last year, according to data released by India’s insurance regulator.
All the 24 life insurers had written new gross premium of Rs 14,466.13 crore in June 2017.
New business premium of Life Insurance Corporation of India, the largest and the only state-owned life insurer, expanded by 6.9 percent to Rs 11,167.82 crore during the month against Rs 10,450.47 crore in the same month a year earlier 2017, the data released by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority showed.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. Infosys Begins FY19 On A Dismal Note, Misses Estimates In Q1
Infosys Ltd reported weak first-quarter earnings on Friday, 13 July, as both revenue and profits were lower than analysts’ expectations, marking a slow start to the financial year even as the company jettisoned its practice of giving a full-year dollar revenue guidance.
However, despite reporting weak earnings in a quarter that generally sees more business for IT firms, Infosys rewarded shareholders with a 1:1 bonus issue. The board also inducted Mike Gibbs, chief information officer at oil giant BP Plc, as an independent director for three years, taking the total board strength to nine, including six independent directors.
(Source: Livemint)
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