1. Goldman Sachs in Talks to Acquire Stake in Royal Sundaram
Top American investment bank Goldman Sachs is in talks to acquire a stake in Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co. Ltd, the insurance business of financial services group Sundaram Finance Ltd, through one of its private equity funds, said two people aware of the development.
Royal Sundaram offers motor, health, personal accident, home and travel insurance to individual customers and offers specialized insurance products for fire, marine, engineering, liability and business interruption risks to commercial customers.
Royal Sundaram also offers products designed specifically for small and medium enterprises and rural customers.
“Royal Sundaram has been in the market to sell a significant minority stake to bring on a partner to help fund the growth of the business. One of the financial investors that has shown interest in picking up a stake is Goldman Sachs. The two parties are engaged in discussions,” said one of the persons cited above, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to speak with the media.
(Source: Livemint)
2. Tiger Global Slowly Steps up Pace of India Investments
Tiger Global Management is slowly increasing its pace of investments in start-ups after reaping attractive returns from share sales in Flipkart and Ola.
Once the most prolific start-up investor, Tiger had almost entirely stopped investing in the past two years after its rosy investment thesis on the consumer internet business did not play out.
Instead, the New York-based firm shifted its attention to getting out of some of its riskiest investments.
But in the past six months, Tiger Global has invested in six of its existing portfolio companies, the highest since it suddenly pulled the plug on start-up investments at the end of 2015.
(Source: Livemint)
3. Nearly 2% of Jan Dhan Accounts Closed Since Its Launch in 2014
Fifty-nine lakh bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) have been closed since the launch of the scheme in 2014, Shiv Pratap Shukla, minister of state in the ministry of finance, told the Rajya Sabha.
This constitutes about 1.9 percent of the 31.2 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened till 28 February 2018.
Shukla attributed some of the closures to upgradation to other categories of savings accounts, without specifying how many of them have seen such upgrades.“Some of the Jan Dhan accounts are closed due to conversion of Jan Dhan accounts into normal savings account as per request of the account-holder,” the minister said in a written response to a question.
(Source: Financial Express)
4. India Beats Japan to Emerge Second Largest Steel Maker
Superseding Japan, India has now emerged as the second-largest steelmaker in the world. With China on top, India had been holding the number three slot for the third year in a row till 2017.
A spectacular 3.4 percent rise in production to 8.4 million tonne (mt) compared with Japan’s 0.5 percent output fall to 8.2 mt in February made India’s production second highest not just for the month, but for the January-February period of the current year as well.
Japan had produced more than India in all preceding months including in January 2018. While China is miles ahead of others in terms of production, the gap between Japan and India was narrowing in the past few years. Japan produced 104.7 mt steel in 2017 compared with India’s 101.4 mt.
(Source: Financial Express)
5. Govt Bows to Bond Market, to Borrow Less in April-September FY19
The government chose to borrow a smaller portion of its annual target in the first half of the next fiscal year, departing from its usual practice, amid rising yields and diminishing demand for government securities.
It also expects to borrow around Rs 50,000 crore less than its Rs 6.05 trillion market borrowing plan announced in the budget for the year starting 1 April by reducing bond buybacks and increasing its borrowing from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).
On Monday, the government said that it will raise Rs 2.88 trillion by selling bonds in the six months to 30 September, about 48 percent of its budgeted amount for the full fiscal year. This is the lowest first-half borrowing in the last 10 years in percentage terms, according to State Bank of India research.
(Source: Livemint)
6. Yes Bank Likely to See Long-Term Trends Remain Intact
The recent under performance in Yes Bank’s (YES) stock has been triggered by concerns of worsening asset quality amid tightening regulations.
YES has robust resolution processes and will be able to recover the bulk of its stressed assets. The strong corporate loan growth, while opportunistic, is driven with a specific strategy in mind.
In time, focus on growing granular assets would regain importance as the current opportunity subsides. In the medium term, YES will likely report contained slippages, sharply reduced diver gencein the next RBI supervision and improved risk adjusted returns. These would drive stock returns.
(Source: Financial Express)
7. UPI-Based Upstarts Giving Mastercard, Visa a Run for Their Money
Global card companies like Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are losing market share to upstarts in the world’s most innovative payments market: India.
Transactions through the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI—which allows mobile apps run by retailers, airlines and other firms to take payment directly from bank accounts—reached almost half the value of debit and credit cards swiped at stores last month, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.
The surge in UPI transactions has taken place since 2016 when the interface was set up by an umbrella organization of domestic banks. Mastercard, in contrast, has built up its business in the country over three decades.
(Source: Livemint)
8. Sensex Rises 1.4% as Public Sector Bank Stocks Rally; Nifty up 132 Points
The Indian markets rebounded on Monday due to the easing of global trade tensions and heavy buying in banking stocks. Investors took comfort from the global movement, with most Asian markets closing with gains, European markets opening in the black and the futures market pointing to a strong opening on Wall Street as fears of a trade war between the US and China eased.
The Sensex gained 470 points, or 1.4 percent, to close at 33,066. The Nifty rose 132.6 points, or 1.3 percent, to 10,130. The Nifty had closed below 10,000 for the first time in nearly six months on Friday.
Public sector banks gained the most on Monday with the Nifty PSU Bank index rising 4.94 percent, and the Nifty Bank index advancing 2.42 percent.
Monday’s rally comes as a relief for the Indian markets, which faced heavy selling pressure since February.
(Source: Business Standard)
9. JSW Denied Essar Steel Bid
Sajjan Jindal, chairman and managing director of JSW Group, on Monday said his company was not allowed to place a bid for Essar Steel Ltd as the lenders did not want to re-open bids and give out “advertisements in the newspapers”.
“In their discretion, they thought they do not want to give a new entrant a chance. If they do not want more money then it is up to them,” Jindal said.
On Wednesday, lenders to Essar Steel decided to re-open bidding for the debt-ridden steel maker after declaring ArcelorMittal and Numetal Mauritius Ltd ineligible. However, they decided to restrict this to the six firms that had submitted expressions of interest.
(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.)