1. Swiggy Raises $1 Billion From Tencent & Others
Swiggy on Thursday, 20 December, said it has received $1 billion funding from technology investor Naspers and a clutch of other funds in what is considered the single largest investment in the domestic food delivery service industry.
In June, Swiggy raised $210 million from the same investors, taking the total investment to $1.26 billion and its valuation to about $3.3 billion. The latest Series H round was led by existing investors, Naspers and DST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management, along with new investors Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management Company.
About 80 per cent of the $1-billion funding from Naspers and others will be fresh funds.
According to capital markets and investment group CLSA, the Indian food delivery market is valued at $6 billion and is expected to grow to about $30 billion by 2022.
(Source: The Hindu BusinessLine)
2. Infosys Names Bharti Airtel’s Nilanjan Roy as Its CFO
Infosys Ltd. named Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s long-time executive and Global Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy as its new CFO.
The board of India’s second-largest software services provider appointed Roy from 1 March, according to the company’s exchange filing on 20 December.
He will succeed Mavinakere Dwarakanath Ranganath who resigned four months ago to “pursue professional opportunities in new areas”.
“He (Roy) comes to us with extensive and rich global experience,” Salil Parekh, chief executive officer and managing director at Infosys, said in a statement. “We would like to express our deep appreciation to Jayesh Sanghrajka for taking charge as interim CFO and thank him for ably executing this very important responsibility.”
Sanghrajka will resume responsibilities as deputy CFO from 1 March.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
3. IL&FS To Sell Education, Wealth Management Arms
The Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Group initiated a process to sell its stake in its education and alternative investment management businesses.
The Uday Kotak-led board of the debt-laced lender is selling the group’s stake in IL&FS Education & Technology Services, along with other subsidiary businesses and IL&FS Investment Managers along with all its associated fund management platforms, the company said in a statement.
The education business provides technology services from kindergarten to high school students through its proprietary digital content, devices, platforms and solutions and offers job-linked vocational skill programmes. IIML, on the other hand, manages private equity funds, infra debt funds, among others, and has assets under management of around Rs 13,340 crore.
Earlier this week, the group had put its domestic road assets on sale and last month, it initiated a process to sell its stake in the renewable energy business.
(Source: PTI)
4. Loan Waiver Pledge Causes 24% Rise in MP Farm NPAs
Farm loan waivers are bad news for banks—and for farmers. Anticipating relief, farmers start skipping repayments, impacting bank finances. Banks, in turn, go slow on fresh loans until state governments reimburse the amount written off, which often happens over several years.
This slows down credit supply to farmers, pushing some of them to non-banking sources of loans.
Latest available data shows that farm related non-performing assets in Madhya Pradesh doubled to 10.6 percent of advances in a little over three years between 2014-15 and June 2018. In just a one-year period ending June, NPAs on farm loans in the state rose 24 percent, according to the state-level bankers’ committee.
“It is natural for borrowers to stop paying once they anticipate relief. We are seeing a similar trend in Rajasthan too,” said a senior banker.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. LetsTransport Gets $12 Million Funding
Diptab Ventures Pvt. Ltd, which operates LetsTransport, a logistics marketplace for intra-city deliveries, has raised $12 million (Rs 100 crore) in a Series B funding round from Bertelsmann India Investments and Fosun International.
Bengaluru-based LetsTransport, which counts Rebright Partners, NB Ventures, GMO Venture Partners and Mistui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital among its investors, has raised a total of $18.3 million in three funding rounds so far, including this round.
The start-up plans to utilize the fresh capital to strengthen technology, add new industry verticals, and bolster operations.
LetsTransport competes with logistics start-ups such as Rivigo Services Pvt. Ltd, BlackBuck (Zinga Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd) and Fortigo Network Logistics Pvt. Ltd.
(Source: Livemint)
6. No GST Relief for Luxury Hotels
There will be no tax relief for five-star luxury hotels as the GST Council is unlikely to reduce the 28 percent GST tax on luxury hotels with tariffs of Rs 7,500 and above, officials familiar with the developments said.
Hoteliers have been lobbying for a tax cut for five-star hotels for a while now as they believe it has impacted business and that the 28 percent GST rate makes Indian hotels the most highly taxed in the world.
On 18 December, PM Narendra Modi had said that 99 percent of over 1,200 goods and services will attract 18 percent, or less, goods and services tax.
The GST Council, chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley, will meet on 22 December and has pruned the 28 percent tax slab by cutting rates on 191 goods over the past one and a half years.
Currently, 35 items attract the 28 percent GST tax rate besides services rendered.
(Source: The Economic Times)
7. Govt Seeks Rs 41,000 Crore More for Bank Recapitalisation
The government on Thursday, 20 December, sought Parliament’s approval for supplementary grants worth Rs 41,000 crore to infuse fresh capital into ailing state-run banks in the current fiscal.
The additional capital could help as many as five such state-run banks exit the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework that mandates them to pare lending to companies and cut concentration of loans to certain sectors.
The government had budgeted Rs 65,000 crore for infusion into public sector banks (PSBs) through recapitalization bonds this fiscal, of which Rs 42,000 crore is still to be allotted.
With the additional Rs 41,000 crore of capital infusion by 31 March, the government will be infusing a total Rs 83,000 crore into public sector banks this year.
(Source: Livemint)
8. Rupee Jumps 69 Paise, Settles Below 70-Mark
The rupee strengthened by 69 paise to close at 69.70 against the US dollar on Thursday, 20 December, as the US Federal Reserve raised interest rate but lowered its projection for future hikes.
Declining crude oil prices and sustained selling of the US dollar by exporters and banks gave further impetus to the local unit, forex dealers said.
This is the fourth straight session of gains for the rupee, during which it has rallied by a hefty 220 paise.
Snapping a seven-day rising streak, equity benchmarks finished with mild losses Thursday. The BSE Sensex, which had dropped more than 250 points in morning trade, finally finished 52.66 points, or 0.14 per cent, lower at 36,431.67. The broader NSE Nifty slipped 15.60 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 10,951.70.
(Source: The Indian Express)
9. Gujarat Tops India’s Startup Rankings
Gujarat has emerged as the best performer in developing startup ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, according to the ranking of states done by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
In the ranking process, states have been identified as leaders across various categories such as startup policy, incubation hubs, seeding innovation, scaling innovation, regulatory change champions, procurement leaders, and communication champions.
On the basis of performance in these categories, states have been recognised as best performer, top performers, leaders, aspiring leaders, emerging states and beginners. While Gujarat was the best performer, four states—Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan—made it to the top performers category.
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana - were ranked as leaders.
(Source: PTI)
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