1. TCS Announces Rs 2,628 cr Bonus for Employees – PTI
Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software services firm, announced on Thursday that it will give out a one-time bonus to employees that will cost it Rs 2,628 crore.
TCS will pay employees a Special Reward or a one-time bonus to mark the 10th anniversary of the company’s initial public offering in August 2004.
– Company said in a statement
Each employee will be given a reward equivalent to one week’s salary for every year of service completed at TCS.
2. Ola Raises Rs 2,500 cr; Eyes Growth in Tier II & III Cities - PTI
App-based taxi aggregator Ola said on Thursday that it has raised $ 400 million (about Rs 2,500 crore) from a clutch of investors led by DST Global as it eyes expansion into smaller cities across India.
Post this round, the firm would have raised close to $800 million. Last year in October, it had raised $210 million from a group of investors led by Japan’s SoftBank.
Ola plans to utilise the funds to expand to 200 cities from 100 by the year-end as well as ramp up its technology base.
3. KKR Exits Bharti Infratel, at Big Profit - ET
American private equity fund KKR has sold its entire 2.5% stake in Bharti Infratel, taking advantage of the rising valuation of the telecom tower company owned by India’s largest mobile telephony company by subscribers and revenue Bharti Airtel, reported the Economic Times.
KKR, which invested $250 million in Bharti Infratel in 2008, exited through block trades in the stock market, reaping 80% return in rupee terms. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the PE may have raised about Rs 1,700 crore from share sale as Bharti Infratel stock has been mostly in the range of Rs 375-390 over the past one month.
4. For FIIs, India’s Still Top of the EM Investment Charts - ET
India continues to be the hottest investment destination for foreign institutional investors as they have pumped in $6.34 billion into equities so far this year, the highest among the emerging markets universe on expectations that the country’s economy will fire on all cylinders soon, reported the Economic Times.
India has managed to attract the highest inflow worth $6.34 billion so far this year, followed by markets like Mexico which witnessed inflows worth $4.83 billion, Brazil $4.63 billion, South Korea $4.40 billion, and Taiwan at $3.34 billion.
India has become the most attractive investment destination in the emerging markets pack as the IMF and World Bank projections suggest that India will outpace China in growth this year.
– said Bruno Verstraete, Managing Partner at Lakefield Partners
5. Steady, Regular Reforms Are What We Are Engaged In: Raghuram Rajan, RBI - FE
Arguing against “big bang unthinking reforms”, Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said the central bank is instead focused on implementing “steady regular reforms at a measured pace”, that would also lead to a fully convertible rupee and a completely open capital account, according to the Financial Express.
Read the rest of the interview here.
6. LIC Bets Heavily On PSU Stocks - FE
Life Insurance Corporation of India, the biggest domestic institutional investor , is on a shopping spree with an inclination towards PSUs.
The insurance giant raised its stake in Coal India by 4.65% to 7.42% by participating in the offer for sale through which the government reduced its stake in the coal producer by 10%. And is believed to have coughed out Rs 10,200 crore to more than double its stake in Coal India.
Apart from that it also went it for some oher big purchases in the quarter like, UCO Bank and Bank of India in which it upped stake by 7.52% and 2.4% respectively. Other PSU banks where LIC increased its ownership include Union Bank (stake raised by 1.26%), Canara Bank (0.89%) and Andhra Bank (0.53%).
7. Amazon Does a ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ to Woo Small Biz online - DNA
Taking a cue from the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s chai pe charcha initiative, e-marketplace operator Amazon.in is working on getting small business owners to enrol on its platform and sell online, reported the DNA.
The project called ‘Amazon Chai Carts’ at Panchkula in Haryana aims at building conversations with local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and sellers, create awareness about e-commerce and persuade them to take their ventures online.
8. India Has Potential To Grow At 10%: Jaitley - PTI
India has the potential to make 9 to 10% growth rate “a new normal”, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday, asserting that high growth was essential to meet the challenges posed by the country’s burgeoning young population, reported the Hindustan Times.
“India has the potential to make 9 to 10% its new normal in the years to come,” Jaitley said in his keynote address at the daylong conference.
9. Dow Jones-BSE Joint Venture Firm Unveils New Indices
Investors tracking the BSE can now access a slew of new indices, provided by Asia Index Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between S&P Dow Jones Indices and the BSE, reported the Hindu.
The major addition to the list of new indices is the S&P BSE AllCap Index. This is a broad index, whose constituents have an average daily total market cap of over Rs 150 crore. The index has a minimum stock count of 700, representing 95 per cent of total market capitalisation.
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