Construction major, GMR Infrastructure Ltd. has announced that it has formed a sub-committee of its board for a possible demerger of its airport business as the company is eyeing on a US$ 100-billion investment opportunity in India. GMR Infrastructure in its exchange filing also said that the company has already received a number of proposals from various investors for the airport business, which are being evaluated and shall be placed at the meeting of the newly constituted sub-committee. According to the company’s statement, the sell-off of the airport business would pave “way for the next phase of growth considering the stated intent of the government for faster privatisation of airports in the country which is a $100-billion investment opportunity.” GMR Infrastructure also reported an Rs. 561 cror

The Reserve Bank of India has removed the limit on investments by foreign portfolio investors in corporate bonds, which was set at  20 per cent. The Reserve Bank in its notification stated, “In order to encourage a wider spectrum of investors to access the Indian corporate debt market, it has been decided to withdraw this provision with immediate effect.” RBI also added that as part of the review of FPI investments in corporate debt undertaken in April 2018, it was stipulated that no FPI should have an exposure of more than 20 per cent of its corporate bond portfolio to a single corporate, including exposure to entities related to the corporate. According to the RBI statement, the provision was meant to incentivising FPIs to maintain a portfolio of assets, market feedback indicates that they instead have

Union Minister Arun Jaitley has finally resumed charge as finance minister today after returning from the US last Saturday. A press release from the President’s office stated, “The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has directed to assign the portfolios of the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs to Shri Arun Jaitley." Jaitley, who had gone for his treatment in the United States, also attended the Cabinet Committee of Security on the Pulwama terror attack which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Arun Jaitley also briefed reporters afterwards. In the previous Saturday, Jaitley had tweeted “Delighted to be back home". He is now scheduled to address the board meeting of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is fixed to take place in New Delhi on 18 February.

Pharmaceutical major Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd witnessed a highly volatile day as the company’s stock tumbled as much as 29.78 per cent during the Friday trading session, reaching its 17 year low. The stock, however, recovered much of its loss and closed with a 4.17 per cent drop. The shares of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. tumbled major;y after the U.S. drug regulator reiterated issues regarding manufacturing standards at its plant in Bachupally, Telangana that supplies to the American market. The facility under observation was inspected between January 30 and February 8 and currently accounts for 40-45 per cent of Dr. Reddy’s sales in the USA. According to the Form 483 issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), the drugmaker received 11 observations on issues ranging from manufacturing p

Jet Airways Ltd. has agreed to trade majority stake to the lender in order to rescue the debt-ridden airline. The airline in its stock exchange filing said that the board, as part of a provisional resolution plan, has agreed to allot 11.4 crore shares at an aggregate value of Re 1 to the lenders’ consortium led by State Bank of India. Jet Airways while asserting that through the conversion, the lenders will end up owning 50.1 per cent in the full-service carrier, stated: “...under the RBI Circular, lenders can convert debt into equity at Rs 1 when the book value per share of a company is negative.” Accordingly, to the conversion plan, Naresh Goyal and Etihad Airways will witness their stakeholding in the airline reduced in half to 25 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. The resolution plan will also g

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) reported their quarterly financial result with a flatline profit in the October-December quarter due to weak crude prices offsetting the profit gain. The net profit of the state-controlled oil and gas marketer stood at Rs 8,263 crores for the December ending quarter as against the net profit of Rs. 8,265 crores in the previous quarter. The oil and gas company, however, reported a 1.05 per cent decline in the total revenue to Rs.  27,694 crores. Although the operating profit of the company went up by 5 per cent to Rs 16,571 crores. Operating margin also expanded to 59.84 per cent from 56.4 per cent in the previous quarter. According to the company’s statement, crude sales were down 2 per cent to 5.37 million metric tonnes sequentially. Its gas sales were up 5.5 per

According to government data released today, inflation based on wholesale prices plummeted to 2.76 percent in January as compared to the previous month, reaching  a 10-month low on the back of falling prices of fuel and some food items. According to the data, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation in December 2018 stood at 3.8 percent and 3.02 percent in January 2018. The data also suggested that inflation in kitchen essentials like potato, onion, fruits, and milk softened in January over the previous month. The retail inflation which was released earlier this week also posted a marginal decline to 2.05 percent in January over the previous month due to the continuous decline in food prices, including vegetables and eggs. The WPI data also showcased that wholesale-based price inflation for fuel and

The private sector lender Yes Bank announced that the Reserve Bank of India has found no divergence in its bad loans and provisioning from the central bank’s norms for the year ended March 2018 resulting in the bank’s stock prices surge as much as 30 per cent, posting its biggest intraday gains since July 2005. The Reserve Bank of India’s risk assessment report is being released after Yes Bank reported higher bad loan ratios for two straight financial years. The bank’s top brass was also under scrutiny after the RBI pointed out discrepancies in how it reported its bad loans. In Reserve Bank in its website published that the banks have to disclose divergences if the additional provisioning requirements assessed by the RBI exceed 15 per cent of the net profits after tax and/or additional gross NPAs ident