India’s third-largest pharmaceutical company by revenue, Cipla, is up for grabs in a three-way fight between Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) and private equity (PE) giant Blackstone. Analysts say it is more likely for a strategic investor like Torrent or DRL to acquire Cipla than a PE firm, which may not derive healthy returns at Cipla’s current market price (CMP) after the recent gains.
Posts tagged Rediff
Why Odds Are Against New Mutual Funds (21-09-2023)
Meaningful market share would go to those who have the distribution strength to push their products, such as banks.
EPFO records highest net member addition in July (20-09-2023)
Retirement fund body EPFO has recorded the highest net member addition of 18.75 lakh in July 2023, according to the payroll data released on Wednesday. The labour ministry in a statement said that the addition of 18.75 lakh during the month is the highest since the first publishing of EPFO payroll data from April 2018 covering the period of September 2017 onwards. A growing trend has continued for the last three months with an increase of around 85,932 net members over the previous month of June 2023.
ADB lowers India’s growth projection to 6.3% (20-09-2023)
Indian growth in the rest of this fiscal year and next will be propelled by robust domestic consumption as consumer confidence improves, and by investment, including large increases in government capital expenditure, according to the Asian Development Outlook September 2023. “As slowing exports could foment headwinds for the economy, and erratic rainfall patterns are likely to undermine agricultural output, the growth forecast for FY2023 is revised down marginally to 6.3 per cent,” ADB said.
Akasa Air in ‘state of crisis’ as 40 pilots resign (20-09-2023)
The fledgling Akasa Air has told the Delhi high court it is in a “state of crisis” following the “sudden and abrupt” resignation of over 40 pilots who left the airline without serving the mandatory notice period. The airline and its CEO Vinay Dube approached the high court with their petition on September 14, seeking a direction to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to take coercive action against these pilots for their “irresponsible actions”. The high court has fixed the plea for hearing on Friday.
Investors lose Rs 2.89 lakh crore in two days (20-09-2023)
Investors’ wealth fell by Rs 2.89 lakh crore in two days of market fall, with the BSE Sensex tumbling 796 points on Wednesday, amid weak global market trends ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision. Fresh foreign fund outflows and caution ahead of a host of interest rate decisions from global central banks also added to the overall bearish trend. Besides, the US Fed meeting, the BoE (Bank of England) and the BoJ (Bank of Japan) are also scheduled to meet this week.
Byju’s Mrinal Mohit quits, Arjun Mohan is new CEO (20-09-2023)
Edtech firm Byju’s founding partner and India operations CEO Mrinal Mohit has resigned “for personal reasons”, the company said on Wednesday. Byju’s international business CEO Arjun Mohan will take the additional charge of heading the country’s operations, it said. “Arjun Mohan (is) taking charge as the CEO of India operations.
Meta expands WhatsApp payments service in India (20-09-2023)
WhatsApp on Wednesday announced the expansion of its payments service in India to make it easier for people transacting with businesses to pay for purchases directly in the chat, with a choice of UPI apps, including rival digital payment options, as well as credit and debit cards. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserted that India is leading the world in people and businesses embracing messaging. WhatsApp said it is working with partners Razorpay and PayU “to make paying for something as simple as sending a message”, as the Meta-owned platform unveiled a host of new features to woo businesses in India’s booming commerce market.
Sensex tumbles 796 points; Nifty closes below 20K (20-09-2023)
Among the Sensex firms, HDFC Bank emerged as the biggest loser, falling 4 per cent. JSW Steel, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement, Maruti, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Larsen and Toubro were the other major laggards. Power Grid, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, NTPC, ITC and Infosys were among the gainers.
Nearly 34% loans charged 10% or more interest (20-09-2023)
As the policy rate has seen a steady increase since May 2022, the percentage of loans offered at interest rates below 8 per cent have declined sharply, dropping from 53 per cent in March 2022 to 18 per cent by June 2023, according to a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The share of bank loans with interest rates of 10 per cent or higher rose from 22 per cent to 34 per cent during this period, reflecting the impact of a 250 basis point (bps) hike in the policy repo rate by the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee. In response to the rise in repo rate, 32 domestic banks have made corresponding upward revisions to their repo-linked external benchmark-based lending rates (EBLRs), aligning them with the magnitude of the rate hike.