Business & Finance - Current Affairs for September, 2015

Reliance Defence Limits has signed a strategic pact with EDIC for MRO category according to which the firms will discover the prospect for manufacturing and building capabilities in defence vehicles, aviation and associated areas, defence equipment and armament manufacturing, defence electronics, commercial and naval ships.

The pact aims to create synergy to lower operational costs and leverage capabilities. RDL was established as a subsidiary of RIL and has close to 11 subsidiaries in niche segment sectors. Emirates Defence Industries Company is the premier UAE integrated national defence services provider.

Nationwide Building Society has selected SaaS platform Ignio which is the world’s first neural automation system for enterprise IT has part of the transformation of technology and operations. Nationwide Building Society delivers wide range of products to customers and works to increase strength of digital solutions. Moving services to a digital platform is a massive priority for Nationwide.

Ignite is based on the human neural system as well as machine learning and digital technologies to improve IT operations and processes of enterprise, reducing operational risks and increasing speed to enhance user experience.

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group and finance unit Ant Financial Services Group are including fresh capital into Paytm, which is the largest mobile and commerce platform in a strategic investment. The size of the stake being acquired by the companies has not been publicly disclosed. Ant Financial has currently acquired 25% of Paytm parent firm One 97 Communications in February.

New funds are given for Paytm to expand mobile commerce and payment system in the nation. This e-commerce firm currently has greater than 100 Paytm Wallet users carrying out over 75 million transactions within the month. Both companies, Alibaba and ATM are looking to encase on opportunities in India’s largest growing mobile e-commerce marketplace and digital finance sector.

e-Commerce major Snapdeal has acquired a minority stake in hyperlocal grocery delivery service Pepper Tap. It has led the USD 36 million funding round. Funding will be employed for expanding Pepper Tap’s presence to over 75 cities from present 18. Pepper Tap co-founder and CEO is Navneet Singh. Pepper Tap is looking to raise USD 20 million and current round of funding saw finances flowing in from Sequoia India and SAIF Partners and investors like Ru-net, JAFCO, and BeeNext.

Grocery constitutes 59% of retail GDP in India. Snapdeal has recently acquired startup Freecharge as well as MartMobi, Letsgomo Labs and Reduce Data. Founded in the year 2010, it has over 90 million registered users and counts SoftBank, Alibaba, eBay and Foxconn among its investors. Pepper Tap gives customers the ability to select from 15,000 products across categories like bath and hygiene products, gorceries and generates 20,000 average transactions every day.

SEBI/ Securities Exchange Board of India has merged with Forward Markets Commission w.e.f 28th September 2015. This marks the first case of the merging of the two regulators to create a new regulatory authority. More than 6 decades old FMC merged with SEBI with the customary stock market bell being rung to formalise the amalgamation by FM Arun Jaitley. The merger was moved forward on account of the NSEL scam involving INR 5000 crore which was a regulatory failure of FMC. FMC had been regulating commodity markets since the 1950s. This is the first case of the merging of two major regulators. SEBI’s Whole-Time Member Rajeev Kumar Agarwal would oversee the commodities market regulation in the merged entity under the overall guidance of the SEBI Chairman. SEBI was set up in the 1980s as non-statutory body for regulation of securities market. Currently, there are 3 national and 6 regional bourses for commodity futures clocking a turnover of nearly Rs 60 lakh crore in 2014—15, from over Rs 101 lakh crore in the fiscal before that.

Network 18, firm owning CNBC TV18 and CNN-IBN has announced Editor in Chief for Business Newsroom Senthil Chengalvarayan has quit. This comes after Group CEO of the company, A. P Parigi was removed ahead of Mr. Rahul Joshi joining the office as new CEO of News. On September 25 2015, the company had announced that Mr. Parigi has been shifted as Advisor to its Chairman Adil Zainulbhai. Mr. Parigi was the Managing Director and CEO of Radio Mirchi/Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL), a subsidiary of Times Infotainment Media Ltd (TIML) before joining Network18. Mr. Joshi was the Editorial Director of BCCL’s The Economic Times before the stint at Network18.

In a bid to ensure fast track recovery of bad loans by banks, the Government will computerise DRT and lower oral hearings to two. Arbitration Law for fast track arbitration with a single member Arbitration Board completing the entire process in 6 months has been proposed. Board loans of banks are occurring as cheap imports are adversely affecting the domestic industry.

Wipro has been selected as a member of the global Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) - 2015 for the sixth consecutive year. It is included in both the DJSI World and Emerging Markets Indices. From a total of 1845 companies assessed from across the globe, 371 have been chosen for the DJSI index for 2015-2016. 76 of these companies which participated were from IT of which 8 have been selected. DJSI is a prime international indicator monitoring the financial performance of companies across all industries that outperform on Sustainability initiatives such as Climate Change Performance, Corporate Governance, Innovation, Labor Practices and Digital Inclusion.

Boosted by 106% increase in profit in 2014-2015, NALCO is set to make an investment of INR 65,000 crore to launch key projects and develop the power and mining sector. The company recorded a profit of Rs.1322 crore in 2014-2015 fiscal against Rs.642 crore during the 2013-2014. In the present fiscal, NALCO targets to raise its total metal sales to 3.80 lakh tonnes from 3.26 lakh tonnes during 2014-2015. Numerous projects will be carried out through these funds, including a green-field aluminium smelter abroad. The current CMD of NALCO is T. K. Chand. NALCO is proposing to set up smelter plants with investment of INR 20,000 crore and is exploring Oman, Iran and Indonesia for this purpose. Though power is cheap in Oman and Iran, abundant coal is available at low cost in Indonesia. Port facilities would also be a major factor, according to Chand.

In a move oriented towards aiding visually challenged and outdoing counterfeit note makers, Braille like markings will be used on INR 100, 500 and 1000 notes. INR 100 notes will comprise 4 parallel angular lines just printed along the border beside the watermark. While INR 500 notes will have 5 lines, INR 1000 notes will bear 6. Intaglio printing will be used enabling users to feel the lines. In this field of printing, security paper is perforated and printing ink is incised onto the paper. Latest security feature is in keeping the notes easy to use for visually challenged persons as promised in 2014 Budget. Additionally, another security feature which will be used is numbering with exploding font or the print size of each number of note’s panel increasing in size from left to right. This feature was introduced in June this year. Apex bank has also increased size of existing identification marks on currency notes by 50% making it easier for visually challenged persons to use the note. Existing currency notes will continue to be used. Banks will recalibrate note sorting and counterfeit detection machines according to the new features. Both INR 500 and 1000 denomination will have bigger circle and diamond respectively.

Following the merger with SEBI, FM’s 7 director level officers will be employed by the regulatory while 41 remaining employees will be included in the central government employee pool. Merger is FM with SEBI is aimed for on September 28. It will create a unified regulatory authority. From the 7, there are 2 directors, deputy directors and assistant directors and one is a joint director. Tenure of officers shall be co termed with tenure at FMC or extend for six months or till further office, whichever of these being the earliest. SEBI has also formed a Commodity Cell besides setting up 2 international department committees in the surveillance department and market intermediaries regulation and supervision department in a run up to the merger. Currently, there are 12 commodity exchanges which are recognised. 6 of these are non operation while of the operational exchanges, three are national and three are regional bourses.

German company Heidelberg announced plans to purchase Italcementi SpA for 3.7 billion Euros. According to the deal,Heidelberg will acquire primary shareholder Italmobiliare’s 45% stake in Italcementi and make open offer to numerous stakeholders. Heidelberg Cement was founded in the 1870s by Johann Philipp Schifferdecker, at Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. This MNC is the world’s third largest cement producer in the world. Italicementi is an Italian MNC formed in 1864 at Bergamo, Italy. It is the fifth largest cement producer across the globe.

Mudra card to be launched by Bank of Maharashtra for micro and small entrepreneurs for meeting credit requirement. The card was launched by S. Muhnot, CMD on- Bank’s 81st Foundation Day Celebrations. Mudra card issued as a Rupay debit card is stress-free flexible credit product that meets working capital needs of micro and small entrepreneurs.

Healthcare start up Practo has acquired Quikwell, a company facilitating appointment scheduling at hospitals. Buyout makes Practo largest world appointment booking platform with close to 40 million appointments each year. The sum for which the acquisition has been made has not been disclosed.  This is the fourth acquisition for Practo in 5 months as it  bought Fitho (digital fitness solution) in April, followed by Genii in July and Insta Health earlier this month.Quikwell helps to synchronise patients and doctors to reduce average waiting time in hospitals by as much as 3 times. Launched in 2011 by Krishna Prasad Chitrapura and Raghavendra Prasad TS, Qikwell today has over 100 employees and appointment scheduling for 250 hospitals in as many as 19 cities. Qikwell will be led by the founders. It has clients like Manipal, Fortis, Cloudnine, Narayana Hrudalaya and over 6,000 doctors including pediatricians, gynaecologists and neurologists on its platform.India, the Philippines and Singapore are areas where Practo has offices. Bengaluru-based Practo has a team of 1,500 employees.

Telecom service provider Uninor on Wednesday announced it has rebranded itself as Telenor in India, Telenor Group’s head of Asia region Morten Karlsen Sorby said. Company will spend INR 100 crore on rebranding exercise. It entered India in 2009 and was initially a JV with realty major Unitech which exited it in 2012. Company then started operating as Telewings till 100 pr cent stake in company was purchased by Telenor in 2014. This company now has 47.55 million customers.

Sterlite Technologies has entered into formal agreement for acquiring Elitecore Technologies Pvt Ltd controlled by private equity major Carlyle Group, for an enterprise value of Rs 180 crore in an all cash deal. Elitecore, a provider of Operations Support Services / Business Support Services is majority owned by First Carlyle Ventures Mauritius, a part of Carlyle Group. Sterlite, a part of Vedanta Group, said this acquisition would widen its telecom portfolio of offerings to its global customers.The present management team of Elitecore will continue. In 2014-15 Elitecore reported revenues of Rs147 crore and EBITDA of Rs16 crore and is cash positive on a net debt basis. Company has been profitable for last 7 years.

Ajanta Pharma will replace Aditya Birla Nuvo in the NSE Nifty Midcap 50 index from October 19, 2015. Aditya Birla Nuvo, the holding company of Aditya Birla Group, will be excluded from the index. The Index Maintenance Sub-Committee has decided to make the replacement on account of proposed scheme of arrangement for transfer by way of a demerger of Madura Undertaking of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd to Pantaloons Fashion & Retail Limited. Nifty Midcap 50 index comprises of stocks with an average free float market capitalisation ranging from Rs. 1,000 crore to Rs. 5,000 crore at the time of selection.

Bharti Airtel announced on 23rd September 2015 that it will use Liquid Telecom’s fibre network for connecting mobile base stations in Africa, giving subscribers on 3 and 4-G networks better speeds. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Airtel serves 17 African countries. The framework agreement enables Airtel operations to leverage Liquid Telecom’s existing 20,000km-long fibre network across east, central and southern Africa, as well as enjoy new purpose-built fibre infrastructure, to connect Airtel’s mobile base stations and enterprise customers with fibre. Liquid Telecom is an independent data, voice and IP provider in Africa. It supplies fibre optic, satellite and international carrier services to mobile operators, internet service players and businesses.

Lycos has signed an agreement with Apollo International, Apollo Group for creating a JV, Apollo Lycos Netcommerce. While Lycos has expertise in digital media and marketing, Apollo is a leader in logistics and inventory management. Lycos was acquired in 2010 for $36 million by Hyderabad-based digital marketing solutions firm Ybrant Digital. This company also changed its name to Lycos. The joint venture will design, develop and fulfil e-commerce for brands online.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned on 23rd September 2015 taking responsibility for the German carmaker's rigging of U.S. emissions tests in the biggest scandal in its 78-year history. A 5 member committee has been questioning Winterkorn at company HQ in Wolfsburg, Germany about the scandal prior to his resignation. Shares fell by more than 30% after news broke. U.S. authorities are planning criminal investigations after discovering that VW programmed computers in its cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of their diesel engines to conceal their correct emissions rate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday Volkswagen could face penalties of up to $18 billion for cheating emissions tests on some of its diesel cars. Diesel engines constitute less than 3% of new cars in US, and around half of the cars in EU. Though associated with low GHG emissions, they are said to emit high levels of poisonous gas nitrogen dioxide.

Telangana government has entered into PPA for purchasing 1000 MW of power with Chhattisgarh. PPA will be in force for next 12 years. Transmission lines for bring power to state is currently under construction in Dichpally ( Telangana) and Wardha (Maharashtra). The power purchase agreement was formed on 22nd September 2015.

Lead Eastern of China will pick 10% stake in subsidiary Reliance company Zapak mobile games with valuation at USD 150 million. Reliance Games, Lead Eastern Investment and Creative Cultural has formed exclusive JV in China for operating and marketing mobile games associated with intellectual properties owned and acquired by Zapak. The percentage of stakes will be 40%, 51% and 9% respectively. Lead Holding group is a leading Chinese conglomerate and Lead Eastern is a listed entity with interests in entertainment, broadcasting and distribution. Reliance Games, claims more than 200 million downloads across popular subjects such as "Real Steel," "Pacific Rim," "Hunger Games -- Catching Fire Panem Run," "Dancing with the Stars" and "Shadow Strike" through iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and Windows across 40 countries. Creative Cultural is a Hong Kong based firm engaged in intellectual property associated entertainment. Strategic partnership between Lead and Reliance will enable the latter to enter the Chinese market. Reliance Games currently operates three studios worldwide.

IT company Infosys has garnered a INR 1320 crore contract for building the GST network system to be used for rollout of the GST tax in India. The 5 year contract will commence from October 1, 2015.Apart from Infosys, TCS Wipro, Tech Mahindra and Microsoft bid for the project. GoI is planning to implement single rate GST from April 1, 2016. Registration on GSTN will commence by January 31 according to GST network chairman Navin Kumar. GSTN seeks to assist in PAN based registration of traders, apart from filing tax returns and payment system.

Chemical and pharma firm Aarti Industries has received approval for amalgamation of 4 companies with itself. Merger aims to simplify and rationalise shareholding of promotes and increase public float of shares enhancing stock liquidity. Merger will result in elimination of associate companies and ensure shareholding structure is more investor friendly.

The Electronic Development Fund (EDF) is set up as a Fund of Funds to participate in Daughter Funds that will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT).

With the appointment of CVCFL as the agency to implement EDF, the EDF is now operational and will start getting requests for participation from Seed Funds, Angel Funds and Daughter Funds. Beneficiaries of EDF policy are Daughter Funds registered in India and EDF will follow minority participation in Seed Funds, Angel Funds and Venture Funds.

India’s first national investment and manufacturing zone/NIMZ will be housed in AP. The concept has been mooted to boost manufacturing within the nation. DIPP has relaxed the requirement for establishing an NIMZ to 10 square km from 50 square km. NIMZ will constitute a PSV and a developer along with stakes being held by the States and the Centre. In the past 4 years, DIPP has given approval to 12 NIMZs namely Nagpur in Maharashtra; Tumkur, Kolar, Gulbarga and Bidar in Karnataka; Medak in Telangana; Chittor in Rajasthan and Kalinganagar in Odisha, among others. Manufacturing policy has put the onus of the external physical infrastructure construction in NIMZs to provide viability gap funding on the Centre. As per the original plan Andhra Pradesh has estimated that the manufacturing zone will create opportunities for 20,500 direct and 29,200 indirect jobs and attract an investment of over INR 43,500 crore. Andhra Pradesh recently ranked second among Indian states in the WB's recent ease of doing business rankings, second only to Gujarat.

KKR, a US PE group is set to acquire a majority stale in asset and wealth management firm Avengers. Proposed deal will be around USD 100 million and will be a combination of shares and exits. Avenues Capital was founded by Gaurav Deepak, Kaushal Aggarwal and Ranu Vohra. Eastgate Capital, PE arm of NCB Capital Saudi Arabia had earlier picked up a 26% stake in the firm for INR 100 crore.KKR, with over $101 billion is backing local financial services players like Magma and Au Financiers. Avendus was started in 1999 as a catalyst for major VCs.

Ericsson, HP and Aruba Networks an HP unit are collaborating to drive innovation in the area of mobile networking. Two companies have signed bilateral resale agreements which enable Ericsson to leverage Aruba's enterprise Wi-Fi and connectivity solutions along with its portfolio of mobility solutions and also let HP to resell Ericsson's indoor small cell solutions. The Swedish telecom equipment firm also said it is looking to tap licensed and unlicensed spectrum operation together.

Portea Medical, a Bengaluru based venture founded by entrepreneurs K and Meena Ganesh brings home healthcare to the Indian sector. It has received USD 37.5 million in a funding round led by Accel which also saw participation of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast. IFC is a new investor. Accel, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast had previously invested $9 million in December the year before.

CredR, Mumbai marketplace for second hand bikes founded by N. Jain, S Chazzed and N Mittal acquired USD 15 million from Growth Story and Eight Roads. Industrybuying, Delhi an online industrial goods store founded by Swati and Rahul Gupta garnered USD 9 million from SAIF Partners, Kallari Capital. Shadowfax, a Gurgaon on demand B2B delivery service founded by Eabhisehk Bansal and Vaibhav Khandelwal raised USD 8.5 million from Eight Roads. Others who raised funds include MoEngage, Zapyle, OnlineTyari, Uber Diagnostics, Room on Call, FitMein, Bag your Job . Mubble, Adurcup, Coverfox, Shipsy, Yatra Genie and Insta Cab. Ola itself has acquired USD 225 million in funding and its founders are Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati.

Start up connect will facilitate a start-up exchange and collaboration programme to encourage and scale innovation in India. It will also see IIM-Ahmedabad's Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship signing MoUs with corporates and academic partners for development of `disruptive innovations' that change the ground rules of existing businesses. Some 30 odd start ups in fields like agriculture, healthcare, energy, biotechnology , technology business biotechnology , technol and finance to attract partnerships and support from US investors and organisations like TiE Silicon Valley that seek to spur mentoring, networking, funding and incubating activities.

India origin London based businessman Raj Bagri is purchasing the Leela Hotel, Goa for INR 725 crore in the single biggest property deal in the Indian hospitality sector. This is also the latest acquisition by Bagri, promoter of Metdist Group who owns metal assets in Malaysia and other parts of the world. He acquired denim brand Spykar in 2014. The hotel will now change hands from Nairs owned Hotel Leela Venture to Metdist while former will continue to manage the hotel that will retain the name Leela. Ceres Hotels, a local unit of Metdist Group will acquire Leela Goa marketing the entry into the hospitality sector in the third largest economy in Asia. The Leela Goa was built in 1991 and is one of the top performing hotels in the hospitality sector.

Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd has taken the option to divest shareholding in VSPL and it has transferred 50 per cent stake to Lastin Infrastructure Projects Ltd. VSPL is the first bulk cargo BOT (build–operate–transfer) terminal of Visakhapatnam Port Trust. It is operating since 2004. Lastin Infrastructure will hold 50 per cent and Lastin Holdings Ltd., the current foreign equity investor, will continue to hold 26.2 per cent. GIPL will remain to hold the balance 23.8 per cent. Lastin Group comprising Lastin Infrastructure and Lastin Holdings (existing shareholder) will now have management control of VSPL. Lastin Holdings is a leading international player in Haldia and Paradip Ports in the field of bulk cargo handling.

Tiger Safari will be launched in 3 reserves in MP for promoting tourism namely Bandhavgarh, Pench and Kanha. Safaris will operate in buffer area, reducing pressure from the core. MP Eco Tourism Board will come out with a tender for the same. MP has six tiger reserves and 308 big cats as per government’s 2014 report on tiger population. The six reserves are Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Panna, Bori-Satpura, Sanjay-Dubri and Pench. Activists claim NTCA had ordered deferment of government proposal to create tiger safari in Pench.

TATA Steel has sold shares equalling INR 2500 crore in TATA Motors in 2 separate transactions of INR 1250 crore as per the term sheet of the deal. Largest private sector for steelmaker, TATA group owned 5.54% stake in TATA Motors in June 2015 and sold 1.33% stake in block deal at average price of INR 324.5 per share to raise INR 1250 crore. TATA Steel continues to hold 2.88% in TATA Motors as per the analysis. TATA Steel has a debt of INR 69,000 crore in FY15 and has sold 2.18% of its stake in Titan to TATA Sons for INR 637 crore.

Cloud competing services provider 8K Miles Software has purchased US based NexAge Technologies specialist in life sciences sector for USD 3 million which is its 4th acquisition in the past one year. 8K Miles Software is headquartered in San Francisco and it has a registered office in Chennai. It is the only listed cloud computing services provider in India. Acquisition aims to strengthen life sciences competency.

Etihad Airways and equity partner airlines have increased funds garnered from unique platform financing transaction from USD 500 million to 700 million. Etihad has 24% stake in Jet Airways and will attain 16% of this amount for USD 110 million. Funds will be divided across 7 businesses and used for capital expenditure, fleet investment and refinancing. Additional funds will pave the way for the airline to realise its vision and strategies. The CEO and President of Etihad is James Hogan.

European telecom group Altice looks to become a massive force in the US cable market after agreeing to purchase 4th largest US cable operator Cablevision in a cash and shares deal worth USD 17.7 billion including debt. Altice was by French Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi who entered the US market in May through the purchase of regional cable group Suddenlink for USD 9.1 billion.
The company will pay $34.90 in cash per share, a 22 per cent premium on 16th September closing price of $28.54. Cablevision currently has 3.1 million customers in the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey area.Together both operators represent the fourth-largest cable operation in the U.S. market.

Bengaluru based healthcare startup CureJoy has raised USD 1.15 million in funding led by Accel Partners India while other investors are Venk Krishnan, founder of Nuware Technologies, and Larry Braitman, the founder of Flycast and Adify. Funds will be used by the Bengaluru startup to expand services globally. This firm is a creation of Dikshant Dave and Shrinivasa Sharma, CureJoy, a content publishing and aggregation platform, commenced operations in October 2013 to address the common concerns of people in the existing healthcare system. It provides curated content through its backend algorithms and technology on natural health and wellness by experts usually associated with large universities like Stanford or UCLA and merges it with the global trends and patterns. Currently, it is headquartered in California, USA and manages the entire operations and development from Bengaluru. Others in the healthcare segment include HealthifyMe, Truweight, and Flexipass.

The world’s largest bicycle manufacturer by volume, Hero Cycles has acquired Firefox Bikes for an undisclosed sum in all cash deal. As part of the deal, Firefox Bikes will continue to have its distinct brand identity and remain a separate business entity post the acquisition. Promoters of this Delhi based firm have divested their entire equity in the deal. Deal involves Firefox brand of cycles, accessories and spares along with exclusive distribution rights of `Trek' and other international brands.

Under new norms, prior intimation of a board meeting must be forwarded to stock exchanges 2 days prior. Move aims to create transparency in business affairs of listed firms. For financial results, at least 5 days advance notice is required prior to consideration of such a proposal of the company. As regards alteration in date pf payment of interest or nomenclature of securities listed in stock exchange, listed firms will have to tell the bourses at least 11 working days prior about board meetings of such proposals. New norms are part of listing regulations of SEBI which have been aligned with the Companies Act 2013.

Market regulatory authority SEBI has notified new norms to dilute chairman powers regarding conduct during search and seizure of defaulter’s properties. Permission for such operations will be required from the special court by SEBI, as against earlier regulations that left the chief of SEBI directly authorise these actions. Regulations are referred to as Securities and Exchange Board of India(Procedure for Search and Seizure) Repeal Regulations 2015. Search and seizure operations will now have to be authorised by Magistrate or Judge of the designated court. Securities Law AA 2014 is an attempt to curb ponzi schemes.

InMobi has tied up with Apus for entering Indian markets. It will have exclusive rights for advertising close to INR 25 million users in India for the remaining 24 months and first rights to global advertising inventory of the app maker. China based Apis raised USD 116 m from investors and it looks to tap USD 15 m from Indian market and expand its user base to 80 million by 2016. Apart from Apus, other Chinese companies eyeing the Indian market include Baidu and Fosun. Other recent partnerships of InMobi include Dell Inc and Paytm.

Toshiba Corporation has acquired majority stake of 80% through acquisition of additional 54% stake in UEM. Minority shareholders remain Krishna Kshetry, founding member and IVFA. Toshiba Corporation increased its stake in the Noida based company from its promoter for a deal valued at around INR 400 crore. UEM is valued at INR 750 crore and the Japanese firm purchased a 26% stake in this company in March 2014. K. Matsui has been appointed as chairperson and MD of the company. UEM has presence over 30 nations across the US, C. America, Africa and Asia. India has around 18% of the world’s population yet only 2.4 % of its land area and 4% of its renewable water resources. Water segment has high growth potential in India, as per CII. CII has also said public private partnership (PPP) model with the state utilities, urban local bodies for water supply and distribution has business potential of around $1,750 billion, while setting up of water treatment plants, sewage and effluent treatment plant has a business potential of around $1,303 billion.

Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp is buying back 19.9% stake held by German automaker Volkswagen AF with repurchase of as many as 122.8 m shares on 17th September at closing price of 3,842.5 yen per share for up to 471.7 billion yen ($3.9 billion) via the Tokyo Stock Exchange's off-hours trading system before the market opens.US Fund manager Loeb’s Third Point LLC holding a stake in Suzuki has urged the Japanese company to cancel shares it is repurchasing.

Additionally 7 frequencies have reportedly been auctioned. It is the frequencies of smaller towns like Tirupati and Vijaywada which remained unsold. Biggest bidders were Entertainment Network India Ltd(part of TOI group owning Mirchi brand) with INR 339.2 crore for 17 channels and HT Media Ltd which bid INR 339.8 crore for 10 channels. Third in line was Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd( Sun Group) with INR 134.9 crore for 3 channels and Reliance Broadcast network Ltd with INR 116.9 crore for 14 channels. Delhi fetched the highest bid at INR 169.2 crore which was 5 and half times reserve price of INR 31.4 crore indicating a scarcity premium. Mirchi brand will now cover 43 cities following the auctions. The top 5 companies and their frequencies won and amount spend were:

- ENIL(Mirchi)-17-INR 339.2 crore
- HT Media Ltd-10- INR 339.8 crore
- Digital Radio(Sun)-3-INR 134.9 crore
- Reliance Braodcast-14- INR 116.9 crore
- Music Bradocast-11- INR 62.6 crore Delhi fetched 5.5 times the reserve price of INR 31.4 crore.

SERCO BPO is being acquired by Blackstone for INR 2558 crore which is less than half the price at which it was sold to the former 4 years ago. Following the purchase by the US investment and advisory firm, BPO will retain its old name Intelenet Global Services. Blackstone owned this BPO unit till 2011 after which it was sold to SERCO for USD 630m. The proceeds from this transaction will be used for cutting down on Serco’s debt. Internet was initially a JV between TCS and HDFC. The latter purchased the stake of the former in 2004 and sold the unit to Blackstone in 2007. Some of the major consolidations seen in past 3 years includes IBM’s sale of Daksh to Concentric, Convergys merger with Stream and Aegis’s sale of US business to tele performance. This is the largest acquisition by Blackstone to be made and SERCO BPO’s CEO will be Susir Kumar.

RBI has shortlisted 10 micro lenders to establish small banks for loan advancement for unbanked, small businesses, micro and small industries as well as unorganised sectors which do not have access to large bank financing. From 10 entities granted approval in principle, 8 are micro-finance providers, one is a local area bank and the remaining is a non banking finance company. Small banks are akin to regular CoBs while scale of service will be smaller and these banks should generate 75% of business from the priority sector namely agriculture and areas where large banks are not present. Around 50% of their loans will be under INR 25 lakhs. Licenses for payment banks were recently issued as well. Much like payment banks, minimum paid up equity for small finance banks is INR 100 crore and RBI has said small banks can bring down initial contribution to 40% which can be lowered to 26% over the next 12 years. Sole NBFC in the list is AU Financiers set up in 1996. Other micro lenders chosen and their year of establishment is as follows:

- Capital Local Area Bank-2000
- Disha Microfin- 2009
- Equitas Holdings-2007
- ESAF Microfinance and Investments-1992
- Janalakshmi Financial Services-19999
- GVN(NE) Microfinance-2008
- Suryoday Micro Finance-2008
- Ujivan Financial Services-2005
- Utkarsh Micro Finance-2009

As per the partnership between Twitter and mobile payments firm Square has given campaigns the ability to tweet URLs known as $Cashtags to get access to donations. This is a social media strategy to also raise awareness about the campaign message and is being actively used in the US Presidential Elections.

The three companies have signed MoU with low cost Indian mobile phone manufacturers for setting up mobile manufacturing hub at Tirupati. MoUs were signed in Vijayawada and AP is now targeting production and manufacturing of 6-7 million phones per month in the year 2016. Xiaomi’s entry into AP will now have three more companies to complete with.

Over 50% of the capital is from N. America. 37% is from Europe. Global investors participated in the previous rounds causing hard cap to reach USD 700 million. General partners, fund managers and staff with group affiliates added another INR 30 million. This is the largest fundraise in the year 2015 so far. In 2006-2007, 13% of Indian PE investments by value were control investments increasing to 29% by 2013, as per a report by management consulting firm McKinsey.

There is a massive increase from 2014 where only total of USD 800 million was raised. India’s Everstone Capital is a SE PE focused real estate investment group. It has recently acquired HUL’s Modern Foods for INR 250 crore and sold controlling stake in Global Hospitals to IHH-Parkway recently.

The move will bring technological support to over 50,000 vehicles in the State within the next three years. The taxi aggregator will also work towards the State government’s vision of transforming Andhra Pradesh into a smart-tourism hub. Aside from the MoU, the taxi aggregator also said it will invest around Rs. 150 crore in the State. The proposed investment will be made over 3 years and is a bid to encourage driver entrepreneurship and to create employment opportunities in the State.

This move will strengthen Sun’s branded ophthalmic portfolio in the US. The deal gives Sun Pharma access to four late stage branded ophthalmic products in the US. For the 6-month period ending June, InSite Vision recorded revenues of $3.8 million, an EBITDA loss of USD 6.4 million and a net loss of $7.5 million.

Country’s 4th largest software services firm, HCL Technologies will partner IBM for developing IoT solutions. Focus will be on specific verticals such as industrial, manufacturing and smart facilities to co-develop solutions around ‘Connected Products and Operations’ like remote monitoring, smart inventory management, smart building and facilities management. The two companies will also establish up an incubation centre in Noida to develop these solutions for the chosen industries.

IoT is defined as a network of inter-connected devices that can be accessed through the internet.

Finnish telecom group Nokia announced receipt of US regulatory approvals needed for its proposed acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, moving to become world's biggest supplier of mobile phone network equipment. Following its previous anti-trust clearance from the US Justice department, the acquisition of the French-American company has now also been cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Nokia announced in a statement. In the month of April, Nokia formed a 15.6 billion euro ($17.6 billion) deal to buy its troubled competitor Alcatel-Lucent, which only had one year of profit since the company was created in 2006.The tie-up was approved by the European Commission in July.

Government has permitted foreign investments through partly paid shares and warrants in a move to facilitate FDI in the country. "The government has reviewed the provisions of the extant FDI policy...and it has been decided to allow partly paid shares and warrants as eligible capital instruments for the purposes of FDI policy," the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) announced in a notification. Nature of these instruments is said to be in equity and facility sharing agreements between group companies through leasing/sub-leasing arrangements for the larger interest of business will not be treated as 'real estate business' within the provisions of the Consolidated FDI policy circular of 2015.

Government has relaxed FDI norms for sectors such as medical devices, defence and construction activities. During April-June quarter of 2015, FDI into the country grew by 31 percent to USD 9.50 billion.

Mining and metals company Vedanta Ltd has received approval for its proposed merger with oil and hydrocarbon unit Cairn India. It has received NOC for the same from BSE and NSE. NOCs are issued by the tock exchanges following comments from SEBI. In June 2015, Vedanta Ltd, India’s largest private miner announced its acquisition of Cairn India in a USD 2.3 billion all share deal. London based Vedanta Resources has a debt of USD 7.7 billion while its Indian arm has USD 4.57 billion in debt. Cairn India which is zero debt has a USD 2.85 billion cash reserve.

Karnataka will become the first state to have a dedicated startup council for infrastructure, incubation and similar facilities. Startup council will also seek easy clearance for emerging businesses. DIPP is in charge of facilitating the formation of this council. It aims to replicate the information technology revolution brought about by IT reforms in Karnataka.

Bengaluru origin Practo backed by Chinese major Tencent and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner acquired hospital information management company Insta Health Solutions. The acquisition was for INR 76 crore in a cash and equity deal. This is the third acquisition for Practo in less than six months, earlier acquisitions being app based fitness management platform Fitho Wellness and product outsourcing company Genii. Practo was founded in 2008 by Shashank N D and Abhinav Lal. It raised USD 90 million from Tencent in August along with other investors like Google Capital, Sequoia Capital and Altimeter Capital.

Industrialist Cyrus Poonawalla has paid INR 750 crore for Lincoln House at South Mumbai’s Breach Candy location. The building was constructed in 1938 and it is a grade III heritage building. It was formerly known as Wankaner Palace.

SEBI has notified relaxed norms for public offers through removal of restriction on maximum number of anchor investors with the aim of raising funds via primary markets. For every additional allocation of INR 250 crore above the base INR 250 crore, there will be 10 additional investors for every increase, subject to minimum allotment of INR 5 crore per anchor investor.

In case of allocation above Rs.250 crore, a minimum of 5 such investors and a maximum of 15 such investors for allocation up to Rs.250 crore and an additional 10 such investors for every additional Rs.250 crore or part thereof, shall be permitted, subject to the minimum allotment

JK Group through its wholly owned subsidiary JK Asia Pacific Singapore Pte Ltd has signed a binding term age agreement with JIL to acquire 100% equity in Cavendish Industries Ltd/CIL. JK Group will acquire BK Birla flagship firm Kesoram Industries’ tyre manufacturing plant at Haridwar. The enterprise value for this deal being INR 2200 crore, JK Tyre will hold biggest shareholding block and have management control of CIL.

The chairman of JK Tyre is Raghupathi Singhania and the acquisition will be funded through debt and internal accruals.

JK Tyre is among the top 3 automotive tyre manufactures in India. Another major acquisition by this company was of Mexican tyre firm Tornel for INR 270 crore.

CarDekho is acquiring auto portal Zigwheels run by Times Internet. This is the second largest acquisition by Girnar Soft after it purchased Nasper owned Gaadi.com a year back. Girnar Soft runs CarDekho, BikeDeokho and PriceDekho sites. The co founder and CEO of CarDekho is Amit Jain. Combined entity of CarDekho, Zigwheels and Gaadi.com will compete with Cartrade.com and Carwale.com as well as horizontal classified companies like Olx and Quikr. Times Internet is part of Times Group. Zighweels receives 8 million visits per month while CarDekho and Gaadi.com receive 25 million visits per month. CarDekho was valued at USD 300 million earlier in the year.

ADB has extended a loan for Jharkhand to upgrade roads and open new economic opportunities for the poor. It also looks to tap the state’s natural resources through upgraded infrastructure. Loan assistance will be used to upgrade 176 km of roads and generate jobs for people in 5 districts, 20% of which will be reserved for women. State government will provide assistance equal to USD 106.25 million for this 4 year long project.

Chinese handset maker Gionee has paired with Taiwanese firm Foxconn Technology Group and Dixon Technologies to make smart phones at its Sri City Plant in TN and phones and smartphones in Noida, UP. Foxconn is the world’s biggest contract manufacturer. Arvind Vohra, Country CEO and MD of India who holds 26% stake in its Indian arm said this will help the company to gain a market share of 4% in value terms and save on duties. This would drive sales in India. Gionee commenced operations in Q1 of 2013 and now aims to introduce a new model every month.

Times Network’s MD and CEO, M. K. Aanand announced at the FICCI Big 5 Construct that the real estate news channel is the first of its kind in India. Real estate is posed for growth through smart city and housing for all projects garnering 60% of Indian household savings. New channel will provide unbiased information about the home buying process. President, News, Times Network Arnab Goswami will lead the editorial team of this channel, which targets 1 million markets initially and all markets of ET Now finally.

UMG is going to follow the OLA model (Own-License-Operate) for expanding its footprint in the music industry. The CEO of EVC will be CEO and MD, South Asia, Devraj Sanyal. EVC is one of India’s largest music festivals. Music festivals are projected to generate INR 100 crore in 2014 and 150 crore towards the close of 2015. By 2020, the Indian music festival is going to generate INR 1000 crore. 2 of the biggest festivals are held in Goa while atlas 5,00,000 people attend music festival attendees are a regular phenomenon across the year. EVC is the second biggest music festival in India. EVC will be made global by UMG which is hoping to establish its presence in China, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

127 year old NPO National Geographic Society has sold a majority stake in media properties to 21st Century Fox for USD 725 million. Media properties for which majority stake has been sold include the iconic National Geographic Magazine. The stake acquired will give the Rupert Murdoch headed company a 73% stake in National Geographic Partner’s Venture. This brings the magazine in line with cable channels and other media business. The NPO still retains 27% ownership.

Tencent has emerged as the largest Internet company in Asia. Alibaba recently lost the position on 8th September to Tencent capping a 10 month slide for the e-commerce company which wiped out USD 140.7 billion from its value. Shares of Alibaba fell by 4.7% making the online marketplace worth USD 153 billion. Tencent on 9th September 2015 reached a market capitalisation of USD 162 billion. Alibaba Group’ s reliance on consumer spending leaves it exposed to the ill effects of domestic slowdown in China. China’s recent yen devaluation and economic meltdown have caused Alibaba to lose its premier position as Asia’s largest internet company. Tencent has also purchased rights for Hollywood content on its video platform and making investments in cloud computing leading to its rise as the largest Asian internet firm. The 3 month downturn by China markets has been defied by Tencents which grew at 19% this year, Decline in Alibaba’s capitalisation is almost equal to the entire value of Samsung Electronics this year.

Eatsa is the first restaurant of its kind where customers pay and receive their food without interacting with another person. There are no waiters or counter staff and this makes the restaurant less costly and more efficient. Eatsa has been founded by David Friedberg, an American national. The menu is available on the flat screen and you tap your order via an iPad. Food is transported through the medium of cubbies behind transparent LCD screens which turn black to camouflage items placed. Low skilled workers generally find employment in such fast food joints ( for instance, in San Francisco where the restaurant is located, minimum wage is USD 15 + health benefits. The founder of the eatery has discussed how such food products are cheaper and healthier. There are different pros and cons of an automated restaurant.

Freshly appointed Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal has been nominated on the RBI central board. She has replaced Hasmukh Adhia appointed as Revenue Secretary last week. C. Government has nominated Duggal with effect from September 3rd, 2015. Currently, there are 17 board members including RBI Governor and 4 deputy governors namely Dr Raghuram Rajan (Governor), Shri Harun R. Khan (Deputy Governor), Dr Urjit R. Patel (Deputy Governor), Shri R. Gandhi (Deputy Governor) and Shri S. S. Mundra (Deputy Governor). Other members include Prof Dipankar Gupta, Shri G.M. Rao, Ms Ela Bhatt, Dr Indira Rajaraman, Shri Y.C. Deveshwar, Dr Anil Kakodkar, Prof Damodar Acharya, Shri Kiran Karnik, Shri. Ajay Tyagi, Dr Nachiket M. Mor, Ms. Anjuly Chib Duggal and Shri Y.H. Malegam. Duggal has also been nominated on the board of SBI w.e.f September 3rd 2015.

Well known business leader and Chairman Emeritus of TATA Sons, Ratan Tata has joined technology VC firm IDG Ventures India on the advisory board as Senior Advisor. He will manage business growth, international expansion, strategic leadership and team building. IDG Ventures Founder Chairman S. Sethi released a special statement about the appointment. Tata retired as head of the 100 billion dollar TATA Group in December 2012.

JSW Energy Ltd announced on 8th September 2015 that it has entered into a binding agreement with Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd to acquire Bina Thermal Power. The Sajjan Jindal firm also indicated it had acquired two hydro power assets from the company as well namely the Himachal Baspa Power Company Ltd owning Baspa II and Karcham Wangtoo- 2 hydropower assets. Jaypee Group owns Jaiprakash Power Ventures. It seeks to reduce debt through this move according to chairman M. Gaur

Baring PE Asia has acquired cash management firm CMS Infosystems in an INR 2000 crore deal. It acquired 53% stake from Blackstone Group, 37% stake from promoter Ramesh Grover and remaining 10% from employees. Blackstone had earlier invested INR 190 crore to acquire 53% stake in CMS. To retain the existing management team, Bearing PE Asia has offered ESOPs. CMS Infosystems is managing 55% of cash circulating in India at present. It also created self service terminals of 8000 plus ATMs for SBI and associate banks.

India’s third biggest software exporter, Wipro has roped in Dave Chopra to head the global infrastructure business and he will join the company as VP, global infrastructure services. Infrastructure services business constitute close to USD 2 billion or around INR 13,200 crore of annual revenues to the IT major. Around USD 250 billion worth of deals are coming up for renewal, according to ISG, an outsourcing advisory

APSEA has been renamed after Andhra Pradesh has topped the nation in the total number of online transactions. This state enterprise architecture aims to leverage progress in the use of e-governance tools. Online transactions have become a favourable way to eliminate black money in the system.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has recently resigned from the TERI governing council following the lodging of a harassment case against R. K. Pachauri, its former director. Other members of the governing council include former HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and banker Naina Lal Kidwai. Dr. Ajay Mathur has been appointed in the place of Pachauri following the allegations.

RBI has conferred the status of Domestic Systemically Important Banks on ICICI and SBI. These banks are now identified as too big to fail. D-SIBs have acquired importance in the face of recurrent financial meltdowns and market volatility. Additional capital requirement of certain level is required to be a D-SIB

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of the state explorer, signed agreements in Moscow to buy 15 per cent stake in the Vankor oil field in East Siberia. The 15 per cent stake will give OVL about 3.5 million metric tonnes of oil a year. OVL already has a 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field off Russia's far eastern coast and owns Imperial Energy which has fields in Siberia.

The court said that sexist bias and service bias will not be allowed to block progress of women. While the Army and Air Force allow permanent commission for women, the Navy has limited women officers to short service commission of 14 years only. A two judge bench also allowed women naval officers' plea seeking retirement benefits like pension. Women naval officers were not eligible for pension as it required 20 years of service.

The move will make the NGO ineligible to receive funds from abroad that could force it to close down operations. In an affidavit submitted to Delhi High Court on 3rd Sep’15, the Home Ministry said Greenpeace violated FCRA by mixing its foreign and domestic contributions. Greenpeace’s FCRA registration was suspended on April 9 for allegedly violating norms by opening five accounts to use foreign donations without informing the authorities. The court had on May 27 allowed it to use two of its accounts for receiving and utilising domestic donations for day-to-day functioning.