Month: April 2019

Sebi’s new mutual fund expense norms

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

As the new regime for lower expense ratio kicks in, what are the top mutual funds you should look at?

Feroze Azeez of Anand Rathi Financial Services lists out top 10 mutual funds which will see a big impact post-Sebi’s new expense ratio structure.

Listen to the full story in our latest podcast:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

MakeMyTrip acquires majority stake in corporate travel firm Quest2Travel

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Online travel firm MakeMyTrip on Tuesday said it has acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based corporate travel management firm Quest2Travel.com for an undisclosed amount.

Quest2Travel.com serves some of India’s well-known and large corporates, including Tata Motors, Aditya Birla Group, Times Group, HDFC Ergo and Thermax, MakeMyTrip said in a statement.

Commenting on the development, MakeMyTrip Founder and Group CEO Deep Kalra said: “This investment will help us extend our service offerings to large corporates for their travel requirements while helping Quest2Travel benefit from the travel expertise and depth of supplier relationships that MakeMyTrip has forged over the years”.

MakeMyTrip has historically focused on providing travel solutions for retail customers and with this investment, it is making a decisive foray into providing travel solutions for corporate customers as well, Kalra added.

“This partnership is a perfect fit because it combines the best in corporate travel with the leader in non-corporate travel,” Quest2Travel Founder and CEO Abhay Rangnekar said.

MakeMyTrip provides its customers access to all major domestic airlines operating in India and all major airlines operating to and from India, over 61,500 domestic accommodation properties in India and more than 500,000 properties outside India, Indian Railways and all major Indian bus operators.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Ruchi Soya lenders approve Patanjali Ayurveda’s takeover bid

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

More than a year after it was dragged into the bankruptcy court by lenders, Ruchi Soya is set to be acquired by Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda, multiple sources aware of the development told CNBC-TV18.

Over 95 percent of the lenders to Ruchi Soya voted in favour of Patanjali Ayurveda’s resolution plan to take over the company, said the sources.

Patanjali Ayurveda has offered Rs 4,325 crores to acquire the country’s largest edible oil maker, said the banking sources, adding that this includes Rs 115 crore as capital infusion into the company.

The Madhya Pradesh based edible oil maker was referred to the NCLT in December 2017 on the application of creditors Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank. Shailendra Ajmera was appointed as resolution professional (RP) to manage the affairs of the company and undertake the insolvency process.

Adani Wilmar, which had emerged as the highest bidder in August 2018 after a long drawn battle with Patanjali, withdrew from the bidding process citing delay in the insolvency process.

Ruchi Soya has a total debt of about Rs 10,000 crore. The debt-ridden firm has many manufacturing plants and its leading brands include Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Gold.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

61% IT professionals report data breaches: McAfee

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

IT security professionals are struggling to secure their organisations and protect them against breaches with 61 percent claiming to have experienced a data breach at their current employer, says a new report from global cyber security firm McAfee.

Data is now being stolen by several methods, with no single technique dominating the industry.

The top vectors used to appropriate data are database leaks, Cloud applications and removable USB drives, said the report titled “Grand Theft Data II — The Drivers and Shifting State of Data Breaches”.

Data breaches are becoming more serious as cyber criminals continue to target intellectual property, putting the reputation of company brand at risk and increasing financial liability, the results showed.

“Threats have evolved and will continue to become more sophisticated,” Candace Worley, Vice-President and Chief Technical Strategist at McAfee, said in a statement.

“Organisations need to augment security measures by implementing a culture of security and emphasising that all employees are part of an organisation’s security posture, not just the IT team,” Worley said.

For the study, data was collected via online interviews of IT professional in several countries, including India, between 12 and December 31, 2018. To qualify for the survey, organisations had to have more than 1,000 employees.

According to results, personally identifiable information is of greater concern in Europe, most likely due to enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In Asia-Pacific countries, intellectual property theft is of greater concern than personally identifiable information, the study said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

NSE co-location case: These are the names Sebi has penalised or ordered enquiry against

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday directed National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) to pay Rs 624.89 crore with 12 percent interest from April 1, 2014 and barred it from the securities market for six months for allegedly misusing its colocation service.

The case, which involved NSE and 16 of its executives, pertains to some broking firms having preferential access to the exchanges’ high-speed algorithmic trading platform through its colocation service between 2011 and 2014.

In the 104-page order, G Mahalingam, whole time member of Sebi, has penalised NSE, Ravi Narain, Chitra Ramkrishna and has ordered an enquiry against Mahesh Soparkar and Deviprasad Singh.

NSE

The exchange was established in 1992. It is the leading stock exchange in India and the second largest in the world by the number of trades in equity shares from January to June 2018, according to the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) report.

Ravi Narain

One of the founding members of NSE and was the former managing director and the chief executive officer from 2000 to March 2013. He resigned from the NSE on June 2, 2017.

Chitra Ramkrishna

Considered as one of the architects of the NSE, she was the former managing director and the chief executive officer from April 2013 to December 2016; deputy managing director from 2008-10 and joint managing director from 2010-2013. Ramakrishna resigned from the NSE on December 2, 2016, almost a year before her tenure comes to an end in 2018.

Mahesh Soparkar

Head of NSE’s Project Support and Management (PSM) Team during 2009-13.

Deviprasad Singh

Head of NSE’s Project Support and Management (PSM) Team during 2013-16.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

NSE co-location case: Here is how some trading members manipulated the system

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Securities and Exchange Board of  India (Sebi) has asked the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to pay Rs 625 crore for the misuse of its co-location facility. The market regulator has been probing the alleged lapses in high-frequency trading offered through the NSE’s co-location facility.

NSE’s co-location facility allows low latency and fast execution to trading members. This setup of server gives a 10:1 speed advantage in comparison to other brokers. In its probe, the markets watchdog has found serious lapses on the part of the exchange for allowing preferential access to select brokers.

The matter pertains to some broking firms having preferential access to the NSE’s high-speed algorithmic trading platform through its co-location service between 2011 and 2014. Some of the trading members were able to consistently log in to the NSE systems before the rest.

The probe began back in 2015 when Sebi received complaints against NSE. Tick-by-Tick (TBT) data feed, which provides information regarding every change in the order book, was disseminated over Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol. Under this protocol, the information is delivered one-by-one unlike broadcast, where everyone gets the price information at the same time. TBT data feed was disseminated sequentially in the sequence trading members (TM) connected/ logged-in to the server.

The first one to connect to the lowest load server would get advantage in terms of receiving the data faster than others. Some people had figured out that the way to game the system lay in being the first one to connect to the server and preferably a server which was the fastest. A server could be the fastest due to lesser load or it could be hardware of the server which was slightly powerful.

Some TMs have made arrangements with NSE staff who would inform them the time when the servers would start, and therefore could be the first to connect.

In addition, the back-up servers that were installed for the purpose of business continuity, whose access should ideally be permitted in case the primary servers went down, were also allowed to be accessed by some TMs as load on such server was low.

In March 2016, Sebi’s technical advisory panel had found lapses in the NSE’s system and recommended a probe. Following this, Sebi ordered a forensic audit of NSE systems and the brokerage firms that secured an alleged unfair advantage. In June 2017 Sebi issued its first show cause notice to the NSE and 14 of its executives alleging violation of the Securities Contract Regulations Act and Stock Exchange and Clearing Corporations norms. Last year, the regulator issued its final show cause notice alleging violation of Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices norms.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Uday Kotak warns of more liquidity squeeze, muddying waters for financial sector again

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Banker Uday Kotak on  Tuesday warned of more liquidity crisis plaguing the financial sector, which is already passing through “turbulent times”, for the newt two quarters and stressed on the need to have strong balance sheets to withstand difficult times.

The next six months are crucial for the financial sector, Kotak, the executive vice-chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, adding the fear this time is the financial sector impacting both itself as well as the real sector.

Comments come days after smaller rival Yes Bank under a new chief executive warned that up to Rs 10,000 crore of assets existing on its book as standard assets can slip into NPAs and massively provided for the same, resulting in a maiden loss of over Rs 1,500 crore, and also troubles with some of the Reliance Capital arms.

“We are in the midst of one of the significant challenges in the financial sector and I think the next few months are crucial in the sense how the financial sector shapes up across various segments,” he told reporters after announcing the March quarter earnings of the bank wherein it reported a 14 percent growth in net income.

“This is the time when the quality of the balance sheet of financial players gets very crucial…the true test of a financial institution is the balance sheet,” he added.

Rather than focusing on profits, market should look at the inherent strength of the balance sheet whether it can withstand difficulties, he said.

Kotak said the financial sector was the biggest beneficiary of the note-ban exercise as massive amount of liquidity flowed into banks, insurers and mutual funds. But soon, this money got invested in illiquid assets like land and realty, which was the biggest folly because once liquidity got tighter, exiting such assets has become tough.

He said the issues faced by infra lender IL&FS, which he chairs after its bankruptcy, was the “first signal” of the looming crisis. It can be noted that the same has been followed by the troubles faced by promoters who borrowed against pledged shares, especially from mutual funds.

Kotak said banks coming out of NPA pains was also one of the issues which led us into the present situation. “We need a very strong approach both from the practitioners as well as policymakers to take the financial sector into safer waters from the more turbulent waters.”

As a way-out, he said the best solution is more equity infusion into struggling players or consolidation and in the worst case there can be some mortalities as well.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow