Infosys may soon replace Cognizant as second-largest IT services company in India: Report

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

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

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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

Aurobindo’s Unit I gets warning letter from US FDA; shares drop 4.5%

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

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Shares of Aurobindo Pharma fell as much as 4.5 percent on Friday after the company’s Unit I in Hyderabad received a warning letter from the US Food Drug and Administration (US FDA).

At 11:29 am, shares of the company were down 3.9 percent at Rs 689.95 on BSE. It was the second-biggest loser on Nifty500.

“…with regard to the OAI classification of our Unit I, an API manufacturing facility of the Company in Hyderabad, we inform that the Company has received a warning letter from the USFDA for the said Unit,” Aurobindo Pharma said in an exchange filing.

“The Company believes that this will not impact the existing business from this facility,” the company said.

Also Read | Mindtree shares drop after Q3 earnings; here’s what brokerages say

Aurobindo Pharma also said that it will be engaging with the regulator and is fully committed to resolve this issue at the earliest. The company is committed to maintaining the highest quality manufacturing standards at all of its facilities across the globe, it added.

This warning letter follows the recent inspection of the Unit by the US FDA in August.

In November, Aurobindo Pharma had said that the US drug regulator had classified the inspection conducted at its Unit I in Hyderabad between August 2-12, 2021 as Official Action Indicated (OAI).

The company’s Unit-1 makes active pharmaceutical ingredients and the US drug regulator, in November, had issued Form 483 with seven observations to Unit I.

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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

Loan growth coming from sectors with govt intervention; expect NIM to improve by 10 bps in FY22: BoB

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

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In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Sanjiv Chadha, MD and CEO, Bank of Baroda, mentioned that loan growth has started picking up now. He explained that a significant proportion of loan growth has come from sectors with government intervention. He is expecting double-digit loan growth for the industry by FY22-end.

“Loan growth is picking up from what has been a pretty tepid pace for the last few four quarters. I would believe that by the end of this year, we might end up with somewhere near double-digit loan growth for the industry maybe between 8-10 percent. A significant proportion of the loan growth has come from sectors, which have benefited from specific government interventions,” he said.

On segment-wise growth, he said that retail has grown much faster than corporate and he expects this trend to continue. As far as corporate loan growth is concerned, he is seeing it in state government entities.

“Over the last few quarters, we have seen that the retail segment growth has been faster than the corporate segment. I think that is still likely to continue for a little more time. When it comes to the corporate loan growth, it has been in state companies which have borrowed more, particularly state government enterprises and also in sectors which have been supported by specific government interventions,” he said.

Also Read: Asset quality issues have been washed out; expect credit growth to improve, says JPMorgan’s Saurabh Kumar

On home loan offtake, Chadha said that it’s been good. He has seen it in metros mainly.

“Home loan growth has picked up; there were incentives which came in from various states in terms of stamp duty. So, I think the offtake of home loans particularly in large metro markets, and also in the in the broader category has been very good,” he mentioned.

Chadha added that net interest margin (NIM) for the bank is expected to improve by 10 bps on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in FY22.

“Even while there has been pressure on yields, we have been able to protect our margins. Even last year, our margins had been steadily improving and we expect this year also our NIM will possibly move up by 10 basis points (bps) or so,” he said.

Also Read: Most EMs to do well; India macro factors important: Port Shelter Investment

On credit cost, he said that he expects it to decline in the coming quarters. In the past, it was well above 2 percent, however going ahead, he expects it to be lower.

“There has been a benign credit cycle, which has been gathering pace over the last one to one-and-a-half years. Credit costs have been coming down steadily, and we should see this trend becoming more pronounced in the coming quarters,” he said.

Chadha explained, “Credit cost had moved well above 2 percent over the last few years, and we had guided that this year, we expect credit cost to be below 2 percent and this is despite the second wave. So credit costs are likely to be well below 2 percent; And we expect that this improvement is likely to continue into the new financial year.”

On the competition front,  Chadha said that banks right now are flushed with liquidity. So competition for well-rated companies is pretty tough. “I think banks are looking for opportunities to grow their book. So in fact, the competition is very stiff, particularly when it comes to the well-rated corporates,” he explained.

Watch the video for the full interview.

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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

Jack Dorsey’s Block to build an open bitcoin mining system

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

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Block Inc Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said in a tweet on Thursday that the fintech firm is building an open bitcoin mining system, as the newly re-branded company looks to expand beyond its payment business and into new technologies like blockchain.

In October, Dorsey said that Block, formerly Square, was considering building a bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide.

In a tweet thread on Thursday, Block’s general manager for hardware, Thomas Templeton, laid out the company’s plans about building the mining system.

“We want to make mining more distributed and efficient in every way, from buying, to set up, to maintenance, to mining. We’re interested because mining goes far beyond creating new bitcoin. We see it as a long-term need for a future that is fully decentralized and permissionless,” Templeton tweeted.

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

Centre mulls keeping measures outside of Budget to deal with economic disruptions

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

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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

Paytm shares rebound after sliding below Rs 1,000 mark for first time ever

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

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Paytm parent One97 Communications’ shares returned to green territory on Friday after sliding below the Rs 1,000 mark for the first time ever. Paytm shares ended 8.4 percent higher for the day at Rs 1,118.4 on BSE, recovering after hitting a record low of Rs 995 during the session.

The Paytm stock has made a series of lows in the past few sessions, and failed to cross the issue price since its secondary market debut on November 18. At the latest record low, Paytm shares changed hands at a discount of 53.7 percent to the issue price of Rs 2,150.

Paytm Co-Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has said that the company’s IPO came at a time when global markets were already risk-averse due to a confluence of factors, which affected its performance.

“Globally, we probably went in at a time when QE, free money and many other parameters brought a little spook out of the market. South American companies are over 70 percent down. That’s not the reason completely. That’s a macro reason,” he said at the IAMAI’s India Digital Summit 2022.

ALSO READ: Vijay Shekhar Sharma says global market conditions impacted Paytm IPO

Paytm’s IPO, the biggest of all time in India, saw an overall subscription of 1.9 times the shares on offer. Though fully subscribed, the public offer did not come even close to the kind of investor interest enjoyed by most IPOs in 2021.

Paytm shares debuted on stock exchanges BSE and NSE at a discount of around nine percent to the issue price, and have failed to cross even the listing day high of Rs 1,961.1.

A number of brokerages are sceptical on the stock. Earlier this week, Macquarie maintained its ‘underperform’ rating for Paytm and cut its target price for the stock by one-fourth to Rs 900. 

ALSO READ | What’s Paytm spoof app fraud?

In a business update, Paytm reported a four-fold jump in loan disbursals to Rs 2,180 crore in Q3 from Rs 470 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. Its Paytm’s gross merchandise value (GMV) more than doubled to Rs 2.5 lakh crore from Rs 1.12 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

Paytm is yet to report its financial results for the quarter ended December 2021. For the July-September period, it reported an 8.5 percent increase in net loss on a year-on-year basis to Rs 473 crore. That despite a 63.6 percent increase in revenue to Rs 1,086.4 crore.

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

President Ram Nath Kovind greets people on Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal

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

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday greeted citizens for Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Bhogali Bihu, and Pongal among others, saying he prays that these harvest festivals develop a spirit of fraternity among the people. I pray to God that these festivals develop the spirit of fraternity among the people while prosperity and happiness prevail in our country, the President said.

The President has greeted his fellow citizens on the eve of Lohri (which falls on 13th January), Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Bhogali Bihu, Uttarayan, and Paush Parva (which fall on 14th January), a statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said. A majority of the festivals celebrated in our country depict our integral relationship with nature and agriculture, he said. The festivals of Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Bhogali Bihu, Uttarayan, and Paush Parva, mark the harvesting season of crops as the winter season ends and ushers in the spring, Kovind said. People enjoy the fruits of a good harvest and celebrate these festivals which also underline the need to preserve our environment, he said, adding that it is not only an example of Indian diversity but also that of unity in the diversity of our country.

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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