Author: Abhishek Jha

SEBI wants to know end-benificial ownership of Foreign Portfolio Investors by September

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

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Market regulator, SEBI has written an email to banks who deal with FPI (Foreign Portfolio Investor) registration, as per industry sources. The mail was sent out on Friday with a focus on two issues – FPI registration and beneficial ownership.

SEBI in the letter has asked the ‘designated depository participants’ or DDPs to reach out to their FPIs by 31st March 2023. The DDPs by the way are units within banks are the ones who deal with FPI registration.

In this letter, SEBI has asked these DDPs to ask their FPIs to give them the updated beneficial owner details by 30th Sept 2023. The communication says that if this is not done by the stipulated deadline the FPIs will become ineligible to continue their registration. This in other words means that they will have to sell their holdings by 31st march 2024.

CNBC-TV18 has reached out to SEBI for a comment and a response is awaited.

What is SEBI exactly saying

SEBI is focussing on two things. One registration of FPIs. For example, if there is a German bank which has a unit based out of Singapore or elsewhere and invests as an FPI in India, according to SEBI the legal entity responsible is the German bank and not the unit operating out of Singapore.

The second issue the SEBI communication touches upon is the identification of beneficial ownership. So, if there is an FPI investing in India and there is no entity which can be identified as a – 1) owner – 10 percent is the threshold or 2) control – then the beneficiary owner has to be a senior person and not some junior person or someone managing money etc.

Market watchers see this as a clear communication – SEBI wants to know the end beneficial owner of FPIs and there are clear timelines given by which it wants this information.

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Beyoncé breaks Grammys record with Renaissance, becomes most-decorated artist of all time

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

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Beyoncé stands alone on her Grammy throne: With her fourth win Sunday night, she has become the most decorated artist in the show’s history surpassing the 26-year-old record once held by the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti.

“I’m trying not to be too emotional,” the superstar said as her husband Jay-Z stood and applauded her. The singer thanked her late uncle, her parents, Jay-Z and her children for supporting her. “I’m just trying to receive this night. I want to thank God for protecting me. Thank you, God.”

Beyoncé has now collected 32 awards after she won for best R&B song for “Cuff It,” dance-electric music recording for “Break My Soul,” traditional R&B performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa” and dance-electric music for her seventh studio album “Renaissance,” which was also nominated for album of the year.

Also Read | Beyonce has gone past these legends to become the most-decorated artist of all time

Earlier, host Trevor Noah said she was on her way to the ceremony but blamed Los Angeles traffic for not being in person to accept it. The song was written by several writers including Beyonce, The-Dream, Nile Rodgers and Raphael Saadiq.

Once Beyoncé — the night’s leading nominee — finally arrived, Noah presented her with the best R&B song award at her table.

For the latest from Grammy’s CLICK HERE

Bad Bunny opened the Grammy Awards with a festive, high-energy performance that brought many of the audience including Taylor Swift who rose to her feet and danced near her table at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena.

Noah introduced Bunny calling him a “global force” who is the most streamed and listened to artist in the world.

Styles won the main telecast’s first award for best pop vocal album for “Harry’s House.” The singer said recording the song was one of the “greatest experiences of my life. It’s been my greatest joy.”

Also Read | Harry Styles wins Album Of The Year for ‘Harry’s House’

During the in memoriam segment, the Grammys recognized the lives of Loretta Lynn, Migos rapper Takeoff and Christine McVie with several star-studded performers paying them homage. The touching performances included Kacey Musgraves singing “Coal Miner’s Daughter” in tribute to Lynn; Quavo and the Maverick City Music hit the stage to honor his nephew Takeoff with the song “Without You;” and Sheryl Crow, Mick Fleetwood and Bonnie Raitt performed “Songbird” to remember McVie.

Kendrick Lamar won his sixth career trophy for best rap performance for “The Heart Part 5” and also won best rap album for his studio offering, “Mr. Morales & The Big Steppers.”

Also Watch | Here are the most viewed on YouTube from the Best Music Video nominations

“You know, as entertainers, we say things to provoke thoughts and feelings and emotions,” he said. “So making this record is one of my toughest. … I would like to thank the culture for allowing me to evolve in order to make this. I finally found imperfection with this album.”

Viola Davis emerged from Sunday’s show an EGOT — a term for those who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony — after her win for best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording. The actor gave an emotional speech and emphatically said “I just EGOT” after she marched on stage to collect her award.

“Oh, my God,” she said. “I wrote this book to honour the 6-year-old Viola, to honour her, her life, her joy, her trauma, everything,” Davis said. “It has just been such a journey.”

Tattered streetwear, T-shirts and denim mixed with blinged-out couture, wild patterns and plenty of skin on the Grammys carpet. Lizzo wowed in a bright orange Dolce & Gabbana robe adorned with flowers and a huge hood while Taylor Swift wore a long two-piece sparkly skirt with a high-neck and long-sleeve crop top in midnight blue.

Brandi Carlile made a rare appearance during the pre-telecast for a major artist. The singer showed up after her song “Broke Horses” won for best rock performance and best rock song, a songwriter’s award, and best Americana album.

“It’s rock ‘n’ roll, man,” said a smiling Carlile, who jogged on stage with a couple of her band members. “I cannot tell you how much this means to us. We’re born and raised in Seattle. When I met these guys 22 years ago we decided to get into a band.” Carlile co-wrote “Broken Horses” with twin brothers Phil and Tim Hanseroth.

This year’s Grammys have also introduced several new categories, including one for video game music composition, which went to the soundtrack for “Assassins Creed: Valhalla.”

The show marks a return to Los Angeles after the pandemic first delayed, then forced the Grammys to move to Las Vegas last year. Noah hosted the ceremony as well, which saw Jon Batiste take home album of the year.

(With text inputs from AP)

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FM Sitharaman exclusive | India to push green energy, tourism and women power for growth spurt

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

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The Narendra Modi government’s last full Budget before the 2024 General Elections mixed pragmatism with prudence, deciding to stick to infrastructure development and demand spike to boost growth.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman focused on the construction of roads, highways, and railway lines by increasing capital expenditure allocation. Moreover, with adjustments to the new income tax system, the middle class has received some respite, making it quite evident that the government intends to switch from the old system to the new one.

Also Read | The A to Z of Budget 2023 — alphabetically yours

In an exclusive interview with Rahul Joshi Group Editor-In-Chief of Network18, the Finance Minister credited the people of India for keeping pace with the government with respect to the fast pace of decision-making enforced because of the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic fallouts.

The Finance Minister also said that the push for improving tourism in the Budget should augre well for the Indian economy as a whole as it will bring foreign inflows.

India will also pay more heed to using women power in rural India to fast-track the economy’s growth, according to Sitharaman.

FM On Adani Rout

The Finance Minister expressed confidence in the Indian regulatory framework to handle the Adani stock rout in the best way possible.

She said that LIC and SBI have already come out and said that their exposure is within the permissible limits.

“The Indian banking system is at a comfortable level. The regulators are very stringent about governance and have kept the market in prime condition,” she said.

For ball-by-ball coverage of the exclusive interview on the go, click here

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India aims to cut its fiscal deficit by 0.7% annually for next two years

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

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The task of sticking to the fiscal glide path seems to have become more challenging. “The government will now have to cut the fiscal deficit by 70 bps annually over the next two financials,” said Finance Secretary TV Somanathan in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

While reiterating the government’s commitment to “pursue a broad path of fiscal consolidation”, the budget also talks about India’s need to maintain some fiscal flexibility to respond to global economic events. The FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) statement states this. It reads, “It is necessary that the Government retains requisite fiscal flexibility to effectively respond to emerging challenges.”

It is noteworthy that the FY24 Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday also saw no mention of the annual rolling targets for fiscal deficit or in other words a detailed fiscal glide path.

The Budget says deficit projections may “not be reliable due to the unprecedented global turbulence and headwinds. Hence, fiscal projections for the year FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 are not being placed,” in the FRBM statement.

It statement goes on to say that keeping the commitment made in the previous Budget, the Narendra Modi government will pursue a broad path of fiscal consolidation to attain a level of fiscal deficit lower than 4.5 percent of GDP by FY 2025-26.

Also Read | Budget 2023 | Fiscal deficit for FY24 projected at 5.9% of GDP

Meanwhile, India’s economic growth is estimated at 7 percent for FY23, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2023 speech in Parliament on Wednesday.

Please click on the Budget 2023 button below for 360-degree coverage of India’s economic roadmap.

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The A to Z of FM Sitharaman’s Budget 2023 — alphabetically yours

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

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Capex, consumption and credit. The Modi government’s last full Budget before the 2024 General Elections mixed pragmatism with prudence, deciding to stick to infrastructure development and demand spike to boost growth.

If you happened to miss the Finance Minister’s 1 hour 27-minute speech, here’s the A to Z of the Union Budget.

Accelerator funds for agri startups, a higher target of Rs 20 lakh crore for AGRICULTURE credit with a focus on animal husbandry, dairy & fisheries, FM Sitharaman highlighted that farmers remain a top priority. The announcements for the agriculture sector should also be seen from the prism of politics. This was the last full budget before the 2024 General elections.

Reforms to spruce up governance in the BANKING sector found a mention in the budget document as well. The Finance Minister proposed certain amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, the Banking Companies Act and the Reserve Bank of India Act to improve bank governance & enhance investor protection. DEA Secretary Ajay Seth told CNBC-TV18 that ”Banking law changes could address board representation among others”.

A bigger bet on CAPEX was one of the key highlights of the Budget. With one eye set on shoring up demand and another on boosting consumption, the FM budgeted for a 33 percent higher capital investment outlay of Rs 10 lakh crore. That tantamounts to 3.3 percent of India’s GDP.

The government has also tempered its expectations on DIVESTMENT, factoring in receipts of Rs 51,000 cr for the next fiscal. The pragmatism was perhaps not lost on us, since it fell short of its Rs 65,000 cr aim this fiscal. Defence, the other D however got top billing with an allocation of Rs 4.32 lakh crore. As per the budget documents. 8 paise of every rupee the Government spends would go to the defence arsenal.

The EDUCATION sector must have a reason to smile. Well, for starters, the allocation of Rs 1.12 lakh crore is the highest granted to the ministry ever. The government among other things has proposed a national digital library for children and adolescents, 157 nursing colleges and 30 skill centres across states.

The Budget stressed that Govt wouldn’t compromise on fiscal prudence. The FM said that the Government was sticking to its FISCAL glide path, and added that they would achieve the 6.4 percent deficit target this fiscal. As per budget documents, the fiscal deficit has been projected at 5.9 percent of GDP in FY24. The FM vowed to bring the deficit down to 4.5 percent by FY26.

A Rs 35,000 crore allocation in priority capital investment towards GREEN energy pivot, energy sustainability was one of the hallmarks of the Union Budget. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his post-budget address said, “budget will work for green growth, green infra, green jobs, green economy,”

The Budget provided a strong foundation for affordable HOUSING as well. The PM Awas scheme outlay has been hiked by 66 percent to over Rs 79,000 crore.

There are sweeteners for the salaried middle class in the Budget as well, but only for those under the New INCOME Tax Regime. The government, in a bid to push the adoption of the new regime, has pruned the number of tax slabs and cut taxes The rebate threshold has been hiked from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh. There’s more. The new income tax regime is now the default tax regime, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said that over 60 percent of income tax mop-up in FY23 came from the new tax regime.

JOBS, infrastructure and consumption boost was the overarching theme of the Budget with several states staring at elections this year. The FM, while hiking the capex allocation stressed the need to once again ramp up the virtuous cycle of investment and job creation.

The Budget allocated Rs 1,000 cr towards KHELO India. The scheme looks at reviving India’s sports culture and was launched in 2018.

The Centre will continue extending 50-year interest-free LOANS to state governments for one more year. The FM however had a caveat. She said the loan has to be spent on capital expenditure within the next fiscal itself.

There has been a fund allocation cut for Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, the government’s flagship rural employment scheme. The Govt has earmarked  Rs 60,000 crore towards MGNREGA in FY24. The revised estimate for FY23 now stands at Rs 89,400 crore. However, a lower MNREGA budget could also imply that the Government is bracing for fewer unemployed people in rural India next fiscal.

The North Block top brass clarified their budget NUMBERS during their interactions with CNBC-TV18. Finance Secretary TV Somanathan said that they had given realistic estimates and may over-achieve on the targets as well.

Interest payments at  Rs 10.80 lakh crore are the Government’s biggest OUTLAY. In short, 20 paise of every rupee the Government would intend to spend next fiscal would go towards interest payments.

The Budget continued with the government’s agenda of plugging tax arbitrage options used by the ultra-rich. The Finance Minister proposed that an individual would have to pay tax on the maturity amount if the total life insurance PREMIUM paid in a year exceeds Rs 5 lakh. However, tax exemption on money received by beneficiaries on the death of the insured will not be affected.

The Government is targetting gross tax REVENUES worth Rs 33 lakh crore. Close to 25 percent of that would come from income tax collections.

The Budget pruned the government’s SUBSIDY bill by 28 percent in the next fiscal. Fuel subsidy takes the biggest hit, and is pruned by 75 percent. The North Block said they were hoping  OMCs will no longer have to take the hit.

A capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore for Indian TRAINS. This is the highest ever capital outlay for railways to date and is 9 times higher than the FY14 budget.

URBAN India received a fillip. The government has proposed to set up a Rs 10,000 cr per year Urban Infrastructure Development Fund. The FM said that the fund would be managed by the National Housing Bank and will be used by public agencies to create infrastructure in tier-2 & tier-3 cities.

VIVAD Se Vishwas-2 is on the cards. The FM in her Budget speech said that another dispute resolution scheme to settle commercial disputes would come into effect.

All hail WOMAN power. A one-time scheme, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate will allow women to deposit a maximum of up to Rs 2 lakh with 7.5 percent interest. The scheme will be available for 2 years upto March 2025.

X factor: The Budget spares the rich, and maintains the tax rate on long-term and short-term capital gains tax. The current LTCG tax rate is 10 percent without indexation and is applied on gains exceeding ₹1 lakh on listed equity shares per fiscal year.

The FM listed YOUTH power as one of her Budget priority areas. Direct Benefit Transfer under a pan-India National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme will be rolled out to provide stipend support to 47 lakh youth in 3 years.

ZERO. That’s how much the Budget allocated towards the recapitalisation of Public Sector Banks.

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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

Economic Survey 2023 | Government expects inflation to cool off but slowly

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

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Venkatramanan Anantha Nageswaran, the Chief Economic Advisor to the government of India,  while presenting the Economic Survey 2023 said that inflation should cool off this year but it will take time as it is too “entrenched”.  This in turn might translate to the Reserve Bank of India taking time to reduce lending rates that have been going up since the last year. This is because the CEA expects food inflation to cool off but core inflation to stay sticky.

The Finance Minister tabled the Economic Survey in the Parliament today as the Budget Session kicked off. Interestingly the word, ‘inflation’ has been mentioned in the Survey 356 times.

The report notes, “Entrenched inflation may prolong the tightening cycle, and therefore, borrowing costs may stay higher for longer”

Also Read | Economic Survey 2022-2023 projects baseline real GDP growth of 6.5% in FY24

The country’s retail inflation had crept above the RBI’s tolerance range (4-6 percent) in January 2022. It remained above the target range for ten months before returning to below the upper end of the target range of 6 percent in November.

It is noteworthy that RBI has projected headline inflation at 6.8 percent in for the current financial year (FY23), which is outside its target range.

“In the developed world, inflationary pressures are abating but they are still on the higher side historically and relative to the inflation targets that many countries have adopted,” the survey noted.

Also Read | Home makers want FM to address inflation concerns, boost growth

The Union Budget, also comprising the Railway Budget, will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 (tomorrow). This will be the last full Budget of the Modi-led central government as the next Lok Sabha election is due in April-May of 2024.

Also Read | Budget 2023: President Murmu addresses joint Parliament session for first time — Top quotes

For our ball-by-ball coverage of the Economic Survey 2023, please click here

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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

Adani Group debt: CFO says $9 billion owed to Indian banks, $30 billion in total

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

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The to and fro between the Adani Group and the Hindenburg Research continued on Monday morning with the group CFO Jugeshinder ‘Robbie’ Singh refuting charges of fraud vehemently in an interview with CNBC-TV18. On its part, Hindenburg has replied to the statement made by the Adani Group which called the report ‘an attack on India’. The research firm has hit back saying that ‘fraud cannot be obfuscated by nationalism’.

One of the key questions that have been raised in the report has been the debt that the Adani Group is under. Replying to a specific question on this, Singh said the group’s gross debt is $30 billion out of which $4 billion is held in cash.

He also added, “Out of total debt of $30 billion, $9 billion is from Indian banks,” which banking sector analysts say isn’t a big risk for the sector as a whole.

According to a report by CLSA, “Bank debt (term loans, working capital and other facilities) forms just 38 percent of the total debt, while bonds/commercial papers constitute 37 percent, 11 percent is borrowing from financial institutions and the remaining 12-13 percent is inter-group lending.”

Also Read | Indian banks’ exposure to Adani Group is limited, says CLSA, Jefferies

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, SBI had said on Friday that it is not concerned about any likelihood of a default by the group at this juncture.

“… We wish to clarify that SBI’s exposure to the Adani group is well below the Large Exposure Framework of RBI (LEF). All exposure to the group from SBI is secured by cash-generating assets with adequate TRA / Escrow mechanism in place, hence debt service will not be a challenge,” Swaminathan J, MD Corporate Banking & Subsidiaries at State Bank of India told CNBC-TV18.

Meanwhile, the Adani Group CFO also clarified the Ambuja Cement acquisition allegation. He said that no Ambuja Cements shares are currently pledged by the conglomerate.

Punjab National Bank’s MD Atul Kumar Goel, in conversation with CNBC-TV18, said that the bank has a total exposure of Rs 7,000 crore to the Adani group. Rs 40 crore is the investment exposure, Rs 6,300 crore is the funded exposure and Rs 3,000 crore is outstanding exposure. Rs 700 crore is non-funded exposure. The MD said that PNB has exposures in 9-10 companies of the Adani group and added that most of the exposures are cash generating asset and that all payments are up to date.

Also Read | Adani Group CFO says no change to FPO pricing, will proceed as per schedule — click for full interview

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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

Yes Bank to approach SC as shares open 10% in the red after Bombay HC judgement, earnings

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

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Shares of private lender Yes Bank opened 10 percent in the red after the bank reported its third-quarter earnings over the weekend which was lower than what sector analysts were expecting.

The shares are also reacting to the judgment of the Bombay High Court, quashing the writing down of Rs 8,300 crore of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds by the bank’s administrator on June 14, 2020.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Prashant Kumar, MD & CEO, Yes Bank said that they will be approaching the Supreme Court to challenge the decision.

“It is confirmed that we would make an appeal in Supreme Court and we have been given six weeks and till that time there is a stay on that order. We have legal opinions which are having very strong grounds for making an appeal in the honourable Supreme Court. We will try to appeal as soon as possible, we will not wait for six weeks,” he said.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice S M Modak on Friday passed its judgment on a bunch of petitions challenging this decision. The court in its judgment said the Final Reconstruction Scheme of Yes Bank issued by the Reserve Bank of India did not engulf within its fold writing down/off the AT-1 bonds.

“The final scheme sanctioned by the Central government did not contain the clause or provision for writing down AT-1 bonds,” the court said.

When it came to the bank’s earnings in the third quarter,  net profit dropped by 80 percent to Rs 51.5 crore in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2022-23, it said in its regulatory filing. The net profit in Q3 FY23 was adversely impacted “due to ageing-related provisions”, Yes Bank informed the stock exchanges.

Yes Bank also said that its Cost to Income ratio has improved to 70.7 percent led by slower op-ex growth in comparison to income growth. The bank is expecting advanced growth to track deposit growth going forward.

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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

Axis Bank Q3 earnings preview | Net interest margin set to rise; Street to watch credit cost commentary

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

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Private sector lender Axis Bank will announce its third quarter performance on Monday, January 23. Sector watchers, who spoke to CNBC-TV18 said that when analysing the financial performance of a bank, investors should keep an eye on several key metrics.

Firstly, the Net Interest Margin (NIM) is expected to improve both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. According to Phillip Capital estimates, loan growth is expected to be at 15.4 percent year-over-year and 5 percent quarter-over-quarter.

According to the CNBC-TV18 poll, the bank is expected to see strong growth. with net Interest Income (NII) expected at Rs 10,948.3 crore, which is a year-on-year increase of 26.5 percent (5.7 percent QoQ).

Also Read | Axis Bank expects RBI to hike lending rates by 25 bps in February policy

The net profit is expected to be at Rs 5472.7 crore, which is an increase of 51.4 percent annually and 2.7 percent versus the previous quarter.

The total watchlist for the bank is expected to be at Rs 7,987 crore, which represents 1.09 percent of the bank’s loans. Additionally, the restructured book is expected to be at Rs 2,996 crore, representing 0.41 percent of the bank’s loans.

The asset quality is also expected to improve marginally, with Phillip Capital estimating Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPA) at 2.4 perent quarter-over-quarter, compared to 2.5 percent in the previous quarter.

Also Read | Kotak Mahindra Bank Q3 results: Profit and net interest income jump over 30%

Slippages are estimated to be at Rs 3,500 crore versus Rs 3,383 crore in the previous quarter. Investors will also closely watch the management commentary on the bank’s outlook with respect to growth and credit cost.

Also Read | ICICI Bank Q3 profit and net interest income rise by 34%

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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

As UK activates coal reserve, how long can Germany beat Putin’s energy squeeze?

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

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The UK’s grid operator asked three coal-fired power units to be ready to generate on Monday as it boosts electricity supplies during the current cold snap.

It’s the first time this winter National Grid Plc has needed to call on the reserve. The units are warming up and will be ready to generate electricity early Monday if needed. Demand is set to surge during a spell of freezing weather in the UK even as wind speeds drop, curbing supply.

The UK plans to phase out coal next year as it seeks to cut emissions from the power sector. But the government asked coal-fired power producers to keep units available this winter as Europe faces a shortage of natural gas. Using coal means less gas is needed to produce power. The grid operator has also been testing a tool that asks households to cut demand.

Germany’s energy fight

Meanwhile, Germany looks set to survive this winter without the Russian gas it used to depend on. The question now is whether it can plug the gap in coming winters, too — and at what price.

Europe’s largest economy hasn’t received Russian deliveries since September but is unlikely to face gas shortages in the coming months — an impressive feat considering that, before the invasion of Ukraine, Germany depended on Moscow for 52 percent of its imports.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Bloomberg this week that Germany learned its lesson from being too dependent on Russia. The goal now is to build capacity that gives Germany the chance to have as much gas as it had before the invasion without importing from Russia, he said.

But capacity is only half the battle: without long-term contracts, LNG buyers face fierce competition in international markets. And the amount of LNG available in the world isn’t expected to increase much for at least three years.

The coal dependency

Germany is restoring enough coal to power about 5 million homes, according to Bloomberg estimates.

The nation generates more than a third of its electricity from coal. Energy giant RWE AG, which wants to triple its clean-energy capacity this decade, is still going ahead with plans to extract more lignite from a western mine.

“Germany will have to continue to use coal, with power plants at maximum capacity,” said Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, a senior energy adviser for Baker McKenzie. “There are not so many alternatives to Russian gas.”

Germany’s new dependency

Russia’s loss has been a big gain for Norway and the Netherlands, with gas exports from the latter two surging. Yet there already are warnings that the flush times won’t last.

Norway is now Germany’s largest supplier at 33 percent after almost tripling its total natural gas exports last year. Oslo expects flows to remain steady for the next four to five years but then gradually taper as supplies are drained.

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