Month: June 2018

Flipkart deal will ramp up Walmart’s global sourcing from India, says Walmart International CEO

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

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Flipkart deal will ramp up Walmart’s global sourcing from India and the company see a great opportunity to source apparel and accessories for Walmart from India, said Judith McKenna International CEO of the company.

Indian ecommerce market is under penetrated and has a lot of headroom for growth, said McKenna.

Last month, Walmart agreed to buy roughly 77% stake in e-commerce company Flipkart for $16 billion, in what is the country’s biggest foreign direct investment to date.

Walmart is cooperating fully with Indian regulatory agencies and the company is confident of getting nod for Flipkart deal, McKenna said.

“Flipkart transaction is fully compliant with India rules and applied to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for clearance,” she said.

Walmart only need CCI nod for Flipkart transaction and the company can operationalise after getting it, added the CEO.

McKenna said Walmart will increase the funding to the Flipkart as it is necessary.

Flipkart deal will ramp up Walmart’s global sourcing from India, she said, adding that the company see a great opportunity to source apparel and accessories for Walmart from India.

On taking Amazon in India, McKenna said Walmart is used to competition around the world.

The deal was the US retail giant’s boldest attempt yet to take on Amazon online, as well as giving it access to a booming market it has so far failed to crack.

McKenna said the operating structure of Flipkart will remain same post deal and it will be board driven.

“Board composition will be announced after clearances from CCI,” she said.

Krish Iyer, CEO of Walmart India said they have support of one million Kirana members for Flipkart deal.

The company is seeing seeing double digit growth in India, said Iyer.

“Walmart will amplify efforts on Agriculture produce and will scale up farm sector pilots,” he said.

The company will also start to invest in cold storage as ramp up cash and carry stores, added Iyer.

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

Market opens mix due to trade war fears; ICICI Bank gains

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

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Opening Bell: 

The market has opened mixed on account of the global trade war fears as the benchmark indices trade in the green while the Nifty Midcap and the Nifty Bank trade in the red. The BSE Sensex opened flat, with a positive bias, at 35,297.37 points and the NSE Nifty, flat with a positive bias, opened at 10,719.30. The banks underperform in the opening trade as the Nifty Bank fell 150 points and Nifty Midcap index declined 40 points.

ICICI Bank rallied nearly 4% in trade after the buzz that Chanda Kochhar is likely to go on an indefinite leave.

Update: 

The Indian stock market is likely to pare losses in its opening as Asian cues recover.

• Asian equities have turned positive on Friday after a weak opening as trade war worries hit global financial markets, which were already shaken this week by political turmoil in Italy. Japan’s Nikkei recovered with a 25-basis point advantage and Korea’s Kospi with a 54-basis point advantage.
• The SGX Nifty is now trading at levels around 10,700 as against the Nifty May Future’s Thursday close of 10,736, indicating a flat-to-positive opening on Dalal Street today.

What was expected earlier?

The market is likely to open weak as trade war fears reignite in the global economy.

Asian equities sagged on Friday as worries about US trade policy hit global financial markets, which were already shaken this week by political turmoil in Italy.

Wall Street shares posted deep losses overnight after the United States said it would impose tariffs on aluminium and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Fears of a global trade conflict, which had partially receded over the past few weeks, were rekindled as Washington’s allies took steps to retaliate against the US measures.

The SGX Nifty is trading at levels around 10,725 as against the Nifty May Future’s close of 10,738, indicating a weak opening for the market. The SGX Nifty had reached a high of 10,755 points in its opening.

In the Indian front, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday said that Indian economy grew at 7.7% in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2018, making it the fastest-growing major economy in the world. The positive news is likely to keep market slightly in the green.

A late surge on the expiry day, along with a global recovery, helped the market close firmly in the green on Thursday.  The Sensex and the Nifty closed with a gain of over 1% for the May series after being flat for the most part of the series.

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

US crude oil little changed after losses, record output weighs

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

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US crude oil steadied on Friday after deep losses in the previous session on pressure from all-time high US production and expectations of higher OPEC output.

US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2 cents to $67.06 a barrel by 0805 GMT after dropping almost 2% on Thursday. Brent crude, which was little changed in the previous session, added 17 cents, or 0.2% to $77.73 per barrel.

US crude production has been rising to record high levels since late last year. In March it jumped 215,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 10.47 million bpd, a new monthly record, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday.

Still, US crude stockpiles fell 3.6 million barrels last week, the EIA said, exceeding expectations for a decline of 525,000 barrels.

“A drop in inventories in the US was overshadowed by US output which jumped to a record high level,” ANZ said in a note.

“With the markets still concerned about supply-side issues in OPEC, this has pushed the Brent-WTI spread out to nearly $11/bbl, the highest level for three years.”

Brent hit a three-week low below $75 a barrel on Monday after OPEC and its allies, including Russia, indicated they could adjust their deal to curb supplies and increase production, but recovered later in the week.

OPEC and non-OPEC producers have committed to cut output by 1.8 million bpd until the end of 2018 but are ready to make gradual supply adjustments to deal with shortages, a Gulf source familiar with Saudi thinking told Reuters late on Wednesday.

Sources told Reuters last week that Saudi Arabia, the effective leader of OPEC, and Russia were discussing boosting output by about 1 million bpd to compensate for losses in supply from Venezuela and to address concerns about the impact of U.S. sanctions on Iranian output.

Russia would be able to raise its oil output back to pre-cut levels within months if there is a decision to unwind the price-protection deal with OPEC and other producers, a Russian energy ministry official said.

Concerns about US bottlenecks are contributing to the decline in U.S. futures as well. Prices for physical barrels of US light sweet crude delivered at Midland are at their largest discount to the benchmark US futures price in almost four years.

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

Asia stocks sag as U.S. tariffs reignite trade war fears

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

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Asian equities sagged on Friday as worries about US trade policy hit global financial markets, which were already shaken this week by political turmoil in Italy.

Wall Street shares posted deep losses overnight after the United States said it would impose tariffs on aluminium and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Fears of a global trade conflict, which had partially receded over the past few weeks, were rekindled as Washington’s allies took steps to retaliate against the US measures.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.08%.

The index was down roughly 0.9% this week, during which it touched a six-week low on concerns that political developments in Italy could weaken its commitment to the euro and exacerbate the country’s debt burden.

Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.1 percent.

“The downward correction in equity markets is likely to continue, as the United States has opened up a new point of contention on the trade front by getting involved with the European Union,” said Soichiro Monji, senior economist at Daiwa SB Investments in Tokyo.

“President (Donald) Trump has not accomplished very much in terms of trade issues and is likely to remain vocal with the U.S. midterm elections coming up.”

Investor focus on Friday is also on Chinese markets with the country’s mainland shares scheduled to join index publisher MSCI’s emerging market index. The inclusion was seen as potentially increasing investment from global investors into China’s capital markets.

In currencies, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso were on the defensive, weighed by the U.S. decision to impose tariffs on aluminium and steel imports from these countries.

The euro was little changed at $1.1687 holding to modest gains made on relief overnight as Italy’s anti-establishment parties reached a deal to resurrect their proposed coalition government.

The deal by the Italian parties averted the prospect of a new snap election, which had rattled global markets earlier this week and sent the euro to a 10-month low of $1.1510 on Tuesday.

The dollar was steady at 108.830 yen, having lost about 0.5 percent against this week as the earlier global market tumult had enhanced demand for the Japanese currency, which is a perceived safe-haven.

Brent crude rose 0.2 percent to $77.73 a barrel.

Prices swerved between $74.49, a three-week low, to $78.75 this week on speculation towards output by major oil-producing nations.

U.S. crude was down 0.1 percent at $66.97 a barrel.

Brent’s premium over U.S. crude reached its widest since March 2015 this week as a lack of pipeline capacity in the United States has trapped a lot of output inland.

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

UK trade minister does not rule out counter-measures after U.S. tariff blow

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

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British trade minister Liam Fox said on Thursday he hoped the United States will think again about its decision to move ahead with tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, but did not rule out retaliation.

“We absolutely do not rule out counter-measures and we do not rule out taking our dispute to the World Trade Organisation,” Fox told Sky News.

“Obviously we still hope the United States will think again about this but it would be a great pity if we ended up in a tit-for-tat trade dispute with out closes allies.”

Earlier a government spokesman said Britain was “deeply disappointed” about the tariffs, adding: “The UK and other European Union countries are close allies of the U.S. and should be permanently and fully exempted from the American measures on steel and aluminium.”

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

Trump tariffs hitting ‘wrong target’: leading U.S. House Republican

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

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Trump administration tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and Europe are “hitting the wrong target” and officials will need to provide answers to Congress about the damage to local businesses, a top Republican lawmaker said on Thursday.

“When it comes to unfairly traded steel and aluminum, Mexico, Canada and Europe are not the problem – China is,” said Representative Kevin Brady, the chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. “These tariffs are hitting the wrong target.”

Brady urged the administration in a statement to exempt the imports from “these important national security partners” and added that administration officials “will need to come to Capitol hill to provide answers about the indiscriminate harm these tariffs are causing our local businesses.”

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

Trump’s “muscle-flexing” with allies will cost US consumer, France says

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

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U.S. trade tariffs on European metals exports are unjustified and will be met with a proportionate and calibrated EU response, the French government said on Thursday.

Today, France and the EU disapprove, of course, these measures. We are getting ready to put in place safeguards, rebalancing measures because we won’t let unjustifiable and unjustified measures go unanswered,” ,” France’s junior trade minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told reporters.

“I’m happy that, in this moment of truth, the EU is united.”

The United States said earlier it would impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the EU, ending months of uncertainty about potential exemptions and reigniting fears of a global trade war.

“While some leaders are enjoying themselves with measures that amount to muscle-flexing and are pointing fingers at allies, what will happen in real life? These tariffs will increase the cost of products,” the French minister said.

“And in the end who will pay the bill? The consumer, the American consumer,” Lemoyne added.

“Today, in terms of trade, we’re dancing by the edge of the cliff. It takes a lot of self-control to show the U.S. they are completely wrong,” he 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

Trump plays down chances of quick North Korea breakthrough, talks wrap up

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

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President Donald Trump on Thursday played down the chances of a quick breakthrough in talks with North Korea about its nuclear arsenal, as the top U.S. diplomat and a senior official from Pyongyang wrapped up two days of negotiations.

Trump, in a brief interview with Reuters aboard Air Force One on the way to Texas, said he was still hoping to hold an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore.

“I’d like to see it done in one meeting,” he said. “But often times that’s not the way deals work. There’s a very good chance that it won’t be done in one meeting or two meetings or three meetings. But it’ll get done at some point.”

It was not clear if Trump meant he would need a second summit with Kim to reach the U.S. goal of persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear arms, or if he believed more lower-level talks were needed.

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

U.S. withdrawal may halt nuclear nonproliferation work in Iran: diplomats

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

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The remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal have warned the United States that its decision to withdraw from the pact jeopardizes Russian and Chinese efforts to limit Iran’s ability to develop atomic weapons, Western diplomats told Reuters.

In pulling out of the 2015 deal, U.S. President Donald Trump triggered the revival of sanctions against the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), which oversees the Arak heavy water research reactor and the Fordow fuel enrichment plant.

Under the deal, the Arak reactor was to be redesigned to render it unable to make bomb-grade plutonium under normal operation, while the Fordow plant was to stop enriching uranium and be converted into a nuclear, physics and technology center.

The restoration of U.S. sanctions on AEOI would expose non-U.S. companies to the risk of punishment by the United States for dealing with it, including Chinese state-owned China National Nuclear Corp. and Russia’s Rosatom, which are doing nonproliferation work respectively at Arak and Fordow.

Neither company responded to requests for comment.

At a meeting in Vienna last Friday, the non-U.S. parties to the deal – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran – discussed the subject extensively, with Beijing and Moscow stressing their concerns, three European diplomats said.

One senior European diplomat called the situation “crazy” and said the U.S. withdrawal risked triggering a proliferation problem because its sanctions may halt work on Arak and Fordow.

“It may force the interruption of the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear sites. It’s completely absurd,” the diplomat said.

Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment.

Asked how Washington planned to address the concerns about AEOI being sanctioned and how it would serve U.S. interests not to carry out the nonproliferation work at Arak and Fordow, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Ford said the U.S. was aware of the other parties’ positions regarding AEOI.

“These questions are all under active consideration by the U.S. government,” he said in a statement relayed by a spokeswoman.

“Our posture towards Iran will be geared towards obtaining enduring nonproliferation benefits and constraining the full range of its malign activities.”

“AN IRONY”
The 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers lifted international sanctions on Tehran. In return, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities, increasing the time it would need to produce an atom bomb if it chose to do so.

Trump abandoned the agreement on May 8, arguing that he wanted a bigger deal that not only limited Iran’s atomic work but also reined in its support for proxies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon and that curbed its ballistic missile program.

The remaining parties are trying to keep the deal alive.

“Everyone is focused on preserving the economic side of the agreement,” said an EU diplomat. “But if the (remaining parties) fail on the nuclear side of implementation, while Iran is trying to comply, it would really be an irony.”

The deal bars the production of enriched uranium at Fordow and says Russia will work with Iran there on producing stable isotopes, which do not pose a proliferation risk.

On Arak, the deal specifies that the new design will aim to minimize the production of plutonium and to prevent the production of weapon-grade plutonium in normal operation. It also specifies the fuel Arak must use and says its spent fuel for the reactor’s lifetime must be shipped out of Iran.

Sanctions that would prevent companies from dealing with AEOI are due to be reimposed no later than Nov. 5.

The three European diplomats said Russia and China had been especially vocal at the Vienna meeting, with one saying that the two nations indicated they were determined to carry out the nuclear projects but stressed their worries on U.S. sanctions.

Two other Western officials also confirmed that the subject was discussed at the meeting.

The U.S., which initially led a working group to redesign the Arak reactor with China, did not attend the Vienna talks.

Beijing’s envoy to the talks told reporters on Friday that the parties needed to find a co-chair for Arak to move forward.

Richard Nephew, a former administration official under then-U.S. President Barack Obama, said it was unlikely the U.S. would sanction state-owned Chinese or Russian companies for doing non-proliferation work with Iran, although it was a possibility.

“The real problem is does this stop these countries and the companies from their work to render the Arak and Fordow facilities safer?” he said.

“If it causes them to stop that work and gives Iran an excuse to restart Fordow or to rebuild Arak as a plutonium-production reactor, then we will have done real damage to our nonproliferation objectives.”

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

Azure Power raises $135 million through debt financing

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

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Solar rooftop firm Azure Power today said it has raised  $135 million though debt financing from a consortium of development finance institutions.

The company plans to use the funds to finance around 200 MW of its solar rooftop projects across India, the company said in a statement.

The funding which was led by the International Finance Corporation, included other investors like Dutch development bank FMO, Societe de Promotion et de Participation pour la Cooperation Economique (Proparco) the French development finance institution, and Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG (OeEB) the development bank of Austria.

“This financing will enable us to rapidly expand our Azure rooftop power platform in India,” company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer Inderpreet Wadhwa said.

The firm offers rooftop solar power solutions for commercial, industrial, government, and institutional customers in cities across India.

“Earlier, we had invested around $30 million in Azure Power, and this will be our second investment,” FMO chief investment officer Linda Broekhuizen 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