Indiabulls Housing Finance said its offer of non-convertible debentures — a kind of fixed deposit in the company — has generated total retail collection of Rs 807.8 cr. Under the issue, the company was targeting to raise up to Rs 1,000 cr, including a ‘greenshoe’ option of Rs 800 cr that depended on demand. The […]
HDFC, one of India’s oldest housing finance companies, said it has slashed the interest rate on its home loans to 6.7% for those with qualifying credit scores. The rate of 6.7% is one of the lowest interest rates charged by any bank or housing finance companies in India at present. The closest competition is with […]
Brickwork Ratings, a credit rating agency that gives advice on the ability of companies to service their debt, has hailed the slew of measures announced by the government yesterday to give relief to the telecom sector, but added they’re not enough to save the industry. FLIP FLOP The most import measure announced yesterday was a […]
With youngsters increasingly preferring non-traditional careers and gigs for their livelihoods, several financial services startups have also sprung up to target these customers who may not qualify for traditional banking services. In this direction, FPL Technologies, a two-year-old, Pune-based credit scoring company, announced that it has launched a free credit card targeting the youth, with […]
ICICI Bank’s Pockets wallet has become the first financial institution in India to be permitted to offer UPI IDs in its own name and make transactions directly without routing it via a bank account. So far, UPI IDs were reserved only for those who have an account with any recognized Indian bank, including co-operative banks. […]
Fitch Ratings, one of the top two credit rating agencies, said it expects the economic impact of the second wave of COVID-19 in India to be less severe than what was seen in the first wave last year. “We expect the shock to economic activity from the latest wave of the pandemic in India to […]
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel said US-based payments processor Mastercard will invest $100 mln (Rs 730 cr) into its Africa mobile payments business. The announcement comes two weeks after TPG Group invested $200 mn in Airtel Money Africa. The latest agreement values Airtel Africa’s mobile money business at $2.65bn on a cash and debt free basis, […]
Maruti Suzuki has said that it will go for a round of price increases next month (April), its second in four months. The company had increased prices of its cars and utility vehicles on Jan 18 this year, citing rising commodity costs. “Over the past year the cost of company’s vehicles has been impacted adversely […]
Contrary to expectations, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the growth of digital payments in India. Against a growth of 46% in the value of digital payments last year, this year, digital payments growth is on track to be around 11.5%. In terms of actual numbers, with 20 days remaining in the year, the total […]
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has raised $1.25 billion (Rs 9,050 cr) via dollar-denominated bonds from a clutch of international investors, tying up funds ahead of impending auctions of 5G spectrum. The debt was raised at considerably low interest rates, though they carry the risk of the US currency appreciating in value against the Indian rupee. […]
Kochouseph Chittilappilly, the founder of V-Guard industries, said he has set up a company called K Chittilappilly Capital Pvt Ltd with the purpose of providing venture funding to entrepreneurs. In a letter to V-Guard industries, Chittalappilly — who founded V-Guard Industries as a voltage stabilizer maker four decades ago — said the new NBFC is […]
Chennai-based Equitas Small Finance Bank, which listed on stock exchanges earlier this month, unveiled a new type of zero-balance savings bank account with a whopping 7% interest rate. At present, almost no bank offers an interest rate of 7% on savings bank deposits, and many banks offer less than 7% even for fixed deposits. However, […]
Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India seem to be bringing down the number of 2,000 rupee notes in circulation, even though no decision has been taken to phase them out. 2,000-rupee notes were introduced soon after the demonetization of 1,000-rupee notes in late 2016. Their introduction came for heavy criticism and was […]
HT Media Ltd, the publisher of Hindustan Times and Mint, announced that it is buying Mosaic Media Ventures, the company that runs the funding and mergers-and-acquisitions focused website VCCircle.Com, for up to Rs 1 cr in deferred payments. It will also invest up to Rs 6 crore, post working capital adjustments, as a part of […]
The amount of money spent by an average SBI Credit Card user fell by 43% to about Rs 24,000 per month during the three months from April to June, but the company still managed to post a higher profit due to higher interest income and lower costs. Compared to Rs 24,000 in the latest period, […]
The latest COVID 19 numbers coming Italy and France — the two western countries that have put the strongest ‘social isolation’ measures in place — provide hope and a way out for countries such as the US, UK and Germany, as well as for the global financial markets. According to the latest data on the […]
Stock market indices, including India’s Sensex and Nifty 50, are likely to find their short-term bottom today, after a savage correction on Monday in both the Indian markets as well as US markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered another massive setback on Monday, dropping by a massive 13% to 20,188. With this, 30-stock US […]
Major Indian stock market indices fell by 8-9% today in the biggest single-day fall since the global financial crisis of 2008. The Sensex fell 2,919 points (8.2%), while the Nifty 50 fell 868 points (8.3%) — by far the biggest single-day points correction in the history of these two indices. GOOD TIME TO INVEST? The […]
India’s banking regulator has lifted a restriction it placed in September 2018 under which Bandhan Bank would have to seek its approval before opening any new branch. The restriction was put in place after the company failed to comply with a rule that requires banks to reduce their promoter shareholding to 40% or less within […]
Operating conditions for Indian non-banking financial companies/institutions (NBFCs or NBFIs) have improved slightly in the first two months of 2020, however, uncertainty levels continue to be high for certain segments within the sector such as housing finance and wholesale lending, global ratings agency Fitch said in a note today. “The recent fundraising by a number […]
