FDI in Indian services sector decline by 47.5% to $1.19 billion during Apr-Aug’ 2013

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country’s services sector has declined by 47.5 percent to $1.19 billion during the April-August period of 2013 as compared to $ 2.28 billion in the same period last year mainly due to the declined outsourcing business of India on the back of the various restrictions put by developed economies.  Indian services sector, which includes banking, insurance, outsourcing, R&D, courier and technology testing, represent around 60% share in the country’s GDP. During the 2012-13, foreign investment in the segment fell by 7 percent to $ 4.83 billion from $5.21 billion in 2011-12.

In spite of the government various efforts to increase FDI, during April-August, 2013 has declined, reflecting the need to take more steps to improve the business environment in the country. Overall, FDI during the April-August period of 2013-14 has grown by a marginal 4 percent to $8.46 billion, from $8.16 billion in the first five months of 2012-13.

FDI is considered crucial for economic development of a country and to attract maximum FDI into the country, the government has been relaxing the foreign investment norms in various sectors. Recently, the government has also started exercise in allowing FDI in railways sector besides liberalising FDI norms for construction and housing sector. It is also considering raising the FDI cap in the insurance sector to 49 percent from 26 percent. Meanwhile, India needs around $1 trillion in the 12th five year plan (2012-2017), to overhaul its infrastructure sector such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth.

State Bank of India opens new branch at Kukatpally in Andhra Pradesh

State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest public sector bank has opened a new branch at Kukatpally Housing Board Colony in Andhra Pradesh. With this new branch, SBI has 1,352 branches in the state. Recently, the bank has received its board's approval for infusion of capital funds to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore in the bank by way of preferential allotment of equity shares in favour of the Government of India.

On the consolidated basis, SBI group registered 11.82% fall in its net profit after taxes and minority interest at Rs 4298.56 crore for first quarter ended June 30, 2013 as compared to Rs 4874.70 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. However, total income of the bank, on consolidated basis, has increased by 12.23% at Rs 52502.29 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 46782.70 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012.

Bharti Airtel inks definitive agreement to acquire Warid’s Congo Brazzaville Operations

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has entered into a definitive agreement with the Warid Group (Warid) to fully acquire Warid Congo SA. The agreement is subject to regulatory and statutory approvals. The agreement marks the second in-country acquisition by Airtel in Africa. It had acquired Warid’s Uganda operations earlier this year. The latest acquisition will make Airtel the largest mobile operator in Congo Brazzaville with around 2.6 million customers. At present, Airtel is the second largest operator in the country with over 1.6 million customers, while Warid is the third largest with around one million customers.

The agreement aims to bring together the strengths of Airtel and Warid in Congo Brazzaville and benefit customers in the form of affordable tariffs, superior 2G/ 3G network, affordable voice and data services and superior customer care. In addition, existing Warid customers in Congo Brazzaville will join Airtel’s global network of over 280 million customers and enjoy the benefits of ‘One Airtel’ network with affordable roaming rates across Africa and South Asia, besides other exciting bouquet of innovative 2G and 3G services.

Bharti Airtel is a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top 5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.

BNP Paribas sells 16.80 lakh shares of Punj Lloyd

BNP Paribas Arbitrage has reportedly sold 16.80 lakh shares or 0.50% stake of Punj Lloyd through the open market route. The shares were sold on an average price of Rs 28.28 valuing the transaction to Rs 4.77 crore.

Punj Lloyd provides engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and project management services. It provides services to oil and gas, energy, infrastructure petrochemical, telecom broadband and utilities sectors, among others.

Richa Industries shines on bagging orders worth Rs 100 crore

Richa Industries has bagged new orders worth Rs 100 crore across both private and government sector. The company has secured a major order from Bihar state Warehousing Corporation for building 14 warehouses with project valued at Rs 45 crore. With this project, the company has taken full land development using most advanced technologies which ensures incomparable performance in terms of quality and quantity, significantly reducing both, the time required and project costs.

The company has also secured a high complexity turnkey warehousing project from one of the leading conglomerate of the Oil and petroleum industry ranked 88 in Fortune Global 500 listing for 2013, Indian Oil Corporation with the Project valued at Rs 18 crore. Meanwhile, the company also received order from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation worth Rs 12 crore. The company is contributing towards building Metro Depot in Faridabad which is a complete PEB project including workshop and Inspection Bay, car parking sheds, besides other units.

Coal India reports production of 35.03 million tonnes in October 2013

Coal India, the world’s largest coal miner by output has reported provisional production of 35.03 million tonnes in October 2013, as against target of 40.82 million tonnes. The company’s total off-take for the month of October stood at 35.51 million tonnes as against a target of 41.55 million tonnes.

Coal India is the world’s largest coal mining company. It also produces non-coking coal and coking coal of various grades for diverse applications.

Granules India surges on inking definite agreement for acquiring Auctus Pharma

Granules India, a fast growing pharmaceutical manufacturer has signed a definite agreement for the acquisition of Auctus Pharma, a leading API manufacturer. The acquisition process is expected to be completed in the next three to six months.

Granules has also opened a 10,000 sqft R&D facility in Hyderabad. The new R&D will focus on full scale generic API development and will supplement the Company's existing R&D facility in Pune which currently focuses on sustainable technology development.

Auctus has two manufacturing facilities, an API facility in the Pharmacity in Vishakhapatnam and an Intermediate facility in Hyderabad. The API facility has approvals from leading regulatory agencies including the U.S. FDA, EDQM, Health Canada, KFDA and WHO-GMP.

Auctus' product portfolio includes twelve APIs as well as key intermediates of those APIs. The portfolio includes APIs in several therapeutic categories such as Antihistaminic, Antihypertensive, Antithrombotic and Anticonvulsant as well as other therapeutic categories. Auctus currently sells its APIs and intermediates to customers in fifty countries. The team and assets from the acquisition will initially operate as a separate division with Granules.

Economy news of the day

Foreign direct investment inflows into the services sector declined by 47.5% to US$1.19bn during the April-August period.

Policy makers are contemplating measures to lure more investment into government bonds, including higher limits for sovereign wealth funds and raising minimum investment limits for banks and insurance companies. (ET)

As onion prices continue to rule high in most retail markets despite best efforts, the government increased the Minimum Export Price of onions by another US$250 per tonne to US$1,150 per tonne to boost domestic supplies. (BS)

Foreign direct investment inflows into the services sector declined by 47.5% to US$1.19bn during the April-August period. The services sector had received FDI worth US$2.28bn in the same period last year, according to the data of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. (ET)


India will have to start phasing out its textile subsidies soon to conform with the Subsidies Agreement of the World Trade Organisation, a US representative said at a recent meeting of the WTO Committee on Subsidies & Countervailing Measures. (BL)

Bharti Airtel in talks to acquire Warid Group’s telecom business

Bharti Airtel is in talks to acquire Warid Group’s telecom business in Congo, according to reports.
Report said that the talks are at an advanced stage and the deal may be announced in the next one month.
Warid Group is looking to sell stake in its Congo operations for a while now.
The deal size was estimated to be around $100 mn, says report.
Earlier in April, Bharti Airtel had announced that it will buy out Warid Group’s telecom business in Uganda as part of its strategy to increase penetration in Africa.

Lawreshwar Polymers acquires Factory Land and Building in Jaipur

Lawreshwar Polymers has acquired a Factory Land & Building measuring about 14,325 square meters situated at Kaledera in Jaipur. The company is going for an expansion plan to manufacture footwears of latest technology and to meet the rising demand of its customers it has taken the above step. The total project cost is estimated to be around 11.90 crore.

Lawreshwar Polymers commenced its production on May 11, 1995 with an installed capacity of 45 Lac pairs per annum and within a span of one year it had been successful in achieving envisaged results and able to establish an effective sales network in Rajasthan as well as other states. The company has successfully established its brand name “Lehar” in the market within a very short period.

Ashiana Housing acquires 12.65 acres of residential land in Jaipur district

Ashiana Housing has acquired a converted residential land admeasuring approximately 12.65 acres. This land is situated on 200 feet main road from Ajmer Road to SEZ (Mahindra World City) in Village Jhai, Tehsil Sanganer, Jaipur district in state of Rajasthan. This land will be utilized to develop Comfort Homes with a total saleable area of approximately 12 lakh square feet.

Ashiana Housing is a fast growing real estate developer with its head office in New Delhi, India. The company has presence in group housing, active senior living, retail, hotels and facilities management.

Markets to get a flat-to-cautious start

The Indian markets continued their jubilation intact on the short Diwali Muhurat session, though indices came off their highs on some profit booking in the banking counters but still both the major indices snapped the session at their all time closing high. Today, the start is likely to be flat-to-cautious tailing regional cues though there will be some cheer with ratings upgrade by global broker Goldman Sachs. However, traders will be cautious with the report that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into the services sector, which contributes over 60 percent to India’s GDP, declined 47.5 percent to $1.19 billion during April-August. On the other hand there will be jubilation in the gems and gold jewellery stocks, as the industry body GJEPC has said that exports from India in the segment are expected to rise for a third straight month to a level of Rs 19,800 crore for October on easing of supply pressures. There will be some buzz in the power sector too, as the Cabinet Committee on Investment, this week, is likely to take up two power projects worth over Rs 35,000 crore that have been long stalled due to environmental hurdles. Also there will be some important result announcements to keep the markets buzzing. 

The US markets despite a choppy session ended higher on Monday supported by some upmove in the commodity stocks on getting good non-manufacturing data out of China. The Asian markets have started mostly in red with the Chinese market giving up gains, while the Japanese market too was trading lower after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda unleashed record monetary easing, though it was said to be failing to meet its inflation target.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Friday’s session on flat note due to profit booking seen at higher levels in late trades after the Sensex hit its all-time highs in intra-day trade. Sentiments remained up-beat since beginning after core sector industries recorded 8 percent growth in September, highest in the past 11 months. The growth in the eight infrastructure industries was mainly due to expansion in crude oil, steel and electricity production. Sentiments also got some boost after Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said that the government will meet the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 percent of GDP for the current financial year. However, investors booked some profit off the table after Indian manufacturing activity stuck to its declining trajectory for third consecutive month in October as order books shrank at quicker space. The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a headline index designed to measure the overall health of the manufacturing sector, stood unchanged at September’s 49.6 points. Meanwhile the inflation based on consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) in the month of September surged to 10.7 percent on y-o-y basis as against 9.14 percent in same month last year and 10.75 percent for the previous month, mainly owing to the rise in price of food items, fuel and electricity charges. Global cues too remained sluggish with European counters making a weak start ahead of manufacturing data from both the UK and the US. Moreover, Asian benchmarks ended mixed with investors remaining cautious, despite some fairly encouraging economic data out of China. Back home, domestic benchmarks managed to hold green terrain as some support came in from report that foreign direct investment (FDI) in India increased by about 35 percent to $13.6 billion during the first half of 2013 with merger and acquisitions accounting for the bulk of inflows. Meanwhile, buying in metal counter too aided the sentiments. Stocks like Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Bhushan Steel, Hindalco, Hindustan Zinc etc. edged higher as Chinese manufacturing gauge rose to an 18-month high in October. Meanwhile, public sector banks such as State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Union Bank of India etc, remained on buyers’ radar for second day in a row on hopes of stabilizing asset quality and valuations. Finally on the Diwali day, the markets in a short trading session extended their gains and BSE Sensex closed at 21,239.36, up 42.55 points or 0.20%, while the Nifty ended at 6,317.35, up 10.15 points or 0.16%.