SBI declares 150% interim dividend

State Bank of India’s Central Board, at its Meeting held on Monday, declared an Interim Dividend at the rate of Rs 15 per equity share of Rs 10 each (i.e. 150 per cent), for FY 2013-14.

The date of payment of the Interim Dividend is fixed as April 02, 2014 and the dividend warrants will be payable, in India, at par at all branches of State Bank of India, irrespective of the amount, the bank said in a notice to the BSE.

Shares of SBI closed at Rs 1,518.50, down 0.86 per cent on the BSE.

LIC buys 4.66% stake in BHEL for Rs 1,889 cr

Life Insurance Corporation has bought shares worth Rs 1,889 crore, about 4.66 per cent stake, in state-owned power equipment maker BHEL through an open market transaction.

LIC has purchased 11.41 crore shares in BHEL at a price of Rs 165.55 apiece through a block deal on the BSE.

In August 2011, the Cabinet had cleared the sale of 5 per cent stake in BHEL through a follow-on public offer. The Government holds a 67.72 per cent stake in the Navratna firm.

However, market conditions led to a delay in the issue and the company in April 2012 withdrew the draft prospectus filed with market regulator SEBI.

The Government has so far raised about Rs 5,093.87 crore through stake sales in PSUs. As per the revised estimates in the Interim Budget, the disinvestment target was lowered to Rs 16,027 crore in this financial year from Rs 40,000 crore.

The EGoM has also cleared 10 per cent stake sale in Indian Oil Corporation to ONGC and Oil India, which is likely to fetch the exchequer about Rs 5,300 crore.

BHEL scrip was trading at Rs 165, up 1.54 per cent, on the BSE.

RBI tells banks to accept e-Aadhaar as 'valid document'

The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday said banks may accept e-Aadhaar downloaded from Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) web site as an officially valid document under under prevention of money laundering (PML) Rules.

Banks may accept e-Aadhaar subject to conditions. If the prospective customer knows only his/her Aadhaar number, the bank may print the prospective customer’s e-Aadhaar letter in the bank directly from the UIDAI portal; or adopt e-KYC (know-your-customer) procedure.

Further, if the prospective customer carries a copy of the e-Aadhaar downloaded elsewhere, the bank may print the prospective customer’s e-Aadhaar letter in the bank directly from the UIDAI portal; or adopt e-KYC procedure; or confirm identity and address if the resident through simple authentication service of UIDAI.

The RBI said banks may revise their KYC policy in the light of the above instructions and ensure strict adherence to the same.

Physical Aadhaar card/letter issued by UIDAI containing details of name, address and Aadhaar number received through post and e-KYC process would continue to be accepted as an ‘Officially Valid Document’.

IDBI Bank surges on the buzz of planning to raise up to $300 million

IDBI Bank is currently trading at Rs. 56.60, up by 0.50 points or 0.89% from its previous closing of Rs. 56.10 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 56.70 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 56.70 and Rs. 56.10 respectively. So far 44671 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 93.65 on 11-Mar-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 52.30 on 04-Sep-2013. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 57.40 and Rs. 55.50 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 9046.22 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 76.50% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 14.04% and 9.46% respectively. IDBI Bank, the public sector lender is reportedly planning to raise up to $300 million through Basel-III-compliant bonds by the end of March 2014. Currently, the bank’s tier-I capital adequacy ratio slipping below 8% and to improve this ratio the bank is planning to issue bonds. The government has stipulated for public sector banks, tier-I capital adequacy should be at least 8%, while RBI has prescribed banks maintain overall cent capital adequacy of at least 9%. As on December 31, 2013, the bank’s Tier-I capital adequacy ratio was 7.93%, while overall capital adequacy stood at 12.71%. IDBI Bank is the youngest, new generation public sector universal bank that rides on a cutting edge Core Banking Information Technology platform. This enables the Bank to offer personalized banking and financial solutions to its clients through its 1,217 branches and 2,101 ATMs.

Government receives Rs.18,267 crore upfront spectrum payment

The government has received Rs.18,267 crore upfront spectrum payment from telecom companies, which was about Rs.30 crore less than the bids received from seven companies in the spectrum auction last month owing to the unavailability of radiowaves in some parts of the service areas. However, the amount received was about 61 percent higher than the government’s set target of about Rs.11,333 crore for the current fiscal. The government received bids worth Rs.62,162 crore in the auction for 1800 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands in last month. The seven winning telecom firms of recently held spectrum auction have to pay 33 per cent upfront for the 1800 Mhz bank and 25 per cent for the 900 Mhz band, while, rest of the amount is to be paid in yearly instalments after two years with about 10 per cent interest. Vodafone, the biggest winner of spectrum, had to make an upfront payment of about Rs.5,582 crore; Airtel Rs.5,425 crore; Idea Rs.3,240 crore; Reliance Jio Rs.3,648; Telewings (Uninor) Rs.290 crore; Aircel Rs.69 crore and RCom Rs.54 crore. The high spectrum payment will help the government to contain the widening fiscal deficit, which has crossed the FY 14 set target of Rs 5.33 lakh crore or 4.8 percent of GDP in the first ten months of the 2013/14 financial year.