Bharti Airtel to raise funds $1,000 mn at 4.375%

A report says that the bonds are expected to be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Deal priced at almost NIL New-issue Premium amidst heavy supply on the same day 

Bharti Airtel Limited, a leading global telecommunications company
with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa announced that it has successfully priced an issuance of USD 1000 million 4.375% Senior Notes due 2025. The Notes are expected to carry a final rating of Investment Grade from Moody’s, Standard & Poor and Fitch.

With 66% bonds allocated to the US investors, this is the highest ever allocation to US investors in any Indian deal, demonstrating the strong investor base Bharti has created for itself in developed markets allowing it to efficiently raise capital from world’s leading fixed income investors.

Broad highlights of the allocation:

• Total Order Book of USD 2 billion – subscribed 2.0X with participation from 160 quality accounts.
• Regional allocation – US - 66%, Europe - 18% and Asia - 16%
• 80% allocation to mutual funds and insurance companies, with balance to banks.
• The USD Notes have been priced at 210 basis points over 10 year USD Treasury with a fixed coupon of 4.375% per annum to yield 4.462%.

Harjeet Kohli, Group Treasurer, Bharti Airtel said, “We are extremely pleased with the continuing strong appetite for our credit from high quality investors with reducing credit spreads each time we come to the market- demonstrating the strength of our credit profile. With bond issuances of close to USD 6 billion outstanding post this issue, Bharti now has a well-established credit curve across tenure buckets and currencies. These, along with the availability under our long dated ECB terms signed recently with Chinese banks (CDB and ICBC), significantly elongate the tenor of our financing as also helps larger cash flows at hand.”

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as Joint Lead Managers along with DBS Bank Limited as the Co-Manager for this offering.

HDFC Life launches HDFC Life Cancer Care

The plan is distinct from standard critical illness policies as it provides a fixed lump sum benefit on diagnosis of early and major stages of cancer, waives future premiums and also pays regular income on diagnosis for treatment of cancer. 

HDFC Life, India’s leading long term private life insurance solutions provider today announced the launch of HDFC Life Cancer Care, a health plan that provides financial support on diagnosis of early or major stages of cancer. HDFC Life is the only private life insurance company to offer such a product. The plan is distinct from standard critical illness policies as it provides a fixed lump sum benefit on diagnosis of early and major stages of cancer, waives future premiums and also pays regular income on diagnosis for treatment of cancer. The plan also has an indexation option whereby the sum assured increases by 10% every year.  The plan is attractively priced with a Rs. 20 lakh cover for a period of 20 years being available to a 35 year male for less than Rs.1, 800 annual premium and is also eligible for tax benefits.
 
KEY FEATURES

• In-built Premium Waiver Option on diagnosis of Cancer
• Increase in Sum Assured by 10% every claim- free year
• Income Benefit for 5 years on payout for Major Cancer treatment to the family
• No Medicals
• Premium Discounts for Sum Assured above Rs 10 Lakhs
• Tax benefits on premiums under Sec 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961

Announcing the launch, Amitabh Chaudhry, MD & CEO, HDFC Life said, “In India approximately one million new cases of cancer are reported every year. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the country and research says that the incidence of the disease will increase by 54% by the year 2030. While early detection is important in the quest for surviving cancer, we realized that one of the biggest set-backs is adequacy of financial resources. Treatment of Cancer is very expensive and can range from 3 lakhs to 25 lakhs. In many instances, out of pocket expenditure for treatment of cancer means household savings are wiped out or families go into debt for their lifetime. We believe that being financially prepared against Cancer is half the battle won and with HDFC Life Cancer Care we expect to help our customers achieve this goal.” 

The response to the plan has been encouraging with over 12,000 policies sold within a week of launch.  HDFC Life has also come up with first of its kind Mobile App ‘MPOS’ for its distributors to manage end to end sale of the product in very few simple steps.
 
Plan Features:

• HDFC Life Cancer Care is a unique plan that ensures you are ready to fight the battle against Cancer.
• The plan offers choice of three Plan Options:
• Silver Option: This option offers two benefits on Cancer diagnosis:
• Cancer Diagnosis Benefit: A lump sum benefit is payable on diagnosis of Carcinoma-in-situ or Malignant cancer, Early Stage cancers, and Major Cancer. The benefit is payable as below:

Diagnosis of	% of Applicable Sum Insured
Early Stage cancer or Carcinoma-in-situ (CIS)	25
Major Cancer	100 less Early Stage Cancer or CIS claims, if any

 
Waiver on Premium Benefit: The premiums are waived for three policy years in case of diagnosis of Early Stage Cancer or Carcinoma-in-situ (CIS).
 
Gold Option: This option offers two benefit:
 
Benefits mentioned under Silver Option Plus

Increased Benefit: In this option the Sum Assured increases by 10% of initial Sum Assured every year. This increase will continue till the happening of the following:

• Increased Sum Insured becoming 200% of the Initial Sum Insured or
• Any claim event
• Platinum Option: This option offers two benefit
• Benefit mentioned under Gold Option Plus
• Income Benefit: a monthly income equivalent to 1% of applicable Sum Insured would be paid out to you on diagnosis of Major Cancer for a fixed period of next 5 policy years.

Premium Discounts for Sum Assured over and above Rs 10 Lakhs
 
No lengthy medical procedure, Plan is available on answering 8 simple questions and the customer need not undergo any Medicals
 
The plan is available for sale across all distributors and online through the web portal. It is also launched on Mobile platform
 
Eligibility Conditions:

• The Plan is available for the customers between 18 years to 65 years of age
• The Policy Term ranges between 10 to 20 years
• The customer has a choice to choose any Sum Assured between Rs 10 Lakhs to Rs 40 Lakhs

Selling sets in; Sensex, Nifty at day's low

The market has weakened in the mid-noon deals on account of persistent selling pressure in auto, banking, pharma and metal stocks. 

The market has weakened in the mid-noon deals on account of persistent selling pressure in auto, banking, pharma and metal stocks.

The BSE Sensex has tumbled to a low of 26,584, and is now down 222 points at 26,615.

The Nifty has touched a low of 8,042, and is now down 65 points at 8,070.

The India VIX (Volatility) index has zoomed over 10.5 percent to 18.605.

The broader market is also significantly in red. The CNX Nifty Junior, Midcap and the Smallcap indices are down around a percent each at 18,987, 12,588 and 5,192, respectively.

The breadth too is negative - out of 1,715 stocks traded on the NSE, 886 have declined and 553 have advanced so far.

Among sectors - the CNX Metal index has shed 2.2 percent at 2,254. The Auto and Pharma indices have dropped over 1.5 percent each to 8,072 and 11,554, respectively. The Bank Nifty is down 1.3 percent at 17,490.

Metal & Mining stocks the major losers - NMDC has slumped 5 percent to Rs. 117. Vedanta and Tata Steel have dropped nearly 3 percent each to Rs. 183 and Rs. 307, respectively. Hindalco is down 1.5 percent at Rs. 120.

Punjab National Bank is the other major loser in the Nifty-50, down almost 3 percent at Rs. 146. Tata Power too has slipped 2.8 percent to Rs. 68.90.

ONGC, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors have declined around 2 percent each to Rs. 302, Rs. 826 and Rs. 448, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Lupin, ITC, NTPC, HCL Technologies, Hero MotoCorp, BHEL and ICICI Bank are the other major losers.

On the positive front, BPCL and Wipro have rallied over 2 percent each to Rs. 857 and Rs. 557, respectively.

Tech Mahindra has advanced 1.5 percent to Rs. 555. Bosch and Idea Cellular are up over a percent each at Rs. 21,955 and Rs. 177, respectively.

Sensex, Nifty flat amid choppy movement

The volatility index has rallied over 7 percent. Broader market is also trading in-line with the benchmark index. 

The market is now trading on a flat note with positive bias amid witnessing some choppiness in the morning deals.

At 11:30 AM, the Sensex is up mere seven points at 26,844. The Nifty is up six points at 8,142.

The India VIX (Volatility) index has soared 7.2 percent at 18.0325.

Among broader market - the CNX Smallcap index has gained 0.2 percent at 5,262, while the CNX Midcap index is trading on a soft note at 12,693.

Sectorwise, the CNX Energy, the CNX IT, the CNX PSU Bank and the CNX Realty indices have added around 0.5-0.7 percent.

Whereas, the CNX Auto and the CNX Metal indices have dropped 0.7-0.8 percent. The CNX Pharma index has shed 0.5 percent.

The market breadth remains positive in the late noon deals. Out of 1,711 stocks have traded on the NSE - 816 stocks have advanced, while 578 stocks have declined.

Among Nifty-50 stocks, BPCL has jumped 2.6 percent at Rs. 861. Tech Mahindra and Wipro have surged 2 percent each at Rs. 558 and Rs. 556, respectively.

Idea Cellular and Infosys have added 1.7 percent each at Rs. 178 and Rs0 2,054, respectively.

Whereas, NMDC has tumbled 3.5 percent to Rs. 119. Tata Steel has shed 1.8 percent at Rs. 310. Sun Pharma and Tata Motors have slipped 1.7 percent each at Rs. 828 and Rs. 449, respectively. 

China property sales will rise modestly as government policies start to work

We have changed the outlook on the sector to stable from negative, said Moody's. 

Sales will likely rise 0%-5% year-on-year over the next 12 months — after having fallen in 2014 — as the effects of supportive monetary and regulatory polices implemented since the second half of 2014 start to gather momentum.

 As a result, we have changed the outlook on the sector to stable from negative. 

BPCL expects FY16 refining margins to dip to $4-6 per barrel

The robust gross refining margin of $8 a barrel seen in the last quarter of FY15 may slip to $4-6 per barrel in the current fiscal. 

Bharat Petroleum Corporation reportedly said that the robust gross refining margin of $8 a barrel reported in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 is not sustainable.

The company expects it to decline to $4-6 per barrel in the current fiscal. 

"The fourth quarter GRM had been exceptionally good due to several reasons and these levels are not sustainable. Our GRM will be in the range of $4-6 a barrel going ahead," P Balasubramanian, director-finance, was quoted as saying in ET.  

At 11:14 AM, the stock of the company is trading at Rs. 855.30. The stock is trading up 2% from its previous close which was at Rs. 839.45. It hit a high at Rs. 857.50 and low at Rs. 839.10. The total traded quantity is 49,000 and two-week average quantity is 1.15 lakh. 

Monsoon will be normal, says Skymet

Skymet has been assessing other oceanic parameters and atmospheric conditions since December 2014, and will not change its stance that Monsoon will be ‘normal’.

Skymet believes that weather forecasting agencies across the world are over-weighing El Nino's impact on Monsoon 2015.  

Skymet has been assessing other oceanic parameters and atmospheric conditions since December 2014, and will not change its stance that Monsoon will be ‘normal’. 

Skymet also believes that Monsoon 2015 will be promising for the farmers. 

The overall performance of Monsoon 2015 will be normal, but it will be weak in the sub-divisions of South Interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema, East Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. Skymet has also deduced that Madhya Pradesh will be the worst affected this year. 

Impact of Monsoon 2015 on Agriculture

Indian economy largely depends on agriculture, making Monsoon an important phenomenon in the country. Several states of India do not have proper irrigational facilities. Agriculture in these areas are rainfed and depends on Monsoon rains. 

The main Kharif or Monsoon crops cultivated in India are Paddy, Soybean, Cotton and Groundnut.

Though the overall performance of Monsoon 2015 will be normal, it will be weak in the sub-divisions of South Interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema, East Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. 

Infosys up 1.3% on strong order book

Vishal Sikka was quoted as saying that the company has won six major deals this quarter that would contribute more than $ 50 million in annual revenue. 

Infosys rallied 1.3 percent to touch a high of Rs. 2,049 in early morning trade on the back of rising order book.

According to media reports, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vishal Sikka was quoted as saying that the company has won six major deals this quarter that would contribute more than $ 50 million in annual revenue.

The stock is now up 1.3 percent at Rs. 2,043. The counter has seen trades of around 18,000 shares as against the two-week daily average volume of around 125,000 shares on the BSE.

Meanwhile, the Sensex has slipped 51 points to 26,798.

Asian cities continue to dominate the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index

Driven by insights into travel patterns, the Global Destinations Cities Index provides a ranking of the 132 most visited cities from around the world. 

Asian cities continue their domination of the annual MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index, making up half of the top ten. Bangkok has retained its position at number two with 18.24 million international overnight visitors and is catching up with top-ranked city, London. Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and Hong Kong round off the top ten, taking seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth place respectively.
 
Driven by insights into travel patterns, the Global Destinations Cities Index provides a ranking of the 132 most visited cities from around the world. More than just a travel tracker, the Index provides an understanding of how people move around the world and the importance of the world’s cities as homes, destinations and engines of growth.
 
London and Bangkok have topped the Index throughout its five year history. The rivalry is set to continue as Bangkok’s visitor numbers continue to recover following civil unrest in 2014. Forecasted international overnight visitors to the top ten cities:
 
London – 18.82 million
Bangkok – 18.24 million
Paris – 16.06 million
Dubai – 14.26 million
Istanbul – 12.56 million
New York – 12.27 million
Singapore – 11.88 million
Kuala Lumpur – 11.12 million
Seoul – 10.35 million
Hong Kong – 8.66 million
 
In addition, seven of the top ten fastest growing cities by visitor number over the last six years are in Asia. Sri Lanka’s capital city, Colombo, leads the pack, followed by Chengdu, the provincial capital of China’s Sichuan province. Forecasted top ten fastest growing cities:

• Colombo – 21.1%
• Chengdu – 20.7%
• Abu Dhabi – 20.4%
• Osaka – 19.8%
• Riyadh – 18.0%
• Xi An – 16.2%
• Taipei – 14.9%
• Tokyo – 14.6%
• Lima – 13.9%
• Ho Chi Minh City – 12.9% 

 
For the five East Asian cities, their strong growth in visitor numbers has been a result of the massive increase in internal and outbound travel from China. Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, tourism is growing fast after the ending of its long running civil war.
 
Matthew Driver, President, Southeast Asia for MasterCard, commented, “Tourism is becoming an increasingly important source of income and employment for many Asian countries. This reflects the growing appeal of Asia as it continues to develop, led by the fast emerging ASEAN economies, China and India. As countries compete for tourist receipts, and seek to improve the visitor experience, it will be key for governments and tourist authorities to continue to invest in smarter city infrastructure while preserving and protecting the heritage - from monuments to cultural events - that makes their cities unique. In this way, Asia will be able to maintain and build dynamic, exciting, global cities, which will fast become brands in their own right, pulling people to the region.”
 
Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, Chief  Economist and Chair of the Academic Advisory Council at the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, said, “Against a background of generally weak global economic growth and anemic pace of exports, a vibrant tourism sector is providing a powerful boost to income and job creation in Asia Pacific. As shown by MasterCard’s latest Global Destination Cities Index, Asian cities dominate among the leading destinations in the world in attracting international visitors arriving by air. Even more astonishing is that seven out of the world’s top ten fastest growing destination cities are in Asia Pacific, which is a strong leading indicator of their continuing outstanding performance in the years to come.”
 
Growth of the East: The resilience of Asian Destination Cities
The majority of visitors to cities in Asia originate from within Asia Pacific. This may help to explain the continued growth of visitor numbers over the last five years as European and North American markets experienced economic slowdown. The top five feeder cities to Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in 2015 are all in Asia Pacific. However, this shows the lack of diversity in the origin of visitors to many destinations in Asia, which presents risks to long term resilience to any global economic shocks. The challenge going forward for many of these otherwise very successful destination cities is to diversify their sources of visitors while maintaining their robust rates of growth. Nevertheless, globally, international overnight visitor numbers and their cross-border spending have consistently grown faster than world real GDP since 2009.
 
Intellectual Insights: Understanding What Drives Global Cities
In 2015, it is expected that nearly 383 million overnight trips will be made by international overnight visitors between the Index’s 132 cities. In combination with urbanization – the UN has estimated that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050 – this represents a massive demand for goods and services. By forecasting the number of international travelers, the Global Destination Cities Index helps to highlight the infrastructure needed to meet the expectations of both locals and visitors.
 
Infrastructure Innovation and Consumer Experiences
Major cities like London and Chicago are building open, interoperable transit systems facilitated by MasterCard contactless and mobile payments. The streamlined operations help support reinvestments in other infrastructure. A recent report by MasterCard and the Future Foundation found that people in India and China’s biggest citiesfelt local government could be doing more to make improvements to their city, including transport services, using new technology.
 
MasterCard has also developed consumer marketing programs to support the significant role cities play as centers of human interaction. In fact, six of the top 10 Global Destination Cities are also Priceless Cities, a one-of-a-kind global platform that curates unique experiences, privileged event and attraction access, and special merchant offers. 
 
Destination Cities: Spotting the Trends
 
Across the globe, a few key trends stand out, including:

• Europe: Istanbul receives the most diverse visitors, with 50 percent of its inbound overnight visitors coming from 33 different cities.
• Latin America: Lima is both the top destination and the fastest growing city in the region, featuring almost 50 percent more international overnight visitors than second-ranked Mexico City.
• Middle East and Africa: Dubai continues to be one of the fastest growing cities in the global top ten while Abu Dhabi is the third fastest growing destination city overall between 2009 and 2015. 
• North America: Houston is the fastest growing in North America since 2009 and is the only destination city in North America with double-digit growth.

The Evolution of the Oil Weapon

Recently, the US has passed sanctions on countries such as Syria, Venezuela, and North Korea, but the majority of energy related sanctions passed have been targeted at Iran and Russia.

In the age of derivatives, swaps, and electronic money transfers, a new form of warfare has emerged: financial warfare. Recently, the US has passed sanctions on countries such as Syria, Venezuela, and North Korea, but the majority of energy related sanctions passed have been targeted at Iran and Russia. 

An estimated 68% of Russia's government revenue is derived from oil and gas exports, while 80% of Iran's revenue comes from oil exports. That presents a very large target for the use of financial weapons. 

To understand why financial warfare is now so commonplace, one must understand how it came into existence and what has been achieved taking such an approach. 

The oil weapon first came into existence in 1965, when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal. What resulted from this was a declaration of war by France, England, and Israel. As a way to counter this invasion, Saudi Arabia decided to ban exports to England and France. This embargo turned out to have minimal economic impact, as the US increased shipments to Europe, and international oil companies redirected shipments to England and France. 

The next embargo imposed was in 1967, when Arab states imposed an embargo on the US, Britain, and West Germany. This embargo was enacted after a rumor surfaced that Britain and the US were providing air cover for Israeli planes, after Israel bombed Egyptian military airports in the 1967 war. This embargo failed, due to the fact that Arab oil revenues declined. This embargo also wasn't enforced properly, as Western countries were still receiving oil from Arab countries. 

But the most famous incident came in 1973. This was when OPEC issued a new embargo on countries that provided military aid to Israel, in the Yom Kippur war. This proved to have a greater economic impact on Europe and the US, because Saudi Arabia displaced Texas as the world's swing producer. 

The 1973 embargo led to an increase in domestic fuel prices, shortages of gasoline, and the rationing of gasoline fuel. This embargo changed the dynamics of US foreign policy. 

After the 1973 embargo, Richard Nixon sent his secretary of state Henry Kissinger to Saudi Arabia with a proposed deal, to ensure that an embargo such as this would never happen to the United States again. 

After some revisions, in 1976, the House of Saud and Henry Kissinger finally reached an agreement. The agreement did the following things, according to Marin Katusa's 2014 book, "The Colder War." The Saudi's agreed to: 

Give the US as much oil as it desired, for general consumption and national security measures. Thus increasing or decreasing oil production to the benefit of the US 
To only sell oil for US dollars, and to reinvest profits in US treasury securities. 

In return, the US guaranteed: 

1. The protection of the Saudi Kingdom from rival Arab countries 
2. The protection of Saudi oil fields 
3. Protection from an Israel invasion. 

The Saudi's agreed to this because, even though they had vast amounts of oil, they didn't possess an army which could protect them from its surrounding enemies; which included Iran, Iraq, and Israel. 

This deal not only secured a steady supply of oil to the US, but allowed the US to expand its global footprint. 

How the US and the Saudi's colluded to topple the USSR 

In 1982, a secret declaration for economic war with The Soviet Union was signed. This declaration included:

1. No new contracts to buy Soviet natural gas
2. Accelerate development of an alternate supply to Soviet gas for parts of Europe
3. A plan to substantially raise interest rates on credit to the USSR
4. The requirement of higher down payments and shorter maturities on Russian bonds. 

This declaration made the USSR's debt load much more burdensome, but what delivered the final blow to the USSR was the doubling of oil production from Saudi Arabia in 1986. This pushed oil prices down to roughly 10 dollars per barrel, thus vastly decreasing the USSR's government revenue. This declaration combined with low oil prices, according to James Norman, author of the 2008 book, "The Oil Card," is what led to the collapse of the USSR. 

Today, the international financial system is much more sophisticated. Still, using financial sanctions with the intention of creating a de facto embargo on oil is a widespread practice today – just look at the cases of Iran and Russia. 
 
Source: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-Evolution-Of-The-Oil-Weapon.html