SEBI extended the deadline for updating Nomination Choice in demat accounts by 6 months till September 30th 2023. The original deadline was 31st March 2023. Investors not activating their demat nominee by that time will have their demat accounts frozen. Investors not wanting to nominate have to also give an explicit declaration to that effect. The decision was based on representations from stakeholders. Stock exchange and depositories will submit a report to SEBI on the status of demat nomination every 6 months.
The board of directors of Vedanta announced the fifth interim dividend for FY23. The dividend of Rs20.50 per share will entail a total payout of Rs7,621 crore to shareholders of Vedanta. The record date for this interim dividend has been set at 07th April 2023. Meanwhile, the cash crunch at Vedanta Holdings PLC continues unabated as Agarwal has been trying to sell his stake in Vedanta to monetize some of the assets in order to handle the huge debt burden in the week. Government stays opposed to the HZL sale deal.
It was another rough day in the stock markets for the Adani group as the stocks lost more than Rs50,000 crore in market cap. Adani Green Energy, Adani Power, Adani Transmission, and Adani Wilmar hit 5% lower circuit on Tuesday. Adani Enterprises also ended sharply lower, as did ACC and Ambuja Cements. To add to the concerns in the market, the NSE has also sought clarification from Adani Enterprises on the status of loan repayment of the group. It is negotiating for extension of the $3 billion bridge loan tenor.
The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund Office (EPFO) set 8.15% as the interest rate on provident fund for fiscal year 2023-24. That is just about 5 basis points higher than the previous half year. Remember that this is guaranteed by the government and if the tax breaks on investment and the exempt interest effect is added, then the effective yield is much higher. Today, there are about 6 crore EPFO holders and this would rekindle interest. CBT will also discuss the higher pension option for users.
The Chinese based digital giant, Alibaba group, will split into 6 units. These 6 units will cover e-commerce, media, and cloud. Each of these units will explore fundraising or IPOs on their own strength. However, these 6 units will run professionally by separate CEOs. Alibaba will emerge as a holding company with widespread ownership in various businesses. This is also the first time that Alibaba founder, Jackie Ma, was spotted in the last one year. In China, tech sector has been a target for Beijing’s regulatory crackdown.
Ajay Piramal and TPG Inc are considering selling their stakes in Shriram General Insurance. Currently, Piramal and TPG are working together to divest 30% jointly in the holding company of Shriram General Insurance. Shriram General could be valued at over $2 billion. In the last two years, there has been a surge in individual insurance cover as also corporates buying insurance. Other financial outfits like Kotak Bank, Shriram General and Nuva Bupa Health are looking to sell minority stakes in general insurance business.
Adani’s AMG Media Networks acquired 49% Quintillion Business Media for Rs48 crore. Quintillion was floated by former CNBC India founder, Raghav Bahl. For the AMG Media group, this is their second big deal in the media space after buying out NDTV. Quintillion Business Media runs the curated digital news platform, Quint, now called BQ Prime. AMG is the media arm of Adani group and focuses on publishing, advertising, broadcasting, and distribution of platform agnostic content. AMG is headed by Sanjay Pugalia.
After NPCI announced wallet interoperability guidelines, Paytm confirmed that its homegrown payments bank will allow KYC-compliant customers to make payments across UPI QR codes and online merchants where UPI payments are accepted. This could be a big boost for the Paytm Payments Bank as they could see additional revenues and higher wallet-loading charges. Paytm is already the largest Fintech player in India. As per reports, Paytm Payments Bank will earn 1.1% interchange revenue for each such payment.