In a late night development, the new board of NDTV approved the resignation of Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy from the board of directors of RRPR Holdings, the company that holds their NDTV shares. That marks the end of the road for the Roy couple at the broadcasting outfit, they had helped found as the takeover by Adani is now complete. Two veteran CNBC journalists, Senthil Chengalvarayan and Sanjay Pugalia, have been appointed to the board of RRPR Holdings. Adanis hold 29.18% in NDTV with the open offer going on.
The panel headed by Dr. Kirit Parikh has recommended a floor price and ceiling price for CNG gas produced from old fields. Thus ONGC will be paid a minimum of $4 per MMBTU and a maximum of 6.50 per MMBTU. This would be much lower than the current $8.57, but it would help reduce the cost of inputs for gas using industries. It has also called for an annual escalation of $0.50 per MMBUT for first 2 years or of $0.25 for the first 5 years. It has avoided tinkering with RIL gas prices. The escalation will be adjusted to forex rate.
India is eyeing record wheat harvest in 2023 as the higher wheat prices has resulted in record sowing by farmers. While the traditional wheat belts of Punjab, Haryana and UP may have peaked out, many pulse farmers in the West are using their fallow lands to plant wheat. Domestic wheat prices have jumped 33% in the year 2022 to Rs29,000 per tonne, which is way above the government fixed MSP of Rs21,250 per tonne. However, in the event of a bumper output, the export ban may be lifted to keep prices attractive.
The merger of Air India and Vistara is finally with the Vistara entity being subsumed into the Air India brand. The combined entity will be India’s second largest international and domestic carrier. The merger synergies is expected to help the Tata group better capture market share in the aviation segment. Post the merger, Vistara will cease to exist and Air India will now have 218 aircraft. Singapore Airlines, which has 49% in Vistara and has invested Rs2,059 crore in Vistara, will get a 25.1% stake in the combined entity.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has suggested that OTT players must pay to use the telecom service provider network. According to COAI, while the OTT was enjoying the benefits of digital infrastructure put up, they were contributing little towards it. COAI wants the government to provide a proper legal framework to enable telecom operators to charge the OTT players. This is a global debate and even the European Commission is mulling a special charge on OTT companies for a level playing field.
SEBI has imposed on debt exposure by a fund to a single company, a restriction that already exists for the passive debt funds. Under the new rules, a debt fund cannot invest more than 10% of its corpus in the AAA rated debt paper of a single entity. The limits are lower at 8% for AA rated paper and 6% for A rated paper. Such limits can be extended by up to 2% with prior approval of the board of trustees and the board of the AMC. In last few years, several debt funds got into trouble due to overexposure to stressed entities.
The Adani group has won the mandate to develop the Dharavi Slum Area, for which it has just paid over Rs5,000 crore. This gives the Adani group the rights to redevelop the largest slum in India. Dharavi houses thousands of families in the low income groups very close to the financial district of BKD and the domestic and international airports. Adani had mid more than twice the amount quoted by DLF for the project. The overall redevelopment will cover 625 acres and it is slated to be the world’s largest urban renewal scheme.
The board of SBI has approved the issue of Rs10,000 crore of infrastructure bonds. This will include a base fund raising plan of Rs5,000 crore and a Greenshoe option of Rs5,000 crore and would be completed in FY23 i.e. before March 2023. In the Q2FY23, SBI had reported bumper profit numbers helped by a sharp spike in treasury profits and fall in provisions. NII and NIMs also expanded sharply in the quarter. SBI has a term loan pipeline of Rs250,000 crore and expects robust demand to come from almost all the sectors.