Top 10 biz headlines: G20 trade talks, Price Waterhouse quits, and more

From US-China trade talks to BS-VI emission norms, Business Standard brings the top 10 business stories that made news on Saturday

1. 'Right back on track': China and US agree to restart trade talks

The United States and China agreed on Saturday to restart trade talks with Washington holding off new tariffs on Chinese exports, signalling a pause in the trade hostilities between the world's two largest economies.

Commenting on a long-running dispute over China's Huawei, President Donald Trump said U.S. firms would be able to sell components to the world's biggest telecoms network gear maker where there was no national security problem. Read more here 

2. Reliance MF extends repayment date on Reliance Home's bonds for 4 months

Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Company (RNAM) has granted additional time to Reliance Home Finance (RHFL) to fulfill its principal payment obligations, after the latter was only able to make the interest payment on Friday. Some of the company’s non-convertible debentures (NCDs) were maturing on the day.

The move follows Ajay Tyagi, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), taking an adverse view of ‘standstill’ agreements between promoters and mutual funds (MFs), during its recent board meeting. Read more here 

3. HAL wants private firm to build civilian version of Dhruv chopper

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is planning to create a second production line in the private sector to build a civilian version of the Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH). The public sector aerospace firm's helicopter production line is already full for the next three years in building Dhruv ALH for the military.

On Saturday, HAL brought together Indian private defence firms in Bengaluru to discuss the manufacturing of the civilian Dhruv ALH, with transfer of technology from HAL. Ajay Kumar, defence production secretary, chaired the meeting, which was also attended by HAL Chairman R Madhavan. Read more 

4. HUL sets up end-to-end digital transformation plan for next phase of growth

The country's largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), on Saturday said it had put in place an end-to-end digital transformation plan as it sought to get future-ready.

Addressing shareholders at its 86th Annual General Meeting (AGM), Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director of HUL, said a new digital council had been set up at the company, and over 80 experiments were underway to help in the transformation. Read more

5. Audi to drive its all-electric SUV e-tron into India by end of year

Premium carmaker Audi will drive its all-electric SUV e-tron into India by the end of the year. This will be first in a 12-vehicle line-up of global electric vehicles.

Rahil Ansari, Audi India head, said the first batch to be imported will include an order of 200 CBU (completely built-up) vehicles. These will be largely distributed across dealerships in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others major cities. Read more here 

6. BSNL clears June salary of all employees; accounts to be credited on Monday

State-owned BSNL Saturday cleared June salary of all its employees, while it awaits clearance of around Rs 14,000 crore in dues from the telecom department.

"BSNL has cleared salary payments of all employees for June from internal accruals of about Rs 2,000 crore," an official source, who did not wish to be named, told PTI. Read more here

7. Price Waterhouse quits as auditor of Eveready over inter-company deposits

Price Waterhouse & Co Chartered Accountants LLP has quit as Eveready Industries’ auditor, saying it has been unable to obtain sufficient audit evidence of inter-company deposits and its recovery. In its place, Singhi & Co Chartered Accountants has been appointed.

“Price Waterhouse & Co has expressed its inability to continue as the auditors of the company,” said Eveready in a notice to the bourses. Read more

8. BS-VI a joker in the pack, may lead to dumping of old stock: Bajaj Auto

Terming the transition to Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) emission norms from April next year as "joker in the pack", Bajaj Auto Ltd has cautioned that there could be dumping of old BS-IV stock in the domestic market, triggering an "unwarranted price war" in the second half of the ongoing fiscal.

In its Annual Report for 2018-19, the Pune-based firm said while its motorcycles, three-wheelers and quadricycles will be "fully BS-VI compliant not just on April 1, 2020 but some months earlier, it is difficult to anticipate the state of BS VI readiness of our competitors".' Read more here 

9. Bandhan Bank to shift focus from large corporate loans to microfinance

Bandhan Bank has said it will stay away from large corporate loans and remain focused on microloans in the short term. This comes after the bank took a hit on its books on account of loans given to Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS).

At the bank’s fifth annual general meeting (AGM) in Kolkata, C S Ghosh, managing director and chief executive, said Bandhan Bank has identified four pillars of growth — to dominate and defend the core microfinance business, explore and expand affordable housing segment, explore and expand into adjacent domains of retail and micro enterprise, and garner low-cost funds from core and adjacent segments. Read more here 

10. Dealing with fugitive economic offenders a strong agenda, says India at G20

India has pitched strongly to deal with fugitive economic offenders, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged the issue at all global forums, the country's Sherpa to G20 Suresh Prabhu said Saturday.

"We strongly put forward the need for to deal with fugitive economic offenders. It has been a strong agenda, we have been working on tax evasion, corruption, economic offences and fugitive offenders running away (from the country). We have also been very strongly championing this," Prabhu told a media conference, detailing about the deliberations of the meeting. Read more here