Top 10 biz headlines: Rs 10,000 cr housing push, NBFCs stringed, and more

From India Inc's dipping R&D expenditure to NBFCs loan foreclosures, here's a selection of the day's top business headlines

Housing finance companies get Rs 10,000-crore liquidity infusion

The National Housing Bank (NHB) has decided to infuse an additional Rs 10,000 crore into housing finance companies (HFCs) to improve liquidity in the sector. The move would enable the companies to provide individual loans for affordable housing, said the finance ministry on Friday.

Also, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet heads of state-owned and private banks on Monday to discuss the ongoing liquidity crisis in non-banking financial companies and slowdown in sectors such as automobile. Credit to priority sectors as well as small and medium industries will be discussed to find ways to accelerate economic growth. Read more...

Reserve Bank bans NBFCs from charging loan foreclosure penalties

The Reserve Bank on Friday barred non-banking finance companies from charging pre-payment penalties or foreclosure charges from individual borrowers.

"NBFCs shall not charge foreclosure charges/pre- payment penalties on any floating rate term loans sanctioned for purposes other than business to individual borrowers, with or without co-obligants," the central bank said in a notification, without specifying from when the new ruels will be effective. Read more...

India Inc's expenditure on R&D declines to lowest level in six years

Expenditure on research and development (R&D) by Indian companies has declined to its lowest level in six years. Of the S&P BSE 500 companies, an analysis of 98 firms (for which continuous data is available over the last decade) shows that their R&D expenditure, on average, came in at 0.54 per cent of net sales. This is the lowest since 2012-13. Read more... 

Tata Motors, Tata Power to install 300 charging stations in 5 cities

Tata Power and Tata Motors on Friday forged a partnership to install 300 fast charging stations by the end of this financial year in five key cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. The move will help in accelerating faster adoption to electric vehicles (EVs) in a market where an almost non-existent charging infrastructure has been one of the biggest deterrents.

The companies on Friday inaugurated seven charging stations in Pune. Ramesh Subramanyam, CFO and president (new businesses) of Tata Power, said they would now set up 50 such points across the metros. “The next round of expansion will depend on the way overall EV sales pan out.” Read more...

Banks have turned risk averse, says HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh

A day after Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman AM Naik raised concerns of challenging times for the private sector, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) chairman Deepak Parekh took a similar stand, saying banks have turned risk averse and that there is a distinct slowdown in the economy.

“The challenge today is risk aversion. Banks are reluctant to lend. There has been a flight to safety where a select few, high-rated non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) have access to funding. But for several others, access to credit has been choked,” said Parekh, while speaking at the annual general meeting of shareholders.
Read more...

Will work to re-energise growth, says new Mindtree CEO Debashis Chatterjee

Mindtree’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Debashis Chatterjee, on Friday said his immediate priority would be to bring back the growth momentum by working with the current management.

Chatterjee said he would devise a 100-day plan to re-energise growth, which has taken a hit following L&T’s takeover of the mid-tier IT services firm. In the June quarter, the Bengaluru-headquartered firm had shown one of the weakest performances in recent years with a 41 per cent dip in profit year on year. Its operating margin fell 520 basis points. Read more... 

Coffee Day board not to take up results for June quarter next week

Coffee Day Enterprises has decided to postpone its earnings announcement as the company's board will not consider June quarter results at its meeting next week.

The development comes in the backdrop of the company's chairman  and managing director V G Siddhartha was found dead.

In a filing to the BSE, the company said that due to certain unavoidable circumstances, the board of directors shall not consider the financial results on a standalone and consolidated basis along with the limited review report of the company and its subsidiaries for the quarter ended June 30, 2019 in the meeting to be held on August 8, 2019. Read more... 

Related-party transactions at IndiGo get audit nod

IndiGo on Friday said that all related-party transactions (RPTs) with the airline in 2018-19 have been reviewed and approved by its audit committee, according to a Livemint report.

Lawyers want RBI to plug gap, block foreign companies’ entry 

According to an Economic Times report, Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) has asked the government to direct the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to plug what it called a loophole in its March 29 directive “which may lead to the backdoor entry of foreign law firms in India.” 

Central GST: Fake invoices racket busted

Central GST Delhi North Commissionerate has busted a racket of issuance of fake invoices without actual supply of goods and services, reports The Hindu BusinessLine.