Top 10 business headlines: Jet Airways revival, Karnataka bans Ola, more

From Jet Airways bailout plan to Amazon's grocery expansion plan, Business Standard brings you top 10 business stories that made news on Friday

Crisis-hit Jet Airways' lenders struggle for consensus on revival plan

The lenders to Jet Airways are yet to come to an agreement on firming up a rescue package for the airline, which is left with a skeleton fleet. While State Bank of India (SBI), leader of the lenders’ consortium, is working overtime to arrange emergency funds, many other banks are resisting such a move. After a meeting of banks on Friday on ways to make funds available immediately, a source in the know said lenders other than SBI and Punjab National Bank had not come on board so far to chip in with their funds. Read more

Amazon builds up war chest to take on Grofers, Flipkart in grocery space

Amazon is building up its war chest to pump in additional cash into the unit that handles the grocery business in India, with plans for aggressive expansion in the segment.

The Seattle-headquartered firm has increased the authorised share capital of Amazon Retail India (ARIPL) — one of the sellers of grocery items on its platform. Read more

Govt crosses divestment target for 2nd year in a row; rakes in Rs 85,000 cr

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a tweet on Friday that the government had exceeded its disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 crore for 2018-19 by Rs 5,000 crore, taking the proceeds to Rs 85,000 crore. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has crossed the disinvestment target for the second year in a row. Read more

Pay up, make peace: Promoters make one-time settlements with banks on loans

With rising litigation over insolvency cases, banks are increasingly opting for loan settlement offers from defaulting firms under Section 12A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Under this section, lenders get the option to accept such offers from erring promoters.

Lenders say settlements will cross over 100 accounts in the March quarter. Promoters are in the process of negotiating one-time settlements, given the fiscal year-end is close. “There is anxiety among defaulters that they will lose. Read more

Karnataka bans Ola for 6 months, says company flouted licence terms

The Karnataka government has banned the services of ride-hailing company Ola for six months in the state, after the state transport department found that the firm was operating bike taxis ‘illegally’.

The order, issued by the department on March 18, said the licence granted to ANI Technologies (Ola’s parent company) had been suspended for six months, under the provisions of ‘The Karnataka on Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016.’  Read more

Blackstone's realty investee firms likely to take the REIT route

After the success of the initial public offering (IPO) of Embassy Office Parks’ real estate investment trust (REIT), two more of US-based Blackstone's investee firms — the rental arm of Mumbai-based K Raheja Corp and Pune based-Panchshil Realty — could join the queue for REITs in the country, said a person in the know.

The rental arm of K Raheja Corp, promoted by billionaire property developer C L Raheja, could float a REIT this year and go public next year. Panchshil could float it by 2021, said people in the know. Read more

In a first, India might see share of premium smartphones rise to 20%

Indians, once considered a price-sensitive lot, are fast shedding that tag — at least in the mobile handset space. If the estimates are to go by, more consumers are expected to buy costlier handsets in 2019. This is despite a probable dip in the entry-level smartphone business.

According to an estimate by TechArc, an analyst firm, the sale of premium (Rs 25,001 to Rs 50,000) and luxury (above Rs 50,000) smartphones is expected to grow at 4.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively. Read more

RBI defers launch of IndAs again, awaits amendments to the banking laws

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has postponed roll out of the new accounting standards (IndAS) for the second time.

It is awaiting amendments to the banking laws before adopting the norms. The central bank, however, did not specify the new date for its implementation. Read more

Google Pay to enter wealth management services with 'Gold Account'

Internet giant Google is readying a service that will allow Indians to buy gold on its mobile payments app Google Pay. The plan is to launch ‘Gold Account’ — a gold-linked savings scheme — for users to purchase gold at prevailing market prices, maintain gold balance virtually and redeem at a later stage as gold coins or cash. Read more 

Cognizant sued by US client over implementation issues

Crawford & Co, a US claims handling company, is suing Cognizant saying the IT services provider failed to staff, manage and implement a software project at the company and caused it significant problems, The Economic Times reported.