Top headlines: SAT clearing more cases in Covid; auto firms witness growth

From SAT clearing more cases now than before Covid-19 pandemic to new takers for RBI's debt restructuring scheme, here are top headlines this morning

SAT clearing more cases now than before Covid-19 pandemic, shows data

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which hears appeals against decisions by major financial regulators, had 560 pending appeals as of September end, according to information obtained by Business Standard through an application filed under the Right to Information Act. Additional data shared by the tribunal showed that this is largely because of appeals filed in the past two months. Read More

Faced with declining sales, auto firms see room for growth via rent-a-car

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, recently expanded the scope of its car subscription facility to new cities — Hyderabad and Pune — from five announced earlier. The company is aiming to expand the business to around 60 cities in the next two-three years. It had rolled out its subscription plans on September 24 with the promise of offering the flexibility of driving without having to own the car. It had announced while this was available in select cities, it had planned to cover many more in the country. Read More

RBI's debt restructuring scheme sees few takers in corporate world: Banks

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) loan restructuring scheme for Covid-19-affected borrowers has seen few takers in the corporate world so far, according to bank executives who have seen very little interest in it from their corporate accounts. Under the scheme, borrowers’ accounts will not be downgraded as sub-standard or ‘non-performing’ if their loans are restructured. Read More

Kotak Mahindra Bank explores acquisition of IndusInd Bank

Kotak Mahindra Bank is exploring a takeover of smaller rival IndusInd Bank, people with knowledge of the matter said, a move that would create the nation’s eighth-largest financial firm by assets. Uday Kotak, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Kotak Mahindra, is looking at the possibility of an all-stock acquisition, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private. Read More

Future-RIL deal: Amazon gets a favourable ruling in arbitration case

Jeff Bezos-led Amazon has won a favourable ruling for its plea in Singapore against Kishore Biyani-headed Future Group striking a deal with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). Future has been told not to proceed with its sale of shares to RIL till the outcome of the arbitration process, according to the sources. Read More

Sebi's role in Franklin Templeton crisis draws ire of Karnataka HC

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has drawn flak from the Karnataka High Court (HC) for its handling of the Franklin Templeton (FT) crisis that led the asset manager to shut six of its debt schemes. Sebi did not possess a copy of the resolution dated April 23 passed by the board of directors of FT trustees providing for winding up and did not respond to the email of April 14 sent by the asset management company (AMC), the court observed in its judgment on Saturday. Read More

Early Q2 results better than expected but market rally may lose steam

The early-bird results have been better than expected with companies showing gains from the unlock. But they have done little to shore up the Nifty50 index’s underlying earnings per share. In the first two weeks of the earnings season since Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) declared its results on October 7, the Nifty earnings per share (EPS), on a trailing 12-month basis, is up just around 1 per cent from about Rs 344 at the beginning of the current month to Rs 347 at the end of Friday. Read More

Reliance Industries restores salary, offers bonus in hydrocarbon arm

Reliance Industries is rolling back salary cuts for employees of its hydrocarbons division, and is also giving out performance bonus that had been deferred after business was hit by the lockdown. The firm is also offering an advance 30 per cent of the variable pay from the next year’s salary to its employees, as a goodwill gesture for working during the pandemic, said two people familiar with the matter. Read More

Adani, Hiranandani groups to invest Rs 10,000 crore in UP data centres

The Adani and Hiranandani groups are among top companies looking to invest Rs 10,000 crore to set up data centres in Uttar Pradesh (UP), besides data security firm RackBank. Data centre are housing computing infrastructure viz. servers, routers, switches, and firewalls, apart from supporting paraphernalia like backup equipment, fire suppression facilities and air conditioning. The Yogi Adityanath government has recently approved UP’s maiden data centre project, which will be set up by Mumbai-based realty major Hiranandani Group with an investment of Rs 600 crore. Read More