Top 10 biz headlines: CCD crisis, RBI's fine print on NPAs and more

From sale of Ather Energy electric scooters hitting 1 million by 2023 to RBI allowing domestic banks to sell NPAs abroad, here are the top business headlines on Wednesday

CCD founder V G Siddhartha missing since Monday, massive search on

V G Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest coffee chain, Café Coffee Day (CCD), went missing on Monday night en route to the coastal Karnataka city of Mangaluru, with a letter purportedly written by him showing he was under “tremendous pressure” from lenders and one of the private equity partners (PEs). 

A massive search operation involving teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Coast Guard, Home Guard, fire services and coastal police continued throughout Tuesday, but didn’t yield any result. Read more...

RBI allows domestic banks to sell NPAs abroad as one-time settlement

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday allowed domestic banks to directly sell their bad loans in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors to investors abroad as part of one-time settlement (OTS) exercises. The move will allow overseas investors to take direct loan exposure to Indian corporates.

The defaulters, or stressed borrowers, can sell their assets in accordance with the OTS scheme, in order to raise external commercial borrowing (ECB) from abroad to repay domestic loans, the RBI said in a statement. Read more...


Ather Energy rides high on electric scooters, may hit sales of 1 mn by 2023

It all began with a dream and a funding of just Rs 5 lakh from the incubation centre at IIT Madras, the alma mater of Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. In 2013 the two young friends, both 23 at the time, left their jobs because they wanted to develop a top-class lithium ion battery. The venture turned out to be a bit of a flop as they soon realised there were not many takers. But as Mehta and Jain persisted, their goals shifted, and eventually, they came up with India’s first premium electric scooter built from scratch.

Mehta and Jain’s Bengaluru-based start-up, Ather Energy, which commercially launched two electric scooters in 2018, expects to sell over 10,000 vehicles in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad this year. It wants to scale up its sales five fold in 2020 and hit the magic one million mark by 2023. By then the company hopes to have its scooters running in over 30 cities across the country. Read more...


Outliers in Q1: Asian Paints, Dabur, DMart, Nerolac, shine in a gloomy mkt

The ongoing June quarter (Q1) results season has thrown up a few outliers in a market that is undergoing a sustained consumer and retail slowdown. Asian Paints, Dabur, Avenue Supermarts, which runs the DMart chain of stores, Kansai Nerolac, and Reliance Retail stand out for their stellar numbers. 

Asian Paints reported a top-line and bottom-line growth of 16.9 per cent and 17.7 per cent, respectively, year-on-year (YoY) in Q1. beating analysts’ estimates on both counts. Asian Paints reported a 17 per cent volume growth in its decorative paints business, which contributes over 70 per cent to its top line. Kansai Nerolac's YoY top-line and bottom-line growth stood 9.38 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively.

Dabur's top-line and bottom-line growth came in at 9.3 per cent and 10.3 per cent YoY each, more than what the street was estimating. DMart‘s YoY top-line and bottom-line growth was also high in Q1, at nearly 27 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively. Reliance Retail saw its earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) cross the Rs 2,000-crore mark, even as revenue grew nearly 48 per cent YoY to Rs 38,196 crore. Read more...

 
 
Govt likely to roll back MEIS incentive as part of new export-import policy

The Commerce Minsitry is considering a recast of export incentives and is expected to roll back the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). Apparel exporters are concerned about the move, which could be a part of a new export-import policy as the current policy is expiring in 2020.

A four per cent incentive is given to garments exporters under MEIS. Industry insiders said the move, if implemented, will “kill” the sector, which is the second largest employment generator after agriculture. Read more...
 
Don't hide behind 'unnamed sources', says Gangwal as IndiGo row continues

InterGlobe Aviation promoter Rakesh Gangwal on Tuesday said he has provided all information, including those related to whistle blowers, to relevant authorities and wondered why people were hiding behind the veil of unnamed sources to spread a false narrative.

Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia — promoters of the country's largest airline IndiGo -- are locked in a bitter battle over alleged corporate governance lapses. Read more...
 
 
NCLAT allows 90 day extension in Jaypee Infra CIRP, allows fresh bids

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday extended the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Period (CIRP) of Jaypee Infratech for 90 days--a period during which fresh bids for the company can be submitted.

Forty-five days will be used to finalise new bids and the rest to cure any discrepancies in the bids chosen by the Resolution Professional (RP). Read more...
 
 
Sebi wants mutual funds to track emerging credit risks in exposures

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) wants mutual funds (MFs) to build mechanisms that can give early-warning signals to indicate a deteriorating credit profile of a borrower. According to sources, the market regulator wants sudden yield movements to be included in this system to improve MFs’ ability to track build-up of stress. Read more...

 
Framework to tax big tech being finalised

The government is looking to set a revenue threshold of Rs 20 crore and a limit of 500,000 users above which non-resident technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter will have to pay direct taxes on profits earned locally, multiple sources in the know of the matter told Economic Times.

These limits are part of the ‘Significant Economic Presence’ (SEP) concept that was introduced in the budget last year, the ET report added.
 
 
How a small tax-paying elite funds the Indian state
 
The move to raise surcharges on the incomes of India’s super-rich taxpayers has led to a barrage of criticism from tax experts who have questioned such “soak-the-rich” policies. The finance ministry has justified this decision on the grounds of equity.

While much of the discussion on this issue has focused on foreign portfolio investors, some of whom have been hit by this move, what has eluded attention is that the so-called super-rich are also the primary contributors to the Indian state’s treasury. Despite a very low percentage of tax filers falling in the highest tax liability brackets, a lion’s share of direct tax revenues comes from a small pool of rich taxpayers, a Livemint analysis of the tax returns data published by the income tax department shows.