The shine may be wearing off for high-end real estate investments by sovereign wealth funds, according to a new report, a consequence of perceived market frothiness and increased competition for property assets. Sovereign wealth funds collectively closed $5.9 billion in real estate deals in the first half of this year, according to the report from Institutional Investor’s Sovereign Wealth Center. That was a 43% decline in value […]
Dubai’s luxury hotel segment is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of business opportunities, says Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin. Reuters Dubai has always had a penchant for luxury hotels and some of the best-known ones such as the sail-shaped Burj al Arab have come to be an integral part of the city’s skyline. As Dubai’s economy has firmly picked up again following the infamous 2009 […]
By Praful Bidwai When Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani famously said of the media during the Emergency that “when asked to bend, they crawled”, he received widespread praise from the intelligentsia and even from people opposed to the BJP’s ideology—because he spoke the truth about the loss of independence and professional integrity on the part of the Fourth Estate and other institutions. Today, not just […]
NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry has asked Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan to provide greater flexibility to banks funding stalled infrastructure projects, after concerns were raised by senior bankers that some lending requirements were too ‘stringent’. A department of financial services communication to Rajan sought to de-link the extent of cost overruns as a condition for classifying any project as a restructured asset. […]
MUMBAI: Leading public sector banks have lowered some of their term deposit rates by up to 100 basis points as credit growth remains sluggish and liquidity in money markets has improved (100 basis points = 1 percentage point). The lenders who reduced deposit rates recently include the Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Andhra Bank. The State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Central Bank of […]
KOLKATA: Power shortage in India remained lower last week than during the corresponding period in previous years even as six out of 10 thermal power plants were running with coal stocks adequate for less than a week. Officials said this must have happened as utilities did not properly report demand or the plants generated additional power only during the peak period when the demand surged. According […]
NEW DELHI: In an attempt to force local consumers such as power projects and fertilizer plants to finalize their purchase plans, state-owned gas supplier GAIL (India) Ltd is set to increase the domestic price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 10 cents per unit. Of the total 5.8 million tonnes (mt) of LNG it contracted with US suppliers, GAIL has found Indian buyers for only 2.5 […]
194 countries have gathered to try and reach a deal to stop global warming Photo: PA The UN Climate Panel came out with its final report yesterday. It is a summary of its 3 main reports, published over the last year. It tells us that global warming is real and a significant problem. And as usual, the media hears something else – in the words of Mother Jones […]
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who prefers to cut hierarchy and have direct interaction – be it bureaucrats or students – will next meet chiefs of public-sector banks. The proposed meeting comes amid rising bad loans and reports of various irregularities in state-owned banks. The prime minister is likely to take stock of the banks’ performance – an exercise usually undertaken by the finance minister. “Credit […]
NEW DELHI: The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (Aptel) delivered a technical knockout to 1,424 MW Adani Power over the weekend, quite similar to the one it delivered against 4,000 MW Coast Gujarat Power Limited (Tata Power) on September 15. The main case about giving compensatory tariffs to the two companies, however, continues in Aptel. Given the 18-month delay in the case already, a quick resolution is […]
Gold traded within 40 cents of a four-year low after the Bank of Japan boosted stimulus and the Federal Reserve ended asset purchases, highlighting divergent central-bank policies and hurting bullion demand as the dollar climbed. Silver retreated to the lowest level since 2010. “One printing press stops and another one cranks up,” Felicity Emmett, senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., wrote in a […]
U.S. authorities are investigating London-based Standard Chartered for potential U.S. sanctions violations connected to its banking for Iranian-controlled entities in Dubai, according to people familiar with the probe. The latest investigation involving the bank is based, in part, from evidence that emerged during a separate probe of BNP Paribas, the French bank that pleaded guilty this summer to charges related to sanctions-busting and agreed to pay $8.9 […]
Mumbai: The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda) has come out with a new product planner rule, by which an insurance company can file only five products for approval in a year. However, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest insurer, might be given a special dispensation by the regulator. In order to reduce the time taken for product approvals, Irda has asked life insurers for […]
Mumbai: Cairn India Ltd (Cairn India), the oil and gas unit of Sesa Sterlite Ltd, has initiated a polymer injection programme in the Mangala field in its Barmer oil and gas block in Rajasthan, said a company note released on Friday evening. This will help to arrest the falling output from the field and help the company in enhancing the oil recovery from the field. […]
Gold and silver slumped to the lowest since 2010 as the dollar strengthened after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly boosted stimulus and the Federal Reserve ended asset purchases this week. The Fed is weighing the timing of interest-rate increases as other central banks add to stimulus to bolster their economies. The Bank of Japan today raised its annual target for enlarging the monetary base to 80 trillion […]
Asian traders are split on whether Saudi Arabia will deepen the crude price cuts that propelled oil into a bear market this month. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will announce official selling prices for supplies to buyers in Asia for December next week after cutting prices to the lowest in almost six years for a month earlier. The world’s biggest oil exporter will further discount supplies, according […]
By S. Sethuraman The American economy on an expanding phase is welcome for global growth and India’s exports if our exchange rates are not over-valued, but the ending of Federal Reserve’s asset purchases (QE3) opens way for US interest rates’ to rise in the near future with costs to other economies. This is likely to trigger some capital outflows from emerging market economies including India, which […]
MUMBAI: If order inflows are a harbinger of an improvement in the investment cycle, India Inc has reason to feel happy. In the quarter ended September this year, companies received about Rs 67,000 crore worth of fresh orders, up 45 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis and the highest in the past four quarters (see chart). The momentum has continued into the quarter ending December, too, […]
Mumbai: After mark-to-market gains of over 30% from the ONGC stake sale in FY12, LIC is looking forward to the government’s divestment programme to raise its stake further in the oil & gas company if the shares are offered at an attractive price, said a source. Apart from ONGC, the insurer sees SAIL as an attractive opportunity. The government plans to sell 5% stake in ONGC and […]
NEW DELHI: In line with the government’s plans to boost domestic output of coal, India’s largest thermal power producer, NTPC Ltd, could soon become one of the major coal-producers of the country as well. NTPC plans to produce up to 300 million tonnes of coal within the next four to five years, chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury told Hindustan Times. “As we expect […]
SINGAPORE: India’s state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd aims to double its refining margins once it completes the expansion and upgrade of its Kochi refinery in southern India to process high sulphur crudes by 2016, a senior company official said. The refiner’s margins dropped to $3 a barrel this year, from $4.50 to $5 a barrel last year, but levels will increase by a about $3 to […]
By Kalyani Shankar Will Delhi go for fresh polls or is the BJP in a position to give a stable government? After the people of Delhi chose a hung Assembly, the Capital does not have a popular government since 17 February when the Aam Aadmi party chief Kejriwal resigned as chief minister claiming he was not allowed to get the Jan Lokpal bill passed. Now grapevine […]
NEW DELHI: The government has relaxed the norms for allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the construction development sector. It is expected the move will boost affordable housing projects and smart cities across the country. At a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, the minimum built-up area required to attract FDI was reduced from 50,000 sq m to 20,000 sq m, while […]
Mumbai: Credit in the banking system slipped marginally despite the festive season. Data from the Reserve Bank of India suggests that in the period between October 3 and 17, bank credit slipped 0.7 per cent. However, in the past one year, credit growth was up 11 per cent. In the period ended October 17, it was Rs 62,20,004 crore, up from Rs 55,97,985 crore a year before. […]
