Infosys rejigs top management after weak Q1, moving talent to acquisitions and deals, Raghuram Rajan cautions against rupee depreciation, anonymous leak targets Jabong co-founder Praveen Sinha; JSW Energy to buy Jaiprakash Power's Bina unit Infosys has moved top management into key roles in mergers and acquisitions, and large deal-making. The shift is likely an acknowledgement that Infosys needs to quickly acquire companies in the AI and automation spaces to manage industry shifts that are slowing down its growth. ET RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that recent calls to depreciate the rupee to boost the country's exports - a strategy that China used often through the 2000s to enhance low-cost exports - would be counter-productive for India. Such a move he said, would increase inflation. FE The co-founder and former CEO of Jabong Praveen Sinha is the target of an anonymous twitter account, Unicon Baba. The account has leaked what it claims are excerpts of an internal PWC report; the report suggests that Sinha will soon have charges brought against him for siphoning over Rs. 100 crore from the company. LiveMint JSW Energy has formally acquired Jaiprakash Power's Bina power plant for Rs 2,700 crore. This is one among multiple recent acquisitions by JSW Energy, which will up its total capacity to over 6000 Mw. BS Photo of the Day: Salman Khan and AR Rahman give India's Rio Olympics contingent a send-off at an event in Delhi. IE
Tesla Motors likely to enter India with Gadkari offering joint venture support, telcos cut prices by 60% ahead of Jio launch, ED now probing additional Rs 900 crore violations by Mallya, Raghuram Rajan says no rate cut upcoming Nitin Gadkari visited the San Francisco Tesla factory, and offered to promote joint ventures between Tesla and Indian auto companies to ensure the entry of pollution free car transport on Indian roads. Tesla could potentially make India its Asian manufacturing hub, he said. Firstpost Airtel and Idea have cut prices of their data offerings by 60% by adding additional benefits and data services to existing packs. Analysts expect data prices to fall by 15-20% with the entry of Jio. BS The Enforcement Directorate is investigating a fresh complaint by United Spirits against Vijay Mallya. The company says Mallya violated foreign exchange and anti-money laundering laws for funds of about Rs. 900 crore. ET Inflation pressures are escalating, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said, indicating that there would be no rate cut coming from the bank in August. A good monsoon should revive the rural economy and consumer demand, he added. LiveMint Photo of the Day: Indians evacuated from South Sudan on an Indian Airforce aircraft arrive in Delhi. Reuters
Infosys struggling under fundamental changes in industry, experts say, iPhone losing market share in critical geos to Samsung, RIL beats profit expectations, Snapdeal-GoJavas deal falls apart Reduced global spending is impacting choices in IT services, experts say, with firms choosing online software over outsourcing providers like Infosys. This may mark a permanent downturn for companies like Infosys and TCS. NDTV Samsung and other smartphone companies are taking a bite out of iPhone's apple, with the Samsung Galaxy S7 taking 16% market share in the US compared to 14.6% for the iPhone. ET Reliance Industries posted an 18% consolidated net profit growth, beating expectations. Revenue however fell 13.13%. Profit growth was helped by better oil refining margins - RIL now claims that its refining margins are now the best in the industry. LiveMint Snapdeal was in talks with GoJavas to acquire the logistics company, but talks have apparently fallen apart over differences in GoJavas valuation. GoJavas has walked out of the deal and is looking for possible ways to buy out the 42% stake Snapdeal already holds in the company. BS Photo of the Day: The Hubble Telescope spots a starburst (on the left) - where an unusually high number of stars are being formed together. Normal galaxies usually make one or two new stars a year, but a starburst galaxy makes over two hundred. NASA
Some outlier CEOs, both in India and Internationally: SUN Network, Divis Labs, NorthStar Realty There's been substantial coverage around tech CEO salaries recently. Reports on Infosys CEO's Vishal Sikka's big pay hike, and shareholders protesting the TCS chief's salary and bonus payouts made the rounds recently. But it's not tech that dominates the 'highest paid Indian CEOs' list. TCS Chief N Chandrasekharan does make the top ten list now with his recent pay hike, and Infosys' Vishal Sikka is a new entrant in the top three with his $7.2 million payout. However, the one with the most gold in their purses is the husband-wife duo at Sun Network, who took home a cool $18 million jointly last year, $9 million each. Their combined salaries accounted for 5% of the company's revenue, an outlier in the Indian industry. The only other CEO that came close was Murali Divi, who owns Divis Labs - his salary of $5.3 million was 1.2% of his company's revenues. India Annual pay (in $) Salary as share of company revenue Kavery Kalanithi, Kalanithi Maran, Sun Network $18 million 5% Vishal Sikka, Infosys $7.2 million 0.08% Pawan Kant Munjal, Hero MotoCorp $6.6 million 0.2% Kumar Mangalam Birla, ABG $6.6 million 0.02% Sunil Kant Munjal, Hero MotoCorp $6.3 million 0.2% Onkar S Kanwar, Apollo Tyres $6.2 million 0.3% D B Gupta, Lupin $5.6 million 0.3% Murali K Divi, Divis Labs $5.3 million 1.2% N Chandrasekaran, TCS $5.3 million 0.03% Sajjan Jindal, JSW Steel $5.2 million 0.1% Compared to top-paid global CEOs, these payouts are pretty modest. However, looking at global CEO pay as % of company revenue, most shares remain below 1% except for some odd exceptions - the real estate company NorthStar Realty has been reporting losses, but its CEO pulls in $60 million in annual pay, 3.3% of company revenue. And GoPro's recent collapse in income means that its CEO pay is now 7.7% of its revenues, not a great sign. International Annual pay (in $) Salary as share of company revenue David M. Zaslav , Discovery Comms $156 million 2.4% Michael T. Fries, Liberty Global $111 million 0.6% Satya Nadella, Microsoft $84 million 0.1% Nicholas Woodman, GoPro $77 million 7.7% Gregory B. Maffei, Liberty Media $73 million 1.6% Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle $67 million 0.8% Steven M. Mollenkopf, Qualcomm $60 million 0.2% David T. Hamamoto, NorthStar Realty $60 million 3.3% Leslie Moonves, CBS $54 million 0.4% Philippe P. Dauman, Viacom $44 million 0.3%
Former RBI Governor says he 'paid the price' for autonomy, TCS shows some recovery in growth as eyes now turn to Infosys, Essar Oil in talks to sell 23.5% stake, government to overhaul watchdogs to remove conflicts of interest D Subbarao, the RBI Governor from 2008-13, says that he often felt pressured to fall in line with Finance Ministry goals, and that the government "was distinctly uncomfortable with the RBI raising interest rates". BS TCS Q1 results met analyst expectations, but volume growth seems to have "entered the slow lane" and indicates that the company may now be growing at a slower rate than Infosys. Analysts are watching the results closely to understand the impact of Brexit and the slowdown in global growth. ET Essar Oil, India's second largest private oil refiner, is in talks with international companies to sell 23.5% of its stake, in a deal that is expected to close at the end of this month. LiveMint The government is targeting bodies like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for overhaul - these bodies act as both regulators and industry representatives. The government plans to remove their regulatory role to end the conflict of interest. FE Photo of the Day: the augmented reality game Pokemon Go which adds Pokemon characters to your surroundings to chase and capture, is a worldwide sensation, and has now been downloaded millions of times in the countries it is available. Atlantic
RelJio may launch early with free voice services, L&T Infotech IPO gets one million retail investor applications, monthly kerosene hike to boost PSU oil marketing companies, flight cancellation charges to be capped Reliance Jio's 4G Infocomm services are likely to launch in August - three months ahead of schedule. The launch is set to shake up the market with 'free voice for life' packages and high speed data priced at 25% below current rates. ET The L&T Infotech IPO was buoyed with 11 times its subscription, attracting 132 million bids. The retail segment was subscribed seven times. BS PSU oil marketing companies likely to save around Rs 1,200 crore with the monthly kerosene price hike, substantially reducing their under-recoveries. FE Revised aviation rules have capped the cancellation charges air passengers have to pay, and cannot exceed the basic fare and fuel surcharge. These rules will go into effect from August. Firstpost Photo of the Day: David Cameron, Britain's outgoing PM, leaves the PM residence at 10 Downing Street with his family. Reuters/Stefan Wermuth
Stock market report roundup, and pick of the week Research reports roundup this week! Nine company stocks saw BUY reports from analysts One company stock saw a SELL report from analysts Two stocks came in as HOLD. Pick of the week: HindPetro, which has received two price upgrades and targets between Rs 1100-1150 over the last week from HDFC Securities and CapitalVia. Date Stock Target Upside Type Report Date Price CMP Upgrades/downgrades - last 6 months 2016-07-04 Zensar Technologies Limited - ZENSARTECH 1300 26.56 BUY 1038.7 1027.2 1 upgrade till date 2016-07-05 KPIT Technologies Limited - KPIT 130 12.9 SELL 155.5 149.25 5 upgrades, 4 downgrades till date 2016-07-05 UltraTech Cement Limited - ULTRACEMCO 3673 6.13 BUY 3371.2 3461 2 upgrades, 4 downgrades till date 2016-07-05 Skipper Limited - SKIPPER 215 32.31 BUY 157.5 162.5 2016-07-05 TeamLease Services Limited - TEAMLEASE 1170 4.14 BUY 1099.75 1123.5 1 downgrade till date 2016-07-05 Simplex Infrastructures Limi.. - SIMPLEXINF 295 -3.81 HOLD 286.6 306.7 4 downgrades till date 2016-07-08 Sobha Limited - SOBHA 360 9.51 BUY 326.2 328.75 2 downgrades till date 2016-07-11 CESC Limited - CESC 685 14.83 BUY 609.2 604.74 2 upgrades, 2 downgrades till date 2016-07-11 Hindustan Petroleum Corporat.. - HINDPETRO 1100 4.57 BUY 1056.05 1048.5 2 upgrades till date 2016-07-11 Phillips Carbon Black Limited - PHILIPCARB 225 26.4 BUY 174.45 178.3 2016-07-12 Escorts Limited - ESCORTS 280 18.07 BUY 226 237.9 2 upgrades till date 2016-07-12 IndusInd Bank Limited - INDUSINDBK 1250 12.5 HOLD 1124.4 1105.4 1 upgrade till date Source: Trendlyne Research Reports Summaries
China company may bid for Rs. 40,000 crore worth of Indian highway contracts, ED arrests Jignesh Shah for fraud, key bills up for passage in monsoon session, Indian companies most transparent in emerging markets China Railway Construction Corporation intends to participate in the bidding of Rs. 40,000 crore worth of highway projects in India. This would be the single largest foreign investment in Indian roads. CRCC already builds 60% of China's highways, and 80% of the rail tracks. ET The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Jignesh Shah, former Chairman of FTIL. ED's chargesheet alleges a Rs.5,574.35 crore scam at NSEL, which was 99.99% owned by FTIL. Shah's fall from grace has been dramatic since his stature as the golden boy in 2008, when his company had got into the stock exchanges business and MCX, at the time seen as a big move towards financial inclusion. Firstpost In addition to GST, the monsoon session has key bills awaiting passage. This includes bills amending the Factories Act and the Electricity Act, both of which attempt reforms in line with international norms , including minimum wages for workers, disability rights, and increased competition. BS China's companies are the most opaque, and Indian firms are the most transparent, according to Transparency International's study of companies in emerging markets. Bharti Airtel took first place. LiveMint Photo of the Day: Northern Pakistan has what is considered the most dangerous bridge in the world - the Hussaini Hanging Bridge, which is missing many of its original planks. NatGeo
July 12, 1996: Harshad Mehta, the main accused in the massive stock manipulation scam that crashed markets in 1992, gets bail. Mehta was charged with 72 offences, and his crimes helped trigger reforms at the BSE. Photo: IT
Arvind Panagariya in RBI Governor race, Coal India approves share buyback, Ola in trouble with Karnataka government again, mobile internet base doubles in rural India The government has changed its stance on the fit needed for RBI governorship, now saying that it would prefer an economist in the role. An announcement is imminent and Panagariya, who holds a PhD from Princeton, is according to officials a well-liked option. BS The Coal India board has approved a proposal to buy back 108.9 million shares for Rs 335 each. The price offered for the buyback represents a 4.5% premium over Monday’s closing price. LiveMint The Karnataka government now wants to revoke the cab aggregator licence it had issued Ola, saying that the company has violated its rules by implementing surge pricing and shuttle services. This comes a couple of weeks after Ola's public comments about Uber not following India's rules and regulations. FE The rural customer, whose budget has been stretched in the last year, has chosen to buy mobile internet recharges over cola and sweets. The mobile internet base has doubled as a result in rural India, with the main use being for entertainment. ET Photo of the Day: A deserted street during a Srinagar curfew. Reuters
