Varun Beverages Ltd, the world’s second largest PepsiCo bottler, is planning an October IPO to raise as much as Rs1,400 crore. Once the initial public offering (IPO) is completed, the non-promoter holding, including private equity investors and the public, will be 25-26%. Varun Beverages is raising money to reduce its debt  of Rs.1450 crore  - at present its debt/equity ratio is 2, and will come down to 1 after the IPO.  

The strikes across the LOC also triggered a stock buying spree from foreign investors and domestic institutional investors, as the panic created a selloff in the markets. BSE listed companies lost 2.45 lakh crore in market capitalization on the news of the attacks, and Institutional investors swooped in and bought equities worth over Rs 5,000 crore yesterday,Mutual funds were also net buyers, and foreign portfolio investors bought in excess of Rs 3,413 crore of equities. ET

The Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) of the NDA government for black money holders to declare assets, closes today. The NDA government pushed the scheme in the media as the last chance for black money holders to safely declare these assets, after which penalties would be anywhere from 100% to 300%, and would include jail terms of upto seven years. The government has hoped to raise at least Rs. 35,000 crore from the scheme. Early reports estimate that the government will meet this target, and Mumbai tops the list with over Rs. 5000 crore declared at last count.

With hawks and doves both taking to the media to push their points of view either in favor or against war with Pakistan, estimates are emerging of the cost of an aggressive war with nuclear options deployed - besides a high death toll, two billion people in India and worldwide would face risks of severe starvation due to the climatic effects and damage to agriculture from nuclear-weapon use.

Photo of the day:A moment of calm among the mangroves, inside the Ecological Reserve in Ecuador. Reuters