Current Affairs: Important Business Deals in Last Two Months
Economy:
- The Reserve Bank of India signed a pact with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) for Supervisory Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information.
- The Reserve Bank of India released Gopalakrishna Committee report on Capacity Building in banks and non-banks. The committee has recommended a 360-degree feedback for a transparent and comprehensive performance assessment exercise, one that ensures adequate performance differentiation between employees.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced fourth Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement on 30 September 2014. RBI in its fourth bi-monthly monetary policy statement has kept the policy rates unchanged at 8 percent.
- State Bank of India (SBI) on 13 September 2014 celebrated 150 years of its operations in Sri Lanka.
- Union Finance Ministry approved 25 FDI proposals with total investment of 1546 crore rupees.
- United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on 24 September 2014 released Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report (APTIR) 2014. According to report, growth in trade and investment flows in Asia-Pacific region is yet to return to its levels of strength prior to the global financial crisis.
- India slipped to 71st position out of 144 countries by losing 11 places in the global competitiveness list of Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).
- State Bank of India (SBI) and Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) on 24 September 2014 allowed kids to operate bank accounts independently.
- Exports from India increased 2.73 percent in September 2014 to 28.90 billion US dollar from 28.13 billion US dollar in September2013. This was revealed by Foreign Trade (Merchandise) data released by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- JP Morgan cut its India GDP growth projection for 2014-15 to 5.1 percent from 5.3 percent.
- The Union Commerce Ministry on 29 September 2014 cancelled approvals of nine special economic zones (SEZs), including that of Hindalco Industries, Essar and Adani.
- Union Government approved 7 percent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners. The notification of DA and DR will be effective from 1 July 2014.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked banks to set a timeline to process loans. The direction was issued to expedite credit decision. However, RBI didn’t set any particular time frame for it.
- Reserve Bank of India released the data on Balance of Trade and Balance of Payments. According to the Balance of Trade data, Current Account Deficit (CAD) of India narrowed down sharply to 1.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Quarter 1 (Q1) of the fiscal year 2014-15 as compared to 4.8 percent in the Q1 of 2013-14. Q1 refers to the period April–June.
Merges:
- Swedish telecom gear firm Ericsson signed a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G network deal with Bharti Airtel. Airtel signed the deal with Ericsson for FDD-LTE network.
- Chinese firm Anbang Insurance Group Co Ltd acquired the New York luxury hotel Waldorf Astoria for 1.95 billion US dollars. The Waldorf Astoria is owned and managed by Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.
- Sumitomo Group of Japan on 30 September 2014 acquired the car lease division of Carzonrent India for 200 crore rupees.
- Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired 15 percent stake of Financial Technologies (India) Ltd (FTIL) in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) for 459 crore rupees. Kotak Bank acquired MCX shares at about 664 rupees a piece.
- Emami biotech on 25 September 2014 acquired Vanaspati brand Rasoi. Emami biotech is the edible oil and bio-diesel arm of the Emami Group of Companies.
- Internet major Yahoo! Inc. acquired Bangalore-based start-up firm BookPad Inc for over 8 million US dollars. This is Yahoo's first technology deal for an Indian start-up company.
- Microsoft Corp acquired the Swedish video game company Mojang for 2.5 billion US dollars. With this acquisition, Microsoft aims to lure young audience into its mobile world.
- BlackBerry acquired a U.K-based mobile technology start-up Movirtu on 11 September 2014. Movirtu's software allows users to have multiple phone numbers on the same device.
- The Swedish company Electrolux agreed to buy a home-appliances unit of General Electric Company of Louisville for 3.3 billion US dollars in cash. This acquisition would enable Electrolux to compete with Whirlpool in US Market.
- Global giant HSBC Bank on 24 June 2014 sold its Swiss private banking assets worth 12.5 billion dollars to Liechtenstein’s LGT Bank. Under the transaction, LGT Bank will acquire over 10 billion Swiss francs in Assets under Management and around 70 staff.
- Japan’s Meiji Holdings Ltd acquired Bangalore-based pharmaceutical firm Medreich for 290 million US dollar. Meiji in its filing to the Tokyo Stock Exchange informed that the acquisition was made through the operating subsidiary, Meiji Seika Pharma Co. Ltd.
Tie-Ups:
- E-commerce firm Flipkart signed real estate lease deal with Embassy Office Parks, the joint venture between Embassy Group and Blackstone.
- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) announced that it will invest 4 billion US dollar in the British Columbia province, Canada, to source liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the region.
- US Online store Amazon and retailer Future Group on 12 October 2014 signed a deal to jointly sell goods over the internet.According to deal, Future group's portfolio of over 40 brands will be retailed exclusively through Amazon.in platform. The partnership will initially focus on Future Group's fashion brands and will subsequently cover all other categories.
- Cipla Medpro announced that it has inked a collaboration pact with Teva Pharmaceuticals of Israel for sales and distribution of the latter's drugs in South Africa.
- Hinduja group company Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd (GOLIL) tied up with Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M).Under the agreement, GOLIL is tasked for developing a dedicated line of products for the M&M tractors.
- Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals tied up with the global pharma firm Sanofi. The aim behind this tie-up is to expand Apollo Sugar Clinics which provide integrated diabetes care programmes in India.
- Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited on 22 September 2014 signed a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Indus Towers for tower infrastructure sharing.
- Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo signed an agreement with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) for purchasing 30 A320 aircrafts worth 2.6 billion US dollars.
- Infosys Ltd signed three partnership agreements with Microsoft Corporation, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and China-based telecom vendor Huawei individually.
- Tata Group company Croma and Snapdeal.com on 16 September 2014 tied up to sell electronic goods online. This omni-channel retail association will enable Croma and Snapdeal to leverage from each other's strengths.
- Bharti Airtel announced an agreement with Eaton Towers to divest 3500 towers in 6 African nations. Under the agreement, Bharti Airel signed a 10-year contract to sell and lease back these towers to Eaton.
- Indian pharmaceutical major Cipla announced a commercial collaboration with UK-based S&D Pharma to distribute its products in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
- Snapdeal signed 50:50 Joint Venture with Den Networks. The deal was aimed to extend its reach to television home shopping audiences.
Appointments:
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the appointment of V.G. Mathew as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kerala-based South Indian Bank Ltd.
- T M Bhasin was elected as Chairman of Indian Banks Association (IBA). He will be the Chairman of IBA for 2014-15.T M Bhasin is the chairman and managing director of Indian Bank.
- Nita Ambani was appointed as the Director of Reliance Industries. With this appointment she became the first woman to be appointed on the board of the RIL
- Sunita Sharma was appointed as the managing director
and chief executive director of the LIC Housing Finance. She is the
first women MD and CEO of the company since its inception in 1989.
She succeeded V K Sharma who was elevated to the post of managing director of LIC. - Engineering and information technology company Tata Technologies Ltd appointed Warren Harris as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of the company.
- John Thompson was appointed as the Chairman of Microsoft on 5 February 2014 by the Board of Directors at a meeting held in Washington, US. He succeeded Bill Gates who assumed the role of Technology Advisor to the CEO of Microsoft.
- IT training solutions firm National Institute of Information Technology Limited (NIIT Ltd) appointed Rahul Keshav Patwardhan as its next chief executive officer (CEO). Patwardhan will take charge as CEO on 1 April 2015.
- S. R. Bansal took the charge on 5 October 2013 as the Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank.
- Retired bureaucrat Krishna Mohan Sahni was appointed Chairman of the National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (NMCE) on 12 November 2013. His appointment was approved by the Forward Markets Commission, the commission which is responsible for regulating the commodities markets in India.
- V Nagarajan on 4 September 2014 took over as Director (Commercial) of Indraprastha Gas Ltd. (IGL).
- Tata Steel Ltd named TV Narendran as managing director-designate, India and South East Asia and inducted him as additional director on the board. TV Narendran will succeed HM Nerurkar who retires on 31 October 2013.
Click Here to Download Pdf File
Important Links:
0 comments: