By Andrei Skvarsky. India is withdrawing its 2,000-rupee ($24) note from circulation, but this highest-denomination banknote is going to remain legal tender for four months. The central bank said in a statement on June 19 that the measure is part of its “clean note policy”, a strategy to keep India’s paper cash clean, undamaged and… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: India
Central banks of UAE, India to join forces to boost digitalisation
By Andrei Skvarsky. The central banks of the United Arab Emirates and India have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost the digitalisation of financial products and services. At the centre of the MoU is a plan to test the cross-border use by the two countries of their developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).… Continue Reading
UAE firm launching $100m sharia-compliant VC fund to invest in Gulf, Indian companies
Emirati company Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), which keeps its business in line with sharia (Islamic law), is launching a $100m venture capital fund to invest in Gulf and Indian companies. The new facility, GII Debt Fund-I, will focus on Gulf companies in “resilient sectors” such as healthcare, education, logistics and technology and on Indian companies… Continue Reading
Emirates NBD opens two more branches in India
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dubai’s Emirates NBD, one of the largest banks in the Middle East, has opened two full-service branches in India in addition to a five-year-old branch in Mumbai in fostering what it calls strategic ties with the homeland of the United Arab Emirates’ largest expatriate community. One of the new branches is located… Continue Reading
London’s Sun Global co-manages bond issue for India’s no. 2 housing finance provider
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based wealth and investment manager Sun Global Investments has co-arranged a $350m issue of three-year US dollar-denominated bonds with a yield of 6.4 per cent per year for Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHF), India’s second-largest housing finance company. Continue Reading
London’s Sun Global arranges bond issue for India’s HDFC housing finance firm
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based investment manager Sun Global Investments has organised a 10bn rupee ($145m) issue of bonds for a leading Indian housing finance provider, Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC). Continue Reading
Sberbank’s Indian branch gets highest rating from Fitch’s Indian subsidiary
By Andrei Skvarsky. The Indian subsidiary of Fitch Ratings has assigned its highest credit rating to a 1bn-rupee ($15.5m) certificate-of-deposit programme to be launched by the Indian branch of Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender. Continue Reading
GUEST POST: Two events just hinted at explosive growth ahead
By Capitalist Exploits. Last Monday the administrators were called into Paladin Energy. Paladin if you’re not familiar is (or should I say was) a uranium producer. Bankruptcies happen all the time, so why should we care? Well, for starters Paladin wasn’t just any company. It was a previous market darling in the last uranium bull… Continue Reading
Investors may find good opportunities in Commonwealth countries post-Brexit – adviser
By Andrei Skvarsky. A British investment adviser argues that Brexit could involve good investment opportunities in Commonwealth countries because “it’s a certainty” that Britain will seek more extensive trade with Commonwealth nations when it leaves the European Union. Continue Reading
Sun Global Investments CEO: 5-fold rise in US direct investment in India is Modi’s work
By Andrei Skvarsky. The chief executive of Sun Global Investments, a London-based financial services firm, has confirmed that US direct investment in India has increased fivefold over the past two years, and has put it to the credit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been in office since May 2014. Continue Reading
India to resume full-scale trade with Iran
By Andrei Skvarsky. India plans to resume full-scale trade with Iran, a British business communications agency said, citing a decision by the Indian government that followed the lifting of international anti-Iranian sanctions. Continue Reading
India’s interest rate cut may spur capital outflow – CEIC
By Andrei Skvarsky. September’s unexpectedly big interest rate cut by the Indian central bank obviously aims to boost economic growth but is likely to spur the current outflow of capital from the country, intelligence company CEIC Data argues. Continue Reading
Dubai’s Morison Menon audit firm wins Superbrand status for 2nd year running
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dubai-based audit firm and business consultancy Morison Menon has for the second consecutive year been named as a top brand by a highly reputed international branding arbitration group. Continue Reading
Motilal Oswal Asset Management Launches India Zen Fund
Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company (MOAMC) has launched an offshore hedge fund through its Mauritius-based investment management company. The long-only-bottoms-up fund, called India Zen Fund, hopes to raise $100 million by December 2015. The fund will specialize in investing in Indian mid-cap securities with a private equity-style diligence approach, the company said in a statement.… Continue Reading
TPG Capital Names Zubin Irani as Managing Director
TPG Capital has appointed Zubin Irani to managing direct in its operations group in Asia-Pacific. He will relocate to the company’s Singapore office from New Delhi, India. In his new role, Irani will aim to build out the firm’s operations and boost talent management and performance across the firm’s various portfolios, the company said in… Continue Reading
Omni Macro Fund Bullish On India, Watching China
Omni Macro Fund was formed in 2007 by Stephen Rosen, previously a prop trader at JP Morgan. The $600 million strategy was up 5.7% in 2014 and is over three percent ahead so far in 2015. Rosen is supported by Head of Strategy Chris Morrison, also a former prop trader at JP Morgan. In addition… Continue Reading
Investors diversifying emerging markets strategies over slower growth – Economist
Slower growth in emerging markets is making investors abandon strategies that treat emerging markets as a single bloc, according to a research report from The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist weekly. Continue Reading
ADB $300 Million Loan to Continue Power Upgrades in India’s Assam State
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $300 million loan to help India’s northeastern Assam state continue its drive to eliminate power sector inefficiencies that are hurting its consumers, its world-famous tea industry, and its environment. Continue Reading
Machlin-Oracle article: India economy may show faster growth
By Andrei Skvarsky. An article released by London-based investment advisory firm Machlin-Oracle argues that India now has a chance of speeding up its economic growth after a current slowdown. {{{?}}} This presumed opportunity has been created by the victory of right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in May 12 elections and the designation of its… Continue Reading
Markit: emerging markets still “downbeat” about future
By Andrei Skvarsky. Global financial information provider Markit says a survey it made last month suggests emerging markets remain “downbeat” about the future. {{{?}}} “Improving confidence and post-crisis high capex and hiring intentions in the developed world contrast markedly with ongoing downbeat expectations for the year ahead across the emerging markets,” the London-headquartered company said… Continue Reading
EAST CAPITAL COMMENT: Confessions of an emerging market optimist
By Marcus Svedberg, Chief Economist, East Capital.* Arguably it is not very easy to be an emerging market (EM) optimist these days. It seems like almost everything and everyone is against the group of markets that were once the darlings of investors. Tapering is the most obvious cause for pessimism and is the most important… Continue Reading
Markit says world business, mainly US and Chinese firms, upbeat about 2013
By Andrei Skvarsky. According to Markit, a global financial information services company, {{{*}}} the global business community is today much more upbeat about the year ahead than it was last October, with the United States and China showing the highest optimism. “Worldwide business confidence has revived from the post-crisis low seen late last year, with… Continue Reading
RDIF, VEB, France’s CDC sign private equity promotion deal
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and VEB development bank and France’s Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC), {{{*}}} all of which are state institutions, have signed an agreement to boost private equity investment in the two countries. The deal – a memorandum of understanding – was signed in Moscow on February 28… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN SACHS COMMENT: Some Questions for the Asian Economic Century
By Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management. I returned from a quick trip through parts of Asia on Saturday, thinking that we have reached a critical stage in terms of economic policy and development in many parts of that region, especially in terms of whether this century will turn out to be “theirs” in… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN SACHS COMMENT: Markets and Moods
By Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Markets and Moods. So, here’s the situation. The mood is grim. A lot of economic data has turned grimmer, which makes many people so bearish about many things, markets included. Much of the “mood” centres on a sense of hopelessness about Europe, with the risk on/risk off… Continue Reading
Ernst & Young hires Deutsche Boerse’s Steinbach to run IPOs
By Andrei Skvarsky. Ernst & Young has hired Martin Steinbach, a former senior figure at Deutsche Boerse, to run its initial public offerings and listings centre for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. Steinbach spent nearly a decade as head of issuer and investor markets at Deutsche Boerse, the stock exchange based in Frankfurt-am-Main,… Continue Reading
GOLDMAN SACHS COMMENT: Who would you want in EMU?
By Jim O’Neill, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Western sovereign debt issues rolled on again last week, with fierce competition between the US and the Euro Area for attention. As President Obama and Congress struggle to reach a budget compromise ahead of the debt ceiling deadline, two ratingagencies made it clear that failure to make… Continue Reading