·
MITTU
CHANDILYA NAMED AIRASIA INDIA’S FIRST CEO
Chandilya, 32, moves
to AirAsia after headling Aisa-Pacific services at recruitment firm Egon
Zehnder International.. This 32 year old management consultant will start at
AirAsia on 1st June. Mittu had tweeted, will be “coming home to
change Indian travel and make it affordable”.
· NIGERIA
UNDER ATTACK
Nigerian President
Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in three states after
a series of deadly attacks by Islamist militant groups. Militants from Boko
Haram have been blamed for most of the violence which has left 2,000 people
dead since 2010. The Islamist group, whose name means “Western education is
forbidden” in the local Hausa language, is fighting to overthrow the government
and create an Islamic state in the north.
· FOREIGN
ACQUISITIONS : BITTER PILLS FOR PARENT COMPANIES
Indian companies
making foreign acquisitions due to ability to raise funds at cheaper
rates overseas created difficult times for the parent companies. Some examples
are :Corus (Tata Steel), Orient Express (Indian Hotels), Novelis (Hindalco) and
Repower (Suzlon). In these cases, most of the costly investments were
impaired and the losses of the foreign subsidiaries eroded the profits of the
parent entity, as well.
· MISUSE
OF CONFIDENTIAL CUSTOMER DATA
Bloomberg is the
licensee for most widely used terminals in financial institutions. The company
has been in the news recently as it has been receiving a lot of complaints over
its journalists having access to sensitive data of the terminal users. The
users include central banks from across the world. Sensitive data include
private messages and trading activity details.
· VODAFONE
TAX ROW
India took a step
closer towards an amicable settlement of the tax dispute with Vodafone Group
Plc in a move that is likely to be welcomed by foreign investors.
· ICICI,
HDFC BANK, AXIS FLOUTED NORMS
Lenders found to have
breached compliance with KYC (Know Your Customers) norms, violated norms on
sale of investment products. An investigations conducted by the Reserve
Bank of India into three private lenders and revealed that they may not have
been involved in laundering but there can be instances of tax evasion. The
inquiry folled allegations by online magazine Cobrapost.com that these lenders
were involved in a ‘nationwide money laundering racket’. The Reserve Bank probe
found a nexus between the lenders and cooperative banks for large value cash
transactions and violations of norms on the sale of gold and other investment
products.
· RANBAXY
– ‘SYSTEMATICALLY VIOLATED’ GOOD PRACTICES : WHISTLEBLOWER
Ranbaxy Laboratories
Limited ‘systematically violated’ good manufacturing practices, says the
whistleblower whose alert led to a US proble, a day after India’s top drugmaker
agreed to pay a hefty $ 500 mil to settle charges over its adulterated drugs.
·
JLR
POSTS STRONG SALES IN APRIL
Jaguar Land Rover
Plc, UK subsidiary of Tata Motors Limited reported strong sales in April. Sales
of Jaguar cars rose 12 % to 4711 vehicles in April while Land rover sales
gained 12 % to 23,792.
· NAWAZ
SHARIF REACHES OUT TO US, INDIA
Pakistan’s incoming
prime minister Nawaz Sharif reached out to India and the US, pledging to
strengthen relations after thumping victory in landmark elections. His biggest
challenges are likely to be closer at home – fixing the economy and tackling
Islamist militancy.
· STOCKS
ARE GOING UP !
As said, Fed is
making them go up. Here’s David Rosenberg in Canada’s Financial Post : The US
Fed has always been important in influencing trends in the financial market
even if the economic effects have been far less than dramatic. This influence
has actually strengthened in recent times to the extent that the correlation
between the Fed’s balance sheet and the direction of the stock market which was
barely 15 % before all these rounds of quantitative easings began four years
ago, is 85 % today. By way of comparison, the time-worn correlation
between the market and corporate earnings has remained unchanged at around 70
%. The Fed is trying to bring the overall cost of capital down to a level that
would be consistent with a – 2.2 %. Fed funds rate which is where the rate
actually should be based on current inflation and the still-huge amount of
excess capacity in the economy.
Fed has given the
economy more money – QE 1, QE 2 and now QE 3. In the current version of QE,
they print up extra $ 85 billion a month and pump it into the banking
system. The money has not done much for the real economy but it has done
wonders for stock prices. The Dow has more than doubled since ’09. It’s up this
year too – hitting record after record.
· THE
ECONOMIES : EUROPEAN & JAPANESE
The European
economies are moribund. Their experiment with a common currency has failed. The
Euro has only succeeded in making the stronger economy of Germany, stronger.
The peripheral countries grew weaker. The forced austerity in the peripheral
countries is slowing their economic growth. The Euro may inevitably collapse.
Japan which has taken the baton of pump printing from the US and plans to
create and pump in $ 1 trillion is beset with an aging population and a
shrinking domestic market. It is seeking investment opportunities in large
emerging markets and has the technology and the productive skills as well as
the money, Domestically, its currency and its assets are not an attractive
proposition.
· BANKS
READY TO MOVE DEBT TRIBUNAL AGAINST KINGFISHER AIRLINES
Steps marks the last
round of a bitter battle in one of corporate India’s high-profile loan default
case. The State Bank of India led consortium of 14 bankers is ready to move the
debt recovery tribunal on selling the assets of grounded Kingfisher Airlines
Limited after filing a claim – making the last round of a bitter battle.
· STATE
BANK OF INDIA, CALIFORNIA OPERATIONS UNDER SCANNER
Bank’s subsidiary
told to provide for all bad loans, streamline KYC norms, US regulators to
review affairs in June. The California based subsidiary of SBI, the
nation’s largest lender, has been forced to clean up its books and tighten
procedures after US regulators took exception to certain banking practices.\
mainly related to loans turning bad, avoiding the setting aside of money for
such bad assets or posting for them and even making fresh loans to borrowers to
repay off old debts.
I N
S P I R A T I O N A L
From
Jeff Keller, Author of the bestseller ‘Attitude is Everything’ : A positive
attitude – optimism, expectancy and enthusiasm – makes everything in business
easier. A positive attitude boosts you up when you’re down and supercharges you
when you’re already “on a roll.” A positive attitude is never automatic. You
have to work at it ! (for summary of excerpts : e-mail me – mineshgandhi@mirainform.com)
L A U G H !!!
A man walks into his boss’ office and says, ‘sir, I’ll be straight with
you, I know, that the economy is not good. But I have other companies that are
after me. I would like to ask for a raise.” After a few minutes of haggling,
the boss finally agrees to give him a 5 per cent raise. The boss than asks him,
‘By the way, which are the companies that are after you?’ The man
replies, ‘ The electric company, the water company and the telephone company’.
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