BQuick On Nov. 19: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes

This is a roundup of the day’s stories in brief.

1. Yes Bank Discloses Bad Loan Divergence For FY19

Private sector lender Yes Bank Ltd informed stock exchanges that the Reserve Bank of India found under-reporting of bad loans at the bank in 2018-19.

• The regulator had previously detected a divergence in the assessment of bad loans in FY16 and FY17 but none in FY18.
• In FY19, according to the bank’s notification to stock exchanges, the RBI assessed the level of gross non performing assets at Rs 11,159 crore.
• The bank had disclosed gross NPAs of Rs 7,882 crore, implying a divergence of Rs 3,277 crore or 41 percent.
• The divergence in reporting of net NPAs for the year stood at Rs 2,299 crore or 51 percent of the net NPA amount reported by the bank, the notification said.

As per the RBI’s rules, banks are required to disclose any divergence of more than 15 percent.

2. Jio Boards The Price Hike Juggernaut

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. announced tariff hikes a day after peers Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd. said they would charge subscribers more from next month.

• Jio will take “appropriate increase in tariffs” in next few weeks, the country’s largest telecom operator said in an exchange filing.
• The Mukesh Ambani-led company added that such increase in prices would be in a manner that does not adversely impact data consumption or growth in digital adoption.
• Jio however did not disclose the quantum of increase in tariffs.

Last month, Jio also started charging customers for phone calls to other networks for the first time since its launch.

3. Rules For Approving Related Party Deals Amended

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has amended regulations governing requirement of board approval for related party transactions.

• The revised rules state that a company must pass a board resolution for RPT involving sale/purchase/supply of goods under Section 188 (1) only when such transaction exceeds 10 percent or more of the company's turnover.
• The company must pass a resolution for any related party transaction involving leasing of property if such transaction amount is 10 percent of the company's turnover or more.
• The criteria of a transaction exceeding 10 percent of the company's net worth or Rs 100 crore for sale, purchase, supply or leasing transactions has now been removed.

4. Watch Out PSU Banks, The Private Banks Are Coming

Public sector banks, despite their government backing and widespread network, are falling behind in garnering fresh deposits, shows data released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday.

• These lenders lost the most amount of deposit market share in at least the last five years in 2018-19, the data showed.
• As of March 31, 2019, public sector banks controlled 63.23 percent of all outstanding deposits compared to 66.86 percent a year ago.

Find out why the tide is shifting in favour of the private banks.

5. Nifty Rises, U.S. Stocks Mixed

Indian equity benchmarks rose after a one-day blip.

• The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.46 percent or 185.51 points to close at 40,469.70.
• The Nifty 50 rose 0.47 percent to end at 11,940.10.
• The broader markets represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index rose 0.35 percent.
• The gains in the benchmark indices was led by Reliance Industries Ltd., after it rose 3.8 percent to close at a record high at Rs 1,514.90.
• Seven out of 11 sectoral gauges compiled by NSE ended higher.
• Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel rallied after announced raising tariffs from December. Airtel closed 7.4 percent higher while Vodafone Idea closed 34.6 percent up.
• Follow the day’s trading action here.

Meanwhile, there is a huge gap between the valuations of two of India's consumer goods makers. The discount between ITC Ltd. and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. is the highest in at least 13 years.

Here’s why there is such a stark gap.

U.S. equity gauges were mixed as gains in tech shares were offset by disappointing reports from retailers.

• The S&P 500 Index slid 0.1 percent as of 10:05 a.m. New York time; the Nasdaq Composite was little changed.
• The dollar fluctuated against its major peers after President Donald Trump saidhe “protested” U.S. interest rates that he considers too high in a meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the White House.
• West Texas Intermediate crude declined 2 percent to $55.90 a barrel.

Get your daily fix of global markets here.

6. SpiceJet Makes The Most Of Festive Flying

SpiceJet Ltd.’s air passenger growth jumped to its highest in nearly four years in the seasonally strong October as India’s second-largest airline increased capacity and offered discounts.

• The number of passengers flying the Ajay Singh-led carrier grew 45.1 percent year-on-year last month, the fastest pace in 43 months, according to data compiled by BloombergQuint from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
• That compares with 15 percent passenger growth of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.-operated IndiGo—India’s largest airline and the only other listed carrier, besides SpiceJet.
• The industry’s domestic passenger growth, however, stood at 4 percent—the worst pace in October in at least six years and nearly one-fourth of the monthly average growth in last five years.

Here’s how the passenger growth of major Indian airlines fared in October.

7. IPO Alert: CSB Bank’s Rs 410-Crore Issue; Eureka Forbes’ IPO Soon

Kerala-based CSB Bank, formerly Catholic Syrian Bank, on Tuesday announced a public issue of shares to comply with RBI mandate to list, in which stock of up to Rs 410 crore will be sold.

• The offer involves a fresh issue of shares of face value Rs 10 each to raise up to Rs 24 crore, and an offer-for-sale of 1.97 crore shares by existing investors through which it will sell Rs 385 crore of shares.
• The bank has priced the sale of shares at Rs 193-195 per piece and the issue will be open between Nov. 22-26.
• Promoter entity Fairfax India Holdings Corporation's stake will go down to 49.73 percent from the present 50.09 percent.

Three insurance companies, with around 6 percent stake, are exiting through the IPO.

Forbes & Company Ltd. plans to list or sell stake in its subsidiary—Eureka Forbes Ltd.—as the company struggles to repay debts.

• The board of Forbes & Company, a subsidiary of Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Pvt. Ltd., has authorised its management to evaluate a scheme of arrangement to enable eventual listing of Eureka Forbes, the company said in a statement.
• “The management is evaluating all options with an intention to unlock value in the hands of all the shareholders of the company,” it said, adding that these may include a listing, dilution or sale, or a combination of both.

Sharpoorji Pallonji owes over Rs 2,300 crore to another subsidiary.

8. The Law Allows Us To Intercept: Indian Government

India’s government said on Tuesday it’s “empowered” to intercept, monitor and decrypt digital information in the public interest as long as its agencies follow the law.

• Laws allowed federal and state governments to intercept “any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource,” the Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy told Parliament in a written reply when asked by an opposition lawmaker whether the government had snooped on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, and Google calls and messages.
• Information can only be intercepted by “authorised agencies as per due process of law, and subject to safeguards as provided in the rules,” the statement said.

But Reddy did not answer whether the government used services of Israel's NSO to allegedly snoop on calls and messages.

9. Boards—Shaken And Stirred

Former SEBI Chairman M Damodaran time travels to observe an India Inc. board meeting in the future, and has chance encounters with Prince Charles and Lewis Carroll.

Read here.

10. Disney And Amazon: The Best Of Frenemies

When Walt Disney Co. launched its new streaming service last week, it had a key partner: Amazon.com Inc.

• Many consumers connected to Disney+ through the tech giant’s Fire TV digital media players.
• And Amazon Web Services helped deliver Disney’s movies and TV shows to viewers through its cloud-computing network.
• But Amazon is also Disney’s streaming competitor -- one of many so-called frenemies in the burgeoning market for online TV.
• Media and tech companies have forged uneasy alliances as they cope with one of the biggest shifts in the history of entertainment.
• Delivering shows and movies to consumers online has required a new level of teamwork between Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and it doesn’t always go smoothly.

Read more about the streaming world's frenemy problem.