Ultratech may have to fight off a web of litigations to consummate the deal with Binani Cements. It may be recollected that after Dalmia Cements made an offer for around Rs.6500 crore, Ultratech offered to buy over 98% stake in Dalmia Cements at Rs.7266 crore outside the purview of the NCLT. That would require paying off all the debts first and Ultratech has already issued the letter of comfort to Binani. The only problem is that the Committee of Creditors has already approved the bid by Dalmia Cements but in the largest interests of stakeholders they are bound to accept the higher offer.
Even as the 2 day Fed meet began on Tuesday, the Fed has already signalled more than 3 rate hikes in 2018. This could be clearer after the summary of economic projects emerges on Wednesday, but markets are already betting on 4 rate hikes. In recent weeks, Fed has been indicating that 4 rate hikes are more likely, something emerging markets will not be too comfortable with. The US economy is already benefiting from tax cuts and greater spending and the revival in the global economy could give the Fed all the more reason to hike rates 4 times .Markets may react negatively on Wednesday.
The Finance Ministry is likely to meet with bond trades in the light of record bond sales program which is in tune with the higher fiscal deficit projected by the government. The government is worried that the sharp fall in bond prices due to rising yields may act as a dampener to the government borrowing program, which his likely to be the fulcrum on which the government spending will be based. The ministry also wants to gauge the institutional appetite for bonds and also the best maturities to be relied on. If government auctions fail then bond yields may move closer to 8%
State Bank of India has thrown its weight behind RCOM’s proposed sale of assets to repay $7 billion worth of debt. It may be recollected that Ericsson of Sweden had obtained a stay on RCOM’s asset sales asking RCOM to pay their dues to the tune of Rs.1100 crore. RCOM will be facing a March end deadline to close out its sale to Reliance Jio owned by Mukesh Ambani. Under the deal RCOM will be selling its airwaves, fibre and towers business to Jio. RCOM has a debt pile of nearly Rs.50,000 crore and completion of this sale is critical for RCOM to repay debts and stave off bankruptcy.
Exactly a few days before the huge sell-off in technology stocks in the US led by Facebook, the tech index hit a milestone that has not been seen since the peak of the IT boom in the year 2000. For the first time since the dotcom boom of 2000, technology had become the heaviest industry group in the MSCI index beating financials, although the phenomenon did not last for too long. Tech funds had attracted inflows of nearly $10 billion since September and was on target to reach $50 billion of inflows by the end of the year. The entire rout was triggered by data integrity issues at Facebook and soon Uber and Apple also came under the microscope. However, this also means that the fall in IT stocks has been driven by company specific events rather than any industry level downward re-rating.
With global sugar markets in a state of glut and India producing record sugar, the government has scrapped export duties on sugar to give a boost to sugar exports. For the fiscal year 2017-18, the Indian sugar industry is expected to produce 29.5 million tonnes of sugar. India is already the world’s second largest producer of sugar after Brazil, which alone accounts for 25% of the world’s sugar output. Indian sugar farmers are owed nearly Rs.14,000 crore and the low sugar prices are only worsening the situation. However, sugar prices are at very low levels across the world.
