PE investments up 37% in Jan-Mar

Chennai: Private equity investments during the January-March grew 36 per cent to $5.44 billion in 117 deals from $4 billion in 198 deals in the same period a year ago, according to research firm Venture Intelligence.
Flipkart and Ola are back in fund-raising mode in 2017, however at significantly lower valuations. Flipkart has $1 billion in commitments from China’s Tencent and other investors and Ola has received commitments of $330 million from SoftBank and other existing investors.
The number of investments was, however, 41 per cent lower in January-March than in the year-ago period. These figures include venture capital investments but exclude private equity investments in real estate. “Almost $3.6 billion, or two-thirds of the total value of investments during the period, was announced in March,” said Arun Natarajan, chief executive officer of Venture Intelligence.
The research firm expects a few more large deals closed at the end of March to be announced this week. There were 11 private equity investments worth over $100 million in January-March against 12 such transactions in the same period last year. Many of the larger deals involved secondary sales by either promoters or existing investors. Telecom tower firm Bharti Infratel saw parent Bharti Airtel sell a 10.3 per cent stake to KKR and Canadian pension fund CPPIB for $952 million. CPPIB also invested $720 million in infotech firm GlobalLogic, providing an exit to Apax Partners.
True North, formerly India Value Fund, exited Manipal Health through a $215 million stake sale to Temasek and entered a new hospital chain, KIMS Group, through a $200 million investment that provided exits to Ascent Capital and OrbiMed.
Infotech companies accounted for 53 per cent of the private equity investment value during the period, attracting $2.9 billion in 64 transactions. The value of infotech investments was up 106 per cent from $1.4 billion in 115 deals in January-March 2016.
Finance companies attracted $498 million investments in 17 deals in January-March 2017, followed by health care companies at $496 million in eight deals.
With 68 investments, venture capital investment deals in January-March fell 47 per cent from the same period of 2016 to its lowest point since April-June 2014.
Venture capital investment worth $314 million in January-March was 17 per cent lower than the figure in the same period of 2016. The fall was cushioned by a few large growth stage investments. Early stage investment activity — seed capital to Series B deals — fell by as much as 50 per cent from the same period in 2016.
Infotech companies accounted for 74 per cent of the investments by activity, but education (Cue Learn), health care (iGenetics Diagnostics) and microfinance (RGVN NE Microfinance) are grabbing investors’ attention. “Given the nervousness around expensive consumer Internet and mobile bets and the significant capital available with venture capital firms, this is probably the best time for non-consumer focused start-ups to draw investor attention,” remarked Natarajan.
Accel India, Aarin Capital and the Ratan Tata family office, which were active last year, slowed down their pace of investments in January-March. IDG Ventures India stood was an exception, announcing eight investments during the period.

Business confidence hits record high with firms upbeat on economy: CII

New Delhi: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) business confidence index (BCI) reached an all-time high of 64.1 during the quarter of January-March 2017 as against 56.5 in the previous quarter, backed by companies being optimistic about the future economic activities and the hope that government reforms will open up various investment opportunities for companies going forward, as per CII. The rise in this index could also be due to a major improvement in the expectations index due to strong business sentiment. The BCI survey included a sample of 200 large, medium, small and micro firms, out of which 63 per cent expect increased sales, 60 per cent expect a rise in new orders, 61.8 per cent expect export orders status quo to be maintained and 65 per cent expect capacity utilisation levels to remain over 75 per cent during January-March 2017.

The Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri Venkaiah Naidu today launched 352 housing projects in 53 cities

This is the First largest private investment initiative in affordable housing
The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) members to invest over Rs.38,000 cr to build over two (2) lakh affordable houses
Over one lakh units to be built in Maharashtra, 41,921 houses in National Capital Region, 28,465 in Gujarat, 7,037 in Karnataka, 6,055 in UP
Cost of construction of these houses to be in the range of Rs.15 lakh to Rs.30 lakh per house
New Delhi: The Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu today launched 352 housing projects in 53 cities in 17 States across the country with an investment of over Rs.38,000 cr to build over two lakh (2) houses..
These housing projects to be taken up by the members of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) across the country is the first major private investments initiative into affordable housing. These projects were launched at a function in Gandhinagar, Gujarat today. As per the details furnished by CREDAI today, the cost of construction of these affordable houses will be in the range of Rs.15 lakh to Rs.30 lakh with average cost of construction coming to Rs.18 lakh per house.
The event was held in the backdrop of several initiatives by the Government of India to promote affordable housing for Economically Weaker Sections, Low and Middle Income Groups including sanction of ‘infrastructure status’ for the housing sector. The new President of the CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India) took charge of the confederation at the glittering function attended by the Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Vijay Rupani, Gujarat Deputy CM Shri Nitinbhai Patel, Gujarat Minister of Urban Development Sh Shankar Chaudhary, outgoing President of CREDAI Sh Gitambar Anand and more than 3000 delegates from across the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Venkaiah Naidu complimented CREDAI and its members for coming forward to invest in affordable housing projects and assured them that his Ministry and Central Nodal Agencies like the National Housing Bank and HUDCO will extend full cooperation in reaching the benefits prescribed under PMAY (Urban) to the beneficiaries who join the projects launched today.
Details of affordable housing projects launched today for implementation are:
State/cities
No of affordable houses to be built
Investment (Cr)
Maharashtra
(Mumbai,Nagpur, Ahmednagar,Jalna, Banm,Nashik, Malegaon,Pune, Satara, Solapur)
1,03,719
15,576
Gujarat
(Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar,Rajkot, Mehsana,
Bharuch, Bhavnagar,Navsari, Modasa,Palanpur,
Swarnakantha,Vadodara, Vapi,Surat)
28,465
9,525
National Capital Region of Delhi
41,921
6,211
Karnataka (Bengaluru, Gulbarga, Hubli)
7,037
1,679
Uttar Pradesh (Agra, Allahabad,Bareily, Jhansi,
Kanpur and Varanasi)
6,055
1,108
Rajasthan(Ajmer, Jaipur,Jodhpur)
4,406
389
West Bengal (Kolkata)
2,955
663
Goa
1,932
464
Telangana (Hyderabad)
1,784
663
Madhya Pradesh (Indore, Ujjain)
1,517
284
Kerala (Trivendrum, Calicut, Kochi, Ernakulam)
1,372
186
Assam (Guwahati)
860
145
Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Coimattore, Tiruchirapalli)
834
145
Odisha (Bhubaneswar)
520
53
Chattisgarh (Raipur)
244
26
Andhra Pradesh (Tirupati)
50
10
Shri Naidu said while Mahatma ensured political freedom for our country, Sardar Patel ensured its unification, Shri Modi is now working on giving content and real meaning to these accomplishments through building a New India.
The Minister said such a New India has no meaning if we don’t ensure houses for all and that too in a specific time frame. He said that the Prime Minister Shri Modi has set the year 2022 as the deadline for roofing all Indians.
Shri Naidu said that within a short span of just 21 months since the launch of PMAY(Urban) in June, 2015, his Ministry has earlier approved construction of 17.73 lakh affordable houses for urban poor with an investment of Rs.95,660 cr in 30 States and Union Territories.. For building these houses, central assistance of Rs.27,879 cr has also been approved, he said.
These approved projects are to be executed with assistance from central and state governments and beneficiary contribution under the four components of PMAY (Urban). Under this urban housing mission, central assistance in the range of Rs.1.00 lakh to Rs.2.35 lakh will be provided to each beneficiary. PMAY (Urban) was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015.
The Government of India on December 31, 2017 extended the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme component of PMAY (Urban) to Middle Income Groups with annual incomes in the range of Rs.12 lakh to Rs.18 lakh under which interest subsidy of 4% and 3% on housing loans will be provided. With this, beneficiaries belonging to EWS, LIG and MIG with annual incomes up to Rs.18 lakh have been brought under the ambit of PMAY (Urban) opening up substantial investment opportunities for developers both at the bottom and middle of the pyramid.

BHIM-Aadhaar platform launched, advancing PM Modi's digital push

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched the BHIM-Aadhaar platform—a merchant interface linking the unique identification number to the Bharat Interface for Money mobile application—at Nagpur on the 126th birth anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
“Like Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar worked to give rights to the common man through the Indian Constitution, one can expect the BHIM app to do similarly great work through the financial system,” said Modi.
The new interface will enable customers to make payments using a merchant’s biometric-enabled device. The merchant merely has to download the BHIM app on his smartphone and link the device to an Aadhaar biometric reader.
“Any citizen without access to smartphones, Internet, debit or credit cards will be able to transact digitally through the BHIM-Aadhaar platform,” a government statement said.
To avail of this service, a customer has to first link his bank account to his Aadhaar number. To make a payment, all he has to do is select the bank’s name and enter the Aadhaar number. His fingerprint will serve as the password to authenticate the transaction.
To start with, no transaction fee will be levied on either the merchants or customers to encourage adoption of the new digital payment service, especially in small towns and rural India.
The government statement said 27 major banks had already tied up with 300,000 merchants for accepting payments using BHIM-Aadhaar. It went on to add that all public sector banks have been instructed to go live with Aadhaar Pay.
In his speech, Modi said that the time is not far when premise-less and paperless banking will become part of people’s lives. He announced two new incentive schemes for the BHIM app—cashback (for merchants) and referral bonus (for customers). The schemes will start from 14 April and end on 14 October, he added.
Under the referral bonus scheme, an individual will earn Rs10 for every new referral made—i.e., educating another person or merchant about the BHIM app and ensuring that they carry out three transactions using the same.
“Even in one day, if you refer around 20 people, you can end up earning Rs200 per day. This can continue for a period of three months,” said Modi.
Under the cashback scheme, merchants can earn up to Rs300 per month for transactions made using BHIM.
An updated version of BHIM (version 1.3) is available on Android and ioS. Several new features have been added to its interface such as new languages, the option to block unwanted collection requests and pay by scanning QR (quick response) codes.
“The new upgrade is aligned to facilitate government’s initiative of launching customer referral bonus and merchant incentive schemes. We have added more regional languages, enhanced user experience and security features for wider acceptance and usage of the BHIM app,” said A.P. Hota, managing director and chief executive of National Payments Corporation of India.
Three new languages—Punjabi, Marathi and Assamese—have gone live on the app. This development was reported earlier by Mint on 24 January (bit.ly/2kbqHky).
According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for electronics and information technology, 20 million people have downloaded BHIM so far, and payments worth Rs823 crore have been made. The app was launched on 30 December.
It was one of several measures aimed at promoting digital transactions in the aftermath of the 8 November demonetization of high-value banknotes, which triggered a nationwide cash crunch.

India solar transactions top global fund raise of US$ 3.2 billion so far in 2017: report

Mumbai: Indian renewable energy companies have raised over $1.62 billion during the first quarter of 2017 in transactions ranging from venture capital (VC) funding, debt financing, project funding and merger and acquisitions (M&A), according to data from Mercom Capital Group Llc., a global clean energy consulting firm.
Transactions in Indian solar and renewable energy companies made up for nearly half of the total global funding raised by solar companies around the world in the first three months of 2017. The global solar sector raised total corporate funding of $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2017—nearly double of $1.6 billion raised in the fourth quarter of 2016, Mercom said in a report on Thursday. This included venture capital funding, public market and debt financing.
The growth in the first quarter is higher by 15% when compared with the total corporate funding of $2.8 billion raised in the first quarter of 2016, the report said. In its study, Mercom tracked 233 new large-scale project announcements worldwide in the first quarter of 2017, totaling 12.7 gigawatt (GW).
Large Indian transactions included ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd securing $200 million from a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, Greenko Energy Holdings raising $155 million from an affiliate of GIC, and Hero Future Energies securing $125 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC).
ReNew Power also raised $475 million through its subsidiary Neerg Energy by selling green bonds to overseas investors and also secured $390 million in project funding from Asian Development Bank. Welspun Renewables Energy Pvt. Ltd (WREPL), now owned by Tata Power Co. Ltd, raised $176.27 million through issuance of non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis.
Solairedirect, a French solar project developer, through its India unit, secured a $100.4 million loan from IDFC for the construction of its two solar projects, while India Power Green Utility, a subsidiary of India Power, acquired a 49% stake in two solar project companies from Punj Lloyd Infrastructure.
“Q1 funding levels were up in the solar sector from the 2016 lows, largely due to increased debt financing activity. Corporate funding never reached $3 billion in any of the quarters in 2016. M&A activity was also strong with several large deals. Solar public companies also had a good first quarter,” said Raj Prabhu, chief executive, Mercom Capital Group.
Global VC funding (venture capital, private equity, and corporate venture capital) for the solar sector saw a 78% rise in the first quarter of 2017 with $585 million in 22 deals compared to $329 million raised in the same number of deals in the fourth quarter of 2016, the report said. The amount raised was also higher when compared to $406 million raised in 23 deals in the first quarter of 2016.
There were 29 solar M&A transactions in the first quarter of 2017 compared to 20 transactions in the fourth quarter of 2016 and 14 transactions in the first quarter of 2016. About 7.4 GW of solar projects were acquired in the quarter compared to 5 GW in the previous quarter, Mercom said.
However, residential and commercial solar funds dropped to $630 million sequentially from $1.5 billion, the report said.

India's credit profile to improve on fiscal prudence, Moody's says

New Delhi: India's credit profile is likely to improve with efficient implementation of fiscal discipline within a medium-term framework and setting up of a fiscal council, as suggested by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Committee, stated Mr William Foster, sovereign analyst, Moody's Investors Services India. The Committee also suggested that the fiscal deficit should be brought down to 2.5 per cent by 2022-23 from 3.2 per cent currently and the existing FRBM Act 2003 should be replaced by a new Debt and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Further, former Revenue Secretary, Mr N K Singh-headed panel suggest that India's debt-to-GDP ratio should be brought down to 40 per cent by 2023 from 49 per cent currently. Moody's assigns a Baa3 rating for India, thus maintaining a positive outlook.

Govt may soon allow 100% FDI in cash, ATM management companies.

New Delhi: The Government of India is likely to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in cash and ATM management companies, since they are not required to comply with the Private Securities Agencies Regulations Act (PSARA). This will be an advantage for cash management companies as well as for companies making currency authenticators and sorting devices and currency counting machines. In 2015, the government allowed 100 per cent FDI in white label ATM operations under the automatic route. Foreign investments help in improving balance of payments and strengthening of rupee against the dollar among other global currencies. FDI in India grew by 22 per cent to reach US$ 35.85 billion during April-December, 2016-17.

Modi calls for a 'long jump' to give India advanced tag

siness and improve tax compliance. This can help double tax revenue in the next two years from the 2014 level of Rs 13 lakh crore.
The PM said the country needed to pull off a “long jump” to be counted among advanced nations on the 75th year of its independence in 2022. Modi said the focus of BJP governments and its allies, whether at the Centre or in states, should be to make the lives of the poor sustainable, ensure social justice and economic equality to workers and peasants.
On social justice, he spoke about efforts to give constitutional status to a National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes, saying this would benefit all OBCs across religions.
Briefing the media on the PM’s speech, BJP leader and Cabinet minister Nitin Gadkari said Modi underscored how “Muslim sisters” suffered because of ‘triple talaq’.
The government didn’t want conflict or tension within the Muslim community, and its women deserved social justice, Gadkari quoted Modi.
The PM said the cornerstones of his government’s vision would be Jan Dhan, economic empowerment of the poor; Van Dhan, forest-based economy to empower the tribal population and protect the environment; and Jal Dhan, to ensure better irrigation.
He talked about the need to protect the livelihoods of the tribal population, and on ethical exploitation of natural resources.
Odisha is a state the BJP aims to win in 2019. According to the 2011 census, tribals comprised 22 per cent of its population.
The BJP also plans to do better in the northeastern states, which have sizable tribal populations.
On Jal Dhan, Gadkari said the Modi government was the first to allocate Rs 85,000 crore as part of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, adding that better water management would reduce agrarian stress, bring prosperity to villages and reduce farmer suicides.
The PM said merely building infrastructure such as roads and hospitals wasn’t enough. Delivery of services in hospitals, schools and state-run transportation was important.
On allegations of rigging of electronic voting machines (EVMs), he asked his party colleagues not to pay heed to “manufactured controversies”. Similar controversies, he said, had been raked up over ‘award wapsi’ and alleged attacks on churches.
Modi asked party leaders to implement the pro-poor vision and achieve the dream of constructing a “new India”. He called upon them to take inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, who pursued the objective of India’s independence with single-minded focus from 1922.
Party chief Amit Shah said the BJP had an iconic leader in Modi and should leverage it to expand across India.

Under governor Urjit Patel, RBI zooms in on 4% inflation target

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under its Governor, Mr Urjit Patel, is focused on achieving the target inflation level of four per cent within a band of two-six per cent, which is meant to absorb temporary shocks. Market experts are of the opinion that the 4 per cent inflation target does not provide the flexibility necessary for an economy that is estimated to grow by 8 per cent annually. However, officials of the monetary policy committee (MPC) claimed that though the RBI is aiming at price stability, it also accounted for the growth objective while fixing the inflation target. Also, inflation rate is far from becoming an issue as the economy is yet to accelerate meaningfully, as per Mr Indranil Sengupta, Economist and Co-Head, India Research, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. An official of the MPC concluded by saying that RBI's credibility to control inflation should not be doubted, failing which producers can start hiking prices which can shoot up inflation expectations, that are to be kept well under control.

More smartphone components to be included under Make in India to boost manufacturing

New Delhi: The Government of India has launched a phased manufacturing programme (PMP) aimed at adding more smartphone components under the Make in India initiative thereby giving a push to the domestic manufacturing of mobile handsets. The programme will help to create an indigenous mobile manufacturing ecosystem in India and also to meet a major share of the global handset demand over the coming years, stated Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. The programme includes mechanics, die cut parts, microphone, receiver, keypad and USB cable for FY 2017-18; populated printed circuit boards, camera modules and connectors for FY 2018-19; and display assembly, touch panels, vibrator motor and ringer for FY 2019-20.