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Govt to formulate guidelines if tower radiation harmful
Sep 3rd
A panel of the ministry of environment will study the impact of radiation from mobile phone towers. Sources say the ministry will formulate guidelines on installing such towers if the findings show that radiation from the towers has an adverse impact, report CNBC-TV18's Mehak Kasbekar and Malvika Jain.
Telecom companies may have to pay dearly if it is proven that they are impacted by electro-magnetic radiation from mobile towers. Concerned by studies that show that the avian creatures are impacted by signals from mobile towers, the environment ministry has commissioned its own panel to assess the impact.
Sources said that if any adverse impact is proven, the environment ministry will formulate guidelines for regulating the erection of mobile towers. This will mean that the mobile phone companies would be required to seek additional approvals for erecting the towers. Environmentalists are elated by the news of the study.
Ravi Singh, Secretary General, WWF says, The action of the government in forming such a panel is correct. Obviously there is a concern and this is a step in the right direction.
As per current norms, mobile service operators are already required to get clearance from the wireless planning and coordination wing of the dept of telecom, municipal corporations and state governments.
While the companies are willing to cooperate with the Ministry, industry representatives say they should be included in the decision making process and that the state agencies need to stop putting up additional clearance requirements for the sector.
Rajan Mathews, Director General, COAI adds, We would like to work with all arms of the government to ensure that the environment concerns of various govt departments are taken care of. But having said that we would like to say that there ought to be some order and criteria about which matters are resolves and taken care of.
The telecom industry claims radiation from mobile towers is lesser than that of television towers. But many studies conducted in countries like Spain and Belgium indicate that sparrows and storks get adversely impacted by radiation from the towers. Environment Ministry officials maintain that the study is in the preliminary stages and it would take time to arrive at conclusion.
Also watch the accompanying video.
Slew of pharma IPO likely as PE players seeking to exit
Sep 3rd
A slew of initial public offering (IPO) from the healthcare stable may be in the offing. Private equity players are seeking to exit from a number of private healthcare and pharma companies, reports CNBC-TV18s Kritika Saxena.
Consolidation and IPO maybe the two buzz words for the healthcare and pharma sectors in the coming years. Merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in the pharma space jumped by 40% this year when compared to last year.
Avinash Bajaj MD, Matrix Partners says, On the M&A side there is a clear case to be made for consolidation if you look at certain sectors like diagnostic. So I think M&A activity in the diagnostic side you saw the Piramal sale. So that's going to pick up. PE activity is going to pick up.
But while PE activity may pick up, exits through the IPO route may be around the corner.
Hari Buggana, Managing Director, Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund says, You are going to see a lot of exits because typically PE funds hold their investments for about five years. And the funding of the healthcare business began 3-4 years ago we were the one of the firsts to do that in 2007. And yes IPO is one of the exit routes.
Sanjay Arte, Partner, India Value Fund Advisors adds, We currently have a healthcare investment in DM Healthcare which has presence in Kerela and in the Middle East. We are setting up hospitals in other centers - Greenfield as well as acquisitions. The idea is at some point in time the entity will be large enough to list.
Even pharma companies accept that listing will be the best option for their investors to cash out.
Dr A Prasanna, CMD, Ecron Acunova says, We are invested by one of the large life science and healthcare funds called Orbimed. They hold about 25% n the company. We are looking at providing a liquidity opportunity for our investors in about 3-4 years. And one of the important things that we are looking at is an IPO.
So in the next three years we will see several PE companies exiting healthcare companies through the ipo route. Now this would be through a part exit or a complete exit altogether. But even more, with the scalability model that most healthcare companies have, PE players are confident that they will be able to garner significant return from the exit.
Is Kotak Mahindra Bank dropping the Mahindra name?
Sep 3rd
After nearly 25 years of association, is Kotak Mahindra Bank looking to leave out the Mahindra tag behind? And are the Mahindras too planning a slow exit. CNBC-TV18s Gopika Gopakumar pieces together some recent developments for this report.
Is there an imperceptible attempt to drop the name of Mahindras from Kotak Mahindra Bank? And are the Mahindra's also slowly disengaging from their ownership in Kotak Bank.? These questions crop up due to a series of recent events.
This week Anuradha Mahindra, sold 2.6 lakh shares of Kotak Bank. The total Mahindra stake now stands at 3.25% from 4.1% three years ago.
The association of the two families goes back to 1986 when the Mahindra family made their first investment in Kotak Capital management finance.
Later in 2003 Kotak Mahindra Finance got a banking license and was rechristened Kotak Mahindra Bank. Since then, the Mahindras have been gradually reducing their stake in the bank. They even declassified themselves as promoters in June last year. So should Anuradha Mahindra's sale this week be seen as another step in their exiting completely?
Anand Mahindra VC and MD, Mahindra & Mahindra said, , we had sold a very small proportion of the shareholding which in no way means exit. The declassification took place in June 2009 and that has no connection with the present selling of a small portion of our shares."
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has floated the discussion paper on new banking licenses and the desire to enter banking on its own could spur the Mahindras to exit from Kotak to this.
Anand Mahindra merely said, We are optimistic about the prospects of the banking sector in India. However it is too early to comment on the same. "
Separately, sources within the bank say there is a subtle move within the bank to use the Kotak name only and not the Mahindra name atleast in internal communications. So are these first steps to eventually change the name of the bank.
Anand Mahindra said, " A change of name of any company is the decision that could be taken by the board of directors and shareholders of the company".
The bank on its part said, There is no attempt to rename Kotak Mahindra Bank. Perhaps the last word from the RBI on new banking license will complete this rift.
Also watch the accompanying video.
Attrition in investment banking sector: Who is going where?
Sep 3rd
Thanks to buzzing deal street and capital markets, the investment banking industry is seeing a huge churn among top investment bankers, report CNBC-TV18s Tanvi Shukla and Avni Raja.
Mergers and acquisitions are picking up. The private equity deal pipeline is very active. Small wonder than that the top brass in investment banking circles are playing a game of musical chairs. In the last six months, almost a dozen senior executives have switched jobs.
To begin with one of the more recent moves -- Kotak Mahindra Capital's Indraneil Borkakoty is moving to Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings as head of its equity capital market business in India. He will be taking over from Pankaj Vaish, who is moving to Citigroup.
Here are the others: Leading banker V Anantharaman is set to return to Standard Chartered bank as managing director and head of corporate finance and advisory business in India. This move vacates the post of head of investment banking in India at Credit Suisse, which will be filled by Vedika Bhandarkar of JP Morgan.
Bhandarkar will be accompanied by Sandeep Pangal, also of JP Morgan, who will take over as MD for Credit Suisse's investment banking coverage.
Another big move in the industry has been that of Ratnesh Kumar, who along with a few more senior executives, quit Anand Rathi financial services to build the equity franchise for standard chartered in India.
Early this year, Mark Robinson, the Citigroup India head quit to set-up ANZ's India business.
And there's more: Keshav Singhi joined as MD and Head of equities at Citigroup from reliance equities, while Kaku Nakhate moved from JP Morgan to Bank of Americ- Merrill Lynch as country head.
Nilesh Jasani is another case in point. He quit as research head at Credit Suisse India to join a financial company in Hong Kong.
Sunil Sanghai, meanwhile, moved from Goldman Sachs India securities to HSBC, where he is MD - global banking for corporate and investment banking.
And here's the latest move of them all: a Rajagopal, the head of UBS Equity Capital Market, will soon join standard chartered, where he will head the South Asia and South East Asia division.
Experts blame this attrition of the increase in both deal sizes, and the sheer number of such deals.
Also watch the accompanying video.
IT queries RBI on Lalit Modi’s credit card payment
Sep 3rd
The taxman has contacted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), raising queries on certain international credit card payments of former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi reports CNBC-TV18s Ashwin Mohan quoting sources.
After a lull in the tax investigation thee is a new twist to IPL probe. It is learnt that as part of the IPL investigation that was conducted against Modi, there were certain credit card payments made by him which came under observation of the investigation wing of the Income Tax department. There are three main reasons which raised suspicions against Modi.
Sources add that these credit cards were linked to foreign banks. Also the credit cards were in the name of certain confidants of Modi. And thirdly the most important reason is that those confidants hold stake in IPL franchisees.
It is learnt that the Central Board of Direct Tax has written to RBI asking about the details of the credit cards. CBDT wants to know the quantum and nature of expenses incurred by the credit cards used by Modi. Besides the CBDT is seeking details whether payments made by the credit cards were accounted in IPL books or not and if accounted then under which category gifts or loans.
Also watch the accompanying video.