Fund crunch leaves military purchases a pipe dream
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise reported a 80.36 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 89.96 crore for the December quarter from Rs 49.87 crore in the year-ago quarter. Consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 2,911.74 crore against Rs 2,495.04 crore. The board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 3.25 per equity share of Rs 5 face value for the financial year ending March 31, 2020.
Global companies from Lockheed Martin to Sweden's Saab AB are offering military hardware from submarines to helicopters to the Indian government as part of its $250 billion defence modernisation programme. But bureaucratic delays and a funding crunch has made future deals next to impossible.
Airbus SE won a $1.7 billion contract to supply transport planes to the Indian Air Force in 2015-it's India's first military agreement since 1962. Five years later, that deal is yet to be signed.
India's inability to speed up the modernisation of its weaponry shows the government's challenge to transform an industry plagued by red tape. While New Delhi is the world's fourth-biggest military spender, its air force, navy and the army are still equipped with weapons that are largely obsolete.
"The defence procurement procedure needs major, thorough reforms, not just an update," said Jon Grevatt, the AsiaPacific defense industry analyst with Jane's, adding the complex approval processes and lack of finances are the main drag on military modernisation. "Unless the government really introduces major reforms into its procurement process then we will continue see delays."
An air of despondency hung over the gathering of top arms manufacturers last week in Lucknow. Executives heard Prime Minister Narendra Modi
The promoters of Avenue Supermart that operates the DMart superstore chain would sell a 2.28 per cent in the stake company through an offer for sale on February 14 and 17.
The OFS will fetch Radhakishan S. Damani , Gopikishan S. Damani, Shrikantadevi R. Damani and Kirandevi G. Damani more than Rs 3,000 crore at the floor price, fixed at Rs 2,049 per share.
Avenue Supermart shares closed 2.31 per cent up at Rs 2,539.60 on the NSE on Thursday.
In a stock exchange filing, the company said the OFS would be for sale of up to 1,48,00,000 equity shares and date of the opening of the offer for non-retail investors is February 14 and and for retail investors, February 17. and defence minister Rajnath Singh extolling the need to modernise, collaborate and export out of India, while remaining silent on future orders.
A historic mandate about six years ago handed Modi a unique opportunity to aggressively buy arms, without fearing the political opposition that often derails such purchases. But implementation has been poor. The prime minister
MUMBAI, Feb. 13: Troubled lender Yes Bank said it will delay disclosing its October-December earnings by at least a month, and that it was in talks with potential investors for a cash infusion, sending its shares up almost 6 per cent in Thursday’s trade.
Yes Bank, in a regulatory filing late on Wednesday, said it had received nonbinding expressions of interest from JC Flowers, Tilden Park Capital
Edelweiss Mutual Fund has a new fund offer, Edelweiss US Technology Equity Fund of Fund, which will be investing in technology companies in the United States like Netflix, Synopsys, Microsoft, Tesla, Advanced Micro Devices, Analog Devices, ServiceNow, PayPal Holdings and Alphabet (Google's parent).
It will be the first fund of fund or feeder fund that has missed that window of opportunity, at least seven executives said, asking not to be identified.
A defence ministry spokesman wasn't immediately available to comment.
About 60 per cent of defence spending goes to paying salaries for India's 1.3 million soldiers -- one of the world's largest standing armies. What's left is spent on past purchases, leaving the forces with obsolete
Management, OHA (UK) and Silver Point Capital.
“Given that the current capital raising process has the bank’s fullest attention, it would like to inform the exchanges that it will publish its unaudited financial results for the quarter and nine month period ending Dec. 31, 2019 on or before March 14, 2020,” the bank said in the filing.
The earnings delay comes as the bank fends off criticism of its corporate governance levelled by a will invest in underlying fund, JP Morgan US Technology Fund, an actively managed 20-yearold fund. The new fund offer opens on February 14 and closes on February 28.
The fund aims to provide access to emerging technologies in early stages of adoption. "This is the first time that Indian investors will be able to take exposure to these emerging technologies across different sectors, through the underlying fund," Edelweiss Mutual Fund said. equipment and not enough ammunition.
India's spending in the year starting April 1 will be
$47.34 billion, of which
$16.2 billion is for capital expenditure and of that, about 90 per cent is devoted to existing obligations and committed liabilities. That leaves little to meet demands for weapons purchases and modernisation.
The political leadership is aware of the need for modern weapons. The mainstay for Indian Army's artillery are the Swedish-designed Bofors guns bought in the
1980s, while the air force and navy have an ageing fleet of Soviet-era aircraft and warships.
The process to buy fighter jets started more than a decade ago. When talks stalled over price and quality guarantees, the government scrapped the purchase former board member. It is also contending with a rise in bad loans and, for two quarters, has been trying to raise $2 billion in fresh capital.
Yes Bank, whose shares have slumped more than 85 per cent in the last 10 months, recently appointed global investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald headed by former Deutsche Bank chief executive Anshu Jain to ramp up its effort to raise capital.
Radhika CEO, Edelweiss Asset Management, said,"Most of these companies draw their revenues from across the world, hence have limited country specific risks. This fund enables investors to be a part of some mega trends in technology and get access to expert research of the JPMorgan Investment Team."
The fund will be benchmarked against the Russell 1000 Equal Weighted Technology Index.
Gupta, of 126 fighter jets in
2015 and instead bought 36 Rafale jets separately. In
2018, it began the process to buy another 114 aircraft.
Aiming to develop a robust military industrial base, the Modi government has revised defence procurement procedures, pushed for long-term strategic partnerships between Indian companies and global equipment manufacturers, further eased overseas investment regulations and diversified weapons suppliers.
Still, a parliamentary panel said implementation of the strategic partnership model which envisaged private players building military platforms like submarines and fighter jets in partnership with major global defence companies remains a non-starter.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the Tata Motorsowned British luxury marquee, on Thursday launched the heavily refreshed Land Rover Discovery Sport SUV to boost sales in a depressed economy.
JLR is the only luxury car brand to record growth in India in 2019. Its sales last year grew 9 per cent at 5,000 cars in India compared to 4,596 units in 2018 to beat Audi and become the third largest after MercedesBenz and BMW.
All luxury carmakers in India recorded degrowth last year. Market leader Mercedes' sales fell 11 per cent to 13,786 units in 2019, BMW's sales dropped by 13 per cent at 9,641 units, Audi's
29 per cent to 4,594 units and Volvo Cars' 15 per cent to 2,253 units.
The second-generation Discovery Sport, which made its global debut in May 2019, is offered in two variants—S and R— Dynamic SE at Rs 57.06 lakh and Rs 60.89 lakh respectively at pan India showroom.
In India, the new SUV competes with BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLC, Audi Q5 and Volvo
XC60.
Built on the Evoque Transverse Archi-tecture, which makes it ready for shift to electric power in the future, the new Discovery Sport comes with BS-6-compliant 2.0-litre petrol and diesel Ingenium engines.
A nine-speed automatic unit handles transmission duties inside the Discovery Sport 2020 .
What is special in the new car is that it now comes with mild hybrid option which allows the Discovery Sport to cruise at speeds under 18 kmph with the engine off.