RBI to meet banks to discuss payment mechanism to Russia

Top of the Morning

In this episode, find out about Amazon & Future Group's out of court settlement talks, also find out about Aditya Birla & Vodafone Group's Rs 4500 crore lifeline to Vodafone Idea

Business Term of the Day: Rupee-Ruble trade arrangement

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to meet some of the state-run lenders, including State Bank of India and UCO Bank, on Friday to discuss payment mechanisms to Russian companies. Indian Banks have stopped processing payments to Russian firms after the US imposed sanctions on Russian banks following the invasion of Ukraine last week.

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was on fire after being hit with Russian shells, raising concerns over the safety of the Ukrainian facility.

 

India needs to scale up domestic manufacturing and cut dependence on imports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, highlighting its importance from the “national security perspective” amid a growing geo-political crisis. Addressing a post-budget webinar on ‘Make in India for the World’ Modi urged industry to look at manufacturing opportunities in the electric vehicles and semiconductors and work toward removing the import dependency.

 

Vodafone Idea will raise up to Rs 4,500 crore by issuing 338.35 crore preferential equity shares to entities controlled by promoters Vodafone Group Plc and Aditya Birla Group. The shares will be issued at Rs 13.3 apiece, including a premium of Rs 3.3 per share. The infusion of funds will not only help the cash-strapped Vodafone Idea compete with larger rivals Bharti Airtel Ltd and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, but will also make it easier for the company to raise additional funds from external investors.

Amazon.com Inc. and its estranged partner Future Retail Ltd have accepted the Supreme Court’s nudge to settle their bitter legal battle over sales of the latter’s assets to Reliance Industries through negotiations. They now have time till 15 March to explore a settlement.

Yes Bank: Private equity group Carlyle is considering a ₹3,750–4,500 crore investment in Yes Bank along with peer Advent International. The lender is in talks with the PE investors to raise ₹7,500-11,250 crore of growth capital to bolster its balance sheet

UPL Ltd: Agrochemical producer UPL Ltd. is attracting takeover interest from global competitors. UPL has been speaking with advisers as it evaluates interest from rivals in the crop protection industry. Potential suitors could include companies like CF Industries Holdings Inc. or FMC Corp.

The chairman and managing director of Eveready Industries India Ltd. quit two days after the Burman family made an open offer to take control of India’s largest dry cell battery maker. Chairman Aditya Khaitan and Managing Director Amritanshu Khaitan have both resigned “in view of the expression of interest” by the Burman family “to enable the company to benefit from new leadership and direction” he Burman family, which controls Dabur India Ltd., announced an open offer on Monday for an additional 26%

SJVN: The company will receive a loan of Rs 1,537 crore from State Bank of India and Rs 319.04 crore from Punjab National Bank for a hydel project in Himachal Pradesh and solar power project in Uttar Pradesh, respectively.

Moving on to markets

The key benchmark indices are likely to start trade on a negative note amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The SGX Nifty futures were quoting 16,280 levels at 7:45 am, indicating a gap-down start of over 200 points.

The US stocks slipped in trade on Thursday as the Russia-Ukraine crisis kept investors on the edge. Dow Jones was down 0.3 per cent, the S&P 500 slipped 0.5 per cent and Nasdaq tanked 1.6 per cent.

Crude Oil prices, which zoomed past decade-highs, eased off a bit at close on hopes of a US-Iran nuclear deal. Brent futures declined 2.5 per cent to $110.46,

Major markets in Asia were deep in red this morning.

 

Business term of the day

India considering rupee-ruble bilateral trade between Russia and India to bypass sanctions. This woud mean that India will pay in rupees for its imports from Russia. The rupee-rouble exchange is not new. It had its foundation in the Indo-Soviet Trade Agreement signed between the two countries in December 1953, which said that all payments between India and USSR may be made in Indian Rupees. However, the arrangement led to Russia being stuck with huge rupee balances as exports from India were a small fraction of their imports and the arrangement ended in 2005.