1) Kalyan Jewellers eyes Rs. 13,000 crore turnover on Rs. 900 crore expansion.
- Kerala-based Kalyan Jewellers is eyeing a turnover of Rs. 13,000 crore this fiscal (FY-17) banking primarily on its Rs. 900 crore retail expansion plans through 20 stores in India and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
- The company, which has PE investor Warburg Pincus as a minority shareholder, will fund expansion plans mostly through own resources. It has 76 stores in India and 21 in Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE.
- The company has already invested Rs. 300 crore towards six of the 15 showrooms it planned to set up in the country this fiscal. Three stores have come up in Rajasthan and another three are expected in Kolkata. While five stores are in the works in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the rest nine will be in South India.
-
2) Knowlarity acquires customer engagement platform Smartwards.
- Knowlarity Communications, Asia’s leading cloud telephony company, announced the acquisition of Delhi-based Smartwards, a customer engagement platform that simplifies loyalty for local businesses and their customers.
- As part of the move, Shantanu Mathur and Dhanraj Singh Bisht - the co-founders of Smartwards, will lead the India operations for Knowlarity. The deal will see Knowlarity integrating the Smartwards product and technology into its own product ecosystem to provide enterprise software solutions to small & medium businesses.
- Smartwards started operations in 2013 with a team of 6. The company‘s proprietary technology enables SMBs to identify, reward, engage customers, in-store and out-of-store. With presence in over 150 locations across 8 cities, Smartwards provided engagement solutions to local businesses, including restaurants, cafes, cinemas, salons and retail outlets.
3) Quickr acquires beauty services provider Salosa.
- Online classifieds player Quikr has acquired Salosa, an on demand in-home beauty services provider.
- This strategic acquisition is a part of Quikr`s plan to invest Rs. 250 crore in its home services vertical, `QuikrServices`.
- This investment will enable the company go deeper and faster in key categories under QuikrServices.
- Salosa which has been a partner to QuikrServices will further strengthen its beauty services offerings with stylists that have undergone a rigorous process of quality and background checks along with required training.
- QuikrServices has 250,000 service providers offering over 80 types of services for consumers and is being used by 1,00,000 customers every day.
4) GMR Infra sells 30% in energy arm to Tenaga for Rs. 2,000 crore.
- GMR Infrastructure is selling a 30 per cent equity stake in its subsidiary GMR Energy Ltd (GEL) to Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional Berhad for Rs. 2,000 crore ($300 million). The Malaysian power major has an option to invest further in more GEL assets.
- The firm would use the proceeds to retire GEL’s debt. After the funding infusion, the energy arm’s debt will come down to Rs. 750 crore, resulting in a saving of Rs. 250 crore a year in interest payments.
- GMR Infrastructure’s total debt stands at Rs. 43,439.60 crore. The firm had launched an asset-light strategy a couple of years ago to reduce its mounting debt burden.
- The Management Committee of GMR Infrastructure has approved Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s investments in ``select`` GEL assets.
- A power utility major in Malaysia, Tenaga has a total installed capacity of 10,818 MW and a share of 50 per cent in the grid’s generation capacity.
5) NRI deposit flows touch $15.9 billion in FY16.
- Attractive interest rates in India saw overseas Indians pour $1.92 billion more into non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits in FY2016 vis-à-vis FY2015, according to Reserve Bank of India data.
- Overall, NRI deposit inflows in FY2016 amounted to $15.977 billion ($14.057 billion in FY2015).
- In FY2015, NRI deposit inflow had dropped to $14.057 billion after topping $38.406 billion in FY2014.
- Year-on-year, NRI deposits increased by about 10 per cent to stand at $126.854 billion as at March-end 2016. Carry trade (NRIs borrowing in foreign currencies and parking these funds as deposits with banks in India) may have lured overseas Indians to save money with banks in India.
- NRIs parked $2.492 billion as against $1.001 billion in the year-ago period in FCNR (B) deposits, according to RBI’s monthly bulletin.
6) Government fixes ceiling price of 54 drug formulations.
- Pharma prices regulator NPPA has fixed ceiling price of 54 drug formulations used for treatment of cancer, diabetes rheumatoid arthritis, bacterial infections and hypertension.
- It has also fixed the retail price of 11 drugs.
- National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has fixed/ revised ceiling prices of 54 scheduled formulations of Schedule-I under Drugs (Price Control) Amendment Order, 2016 and Retail Price of 11 formulations under DPCO, 2013.
- Last month also it had fixed prices of some drug formulation packs.
- The government fixes the prices of essential drugs based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment, having sales of more than 1 per cent.
- Besides, it regulates the prices of all other medicines, while companies are allowed to hike prices of such drugs by up to 10 per cent in a year.
7) FarEye to raise Rs. 35-40 crore from venture capital firm SAIF Partners.
- SaaS-based mobile workforce management software FarEye is in an advanced stage to raise about Rs. 35-40 crore from leading venture capital firm SAIF Partners.
- Founded in 2013, New Delhi-based FarEye is a mobile workforce management platform that helps organizations schedule jobs, track execution and evaluate performance, all in real time. The start-up helps companies to generate more revenue by increasing productivity and customer satisfaction.
RoboticWares:
- FarEye is part of RoboticWares Pvt Limited that built India’s first desi GPS-based vehicle security device that provides customers with a web-based, centralized tracking tool to keep track of personal vehicle/ fleets. It also has features such as ignition alerts and anti-theft SMS alerts.
- RoboticWares was founded in 2009. It was incubated at the Technology Business Incubator at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar. It is also the only Indian company to design, develop and manufacture GPS tracking system indigenously in India.
- FarEye’s services include real-time coordination with mobile workforce, task automation, constant job updates, tracking workers, identification of best worker to perform a task, reduction in manual work, analytical reports and smarter decision making.
-
8) Govt approves Rs. 1,984 crore Delhi-Meerut Expressway stretch.
- The government approved widening of the crucial UP Gate to Dasna stretch of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, to be built at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,983 crore, which will ease traffic congestion in the national capital.
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for development of 8/6 laning of Delhi-Meerut Expressway - Package-II-Uttar Pradesh Border to Dasna Section of NH-24 in Uttar Pradesh.
- The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs. 1,983.51 crore including cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities.
- The total length of the road will be approximately 19 kms.
- This work will be under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-VI. The approval is in Hybrid Annuity Mode.
9) Union Cabinet approves for MoU between SEBI and FSRA Abu Dhabi.
- The Union Cabinet approved signing of a pact between markets regulator Sebi and Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Abu Dhabi for mutual co-operation and technical assistance.
- The Sebi`s pact with its Abu Dhabi counterpart will promote further development of economic links and cooperation between the two signatories and will help create conditions for development of securities markets in the two countries.
- It would also contribute towards strengthening the information sharing framework between the two regulators.
- The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Sebi and Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Abu Dhabi, for mutual co-operation and technical assistance between the two regulators.
- In order to encourage the exchange of information and assistance, Sebi has been signing pacts with the jurisdictions who are yet to become a signatory to the multilateral MoU of International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
10) Start-up Raw Pressery to raise $20 million.
- Two-year-old start up Raw Pressery is planning to raise $20 million from the same set of investors since the time it started making cold pressed fresh juices. Having raised $7.2 million from investors such as Sequoia India, Saama Capital and DSG Capital, its next round is expected to be a bigger one for expanding its beverage portfolio to foods such as vegetable chips and health bars.
- It is likely to be the same set of investors and will help us raise $ 20 million in the next 10-12 months. Investors like Sequoia, Saama Capital and DSG have been growing with us and kept faith in our business model.
- Having created the raw cold pressed juice category in the country, the Mumbai-based start-up has been steadily raising funds to build its Mumbai-based plant and distribution network while a slew of others like Divine Jus, Rejeuve and Juice Up have also entered the category.