Indian Corporates

'Will never happen again': EY India Chairman on missing CA's funeral

'Completely alien to our culture', says Rajiv Memani after letter written by grieving mother of deceased employee creates controversy

CCI's M&A overhaul: Stricter scrutiny, faster approvals under new rules

Revised framework introduces deal value thresholds, streamlined timelines, and wider definition of control for enhanced regulatory oversight, writes Dhanendra Kumar

Hiring of entry-level graduates falls in FY24 as companies scale back

Internships, lateral hires, and recruitment for CAs and CFAs grew, but MBA and diploma holder hiring saw the least growth in FY24 compared to FY23

Adani Group plans Rs 40K cr fundraise from retail, HNI investors via NCDs

Adani group's recent corporate filings show that as of March 31, 2024, domestic lenders had an exposure of Rs 88,100 crore to various Adani Group entities through long-term and working capital loans

Centre sets up team to implement internship scheme announced in Budget

The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs is holding discussions with corporate HR leaders in Delhi and Mumbai to finalise the contours of the scheme

Capital requirements will remain high for Indian companies: Moody's

Moody's Ratings on Thursday said capital requirements will remain high for Indian corporates as they go in for capacity expansion and inorganic growth spending. Moody's estimates that 16 of the 23 rated companies will require USD 70-100 billion of funding annually in the next two years for growth spending, refinancing requirements and shareholder payments. While improving domestic liquidity and companies' internal cash flows can cover a large portion of their capital needs, offshore funding will remain an important funding channel, it said. "Capacity expansion, inorganic growth spending, refinancing and working capital needs, along with shareholder payments, will keep capital requirements high for nonfinancial corporates in India," Moody's Ratings said in a statement. It said capital spending by non-financial corporates will remain high as they expand their capacities to cater to the strong consumption growth expected in the country, at a time when their capacity utilization is ...

Significant percentage of Indian firms hit by ransomware in 2023: Report

Nearly 64 per cent of Indian organisations surveyed were hit by ransomware attacks in 2023, a latest report by Sophos said on Tuesday, noting that while the attack rates fell year-on-year, the impact on victims actually intensified. The average ransom demand was USD 4.8 million, with 62 per cent of demands exceeding USD 1 million. The median ransom paid was USD 2 million, the report by the global cybersecurity solutions provider said. Put simply, ransomware refers to malicious software or malware that seizes files on a computer, network share, backups, and server, and encrypts them, following which the attacker exhorts the user to cough up money to unlock the files. Typically, ransomware attacks come with a timeline, threatening users that if ransomware demands are not fulfilled, the users will lose files. According to the 'State of Ransomware in India 2024' report by Sophos, there has been a decrease in the rate of ransomware attacks against Indian organisations from the 73 per c

Colonial legacy: Corporate control is a 200-year-old problem in India

Many of today's Indian conglomerates also began life this way. In 1958, more than a decade after the departure of British rulers, the Tata Group had nine agencies managing 60 companies

Ficci, corporates hail Budget, say its continuum towards 'Viksit Bharat'

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) President Dr Anish Shah has termed the Intermin Budget 2024-25 as a clear and outcome-based continuum towards Viksit Bharat."The Interim Budget is a clear and outcome-based continuum towards Viksit Bharat. It brings together growth, climate, and social empowerment while maintaining a careful balance between current investment rate and fiscal discipline," said Anish Shah."Enabling States to adopt reforms for Viksit Bharat will seize the momentum created from the Centre towards Amrit Kaal. Focus on Blue Economy, expanding and strengthening the EV ecosystem, domestic tourism, and multi-modal logistics will propel India towards the vision of a developed nation by 2047," he said."The Interim Budget recognizes innovation as a key driver for growth through the introduction of a significant corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore for offering a fifty-year interest-free loan to scale up R & D in sunrise domains. The fiscal performance bodes .

Office demand jumps 92% in Oct-Dec in top 6 cities in 2023: Colliers

Office space demand surged 92 per cent during October-December period across six major cities on better demand of workspace from corporates and coworking operators, according to Colliers India. Real estate consultant Colliers India report shows that gross leasing of office space stood at 20.2 million square feet in the fourth quarter of this calendar year from 10.5 million square feet in the year-ago period. Helped by strong demand during the December quarter, the total leasing of office space rose 16 per cent to 58.2 million square feet during the 2023 calendar year from 50.3 million square feet last year. Colliers tracks office demand and supply of 6 cities -- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune. Gross leasing or absorption does not include lease renewals, pre-commitments and deals where only a letter of intent has been signed. According to the data, the office space leasing in Bengaluru rose 58 per cent to 5.5 million square feet during October-December .

India's economic growth to boost demand of corporates: Fitch Ratings

Leading credit rating firm Fitch Ratings expects that India's resilient economic growth will boost demand of the corporates. In its latest research report on 'India Corporates: Sector Trends 2024', Fitch said that this is a sequel to the robust performance of the corporates in 2023 and will offset weakness from slowing growth in the key overseas markets. Rising demand and easing input cost pressure should boost margins of the corporates in the next financial year, Fitch said. Fitch said that with strong domestic demand growth, it is expected that India will be among the world's fastest-growing countries, with resilient GDP growth of 6.5 per cent during the fiscal 2024-25. This is despite a challenging global backdrop and the cumulative impact of the recent monetary tightening, it said. Sectors like cement, electricity and petroleum products are expected to witness a strong demand with high-frequency data in 2023 sustained well above pre-COVID pandemic levels. Fitch said that Indi

Net leasing of office space seen flat this year across top 7 cities: Report

Net office space leasing across seven major cities is likely to remain stable at 37-39 million sq ft during this calendar year, despite global economic concerns and is expected to rise 20 per cent next year, according to JLL. Net absorption, or leasing of office space, stood at 37.99 million sq ft during the 2022 calendar year in seven major cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. The office space demand hit a record at 47.92 million sq ft in 2019, but declined sharply to 25.38 million sq ft in 2020 and 26.03 million sq ft in 2021, according to real estate consultant JLL India data. The consultant said the office sector has seen sustained growth in demand this year despite global sluggishness, and is poised to achieve the next level of growth in 2024. "Net absorption from January-September 2023 was 26 million sq ft, which is 68 per cent of the 2022 full-year number. In 2023, net absorption in the office market is expected to be at par with 202

Corporate bond market set to double by FY2030 at Rs 100 trn: Report

Market expected to finance one-sixth of envisaged capex in infrastructure, corporate sectors

Corporates to utilise more flexible office spaces in next 3-4 years: Report

The share of flexible office spaces in the total premium office supply across six major cities has risen to 6-7 per cent and is set to reach double-digit in the next 34 years amid a rise in demand for flex workspaces from large corporates, according to Colliers. Real estate consultant Colliers India on Friday released a report 'Shared Office Spaces in India Flexing Ahead' at industry body FICCI's conference in Bengaluru. "The flex penetration in the Indian office market is set to cross double digits in the next 34 years, up from 6-7 per cent currently," Colliers India CEO Badal Yagnik said in the report. Flexible space operators have 43.5 million square feet under their operations across six major cities -- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune. The total seats are estimated at 6,24,000. Bengaluru has 14.7 million square feet of office space under this flexible space model. "With the growing adoption of flex spaces within mainstream commercial office real esta

Infra push: IT hubs lead surge in price of residential real estate

Hyderabad's Gachibowli logs highest rise in avg prices between Oct 2020 and now

The super power of longer work hours

'More hours' does different things at the level of individual, firm or country

Taking a lead: Startups beat corporates in gender inclusivity race

Women account for 35% of people employed in startups, compared to 19% in the corporate sector, shows a study

India Inc divided on Narayana Murthy's call for 70-hour work week to youth

While some corporate leaders endorsed Murthy's "sane advice" at a time when "we are in a nation-building stage", others said productivity was not linked to hours employees put in

Finance ministry notifies prospective levy of GST on corporate guarantees

The finance ministry has issued a notification stating goods and services tax will be levied on guarantees provided by corporates to their subsidiaries prospectively. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) council, comprising central and state finance ministers, had earlier this month clarified on the taxability of corporate guarantee, saying it would be subject to 18 per cent GST. Tax experts had then sought clarity on GST levy on past transactions as many companies might not be able to recover the tax from subsidiaries or group companies. The finance ministry on Thursday notified amendments to Central GST rules, saying that the corporate guarantee would be taxable from the date of the notification. GST at 18 per cent will be levied on 1 per cent of the total amount guaranteed by the parent company or the actual consideration, whichever is higher, the notification said. "This prospective modification shall have no bearing on transactions executed prior to October 26, consequently ...

Fund raised via bonds on private placement up 73% to Rs 3.3 trn in Apr-Aug

Corporates garnered Rs 3.31 lakh crore through the issuance of bonds on a private placement basis in the first five months of the ongoing fiscal, a surge of 73 per cent from the year-ago period. The funds were mopped up to strengthen balance sheets, retire existing debt and support working capital requirements, market experts said. According to data available with markets regulator Sebi, Rs 3.31 lakh crore was mopped-up through the route during the April-August period of the current fiscal. In comparison, firms raised Rs 1.91 lakh crore in the first five months of 2022-23, data showed. Market experts attributed several factors to higher fund mobilisation through private placement of corporate bonds such as increase in credit demand, soaring bank loan rates, and expensive overseas borrowing. In terms of numbers, 520 issuances took place during the period under review as compared to 508 in the year-ago period. In private placements, firms issue securities or bonds to institutional