FM Nirmala Sithraman keeps tax slabs unchanged

As expected and in relief for the citizens, the central government neither tweaked nor put any additional tax burden on citizens, in the interim Budget for 2024-25 tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "Keeping with the convention, I do not propose to make any changes relating to taxation and propose to retain the same tax rates for direct taxes and indirect taxes including import duties," Sitharaman said in her Budget speech on Thursday. However, certain tax benefits to start-ups and investments made by sovereign wealth or pension funds as well as tax exemption on certain income of some IFSC units are expiring in March 2024. To provide continuity in taxation, she proposed to extend the date by another year.Moreover, in line with the government's vision to improve ease of living and ease of doing business, she announced to improve tax-payer services. "There are a large number of petty, non-verified, non-reconciled or disputed direct tax demands, many of them dating as far back as the year 1962, which continue to remain on the books, causing anxiety to honest tax-payers and hindering refunds of subsequent years," she said.She proposed to withdraw such outstanding direct tax demands up to Rs 25,000 for the period up to financial year 2009-10 and up to Rs 10,000 for financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15. "This is expected to benefit about a crore tax-payers," she added.Presenting the Union Budget 2023, Sitharaman on Thursday pegged the fiscal deficit target for 2024-25 at 5.1% of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2023-24, the government pegged the fiscal deficit target for 2023-24 at 5.9% of gross domestic product (GDP). Today, Sitharaman said that the fiscal deficit of 2023-24 was downwardly revised to 5.8%. The difference between total revenue and total expenditure of the government is termed as fiscal deficit. It is an indication of the total borrowings that may be needed by the government.The government intends to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5% of GDP by the financial year 2025-26.The government intends to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5% of GDP by the financial year 2025-26. A capital expenditure,or capex, is used to set up long-term physical or fixed assets.  

AMD Stock Slumps on Disappointing Sales Forecast—Key Price Levels to Watch

Despite surpassing fourth-quarter revenue estimates, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares fell sharply in pre-market trading Wednesday after the chipmaker issued current-quarter sales guidance that missed analysts’ expectations amid softening demand for its PC chips and central processing units (CPUs).The Santa Clara, California company said it expects first-quarter sales of about $5.4 billion, plus or minus $300 million, falling short of the $5.73 billion mark Wall Street was looking for. AMD projects its PC chips business to record a decline in sales grow from the December quarter while anticipating its data center revenue to remain flat in the period, with growth in graphics processing units (GPUs) sales helping to offset slowing CPU demand. The company said it now sees 2024 AI GPU chip sales of $3.5 billion, up substantially from its earlier forecast of $2 billion. “In cloud, we are working closely with Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), Meta (META) and other large cloud customers on Instinct GPU deployments powering both their internal AI workloads and external offerings,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said during the company’s earnings call.2 In the fourth quarter, the company posted revenue of $6.17 billion, which came in slightly above the $6.12 billion consensus analysts had expected. The top line received a boost from the company’s data center and client segments, which reported respective year-over-year (YOY) growth of 38% and 62% due to increasing demand for it Instinct graphics processors used for AI and recent chip launches.Since briefly dipping below the 200-day moving average in late October, AMD shares have tracked steadily higher, with trading volume increasing in the lead up to the company’s earnings. If the stock undergoes an earnings-driven retracement, keep an eye on a three month trendline that may potentially provide support around $160. A failure to hold this key chart level could mark the start of a possible trend reversal.    

Aim to double AUM to Rs 20,000 crore by FY27, says HomeFirst MD & CEO

Soon after Covid-19,  the inclusion of an OPD feature in health insurance emerged as a game-changer, as it covered more than just hospitalisation expenses. Similarly, maternity insurance is set to become a game changer as more consumers are looking at comprehensive insurance plans from insurance companies that cover them holistically. Earlier, maternity insurance used to focus mainly on covering expenses related to childbirth, such as hospital stays, delivery charges, and medical procedures. However, this approach often overlooked other important aspects of maternal healthcare. Now, the newly launched maternity insurance plans provide more comprehensive coverage that includes. Given the positive response to these comprehensive plans, the trend is likely to continue, with health insurance providers recognising the importance of offering all-encompassing coverage that caters to the varied needs and aspirations of individuals and families. "A couple usually starts thinking about health insurance when they are already expecting. They often overlook the waiting period that tags along with maternity cover. Most maternity insurance plans until now had a waiting period of 2 years or more but the recently introduced plans have a waiting period of only nine months if the couple is purchasing health insurance for the first time.However, if you are planning to get married in a few years, you can still purchase new-age plans offering maternity benefits. Once married, you can add your spouse to the plan, and the waiting period served by you already is also waived for your spouse. In that scenario, the spouse doesn’t need to serve the waiting period of nine months for maternity benefit," said Siddharth Singhal, Business Head - Health Insurance, Policybazaar.com Thes  new-age plans also cover procedures like IVF treatment, and expenses related to surrogacy and delivery for surrogate mothers. "Apart from this, it also covers charges for adopting a child. The policy also accounts for ambulance charges, NICU and vaccination charges for the newborn from 30-90 days of the delivery among other costs," said Singhal.Point to note: Most insurance companies do not offer maternity insurance if the policyholder is already pregnant as pregnancy is considered as a pre-existing condition and keeps it beyond the policy cover.     

Sony scrapped $10 bn merger as Zee failed to meet financial terms: Report

Sony scrapped the $10 billion merger of its Indian arm with Zee Entertainment in part because Zee failed to meet some financial terms of the deal and come up with a plan to address them, according to a termination notice reviewed by Reuters.India's Zee denied the allegations in a letter to Sony, also reviewed by Reuters, and accused the Japanese company of "bad faith" in calling off the merger.A Zee-Sony merger in India would have created a media powerhouse in the world's most populous nation with 90-plus channels across sports, entertainment and news.But Sony terminated the plans on Jan. 22, saying in a statement it was doing so because "closing conditions" were not satisfied after two years of negotiations. Neither Sony nor Zee made the contents of the termination notice public.Reviewed by Reuters, Sony's notice said Zee had "failed to take commercially reasonable" efforts to meet some financial thresholds, including with regards to cash availability, while a "lack of commercial prudence" by the Indian network contributed to its decision. In the 62-page notice, Sony said several breaches of the merger agreement were "not remediable and any further attempts to mutually discuss would be an empty formality, especially given ... plain denial (by Zee) and failure to provide a proposal to protect" Sony's interests."The breaches committed by Zee are not 'procedural or technical' in nature and will have a substantive impact on the transactions," Sony said.Zee responded privately to Sony a day later, on Jan. 23, saying it denied all Sony's allegations, adding the Japanese company's demand for a termination fee of $90 million was "legally untenable".The termination was "effected in bad faith" and "is wrongful, bad in law," Zee wrote in its letter, which asked Sony to withdraw its notice.A Zee spokesperson declined to comment, while Sony did not respond to Reuters queries.Zee's shares have fallen about 30% since the deal collapsed.Its business has struggled over the years. Zee's advertising revenues fell to $488 million for the 2022-23 financial year from around $600 million five years earlier. Cash reserves dropped to $86 million from $116 million in that period.Sony, in its termination notice, said that Zee's cash position was 4.76 billion rupees ($57.26 million) as of Sept. 30, adding that was "much below the requirements" of the merger agreement. Reuters reported last week that Sony was also concerned about Zee CEO Punit Goenka - who was set to head the merged entity - facing a regulatory investigation for suspected diversion of company funds - allegations he has denied. The "ongoing investigation" was cited in Sony's notice.Zee was "unable to realistically assess the timeline required to resolve all the outstanding issues," Sony's termination notice stated.    

HDFC Bank sees period of consolidation as it absorbs mega merger: Report

HDFC Bank, India's largest private sector lender, will take 4-5 years to fully digest its merger with its parent last July but expects to restore a key financial metric to pre-merger levels at the end of that period, two sources familiar with the bank's thinking said. The lender's quarterly earnings last week prompted a sharp 15% decline in the stock, even as its profit beat expectations, as analysts raised concerns about lending margins and sluggish deposit growth in its second quarterly report since merging with Housing Development Finance Co. "We will see a period of consolidation for 4-5 years during which growth rates and trajectory of some of the metrics will differ from what we were used to in the bank but this a different institution now after the merger," said one of the sources quoted above. Before the merger, the bank's return on equity was above 17%, but it has since declined to 15.8% as of December-end. "We are very focused on profitable growth and we will see the return on equity move back to the levels we saw before the merger over this 4-5 year period," this person said.Other metrics, including the net interest margin, deposit and loan growth will be contingent on the economic environment and the strategic decisions the bank makes to adapt to the environment, the person said.Following the earnings, investors and analysts criticised the bank for over-promising and under-delivering on certain metrics, particularly margins.  

Sony scraps $10 bn merger as Zee failed to meet financial terms: Report

Sony scrapped the $10 billion merger of its Indian arm with Zee Entertainment in part because Zee failed to meet some financial terms of the deal and come up with a plan to address them, according to a termination notice reviewed by Reuters. India's Zee denied the allegations in a letter to Sony, also reviewed by Reuters, and accused the Japanese company of "bad faith" in calling off the merger. A Zee-Sony merger in India would have created a media powerhouse in the world's most populous nation with 90-plus channels across sports, entertainment and news. But Sony terminated the plans on Jan. 22, saying in a statement it was doing so because "closing conditions" were not satisfied after two years of negotiations. Neither Sony nor Zee made the contents of the termination notice public. Reviewed by Reuters, Sony's notice said Zee had "failed to take commercially reasonable" efforts to meet some financial thresholds, including with regards to cash availability, while a "lack of commercial prudence" by the Indian network contributed to its decision.In the 62-page notice, Sony said several breaches of the merger agreement were "not remediable and any further attempts to mutually discuss would be an empty formality, especially given ... plain denial (by Zee) and failure to provide a proposal to protect" Sony's interests.  

Corporate Leaders Appear Ready To Make More Deals in 2024

After high interest rates and regulatory scrutiny kept some corporate leaders from making deals in 2023, executives and analysts are expecting a rebound in mergers & acquisition (M&A) activity this year. A Deloitte survey showed that 83% of corporate and private equity leaders expected an increase in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) this year, with almost as many responding that they expect the volume of their own organizations' deal-making to grow. The executive sentiment recorded by Deloitte lines up with a forecast from Morgan Stanley Investment Banking that concluded M&A activity was positioned to increase in 2024 after sinking in 2023 as inflation, high interest rates and increased regulatory scrutiny all contributed to stifle deal-making last year. Data from FactSet showed M&A activity was down 14.1% in December from the prior month, although spending on deals jumped more than 40% in the month. Only four of 21 tracked sectors had year-over-year M&A growth during the year’s fourth quarter, the report said.M&A activity can be beneficial for investors by either pressing the share price higher for companies that are acquired, or by quickly adding scale, volume, or market share to corporations that take over smaller companies.   

What You Need To Know Ahead of Microsofts Earnings on Tuesday

Tech titan Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which just became the second company ever to reach a market capitalization of $3 trillion, is due to report its second-quarter fiscal 2024 earnings on Tuesday after the market closes. Analysts expect Microsoft to post its highest revenue in seven quarters and an uptick in EPS, while the company's AI-powered cloud services continue to soar. Analysts forecast that Microsoft will announce net income of $20.6 billion, or $2.77 per share, compared with $17.4 billion and $2.20, respectively, in the prior-year quarter, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha. The company is also expected to report total revenue of $61 billion, a nearly 16% improvement year-over-year and the sharpest increase in this area in close to two years. Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud quarterly revenue, which has roughly doubled in the last three years, is expected to reach an all-time high of $25.3 billion in the latest quarter, according to Visible Alpha. This would represent a roughly 18% increase YOY.While Microsoft's AI adoption might spell big gains for its top and bottom lines, the company has run into legal issues as a result as well. Late in 2023, the New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement, contending that ChatGPT was trained using millions of copyrighted articles. The suit calls for "billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages." 6  The company is also being scrutinized by the U.K.'s competition watchdog, which is evaluating whether Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI could affect competition. Also recently, the Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry into Microsoft and OpenAI as part of a broader look at investments and partnerships in the AI space.   

Republic Day 2024: Over 1,100 personnel awarded Gallantry and Service medals. Details here

On the occasion of the Republic Day 2024, a total of 1132 personnel of Police, Fire Service, Home Guard and Civil Defence and Correctional Service have been awarded Gallantry and Service Medals, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on 25 January. Of these 1,132 personnel, President's Medal for Gallantry (PMG) has been awarded to two personnel, Medals for Gallantry (GM) to 275, President's Medals for Distinguished Service (PSM) to 102 and Medal for Meritorious Service (MSM) to 753. "On the occasion of the Republic Day, 2024, a total of 1132 personnel of Police, Fire Service, Home Guard and Civil Defence and Correctional Service have been awarded Gallantry and Service Medals," the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement. Among the majority of the 277 Gallantry Awards, 119 personnel from Left-wing extremist-affected areas, 133 personnel from the Jammu and Kashmir region and 25 personnel from other regions are being awarded for their gallant action. Out of 277 gallantry medals, 275 GM have been awarded to 72 personnel from J&K Police, 18 personnel from Maharashtra, 26 personnel from Chhattisgarh, 23 personnel from Jharkhand, 15 personnel from Odisha, 8 personnel from Delhi, 65 personnel from CRPF, 21 personnel from SSB and the remaining personnel from the other states, Union Territories (UTs) and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).                                                                                Out of 102 President's Medals for Distinguished Service (PSM), 94 have been awarded to Police Service and four each to Fire Service and civil guard and Home Guard Service. Out of 753 Medals for Meritorious Service (MSM), 667 have been awarded to Police Service, 32 to Fire Service, 27 to Civil Defence and Home Guard Service and 27 to Correctional Service. As per the MHA, the government has taken many steps in recent years to rationalise and transform the entire award ecosystem of various awards. In this regard, sixteen gallantry and service medals (for police, fire service, home guard and Civil service) have been rationalised and merged into four medals: the President's Medal for Gallantry (PMG), Medal for Gallantry (GM), President's Medal for Distinguished Service (PSM), and the Medal for Meritorious Service (MSM).  

Indian investments key target of Western Australia’s minerals reforms

NEW DELHI : The state of Western Australia has implemented a series of reforms aimed at attracting investments in minerals and resources, including from India. In an interview with Mint, Western Australia deputy premier Rita Saffioti said there was much interest for greater investments and collaborations between Indian and Australian firms in the rare earths sector.  The approvals reforms are aimed at supporting projects that assist with decarbonization, she said. Western Australia has been in focus for its supply of key critical minerals including lithium, nickel and cobalt, as well as rare earth metals, which are used in smartphones, computers, batteries and electronics. Australia accounts for roughly half of the world’s lithium production and has a similarly important position in cobalt production. It is also the fourth-largest rare-earths producer. Western Australia has attracted investments from Indian state-owned firms including NMDC Ltd. Indian mines minister Prahlad Joshi visited the state in 2022, following which the Indian government announced that a bilateral critical minerals investment partnership between the two sides had identified two lithium projects and three cobalt projects. “Investments under the partnership will seek to build new supply chains underpinned by critical minerals processed in Australia, that will help India’s plans to lower emissions from its electricity network and become a global manufacturing hub, including for electric vehicles," India’s mines ministry had said in a statement. Saffioti said her visit to India was also aimed at promoting Western Australia as an investment destination for private Indian companies. “There are opportunities for Indian investment in Western Australia through offtake agreements for key battery minerals," Saffioti said.  

Amber, Titagarh Rail Systems in deal for train components business

Both TRSL and Amber group, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Sidwal Refrigeration Industries Pvt Ltd, will invest approximately ₹120 crore each to obtain around 50% each in the SPV.The SPV will set up a new facility in India to manufacture critical railway components and subsystems used in the manufacture of railway and metro coaches and will also make fresh equity investments into Titagarh Firema. Titagarh Firema SpA, Italy, is an associate company of the Titagarh group where govt of Italy is also an equity stake holder.   The new SPV will also invest in Titagarh Firema while government of Italy will invest in the entity for which it has already taken approval from Invitalia, the Italians government’s investment arm. Under the agreement, Firema will grant Sidwal, Titagarh Rail as well as the SPV a preferred supplier status and right of first refusal (ROFR) for all their products.Titagarh Rail is involved in the railway rolling stock space for both freight and passenger rolling stocks. Apart from being an established railway wagon and metro coach manufacturer, it is also currently executing the projects of Vande Bharat trains, Surat, Ahmedabad, Pune metros as well as executing its first export order for passenger rail components received from Firema. Titagarh is targeting a capacity of almost 800-850 coaches per year in the coming years. The Amber group is a diversified B2B company having three business verticals: consumer durables, electronics and railway subsystems and mobility. Sidwal, an Amber group company, has emerged as a leader in the train air conditioner market and has also signed a technology licensing agreement with Ultimate group to manufacture passenger coach doors and gangways. Sidwal is also planning to enter the European market for its products portfolio, a company statement said.The strategic partnership in Firema will not only facilitate Sidwal’s entry into the European market, but will also give Sidwal a preferred access to Firema’s own demand, the statement added. Both companies are investing to grow capabilities and capacities for various products that can be exported to Europe such as train mechanical and electrical components by TRSL and HVAC, doors, gangways and pantry systems by Sidwal. Firema is one of the largest and reputed designers and manufacturers of passenger trains in Italy and has executed marquee projects in Italy and other parts of Europe. Firema has an order book of almost euro 1 billion for producing new coaches and has an existing capacity to produce upwards of 240 coaches per year and has plans to double this capacity.    

Deal values in India plunge to $66 billion in 2023, investors cautious, reports Grant Thornton

There was a significant drop in deal values in India for the year 2023, reaching $66 billion, marking a decrease of over 50 percent, a recent report from consultancy firm Grant Thornton Bharat found. Released on January 19, the report found a decline of over 20 percent in deal volume, with 1,641 deals compared to the previous year. Shanthi Vijetha, a partner at Grant Thornton Bharat, pointed out several factors contributing to this. The lack of liquidity in international markets, volatile market conditions, and cautious investor sentiment were identified as key hindrances to deal activities throughout 2023."While India's focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility positions it as an attractive hub for global economic opportunities, overcoming challenges such as currency strength and global instability is crucial," added Vijetha. Merger and Acquisition Impact The report indicates a significant impact on merger and acquisition (M&A) deal values, which plummeted by 72 percent to $25.2 billion across 494 transactions. Outbound M&As were particularly affected, dropping to $3.2 billion from $17.9 billion in the previous year. The sluggish M&A trend in the first half of 2023 recorded deal values of only $7.8 billion. The largest transaction during this period was Suraksha Group's $2.5 billion acquisition of Jaypee in the real estate sector. Private Equity and IPO Trends On the private equity (PE) front, 2023 witnessed a 23 percent decline in both deal volume and value, with 1,045 deals amounting to $27.4 billion. The most significant deal in this category was Temasek Holdings' $2 billion investment in Manipal Health Enterprises.