GMR Infrastructure Ltd’s operating performance improved in the quarter ended September as its ailing energy business was boosted by fuel supplies.

A dramatic increase in the plant load factor pushed up the operating margin of the segment from 4% a year ago to 21%.

New Delhi: Reserving his verdict in the dispute between Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and the Union government over appointment of a third arbitrator in the KG Basin case, Justice Ranjan Gogoi of the Supreme Court on Monday said further appointments will be on hold until there is clarity on what the appropriate forum to hear the case is.

“The whole matter to be decided now is which will be the forum to hear the case,” Gogoi said, adding, “In light of the... ordinance, orders are reserved.”

Low oil prices have created a favourable environment for the Indian economy as it helped to absorb the loss faced by oil companies and kept inflation under control, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

Jaitley said that low oil prices also enabled the government to rationalise subsidies.

HPCL, IOC and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) will benefit the most from the rupee’s depreciation as their dollar earnings are sufficient to more than offset the negatives of higher debt and capex in dollar terms, says a Fitch Ratings’ report.

However, Power Grid Corporation of India, NTPC, Bharti Airtel and Lodha Developers Pvt Ltd tick all three negative boxes of minimal earnings in dollars, dollar-denominated debt and dollar-denominated capex, Fitch said.

India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has declared Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya and United Breweries Holdings wilful defaulters, sources told FE, adding that a letter was sent to Mallya late last week.

“The names will be sent to RBI and credit information companies shortly and they will not be allowed to raise funds for five years,” a banker said.

Markets continue to remain in the positive zone mainly on the back of buying seen in metal and fmcg shares. However, the upside is capped due to index heavyweights such as Infosys.

At 10:50 am, the Sensex was at 25,849 levels, up by 90 points while the Nifty opened at 7,832 levels, up by 26 points.

Infosys, India’s second largest information technology (IT) services company, is now looking at significantly improving its win rates of large deals, apart from increasing its employee utilisation rates, as part of its growth execution strategy in the medium term.

The Bengaluru-based company, which showed strong growth in the quarter ended October, is now targeting large deals in the range of $1.5 -2 billion which would help it achieve industry growth rate level in financial year 2017, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ranganath Mavinakere said addressing the Axis Capital Conference in Mumbai on Monday.

Tepid retail participation in the two recent marquee public floats-InterGlobe Aviation and Coffee Day Enterprises-has caught the eye of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). According to sources, Sebi is planning to raise the issue of low retail interest with investment bankers of the two transactions. The retail quotas in both the offerings were undersubscribed even as the issue was lapped up by institutional investors. The market regulator is also likely to take up the issue with the investment banking fraternity during their annual conference scheduled to be held on December 15.

ICICI Bank on Monday said it would sell a six per cent stake in its life insurance venture, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, to Premji Invest and its affiliates, and Compassvale Investments Pte, a unit of Singapore-based Temasek, for Rs 1,950 crore. This deal values the life insurance company at Rs 32,500 crore, making it the highest valued private insurance company in the country.

Of the six per cent stake, four per cent will be sold to Premji Invest, while balance will be sold to Compassvale Investments, an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek.

NTPC Ltd figures among the world's top 10 coal-based power generators but in less than two years it will have an impressive portfolio of 1,000 Mw of green energy, too. It is already one of the top green power generators among the conventional power companies in the country, and soon enough will turn out to be a classic case of a "polluting" company becoming "cleaner".

Some 110 Mw of solar power generation places it next to Reliance Power that has around 185 Mw renewable energy capacity with Tata Power (read Part IV of the series) topping the list in this category. Being a government-controlled entity, most of this change is driven by directives from the Centre. It is obligated to facilitate addition of another 10,000 Mw of clean power in the next five years.

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