National carrier Air India on Wednesday said it was seeking offers for financing of six Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) aircraft under a sale and lease back (SLB) arrangement for $720 million (Rs 5,000 crore).

Under the arrangement, Air India would sell the six planes to the lessor and immediately lease them back under an operating lease for 12 years with an option to extend, the carrier said in a tender statement. “Air India has fixed a reserve purchase price of $120 million (Rs 750 crore) for each aircraft,” the tender said.

As many as 189 companies or nearly 13% of the 1,457 NSE -companies missed the March 31 deadline of appointing a single woman director on their boards, according to a compilation by Prime Database.

The number stood at 245 companies as on 4:30pm on March 31. More than 50 companies including Adani Enterprises on Wednesday announced the appointment of women directors, even as many others including some state-run giants lagged behind in getting a female member on their board to comply with a new regulatory requirement.

MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked the Reserve Bank to prepare a 20-year road map for financial inclusion and nudged banks to be considerate in giving loans to the poor as also while making recoveries from them, especially farmers.

"RBI will be completing 100 years in 2035...it will be appropriate for the central bank to work on the theme of financial inclusion and prepare a road map for achieving it," he said while addressing a function to mark the 80th anniversary of the Reserve Bank of India.

MUMBAI: ICICI Bank said on Wednesday over half of its 4,000 branches will be open for general business on Thursday, a public holiday on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti.

"Our branches will remain open and will operate as per regular business hours on April 2, except for branches in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh," the country's largest private lender said in a statement.

Infrastructure firm Larsen & Toubro has bagged a Rs 5,580—crore contract from state—run NTPC for setting up a thermal power project at Khargone in Madhya Pradesh.

“Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has secured a turnkey order from NTPC for setting up a 2x660 MW greenfield thermal power plant in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) basis, ” the company said in a statement.

Infosys on Wednesday said it will announce its earnings for the fourth quarter and the fiscal ended March 2015 on April 24, a deviation from its usual practice of kicking off the corporate results season.

Instead, it will be India’s largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) that will announce its set of numbers on April 16.

Hyundai Motor India on Wednesday reported 3.8 per cent decline in total sales at 49,740 units in March. The company had sold 51,708 units in the same month last year, HMIL said in a statement.

In the domestic market, Hyundai sold 39,525 units last month compared with 35,003 units in March 2014, up 12.9 per cent. However, the company’s exports declined by 38.9 per cent to 10,215 units as against 16,705 units in the same period last year.

WhatsApp calling has finally arrived. WhatsApp users will need to update to version 2.12.5 (or above) from Google Play. If the update is not available directly from Google Play, users can get the latest version from here. The calling feature will automatically get activated after updating the app. Both caller and receiver has to update to the latest version to use the calling feature.

As he retired from India’s third largest IT services firm today, Wipro CFO Suresh Senapaty said the company is ready to grab a larger share of USD 8 trillion global IT spending that will rise further.

Senapaty, who hung his boots at the Bangalore-based firm after 35 years, described his journey as “enriching” and “wonderful”.

Upgrade Reliance Industries (RIL) to ‘overweight’ with a price target of R1,062 per share. RIL’s profits stagnated for the last five years, leading to under performance of 80%. FII ownership and valuations are at multi year lows. With 70% of $40 billion capex for F14-18e now behind, profits are finally set for a three-year CAGR of >15%.

Valuations are now compelling and FII under-ownership is at a five-year high. With higher confidence in F17e earnings, P/E is 9x and P/B is 1.x – near 10 year trough. Even relative P/B of 0.4x versus the Sensex is at a ten-year low.

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