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  • Vertex and Encirc Sign Major Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply Agreement to Deliver Net Zero Glass

    Mumbai/ Stanlow, 14th December 2022: Vertex Hydrogen is delighted to announce the signing of a ‘Heads of Terms’ offtake agreement for 300+ megawatts of low carbon hydrogen with Encirc.

    Encirc, part of the Vidrala Group, is a leading container glass manufacturer – responsible for approximately a third of the containers made for the UK and Republic of Ireland markets – around 3 billion each year.

    Encirc has announced its plan to build a new ultra-low carbon furnace on its Cheshire site. The furnace will be fuelled by an energy mix of green electricity and low carbon hydrogen.

    The hydrogen will be supplied by Vertex Hydrogen, as part of the HyNet low carbon industrial cluster. The furnace will be operational by 2027, and Encirc is aiming to be the first in the world to produce net zero glass bottles at scale by 2030. 

    Joe Seifert, CEO of Vertex Hydrogen said: “Glass bottles are an everyday and highly recyclable product we all use. We are delighted to be powering our neighbours Encirc who, along with Diageo, are leading the charge in decarbonising the drinks industry.” 

    Adrian Curry, Managing Director of Encirc said: “This partnership with Vertex Hydrogen will help us to change the face of glass as we aim to produce Net Zero bottles by 2030. Glass is an incredible material and sustainable in so many ways. It has been around since 3500 BC, and by using hydrogen to decarbonise it, we believe it will be the packaging choice for centuries to come.”

    Vertex is proud to be helping the UK lead the development of low carbon hydrogen production as an integral part of HyNet – the UK’s leading industrial decarbonisation cluster. It will help to solve our urgent need to drastically reduce carbon emissions in our manufacturing sector – securing and growing vital industry.

    Vertex is:

    • Delivering an initial 1,000 megawatts of low carbon hydrogen capacity – enough to provide the fuel consumed by a city the size of Liverpool;
    • Capturing 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year at full capacity – equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the roads;
    • Investing around £1 billion in the North West of the UK and facilitating the investment of a further £1 billion or more of associated infrastructure;
    • Playing a leading role in kickstarting the UK low carbon, large-scale hydrogen market.

  • Stock market drags further as weak global cues and hawkish central banks affect market sentiments

    Sensex crashes by 1,800 pts as Russia announces military operations against Ukraine







    The domestic benchmark indices opened in red and plunged further as weak global cues continue to drive market sentiment. Central banks worldwide have become more hawkish about their commentary on monetary policy to rein in inflation, causing the financial market some discomfort.

    The BSE Sensex opened at 61,534 points and currently fluctuating between the range of 61,500 to 61,700. To be precise, the Sensex is trading at 61,661 as of 1:30 PM, which is 133 points lower than the previous close of 61,799 points.

    NSE Nifty-50 also opened mildly in red at 18,319 points and currently fluctuating between the range of 18,200 to 18,400 points. It is trading at 18,365 points, which is about 50 points lower than the previous close of 18,414 points.

    IANS

    Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, said, “A long bear candle was formed on the daily chart on Thursday, post small upside bounce of few sessions. Technically, this pattern indicates a sharp downward reversal in the market after the formation of lower top on Wednesday at 18696 levels. This is not a good sign and indicates more weakness in the short term.”

    Wall Street also sharply fell after the rate hike of 50 bps by the fed and chairperson Powell’s speech on the course of future monetary actions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 764 points or 2.25%, while S&P 500 lost 100 points or 2.5% and Nasdaq Composite sank 360 points or 3.2%.

    sensex

    Commenting on the recent bearish trend in the financial market globally, V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “India is likely to be less impacted by the bearish trend but investors can wait for the global markets to stabilize before making fresh commitments in this overvalued market. Moving some money to fixed income makes sense since fixed income returns are turning attractive.”

  • What Does The Real Estate Sector Look Like In 2023?

    First-ever real-estate summit in Jammu & Kashmir







    Time tested and popularly believed to be immune to market volatilities; the Indian real estate sector has remained faithful to investor expectations through the many ups and downs in the last couple of years. Positive expectations and upwards momentum have shown to sustain themselves and many experts do believe that it would continue like this in the coming year.

    Although young investors would be quick to characterize real estate as “slow” or “boring”, it could hardly be the case. Real estate has something for every kind of investor, except the ones that may actually be gamblers more than investors.

    Commercial real estate funds are making their presence felt in the market as the idea of earning a regular passive income from safe real estate investments has found a lot of appeal among small-time investors. The coming year may bring a lot more options for such investors who do not have a portfolio worth crores.

    The big picture of the entire Indian economy heading into 2023 displays what can only be translated as positive signs, an 8-9 per cent overall growth, an expected rise in the jobs created, and a bounce back from the recent slump in the stock market. All these would ultimately contribute to an increase in the demand for housing as more people would enter the housing market, which is something very important for the health of the real estate economy.

    Apart from speculation, we know for a fact that the government has been planning and implementing infrastructure mega-projects such as highways, new airports, metros, etc as well as major policy initiatives such as “Housing for all” and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. It would be redundant to state the obvious in how such things drive growth quantitatively and qualitatively in real estate assets.

    Low-interet rates

    Experts also believe that low-interest rates could also make a significant positive impact on the real estate industry, adding to that are the government’s recent rollout of numerous tax-related and other incentives aimed towards potential house buyers as well as streamlining of the mandatory bureaucratic work. The often overlooked and passed-on tier 2 and 3 real estate markets stand to benefit the most from such positive developments and it’s highly likely that they would fetch investors handsome returns.

    Commercial real estate, one of the most attractive assets in the real estate game, is also set to see healthy returns as major IT companies are switching back to offline work. Many retailers that were wary of getting physical stores during the pandemic are now gradually coming around to opening in-person stores.

    Construction workers on site

    A representation image of construction workers on siteRepresentational image. | Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

    E-commerce firms are also in a race amongst themselves to spread as widely as possible by expanding their warehousing and logistical operations. IT giants like Intel and Apple are moving a significant chunk of their manufacturing to India and more companies are to follow suit as India could soon rise among the world’s top silicon chip manufacturers due to the current state of affairs between China and the U.S.

    The housing market, the driver of growth and sustainer of the entire real estate economy is poised to witness an extremely impressive and potentially its best year in the near future. Residential sales are up by a whopping 51 per cent post the Covid-19 period. According to Reuters, prices are expected to rise nearly 7.5 per cent all over India (4-5 per cent in Mumbai and Delhi, 5.5-6.5 per cent in Chennai and Bengaluru) and a number of other economic indicators also favor a positive uptick.

    This does not mean that the real estate economy is perfect and doesn’t have any weaknesses, as many things could in fact pose a challenge to growth such as increasing mortgage rates, inflation, and building material shortages. As long as these issues remain limited in scope and localized, they do not spell anything major and may indeed be benign.

    A growing economy, a return to the pre-pandemic working state, and the various government initiatives all combined are creating a very conducive environment for the prosperity of the real estate market in the years to come.

  • The 7th Edition of TiE Global Summit Reinvigorates New Energy for the Entrepreneur and Startup World


    Pic Credit: Perfect relations
    Pic Caption: Fireside chat on Capital markets driving India’s growth this Decade Utpal Sheth Senior Partner & CEO RARE Enterprises in conversation with Mr Suresh Raju, Co-chair, TGS and Mr. Murali Bukkapatnam, Co-Chair, TGS

    Hyderabad, 14 December 2022 – The grand finale of the TiE Global Summit 2022 saw some of the finest and power-packed segments of igniting and exchanging of ideas through keynote speeches, fireside chats, and panel discussions on subjects of the technology climate, immersive technology in cinema, SMEs and women entrepreneurship among others by esteemed panelists and guest speakers. A parallel highlight was the TiE University Pitch Fest Grand Finale.

    The TiE Global Summit 2022 witnessed, the first-of-its-kind, pioneering initiative called TGS100, aimed at recognizing 100 emerging startups and enabling them with a global platform for exposure to investors. TGS100 will aid the startups with recognition, investors, mentors and networking by placing them in the limelight of industry experts and visionaries globally.

    Mr. Murali Bukkapatnam, Co-Chair, TiE Global Summit and Vice-Chairman, TiE Global, said at the unveiling for the TGS100 Publication, “6 months ago, we opened the doors for emerging entrepreneurs, to be recognized on a global platform. The host chapter of Hyd sowed the seeds for TGS100 initiative – the new alternative asset, recognizing 100 emerging startups”. Mr. Suresh Raju, Co-Chair, TiE Global Summit and President, TiE Hyderabad, added “The Structure and form of TGS100 was designed by the tie global team in collaboration with academia. Global startups participated in the competition, ranging from agritech, gaming, web3.0 and metaverse to health, e-commerce, travel, animation to green energy, and defence”.

    Renowned actor, Investor and Entrepreneur Mr. Suneil Shetty was seen in conversation about his entrepreneurial journey from movies to startups, he spoke about the importance of having a good product and believing in your product. He said, “If your product is good, you know for a fact that this is what the eventual valuation of your company is going to be thanks to your product. Nowadays everybody is looking at the valuation and the destination, but what about the journey at every step? That is when tough mentors need to come in to break it step by step”.

    The TiE Global Summit hosted the grand finale of its highlight event – TiE Women’s Pitch Fest, an initiative to recognize and empower female entrepreneurs. The grand prize of USD 50,000 was bestowed upon Ms. Azima Dhanjee, the Founder of ConnectHear, a social start-up working for sign language accessibility and deaf inclusion in Pakistan.

    Yet another brilliant Keynote Speech on the opportunity in India was delivered by Mr. Awais Ahmed, CEO, Pixxel. He said, “We are the first Indian company to launch a private satellite called Shakuntala. One of the primary factors was that India has a lot of talent, expertise, and infrastructure in space technology. Given the experience, infra here we have in India by ISRO there was no reason why a global company couldn’t be built out of India, and that was the germination of the idea for Pixxel”.

    In a fireside on Capital Markets Driving India’s Growth this Decade, Mr. Utpal Sheth. CEO, RARE Enterprises said, “The aspiration for every startup is to evolve being a legend but is an arduous journey. Requires a lot of sacrifice and the ability to overcome a lot of challenges. Resilience is fundamental to that journey; aspiration is only second to it”.

    A fireside chat with Mr. Paul Holland (General Partner, Foundation Capital) and Mr. Rich Karlgaard (Publisher, Forbes Magazine) saw them bring up a discussion on ‘Disrupting the Status Quo: Netflix Story & More’. Mr. Holland said, “Initially during analyst calls, people thought of Netflix as a traditional media company and couldn’t understand the size of the market they were going after. Judging by traditional media metrics, they had no idea that Netflix was going to light up a billion people around the world and enable the entire economy of streaming and content that we know today”.

  • TPG to acquire Poonawalla Housing Finance at valuation of INR 39 billion

    Mumbai, December 14, 2022: TPG, a leading global alterative asset management firm, announced today that it has signed definitive documents with Poonawalla Fincorp Limited to acquire its subsidiary Poonawalla Housing Finance Limited (PHFL) for a pre-money equity valuation of INR 39 billion. The transaction is invested through TPG Capital Asia, the firm’s Asia-focused private equity platform, subject to regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary conditions. In the near term, TPG will also infuse additional equity capital up to INR 10 billion to support growth.

    PHFL is a leading pan-India player in the affordable housing finance segment with 153 branches spreading across 20 states. As of 09/22, PHFL’s AUM of over INR 56 billion comprised affordable home loans (64%) and loans against property (36%) with an average ticket size of ~INR 1mn, to self-employed and salaried borrowers.

    TPG is backing the existing management team led by Mr. Manish Jaiswal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, who has previously worked at some of India’s leading foreign and private banks, NBFCs and credit rating agencies. TPG looks forward to a strong partnership with the existing management team, drawing on their unique expertise built over several years of experience.

    “As India’s leading affordable housing finance provider, PHFL is uniquely positioned to grow in the fast-expanding affordable housing sector, which we believe is one of the most resilient asset classes across interest rate cycles,” Puneet Bhatia, Co-Managing Partner of TPG Capital Asia, said. “Driven by tailwinds provided by the government’s various initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, National Housing Bank’s affordable refinancing program, reduction in risk weights for housing loans, and increased regulatory compliance, a growing PHFL is expected to serve an even larger population to fulfil their aspiration of owning a house. PHFL has a deeply experienced management team, and we are excited to partner with them in its next growth phase.”

    PHFL is the latest addition to TPG Capital Asia’s existing portfolio of fast-growing financial services companies across Asia, including Five Star Business Finance, Du Xiaoman Financial, Kakao Bank and Singlife. TPG Capital Asia operates a diverse team of more than 90 investment and operating professionals across Australia, China, Korea, India and Southeast Asia, providing local expertise and broad connectivity across the region.

    Adar Poonawalla, Chairman of Poonawalla Group, said, “Since its inception, PHFL has played an important role in empowering lives of tens of thousands of Indians by being a trusted partner of every homeowner it serves. We have full confidence that it will continue to make a strong contribution to the affordable housing sector with our new partnership with TPG. As a global leading investment firm, TPG’s experience in building and supporting leading financial services companies will add greater value to PHFL.”

    Manish Jaiswal, Managing Director & CEO at PHFL, said: “PHFL stands for providing dignity of living through home ownership to borrowers across India. PHFL’s customer base has grown ~4x in the last 4 years given the low mortgage debt penetration, young demographics, family nuclearization and national mission of ‘Housing for All’. We are excited to partner with TPG to build a robust and eminent affordable housing financing institution in the country.”

    Ambit Pvt. Ltd acted as exclusive Financial Advisor to Poonawalla Group on this transaction.

  • India’s growth expected to slow in 2023-24 on the back of sharp global slowdown

    RBI hikes repo rate by 35 basis points to 6.25%, expects inflation to remain high







    India’s GDP growth is on course to print close to 7 per cent this year in 2022-23, foreign brokerage, JP Morgan said in a report.

    While buoyant, it would still leave output about 7 per cent below its pre-pandemic potential level, reflectiing impact of the pandemic and adverse terms of trade shock from higher commodity prices in 2022.

    Growth is expected to slow in 2023-24, on the back of a sharp global slowdown, which is weighing on exports, and the progressive fiscal and monetary policy normalization at home, JP Morgan said.

    IANS

    That said, corporate and bank balance sheets appear in much better shape than in recent years. Corporate debt/GDP is at its lowest since 2006 and banks are far more inclined to lend. But a broader private investment cycle will take time to fructify amidst elevated global uncertainty, slowing growth, tightening monetary conditions, manufacturing utilization rates still less than 80 per cent, the report added.

    The Current Account Deficit (CAD) is on track to print above 3 per cent of GDP this year as exports have slowed and imports remain very sticky; bringing the CAD back to sustainable levels will have to be a key policy imperative in 2023.

    In turn, key to CAD compression is continued fiscal consolidation off still-elevated levels; we expect the Center to achieve the budgeted fiscal deficit of 6.4 per cent of GDP this year and target a consolidation of 0.5 per cent of GDP next year; the fiscal balancing act will involve reducing the deficit while sustaining strong capex.

    JP Morgan headquarters in New York

    The interior of JPMorgan headquarters in New York. (Reuters)Reuters

    Inflation is expected to remain sticky in the coming months before gradually rolling off in 2023-24 as growth slows and input price pressure abates.

    With the RBI raising rates by about 300 bps in 2022 and tightening liquidity, we expect the MPC is getting close to a pause, with the risk of a final 25 bps hike at the February review, the report added.

    (With inputs from IANS)

  • Samsung adds Galaxy A04 and Galaxy A04e to entry-level portfolio

    Samsung has launched Galaxy A04 and Galaxy A04e today. Both Galaxy A04 and Galaxy A04e sport massive 6.5’’ HD+ Infinity-V display for an immersive viewing experience. 

    The smartphones are powered by MediaTek Helio P35 processor that can clock up to 2.3GHz. For enhanced performance, smooth multitasking, seamless app navigation, and uninterrupted gaming, Galaxy A04 and Galaxy A04e come with up to 8GB RAM with RAM Plus feature. The unique RAM Plus solution allows users to expand RAM size as per their requirements. Both come with the Android 12 full version out of the box. 

    The Samsung Galaxy A04 has a 50-MP dual rear camera, while the Galaxy A04e comes with 13-MP dual camera setup. Both smartphones come with 5MP front camera to capture selfies, and rear depth live focus camera to ensure good quality portraits. 

    Samsung Galaxy A04

    Samsung Galaxy A04

    The large screen helps tech-savvy Gen-Z users to smoothly glide through their social media feed. Binge-watchers can enjoy their favourite content on the go without any stutter. The new minimum bezel design maximizes the viewing experience for consumers. 

    Both smartphones have a massive 5,000mAh battery. 

    Samsung Galaxy A04

    Colours: Green, Copper, and Black

    128 GB variant: ₹12,999 

    Samsung Galaxy A04e

    Colours: Light Blue and Copper

    The smartphones hit the shelves tomorrow. 

    (This article has been taken from a syndicated press release, and may have been reworked for brevity.)

    December 20, 2022

  • Domestic indices regained momentum after opening on a flat note; markets to remain in a consolidative range in the absence of triggers

    https://data1.ibtimes.co.in/en/full/769834/sensex-crashes-by-1800-pts-russia-announces-military-operations-against-ukraine.jpg

    Sensex crashes by 1,800 pts as Russia announces military operations against UkraineIBTimes IN

    The Indian benchmark indices regained momentum after opening on a flat note on Monday. The BSE Sensex is trading at 61,610 points, 272 points or 0.44% higher than the previous close of 61,337, while the Nifty-50 is trading at 18,354 points, 85 points or 0.47% higher than the previous close of 18,269 points as of 1:35 PM.

    A stock broker reacts to the falling shares in MumbaiCredit: Reuters

    Siddhartha Khemka, Head of retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said, “Markets are likely to remain in consolidative range due to lack of triggers in the near term. Also, lower participation from institutional investors due to upcoming year-end holidays would keep the markets lackluster. Though investors would keep eye on US home sales and GDP (QoQ) numbers to be released this week.”

    Commenting on the rising US dollar as a potential trigger for FII selling, Prashanth Tapse – Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities, said, “US Dollar once again beginning to ascend against major currencies, including the rupee, any further depreciation in the local currency could trigger further FII selling.”

    Wall Street stocks tumbled for the 3rd consecutive session as the fed’s mission of clamping inflation continues to worry investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 281 points or 0.85%, while S&P 500 fell 43 points or 1.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was also down 105 points or 0.97%.

    Despite the signs of easing inflation in both developed and emerging market economies (EMEs), the levels remain uncomfortably high for RBI, Fed and other central banks around the world and they are not expected to go easy on the battlefield with inflation. This attitude may aggravate the risk of recession and even the likelihood of recession is enough to trigger a selloff in the market in the near term.

  • Stock market falls sharply! Risk of global recession and further monetary tightening could trigger bearish rally

    Sensex crashes by 1,800 pts as Russia announces military operations against Ukraine







    The Indian equity benchmarks opened in red and fell sharply on Tuesday as global cues continue to point in the direction of high inflation, likely recession and further tightening of monetary policies by central banks around the world.

    The BSE Sensex opened at 61,608 points and gave up 507 points or 0.82%; the NSE Nift-50 opened at 18,340 points and lost 151 points or 0.82% as of 1:35 PM. Nifty Bank also experienced a steep decline after touching a historical high of 44,151 points last week. It started trading in red at 43,152 points and lost 328 points or 0.76% from the previous close of 43,413 points.

    Sensex, Nifty

    A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai.Reuters

    Prashanth Tapse, a Research Analyst and Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd said, “Markets may continue to witness choppy trend in intra-day trades and are likely to drift lower in early Tuesday trades amid weakness in SGX Nifty and overnight fall in the key US indices. Investors continue to fret over the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance that could tip the world’s largest economy into recession next year.”

    Wall Street also suffered losses for the fifth straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 162.92 or 0.49%, whereas the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9% and 1.5%, respectively. CNN’s Fear and Greed index indicate that the US stock market is currently driven by fear. The index is used to assess the market sentiment.

    On the back of declining inflation (although still very high), central banks around the world lowered the size of their rate hikes which was largely in line with market expectation, yet their commentary about the future monetary actions to anchor inflation was very hawkish.

    sensex

    One possible explanation about why the hawkish language of central banks accompanied the dovish move came from an article published in Indian Express by the chief India economist of JP Morgan. In that article, he wrote, “The hawkish tone was particularly necessary to preserve hard-earned monetary transmission of past tightening. If markets are convinced central banks are done, the impact of past tightening on rates will be quickly undone.”

    “For further monetary policy downshifting to be “time consistent,” central banks will have to keep markets guessing and monetary conditions tight enough to temper demand and bring down imbalances, to enable a future downshift. Else future economic conditions will render any current proclamation of a pause untenable and “time inconsistent.” For now, therefore, central banks will have to convince markets: “do as I say, not as I do…”. He added.

  • Global Indian International School (GIIS), Leading Global International School Network Picks Nagpur for Its 17th Campus Worldwide

    Global Indian International School

    Pic Credit: prhub.com

    Nagpur, December 14, 2022: The Global Indian International School (GIIS), a leading global network of premier international schools and a member of Global School Foundation (GSF), has launched its 17th Smart Campus in Nagpur (Maharashtra). It currently has 16 campuses across Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, UAE and India. The campus to be operational by February 2023 is spread across 6.5 acres and will have 500-seater auditorium, a Design & Innovation Lab besides radio, TV & Visual art studios. GIIS’ award-winning 9 GEMS framework balances excellence in academics with sports, performing arts, entrepreneurship and character development. With a dedicated team of experienced and enthusiastic educators and state-of-the-art campuses, GIIS provides students a holistic growth environment that fosters students’ all-around development thereby contributing to a large talented pool of GenZers.

    Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, Rajiv Bansal, Director-Operations, GIIS India said, “Our Founder & Chairman Atul Temurnikar hails from Nagpur and it has been his desire for long to give back by setting up one of the best international schools in the region here. Its’ that desire combined with the rapid growth of the city as an IT, logistics and aerospace maintenance hub that has led to our 17th global campus coming up right here in Nagpur. We have left no stone unturned in ensuring a state-of-the-art, new-age powered and technology-assisted smart campus for GenZers here.”

    In his message to the assembled media, Atul Temurnikar, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, GIobal Schools Foundation, said, “For long have been wanting to give back to my home city by building a smart campus that will empower young minds here to discover their true potential, hone their skills and develop their personality to be successful global citizens. Today am delighted to see that desire and dream becoming a reality. The new campus will redefine what parents and students in this region have been used to and will boast of globally proven teaching best practices and new-age learning methodologies.”