New Delhi, April 17
Piramal Enterprises today said it will buy a 20% stake in Shriram Capital for Rs 2,014 crore, a move aimed at enhancing its presence in the financial services sector.

"This investment builds our presence in financial services sector and we see long-term shareholder value creation from our partnership with Shriram Capital," Piramal Enterprises chairman Ajay Piramal said.

Shriram Group Founder R Thyagarajan said the company's success over the past four decades has been possible through strategic partnerships.

"Piramal’s entry into Shriram Capital is a significant milestone for the financial services businesses to take a quantum leap in the group's contribution to the community at large," Thyagarajan added.

Shriram Capital is the holding company for the financial services and insurance entities of the Chennai-based group, including Shriram Transport Finance Co and Shriram City Union Finance. It was created to optimise synergies across the group's companies.

Shriram Capital's operating entities have over 9 million customers, more than 53,000 employees across 2,600 offices, net profit of Rs 800 crore and assets under management in excess of Rs 78,000 crore.

Piramal had acquired a 9.9% stake in Shriram Transport for Rs 1,636 crore last year.

Mumbai-based Piramal Enterprises, controlled by billionaire Ajay Piramal, operates in the pharmaceutical, financial services and information management sectors.

Earlier this month, Piramal Enterprises sold its 11 per cent stake in Vodafone India to Britain's Vodafone Group Plc for Rs 8,900 crore.

Piramal Enterprises shares traded at Rs 600 on the BSE, up 0.7%. — PTI

Mumbai, April 17
Snapping a three-day losing string, the Sensex today surged by 351 points as investor sentiment got a boost from better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings reported by Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Tech.

"The markets also took note of S&P report, which stated that it may upgrade India’s outlook if the next government (after the General Election) addresses some of the country’s fiscal and economic challenges on priority," said Jayant Manglik, president, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities.

After a promising start, the BSE 30-share index gradually improved further to settle the day at 22,628.84, a rise of 351.61 points or 1.58% from its previous close.

The gain comes after the index tumbled by 438.10 points or 1.93% in the previous three days.

The 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also bounced back by 104.10 points or 1.56% to 6,779.40, within the striking distance of crucial 6,800-mark.

Buying was seen across-the-board as all 12 sectoral indices closed the day with gains between 0.71-2.79%.

Mid-tier counters also witnessed strong buying support from retail investors, with BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap indices gaining 1.47% and 1.43%, respectively.

Hectic short-covering ahead of expiry of April contract of futures and options next week also helped boosted buying, brokers said. Investors were creating fresh positions in blue-chip available at attractive levels before a long week-end, they added. — PTI

New Delhi, April 17
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is optimistic about India’s growth prospects and expects growth to move up to 5.5% in the current fiscal and 6.25% in the next fiscal.

"Our sense is that the growth will pick up this year, 5.5% this year going up to 6.25% next year and rising to just below 7% may be over the medium term or little bit higher if things go well," IMF senior resident representative Thomas J Richardson said at an event here.

"So we are pretty optimistic about growth over the medium term. We are bullish about India over the medium term given the favourable demographics you have got," he said. Indian economy is expected to grow at decade low of 4.9% in 2013-14.

He said moderating inflation will be helpful in setting the stage for strong growth. When asked about priorities for the new government to revive economic growth, Richardson said, "Bringing the fiscal deficit down and broadening tax base. Those things also contribute to improve the business environment and making India a great place to invest."

He said introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will improve India's growth prospects because it will remove trade barriers. "Budget deficit in India is on a higher side and bring down fiscal deficit and subsidies. Fuel subsidies are actually regressive," he added.

Speaking at the event, Assocham president Rana Kapoor said the Indian economy is not in a healthy state and the new government would have to take "bold decisions" within 35 days to boost economic growth.

"Lack of decision making and business regulations have impacted growth. We need sectoral legislations," Kapoor said.

New Delhi, April 17
Industry body, FICCI has asked the Election Commission to clarify on environment clearances for projects as they are held up due to the model code of conduct.

FICCI has asked the Election Commission to issue clarifications to the Environment Ministry on the continuation of the grant of environment and forest clearances for projects while the model code of conduct is in place.

In a letter to VS Sampath, Chief Election Commissioner, Didar Singh, secretary- general, FICCI, said "Ever since the Model Code of Conduct has been implemented from March 5, we are given to understand that the Ministry of Environment and Forest has kept these permissions for the projects in abeyance pending opinion about the ongoing clearance process under different statutes. This is further delaying the implementation of these projects and affecting the viability as it has taken many months for these projects to reach at this stage of clearance".

Environment and forest clearances for the projects are given by the Ministry of Environment and Forest after the recommendations of expert appraisal committee or forest advisory committee, respectively, under different statutes.

Bangalore, April 17
The country's third-largest software services firm Wipro today posted a 28.8 per cent increase in profit to Rs 2,226.5 crore in the quarter ended March 31 on the back of improving global economic sentiment and cost optimisation.

It had registered a profit of Rs 1,728.7 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, Wipro said. The results are under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Net sales grew 21.7% to Rs 11,703.6 crore in the quarter from Rs 9,613.1 crore a year earlier.

Revenue from IT services stood at Rs 10,620 crore, up 24% year-on-year. In dollar terms, the segment's revenue was at $1.72 billion, up 8.5% year-on-year. This is in line with its projection of $1.712 billion to $1.745 billion for January-March 2014.

New Delhi, April 17
Air India today declared its intent to sell three of its Boeing 777s for mopping up resources to stem its liabilities, barely four months after selling five of these planes to Gulf carrier Etihad Airways.

The airline offered three Boeing 777-200 Long Range airplanes, powered with GE 90-110 engines, for outright sale through competitive global bidding, Air India sources said a day after a meeting of its Board here.

The long-haul global routes flown by these aircraft would now be gradually replaced by Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which Air India is inducting at a steady pace. The sale of five B-777s to Etihad in December last year was estimated to fetch over $335 million, which Air India plans to use to pay off its outstanding debt. — PTI

BRIEFLY

PFRDA shortlists 8 firms to manage pension funds
New Delhi: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority is understood to have shortlisted eight firms for managing pension funds of non-government employees for a period of five years. "Eight fund managers, including LIC Pension Fund, SBI Pension Fund, UTI Retirement, Reliance Capital Pension Fund have been shortlisted by PFRDA on Wednesday for managing the funds of private sector NPS," sources said. Other contenders include DSP Blackrock Pension Fund Managers, ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management and Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund, sources said. — PTI

RJio refuses to swap spectrum with Voda, Idea
New Delhi: Reliance Industries’ telecom arm RJio has refused to swap 2G spectrum with Vodafone in Delhi and with Idea Cellular in Kerala saying it is not feasible. Vodafone had proposed to swap airwaves frequencies in 1,800 Mhz band, widely known as 2G spectrum, with RJio in Delhi and Idea had similar plans for Kerala service area. — PTI

EPFO to make all payments electronically by Sept
New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO has decided to make all payments to its beneficiaries through electronic mode from September this year, including PF claims. In the present scenario, EPFO settles over one crore claims in a financial year. — PTI

FinMin detects excise duty evasion of over Rs 1,800 cr
New Delhi: Increased efforts in checking revenue leakage have resulted in detection of over Rs 1,800 crore central excise duty evasion across the country during 2013-14. As many as 379 cases of central excise duty evasion were registered by the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence during the last fiscal. — PTI