POLITICS, P7 BACK PAGE, P18 INTERNATIONAL, P14 HC upholds nod to probe Karnataka chief minister Coldplay concert: Hotel rates skyrocket 10-15x China rolls out stimulus blitz to boost economy KOCHI, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLV 121, 22 PAGES, `12.00 P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX: 84,914.04 ▼ 14.57 NIFTY: 25,940.40 ▲ 1.35 NIKKEI 225: 37,940.59 ▲ 216.68 HANG SENG: 19,000.56 ▲ 753.45 `/$: 83.67 ▼ 0.12 `/€: 93.17 ▼ 93.17 BRENT: $75.17 ▲ $1.27 GOLD: `74,492 ▲ `340 IN THE NEWS BENCHMARKS HIT NEW MILESTONES, SETTLE LOWER EQUITIES CONTINUE TO set new records, with the Nifty and Sensex on Tuesday hitting key milestones of 26,000 and 85,000 points, respectively, during intra-day trading, reports Vivek Kumar M. However, the indices settled lower after paring their gains. ■ PAGE 6 FY25 AGRI CREDIT TARGET SETAT `27.5 LAKH CR THE GOVERNMENT HAS set an agriculture credit disbursement target of `27.5 lakh crore for the current fiscal, 11% higher compared to actual loan disbursements in FY24, reports Sandip Das. ■ PAGE 2 BURMANS LEAVE RACE TO BUY 40% IN COKE BOTTLER THE BURMANS, WHO are promoters of Dabur, have withdrawn from the race to acquire around 40% of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, the bottling arm of Coca-Cola India, over valuation differences, reports Viveat Susan Pinto. ■ PAGE 4 EXPLAINER Why Star Health data leak is worrisome ■ PAGE 9 Fresh digital Bill on the cards March draft seen as THE STORY SO FAR Nature of the Bill vague, subjective RISHI RAJ New Delhi, September 24 FACING STRONG OPPOSITION from several quarters, the governmentislikelytowithdrawtheDigital Competition Bill (DCB), the draft of whichwasreleasedinMarch.Sources said that a fresh Bill may be drafted after taking inputs from other ministries, MeitY for instance, as well as industrystakeholders. Official sources say that the Problems power taken, the threshold is too low market power should be considered ■ Firms have been made to look as suspects ■ Qualitative criteria ■ Ex-post followed now, turnover and market power of digital firms ■ Residuary powers also been factored in, which are very subjective in nature where CCI intervenes after practices come to the fore and too omnibus in nature. Officials said that the current draft takes into account turnover as well as market power of the digital Brokers pitch for more sponsor banks for IPOs VIVEK KUMAR M & ANUPREKSHAJAIN Mumbai, September 24 DISCOUNT BROKERS HANDLING a majority of initial public offering (IPO) applications want more sponsorbankstoeasethepressureonthe systememanatingfromhugeinterest that these offers are receiving. Sourcessaidinformaltalksaregoing on between top discount brokers, stock exchanges, banks and merchant bankers to resolve issues related to technological glitches in the last few months, affecting the investor sentiment. Forexample,1.4 million,or16%, applicationswererejectedintheBajaj HousingFinanceIPO,whichreceived a record `3.2 lakh crore in bids and 8.9millionapplications.Thiswasthe PAIN POINTS ■ To resolve issues that has hit investor sentiment due to tech glitches in the last few months ■ Distributing the work amid more banks could ease the pressure on the system second-largest number of rejections in absolute term after LIC’s IPO in May2022.“If there is a bottleneck at the bank level,the simplest solution is to have more banks.Besides,if the process is to be revamped,itwill req- ■ Where market ■ It is felt that only ■ Aims to put in place ex-ante regulatory framework to prevent any anti-competitive conduct by large digital firms major criticism against the present draft,after inter-ministerial consultations as well as industry inputs, is that it’s vague, subjective at places ■ Takes into account firms,whereas focus should only be on market power. Secondly, in cases where market power has been considered,the thresholdis too low. Continued on Page 7 `30,000-cr GST Byju's loses demand: Relief control of US likely for Infosys arm Alpha Inc THE CBIC MAY modify its June 26 circular,inwhat could pave theway for quashing the `30,000-crore GST liability of Infosys for its business-as-usual fund transfers to overseas branches,according to an official source, reports Priyansh Verma.The movewould enable the expunging of the tax burden on the firm and others who received similar notices. ■ Page 2 1.4 million or 16% application were rejected in Bajaj Housing Finance IPO ■ Sponsor banks Axis Bank and HDFC Bank were blamed by brokers for non-allotment THE DELAWARE SUPREME Court has upheld a ruling that Byju’s defaultedonits$1.2-billiontermloanB, allowinglenderstotakecontrolofthe company’s US subsidiaryAlpha Inc, reports Anees Hussain.This is a setbackforByju’sasitlosesitsoptionsof monetising platforms like Epic and GreatLearning,whicharepartofthe US arm,which it was looking to sell to raise funds. ■ Page 4 Swiggy's confidential filing for IPO gets Sebi nod, launch likely in Nov ■ Bankers blame exchanges, say greater number of IPOs in a single day clog the system uire a more detailed study into what exactly caused the delay and rejection. None of the brokers has exact visibilityabout this,” a source said. Continued on Page 7 to CCI, which is seen as regulatory over-reach Also,anenterprisecanbedeclared systematically significant digital enterprise(SSDE),ifitsIndiaturnover is not less than `4,000 crore or its global turnover is not below $30 billion.It has been pointed out that the turnover has no meaning.Apple,for instance,mayhaveahighturnoverin Indiabecauseofthehighaveragesellingpriceofitsphones,butitsmarket share at 6% is too low. Similarly, a company can also be deemed an SSDE if its gross merchandise value (GMV) in India is not lessthan`16,000croreorifitsglobal marketvalueisnotbelow$75billion. SWIGGY HAS RECEIVED approval from Sebi to launch its IPO,which is likely to happen in November, after its confidential filing of draft share sale documents, report agencies. “Undertheconfidentialfilingroute, thisnodwillbefollowedbythefiling of two updated DRHPs (draft red herringprospectus),oneresponding to Sebi comments and the other seeking public comments for 21 days. Only then will the RHP (red herringprospectus)befiled,andthe IPO launch planned,”said a source. Six i-banks under Sebi lens over small IPOs JAYSHREE P UPADHYAY Mumbai, September 24 WORRIEDABOUTMALPRACTICE in a frothy IPO market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is investigating six domestic investment banks that haveworked on offerings by small businesses, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. It has found that at least half a dozen small investment banks have chargedcompaniesfeesequivalentto 15% of funds raised via their IPO. That’s much INSIDE higher than the standard pracSebi seeks tice of 1-3%. to ease FPI The probes registration began earlier ■ PAGE 6 this year and are focused on the fees that the banks have charged, according to the sources. Reuters was not able to learn the names of the banks underinvestigation.Sebididnotrespondtorequests forcomment. The investigations follow efforts by Sebi to warn investors about the dangers of investing in some small businessesaswellasplansfortighter rules forsuch IPOs. Smaller businesses with annual turnoverof`5croreto`250crorelist on separate sections of the BSE and NSE.There are fewer disclosure requirementsandtheIPOsarevettedby the exchanges as opposed to large IPOswhichhavetobeclearedbySebi. Continued on Page 7 Getting here has been hard. Going ahead doesn’t have to be. Your achievements have been challenging, but the journey ahead doesn’t have to be! 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