Beyond Financial News

Albemarle boss Kent Masters says the battery chemical giant is already eyeing the need for a new lithium hydroxide plant as part of its $6.6 billion takeover of Liontown Resources.

Brokerages are doing a better job of complying with Regulation Best Interest but they have more work to do before they get it right, state securities regulators said Tuesday.

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has sought to widen the definition of deal value for big-ticket merger and acquisition (M&A) exercise to include «every valuable consideration, whether direct or indirect, immediate or deferred, cash or otherwise», according to its draft Combinations Regulations 2023. Experts said such regulations, once finalised, will likely impact deals in sectors, including technology, infrastructure and healthcare, and lead to a surge in filings with the competition regulator.

Edited excerpts from an interview: How is your portfolio divided? My portfolio would be 100% equities. Around 5% must be in provident fund that I’ll get on my retirement but I don’t count that in my wealth portfolio. My largest equity holding is in Motilal Oswal shares and that would form roughly 75% of my portfolio.

NATO member plans to spend more than four percent of its gross domestic product on defence next year amid security concerns over the war in neighbouring Ukraine. He announced the sum of 137 billion zloty ($33 billion) at the opening of this year's edition of the region's biggest trade fair for military equipment, the MSPO in Kielce, Poland. «When we see the emerging danger beyond our eastern border… we know perfectly well — history and experience has taught us this — that any price is worth paying to ensure that Poland is free, sovereign, independent and that Poles can live in safety,» Duda said. «Next year, we plan to spend 137 billion zloty on defence. That is more than four percent of our GDP,» he added, quoted by the Polish news agency PAP. That is an increase on the four percent of GDP Poland had pledged to spend on defence this year and much more than the 2 percent agreed by NATO allies. Poland has shown itself to be a staunch ally of Ukraine ever since Russia's invasion last year. More recently, Warsaw has also been sounding the alarm on threats that it says its other neighbour to the east — Belarus — poses, warning against «provocations» especially involving the Wagner mercenary group currently based there. Warsaw has signed multiple arm deals, including with the United States and South Korea, from whom it ordered K2 «Black Panther» tanks and K9 howitzers. Last month, the US approved a $12 billion sale of Apache attack helicopters to Poland, in another example of Warsaw's bid to boost its military capabilities in light of Russia's war in Ukraine. In June, Poland received a first shipment of US-made advanced Abrams tanks.

Understanding Strategic PlanningStrategic planning is the process of defining an organization's direction and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue specific goals and objectives. It involves assessing the internal and external factors that impact an organization and formulating a coherent plan to achieve its desired outcomes.

The race is on for $90 oil. But summer, the season Americans like driving the most, is almost over and will wrap in less than three weeks when the fall season begins on Sept. 23.

B2B software as a service (SaaS) companies globally, on Tuesday said it has appointed Gagan Josan as General Partner. The fund said Josan has a decade of leadership experience spanning across SaaS entrepreneurship and sales, which fortifies its commitment to help portfolio companies get to $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). “The India SaaS story is just getting started. The next two decades will see unprecedented growth,” Josan said in a statement. “I was pulled towards Neon by their refreshing approach toward early-stage investments — not only working with the best SaaS startups across the country but going above and beyond to help accelerate their journey to $10 million ARR.”

₹2.5 lakh for pre-school and primary teachers to ₹6 lakh for lecturers. Based on input from teachers on Quora, salary revisions occur sporadically, typically every 3-4 years, with modest annual increases of 5-8% in urban settings. Going by remuneration data, teaching is easily among the lowest paying jobs in India, especially at school level.

Global Fintech Fest 2023: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday that India’s financial ecosystem has made a giant stride. Delivering the inaugural address of Global Fintech Fest 2023 in Mumbai, FM said, “There was a time when conventional financial activities were the backbone of the financial ecosystem but today Fintech has become a more robust and dynamic financial inclusion tool." 

Trade groups for the world’s biggest hedge funds and private equity firms are taking the Securities and Exchange to court over new restrictions it placed on the industry last month.    

Ashi Anand, CIO-IME-branded strategies, Valcreate Investment Managers LLP, says “a lot of froth around the IPO market clearly is an area of concern. One can also see this around certain themes which are more popular. So, you start seeing valuations having a disconnect with underlying fundamentals starting to really factor in a lot of the growth and valuations of companies without very strong cash flows, without healthy ROEs and balance sheets not as great starting to command 50, 60, 70 PE upward. All these are very clearly signs of froth being built up in certain areas.”Do you think a lot of spaces are getting overbought, overvalued now and one needs to have a lot of caution while making fresh investments into any of those verticals?I would think so. In the small and midcap space, we have seen very sharp run-ups especially in anything related to capital goods, defence and railways; some of these have started becoming extremely expensive. We are starting to counter a lot of the optimism around some of these themes. In some cases, actual implementation and actual growth around capital goods will take some more time. We are factoring in all of this positivity up front and seeing this in this space but across the range, we are more concerned around mid and smallcaps compared to the largecap space. We are seeing greater value and greater comfort in largecaps. That is broadly the way we are seeing the market.

The price of Shiba Inu (SHIB) has declined by 1.5% in the past 24 hours, with its drop to $0.00000758 coming on what is also a disappointing day for the market as a whole.

Teacher's Day, former Indian cricketer Anil Kumble shared a thoughtful message that highlights the valuable life lessons that can be learned from sports. In his LinkedIn post titled 'Sports: The Ultimate Teacher', Kumble, who is renowned not only for his cricketing prowess but also for his wisdom, highlighted the profound impact of sports on personal and professional development. Kumble's message went beyond the boundaries of cricket, reminding us that sports offer lessons that extend far beyond the pitch. His post outlined 7 fundamental lessons that can be learned from sports, each of them valuable in its own right.

labour laws that are awaiting implementation will introduce a lot of changes for both the employer and the employee /worker. Some of the important changes/areas of impact will be: Lower take-home pay, higher contribution to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) account, calculation of number of paid leave available in a calendar year and the maximum working hours in a week. One of the labour laws — the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code — states that an employee cannot accumulate more than 30 days of paid leave in a calendar year.

Teachers’ Day or Shikshak Divas is celebrated annually on September 5 in India to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the country’s first Vice President and former President, scholar, philosopher, and Bharat Ratna awardee, who was born on this day in 1888. Teachers play a pivotal role in shaping our lives, providing guidance, and imparting knowledge that goes beyond textbooks.

The Bank of China and the e-commerce heavy-hitter Meituan have signed a digital yuan collaboration deal, with both firms looking to step up their CBDC capabilities.

Last week brought high volatility but little change for bitcoin's price, which registered a high of $28,167 and a low of $25,328 but closing the week down a modest 0.48%.

real estate firms and landlords to enter the hospitality space. Now, new-age investors are attracted to the sector’s long-term growth potential, supported by India’s current economic growth and rising disposable incomes. Furthermore, India’s future growth in hotel supply is set to extend well beyond the urban centres, the report said, adding that a significant number of new hotel signings will originate from tier-II and III markets, primarily via conversions and rebranding, particularly in the mid-scale segment.

Days after a teacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar was caught on camera urging her students to hit their Muslim classmate, a teacher in Karnataka’s Shivamogga asked two Muslim students to “go to Pakistan." In the former case, the child had forgotten tables of multiplication, apparently, but the authority figure in class thought it fit to bring up his nominal faith. In the latter, the country named left no doubt over the sentiment of rejection behind the words. Together, both tell us how casually bigotry has invaded our classrooms.

demonetization, contracted by 7% as a result of a poorly executed pandemic lockdown, making it one of the world’s worst-performing economies. As a result, from 2020 to 2023, India’s average annual growth turned out to be less than 4%, which is not bad for a phase of global economic turmoil, but far less impressive than recent figures suggests, let alone slogans and headlines. Furthermore, the benefits of this growth are going almost entirely to the rich.