Country Financial News

Torrent Pharma is cranking up its efforts to put together financing to buy out the promoter family of Cipla, said several people with knowledge of the matter, emerging as a key contender to conclude the largest pharma sector acquisition in the country till date. This includes a likely Rs 8,300 crore ($1 billion) equity infusion from one or more private equity players, they said. Ahmedabad-based Torrent has reached out to several PE funds, including Advent International, Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus and CVC Capital, for a minority stake in a consortium. In addition, it is in talks with domestic shadow banks and mutual funds for Rs 9,000-10,000 crore ($1.1 billion) in share-backed promoter financing. Torrent’s founders, the Sudhir and Samir Mehta family, own 71.25% as promoters. That’s amongst the highest promoter ownership in Indian pharma and they are seeking to use that headroom to dilute equity to raise leverage. They are also in separate discussions with foreign banks — Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, MUFG, Citi and Barclays among others — to raise as much Rs 32,000-35,000 crore (up to $4.23 billion) against the cashflows of the target as acquisition financing. The lenders are expected to revert with funding commitment letters at the earliest, said the sources mentioned above. JP Morgan is also advising Torrent Pharma. Bain, Advent, Warburg and CVC declined to comment.

digital currency firm co-founded by ChatGPT-founder Sam Altman. France's CNIL watchdog said in July that the legality of the Worldcoin biometric data 'seemed questionable'. «Checks took place at the Worldcoin offices,» a CNIL spokesperson said on Thursday, confirming an earlier Politico report that the checks occurred on Wednesday. Worldcoin officials did not immediately respond to an emailed Reuters request for comment on the CNIL's latest checks. The CNIL spokesperson declined further comment. Worldcoin requires users to provide their iris scans in exchange for a digital ID and, in some countries, in exchange for free cryptocurrency.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has his data. Financial advisors have theirs.

By Clara Denina and Sarah McFarlane

West Australian Premier Roger Cook will fly to Indonesia with a delegation of mining executives and state ministers working to secure deals with the largest economy in South-East Asia to develop his state’s critical minerals industry.

By Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney

LIMA (Reuters) -Peruvian miner Minsur has announced an investment of at least $2.25 billion as it expands its copper operations, the country's mining ministry said on Thursday.

In the ongoing fight between three giant networks of financial advisors, LPL Financial has landed a blow against Cetera Financial Group.

By Brendan Pierson

NEW DELHI : India will have to do “more things" to match the UK’s far more open economy as they negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA), UK’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch said. Badenoch, who was in India for both a G20 trade and investment summit in Jaipur and FTA talks, said the deal will set a “precedence" due to its unique nature.“The UK has a relatively open economy compared to India. So of course, there will be more things that require movements on the Indian side..

New Delhi: August has been the driest and warmest month in the entire country since 1901. Monsoon precipitation in August across the central India and the south Peninsular region has also been the lowest in 122 years since 1901, making it one of the worst and deficient monsoon months in history, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday. Rainfall across the country was 162.7 mm this August compared to 254.9 mm actual.

Microsoft says it will change the way it sells its Teams videoconferencing service to business customers in Europe in a push to address concerns raised in a European Union antitrust investigation. The software giant said Thursday that it plans to offer business customers the chance to buy a lower-priced version of its productivity suites that doesn’t include the videoconferencing app. New customers would still have the option of purchasing Teams separately if they want the service.

leadership team of Muthoot Finance Ltd was asked to convene for an urgent meeting in Kochi, Kerala. M.G. George Muthoot, the company’s chairman back then, had a new plan to share—a few advertisements that could be key to an ambitious expansion he wanted to press ahead with.

Congress on Thursday appointed Arvinder Singh Lovely as president of Delhi PCC in place of outgoing chief Anil Chaudhary. This is the second stint of Lovely as the Delhi PCC president, which becomes all the more conspicuous given he had quit the Congress and breached the ideological line to join the BJP in 2017 only to return after a couple of months. His return as the PCC chief coincides with the AAP's push for inking an alliance with the Delhi Congress for the Lok Sabha polls. Lovely, a former minister in the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit-led government, who had a string of victories from his East Delhi constituency till the ascent of AAP in Delhi, has an 'interesting record' given he was PCC chief during 2013-15 and yet chose to desert the party and crossed over to the BJP. «Lovely's return as PCC chief confirms the high command no longer considers ideological infidelity a crime...,» quipped a senior Congress leader after Lovely's appointment was announced despite some internal party resistance. Interestingly, after his return to the Congress by affirming loyalty to the then party president Rahul Gandhi, Lovely also joined the G23 group that took on the high command by seeking party reforms. After the announcement, Lovely vowed to work to revive Congress in Delhi and said people are now looking towards Rahul Gandhi to lead them.

Marriott International, the world's largest hotel chain in terms of number of rooms, will shoot well past a billion dollars of top line revenue in India this year. Rajeev Menon, president, Asia Pacific (excluding China) at Marriott International, told ET in an exclusive interview. He added that the country is a 'decades-long' growth story. «It will be ₹9,000 crore of top line revenue.

By Engen Tham, Julie Zhu and Clare Jim

India's exports increased to 776 billion USD from 500 billion, two years ago, and this spectacular growth was achieved notwithstanding the recession, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the difficult pandemic times, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. This remarkable achievement in two years was due to the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who felt that both the Centre and state governments should collectively work in the spirit of cooperative federalism for the better future of all the citizens, he said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI's) 11th Asian Textile Conference, here. «Last year was a difficult period.

IMD). This has raised concerns about the yield of kharif crops and sowing in the subsequent rabi season, said experts. However, the weather office said that it would not change its earlier forecast of a “normal” monsoon at 96% (with an error margin of ±4%) of the long-period average (LPA). “We are likely to record a below-normal or lower side of normal monsoon rainfall this year, but we are not changing our forecast. We had forecast that we were likely to record monsoon rain of 96% with a ±4% error margin.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit Dubai and Spain in September to seek investments, a senior official said on Thursday.

South Korea, home to the industrialized world’s lowest birthrate, is having even fewer babies. The country’s downward demographic spiral has come even after years of aggressive government subsidies, low-cost loans and cash payouts meant to entice young people to get married and start families. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol wants to pay households even more to have a child.

Iceland's government says commercial hunting of fin whales can resume in the country with stricter requirements on hunting methods and increased supervision