ICICI to issue Rs 400cr "Safety Bonds": The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) on Tuesday announced the issue of a tax-saving `Safety Bonds' worth Rs 400 crore for household investors. "We will be offering for public subscription, unsecured redeemable bonds in the nature of debentures aggregating Rs 400 crore with a right to retain oversubscription of upto Rs 400 crore," an ICICI official said. Stating that full and firm allotment will be assured for all valid applicants of the tax saving bond, the company official said that by investing in ICICI bonds, investors can choose to save tax under various sections of the tax laws. The financial institution is offering Safety Bonds of three types namely tax-saving bonds, regular income bonds and money multiplier bonds in the nature of deep-discount bonds.Wockhardt NCDs under rating watch: Credit-rating agency Icra has put the rating assigned to the non-convertible debenture (NCD) programme of Wockhardt on rating watch`with developing implications' following Wockhardt's announcement of its plans of acquiring 50 per cent stake in Merind Ltd and a majority stake in Tata Pharmaceuticals, Merind's subsidiary. Icra had assigned an outstanding LAA+ rating for the Rs 100-crore NCD issue of Wockhardt. The rating agency is in the process of evaluating the effect of these recent changes on the risk profile of the rated NCDs and will take a view of the rating.
NBFC status denied: Two non-banking finance companies -- Lifeless Small Savings and Investment, Philanthrophy General Finance and Saving -- will not be eligible to continue to function as residuary non-banking companies with effect from March 3, said an RBI release issued on Tuesday. "These companies have been found to have violated various provisions of the Residuary Non-banking Finance Companies Directions, 1987. These two companies have also not applied for registration with the Reserve Bank within the stipulated date as required under Section 45-IA of the ReserveBank of India Act, 1934," it said.
StanChart unveils Affinity cards: Standard Chartered on Tuesday launched Affinity cards in India. Alumni associations of a number of prestigious institutions such as Doon School, Mayo College, Scindia School and IITs at Mumbai and Delhi have enrolled for StanChart's affinity programme. All the affinity card members will be offered a credit-card bearing the institute's logo issued by VISA and MasterCard franchise.
T-Bills auction: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday announced the auction of its 14-day government of India treasury bills. Tenders should be submitted in the prescribed form on March 6 and the result will be announced the same day evening. Payment by successful bidders will be on Saturday.
Repo auction: The Reserve Bank on Tuesday announced a three-day fixed rate repos in government of India dated securities on March 4 for parties holding SGL and current account. The interest rate for the three-day fixed rate repo is 9 per centper annum. Payment by applicants will be on the same day and repurchase by the RBI on March 7.
Bank of Baroda opens branch: Bank of Baroda on Tuesday opened their corporate banking branch at Payal complex in Vadodara. The branch will facilitate deposit services other than savings and recurring deposit services. Other specialised services will include remittance services, collection and purchases of bills, quick collections of outstation cheques, funded and non-funding credit facilities for financing imports and exports, foreign currency loans, capital market related services such as project appraisal issue managements and underwriting funds management services.
Public debt-GDP ratio dips: Fiscal consolidation measures have resulted in some reduction of the public debt-GDP ratio from 56.9 per cent during the second half of the eighties to 55.5 per cent during 1991-98 (the reduction being sharper since 1994-95). Domestic debt-GDP ratio declined to 48.7 per cent at the end of 1996-97 from 50.5per cent in 1995-96 and is budgeted to decline further to 46.6 per cent by March 1998. However, the concern for high level of domestic debt stems from the rapid growth in interest payments and the consequent adverse implications for sustainability of the fiscal situation.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
