At Capitalmind Premium, we have a very active Slack channel where we discuss a lot of interesting topics. In there, a number of interesting links come our way. Here’s the most interesting of such links shared by our members in recent days.
Saudi Royal Family Fief, Saudi Aramco to Launch $10 Billion Bond Issue
Saudi Aramco, one of the largest oil companies in the world, will soon issue a $10 billion bond. Aramco needs a little more than $69 billion to acquire a 70% stake in SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp). Aramco hopes to fund at least a part of the acquisition with the proceeds of the bond sale. This will finally open up the company’s finances to international scrutiny. Link
The Mighty Chinese Meet Their Equals in Peru
Members of an indigenous Peruvian community have threatened to block production at a major copper mine in Challhuahuacho district, Peru. The mine called Las Bambas is operated by a Chinese entity called MMG Ltd. The locals have accused the Chinese of not fulfilling the promises they made to their community when they acquired the land for the mine some years back. Link
Are Apple’s Butterfly Keyboards as Fragile as their Namesake?
Apple is on a perpetual quest to make its products more efficient. So when Apple launched a third generation keyboard called ‘butterfly keyboard’ on its MacBooks in 2015, people began to sit up and take notice. But the design wasn’t perfect. Now the company has issued an apology to the customers who’ve been on the receiving end of the troubles caused by the new keyboard. Link
Why Apple News is Bad News for Content Creators
Apple News is the latest offering from Apple Inc. which aims to provide content-on-the go to its users. But this might just be the final nail in the coffin for the business models of content creators like magazines who will now have to joust for a place on the app, which might also reduce the revenue of some of the smaller content players drastically. Link
DSP Mutual Fund Issues a New Commandment to Employees
From now on, if employees of DSP mutual fund want to make incremental investments, they can do so only in their company’s mutual funds. The company’s management has justified this rule because they want to show ‘complete skin in the game’. DSP mutual fund believes that mutual funds are the most efficient way to invest and what better way to prove it by walking the talk. Link
Charles Schwab Hopes to Pioneer Subscription-based Fees Route
San Francisco-based bank and stock brokering company, Charles Schwab will soon move to a subscription-based fee model, against its earlier AUM-based fee model (0.28% of assets under management). The service, which will launch on April 1st, will come with unlimited financial guidance. Link
JSW Energy Runs Out of Steam on Electric Vehicles Plan
Energy major JSW Energy has shelved plans to produce electric vehicles in the country, keeping in mind the uncertainties associated with the sector. The news comes as a shocker because two years ago JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal had made a statement that the company was venturing into the electric vehicles business. Link
Suspicious Financial Transactions Take a Quantum Leap After Demonetization
The Ministry of Finance’s Financial Intelligence Unit has reported that it has unearthed more than 14 lakh suspicious financial transactions in the aftermath of demonetization. This is an incredible increase of over 1400% over similarly recorded transactions in the previous years. Link
World Economic Forum Prophesies 10 Consumer Trends for India in 2030
The World Economic Forum in collaboration with Bain & Company has studied India’s emerging economy and has condensed its findings into a report titled “The future of consumption in fast-growth emerging markets’. The report has predicted ten mega trends on how the Indian economy will be consuming in 2030. Link
Congress Party Consults Raghuram Rajan on Proposed NYAY Scheme
Former RBI governor is the RBI’s destiny’s child. He is no longer the RBI governor but it seems he can’t get out of the limelight. Recently, he revealed that the Congress party took his inputs for the party’s proposed NYAY scheme, which aims to give Rs. 72,000 to the 20% of India’s poorest, annually. Link
The Art of Predicting, Feat International Financial Organizations
When it comes to predicting recessions, it seems nobody wants to stick their necks out. In February, a London-based consulting firm found that of the 469 recessions that struck economies around the world since 1988, the IMF was able to predict only 4 by the spring of the preceding year. Large private/public limited financial behemoths fared no different. Link
Barmer District Becomes too Hot for Peers: Zooms Ahead in Per Capita Income
Barmer district used to be the proverbial ‘kala pani’ in Rajasthan’s landscape. So forbidden was the zone that government officials used to be sent here for punishment transfers. But today, thanks to the petroleum that was discovered here, the district has the highest per capita income of any district in Rajasthan. Link
Delhi Man’s Unique Protest Gets Sewage-drenched Street Cleaned Up
Till recently, Tarun Bhalla led an idyllic life. He has a family and he goes to work everyday, like most Delhiites. But things turned topsy-turvy when the street on which his office is located got flooded with sewage. When repeated complaints to the local officials to get the mess cleaned did not yield any results, he struck upon a novel plan to get the work done. Link
Tata Motors and Jaguar-Land Rover Get a Dressing-down from S&P Global Ratings
S&P Global Ratings has downgraded the credit rating of Tata Motors and its wholly-owned subsidiary Jaguar-Land Rover to B+ from BB-, citing weak profitability. This news comes on the back of Tata Motors announcing a $4 billion write-down on account of JLR. Link
Fairfax Holdings Wants to Make Money off Catholic Syrian Bank
Catholic Syrian Bank is India’s first foreign owned bank. It is owned by Indian-Canadian Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Holdings, which has a 51% stake in the bank. Now, it has come to light that Fairfax is planning to hold an IPO for the bank, which will see it raise approximately $48 million from the stock market if it succeeds. Link
