Business

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Samsung India on Friday kicked off the seventh edition of its pan-India campus programme -- Samsung E.D.G.E -- inviting students from the top colleges of the country to work on real-life problem statements.

The company said it will also let them interact with Samsung's top leaders and provide unique solutions to the problem statement at hand.

"At Samsung, innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Over the years, Samsung E.D.G.E. has proved to be an enabler wherein students have the platform to showcase their creative solutions to real life problems," Ken Kang, President and CEO, Samsung SWA, said in a statement.

"As we enter the seventh edition of the program, we are confident that the young talent participating in the program will bring in even more insightful solutions and display their problem-solving skills," Kang added.

This year, students from 27 campuses that include top B-Schools, engineering colleges and design schools will participate in the event, which will be held physically at campuses spread across the country.

The programme consists of three rounds. The first round, which is the campus round, is about ideation, where the team members come together and put up an executive case summary based on their research and analysis.

The top teams that are shortlisted in campus round work on a case study, submit and present their detailed solutions at the regional round.

At the end of the regional round, top 8 teams are selected and mentored by Samsung leaders on their respective solutions. The final eight teams battle it out in the National Round to arrive at the three winning teams.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 15 (IANS) The shares of two Tata group companies have been on the upswing, touching new highs at the bourses.

The two are non-banking finance company Tata Investment Corporation Ltd and material handling equipment manufacturer TRF Ltd.

Tata Investment is an investment company promoted by Tata Sons and other group companies.

During the first week of June, the Tata Investment scrip was in the Rs 1,340-Rs 1,470 band and on the upward route. And on Thursday, the scrip closed at Rs 2,886.50.

For the first quarter of FY23, the company, on a revenue of Rs 126.30 crore, had posted a net profit of Rs 108.69 crore.

The company invests in equities, mutual funds, debentures, and bonds.

Replying to a query from the BSE on the scrip's price, Tata Investment on Thursday said: "In connection with your mail L/SURV/ONL/PV/KS/ 2022-2023/2653 dated 14th September, 2022, we would like to inform you that to the best of the information available with Management; we do not have any information/announcements to share with the Stock Exchanges under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations & Disclosure Requirements) which have a bearing on the price/volume behaviour of our scrip traded."

But what is interesting is the upward movement of the other Tata company - TRF's scrip.

On July 25, the TRF share closed at Rs 124.35 and the 52 week low price was Rs 108.

But on Thursday, it hit the upper price band circuit at Rs 267.35 after its previous close of Rs 243.05.

In August, credit rating agency CARE Rating revised its outlook on the long-term rating of TRF from 'Negative' to 'Stable' on account of reduction in outside liability through the support of funds received from the parent Tata Steel.

"Furthermore, the company has recorded continuous declinein cash losses over the past two years and CARE envisages that the company is likely to turn marginally cash positive in FY23, largely on the back of order-book execution for TSL (Tata Steel)," the agency said in its report.

According to CARE Rating, 75 per cent of the order book of TRF is from Tata Steel. Additionally, the parent supports TRF by infusing funds in the form of inter-corporate deposits and unsecured loans in case of any liquidity mismatch.

"As on July 1, 2022, TRF has a total outstanding order book of Rs 363 crore with about 25 per cent of the order from the external parties," CARE Ratings said.

"As on March 31, 2022, capital structure of the company remains weak owing to the negative net worth base. The company has been reporting losses for the past three which led to the deterioration of net worth," CARE Ratings said.

Steel major and group company Tata Steel Ltd holds 34.11 per cent stake in TRF.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 15 (IANS) Two-wheeler-maker Eicher Motors Ltd on Thursday joined the Rs 1 trillion market capitalisation club during the intra-day trade.

The shares of Eicher Motors - that rolls out the 350cc Bullet and other brands of higher capacity bikes - on Thursday opened at Rs 3,541.30, touched a high of Rs 3,670.90, and closed at Rs.3,622.50.

While the scrip touched a market capitalisation of Rs.1 trillion intra-day, market capitalisation at the close of trading hours was about Rs 99,059 crore.

Eicher Motors also holds majority stakes in the commercial vehicle joint venture with Volvo - VE Commercial Vehicles.

In the two-wheeler segment, Eicher Motors has been on the upswing with sales going up.

Between April-August 2022, the company has sold 312,872 units, up from 213,538 units sold during the comparable period last year.

While the 350cc models account for the majority of the sales numbers, the sales of over 350cc bikes are growing at a faster clip.

For the first quarter of the current fiscal the company has logged revenue of Rs 3,247.94 crore and a net profit of Rs 580.17 crore.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 15 (IANS) Software major Adobe on Thursday announced it would acquire design software company Figma for about $20 billion in a cash and stock deal.

Founded by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace in 2012, Figma pioneered product design on the web.A

The combination of Adobe and Figma will usher in a new era of collaborative creativity.

"Adobe's greatness has been rooted in our ability to create new categories and deliver cutting-edge technologies through organic innovation and inorganic acquisitions," said Shantanu Narayen, Chairman and CEO, Adobe.

"The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformational and will accelerate our vision for collaborative creativity," he added.

Figma has a total addressable market of $16.5 billion by 2025.

The company is expected to add approximately $200 million in net new ARR this year, surpassing $400 million in total ARR exiting 2022.

"With Adobe's amazing innovation and expertise, especially in 3D, video, vector, imaging and fonts, we can further reimagine end-to-end product design in the browser, while building new tools and spaces to empower customers to design products faster and more easily," said Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO, Figma.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) Edtech major BYJU's is set to pay the remaining amount of nearly Rs 2,000 crore to VC firm Blackstone in the $1 billion acquisition of Aakash Educational Services on September 23.

According to BYJU's financial report FY21, "as per the terms of the agreement for acquisition of Aakash Educational Services, consideration to the extent of Rs 1,983 crore was due to be paid by the company to the sellers in June, 2022. This has been deferred to September 23, 2022".

Blackstone has nearly 38 per cent stake in Aakash and BYJU's has paid nearly 75 per cent of the Aakash acquisition amount.

Meanwhile, BYJU's is likely to raise over $500 million (nearly Rs 3,900 crore) at a valuation of around $23 billion soon, and the funds may be utilised to pay the remaining amount in the Aakash deal.

In its FY21, BYJU's registered Rs 2,428 crore as revenue over a massive loss of Rs 4,500 crore.

According to the company, the rationalised growth between FY21 and FY20 is a result of the changes made in the way BYJU'S recognises its revenue, "as advised by its auditors".

According to legal experts, If BYJU's does not pay Aakash by September 23, the edtech major will need to knock at the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) doors for completing the transaction.

BYJU's did not comment on the development.

Last month, BYJU's said it had closed the $1 billion acquisition of offline test preparatory services provider Aakash, one of the largest deals in the edtech space.

The company had said in a statement that its payments to Aakash are "closed".

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 15 (IANS) Tech giant Microsoft has created a sample app for teams that allow people to sign documents during remote meetings.

According to Windows Central, the application lets users add a document to a meeting for attendees to sign, such as a purchase agreement, invoice, or NDA.

The sample app was made by Teams Ecosystem Engineering as a proof of concept aimed at independent software vendors (ISVs) or other customers implementing it.

The entire project is available and documented on GitHub, which should help organisations that would like to use it within meetings, the report said.

The app allows users to add a document to a meeting to be reviewed or signed by attendees. It supports Teams single-sign-on (SSO) for authentication.

The report mentioned that it also supports sharing content during a meeting stage, adaptive cards, and the Teams people picker.

Microsoft noted that the app could be adapted to work with other scenarios that require signing off, such as reviewing and approving code or working together on a document.

The sample app is currently available for desktop clients of Teams. Mobile and web support is on the way, though Microsoft did not specify when in its Tech Community post announcing the feature, the report said.

Currently, the app only works with users from the same organisation or tenant. Guest and anonymous user support are also on the way, it added.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 14 (IANS) The BMW Group on Wednesday categorically refuted reports of setting up an auto component plant in Punjab. "BMW Group India has no plans for setting up additional manufacturing operations in Punjab," the German group said in a statement.

Along with cars and motorcycles, BMW Group's activities in India comprise of financial services for its premium clientele, the statement added.

BMW Group is firmly committed to its Indian operations with its manufacturing plant in Chennai, a parts warehouse in Pune, a training centre in Gurgaon-NCR and a well-developed dealer network across major metropolitans of the country.

The BMW gets some two wheeler models manufactured by two and three wheeler maker TVS Motor Company.

BMW India and BMW India Financial Services are 100 per cent subsidiaries of the BMW Group and are headquartered in Gurgaon (National Capital Region), the BMW Group said.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 14 (IANS) The assets under management (AUM) of housing finance companies are expected to grow 10-12 per cent in this financial year 2022-23, as against 8 per cent in the last financial year, mainly due to home loans, which could grow 15 per cent on-year, said CRISIL.

Last fiscal, HFC growth was a story of two halves: stunted to just about 2 per cent (annualised) in the first half because of the second wave of the pandemic, and a V-shaped 14 per cent (annualised) growth in the second half.

"Structural factors driving end-user housing demand remain intact this fiscal despite the impact of rising real estate prices and interest rates. This should drive 13-15 per cent growth in the home loan segment. And despite the recent hikes, interest rates remain below previous cycles and haven't impacted customer interest materially," said Krishnan Sitaraman, Senior Director and Deputy Chief Ratings Officer, CRISIL Ratings.

Despite the growth, housing finance companies are expected to continue losing home-loan market share to banks amid stiff competition.

While access to funding is not a big challenge for most housing financiers, competitive borrowing cost is crucial versus banks, which benefit from low-cost deposit funding.

HFCs have already conceded 400 basis points market-share to banks over the past four fiscals resulting in banks' share rising to 62 per cent as of March 2022.

This trend is unlikely to reverse in the near term. Banks are expected to gain market share further with HDFC Ltd, the largest HFC, set to merge with HDFC Bank next fiscal.

The ability of HFCs to compete with banks in the traditional salaried-home-loan segment remains a challenge given their relatively higher funding costs.

HFCs are expected to increasingly partner with banks and leverage each other's strengths to grow their books. Some HFCs are already moving in this direction. Therefore, asset/on-book growth is likely to be lower compared with AUM growth.

Meanwhile, one segment where HFCs have been growing relatively faster is affordable housing loans, where competition from banks is limited.

Affordable housing financiers (AHFCs), therefore, have seen relatively better growth of 12-15 per cent in the recent past despite moderation from earlier levels. Given their relatively smaller footprint and large underlying demand, AHFCs are expected to keep growing faster than traditional HFCs.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 14 (IANS) State-owned lender, State Bank of India (SBI) hit the Rs 5 lakh crore market capitalisation on Wednesday after its shares touched a record high of Rs 564.45.

With this market capitalisation, SBI stood on the seventh position in the market capitalisation ranking.

SBI has become the third lender in the country to cross the market cap of Rs 5 lakh crore.

HDFC Bank held first rank in this list, which was followed by ICICI Bank.

At 1.10 p.m., SBI shares were up Rs 14.75 or 2.64 per cent at Rs 573.00.

Meanwhile, Sensex was trading 126.21 points or 0.21 per cent down at 60,444.87, and Nifty was 32.90 points or 0.18 per cent down at 18,037.15.

--IANS
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Mogadishu, Sep 14 (IANS) The UN migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has said it requires more than $50 million to reach 2.5 million people affected by the drought by the end of 2023.

IOM's Deputy Director General Amy Pope, who ended a four-day visit to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, and Baidoa, said on Tuesday that the crisis in Somalia is deepening, noting that with the fifth failed rainy season imminent, humanitarian actors require greater resources to help communities in need survive, rebuild and foster resilience.

Pope added in a statement issued in Mogadishu that the situation in Somalia which is facing severe drought demands the world's urgent attention, solidarity, and support, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The communities I met are being devastated by climatic change, despite Somalia being one of the least contributors to global emissions. Millions do not have sufficient water or food. Hundreds of thousands of people could die," she said.

According to Pope, time is running out for Somalia where rural communities are facing the dire consequences of a climate emergency as they grapple with decades of instability, disease and economic crises.

Without a rapid increase in assistance, the Somalia Food Security and Nutrition analysis which was launched last week projects that famine will be a reality in parts of the country by October.

The drought has forced more than 1 million people to leave their homes in search of water, food, and humanitarian services, according to the UN.

According to IOM, over 80 per cent of the displaced are women, children and the elderly who are bearing the brunt of the crisis, and most people have settled in towns and cities where support services are already greatly overstretched, and sanitation is poor.

The last famine in Somalia was declared just over ten years ago in 2011, which led to the death of an estimated 250,000 people.

The current drought has already claimed the lives of at least 730 children, but the true figure could be much higher, as 7.8 million people are facing extreme food shortages, the IOM said.

"Without sufficient funding, millions of people in Somalia will be left to suffer the fallout of devastating hunger, disease and displacement. The impact of this crisis will be felt by generations to come," Pope said.

--IANS
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