Espresso: Japanese bank buys stake in Fullerton India

Sumitomo Mitsui buys stake in Fullerton

Japan's second-largest bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) will invest $2 billion in Fullerton India Credit Co for a 74.9% stake in the Indian non-banking financial company (NBFC).

Fullerton India will  become a consolidated subsidiary of the Japanese bank, as SMFG eventually extends its stake to 100% in the NFBC. It is looking to capture the growth across Asian markets like Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and India, SMFG said in a statement.

Japanese banks are eyeing opportunities beyond their domestic market, which has been struggling with slow economic growth and an aging population.

Kotak Securities eyes stake in fintech venture

Kotak Securities will invest Rs 10 crore in Kredent InfoEdge, a fintech company focused on training investors through its learning and analytics platform, for a 9.96 percent stake.

Kolkata-based Kredent has seen an absolute revenue growth of over 162 percent from Rs 5.38 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 14.1 crore in 2020-21.

Founded in July 2006, it operates three brands: eLearnMarkets (in financial education), StockEdge (a data analytics platform for stock markets), and StockEdge Club (a social marketplace platform for investors and traders).

The deal with Kotak Securities is expected to be consummated by this month-end, and will help Kotak Securities provide e-learning services and digital value-added services to its customers. Based on Kredent's latest fiscal revenue, the deal’s revenue multiple works out to 0.71 for Kotak Securities.

GST collection falls below Rs 1 lakh-crore

The gross goods and services tax (GST) revenue collection for June 2021 stood at Rs 92,849 crore—around 2.13 percent higher than the Rs 90,917 crore collected in June 2020.

The GST monthly collections had been above the Rs 1 lakh-crore mark for eight months in a row since October 2020.

The GST collection for June indicates business transactions in May when several states and union territories were under complete or partial lockdown because of the second wave, the Ministry of Finance stated in a press release.

It cited the number of e-way bills generated in May 2021: 3.99 crore, as against 5.88 crore e-way bills generated in April 2021. However, the number recovered to 5.5 crore e-way bills in June, which indicates a recovery of trade and business.

Info Edge to acquire Axilly Labs

Info Edge (India) announced the acquisition of Axilly Labs in Bengaluru for an aggregate cash consideration of about Rs 21 crore.

Axilly delivers technical assessment services to its clients for recruitment and learning purposes through its platform ‘doselect.com’.

In the past three financial years, Axilly’s revenues grew by 98.9 percent from Rs 1.76 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 3.50 crore in 2019-20., and then another 20.9 percent to Rs 4.23 crore in 2020-21. The deal’s multiple of revenue at the acquisition cost of Rs 21 crore, works out to little over 4.96 times for Info Edge (India).

Great Eastern Shipping’s tryst with WFH

Technology transformation initiatives like modernised infrastructure, a cloud-first strategy, and setting up a complete disaster recovery site have helped Great Eastern Shipping Co run its business through Work from Home (WFH) mode, without compromising on employee productivity.

In its latest annual report, the 70-year-old company highlighted that it ensured zero cybersecurity incidents, 100 percent application availability, and 24x7 remote support to ships for smooth business operations.

“Cybersecurity will continue to be on top priority in the international maritime sector,” the company stated. It has strengthened the cybersecurity posture for ships and shore to protect the integrity of the organisation’s information and IT assets.

TCS releases SaaS tool for agile planning

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) released the fifth version of Jile, a cloud-based agile planning and delivery tool for enterprises to simultaneously manage distributed teams.

The collaboration tool provides enterprises with a unified view of portfolios and programs. Apart from the standard edition for medium and large enterprises, Jile is also available in an enterprise edition for large enterprises that have mature agile practices and are looking at agility at the business layer.

“The enterprise edition allows teams to track budget allocation versus consumption as well as portfolio, program, and team performance using customisable dashboards,” according to a TCS press statement.

Indiabulls Housing Finance’s eHome Loans

Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHF), the third-largest home finance company in India, said it took the lead in introducing ‘eHome Loans’, its end-to-end online home loan application and fulfilment platform, three years ago.

IBHF’s printing and stationery cost per eHome Loan file has reduced by nearly 60 percent in this period. The company is training employees to nudge customers to use the application, so that it can increase the share of digital home loan applications from 30 percent to 55 percent by FY2027—and 75 percent by FY2032.