ICICI Bank takes over 275 acres from Jaiprakash Associates

In order to reduce the bank’s exposure to the company and also lessen JAL’s debt servicing obligation to a more manageable level, ICICI took over about 275 acres, worth an estimated Rs 1,500-1,800 crore from the flagship company of the Jaypee Group, Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. In Noida & Greater Noida.

At the end of March 2015, ICICI Bank’s total exposure to JAL was Rs 6,600 crore. “The move was required because the company was unable to service its debt obligations on a quarterly basis,” a source familiar with the development said. While the company has been trying to reduce its debt burden, The standalone debt of JAL is reportedly around Rs 28,000 crore and while the consolidated debt of JAL and its subsidiaries  is close to Rs 61,000 crore.

Of the 275 acres that the Bank has acquired, 250 acres are on the Yamuna Expressway, 20 acres are in the Jaypee Sports City in Greater Noida and the remaining 4-5 acres are in the prime Jaypee Wish Town on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. Real estate experts in Noida and Greater Noida peg the value of these three land parcels at around Rs 1,500-1,800 crore.

HDFC cuts its Home Loan Rate

HDFC, which is one of the largest home loan provider and private sector bank in India, it cuts home loan rate by 0.20 per cent to 9.9 per cent, as per the reports of Press Trust of India. However the revised rate are applicable for new as well as old or existing both customers. It is expected hat in near future more banks will follow the same path and in result the EMI (equated monthly installments) will come down, where as this is the time of joy for the home loan customers of HDFC.

The home loan rate cut is the wakeup call for several other big banks such as; SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis, and other banks who are major player in home loan industry as they are cutting their minimum lending rate or base rates for the comfort of customers. However, Raghuram Rajan, Governor of RBI urged to all banks to pass the benefits of its repo rate cut to customers.

Whereas; the central bank keep its rate unchanged.

ING Vysya bank merger with Kotak Mahindra bank

On January 3, 2015 all the employees and officers of ING Vysya Bank expressed their concerns over the issue of merger with concerns, as we all know that from April 1, 2015 ING Vysya Bank is going to merge with Kotak Mahindra Bank.

According to management of Kotak Mahindra Bank, “The employees of ING Vysya Bank would get the pension, but it will not be linked with dearness allowance”. Whereas; the management of ING Vysya Bank is happy on bi-partite negotiations through which the unions of ING Vysya Bank had entered regarding service conditions, but still the officials of Kotak Mahindra Bank are silent regarding commitment on the continuation of existing service and the different conditions on absorption into the new merged entity.

More the 4,000 officer and employees from ING Vysya Bank would be absorbed by Kotak Mahindra Bank in the rolls of the merged entity. As per the statement of Kotak Mahindra Bank management, “The employees of ING Vysya Bank would get the pension, but it will not be linked to dearness allowance”.

After this deal the Kotak Mahindra bank will become the fourth-largest private bank in India in terms of total business, whereas; the other three banks are ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank in the order of ranks. The combined banking entity of ING Vysya Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank will have a total network of 1,214 branches in all over the country.

CREDAI-BANM 15th Property exhibition

Event Venue: - CIDCO Exhibition Centre, Vashi.

Date: - Dec. 12, 2014 to Dec. 15, 2014

CREDAI and BANM is going to organize the 15th Property Exhibition for the duration of Dec 12 to Dec 15 in the city Navi Mumbai. CREDAI stands for “The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India” and BANM stands for “Builders Association of Navi Mumbai”, which is the apex body of the organized real estate developers in Navi Mumbai. Whereas; CREDAI is the apex body for private real estate developers in India, which represents 8,800 developers through 20 states and 114 cities.
In present Mumbai is one stop destination for international standards real estate properties for commercial to residential properties. Mumbai is one of the global hot spot for foreign real estate developers and as well as national developers. As we all know that, property investors and buyers have become price and quality conscious and because of that they are searching for affordable property with good quality. In past few decades Indian real estate market is seen to be more investor-friendly as it is attracting the NRIs and foreign investors, which is the main reason for the boost in real estate market that drive demand to greater heights.
As the real estate sector witnessing a positive trend in Mumbai, so it is expected that record number of properties will be exhibit and sold in exhibition, as last year more than 350 properties were sold by the developers under the code of conduct adopted by the members of the CREDAI-BANM. The expo will feature the presence of real estate developers from across Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and country with the presence of housing finance segment with the organization like; LIC Housing Finance, Tata Capital Housing Finance Limited, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, L&T Finance, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India, Reliance Capital and Canara Bank.
This expo is expected the presence of Bollywood and sports celebrities as in 2013 the same expo has witnessed presence of celebrities like Actor Sunil Shetty and Shilpa Shetty. In property expo there will be plethora of offers housing options for customers to take spot decisions. With the strong membership of more than 1800 leading Developers in Mumbai it is expected that expo will witness the huge success. This year it is expected that participation will be twice as compared to last year.
Life is all about taking the right decision at right time and this time the 15th Property Exhibition 2014 will kicks off at CIDCO Exhibition Centre, Vashi, so it’s great opportunity as it promises something more to everyone who is interested in real estate.

Navi Mumbai Airport project

After the original rehabilitation component of the Navi Mumbai Airport project hit a roadblock, it has now been decided to handover 5 hectare of land in Panvel for rehabilitating the project affected people. The decision was taken after a major portion of the 57 hectares of land, meant to relocate project affected people (PAP), had been classified as no-development land, following a change in coastal area protection norms.

The Navi Mumbai Airport is one of the six projects that have been allowed to be constructed on CRZ-1 land under the 2011 notification. The state government has now asked that the exemption granted to the core airport land be extended to the 57-hectare land in Wadghar village meant to rehabilitate PAPs. The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is yet to take a decision on freeing land from CRZ restrictions, despite the state government’s recent representations to the Prime Minister’s Office and the ministry.

Besides, the airport project rehabilitation plot, a total of 1,240 hectares of land in Navi Mumbai, has also been affected by CRZ-1 for the past two years, resulting in a potential loss of Rs 37,200 crore. Wadghar is one of the three villages in Navi Mumbai where people from the 10 villages affected by the airport project will be shifted to.  Notwithstanding the opposition of a few project-affected persons (PAPs) to the acquisition of land for the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport in Panvel, Cidco has quietly started ground levelling work at the site. A source said, “We don’t want to wait for those who are adamant in spite being offered the best compensation.” The package offers PAPs 22.5% of the developed land, with an FSI of 2. Affected villagers will get pakka houses and their unemployed youth will be given vocational training. Joint MD of Cidco V Radha said Cidco has tied up with the ICICI Bank, TCS, NIFD and Taj catering, among others, for the training programme. Cidco has identified 3,500 unemployed youth. “We have been conducting their aptitude and psychological tests to know their interests, as per which they will be enrolled in state-subsidised courses. They will also get stipend. We are tracking their academic record and, as per the findings, changes will made in the programme,” she said.

Traditionally, in Navi Mumbai, the High Tide Line (HTL), which is the marker of CRZ-1, has been delineated on the basis of bunds and flapgates. Following the Coastal Regulations Zone (CRZ) notification of 2011, which classifies coastal land as CRZ-1 based on its salinity concentration, the Wadghar land has been rendered into a no-development plot. The land is one of the many that was acquired by the Navi Mumbai’s planning agency CIDCO.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left key interest rates intact as previous in its 3^rd bi-monthly monetary policy review, so the EMIs (equated monthly installments) for automobile, home and other loans would remain unchanged. Several sectors such as; real estate, automobiles and other have been struggling to keep up sales or profit due to high interest rates and raw material costs, which has diminish the sentiments of Indian consumer.

In policy statement RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said that RBI will monitor inflation developments, as they are committed to bring the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation to 8 % by January 2015 and 6 % by January 2016. It seems critical to sustain the disinflationary process over the medium-term as the inflation is around 8 % in early 2015.

The repo rate, or the rate of interest that any bank pay when they borrow money from Reserve Bank of India to meet their short-term fund need, has been left as previous at 8 %.

The reverse repo rate, or the rate of interest that RBI pays to other commercial banks when they require their surplus amount to meet short-term fund requirement with the central bank, has been adjusted to 7 %.

The Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) is as before at 4%. The Bank Rate and marginal standing facility rate is also kept unchanged at 9 %.

The Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), or the obligatory amount of bonds lenders must keep with the RBI, was cut by 0.5 % to 22.0 % as their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) and the same will implemented by August 9, 2014.

Rana Kapoor, president of Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) said that “RBI has once again taken an over-cautious approach and easing of the same could have taken the GDP growth in the near about of six per cent in the current fiscal itself”, where as Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) said that “At a time when industrial growth continues to be sluggish, Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation is moderating and, above all, inflation risks are gradually abating due to improvement in monsoon conditions, the RBI could have taken this opportunity to effect a cut in interest rates,”

Meanwhile, the share markets turned bearish after the RBI left key interest rates same as previous in monetary policy review, and India Inc. also welcomed the RBI move cut SLR for putting more funds into the system.

Sensex rises 185 points on RBI monetary policy review and touched a height of 25,831.53 points with a low of 25,562.36 points in the trade, and 50-scrip Nifty was traded on at 7,648.45 points. The Sensex gainers were: Bajaj Auto up by 1.85 percent, Sun Pharma up by 1.28 percent, Mahindra and Mahindra up by 2.10 percent, Infosys, up by 0.82 percent, and ONGC up by 1.17 percent while losers were: ICICI Bank down by 1.36 percent, HDFC down by 1.31 percent, ITC down by 1.45 percent, Coal India down by 1.61 percent, and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.41 percent.

The Central Government of India and State Government are taking the essential steps to control the rising food prices by easing grain imports or directly selling edible commodities both. After considering the current data and macro-economic situation of country most analysts was predicted the status quo. As per data released by Central Statistics Office (CSO), the retail inflation based on CPI declined to 7.31 % in June 2014 in comparison of 8.28 % in May 2014.