MUMBAI: Indian payments startup BharatPe said Tuesday its board had recommended several measures including termination of several employees and vendors and filing criminal cases against them for misconduct.
IPO-hopeful BharatPe, which allows shop owners to make digital payments through QR codes, had initiated a corporate governance review in January hoping to soothe investor worries over a public spat involving personal investments by one of its co-founders.
The firm, which competes with apps including SoftBank’s Paytm and Google Pay in India’s booming payments market, came under intense investor and media scrutiny after co-founder Ashneer Grover sought damages from Uday Kotak, head of Kotak Mahindra Bank, alleging that the bank declined him financing for a personal investment.
In January, Reuters had reported that the audit would assess if BharatPe’s senior executives are making proper internal disclosures about personal investments and check for conflicts, leading to a new code of conduct.
India’s largest IPO by national insurer LIC oversubscribed 2.95 times
Investors bid for 478.4 million shares compared with the total 162.1 million on offer. (Shutterstock)
India’s largest-ever initial public offering, by Life Insurance Corp., was oversubscribed 2.95 times as six days of bidding came to an end Monday, according to a stock exchange filing.
The government expects to raise up to $2.7 billion — a third of its original target — from selling a 3.5 percent stake in the country’s top insurer.
Investors bid for 478.4 million shares compared with the total 162.1 million on offer. Bids were oversubscribed nearly twice by retail individual investors, who were offered 69.2 million shares at a discount of 45 rupees per share.
The price range for the issue has been set between 902 rupees ($12) and 949 rupees per share and LIC is likely to be listed on May 17.
A clutch of foreign investors and several domestic mutual fund houses had bid for its anchor book which had closed on May 2.
The 66-year-old company dominates India’s insurance sector, with more than 280 million policies. It was the fifth-biggest global insurer in terms of insurance premium collection in 2020, the latest year for which statistics are available.
Inflation risk continues
India’s retail inflation likely surged to an 18-month high in April, largely driven by rising fuel and food prices and staying well above the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance limit for a fourth consecutive month, a Reuters poll found.
The jump has been long anticipated following the Indian government’s decision to wait until after key state elections in March to hike fuel prices. Energy prices globally have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half the consumer price index basket, reached a multi-month high in March and is expected to remain elevated due to higher vegetable and cooking oil prices globally.
These factors likely pushed inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy to 7.5 percent on an annual basis in April, according to a May 5-9 Reuters poll of 45 economists, from 6.95 percent in March.
If realized, that would be the highest inflation rate since October 2020 and well above the RBI’s upper 6 percent limit.
Forecasts for the data, due to be released at 1200 GMT on May 12, ranged between 7.0 percent and 7.85 percent.