Heena Sharma Blog

Equity and commodity futures market brokers have approached markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) over opening of their offices. While exchanges are open on Monday, brokers in the major tier-2 cities and trading hubs like Indore are stuck as police don't allow them to open their own offices due to country-wide lockdown amid coronavirus (Covid-19) scare. State governments like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan have already declared exchange industry services under essential category. Hence, opening of offices in these three states should not be a problem. In a letter addressed to Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi, brokers' association Anmi (Association of National Exchanges Members of India) has urged to explicitly declare brokers under essential services to enable them to work smoothly. Read More

Burger King India , a major player in the domestic quick service restaurant (QSR) space, will file a document for an initial public offer (IPO) this week with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said people with direct knowledge of the development. The issue will comprise a secondary share sale worth Rs 600 crore by private equity major Everstone Capital and fresh fundraising worth Rs 400 crore, which will be used to fuel the burger chain’s expansion plan. Assuming the regulatory approval process takes the usual time, Burger King India would list early next year, joining rivals Jubilant FoodWorks (operator of the Domino’s Pizza chain) and Westlife Development (master franchisee of McDonald’s in the western and southern markets) in going public. Typically, Sebi takes between four and six weeks to vet and clear an IPO document. Everstone owns and operates Burger King’s branded restaurants across India and Indonesia, as part of its food and beverage Asia portfol...

The resignation of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) deputy governor Viral Acharya six months ahead of the scheduled completion evoked mixed reactions from experts, especially at a time when the financial sector has seen a number of developments over the past one year. In the past three years, the central bank has seen the sudden exit of Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel as RBI Governors, and now Viral Acharya as its Deputy Governor, who was in charge of the Monetary Policy Department and the Department of Economic and Policy Research, among others. “ Dr. Acharya’s departure is not a complete surprise, as frictions between him and the government on issues related to central bank independence had come to the fore,” wrote Sonal Varma, managing director and chief India economist at Nomura in a co-authored report with Aurodeep Nandi. While the process of finding a successor should get underway soon, Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic advisor in the Ministry of Finance, and Dr. Micha...