Franklin Templeton Investments has named Sonal Desai as chief investment officer (CIO) of its $157 billion fixed income group. She will replace Chris Molumphy who is retiring after 30 years with the $722 billion Californian asset manager. Calvin Ho will assume Sonal's responsibilities as director of research for Templeton Global Macro strategies. Sonal will assume the new charge at the end of the year. Sonal joined the firm in 2009 as director of research for Templeton Global Macro.
Bank of India to shut down 2 UK units
Bank of India (BoI) has decided to shut down two branches in the UK and has put shares in three companies on the block as part of its efforts to free up capital and monetise assets. In a notice to the Mumbai bourses, the lender said that it has merged its branches at East Ham and Manchester with those at Wembley (London) and Birmingham, respectively. Public sector banks (PSU) are set to close or amalgamate 70 out of their 159 overseas outlets in FY19. This is on the back of the closure of 35 branches last year. As many as 41 units were in losses in FY17. Lenders have begun shrinking their overseas presence to conserve capital and avoid cost of compliance, which have become increasingly onerous in offshore markets, following the global financial crisis.
Fitch ups India’s growth forecast to 7.8% for FY19
Fitch Ratings upped India’s growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7.8 per cent, from 7.4 per cent projected earlier. In its Global Economic Outlook, Fitch, however, flagged tightening of financial conditions, rising oil bill and weak bank balance sheets as headwinds to growth. “We have revised up our forecast for FY2018-2019 growth to 7.8 per cent from 7.4 per cent on the back of the better-than-expected 2Q18 out turn. India’s growth likely peaked in 2Q18 (April-June) though,” Fitch said. Fitch also forecast inflation picking up to the upper part of the central bank’s target band (4 per cent, plus-minus 2 per cent) within the forecast horizon on relatively high demand-pull pressures and Indian rupee depreciation.
CCI approves Arcelor’s acquisition of Essar Steel
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of debt-ridden Essar Steel by a consortium of ArcelorMittal and Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation.
Earlier this month, ArcelorMittal had offered £4.2 billion to acquire Essar Steel, upstaging a £3.7 billion bid by Russia’s VTB Group-backed Numetal. ArcelorMittal and Numetal are in the race to acquire Essar Steel, currently undergoing insolvency proceedings as it owes more than £4.5 billion to over 30 banks. According to the notice submitted to CCI, the proposed combination is pursuant to a resolution plan filed by ArcelorMittal India before the resolution professional for the acquisition of Essar Steel in accordance with the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
