Sylo Partners with Indian Exchange Bitbns to Serve the Indian Market

Global software development house Sylo has officially partnered with premiere Indian exchange, Bitbns, to better serve the Indian market’s growing demand for legitimate crypto-projects.

A unique place where the old and new worlds collide, it’s clearer every day to those watching the market that #IndiaWantsCrypto

Bitbns, a bona fide cryptocurrency exchange and one of India’s first, represents a significant partnership for Sylo that is positioned to help extend key functionalities into the experience of Sylo Smart Wallet users. 

The Sylo-Bitbns alliance is one that makes sense across business and product levels - with both partners sharing the belief that “digital currencies are the future of money” and are an area to which users need straightforward access.

Through their partnership, Sylo and Bitbns aim to take cryptocurrency usage to the mainstream in India.

Often deemed complex, Sylo solves one of the biggest hurdles to the normalisation of cryptocurrency through the Sylo Smart Wallet, a highly-usable app designed from conception to “make crypto simple”.

The move for a more dedicated expansion into India will not come as a surprise to anyone keeping an eye on the Sylo success story. Recently, the tech firm revealed that in Q2 2020, they had already seen a 500% growth in sign ups to the Sylo Smart Wallet app from India, with Indian users now making up 30% of the app’s more than 250,000 strong overall user-base.

"India's new-found enthusiasm for digital assets and privacy after the restriction of certain privacy-hogging apps like WeChat and TikTok, has presented a significant opportunity to offer India a ‘WeChat’ of sorts that incorporates all the best elements of new generation communications tech, without the privacy concerns, and with the added benefits of crypto assets,” says Bitbns CEO Gaurav Dahake. 

“This is an area where the Sylo Smart Wallet, being developed on decentralised infrastructure, is primed to address, and a key reason we’re excited about this partnership opportunity.”

Sylo also offers a solution for the unbanked of India. In terms of barriers to get started on Sylo, there are very few - neither a sign up cost nor the mandatory provision of an email address or phone number is required in order to create a Sylo Smart Wallet account.

The result of this forward-thinking is the ability to instantly provide millions of people with access to de-fi services. Using the Sylo Smart Wallet, users can request and receive payments in chat, store and interact with digital assets  such as Bitcoin or any ERC-20 compatible token, such as Ether or BAT, in the non-custodial wallet.

“We realised a long time ago that in order to see widespread adoption, we needed to make interacting with crypto as simple as any other activity you might do on a smartphone,” says Dorian Johannink, Sylo Co-Founder and Business Director. “That’s why sending and receiving cryptocurrency in the Sylo Smart Wallet is as straightforward as sending a message.”

“Our design team have worked hard to create an app that is clean, fast, intuitive, and astonishingly simple to use. The Sylo Smart Wallet user statistics speak for themselves, the app has been available for just ten months and already has over a quarter of a million users. We’re confident that Sylo can meet India’s desire to get in the crypto game.”

Other features of the app include the ability to send messages, make audio and video calls, utilise a Web3 Ethereum dApp browser to spend crypto, and to pay using cryptocurrency in the real world at relevant vending machines.

The Sylo-Bitbns partnership will also see the SYLO token, an ERC20-compatible utility token that fuels the Sylo Network, listed on the Bitbns platform as of July 23, 2020.

Yes Bank Set for Major Comeback with Additional Fund Raising Through the FPO Offer from July 15

Yes Bank's Rs 15,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO) is set to hit the markets on 15 July. The bank has announced the floor price to be Rs 12 with a cap of Rs 13 per share, which is half of Friday's closing price of Rs 25.50. The pricing is attractive for new investors but there's more to understand before one invests in it.

Details on FPO The issue price is placed at Rs 12-13 per equity share. The FPO will open for anchor investors on 14 July and for all other categories of investors, the offer period will be July 15-17, 2020. Yes Bank's Capital Raising Committee (CRC) of the Board of Directors will meet on 14 July to allot shares to successful anchor investors who have pursued the offer and also determine an allocation price. A discount of one rupee per equity share will be given to the eligible employees of Yes Bank bidding in employee reservation portion. 

A maximum of Rs 200 crore worth of shares has been reserved for the employees of the bank. Interested investors can place bids in lots of 1,000 equity shares. The FPO is by the issue of fresh equity. State Bank of India (SBI), the largest stakeholder in Yes Bank, said last week that its central board has given approval for a maximum investment of up to Rs 1,760 crore in the FPO of Yes Bank. Background on Yes Bank and the FPO Amid rising debt and management issues, the government had approved RBI's (Reserve Bank of India) bailout plan for Yes Bank on 13 March 2020. 

Under the plan, Yes Bank received around Rs 10,000 crore from eight Indian financial institutions, including SBI, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank, Bandhan Bank, Federal Bank and IDFC First Bank, via the equity route. Back in March, the reconstructed bank's board had approved plan to raise funds up to Rs 15,000 crore, by way of issuance of securities.   To boost capital levels in line with regulatory norms, Yes Bank's board is going to launch the FPO. The attractive discount given in the FPO will attract more market investors and reduce the burden on the consortium of banks that are the stakeholders. 

Further, experts say that Yes Bank chose the FPO route as it allows freedom in pricing the issue when compared to a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) route which requires pricing around recent market prices as per a formula set by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). Due to a rise in NPAs (non-performing assets) and subsequent provisioning for the same, Yes Bank could not meet RBI's capital adequacy requirements. 

At the end of March 2020, the Tier 1 capital ratio for the bank was 6.5 percent, much below RBI's requirement of 8.875 percent, calling for the newly formed board to approve a fundraising plan. For the March ended quarter, Yes Bank reported a net profit of Rs 2,629 crore after the private lender wrote down additional tier-1 bonds as part of its reconstruction scheme. If the write-down was excluded, the bank's loss for the quarter was at Rs 3,668 crore, against a loss of Rs 1,507 crore in the same period of last year. 

After reporting a record loss of Rs 18,564 crore for the December-ended quarter, Yes Bank said that it is deemed to be "non-viable or approaching non-viability and accordingly the triggers for a write-down of certain Basel III AT-1 bonds have been triggered". As part of its reconstruction plan, its additional tier (AT-1) bonds worth Rs 8,415 crore of the Rs 8,695 crore issued, were written down in March, affecting mutual funds and other investors who had invested in them for the high-interest rates.

Castrol India Announces Second Interim Dividend for FY 2019; Recalls Final Dividend for FY 2019

The Board of Directors of Castrol India Limited, at a meeting held today, declared a second interim dividend of INR 3/- per equity share for the financial year ended 31 December 2019. Simultaneously, the Board recalled the earlier recommended final dividend of INR 3/- per equity share for the same period (2018: final dividend INR 2.75/- per equity share).

The delay of the 42nd Annual General Meeting of the Company from April to July due to the national lockdown on account of the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted many shareholders, small and institutional.

The Board took this decision to pay an interim dividend during these unprecedented times to help release payment earlier to the shareholders.     

“Castrol India has always valued the enduring relationship it has with its investors. These are extraordinary times which require organizations to take extraordinary measures in order to support various stakeholders,” said Mr. R Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of Board of Directors after the meeting.  

This second interim dividend, is in addition to the previously declared interim dividend of INR 2.50/- per equity share (2018: interim dividend INR 2.25/- per equity share) for the financial year 2019. 

India's markets seen relieved; PM to caretake finance

India's markets will likely react positively on Monday when a cabinet reshuffle sees the prime minister take on the finance portfolio, just days after the nation was rattled by the deadly attacks on Mumbai.

India's economy showed its slowest pace of growth in nearly four years in the September quarter, and its rupee and stock markets have been pummelled by the global financial crisis.

Now, after three days of attacks by gunmen in the heart of its financial capital, Mumbai, in which nearly 200 people died, analysts say security and confidence will be the top priority.

With Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram moving to the Home Ministry following the resignation of the home minister, analysts say Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, architect of early 1990s economic reforms, is probably the man for the job.

"There are serious concerns on the economy and the big challenge is going to be rebuilding confidence of investors," said Mahesh Rangarajan, political analyst in New Delhi.

"And there is a greater confidence in Singh because of his midas touch."

India's financial markets stayed shut on Thursday as security forces battled gunmen holed up in three locations in Mumbai's financial district.

The benchmark share index .BSESN gained 0.7 percent to 9,092.72 points when trading resumed on Friday, with expiry of options contracts leading investors to buy back shares.

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The index has plunged 55 percent this year, with foreign investors withdrawing a net $13.7 billion as the global market turmoil widened, and equity analysts criticised Chidambaram, saying he had not managed to keep the economy stable.

"But probably markets should open in the positive," said Deven Choksey, chief executive of brokerage KR Choksey.

Bond yields fell on Friday, as dealers anticipated interest rate cuts to shore up confidence and bolster the economy.

The central bank has slashed its key lending rate by 150 basis points to 7.5 percent since the global crisis swept through India's markets in October and the benchmark 10-year bond yield closed down 2 basis points at 7.07 percent.

"The market continues to anticipate rate changes," said Arvind Sampath, head of bond trading at Standard Chartered in Mumbai. "We are expecting the 10-year bond yield to trade in a 7.07-7.12 range."

Only the rupee came under pressure, shedding 1.2 percent to 50.09/12 per dollar, not far off a record low of 50.60 set earlier in November.

"Whatever has happened over the last few days is pretty serious. The first priority has to be that," A. Prasanna, analyst at ICICI Securities, said.

"I think the market will take a more big picture view and it is a positive development only. Nobody needs to second guess the PM's credentials, in his ability to run the ministry."

With only a few months likely to go before national elections, analysts were sceptical whether much could be done to shore up growth, which slowed to an annual 7.6 percent in the September quarter, a far cry from the 9 percent seen in the whole of the 2007/08 fiscal year.

Some expressed concern with the security issue and whether the prime minister's focus would be distracted, but others said Singh has already been more involved in running the economy as the financial crisis deepened.

Source: Reuters

Mumbai attacks will not slow investment, says Kamal Nath

Trade Minister Kamal Nath said on Thursday the attacks on high profile targets in the country's commercial capital would not slow investment into an ecomomy already under strain.

At least 101 people were killed by gunmen in the attacks on some of Mumbai's top hotels, a popular cafe, a busy railway station and other locations. Hostages were taken in two of the hotels.

"This does not have an economic component. It's an unfortunate event. These type of things have happened in New York and other major cities," Nath told Reuters by telephone.
"(There will be) no slowdown in investment flows."

The global downturn has already rattled Indian financial markets and a credit squeeze has prompted the government and central bank to take a series of measures to lift sagging growth.
The Reserve Bank expects the economy to expand by 7.5-8 percent in the 2008-09 fiscal year, slowing from 9 percent posted in the last three years.

India's capital market regulator said the country's two major stock exchanges would remain closed on Thursday.

Source: Reuters