Morning Buzz: Byju's lays off employees, IndiGo places record order for 500 Airbus planes and more

A private equity consortium comprising Baring Private Equity Asia EQT Group and ChrysCapital have acquired a 90 percent stake in HDFC’s education loan firm HDFC Credila Image: Vivek Prakash/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Baring EQT-ChrysCap to buy majority of HDFC Credila

A private equity consortium comprising Baring Private Equity Asia EQT Group and ChrysCapital have acquired a 90 percent stake in HDFC’s education loan firm HDFC Credila for Rs9,060 crore. The housing finance company will retain the balance 10 percent stake. The new buyers will inject a further Rs2,000 crore into the entity. It will now cease to be an HDFC subsidiary and is seen to be a direct fallout of the RBI's mandate to HDFC to bring down its holding in this education company to 10 percent within two years of its merger with HDFC Bank.

(Economic Times, Mint, Business Standard, Indian Express, Hindu, BQ Prime)

 

Edtech giant Byju’s fires more employees amid legal battle  

Byju's has laid off around 1,000 employees across all departments as a part of its restructuring process. This comes at a time when the company is involved in a legal battle with US lenders over a $1 billion term loan B. The firing of staff is seen as a move to trim costs further as the company plans to turn profitable quickly. But its weakening financials and legal battles have seen Byju’s valuations fall by more than half from its peak in 2021-22.

(Mint, Moneycontrol, Business Today, The Times of India)
 

IndiGo places record order for 500 Airbus planes

Budget carrier IndiGo has placed a record order to buy 500 A320 aircrafts from Airbus. It marks the most jets bought by a single airline from the French aerospace company. The Tatas’ Air India had earlier this year placed a slightly smaller order for aircraft from Airbus. IndiGo has been focussing on purchasing fuel-efficient aircraft to help it lower operating costs while bringing fresh life to its fleet in its next phase of growth.

(Reuters, WSJ, The Times of India, Economic Times, Business Today)
 

Banks’ FY23 net NPAs at 15-year lows  

The balance sheets of banks in India are their cleanest in the past 15 years. According to a report from India Ratings, a Fitch affiliate, the net non-performing assets of banks are down to one percent for FY23 and gross NPAs are at 4 percent. A combination of a thorough asset quality review mandated by the RBI and stringent provisioning by banks’ top management has led to this clean-up. It has ensured that banks are able to focus on their core lending activities, though they will need to keep an eye on slippages.

(The Times of India)
 

Sebi bars IIFL Securities from onboarding new clients for two years

India’s market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has barred IIFL Securities from acquiring new clients for two years in its stock broking business. This relates to a 2014 investigation where Sebi found that IIFL Securities had mixed clients' funds with proprietary funds and used credit-balance client accounts to settle obligations of debit-balance client accounts. This was against the regulator’s norms between 2011 and 2017. IIFL has said that it has taken corrective measures since.  

(Reuters, Economic Times, Business Today, Mint, Moneycontrol)