NAM-INDIA

BENGALURU, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Diary of India economic, corporate events on Jan. 23

ECONOMIC, CORPORATE .BSE500 EVENTS:

NTS - 'No time scheduled', AMC - 'After market close'

(Compiled by Bengaluru Newsroom)

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Dec 3 -

By Nick Carey, European Autos Correspondent

Greetings from London!

A winter of discontent for the car industry is beginning to look ever more likely, especially in Europe, thanks to weak EV demand and rising Chinese competition.

Just in the last week, Stellantis said it will close its Vauxhall van plant in Britain, German supplier Schaeffler said it will close plants in Austria and Britain, and sources told Reuters that French auto supplier Valeo will cut around 1,000 jobs in Europe. Coming on top of recent job cut announcements from Ford and Nissan, the outlook right now isn’t pretty.

Auto industry executives are now nervously watching to see if America is next once Donald Trump takes office in January. Mexico’s government has warned that the 25% tariff Trump promises on Mexican goods could kill 400,000 U.S. jobs.

That and his threat to axe a $7,500 U.S. EV subsidy could mean pain in particular for No. 1 U.S. automaker General Motors as it is reliant on Mexico and Canada for parts and has bet heavily on EVs.

Which brings us to today’s Auto File…

• Carlos hits the road

• Volkswagen’s industrial strife

• Britain taps the EV brakes

Carlos makes a fast exit

This year has not turned out the way Carlos Tavares expected. After a major profit warning at the end of September, the once untouchable CEO of Stellantis had declared he would retire at the end of his contract in early 2026 after fixing the company’s inventory disaster in the United States.

That proved too long for the world’s No. 4 automaker, which abruptly announced Tavares’ resignation on Sunday. Tavares has waxed lyrical often about the Darwinian age the auto industry is in, though perhaps he did not think at the time that it would cost him his own job.

The news of his ouster sparked a fresh sell-off of the company’s shares, as it heralds a period of prolonged uncertainty while the company is led by an executive committee until a new CEO is chosen in the first half of 2025.

In an unusually frank message to employees, Stellantis chairman John Elkann said Tavares and the company’s board had fallen out over what was in the automaker’s best long-term interest.

The new CEO will have to reset Stellantis’ U.S. business, which was its profit driver but where dealers complain that Tavares priced the company’s cars out of the market.

Tavares had insisted that Stellantis’ problems were a purely regional matter, but as my Reuters colleagues Giulio Piovaccari, Alessandro Parodi and Inti Landauro have reported, Stellantis has also lost market share in Europe by raising its prices beyond what customers are willing to pay. You can read about that here.

Recommended reading:

• Trump still opposes Nippon-U.S. Steel deal

• India to sweeten EV offers to automakers

• Trump tariffs costly for carmakers, S&P says

Volkswagen and German union face off

As soon as Volkswagen announced back in September that it may have to close plants in Germany to cut costs, the powerful IG Metall union promised that meant a fight.

The union followed through on that promise on Monday, with workers at nine VW car and component plants across Germany holding two-hour strikes, bringing assembly lines to a halt.

Almost 100,000 workers joined those strikes, the union said.

The union has threatened that the strikes could escalate into 24-hour or unlimited stoppages unless a deal is struck in the next round of wage negotiations. This would reduce Volkswagen's output, adding to the impact of declining deliveries and plunging profit.

Volkswagen said it respected the workers' right to strike and had taken steps to ensure a basic level of supplies to minimize the strike's impact.

The union last week proposed measures it said would save 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion), including forgoing bonuses for 2025 and 2026, but management has dismissed those as unrealistic.

With both sides digging in, this fight could last quite a while yet.

Britain inches away from EV mandate

For much of this year, much of Britain’s car industry has been jumping up and down about the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate put in place by the previous Conservative government, arguing that its targets were impossible to meet and would cost automakers billions.

After a drumbeat of bad news including the closure of Stellantis’ Vauxhall plant and Ford cutting Ford jobs, the current Labour government relented and said it would reconsider the rules.

Unlike the European Union’s CO2 emissions targets, which automakers can hit by selling a mixture of hybrids and EVs, Britain mandated that automakers sell a minimum percentage of fully electric cars or face fines of 15,000 pounds per non-compliant vehicle sold.

EVs have to make up 22% of an automaker's new car sales in 2024, rising to 80% in 2030.

But the industry forecasts EVs will make up only 18.7% of overall sales this year.

Automakers had warned they would have to pay out nearly 6 billion pounds in discounts and compliance costs to meet the 2024 mandate and kept up a steady stream of complaints that eventually the government could not longer ignore.

Musk’s payday postponed

Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation package drama was rekindled this week as Delaware judge Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Court of Chancery ruled that Tesla CEO’s is not entitled to receive the payout despite shareholders voting in June to reinstate it.

The ruling follows the judge’s January decision that called the pay package excessive and rescinded it, surprising investors, and casting uncertainty over Musk's future at Tesla.

Tesla now has to weigh its options for how to proceed, as Musk has threatened he could develop products outside the company if he doesn’t get his money. Some of those options are tricky and expensive.

The company could appeal, which could take a year. It could craft a new pay plan, but that would be expensive. And reinstating the old plan would force Tesla to take a $25 billion charge.

But given the size of the payout, Musk’s payday drama is clearly far from over.

Fast Laps

Nissan said its global production fell for a fifth straight month in October, led by downshifts at most of its manufacturing hubs except for Mexico.

Toyota’s global output dropped for a ninth consecutive month in October, dragged lower by big falls in U.S. and Chinese production.

Chinese automaker BYD is asking its suppliers to lower their prices, in a sign that a brutal ongoing price war in the world's largest auto market is set to escalate.

General Motors will sell its stake in its joint venture battery plant in Lansing, Michigan, to partner LG Energy Solution as the Detroit automaker cuts back on its EV plans.

China's Baidu has received a license to test autonomous vehicles with its Apollo Go robotaxi service in Hong Kong as it expands its footprint outside the Chinese mainland.

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(Editing by Mark Potter)

Sept 18 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• NAMES PARAG JOGLEKAR AS CFO

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE3GhdnL

Further company coverage: NIPF.NS

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July 19 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• JUNE-QUARTER CONSOL NET PROFIT 3.32 BILLION RUPEES

• JUNE-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 5.05 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSEbhKNkn

Further company coverage: NIPF.NS

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April 24 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL PROFIT 3.43 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS PROFIT 1.98 BILLION RUPEES

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 4.68 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 3.48 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSE1B6TCf

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Jan 29 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT DEC-QUARTER CONSOL NET PROFIT 2.84 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS PROFIT 2.05 BILLION RUPEES

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT DEC-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 4.23 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 3.54 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE2y0JxK

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Jan 4 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• APPROVED APPOINTMENT OF AMOL BILAGI AS 'INTERIM-CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER'

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE64tWGF

Further company coverage: NIPF.NS

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Dec 29 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• PRATEEK JAIN RESIGNS AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSEGDrRM

Further company coverage: NIPF.NS

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By Sudarshan Varadhan

SINGAPORE, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Booming demand for Indian coal is driving up the shares of miner Coal India COAL.NS and power generator NTPC Ltd NTPC.NS, state giants investors once dismissed as plodding dinosaurs, but which are now outperforming the wider market and global peers.

NTPC, which produces mostly coal-fired power, has surged 78%, far ahead of a gain of 17% in the broader Nifty Index, while shares of Coal India are up 55% for their best year in 2023.

Already the most coal-dependent major economy, India's reliance on the fuel for power generation is set to rise for a third straight year as the addition of renewables slows, giving the two giants a boost.

Analysts expect their efforts to boost efficiency and access to cheap capital to extend the rally, with most recommending that shareholders buy more of the two stocks or retain their holdings, LSEG data shows.

By comparison, shares of coal miners elsewhere, such as Indonesia's Adaro Energy ADRO.JK, Australia's Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX and U.S.-based Peabody BTU.N plummeted this year. Shares of China Shenhua 601088.SS and China Coal Energy 601898.SS rose, but less than the Indian companies.

Among coal-fired power generators, South Korea's KEPCO, U.S.-based Duke Energy DUK.N and American Electric Power AEP.O suffered sharp declines. Russia's Inter RAO shares rose 16.2%.

Still, with a price to earnings ratio of 7.63, Coal India is cheaper than major Chinese peers, and NTPC is undervalued, compared with many Chinese and American counterparts.

Foreign funds have been boosting their stakes, despite tougher global environmental, social and governance (ESG) norms for institutional investors.

NTPC investors include the asset management units of Goldman Sachs and Nippon Life, Vanguard and Blackrock, while Fidelity, Mellon Investments and Charles Schwab figure among Coal India's top 20 shareholders, LSEG data showed.

"Foreign shareholding in the company has steadily moved higher over the last two years, highlighting the dialing-down of the ESG discount," JPMorgan said in an August note on Coal India.

Both companies were long seen as dividend stocks.

Of the eight years of growth the Nifty saw in the last decade, Coal India and NTPC outperformed it just once each. Coal India lost 57% of its value in the decade through 2020, while NTPC lost more than a third.

Since 2021, NTPC has tripled in value to $34 billion, while the world's largest coal miner has grown 2.5 times to $26 billion.

In an October note titled, "This elephant can dance," Bobcaps said NTPC's lower cost of debt gave it an edge in the power industry and it stood to benefit from the government's view that thermal additions were key to stability.

NTPC, the only major Indian company still adding coal-fired capacity, is also boosting coal output from its own mines, while Coal India is slashing thousands of jobs a year and outsourcing some operations to boost margins.

While most of the miner's sales are on low-margin, long-term contracts to utilities, surplus output has allowed bigger spot sales in the lucrative auction market. By comparison, tightening funding has choked global coal miners.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Tony Munroe and Clarence Fernandez)

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Oct 30 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD - DIVIDEND 5.50 RUPEES PER SHARE

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSE9zGckt

Further company coverage: NIPF.NS

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Corrects in story from Monday the listing date in paragraph 5
to Nov. 2, not Nov. 1,

By Anton Bridge

Sept 25 (Reuters) - SoftBank Corp 9434.T plans to raise 120 billion yen ($809 million) in Japan's first public offering of a bond-type class of shares, it said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

The shares are designed to avoid diluting common shareholders' stakes as they cannot be converted into common shares at a later date and do not confer voting rights.

They are expected to offer higher yields than corporate bonds at a lower risk than equity and are principally aimed at individual investors, bankers involved in the issuance said.

SoftBank Corp, the Japanese telecommunications arm of tech investment giant SoftBank Group 9984.T, first proposed the issuance in May, but board approval only came on Monday.

The shares will be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Nov. 2, with pricing expected between Oct. 13 and 17.

Although classed as equity in accounting terms, the shares offer a set dividend and can be redeemed by SoftBank after a period of five years.

This benefits investors by lowering principal risk while limiting the impact on SoftBank's return on equity and earnings per share.

SoftBank said the annual dividend would be between 2.5% and 3% - sitting between its equity dividend yield of roughly 5% and its corporate bonds, the highest paying of which has a coupon rate of 1.3%.

Bankers involved in the issuance say the hope is to attract individual investors - who in Japan are typically risk averse - seeking out higher returns amid rising interest rates, but without both the volatility and principal risk that comes with direct shareholdings.

As the shares will be publicly listed, they can be purchased through the tax-efficient Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA), unlike corporate bonds.

The issuance dovetails with Japanese government policy, which has long sought to encourage the use of household savings for investment, as half of household financial assets lie in cash or bank deposits.

SoftBank says the proceeds will be used for growth investments in telecommunications, IT technologies and "next-generation social infrastructure".

Depending on demand for the shares, the bankers said other companies may too issue such shares, but noted this requires amending a company's articles of incorporation, so it may take time before a market for the shares develops.

($1 = 148.3700 yen)

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru and Anton Bridge and Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo; Editing by Kim Coghill and Mark Potter)

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By Jayshree P Upadhyay

Aug 2 (Reuters) - India’s markets regulator will put forth two options to water down its earlier proposal to levy a standard investor fee on mutual funds, to limit the impact on the profitability of the 44.3 trillion-rupee ($537.75 billion) asset management industry, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The changes, following a push-back from the industry, will be part of a discussion paper likely to be issued in the coming weeks, the sources said. A discussion paper is the first step in crafting regulations.

Both sources declined to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

A spokesperson for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) did not respond to an email sent on Monday.

The regulator is exploring an option to let mutual funds charge higher fees with all expenses, including brokerage and taxes paid by fund houses, the sources said.

SEBI's original proposal allowed fund houses to charge a maximum fee of 2.55% of the assets under management (AUM) with all expenses, including brokerage costs.

A final decision will be taken after receiving feedback on the discussion paper, but the industry expects it to be set at a level which has a "marginal impact" on profitability, said one of the sources.

In a presentation to the regulator in June, the industry argued that the original proposals would squeeze the profitability of almost all asset management companies (AMCs) by 20-80%, said the second source.

The other option is to exclude brokerage and taxes but the investor fees will be lower, the sources said.

Arbitrage funds that buy and sell securities frequently and hence have a higher tax burden, will be allowed to choose the second option, the sources added.

Both options were discussed with an internal committee finalising rules on July 21, according to the first source.

SEBI's discussion paper on mutual fund fees, first released on May 18, drew the ire of the industry, prompting the regulator to defer a decision to it June 29 board meeting.

At a news conference following the board meeting, SEBI's chairperson, Madhabi Puri Buch, said the regulator would issue a fresh discussion paper which will make the industry "quite happy."

($1 = 82.3800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)

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By Bharath Rajeswaran

BENGALURU, July 27 (Reuters) - Shares of asset management companies declined on Thursday, a day after Jio Financial Services JIOF.NS, part of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group said it will form a joint venture with U.S.-based BlackRock Inc BLK.N to launch services in India.

HDFC Asset Management HDFA.NS, UTI Asset Management UTIA.NS and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC ADIE.NS fell between 0.75% and 2%.

"The fear, probably, in the market is that if they (Jio Financial) go the telecom way and do their asset management foray at very low costs, it could create a little bit of heat among the other existing players," said Amit Kumar Gupta, founder at Fintrekk Capital.

Reliance had upended India's telecoms industry when it launched cheap data plans and free calls, triggering a price war in the sector.

"Whether Jio Financial Services and BlackRock will go all passive or all active (funds) or a mix of both remains to be seen."

Jio Financial and Blackrock are targeting an initial investment of $150 million each in the joint venture, Jio Financial said on Wednesday. The announcement follows the recent demerger of Jio Financial Services from Reliance Industries RELI.NS.

The JV with Jio Financial Services will be BlackRock's second attempt to enter the asset management industry in India, after exiting a JV with local financial firm DSP Group in 2018.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

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April 25 (Reuters) - Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd NIPF.NS:

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL NET PROFIT 1.98 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 1.75 BILLION RUPEES

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 3.48 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 3.38 BILLION RUPEES

• NIPPON LIFE INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD - RECOMMENDED FINAL DIVIDEND OF 7.50 RUPEES PER SHARE

Further company coverage: NIPF.NS

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