TCS set to become world’s third-largest IT services company. Apple inches closer to finalizing the location for its first retail store in India. HDFC to auction Jet Airways' BKC office space following its failure to repay a loan amount of c. INR415cr. NSSO finds GDP new series data faulty; 36% companies under Corporate Affairs Ministry database wrongly classified. China set to resume trade talks with US on back of tariff threats by Trump. Chinese exports decline 2.7% in April. Sensex plunges 488 pts, Nifty down 138 points on back of weak global cues. Visa enrolls Paytm Payments Bank into its card issuing and payments network. Hackers steal Bitcoins worth over $40m from Binance.
Moving on to the top Business stories of the day.
COMPANIES
TCS set to become world’s third-largest IT services company. Apple inches closer to finalizing the location for its first retail store in India.
Heavy Weight Champion: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is set to become the third-largest software services provider in the world in FY18-19, surpassing DXC Technology, only behind International Business Machines (IBM) and Accenture.
DXC Technology, which was formed by the merger of Computer Sciences Corp. with a division of Hewlett Packard in 2017, needs to clock a 5.06% sequential growth in Q4 to end with $20.91bn in revenue. Most analysts however, believe that it is unlikely that DXC will manage this growth as it declares its fourth-quarter earnings on 23 May.
To Put Things Into Perspective: TCS grew 9.6%, adding $1.82bn in new business, to end with $20.91bn in revenue in the year ended 31 March.
In the first nine months of FY18-19, TCS generated $15.52bn in revenue, more than the $15.47bn in business done by DXC.
We Might Have a Winner Soon: Apple has reportedly shortlisted locations for its first retail store in India, as it seeks to redouble its efforts in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market.
The giant has zeroed in on several upscale sites in Mumbai, and plans to make a final decision in the next few weeks.
Preferred Choice of Investors: Flexible working space saw a 277% jump in leasing to nearly 3 million sq ft in the first quarter of this calendar year. The first quarter also saw some of the big names in the industry including Ascendas Singbridge, Brigade, and OYO entering the co-working office space market.
With a sharp increase in leasing in the shared working space over the last few quarters, co-working is catching up as a preferred asset class for several leading developers and investors. More on this here.
AVIATION
HDFC to auction Jet Airways' BKC office space following its failure to repay a loan amount of c. INR415cr.
The Godrej BKC office building was developed by Godrej Properties in partnership with Jet Airways which owned the prime land. Jet had bought the land in 2008 for INR826cr through an auction.
Naresh Goyal, who stepped down from the Board and Chairmanship of Jet Airways in April, said he would invest the funds from Jetair Pvt. Ltd, a company that he controls.
ECONOMY
NSSO finds GDP new series data faulty; 36% companies under Ministry of Corporate Affairs database wrongly classified.
A key database introduced in India’s new GDP series has been found to be riddled with gaps.
As per a report published by the National Sample Survey Office, 21% of companies included in a database underlying India’s GDP numbers were “out of coverage”, implying they were no longer operating. Another 12% could not be traced.
Recalibrating data of past years using 2011-12 as the base year instead of 2004-05, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated that India's GDP grew by 8.5% in FY2010-11 and not at 10.3% as previously estimated.
A deep dive into the matter
here.
Bonus: The inside story of the decline of a globally renowned statistical system and its effect on Asia’s third largest economy
here.
TRADEWAR
China set to resume trade talks with US on back of tariff threats by Trump. Chinese exports decline 2.7% in April. Sensex plunges 488 pts, Nifty down 138 points on back of weak global cues.
We Need to Talk: Beijing on Tuesday announced that Vice Premier Liu He will travel to Washington to
resume negotiations and confront US demands that Beijing detail the laws it would change as a part of a trade deal.
The development comes ahead of a deadline set by President Trump to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.
Recap: In a thread of Twitter messages earlier this week, US President Donald Trump wrote that he plans to raise levies on $200bn in Chinese imports to 25% starting Friday, up from the current 10%.
He also wrote he would impose 25% tariffs “shortly” on $325bn in Chinese goods that haven’t yet been taxed.
It’s Complicated: Chinese exports decline 2.7% in April, with demand weakening across most major markets. This is likely to further complicate Beijing’s efforts to stabilize growth amid renewed trade tensions with the US.
Chronicle of a Fall Foretold: Benchmark indices ended lower for the sixth consecutive session on Wednesday amid across-the-board selling and weak global cues. Sensex lost c. 488 points or 1.27% to settle at 37,790.
Nifty50 slipped below the crucial 11,400 level to end at 11,359, down 138 points or 1.2%. Out of 50 constituents, 40 ended in the red and just 10 in the green.
TECH
Visa enrolls Paytm Payments Bank into its card issuing and payments network. Hackers steal Bitcoins worth over $40m from Binance.
This could be a major move by Visa to get large, unorganized merchants into its fold.
Paytm Bank has been offering digital debit cards to all those who had opened accounts, but physical cards were issued only on the specific request of customers. The bank, one of the seven operational payment banks licensed by the Reserve Bank of India, was only issuing RuPay debit cards till date.
The theft occurred from the company’s so-called “hot wallet,” which accounts for about 2% of its total Bitcoin holdings.
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