15 billion pounds in rupees

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (May 17): Duopharma Biotech Bhd’s net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 (1QFY22) grew 15.2% to RM20.29 million from RM17.61 million in the same quarter last year, on the back of higher revenue due to increase in sales. The Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine distributor saw its revenue for the quarter under review rise 11.71% to RM185.94 million from RM166.45 million previously, bolstered by higher sales to the consumer healthcare and private ethical sectors. Earnings per share improved to 2.19 sen compared with 1.9 sen a year ago, according to Duopharma’s filing with Bursa Malaysia. Compared to the immediate preceding quarter, Duopharma’s net profit grew 29.11% quarter-on-quarter from RM15.72 million, as revenue went up by 27.84% from RM145.44 million in 4QFY21. In a separate statement, Duopharma Biotech group managing director Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar said earnings in the upcoming quarters will be buoyed by the RM375 million … [Read more...] about Duopharma’s 1Q net profit rises 15% on higher revenue

- A + A MUMBAI (May 17): Shares in Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC) slid nearly 8% on its market debut on Tuesday, a fresh setback for the state-owned giant as its record-breaking, oversubscribed initial public offering (IPO) raised far less than expected for the government. India's biggest insurer and largest domestic financial investor closed at 875.25 rupees, compared with the IPO price of 949 rupees. LIC now has a market value of around 5.54 trillion rupees (US$71.54 billion) and is India's fifth-biggest company. The share-price decline reflects weak overall market sentiment and a slump in the broader market since LIC's IPO opened for subscription on May 4, analysts said, even as the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index closed up 2.6% on Tuesday. "We were not expecting a big listing as markets were jittery, expect it to pick up," LIC's chairman M R Kumar told reporters. The government, which had positioned the sale as the first and biggest of a wave of … [Read more...] about LIC shares tumble in market debut after record India IPO

The bottom fell out from one of crypto’s fastest growing blockchains, LUNA, which promised to succeed where bitcoin failed. Its predictable collapse reverberated across the entire crypto market and is forcing investors to pick up the pieces. C rypto’s history has been defined by five resets. The first came in 2014 when what was basically the only bitcoin exchange in the world, Mt. Gox, imploded following a nearly half-billion-dollar hack. The second, in 2016, was The DAO hack, when an attacker tricked a smart contract into giving away $60 million worth of ethereum, worth $8 billion today. The third, in January 2018, occurred when the ICO bubble popped, starting a year-long decline wiping out 60% of the crypto market or more than $700 million mostly in the form of worthless junk tokens. The fourth took place in March 2020 when crypto lost 40% of its value along with most other global financial markets. Each reset not only led to price-market capitalization increases, they … [Read more...] about Crypto’s Great Reset: How Digital Asset Investors Will Recover From The Market’s $1 Trillion Meltdown

Major Moves The majority of the stocks in the S&P 500 lost ground today as traders attempted to quantify and make adjustments for the uncertain risk they face with the Trump administration's tariff deadline looming at 12:01 a.m. Friday morning. The risk is uncertain because nobody knows if the Trump administration is going to go through with tariff increase. The U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) office filed paperwork on Wednesday to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%, but that doesn't mean the administration has to pull the trigger. However, the S&P 500 component that lost the most ground today didn't drop because of uncertain tariff risks. It fell because it faces easily quantifiable risks – 38 billion of them to be precise. Until today, Occidental Petroleum Corporation ( OXY ) had been in a bidding war with Chevron Corporation ( CVX ) for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation ( APC ). Chevron originally bid $33 billion for Anadarko, … [Read more...] about Occidental Petroleum Stock Plunges, but S&P 500 Rallies Into Close

HCL Tech CHRO Apparao VV HCL Technologies, which has about 1,700 employees in troubled Sri Lanka, has set up a team to monitor the situation as the island nation grapples with food and fuel shortages amid record inflation and an economic crisis. While there has been no work disruption so far, it is preparing for all scenarios, with backup plans ready to move work and people to India. Apart from Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and Poland, HCL Tech is stepping up hiring in smaller Indian cities such as Madurai, Lucknow, and Nagpur as it looks toward fresher pools of talent amid booming demand for software services and rising attrition. In an interview with Moneycontrol , VV Apparao, chief human resource officer of HCL Tech, explains the company’s efforts in augmenting the talent supply chain and steps it is taking to counter the challenges of hiring and attrition. Edited excerpts: In Q4, HCL Tech reported attrition on the last 12-month basis jumped to 21.9 percent from 19.8 … [Read more...] about HCL Tech monitoring crisis in Sri Lanka daily, sees no work disruption: CHRO Apparao

“Whilst Thailand is often nicknamed the ‘land of a thousand 7-elevens’, with a convenience store on just about every corner, there are very few of these in Vietnam, for now.” With the Thai Baht on a high at the moment, along with stricter enforcement of visa rules, some expats say they’ve had enough and are heading to Vietnam, or some other south east Asian country, where they might improve their personal situation. For example, an expat pensioner, on a fixed income, from a country where the Thai baht has risen against your currency, Thailand has become a more expensive option – perhaps impossible to make ends meet anymore with your old pension. The British pound, as just one currency, has gone from around 55 baht to the pound four years ago, to now around 39 baht, a big loss in value. Meanwhile the cost of living in Thailand has risen over the last decade. But Vietnam has its own challenges and, whilst being an amazing place to explore as a tourist, may not be to everyone’s … [Read more...] about So you want to move to Vietnam?

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on May 9, 2022 - May 15, 2022. Izham: We remain bullish on MAG’s future [and] cautiously optimistic about the environment. (Photo by Suhaimi Yusuf/The Edge) - A + A MALAYSIA Aviation Group Bhd (MAG), which narrowed its full-year net loss for 2021 by 60% over the preceding year, remains on track to achieve break-even in 2023 as part of its Long Term Business Plan 2021-2025 (LTBP 2.0). However, group CEO Captain Izham Ismail warns of headwinds from fuel and foreign exchange (forex) volatility, which could affect the target. MAG, whose wholly-owned subsidiaries include Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB), MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd (MABkargo), FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd and MASwings Sdn Bhd, posted a net loss of RM1.65 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY2021), a significant improvement on the year-earlier RM4.1 billion net loss when it was dealing with the effects of a slowdown in the global economy and … [Read more...] about Malaysia Aviation Group on track to break even in 2023 but faces fuel, forex headwinds

MANILA, Philippines—Ahead of the May 9 presidential elections, pledges from foreign investors who wanted to avail themselves of tax and other perks for their forthcoming projects fell 54.1 percent year-on-year to P8.9 billion during the first quarter–also the lowest quarterly haul since the global financial crisis 13 years ago. The latest Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data on Tuesday (May 17) showed that commitments approved by the country’s seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) from January to March dropped from P19.6 billion in the first three months of last year. IPAs give away fiscal incentives to qualified projects. Historical PSA data showed that the first-quarter 2022 foreign investment pledges were the lowest since the P3.9-billion worth generated during the first quarter of 2009, at the height of the 2008-2009 global economic downturn. The Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last year … [Read more...] about Q1 foreign investment pledges fall to lowest since 2009

Razorpay Founders Shashank Kumar & Harshil Mathur B2B payments and neobanking platform Razorpay is looking to get new investors on board through a share sale of $75 million by its employees, the company said on May 10. The purchase will be led by Lightspeed Venture Partners along with participation from Moore Strategic Ventures who will subsequently join the company’s cap table. This will also be Razorpay’s fourth and largest Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) buyback till date, and the second largest in the startup space after Flipkart’s Rs 600 crore buyback in July 2021. 650 of the startup’s existing and former employees will be eligible for this across roles including software engineers, product managers, customer experience agents, sales, and administrative staff. In December 2021, Razorpay’s valuation had jumped from $1 billion to $7.5 billion after the startup raised $375 million in its largest round. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Razorpay’s founder and … [Read more...] about Lightspeed and Moore Strategic Ventures become investors in Razorpay by buying employee shares worth $75 mn

The Biden administration, which wants everyone in the U.S. to have affordable access to high-speed internet by 2029, announced May 13, 2022, a $45 billion 'Internet for All (IFA)' initiative to pay for it. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the initiative will provide "affordable, reliable, high-speed internet for everyone in America by the end of the decade." Administration and implementation of the program will be the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The announcement about the IFA initiative came on the heels of news May 9, 2022, that the Biden administration had partnered with 20 broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon, to improve their subsidized high-speed internet plans made available to low-income Americans through the Affordable Connectivity Program. Key Takeaways 'Internet for All (IFA)' is a $45 billion initiative to provide affordable high-speed broadband … [Read more...] about Biden’s New Plan To Expand Broadband Access