LIC holding in Britannia Industries crosses 5%
Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) shareholding in Britannia Industries crossed 5% on October 18 with the institutional investor acquiring almost 1.16 lakh shares in the FMCG firm at an average price of ₹4,607.09.

Lapsed LIC policy revival campaign to end soon; how to revive LIC policy with up to Rs 4,000 concession
In order to continue providing risk coverage in these uncertain times, the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has initiated a special campaign to reactivate lapsed policies. A special revival campaign for individual lapsed insurance will run from September 1 to October 31, 2023, according to the LIC website.

The campaign is being launched to help policyholders whose policies lapsed because they were unable to pay premiums on time due to unavoidable circumstances. It is usually preferable to resurrect an existing policy in order to reinstate insurance coverage.

What is a lapsed policy

Group Health Insurance: Resigned? Now migrate to a new policy with the same insurer
A company’s group health insurance cover ceases to exist once an employee retires or resigns from the organisation. However, the employee including family members can migrate to an individual or family floater health insurance policy with the same insurer if he acts in time. For this, the insured employee has to intimate the insurer prior to leaving the employer or within five days of the date of cessation of group membership to issue a new retail health insurance policy for himself and his dependents (who were named as insured persons in the earlier policy) for cover up to his sum insured under the policy, on payment of premium in full for the new policy. After the migration, the insured can even opt for portability with any other general or standalone health insurer if needed.

24% growth in health cover premia drives non-life insurance sector
Source Credit: Aathira Varier, Business Standard

Mumbai: The health insurance segment grew 24.4 per cent in the first half of 2023-24 (H1FY24) to Rs 54,713.52 crore from Rs 43,981.54 crore in H1FY23, driving the growth of the overall non-life insurance industry.
 

Health insurance new features: Common cashless network across the country, 100% cashless system to be launched soon

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is working with industry players to introduce two new features in health insurance policies. These are — a common network of hospitals for all health insurance policies issued by any health insurance or general insurance company across the country and a 100% cashless settlement system.

Why health insurance premiums beating motor insurance is both good and bad news
 

Sebi puts in place guidelines to improve governance, preparedness of qualified RTAs
New Delhi, Capital markets regulator Sebi on Friday came out with guidelines to strengthen governance of qualified Registrars and Transfer Agents (QRTAs) for handling disruption and improving preparedness by conducting periodic drills. In its circular, the regulator has asked QRTAs to put in place a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Site (DRS) in a bid to ensure continuity of operations and maintain data and transaction integrity.

SEBI eases norms for large corporates borrowing from debt market
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India on Thursday eased norms for large corporates (LCs) to meet their financing needs from the debt market. The framework will apply to all listed entities that have outstanding long-term borrowings of ₹1,000 crore or above with a credit rating of AA/Asian Age/AAA. The previous stipulated limit was ₹100 crore. The new framework provides an incentive for compliance in lieu of penalty.

SEBI eases norms for mandatory bond issuances, announces incentives
 

EPFO adds 16.99 lakh net members in August
New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO has recorded net member addition of 16.99 lakh in August 2023, according to the payroll data released on Friday. A Labour Ministry statement said that the year-on-year comparison of payroll data reflects a marginal increase in net members over the previous year of August 2022. As many as 3,210 establishments extended social security cover of the EPFO to their employees by remitting their first ECR during the month. The data indicates that around 9.26 lakh new members have enrolled during August 2023. Among the newly joined members, the age-group of 18-25 years constitutes 58.36 per cent of the total new members added during the month.

This indicates that most of the first-time job seekers are youth joining the organised sector workforce in large numbers. The payroll data depicts that approximately 11.88 lakh members exited & rejoined EPFO, showing an increase of 10.13 per cent compared with the previous year in August 2022. These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, extending their social security protection.

MFs appeal to SEBI to resolve call recording conundrum
The transaction was financed by 10 international banks with debt maturity of up to 3 years. Adani Cement emerged as the country’s second-largest cement player after the $6.6 billion acquisition of Ambuja and ACC.

Disconnect between large, mid, small and microcap is not likely to last longer: Nilesh Shah
Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak AMC, says “in the past, we have seen a far tighter and narrower gap between the US yield and India yield and yet received the flows and this will repeat in 2023. Second, it is not the domestic institutional investors' money which is keeping the market afloat. It is the confidence of domestic institutional investors on India Inc and long-term India growth story which is keeping the market afloat.”

MFs rush to SEBI to resolve call recording conundrum
Mumbai: The regulatory diktat to record calls of fund managers during market hours continues to trouble mutual funds, three years after it was first mandated. The industry has aired its grievances afresh on the matter with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) a few days ago, said two people in the know.

Helios Mutual Fund launches Helios Flexicap Fund; all you need to know
Helios Mutual Fund announced the launch of Helios Flexicap Fund, an open-ended dynamic equity scheme investing across large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap stocks.

Anthony Heredia’s guide for investors – don’t go by past returns, stay diversified & use SIPs
Anthony Heredia, CEO, Mahindra Manulife AMC & AMFI VC, says “If you just define ambition in terms of how many people can I create wealth for and the more number of people I can create wealth for, the greater good we are doing to society as a whole, that gives a very different perspective and I do not think that ambition means that only B30 is what you focus on. There is enough to be done in T30 as well.”

Zerodha Mutual Fund launches two passive funds: should you invest?

Two new fund offers or NFOs - Zerodha Nifty LargeMidcap 250 Index Fund and Zerodha ELSS Tax Saver Nifty LargeMidcap 250 Index Fund- are open for subscription in the market.

57% equity funds beat benchmarks in 2023; 83% large cap funds outperform

Around 57% equity schemes have managed to beat their respective benchmarks in this year till date, an analysis of data by ETMutualFunds showed. We considered the returns offered by 243 equity schemes in 2023 so far and compared the performance with their respective benchmarks. Around 139 equity schemes have managed to beat their respective benchmarks - an outperformance of 57%. We considered only regular, growth schemes for the study.

Large cap category had the highest percentage of outperformance. Around 25 schemes out of the total 30 schemes outperformed their respective benchmarks. This indicates around 83% outperformance by the category. The large cap category has been struggling to beat their benchmarks since the time Sebi introduced the total return index (TRI) in February 2018.

Value fund category had around 74% of outperformance. Flexi cap and ELSS fund categories had 72% and 71% of outperformance respectively.

The multi cap category had around 16 schemes, out of which nine schemes managed to outperform their respective benchmarks. Large & mid cap category had around 26 schemes, and 13 schemes outperformed their respective benchmarks. The category had 50% of outperformance in 2023.

Faering Capital invests $ 30m in Vastu Housing Finance
New Delhi: Vastu Housing Finance Corporation Limited (Vastu) has closed a fund raise from Faering Capital, a private equity fund founded by Aditya Parekh and Sameer Shroff.  The transaction involving investment of $ 30 million by Faering in Vastu is a secondary sale by funds managed by Multiples Alternate Asset Management and other shareholders of the company. 

IRM Energy IPO subscribed 27 times
Chennai: The initial public offering (IPO) of IRM Energy was subscribed 27.05 times. The IPO of IRM Energy Limited, a city gas distribution (CGD) company, saw keen interest from qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) and non-institution investors (NIIs).

To cut debt, ILFS arm sells Jorabat Shillong road project to Sekura Roads
 

‘Godrej Capital will need ₹4,000 cr of equity to raise loan book to ₹50,000 cr by 2027’
Godrej Capital Ltd will need₹1,000 crore a year for the next four years of equity capital, consistent with its aim to raise its loan book from about ₹8,000 crore now to ₹50,000 by around 2028, the company’s Managing Director & CEO, Manish Shah, told journalists here today.