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IDFC Ltd is likely to announce the sale of its mutual fund business on Wednesday evening after the Board’s approval, sources aware of the development said.

According to media reports, a consortium led by Bandhan Financial Holdings is leading the race to acquire IDFC AMC.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, private equity player ChrysCapital are some of the partners of the consortium. Bandhan Financial is also the holding company of Kolkata-based private sector lender Bandhan Bank. The deal will allow the Bandhan group to enter India’s growing mutual fund business which currently manages Rs 38 trillion of assets.

IDFC Limited and IDFC Financial Holding Company Limited in its board meeting in September 2021 approved the divestment of its mutual fund (MF) business.

IDFC MF with assets under management (AUM) of over Rs 1.21 trillion as in the Jan-March quarter is one of the top ten players in the MF industry.

IDFC announced the sale of its MF business after the company faced shareholders' ire on delay in divestments and mergers.

In the last financial year, the fund house saw its profit after tax at Rs 144 crore compared to Rs 79.4 crore in FY20. Typically, deals in MFs take place between 5-7 per cent of the AUM. In many cases, valuations can increase if the fund house has a good amount of equity assets.

"The investors presentation of IDFC Limited shows that total income of IDFC AMC stood at Rs 108.4 crore for Q3FY22 as against Rs 100.7 crore in Q3FY21, a growth of 7.6 per cent. While profit after tax surged by 12.8 per cent to Rs 46.1 crore in the third quarter of last fiscal compared to Rs 40.8 crore in Q3FY21."

Also Read:- Services PMI rises to 53.6 in March on lifting of COVID restrictions

India's services activity improved in March, with the S&P Global India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rising to a three-month high of 53.6 from 51.8 in February.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion in activity, while a sub-50 print is a sign of contraction.

IHS Markit - the  compiler of the PMI - completed its merger with S&P Global on Febraury 28, leading to the renaming of the PMI for India as well as some other countries.

"Buoyed by the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, consumers were eager to go out and spend. Service providers recorded the fastest upturn in new business in 2022 so far, with an equal outcome seen for business activity," noted Pollyanna De Lima, economics associate director at S&P Global.

While the rise in new work in March was characterised as "solid", it was driven by the domestic market, with new business from abroad declining. Worryingly, the fall in new business from abroad was the fastest since September 2021.

The real concern, however, were prices.

The increase in costs in March was the most in 11 years, with service providers experiencing higher chemical, fuel, raw material, retail, transportation, and vegetable costs.

"Inflation risks continued to curb business optimism regarding growth prospects, with sentiment among services companies remaining subdued by historical standards. This lack of confidence in the outlook also meant that employment continued to fall in March," De Lima added.

Service sector jobs fell again in March even as the PMI increased to the highest in three months. However, the loss of service sector jobs in March was "only marginal".

While some companies passed on the the higher costs to consumers, on the whole, the increase in prices paid by consumers was "moderate and broadly in line with its long-run average" as price hikes were capped by the need to obtain new work, according to anecdotal evidence.

Like the services PMI, the composite PMI for March also rose to a three-month high of 54.3. Data released on April 4 showed the S&P Global India Manufacturing PMI declined to 54.0 in March from 54.9 in February.

Climate tech is increasingly being seen as an exciting opportunity in the world of technology startups and venture capital, globally and in India. But it is not the first time that startups focused on climate and the environment are getting this attention. Over a decade ago, between 2006 and 2011, venture capitalists and PE investors poured in billions into ‘clean tech’ startups. But they never really saw the returns they were expecting. Hence, the question being asked today, and rightly so, is: is the climate tech opportunity real this time around?

Yes, the fundamentals and macro trends clearly suggest that the climate tech story will be significantly different this time. We are now seeing a unique confluence of trends in favour of climate tech. What are those key factors and macro trends?

One, the massive rise in climate-related disasters has had a significant economic and political impact. Droughts, floods, pollution, disrupted crop patterns, rise in ocean levels, destruction of bio-diversity, among other things, have been clearly destroying livelihoods, and imposing significant economic costs on nations. Two, national and international commitments to achieve net zero emissions are broadly starting to align, even if significant differences still remain. India notably also committed to achieving net zero by 2070.

Admittedly, both these factors were true earlier as well: climate-related disasters have been occurring for a long time now, and governments have claimed to be re-committed to sustainability. Yet, it is also clear that on both fronts, the ante has been upped — by nature on one hand, and by governments and non-state actors globally on the other.

Three, significant technological breakthroughs in recent years offer the biggest hope that climate tech could actually change the game this time around. Renewable energy production — especially of solar energy — has become cost effective and in many cases cheaper than fossil fuel-driven energy production. This hard economic reality is most likely to push up renewable energy production.

Also Read: AirAsia resumes flights between India and Malaysia, Thailand

AirAsia on Wednesday said it is resuming flights connecting India with Malaysia and Thailand from this month. After two years of coronavirus-induced suspension, India resumed regular international flights on March 27.

In a press release, Malaysian carrier AirAsia said flights will gradually resume on six routes between India and Malaysia. While the flights on Bengaluru-Kuala Lumpur and Chennai-Kuala Lumpur routes began on April 1, the flight on the Tiruchirapalli-Kuala Lumpur route began on April 5, it mentioned.

The flights on Kochi-Kuala Lumpur, Kolkata-Kuala Lumpur and Hyderabad-Kuala Lumpur routes will commence from April 18, April 23 and May 1, respectively, it noted. The Malaysian carrier said flights on five India-Thailand routes will begin in May.

The flights on Bengaluru-Bangkok, Chennai-Bangkok, Kolkata-Bangkok, Kochi-Bangkok and Jaipur Bangkok will commence on May 4, May 4, May 2, May 1 and May 1, respectively, it mentioned.