Sensex at 19.3K, do you think Rs 1000cr made it happen

Realty and banking stocks took a beating on the bourses today as LICHF, PNB Central Bank,  Bank of India housing finance loan scam was exposed. CBI sources say that five companies involved in the scam took loan of Rs 1000 crore,


It is learnt that companies took loan to invest in stocks and manipulate share price . Sources also add that a company took loan of Rs 560 crore, another borrowed Rs 300 crore while rest of them took loan of Rs 50-60 crore.

Now CBI will write market regulator SEBI asking it to investigate the role played by these companies. If need be these companies can even be blacklisted for taking money in the name of housing loan and then diverting it to manipulate share prices.

Sources also add that there are six other officials from various public sector banks who are on CBI’s radar whose role is being investigated vis-à-vis this housing loan scam and in the next few days we can see more arrests in this case.

Most of the banks have given these  loans after proper verification. They already held a good amount of collateral with them for the loans that they had disbursed. From that point of view, we don’t see too much of a problem of them giving a loan and it turning bad.


What has happened is that somebody has taken advantage of the system, in probably expediting the process by way of extracting money out from the banking system faster, to complete the land acquisition buy and that is where these things have backfired.

Otherwise, this bribery has been going on in this particular sector for many years. It’s not the first time that we are seeing this. Probably it has come on the surface this time around and that is why we are all shocked. More importantly, the banking sector has not been found doing something which they should not have been doing.

At the same time, real estate companies have been taking this kind of money from banks by paying extra money to get the process done faster. In my view point, the corporate workings are not going to get affected beyond a point. Maybe some process may get delayed including sanctions. That is where one might see some amount of hiccups. But beyond a point, I don’t see corporate workings getting affected either on the realty or on the banking side.

Life Insurance Corporation and LIC Housing Finance have been in focus since the news of a large scale multi-crore scam broke out. In a bid to clear Life Insurance Corporation's name from the murky dealings, the company's Chairman TS Vijayan relegated the matter to individual misconduct and denied having any kind of system failure.


LIC do not have any sensitive information about corporate houses. As far as LIC Investment Department is concerned, if anyone comes for a loan or equity investment, it’s based on published information. There cannot be anything like confidential information that any company shares with us that is to be shared with other outside people. I don’t think so.

LIC has representatives in some of the companies of course but those things are taken in at a different level if at all report come. If any exceptional things come in the board, they do report but it is in a different level, it’s not at secracy level

Investment decisions to equities are taken on the basis of both the research report and operations at very extremely senior level and the information, once the decision is taken for implementation, it might go down but decisions are not influenced by any of these things.



 

Daily News 29Sep2010

In this section useful news to board is published mentioning sources

The World Bank is exploring whether to invest in an USD 11 billion debt fund the Indian government will roll out by next year as part of a massive push to its infrastructure sector, the bank's India head said.

 India was making progress in tackling procedural hassles that have held back faster infrastructure growth but a major roadblock to more private investment was a shortage of bankable projects.
The World Bank was likely to lend around USD 15 billion to USD 20 billion to India's infrastructure sector in the next five years. Typically the bank's lending to the sector ranges between 40-60% of the total annual lending.
The government has announced theUSD 11 billion debt fund as a part of a series of recent measures to overhaul India's creaking infrastructure, which has long been seen as hobbling faster growth in Asia's third-largest economy. A similar fund is also under consideration for the power sector.
Zagha said in an interview as part of the Reuters India Investment Summit, when asked whether the World Bank would contribute to the fund.
Pending legislation to give farmers a better deal in land acquisition would be a big step towards balancing development with social justice and help ease the implementation of infrastructure projects, he said.
The Indian government plans to double spending on infrastructure to USD 1 trillion in its next fiveyear plan, which runs from 2012-17.
"That's a statement of intent," said Zagha, referring to the spending target. "There's a sense of urgency in the government which I didn't see before. That's very encouraging."
There was at least USD 50 billion to USD 60 billion untapped investor potential in water and sewage treatment projects alone, he said.
"I don't think financing is an issue." he said. "The greatest challenge is bankable projects. Investors will come, financing will be found if you find ways of making projects which are commercially attractive and bankable."
The fiasco of New Delhi's preparations to host the Commonwealth Games has proved an embarrassment to the government and raised worries in some quarters, including the rating agency Moody's Analytics, that it could deter foreign investment.
"I don't it matters," Zagha said, when asked whether the Games could hit investor sentiment. "But it does show the organisational issues that India has to deal with."


source http://www.moneycontrol.com/