Warren Buffett Bet $5 Billion on Bank of America in 2011, Made Fortune

Warren Buffett plowed $5 billion into Bank of America during the US debt-ceiling crisis in 2011. The famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO had the idea to invest while taking a bath. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway counts Bank of America as its number-two holding after Apple. Warren Buffett struck one of the must lucrative deals of … Read more

AU Small Finance Bank raises ₹2,000cr via QIP issue

According to a regulatory filing, AU Small Finance Bank has raised about ₹2,000 crore from qualified institutional investors, falling short of its goal of up to ₹2,500 crore. Among those that participated in the qualified institutional placement (QIP) were DSP, the Singaporean government, Goldman Sachs, and ICICI Prudential Life. The bank reported that on Tuesday, … Read more

Did Axis overpay in Citi deal? Analysts think so

With Citibank’s credit card spends share falling to 3.9% in June from 4.8% a year ago, analysts said may have overpaid for the Citi retail assets deal. During the same period, Axis Bank’s market share has increased to 9.3% from 8.3%, according to Reserve Bank of India data. “We remain concerned about the steady decline … Read more

Axis acquires Citi’s Indian Consumer Business. Retention is the key.

Finally after months of speculation, Axis has formally announced the acquisition. What is Axis acquiring? Consumer banking businesses of Citibank India – credit cards, retail banking, wealth management and consumer loans. Citi’s non-banking financial company, Citicorp Finance (India) Ltd – Commercial Vehicle loans, Construction Equipment Loans and Personal Loans. Access to Citi’s 7 offices, 21 … Read more

Indusind bank denies evergreening but accepts technical glitch in loan disbursals

In an Economic Times report of November 5, there were some corporate governance issues at Indusind’s microfinance subsidiary Bharat Financial Inclusion (BFI). Indusind had acquired BFI (erswhile SKS Microfinance) in March 2019. As per the subject report – Between October 17 and 24, several senior employees of BFI had written to the Reserve Bank of … Read more

Lot seems to be changing at ICICI Bank

As per my employee contacts at ICICI Bank, lot seems to have changed since Sandeep Bakhshi took over. He is focused, detail oriented and a boring banker. Result – there is less focus on market position but more on effective growth by identifying the available market opportunities. Unit economics and credit quality has become a … Read more

HDFC Bank and Paytm tie up to leverage on each other’s strengths

2017 – “payment wallets like Paytm have no future” – Aditya Puri 2021 – HDFC and Paytm tie-up to leverage on each other’s strengths. Times change and so do the business compulsions ! It’s a very interesting arrangement and has the potential to lay roadmap for similar other tie-ups in future. Why is it so? … Read more