The Himalayan Mail 8 JAMMU Q SATURDAY Q DECEMBER 26, 2020 NEWS NEW DELHI, DEC 25: Biotechnology major Biocon on Friday said its arm, Bio- con Biologics, and Mylan have been informed by the US health regulator of a de- ferred action on the biologics license application (BLA) for a biosimilar to drug Avastin, used to treat various types of cancers. Biocon Biologics Ltd and Mylan, a subsidiary of Viatris Inc, have been in- formed by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) of a deferred action on the BLA for MYL-1402O, a proposed biosimilar to Avastin (bevacizumab), Bio- con said in a regulatory filing. "To complete the applica- tion, the agency noted that an inspection of the manu- facturing facility is required as a part of the standard re- view process. However, due to restrictions on travel re- lated to COVID-19, the agency is unable to conduct an inspection during the cur- rent review cycle. We await the dates for the inspection," it added. "There are no addi- tional observations related to the application," Biocon Bi- ologics spokesperson said. USFDA informs Biocon, Mylan of deferred action on biosimilar license plea NEW DELHI, DEC 25: Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday imposed a penalty of Rs 27 crore on New Delhi Television's (NDTV) promoters- Pran- noy Roy, Radhika Roy and RRPR Holding. The penalty was imposed for violating various securities norms, in- cluding Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) regula- tions. The regulator imposed the penalty against NDTV promoters for by concealing information from sharehold- ers regarding certain loan agreements. RRPR is a part of NDTV's promoters' group and had a 29.18 per cent stake in the company as of September 2020. The regulator in its order said the loan agreements had clauses that have an adver- sarial effect on NDTV share- holders. The said loan agree- ments include one with ICICI Bank and two with Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd (VCPL). Sebi be- gan its probe after receiving a complaint from Quantum Securities, a shareholder of NDTV, about the violation of rules by non-disclosure of material information to shareholders. The regulator said its probe began after receipt of complaints, in 2017 from Quantum Securities Pvt Ltd – a shareholder of NDTV – about an alleged violation of rules by non-disclosure of in- formation, important to shareholders, about loan agreements with VCPL. The regulator said an agreement was signed in 2009 between VCPL and NDTV's promoters for a loan of Rs 350 crore to repay the ICICI Bank loan. A second loan agreement with VCPL was signed for Rs 53.85 crore, a year later. And these loan agreements included clauses and conditions that substantially affected the functioning of NDTV. It al- lowed VCPL to indirectly ac- quire 30 per cent sharehold- ing in the company by converting warrants into eq- uity shares of RRPR Hold- ing. The regulator further said the loan agreements were structured so that clauses on various matters about NDTV, which was price sensitive information, were concealed from the mi- nority shareholders. How- ever, the Roys contended that NDTV was not a party to the agreement, and there was no requirement on their part to make a stock ex- change disclosure. Sebi, in its order, said clauses of the loan agree- ment, demonstrate that NDTV promoters devised the scheme in such a way that they would contain cru- cial information about NDTV, though NDTV was not part of the agreement. Sebi imposed a fine of Rs 25 crore on Roys and RRPR Holding, which needs to be paid jointly and severally. Besides, a penalty of Rs 1 crore has been imposed on Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. NDTV founders said they would appeal against the or- der at Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). They said the Sebi order is based on an incorrect assessment of facts and that they have never sur- rendered the company's con- trol to another entity. NDTV promoters to appeal against Sebi order imposing fine of Rs 27 crore NEW DELHI, DEC 25: Bitcoin just won’t go away. The original cryptocurrency again had commentators eating their words in 2020 — yours truly included. It’s now time to accept it’s here to stay. Like Monty Python’s Black Knight, Bitcoin believers treat near-fatal volatility as mere flesh wounds. Drops of 80 per cent are welcomed as fortuitous buying opportuni- ties. But far from being a weakness, this is evidence of the asset class’ longevity. The cryptocurrency rallied 224 per cent this year, bringing to mind the wild advances of 2017 as it soared to record highs. While the supply side of the schedule is algorithmi- cally defined, I was caught off guard by the ability of the de- mand side to withstand volatility. I went into more detail in how my thinking on this asset class evolved in this YouTube podcast: Supply of the digital tokens are capped at a maximum of 21 million which it is ex- pected to reach in 2140, with periodic reductions in the re- ward for the network of com- puters that certify transac- tions. Yet supply dynamics aren’t sufficient to guarantee a long-term future. Many as- sets have artificially limited supply: Baseball cards, lim- ited print-run art work, and a number of historic Ponzi schemes fall into this cate- gory. What distinguishes the successes is how investors respond to crashes. In most cases, when a vehicle de- signed purely around the greater-fool theory collapses, it never recovers. There has been no substantial progress made on Bitcoin as a unit of exchange. It’s far from wide- spread adoption as a cur- rency. Since Bitcoin’s market capitalization reached $1 bil- lion in March 2013, there have been two cycles of spikes to record highs, fol- lowed by drawdowns of more than 80 per cent. Each of those cycles were preceded by a halving of the block re- ward.The first cycle could be dismissed as an anomaly, the second as a coincidence. But a halving again occurred in May, and the cycle is repeat- ing before our eyes with the cryptocurrency coming within a whisker of the all- time peak last week. To ig- nore it now is to dismiss the evidence of history. Like social networks, cryp- tocurrencies derive their value from the number of users. I could build a plat- form with the exact qualities of, and even some improve- ments over, Facebook, but achieving critical mass is an- other matter. Bitcoin crushes doubters as 224 pc rally proves it's here to stay SAN FRANCISCO, DEC 25: The value of XRP, worlds third largest cryp- tocurrency after Bitcoin and Ethereum, crashed more than 40 per cent after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued both the founder and current CEO of tech company Ripple for raising more than $1.3 billion through an "unregis- tered securities offering" af- ter selling their cryptocur- rency XRP. According to CoinMarket- Cap, the XRP's declined more than 42 per cent in the past 24 hours and was down more than 63 per cent from its 30-day high of $0.76. It now sits at just $0.27. The lawsuit which said that XRO is a security not currency, claimed that Rip- ple's former CEO and founder Christian Larsen and its current CEO Bradley Garlinghouse violated securi- ties laws by selling XRP over a seven-year period starting in 2013. According to the company, "The SEC is completely wrong on the facts and law and we are confident we will ultimately prevail before a neutral fact-finder". "XRP, the third largest vir- tual currency with billions of dollars in trading every day, is a currency like the SEC has deemed Bitcoin and Ether, and is not an investment contract," Ripple argued in a blog post. The company said that the other major branches of the US government, including the Justice Department and the Treasury Department's FinCen, have already deter- mined that XRP is a cur- rency. "Transactions in XRP thus fall outside the scope of the federal securities laws. This is not the first time the SEC has tried to go beyond its statutory authority. The courts have corrected it be- fore and will do so again." Michael Kellogg, Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Fred- erick Garlinghouse said that "al- though the SEC's decision brings an even greater sense of urgency to our decision whether to move our HQ outside the US, we also look forward to working with the new Biden administration to see if we can find a rational path forward here". The SEC in the past had ruled that Bitcoin and Ethereum are currencies. XRP, however, differs from Bitcoin and Ethereum as the rest of the two cryp- tocurrencies are created through a "mining" process which is ongoing. "Ripple started XRP by creating 100 billion units all at once" and this may be why the US SEC has called it a se- curity, not a currency. Ripple was recently valued at $10 billion following a $200 million funding round. Price of world's 3rd largest crypto- currency XRP crashes after lawsuit NEW DELHI, DEC 25: Billionaire Mukesh Am- bani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has agreed to buy out IMG Worldwide LLC from their sports manage- ment joint venture for Rs 52.08 crore. The nation's biggest com- pany by market value, in a stock exchange filing, said it will buy IMG Worldwide's 50 per cent stake in IMG-Re- liance Ltd (IMG-R) for no more than Rs 52.08 crore in cash. RIL will rebrand the com- pany after the closure of the deal. RIL had formed an equal joint venture with IMG Worldwide, an international sports marketing and man- agement company, in 2010 to develop, market and man- age sports and entertain- ment in India. IMG is a global leader in sports, fashion, events and media, operating in more than 30 countries, and is a part of the Endeavor net- work. IMG-R is engaged in the business of creation, man- agement, implementation and commercialisation of sporting, fashion and enter- tainment events in India. "The company has entered into definitive agreements to acquire the shares held by IMG Singapore Pte Ltd in IMG-R, for a cash consider- ation not exceeding Rs 52.08 crore," the filing said. IMG Singapore Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IMG, holds 50 per cent of the share capital of IMG-R. "Post completion of acqui- sition, IMG-R will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company and will be re- branded by the company," RIL said. IMG-R had a turnover of Rs 181.70 crore (including GST of Rs 25.79 crore) and a net profit of Rs 16.35 crore in FY20. Reliance to buy out IMG Worldwide from sports management joint venture SAN FRANCISCO, DEC 25: Elon Musk-run SpaceX will start flight test- ing its Super Heavy booster (starting with low-altitude "hops") in a few months from now. Super Heavy booster will be used to fly Starship for or- bital launches and deeper space missions, including Mars. Reacting to a follower on Twitter, Musk said late on Thursday that the first Super Heavy hop is just "a few months" away. The SpaceX CEO and founder said the company will use both of its two launch pads in Boca Chica, Texas with prototype rockets set up on each. SpaceX recently set up its SN9 prototype of Starship at its Texas testing facility. Meanwhile, Super Heavy will be nearly 240 feet tall and include 28 Raptor en- gines. Earlier this month, a pro- totype of the next-generation heavy-lift rocket Starship ex- ploded on landing after a high-altitude test flight in Texas. The launch and ascent of Starship serial number 8 (SN8) were successful, but as the engines appeared to reignite for landing, the vehi- cle flipped back to vertical and then slammed into the ground. Starship is SpaceX's fully reusable transportation sys- tem designed to carry both crew and cargo to the Earth's orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Musk said this month that the company is working to- wards launch of an uncrewed Mars flight in about two years. In August, a prototype of SpaceX's Mars Starship spacecraft got off the ground in a test flight, marking a small step that could one day prove to be a giant leap to- wards the human explo- ration of the Red Planet. The vehicle, Starship SN5, performed a small hop as it took to the skies for about 40 seconds. "Mars is looking real," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the test flight. Several of Starship SN5's predecessors got destroyed during test flights. SpaceX says its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (collectively referred to as Starship) represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. SpaceX to begin flight testing Super Heavy booster in few months: Elon Musk NEW DELHI, DEC 25: The telecom industry's 'ac- tive' subscriber base rose by nearly 2.5 million in October 2020 to touch about 961 mil- lion, and user additions ben- efited from vanishing impact of SIM consolidation trig- gered from tariff hike, ac- cording to a latest report. ICICI Securities, in its re- port crunching Trai's tele- com subscription data, said Bharti Airtel's active sub- scribers rose about 3 million to reach nearly 320 million in October 2020, "most of which was driven by total subscriber net adds, thus in- dicating improving quality of subscriber addition". Bharti Airtel saw the high- est subscriber addition in its traditionally weak circles of Maharashtra (0.7 million) and Gujarat (0.5 million). The active subscribers are calculated based on the re- ported visitor location regis- ter (VLR), a key metric re- flecting the number of active users on a mobile network. "Industry-active sub- scriber base expanded by 2.5 million to 961 million. Sub- scriber addition has bene- fited from vanishing impact of SIM consolidation trig- gered from tariff hike," the report said. According to the ICICI Se- curities' report, Jio's active subscribers rose 1.1 million to 319 million in October. It added that Vodafone Idea Ltd's (VIL) active sub- scriber numbers continued to decline, but at a lower pace; it fell 1.2 million result- ing in an active subscriber base of about 260 million in October 2020. VIL's total subscriber base shrunk by al- most 2.7 million, it said. ICICI Securities observed that Bharti Airtel has re- gained market leader posi- tion by active subscribers. On an overall basis, Airtel added 3.6 million new cus- tomers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.3 million in October 2020, according to the Tele- com Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) data. Airtel was followed by Re- liance Jio, which added over- all 2.22 million new mobile customers, taking its total subscriber base to 406.3 mil- lion during the said month. Vodafone Idea Ltd and state- owned BSNL and MTNL re- ported a loss of subscriber base, on an overall basis. Telecom industry's active subscriber tally up by 2.5 mn in October: Report CHENNAI, DEC 25: Hero Electric, country's largest electric two-wheeler company, is planning to close the fiscal with 10-15 per cent growth despite the pan- demic. The company is look- ing to increase its capacity by over 200 per cent and is also looking for investors. It is in the process of investing around Rs 700 crore. Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric told Business that the company is planning to increase its capacity to 250,000 units from the cur- rent around 70,000-75,000 units per annum at its Lud- hiana facility. The company is also planning to set up a greenfield facility in South India. While he declined to com- ment on the size of the new facility, he said, the company is planning to invest around Rs 700 crore in manufactur- ing over the next 3-4 years. The company is planning to raise funds to back com- pany's proposed invest- ments, he added. The proposed expansions comes on the backdrop of company's target to sell around half a million units in the next four years. Since its inception the company sold 350,000 two-wheelers. During the current fiscal, the company is looking at 10- 15 per cent growth compared to last year's sales of around 50,000 units. He is confident of achieving the number de- spite some challenges in sup- ply chains due to various rea- sons, including the ongoing farmer agitations in Punjab and Haryana. Munjal said, the adoption of EV will be faster compared to ICE vehicles as people are more concerned about envi- ronment, looking at moving away from public transport and within personal mobil- ity, they are also looking at ease of use. The total cost of ownership has always been low, but now the pricing is also very aggressive, in few segments it is closer to the price of ICE two-wheelers and lenders have also started looking at EV segment seri- ously. He expects in the next five years, at a conservative level EV contribution in total two- wheeler sales will increased to 10-15 per cent, but if ag- gressively pushed it can in- crease to 20-25 per cent from the current one per cent. Munjal said, during the lock down the company leveraged digital to train its dealers and employees, which started yielding re- sults. Digital sales now ac- counts for around 25-30 per cent of overall sales. “Particularly, online book- ings during pandemic have been very encouraging, we are now looking at a hybrid model of lead generation and bookings online and delivery through dealer network”, said Munjal, adding that dur- ing the pandemic the com- pany conducted over 2,500 programmes for employees. The company also trained over 6,000 roadside me- chanics on EVs as part of measures undertaken during the pandemic. In a bid to address the range anxiety that is com- mon when it comes to adop- tion of EVs among the cus- tomers, Hero Electric has installed around 750-800 charging stations and plans to increase it to 20,000 over the next 2-3 years. It may be noted that Hero Electric offers modular or portable batteries which can be charged at home. The charging stations is a dense charging infrastructure. A lot of customers don’t actually use it, but it’s solely there to give them comfort — that should they get stranded and run out of charge, this is what they can do. So, it is more of a confi- dence-building (measure) than anything else, said Munjal, adding that this will not drive profit as it is more to give customers satisfac- tion and comfort. Hero Electric targets 10-15 pc growth in 20-21, scouts for PE investors