46% SMEs under credit stress, may default: India Ratings
Nearly half of bank loans extended to listed small businesses, having a revenue of under R300 crore, are under stress. ?As much as 46.3% of bank loans extended to listed small and medium companies are in significant stress, and at least one out of four such companies may face a challenge in servicing even interest,? India Ratings said. SMEs are the ?first casualty? in a downturn, and their revenue growth slipped into the single-digit from FY11, while the same happened for large corporates only from FY13. The median revenue of SMEs is unlikely to improve in the next 12-18 months, it said. Smaller companies have a lower bargaining power than bigger ones, and there is a gap of 10-12% in the pre-tax margins between the two groups.
Sebi to issue guidelines soon on crowd-funding
Market regulator Sebi is in the process of issuing a set of guidelines on crowd-funding. “We are coming out with guidelines on crowd-funding soon, because we want to encourage young entrepreneurs to raise capital. Our aim is to help young people raise capital very smoothly,” Sebi chairman UK Sinha said at an investors? conference organised by industry body IMC. Crowd-funding typically involves young entrepreneurs and small groups of people raising funds for their ventures through various online platforms involving individuals and organisations.
Amazon ups the ante to tap sellers in Indian market
Aiming to increase its seller base in India, e-commerce major Amazon has launched two initiatives for sellers, promising an accelerated and friction-free experience for selling products on the platform. The US-based firm launched the Self Service Registration (SSR) and Amazon Easy Ship for sellers in India. ?SSR provides sellers an accelerated and friction-free path to selling on Amazon and with Amazon Easy Ship, sellers can leverage Amazon?s investments in logistics to have their orders on Amazon.in shipped straight from their own warehouses,? it said. The initiatives will help sellers improve their delivery experience and to scale and grow their online business cost effectively and profitably, it added.
Vodafone launches video conferencing on mobile
Vodafone Business Services, the enterprise arm of Vodafone India, has launched a managed video conferencing service for enterprises to offer virtual face-to-face like interaction with various participants anytime, anywhere. The service is network agnostic and device agnostic and offers seamless conferencing on a mobile, tablet or a desktop. Vodafone?s Self Care Portal allows users to schedule and manage video conferencing meetings.
Snapdeal buys product discovery tech platform
Online marketplace Snapdeal.com has acquired Doozton.com, an online product discovery technology platform in the fashion and lifestyle category, which helps people discover trending products and designs from online stores. Rohit Bansal, co-founder and COO, Snapdeal.com, said, ?Doozton.com has earned popularity among its users, making shopping fun, easy and social with the best of fashion and lifestyle product suggestions, including clothes, shoes and accessories for men and women.?
