Pre Market Analysis: Dalal Street may open lower; RIL, VIL, Nazara Technologies and Persistent Systems in news today

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL): Reliance New Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), will acquire assets of Lithium Werks BV for $61 million, as it builds technology and material wherewithal for its new energy foray. The assets include the patent portfolio of Lithium Werks, manufacturing facility in China, key business contracts and hiring of existing employees. It has 200 MWh annual production capacity including coating, cell and custom module manufacturing capability

Vodafone Idea ltd (VIL) and Nazara Technologies: The telecom operator has joined hands with Nazara Technologies to foray into the online gaming segment. VIL sees gaming as a highly monetizable segment with a significant growth potential. He said the company plans to launch e-sports in the next couple of weeks followed by social gaming in next 3-4 months.

Persistent Systems: The company has acquired Princeton, New Jersey-based MediaAgility, a global cloud transformation services provider with expertise building scalable, cloud-based solutions as a Google Cloud Premier Partner for a consideration of $71.71 million (around Rs 545 crore). This acquisition will expand Persistent’s ability to execute cloud-based digital transformation journeys for its global clients.

Wipro: The IT services company has won a contract from Speira which has operations in Germany and Norway. Over the next five years, Wipro will work to strengthen the technology infrastructure and cybersecurity requirements of Speira.

Bank of Baroda: The state-run lender has partnered with BNP Paribas Asset Management to form ‘Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund’ and leverage their respective strengths in the asset management business. Suresh Soni has been appointed as the CEO of the merged entity. The lender will hold 50.1% stake in the new firm while BNP Paribas will own the rest.

Anupam Rasayan India: The specialty chemical company said Afzal Malkani has resigned from the post of Chief Financial Officer due to personal reasons. The company has appointed Amit Khurana as the new Chief Financial Officer, with effect from March 15.

Paytm (One97 Communications): Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the chairman of the company told PTI that Paytm Payments Bank is a completely Indian owned controlled entity and has built its own system based on technology “made in India”. The RBI in its letter to Paytm Payments Bank has not mentioned anything about data access but has asked the company to carry out an audit from a third party.

Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL):  The market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Future Enterprises (FEL) for violation of disclosure norms pertaining to arbitration proceedings before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). The Sebi order said it was not possible to quantify the amount of disproportionate gain or unfair advantage or loss caused to investors due to FEL failure to make timely disclosures.

DLF Ltd: The realty major announced an investment of around Rs 550 crore to construct a one-million-square-feet office building for Standard Chartered Global Business Services’ largest campus globally. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin laid the foundation stone of the office campus in ‘DLF Downtown’ project at Taramani in Chennai.

SpiceJet: The company said it will launch 60 new domestic flights this summer and the schedule starts from March 27 and ends on October 29. In a statement, the airline said it will launch eight industry-first flights, which will operate on the Gorakhpur-Kanpur, Gorakhpur-Varanasi, Jaipur-Dharamshala and Tirupati-Shirdi sectors, in the summer schedule.

Jaypee Infratech Ltd: The markets regulator Sebi imposed Rs 7 lakh fine on Jaypee Infratech Ltd for disclosure lapses. The company did not disclose series of non-convertible debt (NCD) securities issued and listed by it, as required under market norms, according to Sebi order.