Daily News Digest- 7th July'14

Thought of the Day:

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Following made the Headlines:

India:

• Sensex may Scale 31,000 by March, say Marketmen: India's stock market may continue to scale new highs in the next six to nine months as a confluence of easy liquidity, rising retail investor interest and improving investment climate drive growth in multiples, a panel of top equity strategists and fund managers said at a roundtable organised by ET. Economic growth is expected to rebound from multi-year lows and a new business cycle may still emerge from the rubbles of the old one, though its expansion could be curbed by stubbornly high inflation and a weak and indifferent monsoon, they added. The Sensex, the best performer among recognised global markets in 2014, could scale 31,000 by March 2015 in a bull case scenario, according to Ridham Desai, managing director and India Equity Strategist of Morgan Stanley. It could double in three years, said S Naganath, president and chief investment officer of DSP BlackRock Investment Managers. Participants at the roundtable, held in Mumbai on Friday , July 4, felt that all ingredients of a continued bull run are firmly in place though the Sensex has jumped 45% since its August 2013 lows of 17,903 and the price-to-earnings multiples have moved up to about 16 times now from about 13 times last year. “From the valuations point of view, one cannot say we are overvalued, but of course it's no longer cheap, and the index is fairly valued,“ said Nilesh Shah, managing director and CEO, Axis Capital. “Market capital to GDP ratio is not expensive as it used to be during the peak of the bull markets. So there is some room for expansion.“ A return of risk appetite in global markets has fuelled much of the rally with FIIs investing about 64,000 crore into equities so far this year on top of 113,000 crore invested in 2012. “If you look at the global bond markets, there has been a surprising return of risk appetite duration and euphoria and I think that has a big role to play in the valuations,“ said Neelkanth Mishra, Managing Director and India Equity Strategist at Credit Suisse. “The second thing is the bottoming of the Indian economy which is something we have not seen happen elsewhere.“ Indian companies have raised about $2.5 billion through qualified institutional placement programme in the past one month, much more than what they raised in 2013. A buoyant market may give a fillip to fund-raising, helping some companies pay off debt though heavily indebted companies may not get money as easily as others. The members of the panel were Rid ham Desai, Neelkanth Mishra, Nilesh Shah, Saurabh Mukherjea, CEO-Institutional Equities, Ambit Capital, S Naganath and Anoop Bhaskar, head-equity, UTI Asset Management Company. The economy may grow over 5% in FY15 while earnings growth of the Nifty/Sensex companies may cross 16% in FY16. Desai of Morgan Stanley said he was bullish on cyclicals which include energy, materials and auto in the shorter time frame that is one year to 18 months. Consumer staples will struggle but in the longer time frame that is five to seven years, financials and consumer stocks will be the best bet.

• More Rickshaw Drivers will Sell Uninor SIMs Now: You could soon have your milkman or autorickshaw driver selling you Uninor SIM cards. This marketing initiative by the Indian unit of Norway's Telenor, which was started as a pilot project in some parts of Maharashtra last year, is now being expanded to the company's other five circles, thanks to the success of the project. “We would want to reach a customer at his place and that's where our autorickshaw driver and milkman concept comes into picture. Our approach is more targeted,“ Rajeev Sethi, chief marketing officer at Uninor, told ET. Uninor had started the initiative some time back, wherein it roped in autorickshaw drivers, milkmen and newspaper delivery boys to sell SIMs and recharge coupons. The telco trains them on the products, method of recharge and form-filling process, besides updating them about Uninor's services and recharge benefits.

• There's Money in Hoardings, Billboards: Three years ago trader Mukund Shrivastava made an unusual investment as he had some spare cash — he bought two billboard sites in Noida. It was a smart move — the return has been 25-30%. “Back in 2011, I bought two unipoles (billboards mounted on a single pole), one in Spice Mall Noida and another on NH8. Today, I have almost recovered the cost of these hoardings and earning decent returns,” Shriavastava said. The kind of unipoles Shrivastava owns would cost 10 lakh each and earn around 2 lakh every month. Outdoor advertising industry experts say hoardings and billboards are becoming an increasingly popular mode of investment for individuals with a few lakhs at their disposal. The entry cost is not as steep as real estate and the money can be recovered in a shorter duration, they said. “Most of the media owners are individuals and small-time proprietorship companies who take it as an investment,” said Atul Shrivastava, chief operating officer at Laqshya Media. The sector took a hit after the economic slowdown in 2008-09. Also, some sites are better located and more prized than others. However, with the change in the government, media owners expect better returns on investments. Sites can be government or privately owned. Bids are invited for government-owned ones and the highest wins the rights for a specified duration. Private owners need to seek municipal or corporation permission to erect hoardings and billboards. An individual who wants to invest can participate in tenders floated by the government, airports, railways and other government agencies or get them from private individuals such as owners of malls or buildings that have erected hoardings after getting permission. The individual, now media owner, can then get customers with the help of outdoor advertising agencies. The media owner needs to pay rentals and taxes. “The government-owned assets sometimes turn out to be the best of investments. You get the tenders at today’s rates and then earn profits according to market rates of after 20 years,” said an expert in outdoor media advertising. Shrivastava added, “The profit margin depends on the cost of acquisition. For some assets, rentals can be as low as 5,000 per month while they might earn advertising revenue of 50,000.” Many, who spotted the opportunity early on have gone on to start their own outdoor advertising agencies. Yogesh Lakhani invested in a billboard at Malad railway station in Mumbai in 1987. The billboard cost him 1,000 a month and earned more than 200% every month as advertising revenue. He continued to invest in hoardings and billboards, eventually making it a full-time vocation, and started an outdoor media agency, Bright Outdoor Media, which has 600 clients from various sectors.

• Infy, Wipro Look to Build `Next-Generation' Boards: The hunt is on at two of India's biggest software companies -Infosys and Wipro -for tech visionaries and corporate leaders who can join their boards and reinvigorate them after the exit of several old-timers and cofounders later this year. While the board of Bangalore-based Infosys will be made up of non-founders for the first time in history, cross-town rival Wipro too is looking to replace at least three of its directors who are set to retire in a few months. According to several people briefed on the profiles of potential candidates who could be inducted in these boards, technology vision, strong corporate representation from Europe and deep financial and audit skills are among the qualities being sought by the chairmen and nominations committees of Wipro and Infosys. “The idea really is to build the next generation board that brings the kind of thought leadership and bold insights needed to remain competitive,“ said a person familiar with the search for board members at Wipro. He said with a former SAP board member retiring, there's strong interest in getting a global technology leader on the board. “When you are in the fast-changing technology business where Silicon Valley speed is the benchmark, you need people on the board who can vet newer plans and even identify the next big bets,“ he added. Last month, three of Wipro's independent directors, Henning Kaggermann, BC Prabhakar and Shyam Saran, resigned. By next year, Wipro veteran Suresh C Senapaty too is expected to retire, leaving scope for a generational change at the company's highest decision making body. At Infosys, with the founders gone, only one of its independent directors -former Microsoft India chairman Ravi Venkatesan -has any tech industry background. “In the business Infosys is, you need a far higher proportion of leaders who understand the world of tech,“ said the person familiar with the discussions.

• Consumer Goods Cos on a Rural High: Consumer goods makers stand to profit from a sharper focus on India’s rural areas, where ownership of products such as cars, motorcycles and white goods more than doubled between 2004-05 and 2011-12 according to the latest statistics, but the much lower penetration than in the urban markets shows that there is a correspondingly higher potential for growth. Data released by the National Sample Survey Organisation or NSSO, under the Centre’s ministry of statistics, shows that faster rise in rural incomes than in the urban areas led to a near doubling of spending in the hinterlands during the period that saw flat overall sales in various categories. About 50% of the rural households owned a television in 2011-12 compared with 25% in 2004-05, as per the NSSO’s report titled ‘Household Consumption of Various Goods and Services in India’. Similarly, 9.4% households in villages possessed a refrigerator in 2011-12 against 4.4% seven years ago. Spending on products such as mobiles and laptops also rose at a faster pace in the rural areas during the period. Significantly, the increase in rural spending happened even as the dismal power supply improved only marginally during the period. If the new government at the Centre carries out power sector reforms as it has promised, consumption in rural areas could rise at an even faster rate. “Agri inflation being higher than the non-agri inflation has led to income getting transferred from urban areas to rural areas. Several things like rural roads programmes, MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), microfinance have all led to a rise in rural incomes from 2004-5,“ said National Statistical Commission chairman Pronab Sen. Moreover, Sen said, the gap between rural and urban consumption patterns and expenditures had narrowed to a large extent in the past few years and would likely converge over the next decade.

• SpiceJet seeks nod for non-refundable fares: Will low-cost flying be allowed to enter the next phase in India with airlines offering ultra-low fares with one condition -no refunds in case of cancellation? Budget carrier SpiceJet has sought the aviation ministry's nod to bring this global practice to India by offering “restricted non-changeable, non-refundable“ fares. These would be at least half of spot or last minute fares and these low fares will be not just for advance purchase but “saleable at any time“. India has made it mandatory for airlines to refund at least the taxes and surcharges to passengers when they cancel a ticket. Recently, the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) made AirAsia India Pvt Ltd (AAIPL) do the same when this low-cost carrier (LCC) wanted to have non-refundable tickets. SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor recently wrote to the aviation ministry, saying that demand for air travel has slackened in India, which has led to lower aircraft occupancies. “There are occasions when we fly with a lot of empty seats and customers complain why last-minute fares are so high... we are unable to discount our distressed (read unused) inventory close to the date of travel as current regulations do not allow us to offer restricted non-changeable, non-refundable fares,“ Kapoor's letter says. He adds that airlines abroad use discounted “but highly restrictive“ fares to sell excess capacity and such a move in India will help “minimize wastage of seats“, which means enabling planes to fly with less vacant seats. “Airlines would benefit from this as well as flyers, who would be able to get much better fares even at the last minute, if they are willing to accept the restrictions that come with it....it is in no one's interest to fly aircraft with empty seats,“ writes Kapoor, while seeking deregulation of the Indian aviation market. While the ministry is yet to respond to SpiceJet, which is using all possible means to raise funds, DGCA rules are clearly against the no-refund policy that the airline is batting for. The regulator's civil aviation requirement (CAR) on this issue says: “Refund of tickets by airlines has become a major source of grievance among passengers (the complaints are of three types): Delay on refund of unused tickets; amount refunded and policy of not refunding but adjusting against tickets for future travel.“ The CAR says that airlines have to refund money charged under heads like passenger security fees, congestion charge and fuel surcharge. It also asks airlines to offer money and not just say that the same can be adjusted against future travel. Sources say the refund rules could be made more stringent. “The consumer needs protection. Passengers are still fighting to get refunds from some airlines that have folded up in the past three years,“ said a source.

• Global business confidence in country lifts tourism: The much promised good days are here — for the tourism sector, at least. The country has registered 9 per cent growth in foreign tourist arrivals during June, compared to the same period last year. The growth seen in June 2013 over the corresponding month in 2012 was a meagre 2.5 per cent. Still far from the peak travel season for inbound tourism, which starts in September- October, the latest growth numbers signal a strong revival in the sector. Much of the growth is attributable to a spurt in business activity and increased interest among foreign investors in opportunities in India. Corporate travel to Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and even tier- two cities such as Vizag and Guwahati has risen considerably, according to travel firms. The pent- up travel demand in the pre- election months is now coming to the fore. “The wait- and- watch period is over. The sentiment is very positive. The dialogue for investments has started in the business community, which has boosted travel,” says Arjun Sharma, managing director, Le Passage to India, one of the leading travel agencies in the inbound sector. Besides business travel, nonresident Indian travellers are also fuelling travel demand in the summer months. The hotel industry, however, is still waiting for the winter months to drive up average room rates. “The demand has increased but so has the supply. We have seen only slight improvement over last year,” says S M Shervani, president of Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India.

• GST rollout could take till start of FY17: The proposed Goods and Services Tax ( GST) might be introduced only from 2016- 17, even as the Centre has agreed to sort out states concerns over compensation for a cut in Central Sales Tax ( CST), a long- pending issue obstructing progress in indirect tax reforms. “The agreement resolves a major hurdle but does not mean GST will come into effect from this October or November. It will take time,” said Prashant Deshpande, partner, Deloitte India. At a meeting with state counterparts last week, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said, “Fixing the compensation issue is critical to roll out GST.” CST, a tax on inter- state movement of goods, was cut from four per cent to two per cent, in phases. In late 2012, states had reached an understanding with the Centre for full compensation for 201011, 75 per cent for 2011- 12 and 50 per cent for 2012- 13. This would require the Centre to shell out ₹ 34,000 crore. However, in Budget 201314, then finance minister P Chidambaram provided only ₹ 9,000 crore, of which only ₹ 1,900 crore was released. States complained they hadn’t been given compensation since 2011- 12. CST is one of the problems in the way of GST. Issues concerning the Constitution Amendment Bill, an enabling provision to allow the Centre to tax goods beyond manufacturing and states to impose services tax, are also taking time to resolve. “I think introduction of GST might come from April 2016. It is unlikely from next year,” said Pratik Jain, partner, indirect tax, KPMG in India. States also want the Centre to give a binding commitment in the Constitution Amendment Bill for compensating their revenue loses due to GST for three years. The Centre has agreed to the compensation but states want the Bill to say so. Then comes the issue of keeping petroleum out of GST. The Centre wanted this to be mentioned in the Bill but not states. States also wanted a portion of the central pool of tax on inter- state movement of goods and services. They also demanded that entry tax not be subsumed in GST, as it is a major source of revenue for local bodies. Even if agreement is reached on rolling out a distorted GST, without petroleum and without subsuming entry tax, passage of the Constitution amendment will require much party coordination by the government. The ruling coalition is short of the two- thirds majority needed for the amendment in the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha, the ruling alliance has 62 seats but needs 160 to pass the Bill. Then, half the state Assemblies need to okay the Bill; the central government’s supporters rule in only seven of 29 states. The Centre will also have to enact a model GST law. Then, states will frame their own Bills and get these passed in their respective Assemblies. These then will have to be sent to the Centre for the President’s assent.

• Aditya Birla Retail borrows Rs 500 crore from Yes Bank: Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL) has borrowed Rs 500 crore from Yes Bank as it plans to ramp up its food and grocery business, which is fast ceding share to newer rivals. The company, in its recent filing with the Registrar of Companies, said it has issued non-convertible debentures to Yes Bank for the amount. In an internal project to be executed by December, the company last year decided to invest Rs 1,091 crore to expand supermarkets and hypermarkets. ABRL, the fourth-largest supermarket chain in the country after Future Group, Avenue Supermarts (DMart) and Reliance Retail, also increased its borrowing limit to Rs 7,500 crore from Rs 5,000 crore last year. ABRL didn't comment on an email query. While ABRL has more than 500 supermarkets and over a dozen hypermarkets, experts feel that the new funds will help it execute plans to open 100 supermarkets and six-eight hypermarkets to match rivals. "ABRL has been conservative in its expansion and growth has come mostly through acquisitions. Hypermarket expansion is imperative considering increased competition both from brick and mortar as well as online players," said Ruchi Sally, director at boutique retail consultancy Elargir Solutions. Big retailers in India have accumulated losses, mainly because they went on an expansion spree. An overall slowdown, rising interest rates, delays in realty projects, a cash crunch and debt forced several retailers to shut shops and defer expansion since 2009. This forced most retailers to cut costs aggressively while focusing on store-level profitability and supply chain issues. Experts say this has helped many retailers turn profitable at the store level despite the long gestation period in retail, particularly in food and grocery. ABRL has also been trying to drive synergies across formats.

• Startup ChefHost links diners with chefs for unique customised food experience: An online marketplace that links discerning diners with chefs who can whip up a meal of their choice is gaining users and investor attention in less than a month of its launch. For 23-year-old Abhinandan Balasubramaniam, the idea for ChefHost was born from despair at the dwindling number of choices to eat out at in London, where he heads business development at online private equity platform Liquity. The graduate from the University of Warwick, UK, teamed up with college mate Yiu Yin Yau, a Hong Kong native, to set up the company last month which has begun operations in their native countries. The duo pooled in seed money of Rs 10 lakh to set up the venture that in two days of being set up signed on 20 chefs across India and Hong Kong. "You can order a chef online, that's our major service," said Balasubramaniam who hopes to have registered over 100 chefs by next year. In the coming months, the fledgling venture aims to extend operations in Pakistan, China, West and Southeast Asia as well as make inroads into the Latin American market. The global ambition of the team has gained the attention of investors. Suresh Selvaraj, the chief executive of the Asianet News Network has made an angel investment in the company bowled over by the "sheer freshness of the idea". "The way to a man's wallet is through his stomach and they did just that," he said. Balasubramaniam expects more investors including an actor from Bollywood to back his venture soon. To hasten the growth of the business he aims to forge partnerships with a waiter service in Hong Kong and has already begun to work with Bombay-based online gifting services startup Gifting Joy, and Chennai-based event management firm Quanta G.

• Revlon eyeing 30% growth, Rs 250 crore sales this fiscal: Cosmetics firm Revlon is eyeing 30 per cent growth in turnover at Rs 250 crore on the back of new product launches this financial year. "We are targeting 30 per cent growth and Rs 250 crore turnover this fiscal. We expect good growth from the new StreetWear Color Rich cosmetics targeted at young women," Modi-Revlon Chairman and Chief Executive Umesh Modi told. "Market is sluggish and we have to bring in new customers. This kind of growth (30 per cent) is only possible if we tap areas which we did not tap earlier," he added. The company reported turnover of Rs 200 crore in the previous fiscal. This new collection has been specifically designed for the Indian consumers. Revlon plans to launch StreetWear products outside India next year. "Currently the (StreetWear) products are available only in India but we have plans to extend it to the Indian subcontinent by 2015," Modi said. The company plans to promote the new collection through social media. On network expansion, he said Modi-Revlon plans to open 100 standalone Revlon stores in the next three years. The stores will be primarily located in malls across the country providing the consumers direct and easy access. At present, there are four standalone Revlon stores in the country. SVK TVS MKJ

• Au Bon Pain to open more outlets: Au Bon Pain, the six month-old urban cafe on Park Street, has launched a new menu even as the chain pushes to substantially increase the number of outlets in the country. With another operating from the Quest Mall, the city has a couple of Au Bon Pain cafes but that strength is set to increase dramatically over the next few months. "We have 29 outlets in the country, 26 of them in Bangalore, and we want to take that figure to 50 by the end of March 2015," Avarna Jain told the media at the chain's flagship cafe on Friday. "Five more outlets will open in Kolkata. We will invest Rs 20-30 crore over the next 18 months." The 1978-born Boston-based bakery cafe chain was brought to the country after Avarna, daughter of industrialist Sanjeev Goenka, took a liking to its bakery products as a student at the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. A couple of years later, the first cafe opened in Bangalore. The Kolkata chapter began in November last year and the cafe on Park Street, in the sprawling space once occupied my MusicWorld, began operations a couple of days before Christmas. "Open from 7 in the morning to 10 pm, this (Park Street) cafe is already attracting the largest number of customers amongst all our outlets in the country," Avarna informed. "Au Bon Pain cafe is a place where you want to be if you're looking for fresh and safe food in quick time. We're thrilled that it's working so well here." If the baked samosa and baked vada-pao have been much sought-after items in the midst of sandwiches, soups, salads, breads, bagels and croissants, the new menu, "based on guest feedback and emerging food trends", is expected to enhance the experience. While Belgian Turkey and Lamb, Mac N Cheese served with multi-grain baguette, Mexican-style burritos, baked kulcha served with veg chilli or lamb chilli, skinny bagel with egg white, egg white and lamb patty add to the options, she reminded that "there are just no fried items on the menu; everything here is cooked or baked". For the sweet tooth, a range of French cakes and verrines (mousses) was launched. Au Bon Pain is bracing for more footfalls, and the excitement of a dramatic expansion plan.

• Indian technical textiles market to grow at 9% CAGR: Study: India's technical textiles market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 percent from its currently estimated value of US$ 14 billion to reach a level of $32 billion by 2023, reveals a paper brought out by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Technopak on 'Opportunities and Challenges on Non-Woven Technical Textiles'. The paper was released at a National Seminar on 'Non-Woven Technical Textiles: Opportunities & Challenges', held in New Delhi under the aegis of PHD Chamber. The estimate on growth of Indian technical textiles market is made on the basis of the way the domestic textiles industry is diversifying towards non-woven technical textiles with technological innovations and building global partnership with its counterparts. The study estimates Indian textiles and apparel industry to be currently worth $99 billion, which includes both domestic consumption and exports, and it projects it to grow at a CAGR of 8.6 percent to reach $226 billion by 2023. The report projects India's textile and apparel exports to grow at a CAGR of 8.6 percent from the estimated value of $40 billion at present to $85 billion in 2023. At present, the share of textiles is about 60 percent in the country's overall textile and garment exports. The existence of vertically integrated supply chain and diverse range of products are the factors that contribute to the growth of the textile and clothing industry in India, which contributes 5.2 percent to the country's GDP.

• Tiger Global leads $5 million funds infusion into Reviews42: Tiger Global Management, which focuses on investing in Asian Internet businesses, has led a $5 million investment in Reviews42, a product and price discovery website. Existing investors Blume Ventures and Nirvana Venture Advisors have also invested in the current round, Reviews42 co-founders Neeraj Jain and Surjendu Kulia said. Reviews42, which provides comparisons of products and their prices from offline and online stores, is re-branding itself as zopper.com as it plans to expand its presence beyond just product reviews, the co-founders said. Reviews42, which is owned by Solvy Tech Solutions, is available on desktop and smartphones through Android, iOS and Windows apps, and gets about 60% of its traffic from mobile phones. The firm will use the funds to improve its product, build its team and expand its presence to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. It currently has a presence in Delhi-NCR with nearly 1,000 retailers on board. According to the firm, Bangalore will go live by August, followed by Hyderabad and Chennai. “Our brand name does not do justice to what all we offer. People only look for reviews and don’t appreciate other services we have,” said Jain, who has already started re-directing the traffic on its site to zopper.com. However, the official launch is expected by the month-end. The firm was founded in 2011 by Jain and Kulia, and has the backing of investors such as Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, co-founders of India’s largest e-commerce website Flipkart.com. 

International:

• Amazon ranks 9th among America's Top 100 largest retailers: For the first time since STORES Media began reporting on the Top 100 largest retailers in America, Amazon.com has joined the ranks of the 10 largest companies, rising to No. 9 from 11 last year. Amazon's domestic sales increased 27.2 percent between 2012 and 2013. The annual ranking of U.S. retailers by domestic sales, featured in the July issue of STORES Magazine was compiled by Kantar Retail and sponsored by Island Pacific and NEC. "Amazon is spreading its roots beyond its core of online retail, yet the impact this Seattle-based behemoth has had on the changing face of retail is unmistakable. Breaking into the top ten is an impressive feat that speaks to Amazon.com's growth,, said STORES Editor Susan Reda. "Notable as that is, brick and mortar retailers are keeping pace by continuously reinventing themselves to better serve today's anytime, anywhere shopper., Wal-Mart once again takes the top spot with U.S. sales of $334 billion in 2013. Kroger held on to the number two ranking for the fifth year in a row, with reported domestic sales of more than $93 billion. Costco (3) and Target (4) swapped spots this year, as Costco saw domestic sales increase 5.2 percent , while Target's sales decreased 0.9 percent Between 2012 and 2013. Home Depot (5), Walgreen (6), CVS Caremark (7), and Lowe's (8) each maintained their spots on the list. Safeway rounds out the list at the No. 10 spot this year. Other noticeable changes in the list include IKEA North America's jump from 95 to 88 on domestic sales growth of 6.8 percent. Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons climbed from 96 to 21 as a result of a merger with Safeway. Earlier this year Cerberus Capital Management agreed to buy Safeway for $9 billion, and the Albertsons-Safeway combination will create a company with more than 2,400 stores, 27 distribution facilities and 20 manufacturing plants. "Amazon's rise into the top 10 is symbolic of a shift in U.S. retail towards a genuinely multichannel future," said Kantar Retail Chief Knowledge Officer Bryan Gildenberg. "Retailers that command the Top 100 in the future will have an in-depth knowledge of their shoppers across their physical and digital touchpoints, and they'll all have to fend off Amazon's game changing economic and operating model".

• Indonesian e-commerce site Zalora releases Ramadan line: Not to be left behind the Middle Eastern and American fashion labels, which have launched their own collections for the auspicious Islamic festivities Ramadan and Eid, Indonesian designers have also brought out their own versions of modest clothing for the festive month. Indonesian e-commerce site Zalora has collaborated with three young local Muslim fashion designers, Dian Pelangi, Jenahara, and Ria Mirand, to create a Ramadan-inspired range titled Zalia for women. Adorned with beautiful motifs, intricate embroidery, beads and sequins, the festive outfits are based on rich jewel and soft pastel tones as well as demure loose-fit silhouettes. The pieces include fit-and-fare embellished maxi dresses, belted wrap numbers with full sleeves, lace shifts, straight cut long skirts, modest V-neck kaftans, and kimono and peplum tops. Launched in 2012, Zalora online fashion store specializes in both modern and Islamic clothing and accessories for both men and women. Other than Indonesia, the company, which offers products from some 500 local and international brands, also maintains e-commerce presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Apart from Zalora, Gulf-based labels like Salma Khan Fashion House, Zad for Zakia Attar Designs and Max alongside New York's DKNY have also released their own special edition of Ramadan and Eid inspired fashion collections this season.

• Tag Heuer Exec Said Joining Apple: Apple is said to have poached an executive from Swiss luxury watch brand Tag Heuer, which could be to help it with the launch of its iWatch expected this autumn.  Tag Heuer, part of luxury goods group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said Patrick Pruniaux, its vice president of sales, was leaving to join the American computer giant.  Apple declined to comment. Apple has plucked several executives from the luxury sector. Former Burberry chief executive officer Angela Ahrendts started as its new head of retail and online sales in May, and former head of French fashion house Yves Saint Laurent Paul Deneve was hired last year to work on special projects.

• Hunter and Itochu Form Joint Venture in Japan: Hunter Boot Limited, the Scottish company famed for its Wellington boots, and Japan’s Itochu Corporation said on Friday they have founded a joint venture to distribute Hunter in Japan, called Hunter Japan K.K. In order to develop the brand in Japan, Hunter will work with Itochu’s Itochu Home Fashion Corporation to distribute its footwear in the region and Itochu’s fully owned Coronet Coporation to distribute its apparel, bags and accessories there, the firms said in a joint statement. The joint venture is effective immediately, in time for the spring 2015 selling season. James Seuss, chief executive officer at Hunter Boot Limited said: “We see a huge opportunity in Japan and we see Itochu as a key player in furthering Hunter’s development as a global lifestyle brand.” In the past year, Hunter has branched out from its core range of Wellingtons. In February, it debuted its Hunter Original label at London Fashion Week, which saw the firm introduce outerwear, knitwear and accessories, along with inventive interpretations of the Wellington boot, under new creative director Alasdhair Willis.

• Global recovery to accelerate in 2015: IMF: Global economic activity should strengthen in the second half of this year and accelerate in 2015 although momentum could be weaker than expected, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Sunday, adding that the Fund did not expect a sharp slowdown in China. Lagarde said central banks' accommodative policies could have only limited impact on demand and that countries should also act to boost growth by investing in infrastructure, education and health, provided their debt stays sustainable. The IMF's update of its global economic outlook, expected later this month, will be slightly different from the forecasts published in April, she said. "Global activity is picking up but the momentum could be less strong than we had expected because potential growth is weaker and investment ... remains subdued." Lagarde estimated that growth in China this year would be between 7 and 7.5 percent. "Despite the many responses to the crisis ... recovery is modest, laborious, fragile, and measures to boost demand, despite the goodwill of central banks, will find their limits," she told a conference in southern France. "We must therefore take steps to boost efforts to strengthen growth," she added. "This is the opportunity in a number of countries to relaunch investment, without threatening the viability of public finances." Lagarde said several times in her speech that although now could be the time for some countries to boost public investment, not all of them could afford to do so.