CG Power fraud: Thapar cites board approvals, denies fund misuse charges

CG Power board sacked Thapar after an audit report by Vaish Associates, which itself is based on as many as 23 disclaimers, claimed that Thapar swindled Rs 3,000 crore from CG Power.

Market News : Citing regular board approvals for various inter-corporate loans, former CG Power Industrial Solutions' non-executive chairman Gautam Thapar has refuted allegations of fund misuse amid alleged governance lapses coming under the regulatory scanner, according to documents submitted by him to the government.

In a 36-page submission to the corporate affairs ministry early November, Thapar, who was sacked in a boardroom coup in the wee hours of August 30, has provided documents on various issues, including inter-corporate loans, minutes of board meetings and loans from lenders like Standard Chartered Singapore and Yes Bank.

CG Power board sacked Thapar after an audit report by Vaish Associates, which itself is based on as many as 23 disclaimers, claimed that Thapar swindled Rs 3,000 crore from CG Power.

Markets regulator Sebi banned Thapar and entities associated with him for three years, following which he moved the Securities Appellate Tribunal, which has asked the company to provide relevant documents to him.

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has also started a probe against CG Power and 15 group entities. The ministry has moved NCLT Mumbai seeking to restate the books of accounts of CG Power from FY16. An order is expected on Monday.

The documents, seen by PTI, show how Standard Chartered Singapore extended a $44-million lifeline to CG Singapore in February 14, 2018. The entire money was then paid to CG International Netherlands through another group entity AIA and Avantha. The same amount was fully transferred back to CG International Netherlands on the very same day.

Later, the company in turn paid back the entire amount to StanC Singapore, thus making the account standard, show the documents.

While a major allegation revolves around funds moving in and out of CG Power and group entities, Thapar has claimed that such a route was taken following suggestions from lenders since CG Power was facing liquidity issues.

Similarly, Aditya Birla Finance and Yes Bank allowed CG Power to get funds between 2016 and 2019 in a similar manner as StanC did in 2018, showed the documents.

Sonic branding: How the sound of your brand can be a recipe for biz success

Global players are spending millions on creating their sonic branding. Indian companies better hurry.

Sonic branding as AdWeek put it, is the process of “distilling a multimillion dollar brand into a few seconds of sound”.

This is best illustrated in answering the question, have you ever heard the sound of Visa? 

Most would most probably say no. Well, two years ago, the brand rolled out sensory elements including sound, animation and haptic (vibration) cues to signify a completed transaction in digital and retail environments. So, while you could not ‘see’ the brand at work, you could now ‘hear’ it. The multisensory Visa branding debuted in Visa’s global advertising campaign ahead of the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang in 2018. The goal was to appeal to the emotions and the senses, so customers could ‘see, hear and feel’ the Visa brand as they made payments across platforms and touch-points, particularly on mobile.

Visa spent more than a year developing a less-than-a-second sound to signal “speed and convenience.” The audio mark was accompanied by a unique vibration and animation that was added to its logo. The process of developing a sonic brand identity involved “neuro-research” and spanned eight markets with focus groups and the culling of 200 different sounds, eliminating one that sounded “angry,” and several that elicited “visceral reactions”. Sonic branding is even more critical for brands you cannot see or touch … digital brands that support the growing notion of ‘everywhere you want to be’ but brands that have no physical product, shape or appearance except the logo. And if the logo is all that signifies the brand, the new thinking is to embellish the connect with the all senses … sight, hearing, even taste!

A couple of months ago, Mastercard chose to emulate its rival, Visa. It released its own sonic branding - a new sound that will help consumers recognize the brand when they make purchases with their Mastercard or when they see an ad for the brand on TV. In addition to what consumers will hear when they make a purchase (in stores, online or via voice-enabled devices), Mastercard has developed a few different scenario-specific styles of the sound, like coffee shop and taxi.

There’s also ‘playful,’ ‘cinematic’ and an ‘operatic’ versions of the sonic logo, and the brand has created different melodies for different geographies. As part of the 18-plus-month process of creating a sound that would resonate with a global audience, Mastercard worked with agencies, artists and musicians around the world, including Linkin Park’s legendary Mike Shinoda.

Business Standard