Alternative Investment Portfolio -Mar 2025

This month has been all about the Trump Tariff and its impact on the economy. So what is the whole fuss about?

Trump’s Tariffs: Global Shockwaves from ‘America First’ Trade Push

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced sweeping new tariffs on global imports, with a 10% base rate on all nations and up to 50% on targeted countries. Trump claims this will boost domestic manufacturing, protect American jobs, and reduce trade deficits. But critics warn the move will raise consumer prices, strain global supply chains, and risk a worldwide economic slowdown.

What Are Tariffs and How Do They Work?

Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, usually calculated as a percentage of the product’s value. Importers pay these fees, often passing the cost onto consumers or reducing their reliance on foreign products.

Why Is Trump Using Tariffs?

Trump has long favored tariffs, arguing they:

• Encourage buying American-made products

• Raise government revenue

• Attract investment and manufacturing back to the U.S.

• Close trade gaps with “cheating” nations

He claims other countries have taken advantage of the U.S. and now must face economic consequences. Earlier tariffs were also tied to unrelated demands, such as curbing immigration and drug trafficking.

What’s New This Time?

From April 5, all countries face a 10% tariff. From April 9, harsher rates hit “worst offenders”:

• Cambodia: 49%

• Vietnam: 46%

• China: 34% (in addition to previous 20%)

• EU: 20%

• Other nations like India, South Korea, and Japan also face steep increases.

The White House calls these “reciprocal tariffs,” but many were calculated solely to erase U.S. trade deficits, not based on actual foreign tariff levels.

Impact on Prices and the Economy

Economists expect prices to rise for many goods, including:

• Cars, electronics, and fuel

• Alcohol (beer, whisky, tequila)

• Food items like avocados and maple syrup

U.S.-made goods using foreign parts will also get pricier—car costs could rise by $4,000–$10,000, according to the Anderson Economic Group.

The risk of recession has increased, and even Trump officials admit the tariffs may slow growth—but they argue it’s worth it for long-term gains.

Global Reactions

• EU: Finalizing retaliation. Von der Leyen called the move “dire for millions.”

• China: Hitting back with 34% tariffs on U.S. goods.

• UK: Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned of “economic impact,” but continues trade talks.

• Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and others condemned the move as unjustified and harmful to allies.

While some may argue that it doesn’t impact India too much but a full-fledged global recession can cause significant damage to our economy. Many believe that countries will come to an agreement and that this tariff will be only for the short term.

However, the stock market, especially the US market, has suffered a lot. Nasdaq is down almost 20%+ from its peak level, which may give new investors an opportunity to start accumulating.

Alternative Investments Defaults and Delays

We have created a table to make it easy for everyone to track the latest status of ongoing delays and delays on various platforms and the current updates around them.

Currently below are the key new updates on the various delays across Alternative Investment platforms.

• Tradecred Delay
• Growpital SEBI Order Update
• Satincare Covenant Breach
• Leasify Sharepal Delay

Tradecred Delay

Currently, 2 deals on Tradecred are facing a delay

• Bizongo
• Clensta

Based on the latest discussion with some investors and the RMs it seems the Bizongo fundraise outcome is awaited and the platform expects it to happen by June 2025.

Clensta was apparently a debt deal. The company had raised INR 75 Cr and was also backed by Parineeti Chopra.

Growpital SEBI Outcome

Last month RPJ Tea had proposed to take over the liabilities of Growpital. In the subsequent discussion, they requested to give access of the INR 52 Cr lying in the escrow.

Obviously, this was not acceptable to SEBI. In a new proposal RPJ team requested INR 10 Cr for running the business. They mentioned that they would return the capital to investors in the NEXT 30 YEARS!!!

This seems ludicrous to say the least. Now the only hope seems that SEBI return the money lying in the escrow to investors. Below is the detailed video of the last hearing.

The next hearing is scheduled in June. It is really disheartening to see so much loss of accrued interest since Jan 2024!

Growpital Update – 28-March-2025 – YouTube

Satincare Covenant Breach

Satin breached the NPA and GNPA  maximum limit as provided in the financial covenants that were set in Debenture Trustee Documents. Now it’s Debenture holders who can decide whether they want to continue or liquidate.

Apparently lot of microfinance companies are suffering due to high NPA that is because of the high supply of loans disbursed in the last couple of years.

While creating a Bond portfolio investors should factor in that the correlation of Stock market volatility and bond default can go up during turbulent times hence it is important to be more cautious while selecting bonds as currently we are going through a rough patch in the global economy.

Leasify Sharepal Delay

The last tranche of Sharepal repayment has been delayed for Leasify investors. They have communicated that they are in touch with the company to resolve the issue.

Alternative Investment Portfolio Updates

We are planning to provide you with details on the yield on unlisted bonds available in the market on a regular basis and connect you to the sellers who have these bonds. This will help you to make informed decisions while purchasing these bonds.

Currently, there are 2 opportunities to buy high-yield credit

• True Credit secured bond for 5 months tenor at 18% IRR.
• Bhanix Finance 2 months bond with 17.5% IRR

If someone is interested they can ping us and we can connect to the seller.

For listed bonds, you can check  Randomdimes<> Aspero collaboration . You can use the randomdimes registration link to avail best prices.

Medium Term Investment

Policy Exchange new listing has been deferred to April as they are currently onboarding new partners. Some of the top high-yield opportunities for this month

Randomdimes Youtube

Short Term Investments