The Burmans of the Dabur group acquired 14.3% stake in Eveready Industries via open offer. This takes their stake in Eveready Industries to 38.3%. The Khaitans have already ceded management control of the company to the Burmans about 3 months back. This makes the Burman family the dominant owners of Eveready Industries, a company it had rescued when creditors were selling promoter pledged shares. The open offer was made at Rs320 per share. Burmans intend to keep Eveready separate from Dabur business.
The biggest revenue unit of Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), is up against major headwinds in the form of lockdowns in China amidst rising COVID cases. China is not only a major market for JLR but also a key link in the supply chain of JLR. Tata Motors expects these problems to intensify in the year FY23. However, the shortage of semiconductors is expected to ease during the year. JLR has confirmed that the lockdowns had also forced several dealerships in China to shut down, which could have impact on sales.
For the month of April 2022, Reliance Jio added 16.8 lakh mobile subscribers while Bharti Airtel added 8.1 lakh subscribers. Both gained market share at the cost of Vodafone Idea which lost 15.7 lakh subscribers. This data was released by TRAI. Jio retains its lead as the largest player in the industry with 40.5 crore subscribers. While the subscriber base of Bharti Airtel is close behind at 36.11 crore, the subscriber base of Vodafone Idea is down to just 25.9 crore subscribers. Total broadband subscribers rose to 78.87 crore.
Tata Power will buy coal worth some Rs12,000 crore from its Indonesian miner during FY23, which will ensure supply of fuel without interruptions. Tata Power owns 30% stake in the mine. The long term coal supply agreement was signed in 2008. The agreement between Tata Power and KPC of Indonesia is valid till FY33. In addition, Tata Power has also sought the approval of shareholders to farm out construction contracts worth Rs2,930 crore to Tata Projects Ltd. Tata Power also signed transactions with Tata Steel.
In a move that could impact sentiments, Zomato postponed its board meeting to approve the acquisition of quick commerce (Q-Commerce) player Blinkit. The board meeting will be held after a week. Zomato will first take the large stakeholders into confidence. It is also likely that the valuation of Blinkit may come down from the originally stated $700 million. The deal was to be executed via stop swap in the ration of 1 share of Zomato for every 10 shares of Blinkit. This may, however, change with a change in valuations.
US stock indexes tumbled on Thursday as the NASDAQ lose more than 450 points and the Dow fell over 740 points. Growth shares bore the brunt of the selloff after the Fed hiked rates by 75 bps and the initial euphoria gave way to scepticism. All the key sectors in the S&P 500 fell with Energy and consumer among the top losers. Even tech firms like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple took it on the chin. Wells Fargo has warned that the odds of a recession were over 50%. The US volatility index also spiked to a high of 31.51.
The first series of Sovereign Gold Bonds for FY23 will open for subscription on 20th June and close on 24th June. These SGBs will be sold through commercial banks, SHCIL, CCIL, designated post offices and the NSE and BSE platforms. The tenor of the SGB will be for 8 years with premature redemption available after the fifth year. The price of the issue is yet to be fixed and it is normally linked to the price gold. It will continue to carry an interest of 2.5% per year, payable half-yearly. SGBs held up to maturity of 8 years are tax free.
Nearly one year after barring Mastercard India from onboarding new domestic customers, RBI has eased the business restrictions. Mastercard and Visa are the two principal card franchisees in the world. RBI noted that Mastercard had showed satisfactory compliance with the RBI circular on storage of payment systems data. Over the last one year, Mastercard had not been allowed to onboard new customers, which had benefited Visa in a big way in India. Earlier, American Express and Diners Club had also been banned.
