Crude oil fell sharply on Wednesday to the lowest level since January 2022. A combination of dollar surge and global demand concerns weighed on prices. The Brent Crude was quoting around $89/bbl while the WTI Crude was trading around $83/bbl. On Wednesday the dollar index touched a life-time high. Central bank hawkishness and stringent Chinese COVID curbs are expected to tip the global economy into a phase of recession and that created jitters for oil demand. OPEC had cut supplies in its meeting by 100,000 bpd.
Union Cabinet approved long-term leasing of railway land under the PM Gati Shakti program. Government will set up 300 cargo terminals. Leases will be provided for up to 35 years. The 300 cargo terminals will be completed in 5 years and are likely to create about 1.25 lakh jobs. The land lease fee has been cut from 6% to 1.5%. The new policy will help to attract more cargo to railways and enhance its share in freight transport. The policy will also enable the use of railway land at nominal cost for setting up of solar plants.
Mumbai bench of the NCLT has directed Zee Entertainment to convene a meeting of shareholders on 14th of October to approve the merger of Sony Pictures. This comes close on the heels of the concerns put up by the CCI that the $10 billion merged entity could hurt competition. Legal experts are of the view that the deal should be able to pass muster at CCI with minor structural changes. Zee and Sony will combine their linear TV networks, digital assets, production operations and programme libraries as part
of the deal.
Gautam Adani affirmed that the Adani group would build 3 giga factories for manufacturing solar modules, wind turbines, and hydrogen electrolysers. This will be part of the $70 billion that the Adani group plans to invest in clean energy by 2030. The giga factories will encompass the total value chain and extend from polysilicon to solar modules to wind turbines to hydrogen electrolysers. By 2030, this is likely to add 45 GW of renewable energy to its existing 20 GW capacity. It will also produce 3 million tonnes of hydrogen.
The government sought SEBI approval for relaxation period of 2 years in the minimum public shareholding norms for IDBI Bank post-privatisation. Under extant rules, listed companies must have public holding of minimum 25% within 3 years of listing. In August 2021, SEBI exempted PSUs from the
25% public holding stipulation. IDBI Bank is 94.7% owned by the central government and LIC. DIPAM will invite expressions of interest (EOI) for IDBI Bank by end of September and complete the privatization in fiscal year FY23 itself.
Ambuja Cements touched a record high price of Rs446.50 on 07th September. The open offer of Adani is likely to close on Friday. The stock of Ambuja is up 17% in the last 1 month and has sharply outperformed the Nifty. ACC is also just 8% shy of its high price. The ongoing Rs31,000 crore open offer will enable the Adani group to get additional 26% in ACC and Ambuja Cements. Between ACC and Ambuja, they have 31 cement manufacturing plants and 78 ready-mix concrete plants. Operating costs
are expected to taper.
The family of Rakesh Gangwal, the co-founder of IndiGo, will sell 2.8% in Interglobe Aviation. Morgan Stanley will be one of the investment banks coordinating the sale by Gangwal. The total sale of shares will be for 10.8 million shares worth Rs1,996 crore. The execution is expected to happen at a 6.5% discount to market price. Gangwal family holds 36.6% in Interglobe, which has market cap of Rs77,000 crore. It may be recollected that Gangwal had stepped down from the board and agreed to exit his stake in 5 years.
CashFlo, a finance automation and payments platform, raised Rs70 crore in its second round of funding from General Catalyst. Elevation Capital also participated in this round. CashFlo will use the fresh capital to enhance products and technology and grow its product for the CFO function. CashFlo encompasses over 50 supply chains with a network of over 200,000 Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers and dealers. CashFlo was founded in 2018 and is the first platform that caters to total needs of modern Corporate Finance
function.
