It is going to be one of the biggest mergers between a giant in food delivery, Zomato, and a big name in quick commerce (Q-commerce), Blinkit. Incidentally, Blinkit was formerly called Grofers. It will be an all-stock deal. After Grofers rebranded itself as Blinkit, it had raised $100 million from Zomato. Softbank, which is an investor in Blinkit, will now get 4% in Zomato by virtue of the stock swap. Softbank is already an investor in Swiggy. Recently, Blinkit had laid off staff, shut dark stores and delayed vendor payments.
Tata Motors is planning to invest Rs.15,000 crore in the electrical vehicles (EV) segment in next 5 years. Tata Motors is already a leader in the emerging EV segment with its Nexon brand. It is planning 10 more new EV offerings. Tata Motors EV business has already raised $1 billion from TPG Capital, giving its EV unit a valuation of $9.1 billion. The growth of the EV business largely depends on the charging and servicing ecosystem developing at equal pace. Tata Motors has sold 22,000 EVs till date, a big step in green travel.
The government has confirmed on the floor of the house that banks had recovered Rs.7.35 trillion in last 6.5 years. This is the amount written back from NPAs and written-off loan accounts. A sum of Rs.55,900 crore was recovered from fraudulent accounts. The aggressive steps taken by the ED and other agencies has resulted in the fraud amounts falling from Rs.68,962 crore in FY16 to Rs.11,583 crore in FY21. This marks the total period since the first recoveries were made from the NCLT, an NPA resolution mechanism.
Lawyers confirmed to the court that an out-of-court settlement between Future Group, Reliance and Amazon had failed. Amazon plans to proceed legally against Reliance group for taking over Future group stores when the matter was sub-judice. Amazon’s counsel has argued that the top court was assured that no assets will be transferred during the pendency of the case. Future group has argued that the contracts were terminated by the landlords. Most of the stores of Future group have been taken over by Reliance.
Commenting on the ongoing dispute between Yes Bank and Dish TV, Subhash Chandra has exhorted Yes Bank to behave like a shareholder rather than a creditor. He further added that if Yes Bank behaved like a shareholder, then they were willing to hand over management control to Yes Bank. However, if it was acting as a lender, then they will negotiate to settle the account. Yes Bank currently owns 25.63% stake in Dish TV but the value of the stock is just about one-sixth of the amount that Dish TV owes to them.
According to a Morgan Stanley report, government will have to hike retail fuel prices by 15%, to reflect the current global price of crude. That is assuming that the average price of crude stays around $110/bbl. However, the report has added that the government may find itself in a tight corner because the retail inflation is already at 6.07% and any hike in fuel prices would substantially stoke inflation. In the food basket, the high protein products have seen the sharpest price spikes. RBI is likely to hike rates in Apr-22.
Representatives of SoftBank Group of Japan, have decided to step down from the boards of Indian listed digital players like Paytm and Policybazaar. However, Softbank clarified that they did not intend to sell their stake in any of these digital companies for the time being. This is part of a uniform global strategy by Softbank to exit boards of its listed portfolio companies. This would leave them fewer regulatory issues to tackle. Both Paytm and Policybazaar listed late last year and have seen deep cuts from the listing price.
India plans to issue $3.3 billion in sovereign green bonds. This is the first clear signal that India is veritably shifting towards a low-carbon economy. The sale is likely to take place either in the first or second quarter of FY23. This will be in line with India’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2070. Green bonds are expected to help raise funds at lower yields, lower than the 6.85% yield on 10-year sovereign bonds. There is a global boom in sustainable investments. India is already the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
