Bullets

RBI's strict rules regarding asset quality norms result in only one out of 11 small banks applying to become full-fledged banks. This would allow these banks to receive the ultimate universal bank license. 

AU Small Finance Bank is the only one that qualifies now due to strong financials and a diversified loan portfolio. With ₹12,500 crore net worth & minimal NNPA margins helped in achieving the mark. 

AU SFB’s recent merger with Fincare further strengthens its position. 

Also read about AU SFB’s competitor Capital Small Finance Bank.

Swiggy is planning an IPO to raise $1.25 billion (over ₹10,414 crore). They filed confidential draft documents with the stock market regulator, SEBI.

This means the details aren't publicly available yet. The IPO will include both new shares and existing shareholders selling their shares (offer for sale).

Swiggy’s upcoming initial public offering has been an awaited occasion for investors. Then why is the food delivery startup being all discreet about it? What are they hiding?

Swiggy is inching closer to going public as its shareholders approved raising funds up to ₹10,414 crore ($1.25 billion) via IPO.

This includes raising ₹3,750 crore ($450 million) in new capital and ₹6,664 crore ($800 million) from existing investors selling shares.

Swiggy is among several Indian startups planning IPOs in 2024, including Firstcry, Ola Electric, and Awfis.

Interested in investing in the upcoming IPO? Read an article on Swiggy to learn whether to bet or not.

Reliance Jio, India's leading telecom operator, has become the world's largest mobile operator for data traffic, beating China Mobile.

Jio's network handled 40.9 Exabytes of data in Q1 2024, surpassing China Mobile's 38 Exabytes. 

The company's net profit of ₹5,337 crore for the March 2024 quarter showed a healthy 13% increase Y-o-Y. However, compared to the previous quarter, the net profit growth was modest at 2.47%.

Read about Reliance’s future plans to dominate the market from here.

Ather Energy is looking to raise $75-90 million through a primary funding round. This comes alongside news that Flipkart’s co-founder Sachin Bansal sold a part of his stake to Zerodha’s co-founder Nikhil Kamath.

Bansal, holding a 10.7% stake in Ather as of December 2023, might even sell his remaining shares. He was also Ather's first angel investor.

Could this be the boost Ather Energy was looking for to finally join the band of unicorns? 

Vedanta Group is looking to demerge Hindustan Zinc, but the government holds 29% shares and is thinking of selling 3.5% stake first. 

CEO Arun Misra says they can do both at the same time. However, the government is hesitant thinking it might hurt sales prices. 

Interestingly, Hindustan Zinc is now the world's 3rd largest silver producer.

The Godrej family, known for their diverse conglomerate, is splitting. Brothers Adi & Nadir Godrej left the boards of companies run by cousins Jamshyd & Smita Godrej Crishna. 

Godrej Industries & Associates is run by Adi & Nadir Godrej whereas Godrej & Boyce (G&B) falls under the command of Jamshyd & Smita Godrej.

This signals a formal division of the family business after over 100 years. Both sides will soon sell their ownership stakes in each other's companies. 

Swiggy is merging its grocery delivery brand Instamart with its online mall “Swiggy Mall”. This mall is operational in some parts of Bengaluru and is planning to expand to other cities.

This will let customers order non-grocery items alongside groceries for super fast delivery. Over 35 categories would be introduced apart from grocery and home essentials.

Read about how Swiggy plans to get its affairs in order with an incoming IPO from here.

India might partner with Nvidia to provide subsidised GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) for AI research and startups. This is part of a larger ₹10,000 crore AI mission.

The final decision awaits elections, but Nvidia's market dominance makes them a likely choice.

There are two options: the government can make a deal with Nvidia, or companies can rent and sublet from the supplier themselves.

Apple is in talks with conglomerate Murugappa Group & Tata Sons’ Titan for iPhone camera parts. The discussion would include assembling & producing the components for the iPhone's camera.

This step would reduce China’s standing in the global market and will align with Apple’s vision of shifting half of its supply chain to India.

The final decision has not been announced by the parties involved, but if confirmed, this news would be another shock for China.

Samsung grabs the top spot for phone manufacturing and selling as iPhone shipments drop 10% in the first quarter of 2024.

Samsung has a 20.8% market share and finally reached the top as Apple dropped back to a 17.3% share.

With the news that Apple devices face the threat of mercenary spyware and competitors like Huawei gaining traction, iPhone shipments dropped.

Tata's super app, Tata Neu, is now piloting food & beverage ordering on ONDC in parts of Delhi-NCR & Bengaluru. This is the first time Tata has entered ONDC as a buyer.

Other Tata enterprises, such as BigBasket and StarQuik, are also participating in the pilot and have been available on ONDC as sellers.

Out of the 7.68 million monthly orders in ONDC, 9.55% are from the food and beverage sector. It appears that Tata Neu has great potential on ONDC.

2024 is going to witness many major Mergers & Acquisitions on the horizon. As per a report, business M&A saw a jump in 2024’s first quarter, reaching a near two-year high. 

This was driven by the massive Reliance-Disney deal, even though the overall number of deals only increased slightly to 427 from 422.

The values of these deals surged by 4% to $20.416 billion (around ₹1.69 lakh crore).

Ola & Uber are testing subscription plans for auto rickshaw drivers in some Indian cities. This follows similar plans by competitors like Namma Yatri and Swiggy-backed Rapido.

Drivers pay a fixed fee (weekly or monthly) for unlimited rides, potentially saving on commission fees, which is a part of the 5% GST applicable by the companies.

A smart subscription model that reduces costs for the company. Competitors should take note!

Indian stock markets boomed on Monday. For the first time, the total value of all listed companies on the BSE stock exchange reached a record ₹400 lakh crore. 

In just nine months, the market cap grew ₹100 lakh crore from its last peak of ₹300 lakh crore on 5 July 2023.

This surge is partly due to retail investors moving their money from traditional savings to the stock market.

Byju Raveendran, the founder of ed-tech firm Byju's, lost his position on the Forbes Billionaire Index 2024. His net worth dropped from $2.1 billion (₹17,545 crore) to 0.

Raveendran’s Byju’s has been suffering from multiple crises, including issues with shareholders, declining finances, and downgrading valuation (now $1 billion).

The rising unpopularity of Byju’s and regular criticisms from all directions played a major role in this outcome.  

Well-known startups like Lenskart, Purplle, and Healtkart are looking for funds to boost their valuations. Lenskart is eyeing a $6 million valuation, and Purplle is to raise a $100 million investment.

In the same context, Swiggy-backed Rapido and Temasek-backed Healthkart are discussing fresh funding rounds.

Most deals will happen through a secondary route as existing investors sell stakes to new investors to generate returns.

India’s new unicorn, Zepto, is planning a fundraising of $300 million, which is over ₹24,000 crore from global investors. The fresh funding would contribute to Zepto’s plan to shift from quick commerce to e-commerce.

This investment would take Zepto’s valuation from $1.4 billion to somewhere near $2.5-3 billion. Zepto also aims to accomplish a positive EBITDA for the September quarter.

Looks like Zomato & Swiggy are going to have a major competitor in the new unicorn Zepto.

Infosys got a surprise tax refund of ₹6,329 crore for the past 11 years, but the taxman isn't done yet. The refunds are from the assessment years 2007-08 to 2018-19 (excluding 2016-17).

They also owe a tax demand of ₹2,763 crore for 2022-23 and ₹4 crore for the year 2011-12.

Regardless, Infosys paid ₹7,474 crore in taxes for the first 9 months of 2023, so this refund is a big boost.

The securities broking and merchant banking subsidiary of ICICI Bank, ICICI Securities, is all set to bid adieu to the stock market.

The company announced its delistment from the indices in June 2023, and now shareholders have waved the green flag for the move.

The approval brought a 4% slip in the early hours of the company’s stock price on 28 March intraday.

Read about when and why ICICI Securities is delisting and how it could affect you from this article.