Bullets

In a transaction worth ₹435 crore, Japanese investment firm SoftBank has decided to dilute around 2% of its stake in the kids and baby accessory company, FirstCry. Ranjan Pai's MEMG Family Office, Harsh Mariwala'a Sharrp Ventures, and Hemendra Kothari's DSP Family Office will take over the sold stake.

The stake sale is presented as less of an attempt by SoftBank to exit FirstCry, and more of the company gaining experienced fund houses joining its fold.

Speaking of Indian startups with shift in stakeholding, read about the implications of Paytm's buyback decision here.

X, formerly Twitter, has been the talk of the town ever since Elon Musk acquired it. Now, users have reported a major glitch, which is deleting the posts and pictures before 2014.

Several popular tweets before December 2014 have been affected due to this mysterious glitch, as per the technology news website “The Verge”.

Users believe this glitch to be part of the company’s cost-cutting measures. Musk & CEO Linda Yaccarino have not responded on the matter.

Well, this news surely doesn’t come as a surprise; after all, Twitter is suffering from “Elon Musk” side effect. Read here to get the complete story.

After its demerger from Reliance Industries, Jio Financial Services Ltd. (JFSL) announced to list on stock exchanges on August 21, 2023. JFS shares were already credited in investors’ demat accounts last week.

As per this listing, every investor of Reliance Industries would receive one share of JFSL for every share held.

Experts on the matter believe JFSL would debut at a premium. With this, Reliance Industries is also set to dominate the financial sector.

Check out the article on how Reliance Group once had to face the eagle-eye investigative skills of RAW here.

Another 495 workers from the Edtech's mentorship and product specialist roles were let go. From July 1 to July 20, the staff were put on a performance improvement plan (PIP).

The post-sale division has not experienced any recent layoffs. In fact, 200 additional specialists have been hired by Byju's over the last two months, as stated by one spokesperson.

Make sure to read this article to learn everything there is to know about Byjus.
 

The Falguni Nayar-led company Nykaa recorded a small 8% gain in net profit year over year for the April to June quarter, reaching ₹5.4 crore, whereas the revenue increased by 24% to ₹1,422 crore.

Their shares have decreased by around 11% since the beginning of the week. 

While the beauty and personal care market appears to be Nykaa's best bet, the fashion industry continues to be a pain in the company's side as it tries to catch up.

Click here to read about a business with significant room for expansion in the meantime.
 

Bata India is set to enter a strategic partnership with German sportswear manufacturer Adidas. The partnership will lead to improving Adidas' presence in India.

Owing to this news, the Netherlands-based shoe manufacturer Bata's shares prices went up by 5.3%! Also, yes, Bata is NOT an Indian company!

The association will be executed in the form of wholesale deals between Adidas and Bata or the shop-in-shop format.

Speaking of brands that appear to be of some nation but belong to another... Click here to read about Old Monk, the Indian alcohol brand that appears international!

After India’s consumer price index inflation rose to 7.4% in July, the July-September quarter is likely to expect a “well-above 6%” inflation rate. This comes from RBI's August bulletin article, titled “State of the Economy”.

The rapid surge in commodity prices, especially tomatoes, had economists believing CPI inflation to be 6.6% on average.

A hike in prices of cereal, fruits, meat & fish, pulses, sugar, and spices would be a major factor for headline inflation.

Tomato prices played a major role in July's 15-month high of 7.4% CPI. Read here to know how the tomato price hike affected India's agriculture sector.

ISRO's Chandryaan-3 is about to begin its lunar mission's last and possibly most sensitive orbit-based phase. Chandrayaan's lander, named Vikram and the rover it carries, Pragyaan, will separate from the launcher module and begin its descent to the moon's pole.

The ₹625 crore lunar mission is competing with Russia's Luna-25 and running on a similar schedule and is scheduled to land on the moon around 21-23 August.

Multiple Indian companies have participated in making the mission the success that it is today. Click here to read about the stocks that could benefit from the success of the Chandrayaan mission.

Vedanta, led by Anil Agarwal, has been given approval by the Hyderabad NCLT to acquire Meenakshi Energy through insolvency. 

With Vizag Minerals, they outbid Jindal Power and a group of Prudent Asset Reconstruction Companies. 

With Vedanta's ₹1,440 crore offer, 31% of the debt will be recovered and given to lenders, trade creditors, and employees. After receiving an initial payment of ₹312 crore, lenders will receive ₹1,143 crore over a period of 5-7 years.

Meanwhile, if you have invested or are planning to invest in Paytm, make sure to check this article.
 

Australian investment firm GQG Partners invested $1.1 billion (around ₹9,000 crores) in Adani Power by buying an 8.1% stake via bulk deals. This marked the largest block deal between a single buyer and a seller, with 31.2 crore equity shares involved.

GQG Partners has been increasing its stake in the Adani group via several deals this year, including buying a 3% stake in Adani Transmission in July.

Adani Power’s shares closed with around a 2% fall on Wednesday.

The Hindenburg report started the chain reaction of troubles for the Adani group. Read here to know what took place in depth.

OLA has made some major declarations in its gala event in its Future Factory in Tamil Nadu. Seems like the company is ready to set fire to the electric two-wheeler market (hopefully not literally)!

The EV manufacturer unveiled its cheapest scooter, the OLA S1X, priced at ₹79,999 and four premium motorcycles. The deliveries for this bike will take place in a year.

Apparently, the company is also in the works of releasing EV cars by 2024.

Click here to read about another automobile company which, despite its laziness, is somehow the country's biggest player!

Rakesh Gangwal & family are selling their 4% stake worth ₹3,730 crore through a block deal. Gangwal has put up 15.6 million shares for sale at a floor price of ₹2,400 per share.

After resigning last year from the board of Interglobe Aviation (Indigo’s parent company), Gangwal planned to sell his stakes over the next five years.

By June 2023, Gangwal held a 29.72% stake in Indigo valued at ₹29,218 crore as per market price.

Meanwhile, the online gaming sector is fighting tooth & nail to reduce the 28% GST application. Read this article to know the matter between the GST Council & gaming sector.

With TCS, Tejas Networks has signed a master contract for the delivery, support, and annual maintenance of its Radio Access Network (the RAN) equipment for BSNL's Pan-India 4G/5G network, which covers roughly 1,00,000 locations. 

As a result of this contract, TCS issued the company a Purchase Order for ₹7,492 crore, nearly half of Tejas Networks Market Cap.

The order will be executed during the calendar years 2023 and 2024.

In other news, ITC reported a rise of 17.59% in its net profit for this quarter, can it be due to the demerger news? Click here to find out everything about the demerger.
 

Former employees and around 500 investors, represented by Swiss Investor Protection Association, will file a claim in Zurich's court as they faced significant losses when UBS took over the bank in March. 

Bondholders' investment worth $17 billion dollars became worthless. Also, the takeover didn't allow the shareholders of either bank to vote.

UBS had paid $3.4 billion for Credit Suisse which was less than half the bank's pre-deal market value.

There's another case which Indian startups have filed against Google, to read about it click here.
 

After signing an LoI with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a ₹1,600 crore mobile manufacturing plant, Foxconn is not done with India. The Taiwanese company aims to make India its third EV manufacturing destination after Ohio and Thailand.

While the details of the deal are still foggy, Foxconn aims to supply around 5-7 lakh EVs by 2025, meeting 5% of the global sales. There are also talks about possibly establishing a plant in Telangana or Tamil Nadu.

Foreign vehicle manufacturers aside, one of India's biggest automobile companies has something brewing with its shares. Read about it here.

After its government agency FSB released its suspicion of several Apple products being compromised, Russia banned its usage. The compromise of iPhones and iPads seems to be part of a U.S. espionage operation.

This ban is applicable to work-related activities; personal use is yet not prohibited.

As per Reuter, Apple has refuted Russia’s allegations, whereas FSB refused to comment on the matter.

Secrets make up the world, just like the secret of Satyendra Dubey’s death. Click here to learn how a whistleblower saw an unfortunate demise.

Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, the auditor for Adani Ports & SEZ, will resign in the coming days, just one year after being reappointed.

The cause is disagreements between the auditor and company management on the auditor's position on certain transactions. 

At Adani Group, this will be the third change of auditors in recent months. Walker Chandiok & Co LLP took over as auditor of Adani Total Gas after Shah Dhandharia & Co LLP resigned in May.

Click here to read in-depth articles about Gautam Adani and the organisation.
 

India's biggest stock broker Zerodha’s Asset Management Company, Zerodha Fund House, gets the go-ahead signal from SEBI. Founder Nithin Kamath's AMC will partner with the fintech platform Smallcase.

Vishal Jain, ex-head of ETFs at Nippon India Mutual Fund, will be the CEO of the newly formed mutual fund house.

Zerodha Fund House will soon bring its New Fund Offer (NFO). The new entry of a well-established player in the AMC space might create competitive ripples.    

Until you wait for Zerodha's NFO, read a detailed article on how stock brokers fuel fake advisories here.

The publicly traded insurance company declared a standalone profit of ₹9,544 crore for the June quarter. 

The same was ₹683 crore during the same quarter the previous year, which caused the share price to increase by over 4%.

Check out this article for more information about LIC's business, financial performance and the areas of concern in their business.
 

To help out founders in the early stages, venture capital firm Antler has launched an Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform. Through this platform, founders could receive a pre-seed capital of ₹2.5 crore.

Antler’s ONDC platform would collaborate with Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani’s Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy.

Initial stage funding is one of the most crucial steps for a startup, and Antler bringing this platform during difficult times is a wonderful opportunity.

Regarding investments, did you know that your favourite coffee chain is also one of the largest banks? Read here to know more.