Bullets

Three directors, GV Ravishankar, MD at Peak XV Partners, Russell Dreisenstock of Prosus, & Vivian Wu of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, resigned from Byju’s Board. Along with them, Byju’s auditor Deloitte Haskins also submitted his resignation.

The rift between lenders and the EdTech unicorn has led to growing tension with shareholders.

Byju’s is negotiating with lenders for the next loan repayment, and the members seem to resemble the passengers of a sinking ship. 🛳️ 

Will Byju’s survive the aftermath?

Logistics business Delhivery seems to be losing favour among foreign investors as yet another is looking to exit the business. This time, it is the US-based private equity firm, Carlyle, after the Japanese holding company Softbank.

Carlyle is looking to sell its entire stake of 2.35%, or 18.4 million shares, at a price of ₹385.5 per share.

Retail investors still seem interested in Delhivery, as news about this stake sale led to a price spike of 7%, reaching ₹404.40.

Shein is ready for a comeback, but there are a number of terms and conditions. 

Reliance Retail will own Shein's Indian business entirely, training will be provided to produce products for global distribution.

Furthermore, Shein's operations in India will be subject to strict data storage regulations, ensuring that sensitive information remains within the country.

This strategic move aims to boost India's manufacturing sector, increase the presence of "made-in-India" goods, and generate exports worth $6 billion.
 

Online marketplace platform Olx has decided to remove 800 employees from its payroll. Based on reports, the layoffs will not be limited to any particular geography or department.

This round of firings will be a part of the 1500-employee-layoff plan that Olx declared in January.

In a change of events from the "new normal", Olx is removing these 800 employees as a result of an existing business vertical, Olx Autos, being wound up instead of rushed hiring during funding excess.

After losing a major client in USA’s Transamerica, Tata Consultancy Services is back with a bang. TCS achieved a $1 billion deal from UK’s National Employment Savings Trust, aka NEST.

TCS will use this deal to transform its scheme administration services digitally. The deal comes with an extension possibility from its initial 10 years tenure.

TCS is making its presence known loud-n-clear in the UK by grabbing multiple deals such as Marks & Spencer, Phoenix Group, and more.

BCCI published the tender for lead sponsor rights with a base price of ₹350 crore. 

The base price is lower than what Byju's paid until March. For domestic matches against Team India, for each match Byju's had paid ₹5.07 crore, and for competitions in the ICC and ACC, ₹1.56 crore. 

Byju’s is in financial trouble and still spending a lot on sponsorships. Maybe their plan is to sink in debt while making expensive advertising investments🤷‍♀️
 

Daniel Zhang, the current Chairman and CEO of Alibaba, will step down from his position in September. 

Eddie Wu, the Chairman of the Taobao and Tmall online commerce operations, will move up to CEO, while Executive Vice-Chairman Joseph Tsai will become the Chairman. 

The business disclosed its strategic choice to split into six independent companies earlier this year, giving them the freedom to seek fundraising. 

The cloud division, one of the six business groups, will be led by Zhang.
 

US-based asset management and private equity firm Blackstone is looking to bring India its biggest REIT IPO to date. The issue size of the IPO is expected to be around $800 million to $1 billion, as per reports.

The 45 million square feet of real estate under this REIT will include Blackstone's Nucleus Office Parks and properties of joint ventures formed with Panchshil Realty from Pune and Salapuria Sattva from Bengaluru.

Could REITs finally be gaining some traction in India?

500 Airbus planes were ordered by Indigo,bringing the total number of aircraft ordered to 1330. This marked the largest single purchase agreement to date.

The order is anticipated to be completed by 2030-2035, 480 planes are yet to be delivered from an earlier order. The agreement was inked on Monday at the Paris Air Show.

While the nation's smaller carriers are experiencing difficulties in running the business, we have IndiGo and Air India increasing their fleet size.
 

Is the title not hint enough about what is going on? It's BYJU'S, for crying out loud!

The EdTech platform has decided to axe around 500-1,000 more jobs in the third round of layoffs this year, sending the number of employees chopped to 4,000 for the year.

Non-sales teams and senior management will finally be hit by this round of layoffs. What's more, BYJU's sickness is spreading to its acquisitions, with employees from Whitehat Jr being asked to retire voluntarily.

Controversy is Reddit’s middle name for the year. After a mass protest over API pricing changes, Reddit now has to deal with hackers. Ransomware gang BlackCat stole 80GB of compressed data from Reddit, for which they are demanding a $4.5 million ransom along with withdrawing the API pricing changes.

An employee falling for a phishing scam on 9th February led to the hack.

Will Reddit comply with hackers’ demands or end up losing the data breach battle?

Market regulator SEBI has ordered IIFL Securities to stop its client onboarding for two years. The order comes as a result of the broker mismanaging client funds as its own.

IIFL Securities used the funds in the credit balance client accounts to settle the payments of its business' obligations.

From selling user data to misusing client funds, do new age brokers have no shame?!

After barring Zee's Chairman Emeritus Subhash Chandra and MD & CEO Puneet Goenka from holding key positions on 12th June, SEBI filed a 197-page affidavit. The affidavit contains details of the misappropriation of funds as well as multiple false disclosures & submission of statements by the two individuals.

A "Letter of Comfort" given by Subhash Chandra for a ₹200 Crore loan to Essel Green Mobility revealed the whole fiasco.

What's interesting is Subhash Chandra is no longer associated with the company.

In the next three years, Physics Wallah will spend ₹500 crore in Xylem Learning, a learning platform with roots in Kerala.

The presence of Physics Wallah in peninsular India will grow as a result of this action. Alakh Pandey, the company's founder, predicted that this investment will help Kozhikode's Xylem spread to other states. 

Physics Wallah will also visit a few M&A options in the area. Let's wait for their South test results to see how they do!
 

Adani Digital Labs Private Ltd, Adani Enterprises' wholly-owned subsidiary, has acquired the ticket booking, Trainman. The acquisition was completed by buying a 100% stake in Stark Enterprises Private Ltd, the company that operates Trainman. The financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

This marks Adani Enterprise's third foray into the travel market, following Adani One, a flight and cab booking platform, and a minority stake in ClearTrip.

Are clean, timely trains the next stop on Indian Railways' privatisation express?

Micron Technology Inc., the largest US-based chipmaker, is discussing setting up a semiconductor packaging plant in Indian soil. The plant is estimated to be worth $1 billion.

The news may be announced with PM Modi’s visit to the USA next week as it surmounts another success in the “Make in India” approach.

After the ban from the US, this Indian investment will increase the dark clouds hovering over Chinese chipmaking companies.

IDFC First Bank, owing to high trading volumes, reached its all-time high of ₹81 today. The bank's previous peak was observed on 30 September 2016 at ₹79.85.

What's more, is that IDFC First Bank's shares have generated a grand 47% return over the past couple of months. The reason behind the rally seems to be the ₹2,485 net profit posted by the private bank.

Is it time to go shopping, then?

Known for manufacturing iPhones, Taiwanese-based Foxconn might be ready to put an EV factory in India. The Taiwanese executives and Indian officials are in talks for a factory establishment by this year.  

Maharashtra or Tamil Nadu might be the location chosen for the factory base due to its dominance in the automobile industry.

This news is yet another prediction of the boom India will come across in the EV industry. The future of the EV in India is here.

Lenskart, the eyewear unicorn, has just scored a massive $100 million investment from private equity firm ChrysCapital. 

This funding round includes fresh capital injection and the purchase of existing shareholders' shares. In the past year alone, Lenskart had raised a staggering $850 million, fueling its expansion within India and across Asia and the Middle East. 

Talk about vision! Lenskart is truly on a mission to conquer the eyewear world, one stylish frame at a time😎
 

Gaining $20 million from Uber, Everest Fleet is ready to grow its presence throughout India. 

This investment, led by Uber, marks one of Uber's direct investments in an Indian startup. Everest intends to embrace EVs and lessen its reliance on CNG. It is hoping to have a fleet of 10,000 EVs by 2026. 

Everest Fleet is set to revolutionise shared mobility with a greener and more sustainable future. Get ready for an eco-conscious adventure on the road ahead!