Bullets

Benefitting the elderly and female populace, Small Savings Schemes in India saw a rise in interest rates from 7% to 7.5%. This hike will be valid for the next quarter, i.e., April 1st to June 30th, 2023. 

This increase of 70 basis points on the National Savings Certificate (NSC) was announced via a circular from the Ministry of Finance. 

The hike is bound to allure rich deposits for the next quarter in 2023.

Edtech giant Byju recently got its world "rocked" as its US investor BlackRock reduced the valuation of its holding in the startup by around 50%. The current valuation of the startup stands at $11.5 billion, as per BlackRock.

From various rounds of layoffs and unpaid employees to even dipping its hands in its only profit-making business Aakash's pockets, Byju's being called a giant is, of course a loose application of that term.

Try another football star, that ought to help!

After months of due diligence, PhonePe has backed out of the acquisition deal with ZestMoney. The reason behind shrugging the agreement, which began in November, is the valuation issues due to the company’s complex structure.

ZestMoney is facing trouble raising funds with increased interest rates and the shaken sustainability of the BNPL sector. Their high delinquency rates also played a huge role in the decision.

Not paying dues before due diligence costs ZestMoney big time.

South Asia’s largest EdTech company upGrad succeeded in funding ₹ 300 Crore through an internal rights issue. The raised amount was summed up of ₹212 Crore contributed by co-founder Ronnie Screwvala, ₹81 Crore by shareholder Temasek, and the rest ₹7 Crore by other minority shareholders.

This is upGrad’s second funding round in a year, as it raised around ₹1600 Crore last August.  

This continuity of raising internal funding sure is a sign of the trust lost in the market.

NCLAT has confirmed the ₹1,337 crore fine on Google with a deadline of 30 days. The fine comes as a ruling to the anti-trust case on the internet giant by the Competition Commission of India. The case accused Google of misusing its dominant position on Android devices, where it restricted the removal of pre-installed apps from these phones.

Apart from the fine, Google has been ordered to discontinue these anti-competitive activities.

Try and Google your way out of this! 😂

OYO has reduced the valuation of its IPO before trying to make an appearance in the markets for a second time. On October 2021, when OYO made its first attempt, the IPO was valued at ₹8,430 crore. Out of this, shares worth ₹7,000 crore would be fresh issues, while ₹1,430 crore would be offered for sale. This would have given SoftBank an opportunity to reduce its stake by selling shares worth ₹1,328.53 crore.

Maybe another CEO salary hike would help...

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. for not following the set rules. CEO Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, also got roped in the charge for not registering properly with the US Derivatives Regulator. 

CFTC commented on how Binance took advantage by disregarding set laws to trade American products.  

This news was a cold splash to Crypto enthusiasts, as the “ride to the moon” sees the probability of stalling.

Twitter, the popular social networking service has been in the spotlight since the dramatic takeover by Elon Musk. Now, Musk has valued the company at half its purchase price. 

CEO Musk, who purchased Twitter at $44 Billion, said the company now has a mere value of $20 Billion. This valuation was revealed by Musk while announcing a new stock compensation program for the employees.  

Twitter sure has many thorns in its path to the vision Musk has for the company.

Accenture is looking to lay off 19,000 employees as it plans to "streamline operations" for the upcoming Q2FY23. While the size of the layoff is only 2.5% of the existing workforce of the Irish-American tech giant, the sheer number is far greater than the recent Google and Twitter layoffs combined.

So, in a way, Accenture hit a world record, just not the kind people would be looking forward to...

Deutsche Bank, the German multinational investment bank, has experienced a fall in its share price for the third day in a row. The reason for this collapse is contagion panic among investors and depositors alike, as SVB and Credit Suisse collapsed in recent history among liquidity crises.

The tumble started for Deutsche Bank on March 22 and has been falling consistently since. The prices have fallen from €9.90 to €8.54 since.

Watch Insider and find out if India's next.

To pay debts worth $2 billion maturing by June, Vedanta Ltd. is in a pickle. From finding ways to raise funds to the dropping share price, they sure have a lot on their plate.

Multiple sources claim the company’s plan to sell a 10% stake even after founder Anil Agarwal denied the allegations.

These “baseless rumours” are only going to pile up in the upcoming months as Vedanta prepares to pay up the humongous debt amount.

Hindenburg seems to have acquired a taste for the big guys now. After attacking Adani, the research organisation's next target is ex-Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

The latest report accuses Dorsey's newly formed payment platform, Block, of committing accounting fraud and inflating metrics. The report also claims that the stock has a 65%-75% downside "on a purely fundamental basis".

Dorsey's wealth experienced its biggest single-day fall of 11% by $526 million, reducing his worth to $4.4 billion.

The Indian government is working towards its FY23 divestment plan by selling a 3.5% stake in Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). The sale is being held on Thursday & Friday at the floor price of ₹2,450 per share. 

This price comes with a whooping discount of 6.7% to ₹2,625.20, yesterday’s closing price on the BSE. 

Will the government's attempt to accomplish ₹50,000 crore divestment target be fulfilled, or will the target price see a decline again?

The US Fed has hiked interest rates by 0.25% for the 9th time in a row. This hike seems counterintuitive among the two US bank collapses due to liquidity crises as the interest rates kept rising.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell stated that the US banking system is not necessarily in trouble, but the management at SVB "failed badly".

Whether the Fed is playing a blame game or there is a sound reason behind these hikes, only time will tell.

“Chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcounts!” Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy said while laying off 9,000 employees. AWS (Amazon Web services), Twitch, Advertising, People eXperience & Technology are some departments being axed.

The e-Commerce company, Amazon earlier announced (in January) to remove 18,000 of their workforce.  

Is this a race for adaptability to the unstable economy or are giants like Meta & Amazon being the sheep in following the trend?

The spot price for gold has crossed the lifetime high mark of ₹60,000 per 10 grams. The last lifetime high peak was observed around August 2020, with prices around ₹57,000 which has been reached and breached since January this year.

Reasons for this hike include a rise in the demand for the lustrous metal as well as the fall in the value of the Indian Rupee against the US Dollar.

Hopefully, the demand for gold is for jewellery, not investments.

After Tata Consumer Products dropped the acquisition plans for packaged water giant, Bisleri, Jayanti Chauhan took the reigns. Jayanti, vice-chairperson & daughter of Bisleri International Chairman, Ramesh Chauhan, will work with CEO Angelo George. 

Two years of discussions with talks of ₹7000 crore for the brand ended with Tata Consumer backing out last week.

Indecisiveness wasted two years spent on the deal. Is Tata’s ship wobbling with the sudden change in reigns, or is this just a coincidence?

Credit Suisse is about to pull a Yes Bank as Switzerland's largest bank, Union Bank of Switzerland, has agreed to buy the recently crashed Credit Suisse for $3.25 billion. Shareholders of Credit Suisse will get UBS' shares in a 22.48:1 ratio.

Swiss Finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter could be reported saying that the merger was a "commercial solution and not a bailout". That's rich, considering Credit Suisse recently needed a $54 billion fund infusion from the Swiss central bank.

Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO & MD of Tata Consultancy Services resigns from his pedestal unexpectedly. K Krithivasan, president & global head of BFSI at TCS succeeded Gopinathan on 16th March 2023.  

Having spent 22 & 27 years with TCS & the group, respectively, Gopinathan now wishes to follow other interests. His resignation will be effective from 15th September 2023 following a smooth transition for the CEO-designate, Krithivasan.

Let’s hope TCS does not go through a Mistry mishap.

IndusInd bank has decided to withdraw its insolvency proceedings against Zee Entertainment Entreprises, an Essel Group company. The proceedings were initiated by NCLT in February after IndusInd raised a petition for the same.

The reason behind the aforementioned petition was the failure of the entertainment company to pay back a ₹83 crore repayment to the bank.

The withdrawal of the proceedings could be a positive marker for Zee as it tries to merge with Sony, forming India's largest media company.