Bullets

Renowned as the world's most valuable edtech startup, Byju's is now looking to raise $250 million through convertible notes. This move intends to circumvent the due diligence funding hurdles faced by the parent company (Byju's).

The notes will be issued through Aakash, which can be converted to equity at a 20% discount to the units' initial listing price.

Byju's is also currently looking to rework a $1.2 billion debt as the startup remains loss-making and struggles with obligatory payments.

Kitchens@, a VC-backed cloud kitchen startup, has recently acquired Swiggy's cloud kitchen arm, Access.

Junaiz Kizhakkayil, CEO of Kitchens@, said, “The addition of Swiggy’s Access kitchens will bolster the reach and operations of Kitchens@'s in four cities across 52 locations and 700+ kitchens, providing customers with more convenient and efficient food delivery options”.

The sale will be a part of a swap deal between Swiggy and Kitchens@ as Swiggy looks to trim verticals amidst reported losses of ₹3,628 crore.

SBI may withdraw its stake in Yes Bank as its lock-in period ends on March 13. While SBI had initially acquired a 49% stake in Yes Bank, it has reduced its holding over time, reaching 26.14% by December.

The lock-in period was put in place by the RBI under a restructuring scheme which included ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IDFC First Bank and HDFC Bank.

Yes Bank shares have been falling since the exposure of this information.

Japanese investment firm SoftBank is looking to dump 3.4% of its stake worth ₹600 crore in the logistics and delivery startup, Delhivery. Based on a report on ET, the Japanese holding company may even sell a larger section if a demand for the same exists.

This will be the second sale by international stakeholders, as last week saw American investment fund Tiger Global exit Delhivery with a ₹414 crore open market sale.

So, is the startup fever dying or dead?

Reliance Industries has launched True 5G services in Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Srinagar will be 2 of the 25 additional cities in 12 states to receive True 5G. Citizens of these geographies will access the Jio welcome offer, with unlimited data at over 1 Gbps.

A Jio spokesperson with The Print could be quoted saying, "Jio has provided employment to more than 36,000 people directly and indirectly in Jammu and Kashmir."

For once, J&K is not being left behind.

The Indian aviation sector seems to be gearing for a take off as major companies in the industry reshape their businesses. With Air India and Indigo increasing their fleet size, low-cost flier SpiceJet is reportedly in the talks with Carlyle Aviation Partners to restructure its debt.

The value of the debt being restructured stands at $100 million and be achieved by issuing fresh equity shares worth ₹244.28 crore to Carlyle. The restructure will also get SpiceJet access to new funding.

Jack Ma backed Ant Group, and Japanese holding company SoftBank are looking to liquidate their stake in Paytm.

According to a report by ET, Ant & SoftBank had previously approached Bharti Group's founder Sunil Mittal to buy their stakes. The aforementioned deal never went through, and the East-Asian companies are looking to gradually offload their stakes in a block sale to the public markets.

Making hot-fixes to already adjusted profits will only go so far, I suppose.

Joe Biden has nominated Ajay Banga, ex-CEO of Mastercard, to be the next president of World Bank. Banga will be the first person of Indian-origin to hold this position.

The US President president elected Banga because the former believes that the latter is "uniquely equipped" and had critical experience mobilising "public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change".

A truly proud moment for India as another one of its children upstages the country's name.

The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee announced a 25-basis-point increase in the repo rate to 6.50% during its meeting on February 6-8, citing persistent inflationary pressures. The RBI aims for 4% inflation with a tolerance band of 2-6%, and the recent surge in inflation was largely influenced by cereal prices. The minutes also highlighted the need to remain disinflationary until inflation is returned to target, and to safeguard the central bank's credibility in battling inflation. The hike was necessary to control inflation, despite concerns over its impact on economic growth.

Xbox, Microsoft's game division, has begun making strides towards closing the acquisition deal of California-based video game company Activision Blizzard. The deal is reported to be an all-cash deal worth $68.7 billion.

The acquisition faces a major hurdle through Xbox's direct competitor Sony. The Playstation maker refutes the deal, stating that the nature of the deal is anti-competetive and would negatively affect interests of gamers globally.

Microsoft is reportedly entering long-term cloud gaming deals with gaming giants Nvidia and Nintendo.

According to an MoU entered by the businesses on Monday, Tata Motors will provide 25,000 X-Pres-T EVs to Uber. The order size makes it the largest deal in the country.

Uber will act as an intermediary, helping medium to large sized fleet owners to acquire these new vehicles with the help of financiers, and work at getting charging points available at convenient points for ride partners.

With the Delhi scooter ban, suppose ride-share services have to look for an alternative.

Meta Platforms has reportedly started testing a subscription system in a pilot phase beginning with Australia and New Zealand. The subscription will be called "Meta Verified" and will cost $11.99 for the web version and $14.99 for Apple's iOS and Android.

The verification will use government IDs and provide users with a blue badge, will be provided in a bundle for both Facebook and Instagram and will reportedly provide extra protection against impersonation.

I guess Subscription is the new META.

FSN E-Commerce Ventures ltd, or Nykaa, launched a new line of hair and skincare oils under "Nyveda". The new range of oils is made using various ayurvedic sources and sold exclusively on Nykaa's website.

Nykaa went public on November 8, 2021, and has earned founder Falguni Nayar renown as India's richest self-made woman. However, the company has also experienced massive tumbles since, losing the CEO her recognition and around ₹8,300 crore!

When all else fails, try Ayurveda I guess! 🤷‍♂️

Owing to the ailing status of MTNL and BSNL, the government of India plans to merge the legacy telecom players, adding to the many attempts it has made in the last 15 years. The plan seemed to be in full swing last year but was "deferred" because of MTNL's poor debt situation and BSNL employees' opposition to the merger.

According to reports, the merger is part of a ₹1.46 trillion revival package and has appointed Delloite as the transaction advisor.

Adani Group just can't seem to catch a break! January 24 saw the beginning of the biggest stock rout the group experienced. To add insult to injury, market regulator SEBI has confirmed an investigation into the company's fall as well as the withdrawal of the Adani Entreprises FPO.

In typical Adani Fashion, the group was quick to release an attempted soothing message to investors, stating that the company had "strong cashflows" and its business plans were "fully funded".

The Indian Government is reportedly in talks with 4 more international companies looking to set up semiconductor factories in India. One of these has been revealed to be New York-based GlobalFoundries.

Apart from the Vedanta-Foxconn partnership, the setting up of domestic manufacturing units will lead to reduced dependence on imports for silicon chips, which may also lead to a fall in the prices of various electronics across the board. Vedanta-Foxconn losing its monopolistic position also further benefits the consumer.

Alphabet Inc, Google's parent company, has lost $100 billion in market value as its newest addition Bard, trips up in a public demo. Bard is Google's attempt to compete against the Microsoft-funded OpenAI chatbot, Chat.GPT.

A video where the chatbot was asked about the James Webb Space Telescope and delivered incorrect information about the same started the trouble. After the fiasco, Google's shares have fallen by 7.62% since markets opened.

And here I was, worried about job security against AI.

At ₹1,238 crore, Avenue Supermarkets founder Radhakishan Damani has completed India's biggest residential property date. The total carpet area acquired under Damani's, his relatives and associates' names stands at 1,82,084 square feet.

Some believe the property was sold at cheaper rates to Damani and associates while others report the deal intends to bail out the property's developer.

Some relevant information about the deal is that it comes before the implementation of the budget's real estate reinvestment cap of ₹10 cr.

Reliance Industries showcased a Hydrogen powered truck at India Energy Week, partnered with Ashok Leyland. The truck reportedly has near-zero emissions of only water and hydrogen. Reliance also claims, "H2ICE vehicle performance on-par with diesel ICE".

I'm all for "big corporations supporting environmental sustenance", but Reliance is essentially killing its cash cow by providing an alternative to petrochemicals (its biggest revenue driver).

Reliance does plan to foray into green energy with Hydrogen, but that project has a 10-15 years horizon.

Foreign Portfolio Investors withdrew ₹28,852 crore from the Indian markets during January this year. This was the biggest recorded withdrawal since June 2022, with ₹50,203 crore in withdrawals.

The loss of interest comes from Chinese markets being a cheaper alternative to their Indian counterpart (some things never change...)

Following the ₹28,852 crore withdrawal, FPIs further withdrew ₹5,700 crore from equities in the first week of February. Indian equities underperforming, with the market falling by 1.89%, also caused this withdrawal.