Private equity (PE) investments in India have fallen to a 6-year low at $24.2 billion in the financial year ending March 2024. Investments via PE deals are down 47 per cent compared to FY23, when private equity deals worth $45.8 billion were signed. According to data sourced from Bloomberg, PE firms had signed record deals worth $80 billion in the financial year ending March 2022.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in India have moved into the slow lane, dropping 43 per cent in terms of deal value to touch $13.37 billion since January this year to date, compared to the same period in the last year. According to data sourced from Bloomberg, Indian companies reported deal value worth $23.5 billion between January and March 22, 2023. Data Infrastructure Trust's acquisition of American Tower Corporation's India telecom towers business for $2.5 billion was the top deal for the ongoing quarter so far, followed by the Highway Infrastructure Trust's acquisition of PNC Infratech's road projects for $1.08 billion.
Collectively, these companies spent Rs 628 crore (Rs 6.28 billion) on political contributions in the past five years, according to their annual reports.
The global billionaires list witnessed as many as 94 new entrants from India, stated a report by Hurun India on Tuesday. Following a net addition of 84, the country's billionaire tally touched 271 with their combined wealth at $1 trillion, noted the report. Mukesh Ambani, chairman & managing director of Reliance Industries, is the only Indian to make it into the top 10 of the Hurun Global Rich List 2024, a ranking of billionaires in US dollar terms.
A reading of the reports suggests that there is no standard practice for reporting political contributions and it is left to the company's discretion to report them as they find fit.
Tata Sons Private Limited, the holding company of the Tata group, witnessed a precipitous drop in its net debt to Rs 5,656 crore in the 10 months ended January this year, as its cash reserves burgeoned to Rs 9,516 crore during this period. Eight years ago, in 2015-16, Tata Sons reported a net debt of Rs 5,132 crore; from March 2017 until March 2023, this figure was above the Rs 14,700 mark, peaking at Rs 27,437 crore at the end of March 2019, according to data sourced from Capitaline. The company's gross debt nearly halved to Rs 15,173 crore until January 2024 on a standalone basis, down from a peak of Rs 31,363 crore reported in the financial year ended March 2019.
In FY23, Indian operations accounted for 41.6 per cent of the consolidated revenue of India's top five multinationals, up from 34 per cent in FY18 and 33.2 per cent and 34.2 per cent in FY21.
The share of foreign loans in total Adani group debt portfolio dropped to 61 per cent by September 2023 from 63 per cent as of March 2023, as the group repaid part of its foreign loans and refinanced part of older loans. The share of Indian lenders, on the other hand, rose to 39 per cent in the total debt pie in September 2023 from 37 per cent in March after a report by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research in January last year, which led to volatility in the share prices of group companies. The group's total debt remained static at Rs 2.26 trillion in the same period.
The Adani group is in advanced talks with top sovereign funds based in West Asia to raise up to $2.6 billion for its airport expansion and green hydrogen projects. The group, which expects to close the ongoing financial year ending March with Rs 80,000 crore of Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation), has held a series of road shows in London, Dubai, and Singapore with potential investors, briefing them about their future growth plans. The group's flagship, Adani Enterprises, may dilute part of its stake in the airport-holding firm and/or the green hydrogen business to these funds, which are keen to invest in the Indian infrastructure sector, said a source close to the development.
Corporate India reported high double-digit growth in net profit for the fourth consecutive quarter in October-December 2023 (Q3FY24), driven by margin gains from lower prices of raw material and energy.
Tata Consultancy Services' (TCS') contribution to the overall market capitalisation (mcap) of listed Tata group companies has slipped below 50 per cent for the first time in over a decade. This has happened amid a rally in other Tata stocks, led by smaller companies, even as TCS, the group's largest company by mcap, has lagged. In recent quarters, Tata's listed firms have emerged as leading performers on the bourses, with the group's combined mcap crossing Rs 30 trillion early last week - a first for a private sector conglomerate.
Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries (RIL) is in discussions to acquire a 29.8 per cent stake in Tata Play from the Walt Disney Company, according to sources close to the development. This move is seen as part of RIL's broader strategy to deepen its footprint in India's television distribution sector. Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, currently holds a 50.2 per cent stake in the satellite television broadcaster.
The slowdown in private consumption in the economy is taking a toll on the growth of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). The net sales growth of listed FMCG companies hit a 14-quarter low of 2.5 per cent in October-December 2023 (Q3FY24). This is the lowest revenue growth for the industry since the June 2020 quarter, when the FMCG firms in the Business Standard sample had reported a 13.2 per cent Y-o-Y decline in combined net sales owing to the lockdown.
The Chinese financial giant, which had invested in One 97 Communications since 2015, has seen a sharp decline of 45 per cent, or Rs 2,125 crore, in its stake value since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took action against Paytm Payments Bank on January 31. One 97 shares closed at Rs 422.6 a share on Monday. The Chinese company, however, had sold its stake worth Rs 8,293 crore in three tranches over one year.
Banks, the biggest component of the Indian equity market, are now trading at a big discount to the benchmark indicesThe BSE Bankex index, which tracks the share price of the 10 top listed banks, is trading at a trailing price to earnings (P/E) multiple of 15.3X, nearly a 40 per cent discount to the BSE Sensex current P/E of 24.37X. This is the biggest valuation gap between the two indices in at least 10 years. Similarly, the BSE Bankex price to book ratio (P/B) of 2.22X is 40 per cent lower than the current Sensex P/B ratio of 3.61X.
After a sharp fall in the share prices of HDFC Bank and other private sector lenders in the past three days, the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector weighting in the Nifty50 has slipped to a seven-year low of 32.03 per cent, down from nearly 36.6 per cent at the end of March 2023 and 34.5 per cent at the end of December 2023.
The Nifty IT index rose by 5.14 per cent on Friday (January 12), marking its best performance in a day since July 2020, followed by another 1.9 per cent rally on Monday. With this, the index, which tracks the share prices of India's 10 biggest information technology (IT) services companies, has increased 7.1 per cent in the past two sessions. However, the substantial rally in the index occurred at a time when India's four largest IT companies reported their worst quarterly performance in over five years.
Tata Group remained India's largest business conglomerate in market capitalisation in calendar year 2023 while the Mukesh Ambani camp raced ahead of the Adani businesses to become the second-largest. The Tata companies ended 2023 with a combined group market capitalisation of Rs 28.68 trillion, up 35 per cent from the Rs 21.2 trillion at the end of December 2022. Ambani's group mcap is Rs 19.42 trillion at the end of CY23, up 10.7 per cent from the Rs 17.6 trillion a year ago.
As much as Rs 47,810 crore was spent on share buybacks by 48 companies in 2023 -- the highest amount since 2017. This surge in value was largely driven by a few large-sized issues, including those by Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 17,000 crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs 10,000 crore), and Wipro (Rs 12,000 crore). In 2022, 58 companies had repurchased shares worth Rs 38,305 crore, according to data from Prime Database.
The combined market capitalisation of Adani group companies increased to Rs 15.11 trillion last week. As a result, Gautam Adani's family raced ahead of Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, reclaiming the title of India's wealthiest promoter.
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