A strong demand for diesel SUVs has bumped up the contribution of these variants to Hyundai Motor India's sales to a three-year high, a company top official told Business Standard. The local arm of the South Korean carmaker has benefitted after some leading manufacturers - including car market leader Maruti Suzuki - pulled the plug on diesel models amid tightening regulations. Hyundai has also gained from the changing travel preference -people are frequenting getaways and taking to the road a lot more than what they did before the pandemic. This trend has been fuelling overall SUV sales.
American retail major Walgreens Boots Alliance on Tuesday said it would retain its pharma retail business - Boots UK - thus abandoning the entire sale process. The company did not make any comment specifically on the offer made by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries (RIL), which had made a bid for the company last month. "As a result of market instability severely impacting financing availability, no third party has been able to make an offer that adequately reflects the high potential value of Boots and No7 Beauty Company.
The recent currency volatility - rupee's depreciation against international currencies - may have given heartburns to automakers that rely on imports or pay royalty to parent companies abroad. But for Maruti Suzuki India, favourable movement of the yen - the currency that matters the most - against the Indian rupee, has given it reasons to cheer. The yen's sharp fall against the rupee and the rupee's depreciation against the US dollar, which in turn will bump up export realisations, are set to give a margin boost to the maker of Baleno and Brezza, said analysts. The softening of commodity prices and slew of new SUV launches in the coming months will also aid margins, they said.
In one of the biggest donations by a business family in India, the family of Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani on Thursday committed to donating Rs 60,000 crore (around $7.7 billion) to various charities related to health care, education, and skill development. The commitment has been made to mark Gautam Adani's 60th birthday on Friday as well as the birth centenary year of his father Shantilal Adani. The corpus will be administered by the Adani Foundation. "At a very fundamental level, [programmes] related to all these three areas should be seen holistically and they collectively form the drivers to build an equitable and future-ready India.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is setting up a greenfield tractor plant in Mohali near Punjab. Fueled by a strong domestic demand, the expansion is the first in a decade by the world's largest tractor maker. In 2012, the company had set up a facility at Zaheerabad in Telangana.
While commercial vehicles are expected to benefit from strong replacement demand, the two-wheeler and tractor segments are expected to gain from a recovery in the rural economy.
Automobile manufacturers, new and old, as well as ancillary suppliers are set to spend a combined Rs 70,630 crore over the next five years on either entering the electric vehicle segment or stepping up their presence in it. Data culled from announcements made by firms shows India, the world's fifth largest automobile market, is poised to receive one of the biggest capex pushes ever to fuel the transition from internal combustion engines to electric motors and batteries as part of a green drive. The EV push, egged on by the government's emphasis on electric mobility to meet its net zero targets, is expected to yield at least 25 electric vehicles - new ones as well as electrified versions of existing vehicles running on internal combustion engines.
After a two-year lull, the deal pipeline in India's hospitality sector, which has witnessed a strong revival since the second wave of the pandemic receded, is running full. Family offices, high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and institutional investors are looking at the sector with renewed interest, according to investment and transaction advisory firms working on multiple deals. Most of them declined to divulge details of the deals for reasons of confidentiality. The cumulative debt of the tourism, hotels and restaurant sector rose 8.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 64,408 crore as of March 25, 2022 against Rs 59,519 crore on March 26, 2021, according to the Reserve Bank of India.
The economy segment of India's car market is unlikely to revive soon term as inflation and prices prompt buyers to defer purchases. The share of entry-level cars in the passenger vehicle market dropped to the lowest in seven years at the end of the Financial Year 2021-22 (FY22). A recovery in the segment will be largely driven by the overall economic growth, improvement in income levels, and easing of semiconductor shortage, say carmakers and analysts.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Sunday won the race to acquire Swiss cement major Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements and its subsidiary ACC for $10.5 bn (around Rs 81,361 crore), including the open offers. The Adani family, through an offshore special-purpose vehicle, announced that it had entered into definitive agreements for the acquisition of Holcim Ltd's entire stake in two of India's leading cement companies -- Ambuja Cements and ACC -- the Adani group said in a statement. The group outbid Ultratech and JSW group to enter the cement industry and also emerge as the country's second-largest cement manufacturer, with 70 million tonnes of capacity annually.
India's largest cement firm, Ultratech Cement, has joined the race to acquire the Holcim stake in Ambuja Cements and its subsidiary, ACC. UltraTech - part of the Aditya Birla Group - submitted a non-binding bid on Wednesday. Swiss multinational Holcim, which manufactures building material, is exiting India by selling its 63.19% stake in Ambuja Cements. According to banking sources, UltraTech has submitted a plan to Holcim, outlining divestiture details that would meet the norms set by anti-trust body Competition Commission of India.
The chairman of the JSW Group of companies, Sajjan Jindal, whose stake in the group is valued at $14.5 billion (Rs 1.1 trillion), is betting $4.5 billion of his personal fortune in the firm's bid for Ambuja Cements. According to bankers, Jindal's contribution will be a combination of share sale and debts raised by pledging the stake of the target entities with private equities. The JSW Group chairman has offered $7 billion for Ambuja Cements, including $2.5 billion of investments from private equities, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Recently, TPEM's first born electric concept, Avinya broke cover. The model promises a minimum range of 500 kilometres and advanced technology features, aimed at buyers in India and outside. TPEM, the newly formed entity may also consider a separate dedicated sales channel for the EVs with a distinctive corporate identity once the volumes reach a critical mass and throughput is large enough for the dealers to be profitable, said Chandra. Elaborating further on the hiring strategy he said, "We will hire from everywhere-wherever the talent of the required competency is available."
So far at least eight incidents of EV fires have been reported in just over a month's time.
The Indian lenders are worried over the fast depleting asset base of the Future group companies which would make their recovery of dues difficult. The asset base of Future group has eroded in the last two years due to lockdown and takeover of 947 stores by rival Reliance Retail after Future group's lease on the properties expired. Bankers said they have approached bankruptcy court so as to avoid any duplication of legal action and reduce time at the legal forums.
Air India, under its new Tata management, has taken a Rs 60,800 crore ($8 billion) cover by paying Rs 266 crore premium to a clutch of insurance companies, including Tata AIG General Insurance. The airline managed to get a better deal as it valued its fleet lower by almost $2 billion. The new management held extensive negotiations - both in India and London, to get a good deal considering the rising premiums due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
'If the Indian government actually delivers on the infrastructure plans, the hospitality sector would double itself by 2025.'
Ola Electric became the latest among electric scooter (e-scooter) makers to have started the exercise of recalling a specific batch of its model after a rap on the knuckles by the government. Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday advised electric vehicle (EV) companies to act responsibly by identifying and recalling defective batches without waiting for orders or guidelines from the ministry. The Bengaluru-based start-up is conducting pre-emptive diagnostics and health check on 1,441 scooters, it said in a statement on Sunday.
Future group promoter Kishore Biyani's stake fell consistently across group companies since December 2019 after American retail major Amazon infused funds in a Future group promoter entity and the group companies started showing signs of financial distress due to closure of stores due to Covid-19 pandemic. As lenders take Future group companies to the bankruptcy courts to recover their dues under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the shareholders of Future group companies are staring at complete wipeout of their investments as secured lenders get top priority in any potential recovery, say lawyers. "The fate of all Future group shareholders is now sealed with them looking at a complete loss.
The possible acquisition of Holcim India business will be one of the biggest inbound corporate deals in the country. Currently, Walmart Inc.'s $16-billion acquisition of Flipkart Online Services in 2018 remains the biggest acquisition of an Indian asset by any acquirer, followed by BP plc acquisition of 30 per cent stake in Reliance Industries' 23 oil and gas production blocks in 2011 for $7.2 billion. Bloomberg reported late on Wednesday night that Holcim - the world's biggest cement maker - is considering a potential sale of its India business and gauging interest in its controlling stake in Ambuja Cement.
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