With the third and final round of layoffs implemented by Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms, Inc. in process globally, India, too, has seen its impact, with some senior executives being asked to leave. Some of the executives to have been impacted are Avinash Pant, India's director of marketing; Saket Jha Sourabh, director and head of media partnerships; and Amrita Mukherjee, one of the directors on the legal team. An email sent to the company did not elicit any comment on the development until the time of going to press.
Rishad Premji, chairman of IT services major Wipro, saw his compensation for FY23 decline by almost 50 per cent year-on-year, due to a fall in the firm's profit. According to the Form 20-F, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by Wipro, Premji's compensation for FY23 was $951,353, down 50 per cent from $1,819,022 in FY22. "Rishad A Premji is entitled to a commission at the rate of 0.35 per cent on incremental consolidated net profits of Wipro Limited over the previous fiscal year. However, in light of the fact that the incremental consolidated net profits for fiscal year 2023 was negative, the Company determined that no commission was payable for fiscal year 2023 to Mr Rishad A. Premji," said the company in the filing.
Global investment management firm Bernstein has pegged the enterprise valuation of Reliance Industries (RIL)'s 85 per cent stake in Reliance Retail at $111 billion, while valuing the Mukesh Ambani-led company's 66.5 per cent stake in telecom and digital platform arm Reliance Jio at $88 billion. Reliance Industries had earlier planned to list both its subsidiaries to unlock value for its shareholders but hadn't fixed any timeline. The report said that Reliance Retail had raised $6 billion by diluting a 10.1 per cent stake, while Jio Platforms raised $20 billion from investors by selling 33 per cent in 2020.
Macroeconomic (macro) concerns, along with a cautious approach towards discretionary information technology (IT) spending, will see the revenue for Indian IT firms decelerate by 5 per cent through 2024-25 (FY25), from the highs of 12-18 per cent in 2022-23, said analysts from S&P Global Ratings. "The reason behind this slow growth is a macro slowdown. "Customers are cutting their discretionary IT spending, especially on projects that take longer to deliver quantifiable outcomes. "We also acknowledge that there are still strong economic headwinds for the next few years," said Spencer Ng, associate director, corporate ratings, S&P Global Ratings, over a call in a media briefing.
Ahmedabad-based Nirma group and leading private equity firms have joined the race to acquire BSE-listed Glenmark Life Sciences. The acquisition by chemicals-to-cement major Nirma, if successful, would be a major boost for the health-care segment of the group, on the lines of its successful entry into the cement sector following its purchase of Lafarge India's assets for about Rs 9,400 crore in July 2016. It later followed up by buying Emami cement assets for Rs 5,500 crore in February 2020.
The hiring scenario is for the batch that passes out in 2024. These are graduates who will be impacted, given 2022 graduates are not fully absorbed and 2023 onboarding still incomplete.
In the technology (tech) world, especially storage, Sanjay Mehrotra is a well-known name. Co-founder of SanDisk, a flash memory storage company in 1988, it was eventually acquired by Western Digital in 2016 for a whopping $19 billion. For a boy from Kanpur, who went on to pursue higher studies in the US, becoming the chief executive officer of Micron Technology, Inc - one of America's largest memory chip makers - and now setting up the company's first plant in India, it has been quite a ride.
Made-in-India apps -- the likes of QuackQuack, TrulyMadly, and Aisle -- are wooing Internet users in smaller towns. Indian consumers spent close to $10 million in 2022 on dating and friendship apps.
'Every time a new tech comes in, there are a set of people who will predict that this will be the end of Indian IT and every time the Indian IT industry and overall technology providers have proven to be resilient.'
Adani Group is expected to report a 20 per cent rise in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) at Rs 61,200 crore for the year that ended in March 2023 (2022-23, or FY23), according to a note submitted by the group to lenders recently. The group had earned Ebitda of Rs 57,299 crore in the preceding financial year that ended in March 2022 (2021-22). The group's gross debt was Rs 2.27 trillion as of March 31, 2023, and has projected to not take on additional debt until it lowers its existing one.
'Even during the pandemic we did it.' 'We think it's our responsibility to make sure that we manage the uncertainty.'
IT services major Wipro is reconsidering a proposal of buy back of equity shares, said the company in a regulatory filing. A final decision on this will be taken during the board meeting to be held on April 26-27. The outcome of the board meeting will be communicated to the stock exchanges soon after conclusion on April 27.
Wipro is in the news, again. The information technology (IT) services company has mandated freshers, who had opted for a lower salary package of Rs 3.5 lakh per annum, instead of Rs 6.5 lakh per annum, clear a new training module titled Project Readiness Program (PRP) and score at least 60 per cent or stand terminated. Wipro is not the only company to have implemented such a programme.
Reliance Industries, construction major L&T and IRB Infrastructure are some of the top companies that have used an infrastructure investment trust structure to reduce part of their debt and generate returns for their investors. Earlier this month, IRB Infrastructure InvIT was listed on the National Stock Exchange, giving its investors an option to exit by selling their units. The listing came within months of the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) guidelines for conversion of private unlisted InvITs into listed ones were issued.
'With this revamp the anonymous journey of the user will begin wherein he will not have to sign in every time he accesses the app.'
With revenue growth impacted and uncertainty deepening in major markets, India's second largest IT services firm, Infosys, saw a net reduction in its headcount in the fourth quarter of financial year 2022-23 (Q4FY23). Infosys' workforce saw a net reduction of 3,611 employees, bringing its total headcount to 343,234. This was also the first time in many years that the company did not provide a hiring target for the next fiscal.
IT services firms' revenue growth in the fourth quarter will be affected by macro-driven headwinds, lower working-days, and the fact of the three-month period being low season. Analysts are expecting FY24 growth to be muted. Revenue growth will decline 600-700 basis points to 10-12 per cent for FY24, said a CRISIL Ratings report. The 10-12 per cent growth rate is a fall from the 18-20 per cent expected in FY23 and around 19 per cent growth in FY22, the highest in eight years, said the CRISIL Ratings report.
Lenders have postponed the second auction to sell bankrupt Reliance Capital's assets by a week to April 11, even as the Torrent group, the highest bidder in the first round, pursues litigation in the Supreme Court. Lenders are expecting the Hinduja group and Torrent to participate in the second auction and maximise the value of the assets. American financial services major, Oakteee may also join the race, said a source.
The billionaire Mistry family's estate is likely to soon change hands. The assets in the name of Cyrus Mistry, who died in September last year, may soon be divided equally among his wife Rohiqa and sons Firoz and Zahan, according to sources. The reorganisation will also include the 9.2 per cent stake in Tata Sons, which is currently in Cyrus Mistry's name and held through his investment company Cyrus Investments.
The Hinduja group is learnt to have backtracked from making a minimum Rs 8,950-crore offer for Reliance Capital (RCap) - a deal that it had belatedly put forth in December, after Torrent Investments emerged as the highest bidder for the bankrupt firm in the challenge process. The Hindujas' latest move has put Indian lenders, with an exposure of Rs 24,000 crore, in a spot as it was the former's revised offer that led to a call for a second auction and litigation by Torrent, which had placed a bid of Rs 8,649 crore in the first auction. Torrent has moved the Supreme Court and plans to wait for the apex court verdict before participating in any fresh auction. A banking source said there was an informal meeting of a few lenders of Reliance Capital with the bidders - the Torrent group and the Hinduja group on Friday when the latter changed its stand. The meeting of RCap's committee of creditors (CoC) is scheduled for Monday.
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