Media company New Delhi Television (NDTV) recorded its highest-ever consolidated profit at the group level in over a decade for financial year 2021-22 (FY22), said co-chairpersons Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy in the firm's latest annual report. Addressing shareholders, the Roys, founder-promoters of NDTV, said the company had emerged financially strong in FY22, continuing the turnaround of recent years. "Both the television and digital branches of the NDTV group reported their highest-ever profit. NDTV Ltd (television arm) recorded a profit of Rs 59.18 crore.
In the centre of an ownership battle with Adani Group, New Delhi Television (NDTV) can prevent a takeover by the group if it can buy more shares from public shareholders, corporate lawyers told Business Standard. On Tuesday, the media arm of Adani Group said it had exercised rights to acquire an indirect stake of 29.18 per cent in NDTV through conversion of loans into equity in a promoter group entity of NDTV. This will trigger a mandatory open offer for an additional 26 per cent stake in NDTV, even as the broadcaster said its founder promoters had neither consented to the exercise of rights nor was any conversation or input given on the matter.
The next auction for bauxite blocks in Odisha may see heightened interest with Adani Group charting an entry into alumina refining and existing players looking to boost capacity. Hemant Sharma, principal secretary, Odisha industries department, said that three bauxite blocks have been scheduled for auctions this year. Adani Group - which will be setting up a 4-MMTPA alumina refinery and may enter aluminium production - is expected to bid for mines, though raw material linkages shall be available from Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
Reliance Industries (RIL) is likely to be the lone bidder for Mangalore-based JBF Petrochemicals, which is up for sale after defaulting on bank loans worth Rs 5,000 crore. The lenders for the second time extended the deadline for submission of bids, which had ended on August 20, as several players, including public sector companies, were redrawing their acquisition plans, said people in the know. "There were several companies which had submitted their expressions of interest (EoIs) for the company but after due diligence decided to exit the race," said a source close to the development. "The new deadline for submitting financial offers is August-end," the source said.
This is the fourth time in three decades that Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar have had movie releases on the same day.
A long and bitter funding winter in the start-up world is beginning to take its toll on start-up advertising across properties. Earlier this week, Mastercard replaced Paytm as the title sponsor for all international and domestic cricket matches organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). But this is just one part of the story. The other side is that organisers of high-impact shows and events on Hindi general entertainment channels, too, are feeling the winter chill.
Reliance Industries, the Tata group, Bharti Airtel and Aditya Birla are among Indian conglomerates that have hedged their revenue and costs linked to the US dollar, giving them financial cover as the rupee fell past 80 against the greenback on Tuesday.
Hindustan Zinc (HZL), a subsidiary of Vedanta, announced an interim dividend of Rs 21 per share last week, resulting in an outflow of Rs 8,863 crore. The announcement has turned the spotlight on India Inc's dividend-paying policy - more so for reasons driving the generosity of firms. An analysis of BSE 500 companies by Business Standard Research Bureau shows that some of the top 20 dividend-paying companies in 2021-22 (FY22) include Vedanta, Tata Consultancy Services, HZL, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil), Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Reliance Industries (RIL), and Bajaj Auto, among others.
The Tata Tech IPO will be the first from the Tata group since TCS listed its shares in 2004.
As the Indian currency hovers around its lowest versus the US greenback, several smaller and mid-sized companies are expected to face rough weather as almost 44 per cent of the foreign loans taken by Indian companies remained unhedged. According to the data sourced from the Reserve Bank of India, Indian companies raised around $38.2 billion in the financial year ended in March. Of this, only 56 per cent of the loans are hedged while the rest of the foreign loans remain unhedged, thus risking the companies to forex volatility.
Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) handed out a pay cheque of Rs 61.27 crore to its chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) SN Subrahmanyan in the last financial year (FY22), which is a near 115 per cent hike over FY21, as executive compensation at India Inc comes under sharp focus after two years of Covid-19. In fact, the total compensation of L&T's executive directors (including Subrahmanyan) in FY22 was 120 to 670 times the median remuneration of the company's employees, data from its FY22 annual report shows. This points to sharp hikes that the top management saw in their remuneration during the period, experts in human resources said. In FY21, L&T's executive compensation was 56 to 337 times the median remuneration of company employees.
Institutional shareholders of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) are expecting big-ticket announcements from the company, including timeline for listing of its telecom and retail subsidiaries. They expect this to unlock value in the company, which has seen a sharp fall in market valuation on Friday. This is due to windfall tax imposed by the Centre on refiners and oil producers.
'The second half of 2022 definitely looks stronger for Bollywood.'
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.
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.
Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is looking to divest its exposure to road and power concessions and incubate digital and e-commerce businesses as part of its new five-year plan ending 2025-26 (FY26). The base year for the plan is 2020-21 (FY21). The blueprint, called Lakshya 2026, is intended to help the company exit sub-scale businesses, concentrate on high-technology (tech) manufacturing, construction and green energy projects, and increase its share from information technology (IT) and digital services. The lending operations of the financial services business, meanwhile, will be reorganised, with focus on retail lending.
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.
Power generating companies (gencos) that use imported coal to produce electricity, may find it difficult to switch on their idle units immediately in the wake of high fuel costs, several players have told Business Standard. Recently, the Union power ministry had invoked Section 11 of the Electricity Act mandating all imported coal-based plants to generate power at full capacity. However, some generating companies that use imported coal, argue that it is simply unviable for them to produce power when the price of coal in the international market is high, while the per-unit price of power has been capped at Rs 12 per unit on the domestic power exchange.