The country's largest listed footwear brand by market capitalisation, Metro Brands, posted better than expected December quarter results for the 2022-23 financial year (FY23), riding on store expansion and strong same store sales (SSS) growth. Profitability too remained robust, even as net profit growth was marginally lower. The company, which retails across the Metro, Mochi, Walkway, Crocs and Fitflop formats, posted a 24 per cent growth in revenues over Q3FY22.
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will acquire around 1 per cent stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), the retail arm of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, by investing Rs 8,278 crore ($1 billion). A QIA's wholly-owned subsidiary will make the investment in India's largest retailer at a valuation of Rs 8.278 lakh crore ($100 billion). Updating about the development, Reliance Industries in a regulatory filing said: "QIA's investment will translate into a minority equity stake of 0.99 per cent in RRVL on a fully-diluted basis." RRVL is the holding company for all retail businesses of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Wednesday said it is "committed" to reversal of takeover of its stores by Reliance Retail and will take all such action as may be necessary to seek value adjustments. The Kishore Biyani-led firm also said the action of the Reliance Group has come as a "surprise" to it. Moreover, the action of taking possession of its stores has "complicated" the positive scenario which had started building up after a CCI order in December 2021, FRL said in a regulatory filing.
Technology giant Apple has informed its customers in India that it will no longer store their card information on file and will not be accepting payments made by debit cards and credit cards for purchases or subscriptions on the App store or other Apple services. The decision has been taken by the US-based company in view of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) card data storage guidelines, which will kick in from July 1. The deadline for implementing these norms was extended twice.
India needs to be technologically and militarily prepared to defend itself from both Pakistan and China, alerts Ramesh Menon.
The US carmaker's entry into India is expected by the last quarter of the current financial year.
Apple Inc's iPhones assembled in India achieved market revenues of Rs 162,000 crore. Tata Steel's revenue for the same period was Rs 162,324 crore.
Last year, Saudi announced the opening of an alcohol shop in the Diplomatic Quarter of Riyadh to combat the black market and illegal imports. The store is only for non-Muslim diplomats, who must present diplomatic identification before they buy.
Such a collection of amiable characters were last seen in Panchayat. There are greedy dowry seekers, criminals, misogynists and the like, but the collective goodness of the others keep violence and male chauvinism in check, notes Deepa Gahlot.
In its second ruling against Google in less than a week, the Competition Commission on Tuesday slapped a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on the internet major for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.
Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe has decided to halt its proposed acquisition of Goldman Sachs- and Xiaomi-backed ZestMoney, a Bengaluru-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform. The deal, which was poised to fetch anywhere between $150-200 million and $300 million, has hit a snag over lapses in due diligence, disagreements over valuation, sustainability of the business, and shareholding structure of ZestMoney, according to people familiar with the matter. The collapse of the deal is also being attributed to a slowdown in the financial technology (fintech) sector in the midst of a funding winter, difficult regulatory environment, and macroeconomic uncertainty, informed other sources.
American retail giant Walmart is not keen on opening direct-to-consumer physical stores in India, but will focus on growing its acquisitions - online marketplace Flipkart and payments major PhonePe, a top official said on Friday. It can be noted that the company acquired Flipkart and PhonePe in a $16 billion deal a few years back. "We've got an omnichannel strategy that includes both of those components.
Corporate houses getting into music retail are turning the outlets into multi-product stores that will offer apparel and even perfumes.
Next in line will be mega stores in cities such as Gurgaon and Bengaluru, though timelines for launch have not been specified yet. The company will also launch two more city-centre or smaller stores in 2021 in Mumbai to reach a wider audience.
Natures Basket's acquisition will make Spencer's Retail a national player, giving it access to the western parts of India through its 36 stores in prime locations in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore.
Sally Holkar left America and made India her home nearly 60 years ago. She went on a mission to revive a dying craft and changed the lives of rural weavers.
The filing of Swiggy's DRHP has led to direct comparisons with Zomato, which is a direct competitor in food delivery and the fast-growing quick-commerce segment where Blinkit (owned by Zomato) faces off against Instamart (and Zepto). In Q-commerce, Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance and Big Basket are all entering the space. All of them have deep pockets, hence competitive intensity will rise going forward.
US senators have alleged that TikTok, owned by the Chinese Communist Party, has interfered in elections of various countries, including India, and called for extending the deadline for a ban on the platform in the US. They applauded India's ban on the social media platform, citing concerns about Chinese propaganda and data harvesting. Lawmakers, including Democrats and Republicans, introduced legislation to delay the ban by 270 days, arguing it would allow for a more thorough review of the implications and potential alternatives to a ban. They also criticized the rushed nature of the ban and its potential impact on free speech and the livelihoods of American users.
Paytm will not be available for download now but there will be no impact on existing users of the app. 'The app was blocked for violation of play policies - a clarification of our policy was released earlier today ahead of the IPL (Indian Premier League) tournament,' Google said in an e-mailed response on Friday.
The number of cyberfraud cases has skyrocketed from 2,677 in 1999-2000 to 29,082 in FY24 -- more than a 10-fold increase. The RBI pegs digital payment frauds at Rs 1,457 crore in FY24, up more than five times in a year. It's not just the number of frauds. What's alarming is the growing sophistication of the fraudsters, exposing the vulnerabilities within the financial system, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Experts have said the food delivery space is likely to see exponential growth this year.
Fintech major PhonePe on Wednesday announced the launch of its homegrown Indus Appstore specifically for the Indian market, in a bid to compete with global incumbents like Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. The Indus Appstore is PhonePe's attempt at creating a more competitive and localised mobile app store economy for India, which is already the world's largest market for mobile apps.
The Reserve Bank of India has on Wednesday lifted the ban on new customer acquisition by American Express which was imposed with effect from May 2021 due to non-compliance with local data storage norms. "In view of the satisfactory compliance demonstrated by American Express Banking Corp. with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular dated April 6, 2018, on Storage of Payment System Data, the restrictions imposed, vide order dated April 23, 2021, on onboarding of new domestic customers have been lifted with immediate effect," RBI said. Similar bans were imposed on Diners Club International and Mastercard previously.
Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd, the food and FMCG arm of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, on Friday acquired south India-based convenience store chain Nilgiris for nearly Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion).
The power of the small neighbourhood retailer can barely be ignored as organised players look to leverage their last-mile connectivity and reach, luring them by promising support in technology, inventory and tax management.
India's e-commerce market alone is projected to reach $200 billion by 2026, making it a prime industry for ambitious entrepreneurs, explains rediffGURU Harsh Bharwani.
'The value of a human being is being lost. That's my biggest worry.'
Reliance Brands is in advance stage of talks to take over the India rights for premium makeup and beauty retail chain Sephora, from Arvind Fashions, according to two persons in the know. The Mukesh Ambani-led retail company is already in talks with developers to lease out stores for Sephora, said one of the above mentioned sources. While Reliance Brands was yet to answer Business Standard's query, an Arvind Fashions spokeperson, in an e-mailed response, said: "As per company policy, we do not comment on market rumours and speculation."
Nature's Basket is changing its offering. Its new strategy zeroes in on pushing joint ventures, focusing on private labels and reentering Delhi.
Gitanjali Gems is close to acquiring a US-based jewellery retail chain with sales of about $100 million. The deal, if it goes through, would be the company's second acquisition in the world's largest jewellery market. Though the deal size and name of the company could not be ascertained, sources said that the acquisition is expected to be completed in 30 days.
According to reports, the deal is estimated to be close to $300 mn.
E-commerce buyouts: Mahindra, Godrej to leverage on physical stores.
Infosys announced acquisition of digital commerce company Kallidus for $120 million.
E-commerce pilot for wholesale begins from July in Hyderbad and Lucknow
HDFC and HDFC Bank's merger - touted as India's biggest-ever corporate merger - pumped up shares of the two entities on the bourses. Shares of Housing Finance Development Corporation (HDFC) skyrocketed 9 per cent while those of HDFC Bank zoomed 10 per cent. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSESensex and the Nifty50 indices settled 2.2 per cent higher on Monday.
Another partner or co-owner of the firm that operated the recreation facility has been nabbed which took the number of persons arrested in the case to five, officials said.
Love, Sitara doesn't flesh out the people or their problems enough to give us a glimpse into their minds, observes Sukanya Verma.
Streedhan refers to gifts, money or property that a woman receives before her marriage, at the time of her marriage, during childbirth or widowhood, primarily from her parents, relatives or in-laws.
Deciding to focus on the cash-and-carry segment in India, retail giant Wal-Mart plans to open 50 wholesale stores in the next four to five years to expand its footprint in the country.
The acquisition of Walmart India adds a strong talent pool with deep expertise in the wholesale business that will strengthen Flipkart's position to address the needs of kiranas and MSMEs uniquely.
