Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Group plans to invest over Rs 4,000 crore in future technologies by setting up a Knowledge Park and a branch of the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS) at Kozhikode in Kerala.
Many, including DLF, Suzlon, UB, the Tata and the Aditya Birla Group are selling stake or assets to reduce debt and the strain on their balance sheets. That's because they have been hit either by slowing sales, or have a big exposure to markets in the West where demand has contracted sharply as a result of the economic downturn.
The government should convert Vodafone Idea's (Vi) debt into equity to avoid a duopoly in the telecom sector, Deutsche Bank Research said in its report on Monday. This, the bank suggested, would be the only viable solution in the backdrop of the Supreme Court dismissing the telecom company's application for recomputation of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.
Novelis is expected to come out with its March quarter earnings on Friday and a decision on its rating will follow soon after.
India Inc believes that given the current economic slowdown, it could not have been any better
Idea Cellular, the GSM service provider of the Aditya Birla group, has roped in global telecom major Ericsson as equipment supplier for its GSM network in the Mumbai circle.
Diversified conglomerate Aditya Birla Nuvo will acquire 56 per cent stake in retail broking firm Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investments for a consideration of Rs 198.8 crore (Rs 1.988 billion), a move that will strengthen the financial services segment of the group.
As India's online population crosses 450 million, e-commerce ventures are trying to grab a pie of online sales estimated to hit $48 billion by 2020.
This also shows that there are other skills that go into a success story than mere ideas.
The Aditya Birla Group has received in-principle approval from the Kerala government to set up a Rs 4,000-crore (Rs 40 billion) IT and Biotech Knowledge Park and a branch of Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS) at Kozhikode.
Irrespective of demonetisation and GST blues, IIM Lucknow has been able to successfully place their batch of 459 students.
Raman's hacking expertise is much in demand -- and not from criminal elements. Indian firms and multinationals like ABN Amro Bank, Aditya Birla Group, Bank of Maharashtra, Bombay Dyeing, HSBC, ICICI Bank, Indiabulls, Centurion BOP, Citibank, India Infoline, Ispat Industries and Kotak Group proactively seek his services. Raman's hacking expertise is much in demand -- and not from criminal elements.
After Vodafone, UK-based Vedanta Resources Plc and Aditya Birla group firm Indian Rayon also face a potential tax demand of around Rs 900 crore and Rs 45 crore, respectively, for their failure to deduct taxes on payments to buy Indian assets, said a senior government official.
In the two weeks since the terror attacks in Mumbai, most of the large Indian business groups in the city have been conspicuous by their absence in offering help to terror victims.
Mining baron Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group has bid for the most number of 14 coal mines out of 23 on offer in the first round of auction which also have aggressive bids by Aditya Birla Group, Adani and Naveen Jindal group, but was shunned by foreign players.
"When we are building businesses with a long-term view, we are less concerned about short-term impacts. The basic growth in India, the high savings rate and low penetration of financial products suggest there is a huge yet-to-be-tapped opportunity. We believe this is a good time to be building businesses to tap that potential," says Ajay Srinivasan, CEO, Aditya Birla Group's Financial Services.
Aditya Birla group company Idea Cellular and US-based wireless operator Verizon are all set to get the Letters of Intent for long distance services following clearance of their applications by the Department of Telecom (DoT). Official sources said the applications have been put forward for the Telecom Minister's approval. Idea is awaiting LoI for International Long Distance services while Verizon's application is for both National and International Long Distance services
Idea Cellular, an Aditya Birla group company, is investing around Rs 647 crore (Rs 6.47 billion) for the rollout of operations in the Mumbai circle. The operations are expected to commence in two months time.
Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular on Monday made an open offer to the shareholders of Spice Communications for acquiring additional 20 per cent stake in the telecom services provider for about Rs 1,066.63 crore (Rs 10.66 billion).
With increasing corporatisation of Indian television, creativity is being backed by professional management. The growth potential is huge.
Aditya Birla group's Idea Cellular has signed a deal to acquire 40.8 per cent stake in Spice Communications for Rs 2,716 crore (Rs 27.16 billion).
Idea announced the lowest tariff for mobile users in the city offering all local calls for 40 paise per minute on its network for a period of one year, and STD and SMS at 50 paise per minute, on any mobile and landline network.
Both the promoter groups - Vodafone and Aditya Birla - have confirmed their participation of up to Rs 11,000 crore and up to Rs 7,250 crore, respectively, in the issue.
UltraTech said its board will meet on Tuesday to consider a proposal from Samruddhi Cement to merge the cement business of group with itself.
The proposed investment will be made in aluminium, cement, telecom, retail, among other sectors, in the state over the next few years. Birla, who was in the city to discuss some project related issues with Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, said the company also intends to launch its retail business in the state as part of its national roll out plan in the next six months.
A major top management level churn is on in the country's financial services space, with the Aditya Birla group emerging among the biggest beneficiaries of this shake-out as it has attracted a large number of executives from other companies.
Measures reportedly being mulled by the government to ease telecom industry's stress and fundraising may give Vodafone Idea the much-needed breather, but structural issue undermining the sector can be fixed only with "sizable" tariff hike for 4G prepaid customers, according to a note by Edelweiss. It further observed that as Voda Idea's large liabilities are falling due, and given the impending launch of JioPhone Next (whose rollout timeline has now been pushed to before Diwali), "the sooner the government measures as well as tariff hikes are rolled out, the better it is". It is pertinent to mention here that the telecom sector has been keenly watching out for the relief package, which could include redefinition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) to exclude non-telecom items, cut in levies such as Spectrum Usage Charges and easier terms and conditions for surrendering radiowaves to the government.
The companies are expected to announce the deal soon.
While consulting firms and investment bankers preferred not to participate in the lateral placements as usual, sources say that companies such as KPMG, Aditya Birla Group, Barclays Bank, Microsoft, Infosys and Capgemini have issued the maximum number of offers.
Aditya Birla Group, Satyam Computer Services and Marriott Hotels India have been ranked as the top three employers in India.
'We have great demographics, and are the fastest growing large economy. And we save.' 'All of which is great for financial services,' Aditya Birla Capital CEO Ajay Srinivasan tells Niraj Bhatt.
The Aditya Birla Group company has already spent over Rs 3,000 crore on projects to take its production capacity from 17 million tonnes to 21.9 mt and plans to further scale up till 23.1 mt by June-end. K C Birla, chief financial officer, said, "We will continue to maintain our market share and, if required, we will go ahead with more capacity additions to ensure we don't become a loser in the market."
It will also close 30 unviable stores. The company's move comes after its net loss widened to Rs 141.2 crore in the March-ended quarter, owing to mounting losses in apparels. The loss was Rs 82.2 crore in the apparel business, against a loss of Rs 4.44 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.
An interview with Andrew Denby, who took over as the CEO, Supermarkets, of the Aditya Birla Retail Ltd six months ago. Before joining the Aditya Birla group, he had worked for retail majors like Marks & Spencer, Dairy Farm, A S Watson, etc.
Hindalco Industries, an Aditya Birla group company, is scouting for copper mines in Columbia, Peru and Argentina.
The acquisition of Trinethra Super Retail would put the Aditya Birla group ahead of competition, including Reliance, analysts tracking the development said.
This is under the accounting norms of the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. The company has said it would use its share premium account of Rs 8,600 crore (Rs 86 billion) for this write-off.
Telecom to Telekom Malaysia in an attempt to complete the merger, sources involved in the negotiations said, declining to be identified. The group has hired Enam Financial as adviser to the transaction. Investment banking sources said the lawyers from both the parties are now busy structuring the deal so that the acquisition meets all the regulatory norms of the country and the Birlas retain control over Idea Cellular.
The potential entrants include the Essar Group, Punj Lloyd, Larsen & Toubro, real estate developer Atlanta, Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Construction and Delhi-based DS Constructions.