Global supermajor BP Plc's exclusivity with Reliance Industries Ltd has ended but the energy giant will continue to pursue oil and gas as well as mobility ventures in India with the Mukesh Ambani firm owing to an unwritten strategic partnership, BP's outgoing India head Sashi Mukundan said. BP in 2011 spent $7.2 billion to acquire 30 per cent interest in 23 oil and gas blocks of Reliance. Eastern offshore KG-D6 block was the cornerstone of the deal that also provided for a 10-year exclusivity period which meant that BP would take up energy projects or investments in India only in partnership with Reliance.
The Cabinet approval would help more than 200 fashion and apparel brands who are lined up to enter India, including international labels such as Avva, Colin's, Damat, Tudba Deri and Dufy
'Subject to any worldwide economic collapse.'
Robust same store sales, margin growth mark June quarter.
US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to Ajay Tyagi, chairman of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to take action as is necessary to comply with the Supreme Court Judgment, related to the $3.4-billion merger deal between Future Group and Reliance. Amazon has requested Sebi to direct the Indian stock exchanges to withdraw the Observation Letters related to this deal with immediate effect. In January this year, Sebi had given a go-ahead onto Future Group's scheme of arrangement and sale of assets to Reliance, based on which the Bombay Stock Exchange also granted its "no adverse observation" report to the Rs 24,713-crore ($3.4 billion) deal.
Reliance Industries Ltd, which rolled out its first retail store Reliance Fresh on Friday, may start futures trading to mitigate the price risk but the move depends on achieving sufficient volumes after expansion of the retail format.\n
This marks the second billion-dollar investment by Silver Lake in a Reliance subsidiary after the $1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms.
After making handsome profits on Biba and AND, the homegrown retailer plans a string of similar investments.
While Reliance has the clout to negotiate prices with suppliers for its e-commerce, not to forget the cost advantage of integrated warehouse and supply chains, Amazon and Walmart are no pushovers, they too have deep pockets.
'The real repo rate is very high in terms of core inflation.'
Some of the domestic biggies like Future Group, Reliance Retail and Aditya Birla Retail, while welcoming the government's move to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and completely open single-brand retail, said it will take time for foreign rivals to make presence felt on their own in the Indian retail landscape.
The company's first apparel store will be launched in Gurgaon in October with 22 in-house retail brands and a team of 76 designers tapping the men, women and kidswear segment.
According to sources in the Future Group, it plans to tie up with international retailers in different segments. "We can certainly look at bringing in foreign capital to our subsidiaries now," said a group official, who did not wish to be quoted. Under the new guidelines, downstream investments by an Indian company that has foreign investment but is owned and controlled by Indians will not be considered as FDI.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday said it has halved the lot size for trading derivatives contracts for the Nifty 50 index to 25 and also reduced the lot sizes of the Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Midcap indices as part of its periodic revision. "All contracts, i.e. weekly, monthly, quarterly, and half-yearly expires available for trading from the trade date of April 26, 2024, onwards will be with the revised market lot size," the NSE said, referring to applicability of the change for Nifty 50. The lot size in the derivatives segment refers to the fixed number of shares in a unit or group for which contracts are traded.
'India's top companies currently lack the organisational wherewithal to hire and train 2 million interns annually, given their current scale of operations and existing employee base.'
12,000: Number of people Flipkart plans to hire in FY15.
'IPOs have performed exceptionally well, with a notable increase in average ticket size from Rs 800 crore in the last financial year to around Rs 1,300 crore in this financial year.'
IT services company HCLTech on Friday posted a 20.4 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,257 crore for the June-ended quarter and gave a revenue growth guidance of 3-5 per cent for FY25 on GenAI diversification and strong operational execution. For the fiscal's first quarter ended June 2024 (Q1 FY25), the revenue came in at Rs 28,057 crore, 6.6 per cent more than in the year-ago period. Seen sequentially, it was 1.6 per cent lower than the March quarter.
The boom in organised retail will set the tone for major economic overhaul. The ripple effect will be improved supply chains, volume output, integration into global commerce, and higher tax collection, notes T N Ninan.
The recent blip in housing sales on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis should not worry investors as the long-term prospects of real estate stocks remain on a strong foundation, according to analysts. In the first half of the calendar year 2024 (H1CY24), realty stocks surged up to 104 per cent. This sharp run should be used to book partial profit in related stocks, suggested Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.
While festive season spends by consumers did contribute to the uptick seen in Q3, experts said greater aggression displayed by retailers to corner a larger share of the shopper's wallet also worked.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 9 per cent rise in its December quarter net profit as a planned maintenance-induced weakness in oil business earnings was offset by stability in retail and telecom verticals. The oil-to-retail-to-telecom conglomerate's consolidated net profit of Rs 17,265 crore, or Rs 25.52 per share, in October-December - the third quarter of the current 2023-24 fiscal - was 9.3 per cent higher than Rs 15,792 crore, or Rs 23.19 a share, earning a year back, according to a company statement. Quarter-on-quarter, the profit was lower when compared to Rs 17,394 crore earnings in the preceding three months ended September 30.
Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover will start producing its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport in India, marking a first for the iconic models in their 54-year long history, to be rolled out from a country outside of the UK. Till now the two models were only produced in Jaguar Land Rover's Solihull plant in the UK and then exported to around 121 markets globally, including India.
Biyani's comments come on the heels of the Committee of Secretaries' recommendations for opening up the multi-brand retail sector to foreign investment, with a cap of 51 per cent and a minimum investment of $100 million by overseas players.
India's rank was further amplified by the collapse of the South American and Russian economies.
Future Cap's IPO was subscribed 8 times over on the second day of is issue.
From the retail pack, Future Group firm Pantaloon Retail surged 32.61 per cent to Rs 209, while Provogue India gained 17.83 per cent to Rs 18.90 on the BSE.
ICICI Bank on Saturday said its March quarter consolidated net profit grew 18.5 per cent to Rs 11,672 crore, helped by lower provisions. On a standalone basis, the second largest private sector lender showed a 17.4 per cent growth in its profit after tax at Rs 10,708 crore for the reporting quarter against Rs 9,122 crore in the year-ago period. For fiscal 2023-24, its standalone net profit grew to Rs 40,888 crore from Rs 31,896 crore a year ago.
The partnership will initially focus on the Future Group fashion brands.
Besides the pandemic that resulted in higher interest rates, the default by Future Retail has dealt a blow to investor sentiment.
'Given the inherent volatility, investors should take at least a three to five-year view.'
While some like RPG's Spencer's and Wadhawan group's Spinach say it will encourage them to invest more in cold chains, others such as Aditya Birla Retail and Future Group said the announcement has come too late and helps fresh produce and chilled product suppliers more than retailers.
'From data on enquiries, we can build what we call a data lake or a data warehouse where data is classified into various cohorts and then we use AI and ML tools to predict demand down the line.'
Trading in currency futures will soon become a reality for the retail investor. With the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India issuing trading norms, exchanges are readying themselves to launch this product in the next few weeks.
For the third month running, investors opened over four million new demat accounts in February, showing growing household confidence in stock markets and their increased risk appetite. Over 13.12 million new demat accounts have been opened in the last three months, taking the total count close to the 150-million mark. Demat accounts are needed for trading and holding shares electronically.
Shares of Avenue Supermarts (DMart) have gained about 5 per cent over the past week on better than expected June quarter (Q1FY25) performance, hopes of a recovery in discretionary demand, and margin gains going ahead. The key takeaway from the results was the robust gross margin performance. Riding on improving mix, DMart posted a 34 basis point year-on-year (Y-o-Y) improvement in gross margins to 14.9 per cent.
The numbers in India may not be as big but the opportunity for serious growth is all there.
India Inc on Friday said it is looking forward to a repo rate cut in future as cost of funds has to come down in coming times, and expects continuation of accommodative policy stance by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The RBI decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 per cent but maintained an accommodative stance, as the economy faces the brunt of the second COVID-19 wave. Sanjay Aggarwal, president of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the RBI has maintained an accommodative stance as long as necessary to revive and sustain growth on a durable basis and to mitigate impact of COVID-19, apart from an aim to keep inflation within the target.
