Capital markets are becoming more prominent in India's growth story, with an expanding share in capital formation and investment landscape on the back of technology, innovation and digitisation, according to the Economic Survey 2023-24 tabled in Parliament on Monday. Further, Indian markets are resilient to global geo-political and economic shocks, it added. "Despite heightened geo-political risks, rising interest rates and volatile commodity prices, Indian capital markets have been one of the best performing among emerging markets in FY24," the Economic Survey said.
There seems to be no dearth of funds to fuel this growth, report Peerzada Abrar and Shivani Shinde.
The deepening funding winter that the startups face and the near dry-up of IPOs singed the deal street as the total value of deals plunged by 60 per cent to $1.8 billion in February, shows an analysis. According to Grant Thornton, the industry saw just 89 deals worth $1.8 billion in February, which is 60 per cent lower than the year ago period in value terms and down by 54 per cent year-on-year in volume as investors continued to tread cautiously amid macroeconomic uncertainties. This is the second-lowest deal volume and the lowest value since 2014.
India's financial sector is dominated by large government-owned and private-sector banks.
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).
A Rs 525-crore contingency provision during the July-September period led to a 19 per cent fall in IndusInd Bank's share price on Friday (October 25). Contingency provisions are generally made when a lender expects more bad loans in the coming quarters. Shares of the bank on Tuesday (October 29) declined 1.53 per cent to settle at Rs 1,038.2 apiece on the BSE.
'We are going to need more technical people in government.' 'You can't expect a generalist to understand the complicated world of financial engineering.' 'I regret to say that most of our politicians have no competence to deal with these things. Nor is there a willingness to learn.'
Private equity deals in Jan-Mar 2008 touched $3.3 bn, higher than the year-ago period, which registered 101 deals fetching $2.7 bn, according to the data released by Venture Intelligence, a private equity research company. $3.3 bn mopped up through 97 private equity deals in the Mar 2008 quarter were lower than 131 deals totalling $5 bn in the preceding Dec 2007 quarter. Volatility in the secondary market injected a dose of caution on the Private Investments in Public front.
In absolute terms, the year closed with the market capitalisation of all BSE-listed companies rising by Rs 45.5 lakh crore to Rs 152 lakh crore, or an increase of 42.8 per cent, compared to the closing value on December 30, 2016, says Pavan Burugula.
Leading broadcaster Zee Entertainment on Monday said it is planning to raise funds from the market through various routes, including issuing of equity of shares, and qualified institutions placements (QIPs). Though the company has not specified the amount it plans to raise, Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd (ZEEL) in a regulatory filing said its board is meeting on June 6 to consider the proposal for this.
With 7 per cent economic growth, India is not creating enough jobs as reflected by the number of applicants for vacant posts in some states, Reserve Bank's former governor Raghuram Rajan said and suggested the government needs to focus on promoting labour-intensive industries to generate employment. Rajan further said some Indians, especially those at upper level, are comfortable and have high incomes, but consumption growth from the lower half of the country has still not recovered to pre-pandemic level.
The Centre on Tuesday asked the UPSC to withdraw the latest advertisement for lateral entry in bureaucracy, amid a row over reservation in the advertised posts.
'We are in a position to start due diligence and private data room access shortly.'
The Adani group, buoyed by a sharp recovery in its share prices over the past year, is set to embark on a series of roadshows this week to raise up to $4 billion (approximately Rs 33,254 crore) through equity and refinancing of older debt, according to banking sources. The roadshows, scheduled to take place in major cities, will inform investors about the group's investment plans across renewable energy, petrochemicals, and infrastructure development.
Adani group is on track to surpass a combined Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of Rs 1 trillion in the ongoing financial year (FY25) as it prepares for a $2 billion (over Rs 16,700 crore) share sale by its flagship entity Adani Enterprises next month, according to a source close to the matter.
Banks have issued Rs 7.78 trillion worth of CDs in the current calendar year until August 2024, compared to Rs 4.9 trillion in the same period of 2023, registering a 59 per cent growth
'It is a worrying trend as we are not seeing too much fresh capital being raised for new projects, plants, expansion or diversification. It's just private equity or venture capital or promoters cashing out.'
'They can shift to dynamic asset allocation funds to automatically rebalance their equity exposure.'
'Exposure to small and midcap stocks exceeded desired levels in many portfolios, prompting rebalancing.'
After monetising Jio Platforms -- which houses the firm's telecom arm and digital ventures, richest Indian Mukesh Ambani is looking to rope in investors in the retail business.
Private equity and VC investments declined by 50 per cent. E-commerce deals lowest in value, volume in over 24 months. T E Narasimhan decodes the new EY report.
Private equity investments in Indian companies grew 38 per cent to $62.2 billion last year, with inflows into Reliance Industries' telecom and retail ventures contributing nearly 40 per cent of the total value of the deals, a report said on Wednesday. Barring investments into Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail, the total deal value was down by 20 per cent over 2019 as the volume of large deals of more than $100 million dipped by a fourth, as per the report by Bain & Company and India Venture Capital Association. Overall investment activity remained muted from March to May last year due to COVID-led uncertainties and investor confidence recovered strongly in the second half to pre-COVID levels with late-stage and buyout deals witnessing increased traction, it said.
Private equity (PE) investments in real estate sector fell 32 per cent to $4.3 billion in the last fiscal year mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to property consultant Anarock. PE investments in real estate stood at $6.3 billion in the 2020-21 financial year. According to Anarock Capital's FY22 year-end edition of its FLUX report, PE inflows in real estate were $5.1 billion in FY'20, $5.6 billion in FY'19 and $5.4 billion in 2017-18 fiscal. The consultant attributed the fall in PE investments in real estate to the second wave of the COVID-19, leading to multiple lockdowns in various parts of the country.
'While Indian markets are indeed not inexpensive, the valuations of largecap stocks are still a considerable distance from being overstretched.'
The froth in the small and midcap (SMID) space is limited to a few pockets, but regulatory scrutiny could lead to sustained volatility, observe India's top-drawer wealth managers. They add that they have been advising clients to reduce their exposure to smallcaps. Anand Rathi Wealth, which manages investor wealth through mutual funds (MFs), reports that its exposure to smallcap stocks, both through MFs and directly, has decreased by nearly 7 percentage points in the past few months, now standing at 23 per cent.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by Indian companies have declined sharply by 80 per cent so far this year, in contrast with the same period last year, as bankers predict lower deal volumes due to falling profit margins of Indian companies and feeble stock markets. The decline in Adani Group shares has also hit buyer sentiment. According to data from Refinitiv, M&As in India stood at $3.3 billion from 253 deals, year-to-date (YTD) - a fall of 80 per cent year-on-year (YoY). Cross-border deals by Indian companies were also down 84 per cent to just $1.5 billion.
Move can also bring a huge change in the way business is done in India, where firms use multiple current accounts, often for even individual projects, making them difficult to monitor.
Airports hold pride of place in the government's National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) programme to monetise public assets. Private airport operators, including the Adani group, Fairfax, GMR and Zurich Airport, are expected to evince interest in the next round of public private partnership (PPP) development of state-owned Airport Authority of India (AAI) airports. Industry analysts, however, do not expect bids to be as high as the last round, which saw Adani group gain control of six airports.
'The deal pipeline across products is robust for 2024.'
The Competition Commission of India has approved the acquisition of 31.27 per cent of additional stake in Religare Enterprises by four entities of Dabur India promoter Burman family, enabling them to become majority owners in the financial services firm. The fair trade regulator allowed the four entities to acquire Religare's 5.27 per cent through stock market purchase and another 26 per cent through an open offer.
Investments by private equity and venture capital funds declined by 44 per cent to $3.7 billion in February compared to the same period a year ago, a report said on Monday. The bets by the long-term investors were 13 per cent lower when compared to the investments in the preceding month of January, the report by industry lobby Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association and consultancy firm EY, said. "...rising global recession concerns, increasing cost of capital and mismatch in valuation expectations between sellers and investors are turning out to be major impediments in the deployment of capital," EY's partner Vivek Soni said.
Walmart-owned digital payments app Phonepe on Thursday said it has raised $350 million at a valuation of $12 billion in a funding round led by private equity firm General Atlantic. "Marquee Global and Indian investors are also participating in the round," PhonePe said in a statement adding the investment marks the first tranche of an up to $1 billion total fundraise that commenced in January 2023. The fundraise follows PhonePe's recently announced change of domicile to India and full separation from Flipkart.
In what is amongst the first focused fund in the space, India Media Entertainment Fund (IMEF) is raising Rs 500 crore, which will provide both equity as well as instruments like non-convertible debentures (NCD) to companies in the content, distribution platform and services areas. The private equity fund has appointed a high-profile advisory body which includes ad guru Prahlad Kakkar, managing director of Red Chillies Entertainment and cricket team KKR Sports, actress and entrepreneur Raadhika Sarathkumar, who has starred in Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films and runs Radaan Mediaworks. It also includes Ramnath Pradeep, former chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank, and Rajesh Gupta, senior partner of law firm SNG Partners.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
'China is struggling to get out of its property bubble.' 'Japan took 35 years to walk out of its equity bubble.' 'Bubbles can be difficult to forecast.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced income tax relief for the middle class, a Rs 2 lakh crore outlay for job creation schemes over the next five years and a spending splurge for states run by her party's new coalition partners as she unveiled the Modi 3.0 government's first budget after the general elections.
Acquisition of popular brands such as Complan, Glucon D, Nycil and Sampriti Ghee from Heinz India would be a part of the deal, Cadila Healthcare said in a filing to BSE.
Citigroup's former chief executive officer, Vikram Pandit, might be joining the race to become a co-applicant for a banking licence in India.
'Investors should consider small and midcaps only if they can handle volatility and have a longer investment horizon.'
