A fall in crude oil price and Aramco's $75 billion annual dividend commitment may have delayed Saudi company picking a stake in Reliance Industries Ltd's oil-to-chemical unit (O2C), research firm Jefferies said. Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani had in August 2019 announced talks for the sale of a 20 per cent stake in the O2C business, which comprises its twin oil refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat and petrochemical assets, to the world's largest oil exporter. The deal was to conclude by March 2020 but has been delayed for reasons not disclosed by either company.
12,000: Number of people Flipkart plans to hire in FY15.
If the reforms are implemented, multi-brand retail majors such as Future Group and Reliance Retail might enter the fuel retail space.
'Post-Covid world will be different from the pre-Covid world.'
E-commerce major Amazon has written to Sebi yet again, apprising the market regulator of the formation of the arbitration tribunal at SIAC while urging it to suspend the review of the Rs 24,713 crore Future-RIL deal. It has also filed an appeal with the division bench of the Delhi high court against the December 21 order of the single member bench, according to sources.
Not just Tesco, Auchan, Walmart, even Biyani & Reliance keen on food FDI: Harsimrat Kaur Badal
According to the plan made by the lenders and RIL, all Future group listed companies will be merged into Future Enterprises. RIL will then invest Rs 8,500 crore in the merged entity which will include the retail business.
Asking the government to tweak FDI norms in multi-brand segment, retailers said sourcing rules must be made similar to that of single brand while demanding foreign firms be allowed to put only 50 per cent of first tranche of investment in back-end infrastructure.
US e-commerce giant Amazon, which is said to be investigating alleged bribes paid by its legal representatives in India, spent a staggering Rs 8,546 crore or $1.2 billion in legal expenses for maintaining a presence in the country during 2018-20, sources said. Sources aware of the firm's public account filings said entities of Amazon - including Amazon Retail, Amazon Seller Services, Amazon Transportation Services, Amazon Wholesale, and Amazon Internet Services - paid Rs 3,420 crore in India during 2018-19 and Rs 5,126 crore during 2019-20 towards legal fees. Amazon is locked in a legal tussle over the takeover of Future Group and is facing a probe by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
Amazon on Wednesday filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court seeking clarifications on the scope of Enforcement Directorate's (ED) investigations into alleged foreign exchange violations by the company, according to sources. Last month, Amazon had said it was in receipt of summons by the ED in connection with its deal with the Future Group. According to sources, Amazon in its filing said the ED is expanding the scope of its investigations by seeking privileged and confidential legal advice it received in ordinary course of business since it started marketplace operations and that such requests aren't related to the agency's probe into the Future-Amazon deal.
A non-strategic investor like Poonawalla brings in not only capital but also creative freedom. Indian cinema needs more investors like him, reports Vanita Kohli Khandekar.
RBI's exercise will take into account standards of governance, the viability of the payment bank (PB) business model, and changes, if any, if needed.
While global competitors Amazon and Walmart are looking to explore B2B online in India, traditional Indian retailers like the Future group and Reliance Retail and e-commerce players such as Snapdeal and Flipkart have no immediate plans in this area.
Saudi Aramco had right from the beginning resisted the price tag Reliance had put for the 20 per cent stake in O2C business, which comprises the company's twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat, petrochemical plants and 51 per cent in fuel retailing venture.
The Raheja-owned Shoppers Stop, which was so far an up market department chain, is becoming a full service retailer soon. It is increasing its stake in the promoter group's hypermarket chain Hypercity from 19 per cent to 51 per cent.
Players such as Food Bazaar, Reliance, More and Vishal have already launched their private labels in this category. Names such as Tasty Treat, Disney, Ching's, Smith & Jones from the Future Group stables and Reliance Select from Reliance Retail among others are challenging the market dominance of Maggi in terms of in-store purchases in these retail formats.
The expansion into smaller towns is coming at a time when the online retail space has not only seen consolidation but is actually looking to collaborate with physical stores. Abhineet Kumar reports.
With more than 10,000 stores under the various Reliance retail brands and over 2.5 million kirana stores already tying up with it, Jio's online marketplace would have the biggest hyperlocal logistics network in the country.
While the investment amount could not be immediately ascertained, a report pegged it at about $2 billion.
On the heels of Reliance Industries foraying into the lucrative retail business, Birla Group too contemplates rolling out its organised retail initiative.
While Reliance Retail did not comment, sources said the company will have to follow order, at least in Delhi.
Dhirubhai may or may not have owned the government; it would seem his son wants to own the market, notes T N Ninan.
Retailer bodies to demand govt action against I-Day sales offers, threaten legal action for breach of FDI rules.
The Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune, invites industry delegates and management students to attend its annual business seminar 4Thought--Khsitij ke Par.
Global sales made via mobile devices are expected to top $638 billion.
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.
E-commerce major Amazon on Wednesday said it will acquire Prione Business Services - its joint venture firm with Catamaran, subject to requisite regulatory approvals. Prione Business Services was formed in 2014 and was coming up for renewal on May 19, 2022. In August this year, Amazon and NR Narayana Murthy's Catamaran announced that they will not continue their JV beyond May 2022. The two parties had not disclosed the reason behind the decision.
Announcing a bullish stance on the company's financial position, the chairman and managing director said that RIL would become debt-free on a net basis in the current 2011-12 fiscal.
The Harvard alum has known the Yale alum for ages, but hit it off recently.
The three companies in separate presentations to the Kirit Parikh Committee on fuel pricing suggested immediate freeing of petrol and diesel prices from government control.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Tuesday organised retailing will be the 'next big idea' in the companies' plans.
Money is not a problem for us but we have to raise it judiciously in view of our aggressive plans.
Bajaj Finserv was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 2.21 per cent, followed by Titan, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL, Reliance Industries and Mahindra & Mahindra. Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Power Grid and Tech Mahindra were the laggards.
Global retail behemoths seem to have read the signals right.
Telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, have been demanding "same service same rules" regime which means that mobile applications providing calls and messaging services should also be made to comply with set of rules that are mandatory for mobile service providers.
A young couple sharing a laugh - in the living room over a Polish joke book, on the beach, in the rain - with the tagline, "Made for each other", hung from billboards at prominent street corners from the 1960s to the 1990s. It was a campaign for one of the largest selling cigarette brands in India, Wills (Navy Cut) from the ITC stable, that resonated with a generation of smokers and non-smokers alike till the curtains came down on tobacco advertising in 2004. As we prepare to welcome 2024, ITC has metamorphosed from a tobacco giant into a conglomerate straddling multiple large-sized businesses. In the mind space of Gen Z or millennials, the company represents a gamut of branded products - from frozen food (ITC Master Chef), noodles (YiPPee!), and cookies (Sunfeast) to snacks (Bingo!) and notebooks (Classmate), and so on and so forth.
Reliance Retail follows Future Group in online foray
India's rank was further amplified by the collapse of the South American and Russian economies.
Reliance Jio, together with partners, has tested its 5G solutions in India, successfully demonstrating speeds of over 1 GBPS, and its 'Made in India' solution is "globally competitive", RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday. Ambani also exuded confidence that the company will be the first to launch full-fledged 5G services in the country. Jio is not just working to make India '2G-mukt' (free from 2G) but also '5G-yukt' (5G empowered), he added. Jio's engineers have developed a 100 per cent home-grown and comprehensive 5G solution that is fully cloud native, software defined, and digitally managed.
When Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was conceived last December, the idea was to reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. It was also to bring in a level-playing field for small merchants in India's fragmented but fast-growing $1-trillion retail market. However, those goals have changed now as large e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various levels of talks with the ONDC team. They want to form partnerships like integrating with the network as well as providing their expertise to build it, according to the industry sources.