Corporate retailing of fruits and vegetables - once a domain of street side vendors - seems to be facing more troubles.
Pointing to the 'dangers' in the opening up of retail sector to multi-nationals and big Indian companies, traders in Kerala are gearing up to launch an agitation, if necessary an 'armed struggle,' to prevent their entry.
India's trade account could come under pressure and there could be an inflation push if crude oil prices remain above the $90 per barrel (Brent) for a prolonged period since India imports over 85 per cent of its oil and roughly 50 per cent of its gas. A rebound in economic activity is bound to lead to higher fuel demand. While India is the third-largest importer of crude, it is a net exporter of refined products, which helps to compensate to some degree.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday launched its fourth highway hospitality 'dhaba' in Uttar Pradesh at a company petroleum retail outlet in Kamlapur on the Lucknow-Sitapur highway.
A cell of traders in the BJP Sangatham registered protest on Monday against the entry of big companies in retail in general and Reliance Fresh in particular.
Tata group firm Trent Ltd on Friday said Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital has bought 8.68 per cent stake in it for Rs 21.2 crore (Rs 212 million), marking ADA Group's entry into the retail sector.
The joint venture of Jio Financial Services and BlackRock to foray into India's asset management space could be disruptive but not disastrous for incumbent industry players, analysts said on Thursday. As an investment strategy, analysts suggest investors stay put in shares of those AMCs that consistently improve business metrics, and where market capitalisation-to-asset under management (AUM) valuation is not stretched. However, growth expectations of incumbent players may get trimmed in the medium-to-long term, analysts said, once the Jio-BlackRock JV unveils its plans, discounting the looming challenge as significant enough to dent their profitability.
The fixed line broadband will offer "ultra high-definition entertainment on large screen TVs, multi-party video conferencing from your living room, voice-activated virtual assistants, virtual reality gaming, digital shopping, immersive experiences," Ambani said.
After Reliance Industries and the Aditya Birla Group, the Tata Group is poised to become the next big name to feast on the burgeoning food retail sector.
Equity benchmark index Sensex buckled under selling pressure for the second straight session to close below the 65k mark on Friday, as investors offloaded IT, teck and metal stocks amid a bearish global trend. Besides, fresh foreign fund outflows also hit investor sentiments, traders said. In a volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 202.36 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 64,948.66.
A bench headed Justice Altamas Kabir, while pronouncing the judgement, refused Reliance Energy's contention that Tata Power had licence to supply power to only bulk customers.
Among the Sensex firms, Wipro, Axis Bank, Titan, UltraTech Cement and HDFC Bank, HDFC, HCL Tech and Reliance were the gainers.
The latest deal would give Facebook deeper access to India, the second largest internet market after China.
In August, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das held a meeting with chief executive officers/ managing directors (CEOs/ MDs) of large non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs). The discussions included diversifying borrowing sources for NBFCs and housing finance companies (HFCs) to contain increasing reliance on bank borrowing, risks associated with high credit growth in retail segment in unsecured loans, prioritising IT upgrades and cyber-security, improving provisioning, monitoring of stressed exposures and slippages, ensuring robust liquidity and asset-liability management, ensuring transparency in pricing, creating robust grievance redress mechanisms.
While Flipkart and Amazon go on a fund-raising spree, the real battle will begin once big industrial houses such as the Tatas, Reliance and the Aditya Birla group join the race.
Gross refining margins may decline sequentially but improving petro-chem margins will boost earnings
While reforms may translate into new opportunities for firms like ITC, Adani Wilmar and Reliance Retail, farmers are unlikely to use it for fear of upsetting commission agents.
Reliance has shut all of its 1,432 petrol pumps in the country after sales dropped to almost nil as it could not match the subsidised price offered by public sector competition. Public sector currently sells petrol at a loss of Rs 13.97 a litre and diesel at a discount of Rs 20.97 per litre. This revenue loss is made up by the Government through issue of oil bonds. Private firms were not entitled for the subsidy and priced fuel from their pumps at Rs 8-10 a litre higher.
While Reliance Retail did not comment, sources said the company will have to follow order, at least in Delhi.
Samajwadi Party-backed traders had staged demonstrations outside a few Reliance Fresh stores on the inaugural day. Terming the demonstrations as a "law and order problem", the Mayawati administration ordered the prompt closure of all stores.
Social media platform Meta has appointed Vikas Purohit as Director of Global Business Group in India to lead the strategy and delivery of the charter that is focused on the country's leading advertisers and agency partners, the company said on Monday. Purohit will report to Arun Srinivas, director and head of ads business for Meta in India, it said in a statement. "I am thrilled to welcome Vikas as he joins our team to shape the role that Meta platforms can play in enabling businesses, supporting India's economic growth, and building the digital advertising ecosystem of the country," Srinivas said.
"We will raise Rs 300 crore via bonds of two-, three- and five-year tenures. This will be our maiden bond issuance and is part of our effort to widen funding sources," says Vimal Bhandari, executive vice-chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Arka Fincap. The firm, a subsidiary of Kirloskar Oil, is only five years old and small (assets of around Rs 5,000 crore with an "AA" rating), but the response to this float will be closely watched: It would be the first by a non-banking finance company (NBFC) after Mint Road upped the risk weights on bank exposures to them by 25 percentage points. The move by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has caught NBFCs off guard even though the issue had been flagged by Governor Shaktikanta Das with their corner-room occupants (and that of banks) in July and August 2023 - on consumer credit and the dependency on bank borrowings.
As crude oil prices rose sharply, private companies like Essar Oil and Reliance Industries closed their retail outlets as they found it difficult to compete with state-owned oil companies, which were selling fuel below the production cost with support from the government. While Essar Oil has drawn up plans to re-open its retail outlets, Reliance Industries has decided not to go ahead with the retail plan
However, in the last few sessions, the stock of Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), hit its 52-week low level of Rs 2269.75, and has been one of the worst performers among the Sensex pack thus far in calendar year 2023 (CY23). Thus far in CY23, RIL has tanked nearly 11 per cent as compared to a fall of around 5 per cent in the S&P BSE Sensex. The fall in the stock, according to Gaurang Shah, senior vice-president at Geojit Financial Services is mostly due to the overall dip in the market sentiment, which in turn has impacted large-caps, including RIL.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Company also announced to invest Rs 1,000-1,200 crore (Rs 10 to 12 billion) on expansion of its life insurance business in the next 2-3 years. The company is aiming to sell one million 'Express Life' policies in this financial year.
The Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune, invites industry delegates and management students to attend its annual business seminar 4Thought--Khsitij ke Par.
Reliance Infocomm is following the initial public offering distribution model to ensure that potential consumers in each and every pocket across the country are tapped to sign up as customers.
Reliance Industries earned a breather when PSU oil firms revised their requirement of diesel from it to 3.7 million tonnes in 2004-05.
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.
The unit of Reliance Communications may raise debt, equity
The company expects net proceeds of Rs 53,036.13 crore from the rights issue that opens on May 20 and closes on June 3.
Future Retail's (FRL's) independent directors have written a second letter to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), stating American e-commerce major Amazon never intended to invest in Future Coupons (FCPL) and the representations made by the US e-commerce player were completely opposite and contradictory to their own internal correspondences as submitted before courts. The directors also wrote to CCI that Amazon has obtained approval by making deliberate misrepresentations. By actively misleading the CCI and the regulator, it has to revoke the approval granted for Amazon's investment in FCPL.
Lenders and shareholders of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will meet on May 2 to demerge the firm's financial services business. This is expected to create a big player in segments including the NBFC (non-banking financial company) space with net worth of Rs 25,851 crore as of March 2022. According to the plan, RIL shareholders will get a share in the demerged entity for each one held in the company.
The rating affirmation reflected RIL's strong business profile - a large-scale refinery with a capacity of around 1.2 million barrels a day and dominant market position in petrochemicals.
Reliance Industries, India's largest private fuel retailer, may cut petrol and diesel prices by about Re one per litre on Thursday in step with a fall in international oil prices.
Consolidated revenue rose to a record Rs 163,854 crore.