Tier-II and tier-III towns have a reason to rejoice.
E-commerce platform Snapdeal has filed preliminary documents with markets regulator Sebi to raise funds through an initial public offer (IPO), joining the league of internet-led businesses looking to list on domestic stock exchanges. The public issue comprises fresh issuance of equity shares worth Rs 1,250 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 3.07 crore equity shares, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP). According to market sources, potential listing could value Snapdeal at about $1.5-1.7 billion.
The tier II cities' story continues to thrive.
Software major Infosys was eyeing Tier-II cities like Tiruchirapalli and Madurai in Tamil Nadu for its expansion once the global economy recovered from the current recession, a top company official has said.
'Yet the market didn't do all that badly because it was cushioned by domestic inflows.'
At the 45th Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries (RIL) in August, chairman and managing director (CMD) Mukesh Ambani described the company as an "unputdownable book" with never-ending chapters of success. "Reliance grew from strength to strength because we internalised the founder's mindset of purpose, philosophy and passion," he said. Wednesday marked the 90th birth anniversary of RIL founder Dhirubhai Ambani.
Home interiors company HomeLane on Monday said it has entered into a three-year strategic partnership with ace cricketer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as an equity partner and brand ambassador. As part of the partnership, Dhoni will own equity in HomeLane and will be its first brand ambassador, a statement said. Details of Dhoni's investment were, however, not disclosed.
Retailers such as Future Axiom and Vmart have decided to consolidate their business by reaching out to unexplored markets outside major cities, believing them to have been relatively unaffected by the downturn. Future Axiom's mobile bazaar CEO, Ashy Sehgal said, "Instead of spending heavily on attracting more customers in overreached metropolitan markets, we can target the unheeded customer waiting for us in smaller cities."
PSBs are rushing through bond issuances to report healthy capital adequacy ratios by the year-end in anticipation of a healthy credit growth for the quarter ending March 31. These banks are seeking to maintain the 12 per cent capital adequacy ratio to follow international guidelines. While most investors have lapped up the Tier-II and subordinate bond issues, with some of them closing well ahead of the scheduled closing date, perpetual bonds are languishing.
In 2020, retail and e-commerce sector will lead the table and is expected to generate 112,000 jobs followed by IT & ITeS (105,500), FMCG (87,500), manufacturing (68,900), BFSI (59,700) and healthcare (98,300), the survey said.
Infiniti Retail, which sells electronic goods of around 180 brands in its Croma stores, today launched its small format store 'Croma Zip' at the Delhi International Airport. Infiniti Retail is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons.
The job market saw an uptrend in the March quarter (Q1), with job interviews increasing 13.71 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to over 30 million, according to Apna.co, India's largest jobs and professional networking platform. It recorded a 42 per cent QoQ growth in its employer base. As a result of the second wave of Covid-19 last year, sectors such as healthcare, delivery, and e-commerce were booming while others had fairly low employment.
Apart from physical stores, the company operates 2,700 digital touch points in the form of web pages, which is gaining good traction from tier-II and III centres.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Monday said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will continue to receive revenue share after the government sells its stake in the airports in Delhi and Mumbai. "Those who are raising concerns should also know that the Delhi's airport and the Mumbai airport are on a 60 yr lease. "These & the 6 other airports will be back with AAI after the lease period. So, nothing as they claim, is being 'sold out!" he said on Twitter. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked the government over reports that it plans to sell its residual stake in the already privatised Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports, alleging that such privatisation hurts the public and benefits only a handful of cronies.
German luxury carmaker BMW is stepping up its network expansion in India, specially in Tier II cities like Coimbatore, Jaipur and Lucknow, in its bid to claim the top spot in the luxury car market by 2010.
In order to offer a level playing field to co-operative banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may allow them to use new products for raising funds from the debt market. The co-operative banks could come out with subordinate debt structures like tier-II bonds, tier-III bonds and upper tier-II or perpetual bonds to raise finance.
The Domina Hotel Group, Italy's largest hotel and resort operator, will start operations in India in the next two years.
ICICI Bank said on Thursday it will push hard to take its card business further in tier-II and tier-III cities over the next one and a half years.
'When there is unlocking, there is demand revival.' 'This is going to be the main growth engine in this kind of an economic scenario.'
They are virtually assured of the Tier II title in the Premier Hockey League, barring an upset by lowly Rangers in their last league match.
In October, OnePlus said, it recorded Rs 500 crore of revenue in only the first two days of the festive sale on Amazon.in. The firm is looking at going beyond the metro cities by scaling up its offline stores to over 5,000 and setting up more than 100 'experience centres' in the top 50 cities by next year.
Real estate firm Ansal Housing and Construction Ltd plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in the next four years to develop various projects, which include seven townships in Tier II cities.
India's first unicorn Zomato will make its stock market debut on Friday, marking a historic moment for the domestic capital market. As per initial schedule, Zomato's listing was to take place on July 27. However, investment banks managed to complete the share allotment and listing formalities ahead of the deadline. Under the Sebi framework, the timeline between IPO closing and listing has to be six working days. Zomato's IPO had closed on July 16.
The appraisals being done by most companies this year are harsher than past ones with higher threshold in many metrics. Reduction in headcount has been done across most tier-I and tier-II IT firms along with global technology firms in the country.
In an otherwise agriculture- and public health-focused Union Budget 2018-19, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, internet of things -- jargons that found little or no mention in the previous Budgets -- managed to make their presence felt.
Young drag flicker Raghunath converted three penalty-corners as Chennai Veerans beat Lucknow Nawabs 5-1 in Tier II of the Premier Hockey League.
Aiming to expand its presence in Tier-II and Tier III cities, real estate company Ansal Housing and Construction plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in the next three to four years for developing seven townships across seven cities.
The airline's chief had said it would focus more on tier-II cities. Already, the airline connects some of its major destinations from Tiruchirapalli, one of the busy tier-II hubs in Tamil Nadu.
'Almost 75 per cent of our total sales come from the top 50 cities in India.'
The government is working towards further review and simplification of the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to facilitate the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Anurag Jain said on Thursday. The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet. The industry department is working together with the finance ministry's department of financial services (DFS) and department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) towards a successful listing of the life insurer on the domestic bourses, which is expected to be the largest in India.
The government is looking at a new timeline for Air India disinvestment and financial bids will be invited in the coming days, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. Noting that there is no choice but to either "privatise or close" Air India, he said the government will have to keep the airline running till it gets divested. "We are looking at another timeline now, what is called data room for prospective bidders to look at... that is opened up, 64 days for the financial bids to come in. "After that it is the question of taking a decision and handing over the airline," the Minister of State for Civil Aviation said.
Muthoot Finance Recently received in-principle approval from RBI to set up White Label ATMs. The company has already chalked out setting up 1,000 such ATMs in the first year and another 8,000 in the next two years.
UCO Bank on Thursday reported a marginal increase in October-December quarter net profit at Rs 134 crore and also announced to raise Rs 200-400 crore via Tier-II capital to meet its future long-term advance commitments.
In the past two years, Xiaomi has expanded its chain of offline stores across formats - 6,000 Mi Preferred Partner stores and 75 Mi Homes on a franchise-based model, besides exclusive small-format Mi Stores added last year to penetrate Tier-II, -III and -IV cities and towns.
