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IPO bound unicorn Paytm is aggressively eyeing merger and acquisition ahead of filing its papers with market watchdog Sebi. The fintech firm is in exploratory talks with three payment gateway firms namely, BillDesk, PayU and BSE-listed Infibeam Avenues, to buy a substantial stake in them, suggested a report. Paytm is looking to mop-up about $3 billion via its primary float. The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led digital payment service provider is looking to strike just prior to its IPO plans.<!--more--> Paytm is targeting to fetch an astronomical valuation of between $25-$30 billion, which is almost double its previous fund raising at valuation of $16 billion. Paytm's IPO could be India's largest ever public offering so far. Not only Paytm, food aggregator Zomato, pre-owned car start ups CarTrade, e-pharmacy PharmEasy, beauty e-commerce omnichannel Nykaa and online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar are likely to make a Dalal Street debut. According to sources, the talks are in the early stages and it is not sure which of these entities will be keen to join forces with Paytm. The company is looking to seal the deal before its IPO to enhance its profitability. Paytm too has its own payment gateway, but BillDesk, Infibeam Avenues, PayU and Razorpay are well entrenched in the ecosystem and have specialised businesses. According to the industry trackers, the domestic payment gateway market can grow 15% annually to $100 billion by 2025. According to market sources, Paytm is hunting for a couple of acquisitions before hitting the capital markets to raise funds. The company is trying to showcase some aggression and action to ensure its dominant position in the market. <strong>Acquisitions by Paytm</strong> Founded in 2000, paytm was launched as a mobile recharge and bill payment platform in 2010. Paytm has grown as one of the largest fintech startups offering services like UPI, credit and debit cards, stock broking, insurance, ticket booking, bill payments, payment bank, gold etc. In 2018, Paytm acquired Cube26, a tech startup which developed various social engagement applications. In December 2017, Paytm also acquired O2O deals platforms Little and Nearbuy, wherein it arranged a merger of the two startups and made a strategic investment in the resultant entity for a majority stake. Prior to that, Paytm acquired a majority stake in ticketing platform Insider.in. The acquisitions are in line with Paytm’s strategy of becoming more than a digital wallet and expanding the categories in which its digital payments services are being used. Paytm has been trying to position itself into the biggest digital conglomerate operating in India. However, the dream is still far-fetched.
Last year Paytm has acquired Raheja QBE to expands its insurance portfolio by going inorganic way. To move one step ahead in the product portfolio, this week it has added <strong>Car</strong> and <strong>Bike</strong> Insurance as well for the users. For this Paytm has tied up with 14 insurance companies. Through partnerships, the company will offer 14 add-on options for cars and six add-on options for two-wheelers, including zero depreciation, invoice cover, roadside assistance and engine protection for customers on its platform.<!--more--> Paytm is also planning to offer of up to 80% discount on Own Damage for select Vehicles. “<em>Insurance continues to be an underserved segment in India. Paytm hopes to change that by making accessibility and affordability a priority. We are focused on making the whole process of buying and renewing both car and bike insurance simple, seamless and completely digital</em>," said a Paytm spokesperson. <strong>Paytm IPO News</strong> Paytm board is planning to file a DRHP soon to bring $3Billion IPO, which if successful would be the biggest IPO in the history of Indian stock market. Paytm which was started in the year 2008 carries the business to provide Telecom based value-added services to various telecom operators across the Territory, Payment gateway aggregator services, Ticket services, Utility bills payments, Insurance, Hotel booking services, Stock Broking etc. They got a real boost in their sales during demonetization in 2016. <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Financial Performance (Fig. in Cr)</strong></span> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 144pt;" border="0" width="192" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; width: 48pt; text-align: center;" width="64" height="20"><strong>Year</strong></td> <td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; width: 48pt; text-align: center;" width="64"><strong>Revenue</strong></td> <td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; width: 48pt; text-align: center;" width="64"><strong>PAT</strong></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2017</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">780</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-900</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2018</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">3314</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-1604</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2019</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">3579</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-4172</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2020</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">3350</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-2833</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> The company’s overall expenses were reduced by 20 per cent in 2019-20 to Rs 5,861 crore compared to Rs 7,254 crore in the previous fiscal year. Paytm’s revenues also fell slightly (1 per cent) to Rs 3,350 crore in FY20.The company’s overall losses at PAT levels reduce from Rs 4172 crore in FY19 to Rs 2833 crore in the FY20. This shows that company has taken measures to reduce the expenses.
Cochin International Airport Ltd. enlists 800 domestic operations for the summer schedule which is effective till 30th October 2021. The Winter schedule which ended in March 2021 had featured 742 services in domestic sector. Of the 400 weekly departures scheduled for the season, Indigo will operate 167 services while Air Asia planned to operate 62 services. <!--more--> The domestic summer schedule features connectivity to 15 cities from Kochi which includes 105 weekly departures to Bangalore, 63 to Delhi, 59 to Chennai, 47 to Mumbai,35 to Hyderabad,14 to Pune and 7 to Patna. Air Asia will be operating additional daily flights in Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi Sectors while SpiceJet will be operating additional flights in Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Bangalore. Seven weekly flights each to Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur are also been scheduled.
Mumbai based Fino Payments Bank is eyeing to float an initial public offering soon, making it the first-of-its-kind to be listed on the domestic bourses. According to some reports in media, the bank is gearing up to raise Rs 1,000 crore through the primary issues, planning a Dalal Street debut in next six months. Rishi Gupta, managing director and chief executive of the company, told media that there may be an IPO soon, but nothing can be confirmed yet. He said that such plans take time to develop and materialize.<!--more--> According to some anonymous sources from the company, the Fino Payments Bank would largely consist of secondary share sale, giving partial exit to its existing investors. The company will raise a smaller amount for itself via sale of fresh shares. The company is likely to appoint investment bankers soon. Fino Payments Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fino Paytech, securing the license from Reserve Bank of India to carry out the payment bank business in 2017. It has five active peers in the country including Paytm Payments Bank, Airtel Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank, Jio Payments Bank and NSDL Payments Bank. <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Financial Performance</strong></span> Fino Payments Bank has turned profitable at the operating level in FY 2019-20 on the back of lowered expenses. The company generated a revenue of Rs 64 crore and profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 7.67 crore in the fiscal, compared to revenue of Rs 53 crore and net loss of Rs 9.22 crore in the preceding year. In the first three quarters, the payments bank has been making decent profits. The company clocked a PAT of Rs 4.5 crore in the quarter ended on September 30, 2020, compared to Rs 1.9 crore in the preceding quarter. The company is yet to announce its result for the full financial year. The company has lowered its debt from Rs 328 crore to Rs 240 crore and is trading at a price-to-book value (P/BV) of Rs 22. <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Business Profile</strong></span> As a payments bank with a physical presence, it offers products including micro-ATM services, Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS) transactions, remittances, payment services partnerships, business correspondent banking, current and savings accounts, cash management services and third-party products like insurance and gold loan referrals for partner banks and insurance companies. During the September quarter, the company facilitated transactions worth Rs 33,000 crore, of which domestic remittances contributed 25%, micro ATM/AePS withdrawals comprised 38% and payment services formed 11%. As of September, it had 5.5 lakh banking points, including 2.5 lakh points through its banking partners and 8,000 Bharat Petroleum Corp.'s outlets. It looks to increase its banking network to 10 lakh such points in three years, the company said in a Nov. 25 press release <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Key Stakeholders</span></strong> Incorporated in 2006 to develop banking technology solutions, Fino Paytech is an associate subsidiary of the state-owned Bharat Petroleum, which holds 28.9% stake in the company. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company owns 11.5%, International Finance Corporation owns 6.7% stake, ICICI Bank owns 5.8 per cent stake in the Company. Private equity firms Blackstone and HAV3 Holdingsalso hold 7.6% stake each in the company, while Exide Life Insurance Company holds 2.85% stake. Other State entities like LIC of India and Indian Bank hold 2.3 percent each. Union Bank of India owns 4.6 per cent stake in the company, after the merger of state owned PSB Corporation Bank. <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Other business</span></strong> Besides Fino Payments, it also runs a non-deposit NBFC firm Fino Finance that specialises in giving microloans to women in rural areas based on the joint liability. The company acts as a life insurance holding point for its stakeholders. The company business has not remained unblemished during the second wave of pandemic. So far, it has registered lower transactions in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal. However, the management is hopeful of turnaround once the infection rates would plunge. The management has shown optimism on vaccination. <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Small Finance Bank plans</strong></span> Fino Payments Bank has completed three years of its operation and is considering conversion into a small finance bank, under the guidelines of the central bank. However, the company management recently said that it is in no hurry to be converted into a small finance bank. Fino Payments Bank has raised its deposit limit to Rs 2 lakh per customers, with 75% of the deposits in the government securities and/or treasury bills with maturity up to one year. From the remaining 25%, the payments banks can also invest in certificates of deposits. Payment Banks have been demanding to up the deposit limit to Rs 5 lakh per customers, while an internal working group constituted by the banking regulator recommended lowering the existing five-year threshold for setting up a small finance bank. Both fares well for Fino Payments Bank. However, Fino Payments Bank would be more keen to ride the IPO tide as a fintech firm, rather than a small finance bank. Fintech firms get a better valuation on the bourses, while listing of recent small finance banks has been tepid. <div class="yj6qo"></div> <div class="adL"></div>
1. Lava International Limited is exploring options for undertaking an initial public offering of its Equity Shares, subject to market conditions, regulatory approvals, consents and applicable law and other considerations.<!--more--> 2. The Offer may be undertaken by the Company at an appropriate time in consultation with the book running lead managers and other advisors appointed for the Offer. The Offer is likely to include a Fresh Issue and may include an Offer for Sale by existing shareholders of the Company subject to <i>inter alia</i>, such shareholders holding eligible Equity Shares as per the applicable laws. 3. In this connection Company has sent an invitation letter to all the eligible shareholders to provide them an opportunity to participate in the Offer for Sale. <a href="https://unlistedzone.com/storage/knowledge-logo/Lava-International-OFS-Letter.pdf">Letter of Offer</a> <p style="font-weight: 400;"></p>
The medium of exchange among mankind has grown over the years. From the barter system in the earliest centuries to livestock and then the coins made from precious metals. As the model countries have been accepted, the medium of exchange has been fiat currency issued by the government or the central bank of a particular country. However, humans never stopped evolving and the emergence of the banking system gave birth to cheques, ATMs and plastic money such as credit cards and debit cards. Such easiness allows people to spend without hassles and problems. In such scenarios, the magic of credit cards makes its place, i.e. the art of purchasing in advance and paying for it later.<!--more--> From a single card, users now have a bunch of credit cards, availed from various national or international banks with different features and schemes, making the system of payment simpler. However, the user has to remember the billing cycle of his cards, as each card would have a different billing cycle. Now imagine there being an app which gathers all this information, sends you reminders to carry out timely payments and even offers you rewards for it. This is exactly where a start up like Cred steps in. This app becomes a single platform to handle all the credit cards. Bengaluru-headquartered Cred was started in 2018 by Kunal Shah as a members-only application which facilitates its users with exclusive rewards for paying their credit card bills. With the passage of time Cred added features to allow users to make house rent payments and introduced short-term credit lines. Cred has customers who have a strong credit score, the platform also has been tracking their bill payment behaviour. It can boast of a good set of borrowers whose chances of default are low. This can be a future growth prospect in terms of business revenue for Cred. Kunal is a MBA dropout from Mumbai's prestigious Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. He gained moderate success with Freecharge, which was started after shutting down Paisaback. He left his role to begin with his own venture. However, his venture has been highly criticized by many startup magnets and entrepreneurial wizards. <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Business Model</span></strong> The business contemplates on three major divisions- The Cred app, Businesses which provides offers on the app and users who pay credit card bills. Cred provides better and bigger offers to the credit cards customers to pay bills via their platform. In less than four years of operations, the company had onboarded over 5.9 million users and processed about 20% of all credit card bill payments in India. As of April 2021, CRED offered five distinct products - CRED RentPay, CRED Cash, CRED Pay, CRED Store and CRED Travel Store. The platform has been established with the purpose of making credit card bill payments easier and to offer the users rewards upon timely payments. The application functions in a simple manner. It requires them to give their phone number to inspect their credit score through CIBIL, CRIF and Experian. Cred earns revenue from the businesses list of products and offers on the app as it enables their visibility on the platform and draws a wide number of users' attention and they tend to spend more time. This allows more offers to be placed over the numerous screens of the platform As a result, it gains more and more visitors to join and pay the bills. Cred is trying to offer interesting products. That is where Cred has launched an ecommerce store and a rent paying facility. Two extremely valuable products for this category of customers. While an exclusive club is a good marketing buzz, getting customer engagement and driving valuations northwards. Cred Store is an in-app purchasing platform, where consumers can buy curated products. Then it also launched Cred Rent Pay, with which consumers can pay their monthly rents through their credit cards. Imagine earning rewards on rental payments and redeeming them within the app itself. Also its allied businesses around rent payments and ecommerce are not that exclusive either; they are used by almost every salaried professional who works in places such as Bengaluru, Noida or Mumbai. Cred, while claiming exclusivity, has also kept its products simple and usable. <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Partnership with IPL</strong></span> The growth of CRED’s platform has also largely been propelled by its marketing campaign amidst the recent editions of cricket fiesta of the nation- Indian Premier League (IPL). The three year deal (2020-2022) was signed at a hefty amount of Rs 120 crore. The company has reported an increase in both its user base as well as on the funding it is receiving. The platform’s board director, Shailendra Singh tweeted that it has been registering a 6-7 times increase in new users since IPL began. The massive audience of the cricket tournament has definitely helped boost the popularity of the application. Despite not making any money currently and aiming at facilitating personal loans in collaboration with banks and non-banking firms (NBFCs), CRED has been a buzzing phenomenon in the past couple of months, largely owing to the IPL, and has intrigued and sparked the interest of many of the audience. <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Funding</span></strong> Cred has been unable to achieve the status of a unicorn so far, but it is highly believed that in the next couple of rounds of funding, the startup will achieve the feat. Cred is recently valued at $0.8 billion or $800 million dollars. So far, Cred has raised a total $256.5 million in funding in five funding rounds. The journey started in November 2018 when it raised $30 million from Sequoia Capital India, followed by an undisclosed amount from Rainmatter Technology. In April 2019, the company raised Rs 180 crore and in July that year, Gemini Investments, Ribbit Capital and Sequoia Capital India invested $120 million in the company. Its recent fund came in November 2020 as it raised $81 million from DST global. <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Criticism and Agony</strong></span> Interestingly, Cred has no direct peer in the business so far, despite that it has been on the radar of the critics. Analysts and experts have raised multiple questions on the business model and sustainability of Cred. The lofty valuation and lack of a solid monetization plan has drawn criticism. Cred's advertising content and videos, often made in-house and featuring celebrities such as Rahul Dravid, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Govinda and Jackie Shroff and Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Bappi Lahiri. They have generated large discourse in news and social media due to their unique advertising strategy, which has received both praise and criticism thus far.
Paytm board has passed the IPO plans in the yesterday's meet. Paytm is planning to raise Rs.21000 from the IPO. This would be the largest IPO in the history of Indian stock market. Some of the biggest IPOs of all the time were Reliance Power of 11,500 Crores in 2008; General Insurance of Rs.11372 Crores in 2017; SBI Card of Rs. 10354 Crores and many more. But this much big IPO size is coming first time. <!--more--> Paytm which was started in the year 2008 carries the business to provide Telecom based value-added services to various telecom operators across the Territory, Payment gateway aggregator services, Ticket services, Utility bills payments, Insurance, Hotel booking services, Stock Broking etc. They got a real boost in their sales during demonetization in 2016. <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Financial Performance (Fig. in Cr)</strong></span> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 144pt;" border="0" width="192" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; width: 48pt; text-align: center;" width="64" height="20"><strong>Year</strong></td> <td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; width: 48pt; text-align: center;" width="64"><strong>Revenue</strong></td> <td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; width: 48pt; text-align: center;" width="64"><strong>PAT</strong></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2017</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">780</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-900</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2018</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">3314</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-1604</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2019</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">3579</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-4172</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; border-top: none; text-align: center;" height="20">2020</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">3350</td> <td class="xl63" style="border-top: none; border-left: none; text-align: center;">-2833</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> The company’s overall expenses were reduced by 20 per cent in 2019-20 to Rs 5,861 crore compared to Rs 7,254 crore in the previous fiscal year. Paytm’s revenues also fell slightly (1 per cent) to Rs 3,350 crore in FY20.The company’s overall losses at PAT levels reduce from Rs 4172 crore in FY19 to Rs 2833 crore in the FY20. This shows that company has taken measures to reduce the expenses. <strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Valuation</span></strong> As per media news, the Paytm is eyeing an valuation of $25 Billion and this translate into Rs.1.875 Lakh Crores of Mcap. Last to last year in the month of Nov-2019, Paytm has raised funds at $16 Billion dollar valuation ( at that time share value was ~18000 ). So, at $25 Billion dollar, the valuation of share comes out to be ~28000-30000 per share. Before the IPO, bonus share issues will going to happen to reduce the share price to make it fit for the IPO.
1. Tata Technologies is collaborating with Logility to offer digital supply chain transformation solutions to its customers across Automotive, Industrial Heavy Machinery, Aerospace, Industrial, and Medical devices verticals to help them achieve agility and improved resilience in the new normal. 2. Post-COVID, enterprises are being challenged to mitigate the effects of supply chain disruptions, such as tackling supply-demand uncertainties, and maintaining continuity in the near term. Agility and resilience of supply chains along with proper demand planning are crucial for better transparency and concurrency for them to win in the marketplace.<!--more--> This collaboration will further augment Tata Technologies’ strong digital transformation capabilities across the product development value chain and strengthen the bouquet of supply chain solutions thereby helping Tata Technologies develop innovative solutions to address business challenges of the manufacturing industry and help them realize better products. <strong>About Logility</strong> 1. Logility helps companies seize new opportunities, sense, and respond to changing market dynamics and more profitably manage their complex global businesses. The Logility® Digital Supply Chain Platform leverages an innovative blend of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to automate planning, accelerate cycle times, increase precision, improve operating performance, break down business silos and deliver greater visibility. 2. Logility’s SaaS-based platform transforms sales and operations planning (S&OP) and integrated business planning (IBP) processes; demand, inventory, and replenishment planning; global sourcing; quality and compliance management; product life cycle management; supply and inventory optimization; manufacturing planning and scheduling; retail merchandise planning, assortment and allocation.
<p>HDB Financial Services is planning to raise over Rs 8,600 crore via debt, deferring its plans to float an initial public offering (IPO). HDB Financial Services is the non banking financial arm of HDFC Bank. This subsidiary of the largest private sector bank caters to the informal sector and self-employed segment and wants to improve the deteriorated asset quality. The company is awaiting for the disruptive phase to pass, post that IPO plans would be reconsidered.</p> <!--more--> <p>Various media reports suggest that the board of the firm met in April to clear the decks for raising the funds by way of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) in various tranches in 2021-22. The funds would be utilized for fresh lending, refinancing of existing borrowings, and also to boost the capital levels. The company is considering debt as the cost of borrowing is very less at present. However, the central bank may decide to taper in due to the rising inflationary pressure in the economy. This will also ooze out liquidity from the market, making cash more dearer. <br /><br />HDB Financial Services, with 1,319 branches across 959 cities, has a total loan book of Rs 58,947 crore as of March 31, 2021. It focuses on the risky unsecured personal loans, new to credit loans, consumer durable loans, used car loans, credit card balance transfer and loans to small enterprises. <br /><br />The key target customers of the company are most hit by the second wave of lethal Covid-19, which has resulted in lockdown in many states of the country. The impact is visible in the pandemic year when the company's net profit halved during the coronavirus affected financial year 2019-20, from ₹1,037 crore to ₹503 crore. Net profit fell 17% to ₹$285 crore in the quarter ended on March 31, 2021 from ₹342 crore a year ago due to a rise in provisions. Total provisions during the period increased to ₹613 crore from ₹393 crore a year earlier. <br /><br />HDB's recorded a modest 5% increase in its loan book to ₹58,947 from ₹55,930 cr a year ago. Net interest income grew 15% to Rs 1,252 cr from Rs 1,084.5 cr a year ago. Analysts said the company has been able to arrest the slide in asset quality after a deterioration in the nine months of the fiscal. Gross NPAs had increased to 5.9% in December from 5.1% in September 2020. <br /><br />NCDs contribute over 40 per cent to their liabilities. The outstanding NCDs are over ₹20,000 crore. The term loans from the back are the second-highest source with a 28% contribution at over ₹15,000 crore. HDB Financial Services enjoys a premium valuation, bragging about its strong parentage of HDFC Group. HDFC Bank holds a 95.1% stake in HDB. The NBFC will attempt to unlock the value via the capital market route.</p>
<p>The postponed season of Indian Premier League is likely to resume tentatively in the third week of September in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a PTI report. A senior BCCI official told the news agency that Indian Cricketers, along with the English players will fly to UAE, where the remaining 31 matches of the league will be played. The three week window might witness as many as 10 double headers, due to time constraints. The resumption of the league is a win-win situation for all primary stakeholders including BCCI, franchise owners, broadcasters and players.</p> <!--more--> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Meaning for CSK holders?</strong></span> <br /><br />The news is definitely a big positive for shareholders of Chennai Super Kings as the severe impact of the lethal pandemic will be reduced. The franchises were supposed to pay the players and staff the full amount for the season, while their earnings were trimmed. The advertisers, sponsors and broadcasters announced to make payment on proportionate basis to the team. However, a refreshed league will add strength to the balance sheet in the ongoing fiscal. <br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">What had happened?</span></strong> <br /><br />The T20 cricket extravaganza was halted as the bio-bubble of various franchises was burst and multiple cases were reported from different franchises. Kolkata Knight Riders' mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy was the first player to be reported Covid-19 positive, after breaching the bubble for knee scans. Similarly, SRH's wicketkeeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha, KKRs's Tim Simfert and Sandeep Warrier, CSK's bowling coach Laxmipati Balaji and batting coach Mike Hussey were tested positive during the IPL. The league has been suspended since then. More cases were reported, but no official announcement was not made. <br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">How will the players reach?</span></strong> <br /><br />Indian cricket team will play the final of the inaugural World Test Championship against New Zealand in England, followed by a five test match series against the hosts during English summers. The last test will end on 14th of Septembers and players will on-board a chartered flight to UAE on the next morning. Similarly, players from the West Indies will also board flights to Dubai after the Caribbean Premier League. The remaining Indian players are reportedly to play a limited over series in Sri Lanka. The remaining domestic players and Sri Lanka touring squad will fly to UAE, once the series is over. There will be a three-day quarantine for all players according to the reports. India was to play South Africa in September, but the series has been called off, as of now. This ensures availability of Proteas players. The two test series with Kiwi team might be rescheduled.</p>
When Flipkart was taken over by US retail giant- Walmart, the landscape of Indian technology startups changed rapidly. Inspired by the super success of E-commerce retailers, many of the former 'Flipkartians' ventured for their own story in the budding industry of the country. An alumni of IIT Bombay (now Mumbai), Lalit Keshre decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge. He was associated with Flipkart as its Group Product Manager. At that point, the domestic startup industry was mainly focused on e-commerce, retailing, cab aggregators and food delivery. Financial services was an old school segment back then.<!--more--> Lalit, along with his former colleagues Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal, started working on building products for the financial sector that would "change the thought process in the industry". They stepped in an industry which was highly underserved and if tapped rightly, could result in exponential growth. Back then, about 200 million Indians fell in the bracket of investable income, while only 10% of them invested. The only to bring the remaining 90% on board was by making investing simpler and convenient. There was no looking back since then. This bond had sowed the seeds for 'Groww', which later on grew significantly. They thought of launching a savings product for millennials, which was initially designed as an internet financial services company and with the best user experience. Bengaluru headquartered Groww is an investment platform that offers a new way of investing money with stockbroking and direct mutual funds, which was officially launched in 2017. The platform provides complete insights about mutual funds, systematic investment planning, equity-linked savings, and everything from the personal finance world, which helps new investors make investing simple by maintaining a simplified user interface to make investing easy, accessible, hassle-free, transparent and paperless. 2016 is marked as the year of Demonetization, which opened the doors for the digital economy. Flooded with 'UPI' led transactions, financial applications like Groww shifted the bar to multilevel high in how Indians were handling their wealth. Customers can also invest in Domestic equities, stocks, IPO, gold and other financial instruments through the Groww platform. This strategy helped the entity to scale up the customer base to the older generation, which is more inclined towards the precious metal and other fixed income avenues. Today, over 150 million across 900 cities Indian Groww users invest in Stocks, IPOs, ETFs, digital gold and mutual funds in quick succession, to satisfy their financial appetite. Groww focused on simplicity and transparency, and has been designed as an advisor or ‘buddy’. Its platform is powered by intelligent UI and UX. The app has thumped well for the safety and security of the customers and financial transactions. <strong>The initial Journey</strong> Groww initially started as a mutual fund distribution platform and offered only three mutual funds on its website. Along with these three mutual funds, Groww also offered various services like Robo Advisory, risk analysis, and customer profiling, which were later dropped. Now, over three dozen mutual funds have partnered with Groww, offering over 6,000 schemes for investors. As the platform got older, it started gaining more interactions with users. It started offering zero commission mutual funds and enabled stock trading. <strong>Fundraising</strong> Groww is recently elevated to the status of an 'Unicorn', adding another feather in its crown. A startup with valuation over $1 billions is known as an 'Unicorn'. Groww touched the feat in May 2021, when it recently raised $83 million in the round led by Tiger Global, valuing it over a billion dollars. Its valuation has jumped fourfold in just seven months. In January 2019, Groww raised $6.2 million by Sequoia India. American seed accelerator Y Combinator, Propel Venture Partners and Kauffman Fellows also participated in the investment round. The company had earlier raised $1.2 million from Insignia Venture Partners, America’s Lightbridge Partners and Kairos fund. Groww had raised seed funding from CureFit founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori with Y Combinator in January 2018. In September 2019, the company raised $21.4m US-based VC firm Ribbit Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia India and Y Combinator. In the same month and year later, Groww raised $30m from YC Continuity. The round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital and Propel Ventures. <strong>Competitors</strong> Groww competes with Zerodha, Upstox, IndMoney and Paytm Money. While Zerodha has a pole position in the stock trading space followed by Upstox, there are multiple players who have been fighting it out for a dominant market share in the space of mutual funds and SIPs. Such platforms include ETMONEY and Cube Wealth. <strong>Mergers and Acquisitions</strong> Groww recently acquired the mutual funds business of Indiabulls Housing Finance, by taking over its subsidiaries Indiabulls Asset Management Company (IAMCL) and Indiabulls Trustee Company, the trustee of IAMCL for Rs 175 crore. SEBI recently allowed fintech companies to facilitate innovation, and increase investors' reach with technology-based offerings. Indiabulls MF has assets under management of Rs 66,369 crore as of March -end. <strong>The way ahead</strong> Groww is likely to launch deposits, US Stocks, Sovereign Gold Bonds and other derivatives products in months to come. Financial education content has been a key focus area for Groww since its inception. The company plans to launch a slew of financial education initiatives aimed at millenials and expand the financial services market.
<p>HDFC, a titan in the housing finance sector, has recently announced its decision to sell a portion of its stake in HDFC ERGO, an eminent insurance entity. This move involves the sale of 44,12,000 equity shares, which represents 0.62% of the issued and paid-up share capital of HDFC ERGO. The decision to divest this stake aligns with the Reserve Bank of India's directive that mandates HDFC to reduce its shareholding in HDFC ERGO to 50% or below.</p> <p>For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, HDFC ERGO reported a total income of Rs 7,557.50 crore. This figure constituted 5.43% of HDFC's consolidated income. Additionally, HDFC ERGO's net worth as of March 31, 2021, was valued at Rs 3,253.55 crore, accounting for 1.96% of HDFC's consolidated net worth. The share purchase agreement for this stake sale was executed on May 8, 2021, with the completion of the sale anticipated by May 12, 2021.</p> <p>The acquiring entity for these shares is ERGO International AG, the foreign promoter of HDFC ERGO. The agreed share price for this transaction is Rs 536 per share, totaling an aggregate amount of Rs 236,48,32,000.</p> <p>In terms of valuation, HDFC ERGO had reported a Gross Written Premium (GWP) of approximately Rs 9,700 crore for FY20. While the FY20-21 figures were not disclosed, assuming a 20% growth rate on the GWP, the estimated value for FY20-21 would be around Rs 11,500 crore. With the total outstanding shares as of March 31, 2020, being approximately 60.5 crore and the deal's share price set at Rs 560, the market capitalization of HDFC ERGO is estimated to be around Rs 33,800 crore. This leads to a Mcap/GWP ratio of approximately 2.93x.</p> <p>This strategic sale by HDFC is not only a compliance move in response to the RBI's directive but also a significant transaction in the financial sector, reflecting the dynamic nature of stakeholding adjustments in compliance with regulatory requirements.</p>
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