Business

Mumbai, Sep 16 (IANS) The Adani Family, through Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd, a special purpose vehicle, has successfully completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd.

The transaction involved the acquisition of Holcim's stake in Ambuja and ACC along with an open offer in both entities as per SEBI Regulations.

The value of the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC is $6.50 billion, which makes this the largest ever acquisition by Adani, and also India's largest ever M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space.

Post the transaction, Adani will hold 63.15 per cent in Ambuja Cements and 56.69 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements).

"What makes cement an exciting business is the headroom for growth in India, which exceeds that of every other country well beyond 2050," said Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group.

"Cement is a game of economics dependent on energy costs, logistics and distribution costs, and the ability to leverage a digital platform to transform production as well as gain significant supply chain efficiencies. Each one of these capabilities is a core business for us and therefore provides our cement business a set of unmatched adjacencies.

"It is these adjacencies that eventually drive competitive economics. In addition, our position as one of the largest renewable energy companies in the world will help us manufacture premium quality green cement well in line with the principles of a circular economy. All of these dimensions put us on track to become the largest and most efficient manufacturer of cement by no later than 2030," he added.

Currently, Ambuja Cements and ACC have a combined installed production capacity of 67.5 MTPA. The two companies are among the strongest brands in India with immense depth of manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure, represented by their 14 integrated units, 16 grinding units, 79 ready-mix concrete plants and over 78,000 channel partners across India.

The Board of Ambuja Cements approved an infusion of Rs 20,000 crore into Ambuja by way of preferential allotment of warrants. This will equip Ambuja to capture the growth in the market. The actions will significantly accelerate value creation for all stakeholders, in line with the Adani Group's business philosophy.

Both Ambuja Cements and ACC will benefit from synergies with the integrated Adani infrastructure platform, especially in the areas of raw material, renewable power and logistics, where Adani Portfolio companies have vast experience and deep expertise.

Ambuja and ACC will also benefit from Adani's focus on ESG, circular economy and capital management philosophy. The businesses will continue to be deeply aligned to UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) with clear focus on SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 13 (climate action).

In line with the Adani Portfolio's governance philosophy, the board committees of both Ambuja Cements and ACC have been reconstituted. The audit committee and the nomination and remuneration committee now comprise 100 per cent independent directors.

Further, two new committees have been constituted – the Corporate Responsibility Committee and the Public Consumer Committee – both comprising 100 per cent independent directors to provide assurance to the board on ESG commitments and maximise consumer satisfaction. Also, a Commodity Price Committee has been constituted, comprising 50 per cent independent directors, to strengthen risk management.

The transaction was financed by facilities aggregating to $4.50 billion availed from 14 international banks.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Indigo flew ahead of other airlines during August with 57.7 per cent share in the domestic aviation sector, while Vistara secured the second slot with a market share of 9.7 per cent.

As per the latest data from the aviation regulator, Indigo carried 58.32 lakh air passengers during the month while Vistara carried 9.81 lakh air passengers.

Go First was at third position with 8.7 lakh passengers and 8.6 per cent market share. Air India, with 8.61 lakh air passengers, had a market share of 8.5 per cent during August.

As per the latest data released by aviation regulator DGCA on Friday, nearly 1.01 crore passengers were carried by the domestic airlines during August in the country as against 67.01 lakh during the same period last year.

The passenger load factor or occupancy of the airlines remained on the higher side in the range of 70 to 80 per cent.

Newly-launched Akasa Air marked occupancy of 52.9 per cent during August.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Riding on its premium segment offerings, Samsung on Friday said it expect 45 per cent growth in its consumer electronics sales during the festive season.

Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India, told IANS that across its consumer electronics portfolio, "we are expecting a growth of 80 per cent in the premium segment".

"Consumers are back in stores and the festive buying sentiment along with upgrade trend is at an all-time high. We have doubled our retail investment to enhance the shopping experience of our consumers," he added.

In its premium TV business, Samsung expects 45 per cent growth by the end of the festive period.

The company said that the demand for its Neo QLED TVs has seen a 4X growth since last year.

In the UHD segment, Samsung registered a 65 per cent growth in the first half of the year.

Singh said that Samsung is setting up premium products across more stores, training 5,000 small partners and also in-store executives.

As India enters the festive season, online sales during the festive month are expected to reach $11.8 billion, a 28 per cent increase from last year.

In the first festive week, the sales are estimated to reach $5.9 billion, projecting a 28 per cent increase from $4.8 billion last year, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Siemens Digital Industries Software on Friday announced it has appointment Mathew Thomas as Country Manager and Managing Director for its India operations.

Thomas succeeds Suprakash Chaudhuri with immediately effect, the company said in a statement.

"His strong experience in business will help Siemens continue to develop solid relationships with our customers in the region, assist them in making the switch to a software-driven manufacturing strategy and open up fresh prospects for the market," said Bas Kuper, SVP and MD Asia Pacific, Siemens Digital Industries Software.

Thomas earlier served as head of sales for software and hardware business for four years.

"I look forward to helping strengthen our client and ecosystem relationships in India that support our growth ambitions in this region," he said.

Prior to joining Siemens Digital Industries Software, Mathew worked at Ernst & Young (EY) where he was part of the digital and technology advisory leadership team and helped grow the technology Business in the country.

He has also worked with companies like SAP, Oracle, Wipro, Tata and Godrej.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Domestic air traffic in August recorded a strong growth as nearly 1.01 crore passengers travelled during the month in the country as against 67.01 lakh in the same period last year, said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday.

As per the latest data released by the aviation regulator, domestic airlines during the first eight months this year carried 770.70 lakh passengers as against 460.45 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering an annual growth of 67.38 per cent and monthly growth of 50.96 per cent.

The passenger load factor or occupancy of the airlines remained on the higher side in the range of 70 to 80 per cent. Newly launched Akasa Air marked the occupancy of 52.9 per cent during August.

SpiceJet recorded the highest occupancy of 84.6 per cent while Indigo witnessed 78.3 per cent of passenger load factor. Air India had 73.6 per cent and GoFirst had 81.6 per cent of occupancy during the month.

Industry sources said that the downward trend in the Covid cases in the last couple of weeks have resulted in the restoration of normalcy in the aviation traffic.

Recently, the aviation regulator announced the removal of lower and upper limits on airfares in the country. It was done after discussions on removing the fare bands for domestic airfares among the stakeholders, including the government authorities and airlines. Carriers were of the view that the removal of the pricing caps was required for the full-fledged recovery of domestic air traffic.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 16 (IANS) Actress Genelia Deshmukh went down memory lane and shared one of her old advertisements in which she is seen alongside megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

The pen advertisement takes us back in time and shows Genelia as a student, who is fascinated by Big B and asks for an autograph.

Genelia said: "I stumbled upon this ad and couldn't help sharing it. This was special to me as I was actually a fan of Amitabh Sir and I mean who isn't, right? Anyway working with him was so fun as he is the most natural of actors and makes you feel comfortable at another level altogether."

On the acting front, the actress will next be seen in 'Mister Mummy'. It also stars her husband Riteish Deshmukh.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 16 (IANS) The Monetary Policy Committee in the September credit policy is likely to increase the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.90 per cent and will keep stance unchanged, according to a report by Morgan Stanley.

"We were earlier expecting a 35bp increase,however, sticky inflation and continued hawkish stance of DM central banks, warrants continued front loading of rate hikes, in our view," the report said.

The inflation which is ranging above the upper tolerance band of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the eighth straight and therefore Morgan Stanley too expect inflation to remain sticky around 7.1-7.4 per cent in September as well, driven by increases in food prices as per high frequency food price trend.

Thereafter, we expect the trend to moderate but remain above 6 per cent until January/Februaru 2023. Risks to the inflation outlook are skewed to the upside due to uncertainty around food inflation trajectory (sowing for rice, pulses is lower YoY), changes in global commodity prices and possibility of imported inflation if exchange rate weakens amid dollar strength, the report added.

Going forward, the key to track in the policy will be: (a) changes to growth or inflation forecast. While incoming inflation data is along expected lines,growth for QE Jun was a tad below our expectations (even RBI's projections), (b) comments around comfort on external balance sheet in the context of external risks and (c) overall tone of the policy statement and path on real rate normalization.

The RBI has lifted the repo rate by 140 basis points and surplus liquidity has fallen significantly (now $19.1 billion from $89 billion in January 2022), pushing the weighted average call rate to 5 per cent from 3.5 per cent in April.

However, the normalization in real rates has been less stark, with real policy rates at -1.6 per cent currently vs. -3.8 per cent in April. The external environment remains challenging, with generally higher commodity prices vs. pre-pandemic, stronger dollar and continued hawkish response from DM central banks. While domestic macro fundamentals are strong, risks from continued elevated commodity prices need to be tracked.

Against this backdrop, we expect monetary policy normalization to continue, pegging the terminal repo rate at 6.5 per cent by February 2023. Risks seem skewed to the upside for the terminal repo rate driven by external factors, which could potentially keep inflation higher for longer.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Samsung India on Friday kicked off the seventh edition of its pan-India campus programme -- Samsung E.D.G.E -- inviting students from the top colleges of the country to work on real-life problem statements.

The company said it will also let them interact with Samsung's top leaders and provide unique solutions to the problem statement at hand.

"At Samsung, innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Over the years, Samsung E.D.G.E. has proved to be an enabler wherein students have the platform to showcase their creative solutions to real life problems," Ken Kang, President and CEO, Samsung SWA, said in a statement.

"As we enter the seventh edition of the program, we are confident that the young talent participating in the program will bring in even more insightful solutions and display their problem-solving skills," Kang added.

This year, students from 27 campuses that include top B-Schools, engineering colleges and design schools will participate in the event, which will be held physically at campuses spread across the country.

The programme consists of three rounds. The first round, which is the campus round, is about ideation, where the team members come together and put up an executive case summary based on their research and analysis.

The top teams that are shortlisted in campus round work on a case study, submit and present their detailed solutions at the regional round.

At the end of the regional round, top 8 teams are selected and mentored by Samsung leaders on their respective solutions. The final eight teams battle it out in the National Round to arrive at the three winning teams.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 15 (IANS) The shares of two Tata group companies have been on the upswing, touching new highs at the bourses.

The two are non-banking finance company Tata Investment Corporation Ltd and material handling equipment manufacturer TRF Ltd.

Tata Investment is an investment company promoted by Tata Sons and other group companies.

During the first week of June, the Tata Investment scrip was in the Rs 1,340-Rs 1,470 band and on the upward route. And on Thursday, the scrip closed at Rs 2,886.50.

For the first quarter of FY23, the company, on a revenue of Rs 126.30 crore, had posted a net profit of Rs 108.69 crore.

The company invests in equities, mutual funds, debentures, and bonds.

Replying to a query from the BSE on the scrip's price, Tata Investment on Thursday said: "In connection with your mail L/SURV/ONL/PV/KS/ 2022-2023/2653 dated 14th September, 2022, we would like to inform you that to the best of the information available with Management; we do not have any information/announcements to share with the Stock Exchanges under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations & Disclosure Requirements) which have a bearing on the price/volume behaviour of our scrip traded."

But what is interesting is the upward movement of the other Tata company - TRF's scrip.

On July 25, the TRF share closed at Rs 124.35 and the 52 week low price was Rs 108.

But on Thursday, it hit the upper price band circuit at Rs 267.35 after its previous close of Rs 243.05.

In August, credit rating agency CARE Rating revised its outlook on the long-term rating of TRF from 'Negative' to 'Stable' on account of reduction in outside liability through the support of funds received from the parent Tata Steel.

"Furthermore, the company has recorded continuous declinein cash losses over the past two years and CARE envisages that the company is likely to turn marginally cash positive in FY23, largely on the back of order-book execution for TSL (Tata Steel)," the agency said in its report.

According to CARE Rating, 75 per cent of the order book of TRF is from Tata Steel. Additionally, the parent supports TRF by infusing funds in the form of inter-corporate deposits and unsecured loans in case of any liquidity mismatch.

"As on July 1, 2022, TRF has a total outstanding order book of Rs 363 crore with about 25 per cent of the order from the external parties," CARE Ratings said.

"As on March 31, 2022, capital structure of the company remains weak owing to the negative net worth base. The company has been reporting losses for the past three which led to the deterioration of net worth," CARE Ratings said.

Steel major and group company Tata Steel Ltd holds 34.11 per cent stake in TRF.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 15 (IANS) Two-wheeler-maker Eicher Motors Ltd on Thursday joined the Rs 1 trillion market capitalisation club during the intra-day trade.

The shares of Eicher Motors - that rolls out the 350cc Bullet and other brands of higher capacity bikes - on Thursday opened at Rs 3,541.30, touched a high of Rs 3,670.90, and closed at Rs.3,622.50.

While the scrip touched a market capitalisation of Rs.1 trillion intra-day, market capitalisation at the close of trading hours was about Rs 99,059 crore.

Eicher Motors also holds majority stakes in the commercial vehicle joint venture with Volvo - VE Commercial Vehicles.

In the two-wheeler segment, Eicher Motors has been on the upswing with sales going up.

Between April-August 2022, the company has sold 312,872 units, up from 213,538 units sold during the comparable period last year.

While the 350cc models account for the majority of the sales numbers, the sales of over 350cc bikes are growing at a faster clip.

For the first quarter of the current fiscal the company has logged revenue of Rs 3,247.94 crore and a net profit of Rs 580.17 crore.

--IANS
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