Corporates News

Cash-strapped Vodafone Idea on Friday announced a follow-on public offer of up to Rs 18,000 crore at a price band of Rs 10-11 per share, marking the biggest FPO in the country. The fundraise -- which comes close on the heels of a Rs 2,075-crore fund infusion by Aditya Birla group via a preferential share issue earlier this month, would give the ailing telco the firepower to improve its positioning in the Indian telecom market, where it currently trails larger rivals such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, by a wide margin.

Realty firm Godrej Properties on Tuesday reported a 84 per cent increase in sales booking to a record Rs 22,500 crore in the last financial year, on higher volumes amid strong consumer demand for residential properties. Godrej Properties has surpassed the sales booking numbers of Bengaluru-based Prestige Group, which on Monday reported pre-sales of Rs 21,040 crore during the last fiscal year.

Birla Pivot, a B2B e-commerce platform for building materials of the Aditya Birla Group, is targetting revenue of USD 1 billion in the next three years, according to a top company official. The platform, a business unit of Grasim Industries, has crossed Rs 1,000 crore revenue in its first year of operations in FY24, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

The Piramal Group on Monday announced a Rs 110-crore investment into Biodeal Pharmaceuticals. The contract development and manufacturing company will deploy the funds infused by Piramal Alternatives for improving its infrastructure and capacities, technology upgrade and a nutraceuticals manufacturing facility, as per an official statement. The infusion is done through convertible instruments from Piramal Alternatives' Performing Credit Fund, it said.

, The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) not to terminate the concession agreement of an IL&FS group entity -- Baleshwar Kharagpur Expressway Ltd, and take appropriate measures for its insolvency resolution. The appellate tribunal said the resolution of Baleshwar Kharagpur Expressway Ltd (BKEL), a SPV set up by IL&FS Transportation Networks Limited (ITNL), "is in final stages" and any termination at this stage would "further complicate" the process.

Auto components major Bharat Forge on Wednesday announced the elevation of Amit Kalyani, son of its Chairman and MD Babasaheb N Kalyani, as Vice-Chairman and Joint Managing Director of the company. The board of directors of the company in its meeting held on April 3, 2024, approved the re-appointment of Amit Kalyani as a whole-time director designated as "Vice-Chairman and Joint Managing Director" for a further term of five years commencing from May 11, 2024 till May 10, 2029, Bharat Forge said in a regulatory filing.

Amid flight cancellations due to non-availability of crew, Vistara's top officials on Wednesday held a meeting with pilots where discussions were held on new contracts and rostering issues, according to sources. The Tata Group airline cancelled around 26 flights on Wednesday, the sources in the know said. The sources said top officials of Vistara, including CEO Vinod Kannan, held a virtual meeting with pilots to discuss their problems.

Online food delivery platform Zomato said it has received a service tax demand and penalty order aggregating over Rs 184 crore, and will file an appeal against it before an appropriate authority. The demand order has been received for non-payment of service tax for the period October 2014 to June 2017 determined on the basis of certain sales made by the foreign subsidiaries and branches of the company to its customers located outside India, the company said in a late night regulatory filing.

Aviation watchdog DGCA has asked Vistara to submit a daily report on flight cancellations and delays, and the situation is also being monitored by the civil aviation ministry, amid non-availability of pilots causing flight disruptions for the airline. A day after the carrier announced reducing operations due to non-availability of crew and other operational reasons, sources on Tuesday said some commanders as well as first officers of its A320 fleet are also reporting sick to protest pay revisions due to signing of new contracts.

It’s been a fairly bland fiscal year for top-listed FMCG majors like – HUL, Marico, Britannia and more who have been awaiting a consumption uptick. But macro factors like inflation are not the only reason for their troubles. Top listed players seem to be losing premium customers to global peers and digital-first brands, apart from mass customers to regional and smaller brands.

Realty firm Prestige Estates Projects Ltd has raised Rs 2,001 crore from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Kotak AIF to develop housing projects across four major cities, as part of its expansion plan. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Prestige Group said the company, through its subsidiaries, has "entered into a landmark deal with ADIA and Kotak AIF for Rs 2,001 crore (around USD 240 million) to capitalise on growth opportunities in the residential sector".

In the first collaboration between rival billionaires, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has picked up a 26 per cent stake in a Madhya Pradesh power project of Gautam Adani, and signed a pact to use the plants' 500 MW of electricity for captive use. Reliance will pick up 5 crore equity shares in Mahan Energen Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd, of face value Rs 10 at par (Rs 50 crore) and will use 500 MW of generation capacity for captive use, the two firms said in separate stock exchange filings.

The Adani family, the promoter of Ambuja Cements, on Thursday announced an infusion of Rs 6,661 crore, increasing its stake by 3.6 pc to attain 66.7 per cent holding in the country's second largest cement company. The fund's infusion will be instrumental for the cement business of the Adani Group, which has plans to enhance its capacity to 140 million tonnes per annum by 2028, said a statement from billionaire Gautam Adani-owned Ambuja Cements.

Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said its board has approved the appointment of Partho Banerjee as the new head of marketing and sales function with effect from April 1, 2024. He is currently serving as Head - Service. Banerjee replaces Shashank Srivastava who is "transferred from the position of Head Marketing & Sales to Member Executive Committee", the auto major said in a regulatory filing.

While a higher market share used to be heralded as a signal of quality, digitisation has since helped diminish this image. As the cost of online distribution fell, it helped ease the entry of new players into the market, which was highly advantageous for firms with relatively smaller market shares.

IndiGo aims to double in size by 2030 with new domestic and international routes as well as destinations, its chief Pieter Elbers said as the airline pursues soaring global ambitions to match India's economic growth potential. The country's largest airline with a domestic market share of little over 60 per cent is also betting big on A321 XLR aircraft that are expected to be part of its fleet "somewhere in 2025", to further expand its overseas presence.

, Reliance Power on Wednesday said its two subsidiaries have settled debt worth Rs 1,023 crore with Authum Investment's arm Reliance Commercial Finance. Reliance Power Ltd's two subsidiaries -- Kalai Power Pvt Ltd and Reliance Cleangen Ltd, have signed a debt settlement and discharge agreement with Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Authum Investment & Infrastructure Limited, a regulatory filing said.

After announcing its entry into the paints business last September, the Aditya Birla group’s Grasim Industries launched its brand Birla Opus in late February. As per a Jefferies report, Birla Opus’ dealer pricing is at a discount to the industry leader, Asian Paints. These dealer discounts are in addition to its limited-period promotional offer of a 10% volume discount across all water-based paint products.

Amid a backlash over its policy to introduce a new "Pure Veg Mode" service, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Wednesday said the company will roll back the move to introduce green uniform for its new fleet, clarifying that all its riders will continue to wear red. The Zomato CEO was in the eye of a storm after the launch of a "Pure Veg Mode" service, intended for strictly vegetarian customers in India, to be delivered by a "Pure Veg Fleet".

Leading FMCG maker P&G India on Monday announced the appointment of Kumar Venkatasubramanian as CEO, with effect from May 1, 2024. The current CEO, L V Vaidyanathan will leave the company to pursue personal interests after 28 years of service, a statement from P&G India said. Kumar is currently leading the P&G business in Australia and New Zealand as CEO.

D B Realty on Thursday said it has raised Rs 920 crore by selling shares to institutional investors, including Morgan Stanley Asia, to fund its real estate projects and strengthen balance sheet. The company launched its Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issue on March 7 and the issue was closed on March 13.

Paramount Global has agreed to sell its 13 per cent stake in its Indian TV business to Reliance Industries for Rs 4,286 crore, the Indian firm said on Thursday. In a stock exchange filing, Reliance said it has signed a binding agreement with two subsidiaries of Paramount Global to acquire 13.01 per cent equity stake of Viacom 18 Media Private Limited held by Paramount Global.