Business News at 05:30 pm on 10th May, 2024

Let’s begin… Aadhar Housing Finance IPO got bidding a total of 3.31 times so far. May 10 is the last day of its subscription. The IPO opened for bidding on May 08. The company’s IPO was subscribed 1.59 times in the retail category. While the QIB category was subscribed 4.33 times and the NII category 5.93 times. The allotment is expected to be finalised on May 13, with listing on the bourses – NSE and BSE – on May 15, tentatively scheduled. Aadhar Housing Finance kept the IPO price band in a range of Rs 300 to 315 per equity share. A retail buyer needs to bid for a minimum of 47 shares amounting to Rs 14,805 shares. While NII and QIB have different share lots.

Moving on, Mumbai-based Suraj Estate Developers Ltd, having specialisation in redevelopment projects, has announced its audited financial results for the quarter and full year ended March 24. The company has acquired freehold plot of land admeasuring ~ 1,073.42 square meters situated off Lady Jamshedji Road, Mahim (West), Mumbai, for a total consideration of Rs 33.10 crore. During Q4FY24, the company amicably settled a pending litigation with OLV & OLPS Society. It has also filed consent terms enabling the development of the property translating to a sales potential of Rs 350 crore. Alongside this, the company won a bid for obtaining Development Rights of Land Component admeasuring 4,790.76 square meters with five existing buildings thereon translating into a GDV of Rs 225 crore.

Meanhwile, The Madhya Pradesh state cooperative dairy federation, which sells milk and products under the hugely popular ‘Sanchi’ brand, is seeking collaboration with the country’s biggest cooperative Amul for expanding its operations and boost procurement from the farmers, a senior state government official told. The official said that currently out of the total milk production in the state, Sanchi procures only in the 20-25% of milk producing region. The collaboration with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) will help the state cooperative to expand operations to other parts of the state. MP is the third-biggest milk producing state in the country. Sanchi purchases one million litres of milk from farmers mostly in the western region of the state such as Indore, Ujjain and Bhopal.

Elsewhere, Happiest Minds Technologies will acquire a 100% stake in Aureus Tech Systems, a US-based digital product engineering company, for $8.5 million or approximately Rs 71 crore by the end of June 2024. Through this acquisition, Happiest Minds aims to strengthen its domain capabilities in insurance, healthcare and life sciences, as well as its product and digital engineering services business, the company said in a press release. Joseph Anantharaju, executive vice-chairman of Happiest Minds, said, “Aureus strengthens our BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance) and healthcare industry groups, enhances our value proposition in these verticals, and contributes to our new customer acquisition initiatives. We are excited about the potential to cross-sell and up-sell infrastructure, security, automation, analytics, and GenAI (generative AI) offerings to Aureus’s customers to accelerate Happiest Minds’ growth.”

Meanwhile, A section of MSMEs and traders in India is expecting the revision or revocation of the new clause h brought under Section 43B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 by the government to address the delayed payment issue of MSMEs. The concern among certain MSMEs in textiles and exports and traders is around the new clause that disallows expenses to their buyers on invoices unless paid within 45 days and within 15 days if there is no agreement. Other than clause h, there are seven other clauses — a list of expenses allowed as deductions under the heading ‘Income from Business and Profession’ — under Section 43B for businesses and professionals while computing their taxable income.

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Tata Consultancy Services is making significant strides in the field of Artificial Intelligence , particularly in generative AI , as outlined by CEO and managing director K Krithivasan and chairman N Chandrasekaran in their recent communications to shareholders. Further, the company sees a relatively better economic outlook for the financial year 2025. K Krithivasan, in his letter to shareholders, detailed how TCS is pioneering in the use of generative AI to enhance productivity and create unprecedented impacts across different sectors. The company has notably consolidated its AI and cloud teams into the AI.Cloud unit in FY24. This strategic move has led to the upskilling of 300,000 TCS employees in generative AI technologies during in the fiscal year gone by.

Lastly, The benchmark equity indices snapped a continuous losing streak of four days on May 10. The BSE Sensex rose 248.45 points or 0.34% to finish the day’s trading at 72,652.62, while the NSE Nifty 50 closed 97.10 points or 0.44% lower at 22,054.60. Nifty Midcap 100 closed in the green up 442.05 points or 0.90% at 49,551.20. However, Bank Nifty closed down 38.25 points or 0.08% at 47,449.64. BPCL, NTPC, Power Grid Corporation, Hero MotoCorp, and JSW Steel were the top gainers in the Nifty 50. While TCS, Cipla, LTIMindtree, Infosys, and Wipro were the major laggards in the Nifty 50 on May 10.