Business News at 05:30 pm on 12th April, 2024

Let’s begin with the market. Bharti Hexacom lists at Rs 755, a premium of 32.5% to the issue price on the National Stock Exchange. While on BSE, the shares got listed at Rs 755.20. The company had a price band set at Rs 542 to Rs 570 per equity share. Bharti Hexacom IPO collected Rs 4,275 crore from the investors by offering them an entire offer for sale of 75 million shares. In the grey market, Bharti Hexacom’s shares were seeing a 25% premium to the issue price. The grey market is an unofficial market where shares change hands illegally. However, investors track the grey market to take cues on the performance. The company ended its retail bidding on April 05.
Meanwhile, IT major Tata Consultancy Services, was all set to kickstart the Q4 earnings season for FY24 today, and was expected to outpace IT peers on large deals, with margins seen improving due to cost optimisations, and deal wins continuing into the new fiscal year. An analyst report by Sharekhan by BNP Paribas said, quote, “TCS is expected to report decent revenue growth at 1.6 per cent in CC terms due to large deal ramp ups. EBIT margins are likely to improve by around 25 bps QoQ, aided by operating efficiencies,” unquote. In conclusion, TCS kicked off the earnings season for tech companies with its Q4 FY24 financial results on April 12. Shares on April 12 closed almost flat at Rs 1,019.85 apiece on BSE ahead of the earnings report.
Moving on to industry sector. 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. The funds would also help VIL shore up finances for the much-delayed 5G rollout and strengthening 4G services, and in payment of vendor dues.
In some more industry news. Godfrey Phillips India Ltd on Friday announced that it has decided to exit its retail business division being operated under the name ‘24Seven’ after due consideration of the stakeholders’ feedback during its board meeting. The exit, it added, will be subject to completion of the necessary formalities. Further, Godfrey Phillips also stated that the revenue from operations for the Retail Business Division for FY22-23 was recorded at Rs 396 crore. This, it added, contributed to 9.3 per cent of the total revenue from operations for the company. However, as of March 31, 2023,the retail business division had a negative net worth on account of accumulated losses generated by it.
On to aviation. Air India has expanded its customer service by operationalizing five new contact centres, including the ones in Cairo and Kuala Lumpur. Inclusion of foreign cities is aimed at assisting the airline’s global clientele. The Tata Group-owned airline has collaborated with Concentrix, a California-based customer engagement firm, to oversee premium services from centres located in Mumbai, Cairo, and Kuala Lumpur. Additionally, Air India has partnered with iEnergizer to manage contact centres in Noida and Bengaluru, focusing primarily on domestic inquiries. In its endeavor to enhance customer service, Air India has implemented a comprehensive back-office insourcing strategy to handle emails, social media interactions, and chat support internally.
Next up, technology. The Realme Pad 2 is finally getting a Wi-Fi only variant in India, almost a year after making its debut in the country. Initially, it was only sold with LTE and so we can expect a more affordable pricing for what it is already a “budget-centric” Android tablet. Realme will launch the Pad 2 in India on April 15, alongside the Realme P1 series smartphones. The Realme Pad 2 Wi-Fi variant appears to have the same specifications as the LTE model launched last year. So it is expected to come with an 11.5-inch 2K resolution LCD display with 120Hz refresh rate, a MediaTek Helio G99 processor and an 8,360mAh battery with 33W fast charging.
Lastly, let’s see how the stock market performed today. Indian benchmark indices ended on a weaker note with Nifty around 22,500 amid selling across the sectors. Biggest losers on the Nifty were Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, Power Grid Corporation, Titan Company and L&T, while gainers included Divis Labs, Tata Consumer Products, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Nestle India. All the sectoral indices are trading in the red with healthcare, FMCG, Media, oil & gas down 1 percent each. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell 0.2 percent each. Indian rupee ended 23 paise lower at 83.42 per dollar versus Wednesday’s close of 83.19.