Business News at 05:30 pm on 3rd November 2023

Let’s begin. Arvind Fashions on Friday announced that it has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement with Reliance Beauty & Personal Care Limited. The share purchase agreement for the sale of the entire equity stake of Arvind Beauty Brands Retail Limited to Reliance Beauty & Personal Care Limited, has been executed today and the sale is expected to be completed by November 3 2023. In a regulatory filings, the company added that the transaction has been done at enterprise value of Rs 216 crore towards sale of entire equity stake and repayment of loans. The Purchase consideration towards sale of the entire equity stake is Rs 99.02 crore. Arvind Beauty Brands had, during the financial year 2022-23, posted a turnover of Rs 336.70 crore.

Meanwhile, India’s coal output increased 18.59 percent to 78.65 million tonne in October. The country produced 66.32 MT in the corresponding month of previous fiscal year. Coal output by state-owned CIL increased 15.36 percent to 61.07 MT in October this year as compared to 52.94 MT in the year-ago period, the coal ministry said in a statement. Coal India Ltd accounts for over 80 percent of the domestic coal output. The production during April-October FY24 increased to 507.02 MT as compared to 448.49 MT during the same period in FY23. The dispatch of coal increased to 79.30 MT last month against 67.13 MT in October FY23. The surge in both coal production and dispatch underscores the nation’s advancing energy self-sufficiency, the ministry said.

On to market. Tata Motors’ stock price soared 4.64% to Rs 666 a day after the Mumbai-headquartered automotive major announced the company aims to deliver a stronger performance in H2, due to a healthy order book at JLR, strong demand for heavy trucks in CV and exciting new generation products in PV. The financial performance is expected to further improve owing to a richer mix, continued low-break-even in JLR, execution of demand-pull strategy in CV and improving profitability in PV/EV. Tata Motors on Thursday posted revenue of Rs 1.04 lakh crore in the second quarter of FY24 as against Rs 78,846 crore a year ago.

Over to crypto market. The cryptocurrency market is starting to bounce back a year after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and other big players in 2022 crushed prices, tarnished the industry and prompted a regulatory crackdown. A jury in New York on Thursday found Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, guilty of defrauding FTX’s customers prior to its abrupt collapse in November 2022. He had pleaded not guilty and said that while he mismanaged the company, he did not commit fraud. While the sector remains far from the investment fever pitch it hit in late 2021, bitcoin and other major tokens have enjoyed a rally in recent weeks as the expected end of central bank rate-hiking cycles draws cash back into high-risk assets.

Moving on. Raymond Group on Friday announced the acquisition of 59.25 per cent stake in Maini Precision Products Limited for Rs 682 crore funded by a mix of debt and internal accruals. The company in a statement said, quote, “This acquisition is a strategic move to further strengthen Raymond’s existing engineering business with a complementing business that has presence in the sunrise sectors of Aerospace, Electric Vehicles and Defense,” unquote. The transaction, it added, will be subject to requisite regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed during the current fiscal. With this acquisition, Raymond’s engineering business will emerge as a provider of Engineering, Automotive, EV, Aerospace & Defense components, with a presence across international as well as domestic markets.

Over to technology. Apple, in August this year, confirmed that the company has been working on generative AI for years and will continue to do this. On Thursday, the company’s CEO during a recent call with investors confirmed that Apple is indeed working on generative AI and the rumours suggest that it is expected by 2024. Tim Cook, as per a 9to5Mac report, said during an investor call that Apple is working on generative AI and the company is investing heavily in research and development. Apple’s research budget has also seen a surge and reportedly hiked to USD 23 billion annually. While he confirmed that Apple is spending on R&D on building a generative AI tool, key details remain scarce.

Lastly, the share market. Indian benchmark indices ended higher for the second consecutive session on November 3 with Nifty above 19,200. Apollo Hospitals, Adani Ports, Eicher Motors, LTIMindtree and Titan Company were among major gainers on the Nifty while losers were Bajaj Finserv, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, SBI Life Insurance, IndusInd Bank and HCL Technologies. All the sectoral indices ended in the green with oil & gas, realty up 1-2 percent each. BSE Midcap index rose 0.7 percent and smallcap index up 1 percent.