Business News at 10:00 am on 29th April, 2024

Let’s begin…Over 100 minority shareholders of ICICI Securities have filed a class action suit with the NCLT against delisting plans of ICICI Securities. Manu Rishi Gupta, Founder of MRG Capital, is representing minority shareholders. The shareholders have expressed opposition to the share swap ratio proposed for delisting the brokerage. Under the proposed delisting plan, ICICI Securities shareholders will receive 67 shares of ICICI Bank for every 100 shares they currently hold. ICICI Securities, on March 28, received shareholders’ nod to delist its stock, paving the way to merge with parent and majority shareholder ICICI Bank despite resistance from some retail shareholders. With this, 71.9% of the shareholder votes were cast in favour of the proposal to merge ICICI Securities with ICICI Bank after a delisting process. Next up, Reliance Capital lenders have urged the Hinduja Group to make the cash payment of Rs 9,650 crore at the earliest and complete the resolution process by May 27, the deadline to complete the resolution process. The lenders had met officials of the IndusInd International Holdings’ – the firm through which the Hinduja Group had placed its bids for RCap — on Friday and had sought that the plan under the National Company Law Tribunal regulations be implemented. Representatives of the five-member Committee of Creditors — Vistra ITCL (India), IDBI Trusteeship Services, Asset Care & Reconstruction Enterprise, IndusInd Bank and Mazson Builders and Developers — were present at the meeting, sources said. In another news, With the government’s thrust on promoting drones for agricultural activities like crop mapping, analysis and application of nutrients and pesticides, manufacturers see an exponential increase in demand for these unmanned aerial vehicles in the next couple of years.According to industry estimates, while currently as many as 3,000 drones are being utilised in the agriculture sector, the number could rise to over 7,000 by the FY25 itself. This, analysts feel, would help boost crop productivity significantly through optimum use of water, soil nutrients and crop protection formulations. Chirag Sharma, managing director, Drone Destination said, quote, The number of drones in operations could grow to 10,000 – 15,000 in the next couple of years with rapid adoption in the agriculture sector, end quote. Moving on, The government’s push for private participation in highways has got IRB Infrastructure Developers to commit the largest share of its investments in the current financial year for adding road capacity through Build Operate Transfer mode. The company is looking to invest around Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 in 2024-25 of which around Rs 8,000 crore will be via BoT route, and around Rs 4,000 crore for acquiring operational highway assets through Toll Operate Transfer mode, Director Investor Relations at IRB Infrastructure Anil Yadav said. Singapore’s GIC is the partner of IRB in ToT and BoT projects. This reduces the equity contribution of IRB to 51% and GIC brings the remaining 49% in these projects. Now some aviation news, Dubai is gearing up to build the world’s largest airport. Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum took to X on Sunday to announce that his government has approved the designs for the new passenger terminals at AI Maktoum International Airport worth $34.85 billion. The Al Maktoum International Airport will be the largest in the world having a capacity of handling up to 260 million passengers, Sheikh Mohammed said. It will be five times the size of the current Dubai International Airport. He added that in the coming years, all the operations of the Dubai International Airport will be transferred to Al Maktoum. With five parallel runways, the airport will accommodate 400 terminal gates. Next up, Emeritus has secured top spot in TIME Magazine’s “World’s Top EdTech Companies of 2024” ranking. Founded in 2015 by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu, Emeritus offers courses from global universities such as the University of Cambridge, Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT Sloan, Indian School of Business, IIMs and IITs, among others. Recently, Emeritus’s success story was featured as a case study by the Harvard Business School. The company was also in the news recently as it said it wants to shift its headquarters from Singapore to India for a stock market listing. There 14 more Indian edtech firms on the TIME list. Lastly, GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 may see a positive opening on Monday. Here is all you need to know before the market opens. GIFT Nifty traded up by 48 points or 0.21% at 22,638 indicating a positive opening for domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Monday. Previously, on Friday, the NSE Nifty 50 ended down by 150.40 points or 0.67% to settle at 22,419.35 while the BSE plunged 609.28 points or 0.82% to 73,730.16. Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities said, quote, The fall was on expected lines as both benchmark indices had rallied for five straight sessions and profit-taking has been due for some time, end quote.