Business News at 10:00 am on 8th April, 2024

Let’s begin. To create a more investor-friendly climate, the government has decided to revisit its approach to bilateral investment treaties. The move is triggered by the fact that the BIT text adopted by India after comprehensive review in 2016 has found few takers among key trading partners. According to official sources, the PM’s office has given the task of reviewing the 2016 BIT model to the ministry of commerce and industry. The ministry will kick-start wider consultations on the subject, with a meeting with lawyers and other experts today. While the 2026 model sought to plug the loopholes in the previous text, especially on the taxation front, the ministry has been specifically asked to examine the concerns of investors in the current review.
In some rather intertesting news, the pizza market in India appears to be mirroring a trend visible in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Small and regional pizza players are eating into the share of bigger rivals, data sourced from the industry indicate. This comes at a time when players such as Jubilant FoodWorks, the master franchisee of Domino’s in India, are responding with a brand refresh, more combo offers and new pizza toppings. The rise of food aggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato, say experts, has also contributed to the growth of smaller pizza brands over the last few years. Conversations with analysts and industry executives indicate that local pizzerias and regional chains now constitute nearly 30% of the Rs 8,300-crore pizza market in India.
Meanwhile, E-commerce platform Meesho, quick commerce company Zepto and fintech firm Navi are all reportedly in talks to raise around $300 million from investors. If these funding rounds materialise, they will be among the very few large rounds in the last one year. Does this signal that the startup funding winter is giving way to a funding spring?Industry veterans agree things are getting back on track, but what is missing is the irrational exuberance one saw in the past when capital chased startups and cash burn became a fashionable business model. This means companies with a sustainable approach to growth and profitable unit economics will get a preference over those with a “growth-at-all-cost” approach.
Moving on. State-owned oil marketing companies are expected to show improvement in EBITDA and net profits in the last quarter of the financial year 2023-24 on a sequential basis, analysts say. The improvement in earnings will be driven by healthy gross refining margins and better diesel marketing margins. Even though the recent cut in retail fuel price of Rs 2 per litre has compressed retail margins considerably in the last two weeks of March, analysts see Q4FY24 averages to remain mostly unaffected. The retail margins of OMCs in the first quarter of the current financial year 2024-25, however, may see a sharp downturn. ICICI Securities in its preview said that retail margins in Q1FY25E may see a sharp downturn as against Q4FY24E.
Over to banking. Higher treasury income, supported by a fall in bond yields during the January-March period, is likely to boost earnings of banks in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal. However, net interest margins are expected to shrink as the cost of funds remains elevated, with banks continuing to hike rates on deposits to mobilise funds to meet high credit growth. The head of treasury of a private sector bank told FE, quote, “The decline in bond yields is expected to contribute to increase in banks’ treasury income for the fourth quarter as they hold significant volume of government securities,” unquote. The yield on 10-year benchmark government security eased 26 bps year-on-year on March 28.
With a few states including Jharkhand and Telangana opting to rejoin the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the number of farmers under the subsidised insurance cover touched a record 40 million last fiscal, up 27% on year. Official sources said the PMFBY beneficiaries would increase at a similar pace in FY25 too. According to agriculture ministry officials, Gujarat and Bihar which had earlier exited the scheme, citing ‘high cost of premium subsidy,’ are discussing modalities to rejoin soon. An official told FE that farmer enrolment in the current fiscal would increase sharply because of the state rejoining the scheme and more farmers realising the shield it provides from crop loss or damage arising out of unforeseen weather events
Lastly, let’s have a look at the stocks in focus today. These include Wipro, Vodafone Idea, ZEE, Titan, Adani Wilmar, Nestle India, and PSU Banks. GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 may see a positive opening on Monday. Amid ongoing financial struggles, Vodafone Idea’s board has greenlit the issuance of up to 139 crore equity shares to Oriana Investments Pte. Ltd., totaling Rs 2,075 crore. The board also approved an increase in authorized share capital to Rs 1 lakh crore.