In this weekly round-up, we talk about Vodafone Idea’s pending dues, WPI inflation and PhonePe’s sale of digital insurance policies in 2023 among other news.
Weekly Business Roundup at 10:00 am on 21st January 2024.
[Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated]
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Let’s begin. India’s wholesale price index inflation rose to a nine-month high of 0.73% in December from 0.26% the previous month owing to high food prices, as per data released by the commerce ministry on Monday. The December print was also pushed up by the fading high base effect that had kept WPI deflationary for the first seven months of FY24. On a month-on-month basis, the overall index declined 0.9% in December, at the steepest pace in four months. With the current print, WPI inflation has averaged (-)1.07% in April-December FY24 as against 11.69% in the comparable period of FY23. Among its three groups – ‘primary articles’ inflation has averaged 3.24% in April-December as against 12.61% in April-December FY23.
Meanwhile, The financial crunch at Vodafone Idea, which has so far been unable to raise funds from investors, is showing as the company’s dues to the government towards quarterly statutory dues like licence fee and spectrum usage charge, have risen by Rs 702 crore, as it has not been able to make payment for the October-December quarter of the current fiscal. With this the telecom operator’s total dues to the government have gone up to over Rs 1,000 crore. According to sources, the company has been able to clear only 10% or Rs 78 crore of the statutory dues for the quarter, adding that it has sought some additional time from DoT to clear the pending dues.
Over to some IPO-related news. Allied Blenders and Distillers Ltd, the maker of Officer’s Choice Whisky, has refiled preliminary papers with the capital markets regulator Sebi to raise Rs 1,500 crore through an Initial Public Offering. The initial share sale comprises fresh issuance of equity shares worth Rs 1,000 crore and an Offer-For-Sale of shares to the tune of Rs 500 crore by promoters, draft papers filed with Sebi showed this week. As a part of the OFS, Bina Kishore Chhabria, Resham Chhabria, Jeetendra Hemdev and Neesha Kishore Chhabria will sell shares. Out of the total proceeds from the fresh issue, Rs 720 crore will be used for the payment of debt, besides a portion will be used for general corporate purposes.
In another IPO-related news, Capital markets regulator Sebi has kept in “abeyance” the proposed Rs 1,500 crore Initial Public Offering of Asirvad Micro Finance, a subsidiary of listed NBFC Manappuram Finance. However, the Securities and Exchange Board of India did not clarify further. Reacting to the development, shares of Manappuram Finance plunged as much as 7.45 per cent to a low of Rs 163.40 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday. Asirvad Micro Finance had filed preliminary papers with Sebi in October 2023 to garner Rs 1,500 crore through an IPO. As per the DRHP, the public issue was purely a fresh issue of equity shares with no offer for sale component.
Moving on. Retirement fund body EPFO has said it will no longer use Aadhaar as a valid document for proof of date of birth. In an official circular on January 16, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation said the decision to remove Aadhaar was taken following a directive from the Unique Identification Authority of India. As per the circular, Aadhaar is also being removed from the list of documents for correction in date of birth. The UIDAI in a circular on December 22, 2023, had said an Aadhaar number can be used for establishing identity of an individual, subject to authentication, and thereby, per se, it is not a proof of date of birth.
In another development, Digital payments major PhonePe this week announced that it has sold over 9 million policies, since launching their insurance platform in September 2021, with 4 million of those coming in the last year alone. It claims to have facilitated over 75 million vehicle insurance quotes, and a total of 400 million quotes across various insurance products. It also claims to have contributed to 65% of the growth of two-wheeler digital insurance. The digital insurance market is growing at a CAGR of 24%. The company had recently introduced a monthly premium plan for health insurance – that allows monthly payouts instead of annual lump sum payments.
Lastly, some exciting update from the auto sector. Hero MotoCorp is gearing up to launch its flagship motorcycle later this month. Called Mavrick 440, this upcoming middleweight bike is based on the Harley Davidson X440. The latter has been co-developed by the Indian bikemaker at its CIT facility in Jaipur and also manufactures the bike for the iconic American brand. As a result of this association, Hero will also launch a model based on the same platform on 23 January 2024. Recently, the largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India released design sketches of the upcoming bike. Hero this week yet again shared a design sketch of Mavrick 440 ahead of its market launch.
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