#Zee denies #Sony merger termination; #MohammedShami receives #ArjunaAward, and more.
Our reporters bring you top stories of the day on 'The Reporter.'
Our reporters bring you top stories of the day on 'The Reporter.'
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TVTranscript
00:00 Nifty Bank falls for the third day in a row to 0.4%.
00:07 Bajaj Auto's ED Rakesh Sharma lays out the company's electric mobility roadmap, says
00:12 EV is beyond a buzzword for us.
00:18 Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets global leaders ahead of 2024 edition of the vibrant
00:23 Gujarat summit in Gandhinagar.
00:25 These include some big names like Suzuki Motors President Doshiro and Mozambique President
00:31 Philippe Nayussi.
00:36 Government expected to spend around 4.1 to 4.2 lakh crore rupees on the subsidies including
00:41 food, fertilizer and petroleum in FY25.
00:45 The supplementary demand for grant is now pegged at 4.04 lakh crore rupees in FY24.
00:51 Hello and welcome, you are watching The Reporter on NDTV Profit and I am your host Pragyati
01:04 Oberoi.
01:05 Before we begin the show, let's take a quick look at how the markets fared during the trade.
01:09 My colleague Tamanna joins in with the D Street Wrap.
01:14 It was a volatile day on D Street today with opening which was very, very supportive, a
01:21 big gap up but markets seem to lose most of their gains going into closing.
01:26 The biggest culprit right here, the Bank Nifty down about half a percent at close.
01:31 The Nifty and Sensex managing to stay up in the green but giving up most of their gains
01:36 of the day.
01:38 21,500 seems to be the key support for the Nifty and it managed to keep its head above
01:43 the water.
01:44 So what actually was happening?
01:46 Let's take a look at the broader indices which didn't fare too badly relatively, still held
01:50 on to their gains but not as much as we saw through the mid cap 100.
01:56 They are mildly up but the small cap 100 staying up about half a percent.
02:02 Let's pull up the advanced declines just to show you what kind of a day we saw pairing
02:07 through and where those pain points actually came from.
02:11 Huge gap as we opened up but as we got into close, you can see that you literally saw
02:17 this gap narrowing a fair bit.
02:19 Remember, it was the Finn Nifty expiry as well and that's possibly the impact of what
02:23 you saw in the BFSI space and in those indices.
02:28 Let's pull up the heat map and see where you had the biggest hits and you will see it's
02:31 not just in HDFC Bank.
02:33 Of course, HDFC Bank was on the red, SBI, ICICI Bank, all of them seeing a pain.
02:38 HDFC Bank about three-fourths of a percentage down.
02:41 HDFC Life as well but that's a completely different reason.
02:44 You had life insurance data coming in for the year and year on year HDFC Life had premium
02:53 increase of about just 3 odd percent.
02:55 The other segment which is doing weak, has seen weak trade once again is your consumables.
03:01 So Britannia down about 1%, your Asian Pains, Nestle, all of those counters seeing pain.
03:08 On the winning side, it was a big day for Bajaj Auto.
03:12 The first time the stock reacted after the buyback price of 10,000 rupees was out, but
03:17 even Hero Motor not doing too badly at all, up about 3%.
03:21 Adani Ports, Adani Enterprises, both having a good day.
03:24 SBI Life again, because of that insurance data that I was talking about and good numbers
03:29 for SBI Life on a yearly basis.
03:33 Interesting to note what your DCS Infosys and Wipro are doing ahead of results and they're
03:38 holding up strong.
03:39 So that's a big story.
03:41 But let's take a look at what's happening in the broader markets as well.
03:45 And if I were to pick a couple of sectors which did well today, definitely reality would
03:49 be on top of that list.
03:51 So Godrej Properties, look at that, just about 3.5% or so.
03:56 And you saw a last minute pop coming in from Prestige as well because of Q3 business updates.
04:03 Sales are up over 100% year on year and you'll see that possibly play out tomorrow in trade
04:10 as well.
04:12 Let's see where the losers were.
04:13 And once again, you'll see the finance space glaringly obvious over there, whether it's
04:19 AU Small Finance Bank, oh yes, Polycab and Zee.
04:24 How can I not talk about Zee?
04:25 That was the story of the day.
04:27 After Bloomberg reports that Sony is going to walk out of the deal, Zee clarified and
04:31 that's something we broke first on NDTV Profit, that they are very much still in talks.
04:36 So it came off its lows at some point, but has closed about 8% down.
04:42 Polycab has reacted to reports that there's a 200 crore tax evasion case on them.
04:48 The company has denied it though.
04:49 And Vodafone has seen its share of Zee.
04:52 So some profit booking after going up all through the week.
04:55 So all in all, stock specific action over there, a wait and watch mode for the markets
05:01 going into a very data heavy rest of the week.
05:04 Thursday and Friday, remember, is when your result season sort of kicks off and your big
05:10 tech companies will be first out with the numbers and that anticipation being baked
05:15 in into trade today.
05:17 That was the market wrap for you.
05:19 And indeed, that was a pretty volatile day.
05:21 But as my colleague rightly mentioned, it was somewhat a win-win day for Bajaj Auto.
05:26 Now the board of Bajaj Auto has approved a 4000 crore rupee buyback.
05:31 But the story of the Pulsar maker goes beyond that, especially in the EV space, where the
05:36 company is now said to have three Chetak electric scooters in the EV lineup from one which is
05:42 there at present.
05:43 ED Rakesh Sharma spoke with us on Bajaj Auto's EV roadmap and why EV is no longer a buzzword
05:50 for the company.
05:51 We are definitely seeing EV as a very, very significant development in the mobility space.
06:00 It is beyond a buzzword for us.
06:02 And we have been putting in a lot of effort and capability building in the early phases,
06:09 both in R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, and in exclusive front end network.
06:16 These are very, very EV specific investments which have been made.
06:22 Now whether it remains at 5% of two wheelers or it becomes 30% and what duration this occurs
06:33 or unfolds, we cannot sort of put a number on it.
06:39 But we are very sure that this is going to happen.
06:42 It opens up opportunities for us in the scooter space.
06:46 We are not in scooters and most of the EV transition is taking place first in scooters.
06:51 It opens up international markets for us subsequently.
06:57 And therefore, when you put all this together, it's a very big opportunity for us.
07:02 I must confess, maybe perhaps a bit slow on the supply chain side to get sighting on the
07:11 right costs and availabilities.
07:14 But once all that has fallen into place, you would have seen that there is a ramp up.
07:19 We have increased our market share from 4% to 13% in the space of six months.
07:25 And we've got some very ambitious targets going forward.
07:31 Because right now, now we feel that the preparation phase is sort of over.
07:37 The emphasis, I mean, you are always preparing, but the emphasis shifts from preparation to
07:42 scale up.
07:43 And that's what the phase we are in.
07:45 So you will see us trying to push the boundaries further and further.
07:51 As part of that, we are expanding our product portfolio.
07:55 We have rejuvenated the Chetak and now we've added another premium variant to it also.
08:05 So there are two Chetaks in the market and very soon in a few months, you will see a
08:09 third Chetak coming into the market.
08:12 And there is a full program which extends into the next three, four years.
08:17 Some of it is blue sky thinking for which we have got international experts working
08:22 with us who are going to give directions to the new product program.
08:28 So it is something which is very, very seriously and furiously underway at Bajaj Auto.
08:36 That was the company's ED on the EV lineup and other plans that they have in store.
08:42 Now let's move on to the big story of the day, the Zee Sony merger.
08:46 Now NDTV Profits news break has been confirmed.
08:49 Zee Entertainment has clarified that the reports about the Sony group cancelling the proposed
08:54 merger with its Indian subsidiary are baseless and factually incorrect.
09:00 We also have Zee Entertainment's chart on our screens for our viewers on how it performed
09:05 during the markets in the day.
09:06 My colleague Tamanna joins in with more on this.
09:11 The story that we broke on NDTV Profit a couple of hours ago has been confirmed in every sense
09:16 by this exchange filing.
09:19 Essentially what is being communicated is that the conversations are on and just to
09:23 add a few more layers for it, the communication that Sony is intending to call off the deal
09:30 that Bloomberg reported has not been received in any sense by the other party.
09:35 Good faith negotiations are still on and that's what we've reported.
09:39 That's what echoes what Zee is coming out and saying.
09:42 What they're essentially saying is that the conversations are still very much on.
09:46 They have till the 20th to come to a finality.
09:52 Nothing is off the table at this point is what we gather.
09:55 Remember the contention at the end of the day is about who will lead the merged entity
09:59 and while Zee and Puneet Goenka are still in that negotiation round where their position
10:06 is very clear.
10:07 This is what the shareholders have agreed to.
10:09 So let's go ahead with this with Puneet Goenka at the helm.
10:13 It is looking like an obstacle for Sony.
10:17 Is it a deal breaker where at the end of the day they'll walk away?
10:20 Well, if they had to, that probably may have happened by now.
10:23 But look at what has been done so far.
10:26 Extension has been given for the negotiations.
10:28 That good faith negotiation period is on.
10:31 It continues till the 20th.
10:33 There has been no official response from Sony since the Bloomberg story came out yesterday.
10:39 And now you have Zee officially writing to the exchanges and saying that the article
10:45 that has been cited, the context of this is that the exchanges have asked Zee for a clarification.
10:50 And they've quoted an article by the Economic Times.com that reproduced what the Bloomberg
10:55 story said, saying that Sony is going to walk away from the deal.
10:58 So they've called that article and that story completely factually incorrect.
11:04 You've seen the stock getting hammered, but you've seen some of those losses being paired
11:08 right now as far as Zee is concerned because of their clarification to the exchanges.
11:14 And you have to understand the context.
11:15 It's going to be a tough deal for both of them to walk away from.
11:19 That was the big story on Zee Sony merger.
11:22 Now let's take a look at Uber India.
11:24 Now the company has posted a revenue growth of 54% year on year in FY23.
11:30 But the interesting bit here is that the numbers are not being driven by rights.
11:34 Our colleague joins in to explain the key factor that is leading to Uber's revenue growth.
11:40 We have our hands on Uber India's financials for FY23.
11:46 What's very, very interesting is that though revenue has increased about 54%, it has reported
11:52 a 2,666 crore revenue.
11:56 The largest revenue head was not its mobility rights.
12:00 The largest revenue heads was in fact the IT or support services that it provided to
12:05 its parent company in the US and in Netherlands.
12:09 So that made up about 1,977 crores of its entire revenue, while rides made up only about
12:18 679 crores for the revenue it made.
12:24 It continued to be a loss making entity, posted a loss of about 311 crores.
12:29 That's comparable to its FY22 loss that was about 200 crores as well.
12:35 Its expenses have also ballooned to about 3,145 crores from 2,145 crores in FY22.
12:44 What's also interesting is that the listed entity in the US, Uber Inc, has turned profitable.
12:52 That has posted about two consecutive quarters of profit.
12:57 But the India entity continues to languish in what is turning out to be a very competitive
13:03 market for Uber with Ola, with new challenges like Rapido cabs, we have Indrive and now
13:09 BlueSmart as well.
13:10 Indeed, a very interesting update from Uber India.
13:13 Now, the government's spending on major subsidies in fiscal 2025 is being seen somewhat as flattish
13:20 according to several economists.
13:22 Now, this flattish trend is because the commodity prices are expected to stay benign through
13:27 most of the upcoming fiscal.
13:29 Our colleague Janani joins in with more on this.
13:34 Economists expect that the subsidy bill for the upcoming fiscal year FY25 will be around
13:39 4.1 trillion for major subsidies.
13:41 Now, major subsidies include food, fertilizer and fuel, which is more commonly known as
13:46 a petroleum subsidy.
13:47 Now, for the current year, they expect that the subsidy bill for the current fiscal year
13:53 will come up to 4.1 lakh crore and this will be restricted within that number.
13:58 Now, if you look back at the budget estimates, the overall subsidies for food, fuel and fertilizer
14:04 came up to 3.74 lakh crore.
14:07 Now, including this first additional supplementary demand for grants that came about in December,
14:13 this came up to 4.04 lakh crore.
14:16 Now, that is just barely crossing the 4 lakh crore mark.
14:21 Now, economists expect that in the current fiscal year, which is just three more months,
14:26 this will remain within 4.1 and for the upcoming year, subsidy bill will remain largely similar
14:32 at 4.1 to 4.2 lakh crore.
14:35 Now, let's try to understand some of the factors that underpin such an estimate.
14:39 They expect that the PMGKY or the free food grain scheme that was discontinued and subsumed
14:47 with the NFSA Act would be one of the major items on the subsidy bill.
14:52 Secondly, the Ujjwala scheme beneficiaries who are getting a 300 rupees additional subsidy
14:59 per cylinder for the 12-month cost, this being factored will also be an additional subsidy
15:05 burden.
15:06 And finally, pent-up global energy prices, the cooling off of which will be seen in the
15:12 fertilizer subsidy prices in the upcoming fiscal are some of the factors that will contribute
15:18 to the fiscal picture, particularly to the subsidy bill in the upcoming fiscal year.
15:23 That's all we have for you at the moment.
15:25 So indeed, the benign commodity prices may have an impact on subsidies and that was my
15:30 colleague on that.
15:31 It's time for a short break.
15:33 Stay tuned.
15:34 We'll be right back.
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18:36 Welcome back.
18:37 You're watching The Reporter on NDTV Profit.
18:40 Moving on, my colleague Saloni Kothari had the chance to speak to Kotec Investment Banking's MD and CEO S. Ramesh.
18:48 Here's a quick look at the slice of the conversation.
18:51 I think if you look at the rare mirror window, I think '23 was reasonably better than '22 as far as capital markets was concerned.
18:58 But when we take an outlook at '24 and a little beyond '24, let's say the early part of '25, I think the outlook seems good both on advisory and ECM.
19:08 I think on expected lines, we are expecting lots of domestic and international money to be available to invest in new companies.
19:18 So that will help propel the IPO market with larger deals than what we saw in 2023.
19:24 The sell-down activity is likely to continue in its robustness.
19:28 And when we are having conversations with corporates and financial sponsors, I think the general deal pipeline looks quite healthy as far as advisory is concerned.
19:39 So we expect that also to gather momentum over the next 12 to 18 months.
19:44 But last year, we saw mostly mid-size deals in terms of value for that matter.
19:49 But do you see kind of big size deals happening in this year and next year as well?
19:53 I would say that 2023 was a bit of an exception when it comes to smaller sized IPOs that got listed.
20:00 They were from good companies in general, but they were smaller in size.
20:03 But when we take a look at '24 and a little beyond '24, at least our pipeline reflects larger companies in terms of market cap.
20:11 And I therefore expect the float sizes to be much larger than what we saw in '23.
20:16 In terms of being an investment banking firm, I'm sure you must have quite a year last year given the kind of activities and deals that you were involved in.
20:23 So would you help us understand from M&A as well as from ECM, how has Kodak performed in terms of the contribution?
20:30 I would say that 2023 was a good year, was a good or very good year.
20:34 I think there were two activities that stood out in the investment banking side.
20:40 One was IPOs and second was sell-downs. I think we had a reasonably good share in both of them.
20:45 When it comes to M&A, while the actual deal closures have been muted and there are reasons for that,
20:51 I think we have used the time to engage with the corporates and other relevant people to see how we can build our pipeline,
20:58 which can be therefore sort of built out over the next 12 to 18 months.
21:03 Well, that was the firm's MD and CEO to NGTV Profit. Let's move on.
21:07 Rapido Cab Service has been in the market for a decent amount of time now.
21:11 Our colleagues spoke to Rapido's co-founder, Pawan Guntupalli, who shed light on the startup's cab foray.
21:17 Cabs, we have launched it a quarter ago and we have launched it with this value proposition of zero commission.
21:27 The first of its kind in the country with just a nominal subscription and zero commission forever for the cab drivers
21:35 and lowest price guarantee for the customers.
21:38 We have launched cabs and as of now we are in all the top seven cities of the country and the response has been just phenomenal.
21:49 In cities like Hyderabad that we started off early on, we are close to 25% of the market share already.
21:57 And all in all, we are doing more than 1.5 lakh rides a day in this category just within a quarter.
22:06 And a lot of this has been literally organic right from the drivers. We call our drivers as captains.
22:16 So currently we are working with more than 2 lakh captains across the seven cities.
22:23 And even the customers, a lot, there has been just a lot of appreciation because we are giving lowest price with a better service.
22:33 That was Rabindra's co-founder to our colleague.
22:37 Ayodhya is one of the most important tourist places says Mukesh Kumar Meshram, that too ahead of the inauguration of the Ram Temple.
22:46 Now while speaking to Pallavi Nahata, he spoke about the UP's focus on tourism. Here's what he had to say.
22:52 See, Uttar Pradesh government has already started focusing on tourism in Uttar Pradesh.
22:59 And we have immense potential as far as tourism in Uttar Pradesh is concerned.
23:04 And that too, particularly faith based, religious and spiritual tourism.
23:09 Ayodhya being one of the most important destination.
23:15 And as we know that globally there is significant presence of Hindu followers or Sanatan followers.
23:25 So obviously everybody is actually aspiring to visit Ayodhya in coming years.
23:31 Well, that's all that we have for you on The Reporter. For more news and updates, please keep watching NDTV Prophet.
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