Innholdsfortegnelse for 18 September 2022 i Business Today

HOLDING BACK API HOLDINGS, the parent company of e-pharmacy PharmEasy, has decided to put its IPO plans on hold. Citing the uncertain outlook that has forced many start-ups to delay their plans of listing, the company has withdrawn the application it had filed in November 2021 with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Having planned to raise `6,250 crore through the IPO, it said, ‘market conditions and strategic considerations’ have necessitated the shelving of its IPO plans for now. The start-up also informed its investors that it now plans to raise funds via a rights issue through convertible preference shares. —BINU PAUL ON THE RISE AGAIN Stagnant since demonetisation, prices of residential homes are surging again. With the cost of inputs such as steel, cement, copper and aluminium rising…

FROM BILL & MELINDA Gates to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos; Google’s Sergey Brin to the Waltons of Walmart; Chanel’s Wertheimers to Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum; Infosys’ N.R. Narayana Murthy to Wipro’s Azim Premji; Dabur’s Burmans to Marico’s Harsh Mariwala. All of them have hired or set up firms that help compound their wealth by investing in a wide range of assets, from securities and debt to start-ups, venture funds and even new-age instruments like cryptos and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). More importantly—given the billions of dollars at stake—these firms allow the family to have complete control over its wealth. It even comes with benefits such as succession planning and ring-fencing of the wealth in case of eventualities such as creditor claims. So, what are these firms? Welcome to the…

FOUNDED IN 2007, Saankhya Labs is one of the few Indian fabless companies that has steered through many a tough time since its inception. With 73 international patents, Saankhya has been developing its own chips, building software-defined radio chipsets, and it is the only non-telecom company to be allotted 5G spectrum for trials. And recently, optical networking products vendor and Tata group entity Tejas Networks acquired a 64.40 per cent stake in it for ₹283.94 crore in cash. But, this journey wasn’t easy. The company survived with initial funding of just $2 million raised from family and friends between 2007 and 2011. “Since venture capitalists (VCs) always look for customer validation, our biggest challenge was not having a local customer and ecosystem that could vouch for our product. Ultimately, one…

REVIEW A REFRESHED MACBOOK AIR The MacBook Air set the agenda when it was first launched and soon became immensely popular with professionals. Apple has gone in for a complete refresh with its latest iteration. The iconic wedge-shaped design—aped by many laptop makers—has been let go in favour of a flat one, on the lines of last year’s MacBook Pro. Yet, it stays slim (at just 1.13 cm) and light. Plus, the slightly taller 13.6-inch screen with 500 nits of brightness feels vibrant—even outdoors. The 1,080p camera—which makes your face look brighter in video calls—is housed in a rather large notch at the centre of the menu bar on top but that isn’t a distraction. Another change is the MagSafe charger, which frees up the two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports. The new…

SOURCE: PIB, IMARC GROUP $177 MILLION India’s toy exports in FY22, a growth of 61 per cent from $109 million in FY19 70 PER CENT Fall in India’s toy imports in FY22 from $371 million in FY19 $2.73 BILLION Likely size of the Indian toy market by 2027, almost double that of $1.35 billion in 2021…

INDIA INC. HAS posted double-digit growth in net profit for the quarter ended June 2022 (Q1FY23), as the numbers in the corresponding period last year were marred by the second wave of the pandemic, creating a low base effect. According to data from corporate database ACE Equity, net profit of the country’s top 50 companies, which are a part of the benchmark NSE Nifty index, surged 15 per cent year-on-year (YoY). The sales figures look even better—they grew 34 per cent in this period. On a sequential basis, profit took a hit due to higher raw material prices. Nifty companies reported a fall of 12.71 per cent in net profit on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis. The number dips to 13.3 per cent if we exclude BFSI; the sector has outperformed…

WE NEED TO look at modern family businesses from a different perspective than the old families. A fair bit of transformation and professionalism is happening there. But they are grappling with succession—in essence, how a family structure, or a family without a formal structure, runs a business moving forward. We are seeing this struggle in a number of business groups. But the most interesting thing in terms of family businesses will be the new start-ups. All of these began as a single person starting a firm, or a husband-and-wife team, or a group of co-founders. They will now evolve. How will this evolution progress? My answer to this is very simple. We have leapfrogged from the time when families created wealth. Yes, there are still families who have created and…

NOWHERE IS INDIA’S EPITHET—pharmacy of the world—more apt than in the case of some big pharmaceutical companies. One such company is Aurobindo Pharma, which has steadily grown over the past 10 years to become the second-biggest Indian pharma company behind only Sun Pharma. Its consolidated revenues grew from ₹4,550.56 crore in FY12 to ₹23,366.55 crore in FY22. Ten years ago, it was placed sixth (see table ‘Coming from Behind’). So, how did the Hyderabad-headquartered company reach such stratified air? Aurobindo has adopted a strategy of focussing on its forte of biosimilars (medicines that are highly similar to their branded reference medicines) along with gradually advancing in speciality pharmaceuticals (large, injectable, protein-based molecules, or small molecules used to treat complex conditions such as cancer and hepatitis C or common chronic diseases…

Last year, I’d said that there was nothing quite like the Galaxy Z Fold3. This year, Samsung has refined the ‘almost perfect’ foldable. The Galaxy Z Fold4 has shed a few millimetres and lost 8 gm—and that makes a big difference. The 6.2-inch outer cover screen is good for onehanded use, including typing emails. The 7.6-inch main display inside is a delight to use—reading, browsing, gaming and work. It’s also a pleasure to multitask, as the Fold4 supports using three apps simultaneously. And the new taskbar at the bottom of the screen offers PC-like multitasking, including quick access to favourite and recent apps. Another improvement has been the crease on the inside display where the phone folds, which was conspicuous till last year. In the Fold4, while it is still noticeable,…

DOUBLE DELIGHT The AUM of the PMS industry has almost doubled in the past six years. The client base of the players is on the way to recovery after the uncertainty caused by Covid-19 NO. OF CLIENTS (’000s) AUM (in ` lakh crore) Figures include discretionary, non-discretionary, co-investment and advisory THE BIG POT Here are the country’s top PMS schemes in terms of assets under management THE MORE THE MERRIER Most of the top large-cap performers delivered over 15 per cent annualised returns in the past three years (Returns in per cent) OUT OF THE WOODS Overall, the Indian equity market managed to recover smartly despite hiccups OUTPACING BIG PEERS In line with markets, these midcap schemes outpaced largecap ones in the past three years SMALLER AND WISER Small-cap strategies,…

AFTER A complete lull for two months, the primary market saw some action in August with two initial public offerings (IPOs) hitting the market. While the IPO of engineering and design solutions firm Syrma SGS Technology was subscribed 15.6 times, the public issue of airport services aggregator platform Dreamfolks Services got subscribed 23.25 times. The benchmark indices, too, have gained over 10 per cent in the past couple of months. Market participants believe that the response to the recent public issues shows that there is still appetite for IPOs amidst the volatility, provided investors are satisfied with the valuations. This assumes significance as last year was a record one in terms of IPO fundraising with a cumulative amount of ₹1.2 lakh crore raised through 63 public issues, though many of…

A FAMILY MANUFACTURING textiles. A jewellery maker’s descendant. A film distributor’s grandchild. Or just a wealthy classmate with brothers, sisters and cousins living together. Regardless of where you grew up in India, there was always a friend who came from a business family. This was a phenomenon we encountered, and we still do. Family business is a tradition that goes back several hundred years in India. With time, these families evolved to accommodate more members, while some people left the family enterprise to chart their own path. In the process, new and stronger businesses emerged, while the less fortunate ones fell on hard times. The new India—which took off in 1991 with economic liberalisation—has seen many a business take off exponentially. Competing with global counterparts, these ventures have upped the…

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC has forced a reshuffling of the wealthy Indian diaspora, with traditional Indian family-run businesses making way for the new gilded age of start-up entrepreneurs and technology-driven business models. The pandemic nudged many Indian families to rejig their personal investments and portfolios to tap into newer investment avenues offshore. This has led to a noteworthy rise in India Inc.’s aspirations to move beyond Indian shores, and create a global footprint. As a result, migrating to an offshore jurisdiction or having a foreign passport has become a trend across the spectrum. Many Indians have also sought to move a portion of their wealth overseas, or deploy such funds via their family offices (FOs). In India, the rise of the FO phenomenon continues unabated, which is creating a rival pool…

Amit Jatia, Vice Chairman of Westlife Development—which runs the McDonald’s outlets in the West and South of India—is an unlikely ‘Hamburgerologist’ (one who has a degree from the Hamburger University run by McDonald’s). Jatia, a vegetarian who hails from a north Indian business family, was happily running his family’s industrial chemicals business when he decided to enter the world of quick service restaurants (QSR) by partnering with McDonald’s. Today, he presides over a chain of 325 McDonald’s restaurants dishing out vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare. In an interaction with Business Today’s Global Business Editor Udayan Mukherjee, Jatia talks about how the global burger chain customised its menu for India, why vegetarianism is important for him, how he deals with inflation, and his expansion plans. Edited excerpts: Q: The first thing which leaps out…

IT’S A MUGGY July evening in Ludhiana, a bustling town of over 1.6 million in Punjab that is renowned for its apparel production and exports. In the lush green premises of Eveline International on G.T. Road in the Dhandari Kalan area, a group of labourers huddle together, discussing the time and the right way to load the day’s consignment. Arun Salhotra, General Manager of the 70-year-old manufacturer of knitted apparels, says its 1,600 employees produce nearly 400,000 pieces of high-quality garment per month, which are exported to top American brands like Guess, Faherty and Nautica, the UK-based Burton of London, Spanish brand Massimo Dutti, French brand Armand Thiery, and several Indian brands as well. “We are witnessing growth in our exports and that is being reflected in our numbers, too.…

AKSHITA SINGH, A DELHI-BASED interior designer, loves diamonds. “They are a girl’s best friend,” she laughs. Her latest purchase is a diamond pendant with matching earrings and she has her eyes set on a bracelet. But her purchases haven’t depleted her bank balance significantly. Instead of natural mined diamonds, she has bought jewellery with lab-grown diamonds that are nearly 40-50 per cent cheaper. Also known as synthetic, cultured or man-made diamonds, these stones are optically, chemically and physically identical to natural, mined diamonds, but with one key difference: they are manufactured in a lab in a few days as opposed to deep below the earth’s crust over a few million years. “I think of them as prosecco and not champagne,” says the 32-year-old Singh. “It’s like an IVF baby. Once…