After studying law I vectored towards journalism by accident and it's the only job I've done since. It's a job that has taken me on a private jet to Jaisalmer - where I wrote India's first feature on fractional ownership of business jets - to the badlands of west UP where India's sugar economy is inextricably now tied to politics. I'm a big fan of new business models and crafty entrepreneurs. Fortunately for me, there are plenty of those in Asia at the moment.
Larsen & Toubro has announced a Rs10,000 crore buyback at a maximum price of Rs3,000 per share.
Image: Shailesh Andrade/ Reuters
Larsen & Toubro announces Rs 10,000 crore buyback
Larsen & Toubro has announced a Rs10,000 crore buyback at a maximum price of Rs3,000 per share. This represents a 17 percent premium to the current stock price. If the buyback goes through it would extinguish up to 33.3 million shares or 2.4 percent of equity share capital. The buyback would allow the company to reach its goal of achieving an 18 percent return on equity by FY26. The company also declared results. Net profit rose 46 percent to Rs2,493 crore.
(Economic Times, Business Standard, Mint)
Peak XV plans markdown in Byju’s valuation
After Prosus, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia) plans to mark down Byju’s valuation due to a lack of visibility over internal controls in the company. The markdown is also on account of the inability of the company to provide audited financials. The company did not provide any details over the extent of the mark down. As a result of the Prosus markdown, Byju’s valuation had fallen from $22 billion to $5.1 billion.
(Economic Times)
Retail investors hike holding in Adani companies
Retail investors have upped their stakes in five out of 10 Adani group companies in the June quarter. NDTV and Adani Total Gas saw the biggest increases with stakes rising 4.31 percent and 2.06 percent, respectively. Adani Transmission, Adani Wilmar and ACC were the other companies that saw stakes increasing. Stakes in Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports, two of the group’s flagship companies, were down 0.24 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.
Credit card spends fell to Rs1.37 lakh crore in June after hitting a high of Rs1.41 lakh crore in May. This is according to data from the Reserve Bank of India. The data showed that 64 percent of the spends were for ecommerce transactions and 36 percent were for point-of-sale swipes. Three of the top four issuers saw a decline in spends with SBI being the only one seeing an increase of 5 percent. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank saw a decline.