BRANDWAGON, P9 COMPANIES, P4 BACK PAGE, P20 OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE MORE STORES ON THE CARDS THE BIG PICTURE Wipro eyes new markets with mass consumer play Nature's Basket steps up luxury food retail unit Artisan Pantry KOLKATA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2024 India and UK make last-ditch effort to sign FTA before polls FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 33 NO. 99, 28 PAGES, `12.00 (NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN `12.00) P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E IN THE NEWS `7,500-CR E-BUS SCHEME: GOVT SET TO PICK BIDDERS THE MINISTRY OF HOUSING and urban affairs is close to finalising bidders to supply 3,600 e-buses under the PM e-bus Sewa Scheme, reports Manu Kaushik. The decision is likely in a day or two. ■ PAGE 2 SMALLER EDTECH FIRMS REBUFF TAKEOVER MOVES THE COUNTRY'S LARGEST edtech firm Byju's may be in a soup, but some smaller players are growing steadily, Anees Hussain. They have even rebuffed bigger players wanting to take them over. ■ PAGE 4 INSOLVENCY CASES INCREASE 18% IN THIRD QUARTER THE NUMBER OF cases admitted for corporate insolvency resolution has risen 18% year-onyear to 7,325 as of December 2023, as per IBBI data, reports Sachin Kumar. ■ PAGE 6 EXPLAINER Uniform KYC to simplify customer onboarding ■ PAGE 6 MERGER TO CREATE MEDIA GIANT Disney, Reliance ink binding pact ANTO ANTONY, BAIJU KALESH & PR SANJAI February 25 WALTDISNEYAND Reliance Industries have signed a binding pact to merge their media operations in India, according to people familiarwith the matter. The media unit of Reliance, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, and its affiliates are expected to own at least 61% in the merged entity,with Disney holding the rest, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is not public. The latest milestone,alongwith otherdetails,are likelyto be announced early this week,the people said. A Disney representative declined to comment.A Reliance spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a query on the signing of the binding pact. The stake split between the partners may change, depending on how Disney’s other localassetsarefactoredinbythetimethedeal is closed, the people said. Disney owns a minority stake in broadcast service provider Tata Play, which Reliance may consider acquiring,according to local news reports. Disneyhasbeengrapplingwithchallenges in India such as retaining subscribers and securingcoveted mediaassets,whileReliance has cornered a larger slice of the local media andentertainmentbusinessesinrecentyears. Together, they would make a formidable media behemothinoneoftheworld’s fastestgrowing entertainment markets. Ambani’s unit outbid Disney in 2022 to win the streaming rights for the Indian Premier League,and bagged a multi-year pact in April to broadcast Warner Bros Discovery’s HBO shows,which were earlierwith Disney. MEGA MERGER At least 61% stake in merged entity with Reliance and affiliates; Disney to hold the rest ■ Stake split between partners to depend on how Disney’s other local assets are factored in ■ Reliance may acquire Disney's minority stake in broadcast service provider Tata Play WhileDisney’sstreamingservice,Disney+ Hotstar, managed to draw record viewers for theCricketWorldCupinOctoberandNovember, it showed the matches for free — a move aimed at clawing back subscribers even if it meant sacrificing revenue. Reliance had streamed IPL matches earlier in 2023 without any charge,drawing viewers in hordes. This transaction is part of the larger consolidation efforts in the Indian media and entertainment space.SonyGroup planned to merge its local unit with Zee Entertainment Enterprises until differences on who would lead the merged media giant ultimately gutted the deal last month. — BLOOMBERG Navi Mumbai airport struggles to bring big airlines on board SWARAJ BAGGONKAR Mumbai February 25 HITTING AN AIR POCKET `19,600 crore ■ In Oct 2022, WITH ABOUT A year to go for the commerciallaunchoftheNaviMumbaiairport in March 2025, Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL) is finding it difficult to get major airlines to shift operations from Mumbai. A year ago, the Adani Enterprises subsidiary,the country’s largest airport operator,wanted to shift at least one large carrier to the Navi Mumbai airport — even offering it prime slots. In a presentation titled ‘Airports Day’ released in October 2022,AAHL had said, “Mumbai has two major airlines with domestic as well as international operations,IndiGo andAirIndia.One airline can be shifted to Navi Mumbai airport,which will release gridlock at Mumbai airport.” However, both IndiGo and the Tata group-controlledAirIndiahavenotshown interest in making that shift. At a recent event in Hyderabad, Pieter Elbers,CEO,IndiGo,told FE,“Evenwith the newairport,the existing airport (in Mumbai) will still serve its purpose. How preciselyweorchestrateone anotherwill have to be planned going forward.” AnemailsenttoAirIndiaseekingcomments remained unanswered at the time of going to print. Responding to a query form FE,AAHL said that it is holding discussions with manyairlines.“Wewill be able to give clarity on this when there is something concrete and agreements are signed.” Sony eyes strategic stake in regional OTT platform aha Secondary sales by PE firms double to `87,000 cr in 2023 10-minute delivery: Quick rise in revenue, but losses mount SONY PICTURES NETWORKS Indiaislookingtopickupatleast a 26% stake in Arha Media & Broadcasting, which owns regionallanguageOTTplatformaha, known for its Telugu and Tamil content, reports ViveatSusanPinto.Thedealvaluehasbeen peggedat`1,500crore,accordingtopersons intheknow.ahahasover2.5millionTelugu subscribers and is among the top Telugulanguage OTTplatforms. ■ Page 17 DESPITE THE SLOWDOWN in overall PE-VC investments, secondary sales by private equity (PE) firms more than doubledto`87,348crorein2023,aidedby themacroenvironmentandmaturingsecondary markets, reports Rajesh Kurup. In 2022, th figure stood at `41,071 crore. With the overall euphoria in the industry,the trend is expected to continue this year as well. ■ Page 4 IN LESS THAN two years, the 10-minute delivery promise of quick commerce players like Blinkit and Zepto seems to have gone from a marketing ployto a critical driver of customer growth, reports Ayanti Bera. Concerns, however, remain around the long-term economics of the high-burn business model, with none of the quick-commerce players being profitableyet. ■ Page 4 Adani Airports had said IndiGo or Air India could be shifted to Navi Mumbai airport to decongest Mumbai airport ■ Neither airline has yet committed to do so, despite offer of prime slots Navi Mumbai airport will see a capacity creation of ■ with 20 million 55 million passengers in annual passenger Phase 1 capacity, Mumbai airport is facing ■ Lack of connectivity to Mumbai congestion key hurdle for Navi Mumbai airport Continued on Page 2 Kolkata