BACK PAGE, P20 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P5 Fashion, beauty brands turn to quick delivery LTIMindtree CEO says AI central to new strategy Musk joins Trump rally at assassination bid site NEW DELHI, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. L NO. 187, 20 PAGES, `12.00 (PATNA & RAIPUR `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 1.5 3.9 Rest 3.6 5.9 Source: NSE Comparedtothe77%growthinthemarket cap of top 50 companies,the market cap of the midcapuniverserose152%,smallcapuniverse jumped 219%, and the 250 microcap stocks soared 334%. Even smaller companies saw a staggering269%growthintheirmarketcap. Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFCSecurities,pointedoutthatthenumber ofcompanieslistedontheNSEhasjumpedby around six times in the last 25 years. Continued on Page 11 AYANTI BERA Bengaluru, October 6 (` cr, FY24) Profit/loss (Left to right) Amar Merani, 360 One; Nipun Sahni, Apollo; Ashish Singh, Actis 25 basis points each are expected in December and February meetings of MPC Continued on Page 11 IndiGo operations return to normal Rabi MSP hikes to be moderate Q-comm drives vending unit biz INDIGO’S OPERATIONSWERE normal on Sunday, a day after systems outage at the airline resulted in long waiting hours for passengers at airports. The outage on Saturday lasted for many hours and systemswere back tonormal late in the night. “Our systems are back to normal and are running smoothly,” IndiGo said in a post onXat2311hoursonSaturdayandregretted the inconvenience caused to its customers. The airline operates more than 2,000 flights daily. — PTI THE GOVERNMENT IS likely to announce a 5% increase to `2,400/quintal in the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat, a key rabi crop, for the next marketing season 2025-26 (April-June),taking into consideration market availability and global prices of the commodity, reports Sandip Das.Last year,the wheat MSP was raised by 7.05% to `2,275/quintal, the sharpest increase since 2014-15, with the aim to encourage farmers to boost output. ■ PAGE 2 ALONG WITH QUICK commerce, another trend gaining traction is ofvending machines dispensing items like snacks, beverages, fresh food, hygiene products, and even tech accessories,reports S Shanthi. Experts say the growth of the two are in a way linked.While q-commerce caters to residential areas, vending machines capture the out-of-home market. Rising UPI adoption,changing consumer behaviour and improved supply chain will drive the growth of vending machines. ■ PAGE 4 NK OF MA HA R AS HTRA 243.8 110.5 65 11 « 56.8 ence increasing over th e Yea rs confid to rs Inves Latest issuance [more than 3 times of previous size] Oversubscribed Source: Company filings of`1,209crorewhichithadincurredinFY22. Similarly, FirstCry, which debuted in the public markets inAugust,managed to reduce its losses by 34% to `321 crore during FY24 from `486 crore in the previous fiscal. Sep Jul headedApollo since 2015.PriortoApollo, he was leading Merrill Lynch real estate fund in the country. He has completed more than 50 transactions, including deals withAscendas,Piramal,DLF,Lodha, Runwal,Sattva Salarpuria,and Embassy. Besides Sahni, Mumbai-based Ankur Gulati, managing director of real estate investments at Canada’s CPPInvestments (CPPIB), resigned after a stint of about 10 years in the firm.He is looking to set up an alternative investment fund (AIF) in public equities.When contacted, Gulati declined to comment. Among otherreal estate financing executives moving towards entrepreneurship are Ashish Singh, partner, head of India and South East Asia, real estate at the UK-basedprivateequityfirmActis; and Amar Merani,chief investment officer and head of realestateassetsof360 OneAsset. 2024 Jun Continued on Page 11 invest in real estate.“Apollo has agreed to anchor a real estate credit fund should Sahni decide to launch it,”a source said. “Apollohasbeenthebestchapterofmy 30-yearcareer....I look forward to starting the next phase as an entrepreneur,”Sahni said, adding he is now advising Apollo on its entire real estate portfolio and investments in the country. Sahni has invested and managed more than `20,000 crore in his long career. He within target. Between May 2022 and February 2023, the policy repo rate was increased by 250 basis points to 6.5%. Inflationary pressures have begun to moderate, with the headline inflation now the closest it has been to the RBI’s 4% inflation target in nearly 22 quarters. C E L E B R A T I N G BA Wrogn 321 previous MPC meetings, repo rate has been kept unchanged at 6.5% Y E A R S 347.4 142.2 ■ In nine MONETARY POLICY Revenue Entrepreneurship bug bites many a real estate financing executive IN A NEW trend in the real estate financing sector,manya seniorexecutive atboth domesticandglobalfirmsisquittingtheir job to start ownventures.Sectoral experts say a major trigger for executives veering towards entrepreneurship is the high demand for alternative investment fund money to buy land, in the backdrop of increased restrictions on non-banking financial companies. In recent months, about half a dozensuchexecutiveshavequittheir job to launch their own funds,with NipunSahni,partnerattheUS-based investment major Apollo Global Management,beingthelatest. Sahni is likely to set up a fund to 2022 and February 2023, repo rate was increased by 250 basis points to 6.5% a research note. “We think it will change its stance from a hawkish ‘withdrawal of accommodation’to‘neutral’ in the upcoming October 9 policy meeting”.She expects repo rate cuts of 25 basis points each in the December and February meetings. The RBI has maintained a withdrawal of accommodation stance since June 2022, to ensure that inflation remains SENIOR MANAGERS LEAVING TOP FIRMS RAGHAVENDRA KAMATH Mumbai, October 6 ■ Between May PROFITABILITY PUSH Minimalist THE FOCUS OF startups on improving profitability as the long-running funding winter bites seems to be yielding results. Several direct-to-consumer(D2C)brandswhichhave reportedtheirFY24numbers haveeitherregistered a jump in profits or narrowed their losses compared to the preceding fiscal. Companies such as jewellery retailer Bluestone, babycare retailer FirstCry, Mamaearth-parent Honasa Consumer,mattress brand Wakefit, and skincare startup Minimalist figure in this list. IPO-bound Bluestone, which recently raised `900 crore in a funding round, narrowed its losses to `142.20 crore in FY24, from `167.20 crore in the previous fiscal, as the increase in revenue was higher than that of expenses,according to RoC filings sourced viaPrivate Circle.Itsrevenuefrom operations rose about 64% to `1,265.80 crore in FY24 from `770.70 crore in FY23,while expenses surged 51% year-on-year,primarily because of higher cost of materials. InFY23,Bluestone’slosseshadwidenedto `167.20 crore from `59 crore in FY22, excluding a one-time non-operating expense ■ RBI aims to ensure that inflation remains within target ■ Repo rate cuts of D2C brands’ bottom lines on growth path « ■ EXPLAINER, P6 Nifty Next 50 « Current account deficit shrunk to 0.7% of GDP in FY24, indicating the gap between investments and savings has reduced Nifty Microcap 250 « The changing money habits Nifty 50 9.9 1,000.0 FE S P E C I A L 15.4 5.7 17.8 THE RESERVE BANK of India (RBI) is widely expected to change its policy stance from “withdrawal of accommodation” to “neutral” at its monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting on October 9, driven by easing inflation and slowing growth. With economic activity showing signs of weakness, experts say that persisting with a hawkish stance could further impede growth recovery. While a change in stance seems imminent, the apex bank is expected to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5%, marking the tenth consecutive meeting with no change in interest rates. “Three developments stand out: softer growth numbers have trickled in recently, inflation has been falling, and the external environment has moved from rate hikes to rate cuts,” Pranjul Bhandari, chief economist, India and Indonesia,HSBC Global Research,said in ■ RBI has maintained a withdrawal of accommodation stance since June 2022 « AFTER POWERING ISRO'S space missions for more than five decades, India's largest engineering firm Larsen and Toubro has now set its eyes on the international market, particularly the next International Space Station, reports PTI. Nifty Smallcap 250 Wakef it L&TEYES ROLE IN NASA'S NEXT SPACE STATION A SHARP UPTICK in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) and investors’ insatiable appetite for midcap and smallcap stocks in recent years have pushed the share of Nifty 50 companies in the total market capitalisation of NSE-listed stocks to its lowest level in more than two decades. Between FY21 and FY24,the share of top 50 companies’ marINSIDE ket cap on the NSE had tumbled from IPO MARKET 58.9% to 46.6%.The BRACES FOR trend continued this BRIEF SLUMP year as well. As of ■ PAGE 6 August 31, Nifty companies had a shareof43.9%inthe`461.1-lakhcroremarket cap of NSE universe — the lowest in 25 years — according to data from the exchange. While the market cap of Nifty 50 companies rose 77% in these four-and-a-half years, the growth in companies beyond them was 192%.Smaller companies got the biggest bump,the data showed.The top 100 companies by market cap on NSE are considered largecaps,the next 150 stocks (101 to 250) are midcaps, and the next 250 stocks (251-500) are smallcaps.Over 2,550 companies are listed on the NSE. 14.8 18.6 43.9 1,919.6 THE COUNTRY'S BIGGEST lender State Bank of India (SBI) intends to recruit about 10,000 employees this fiscal to meet its general banking requirement and foster its technical prowess, its chairman C S Setty said. The bank’s staff strength stood at 232,296 as of March 2024. ■ PAGE 19 SACHIN KUMAR Mumbai, October 6 Nifty Midcap 150 Honasa SBI PLANSTO RAISE HEADCOUNTBY 10,000THIS FISCAL VIVEK KUMAR M Mumbai, October 6 END OF ‘WITHDRAWAL’ 6,481 THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT has amended its policy on disposal of its 60,000 acres of unused salt pan land across the country, allowing their transfer for projects, including affordable housing and industrial use, reports Mukesh Jagota. ■ PAGE 2 58.9 « 60,000-ACRE SALTPIT LANDAVAILABLE FOR INDUSTRY, HOUSING Pivot to neutral stance likely MPC expected to keep repo rate unchanged Surge in IPOs & broader SMALL GETS BIG market outperformance Share in market cap (in %) August 31, 2024 March 31, 2020 change market dynamics FirstCry ISRAELI AIR ATTACKS battered Beirut's southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month, reports Reuters. ■ PAGE 5 1,265.8 HEAVIESTISRAELI STRIKES SO FAR BATTER BEIRUT Nifty’s m-cap share on NSE at 25-year low « NEWS TOP 50 FIRMS HOLD 44% OF TOTALVALUE Bluestone IN THE Dec 2017 QIP 1 300 Crs 2023 2021 QIP 2 400 Crs QIP 3 1000 Crs QIP 4 3500 Crs Thank you Investors! ContinuedonPage11 New Delhi