BACK PAGE, P18 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 KOLKATA, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 33 NO. 288, 20 PAGES, `12.00 (NORTH EAST STATES `12 & ANDAMAN `17.00) 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 A TA , L U C K N O W, MU M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E 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 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 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 Continued on Page 11 C E L E B R A T I N G BA NK OF MA HA R AS HTRA Y E A R S 347.4 243.8 110.5 « Wrogn 65 11 56.8 fidence increasing over the ors con Years t Inves Latest issuance [more than 3 times of previous size] Oversubscribed 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 Entrepreneurship bug bites many a real estate financing executive (Left to right) Amar Merani, 360 One; Nipun Sahni, Apollo; Ashish Singh, Actis MONETARY POLICY Source: Company filings 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 previous MPC meetings, repo rate has been kept unchanged at 6.5% 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. Revenue 321 142.2 ■ In nine 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 2022 and February 2023, repo rate was increased by 250 basis points to 6.5% 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 ■ Between May 25 basis points each are expected in December and February meetings of MPC D2C brands’ bottom lines on growth path « ■ EXPLAINER, P6 1.5 3.9 « Current account deficit shrunk to 0.7% of GDP in FY24, indicating the gap between investments and savings has reduced Nifty Next 50 « The changing money habits Nifty Microcap 250 1,000.0 FE S P E C I A L Nifty 50 9.9 ■ RBI aims to ensure that inflation remains within target ■ Repo rate cuts of « 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. 15.4 5.7 17.8 Wakef it L&TEYES ROLE IN NASA'S NEXT SPACE STATION Nifty Smallcap 250 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. 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 Honasa SBI PLANSTO RAISE HEADCOUNTBY 10,000THIS FISCAL VIVEK KUMAR M Mumbai, October 6 Nifty Midcap 150 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 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 Surge in IPOs & broader SMALL GETS BIG market outperformance Share in market cap (in %) August 31, 2024 March 31, 2020 change market dynamics 58.9 END OF ‘WITHDRAWAL’ SACHIN KUMAR Mumbai, October 6 « 60,000-ACRE SALTPIT LANDAVAILABLE FOR INDUSTRY, HOUSING Pivot to neutral stance likely MPC expected to keep repo rate unchanged 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 4 2021 QIP 2 QIP 1 300 Crs 2023 400 Crs QIP 3 1000 Crs 3500 Crs Thank you Investors! ContinuedonPage11 Kolkata