CHENNAI/KOCHI, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE VOL NO. XLV 144, 24 PAGES, `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 WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD SENSEX: 80,220.72 ▼ 930.55 NIFTY: 24,472.10 ▼ 309.00 NIKKEI 225: 38,411.96 ▼ 542.64 HANG SENG: 20,498.95 ▲ 20.49 `/$: 84.08 ▼ 0.01 `/€: 90.94 ▲ 0.25 BRENT: $75.80 ▲ $1.51 GOLD: `77,909 ▲ `142 TO BE SHUT DOWN AFTER `32,000-CR DUES CLEARED No recharge for MTNL State-run telco asked to speed up monetisation POOR SIGNAL FY24 loss at `3,268 crore, revenue at PRASANTA SAHU & JATIN GROVER New Delhi, October 22 THE GOVERNMENT WILL no longer infuse any fresh capital into ailing Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), but may not initiate its closure right away, as this would be done only after the company clears its liabilities of around `32,000 crore, according to official sources. To generate funds for expunging the liabilities, the company has been asked to generate revenues from asset INSIDE ■ MTNL's `799 crore ■ MTNL has about 1.9 mn wireless users with 0.2% market share as of July end ■ In last 6 months, the company defaulted on `1,600-cr bank loan payments monetisation and operations, and bring in efficiency to reducecosts,thesourcesadded. With little prospects of the revival of MTNL, the government is clearthat the company will have to be wound up ■ MTNL's net worth was negative at `23,663 crore as on March 31 ultimately, most probably within a decade. But for this, all the liabilities need to be cleared and assets disposed of, the sources said, adding that this was the reason for not closing it down straightaway. NO PLANS TO RAISE TARIFFS: BSNL CMD ■ PAGE 5 Currently, the central government owns a 56.25% stake inthe state-runtelecomoperator, which provides services in Delhi and Mumbai. The public holds 43.75%, including a 13.12% stake owned by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). The government had approved thefirst revivalpackage for BSNL and MTNL in 2019. In 2022, it approved a second revival package for BSNL/MTNL amounting to `1.64 lakh crore, where the share of MTNLisrelativelyless. Continued on Page 7 Adani buys Orient Allianz looks to exit to up cement play Bajaj insurance JVs Ambuja Cements to CONCRETE DEAL Top cement players and acquire CK Birla firm their capacity (MTPA) for `8,100 crore UltraTech Eyeing stake in new firms to retain India presence URVI MALVANIA Mumbai, October 22 GEETA NAIR Pune, October 22 150.3 Ambuja Dalmia 97.4 THE CEMENT SECTOR rivalry intensified furtheronTuesday, withAdani Group announcing the acquisition of Orient Cement,a CK Birla group firm, at an equity value of `8,100 crore. The move comes just three months afterAditya Birla Group’s UltraTech Cement,the country’s largest cement maker, strengthened its position by acquiring controlling stakes in India Cements. Adani Group-owned AmbujaCements,thecountry’s second-largest cement manufacturer,willbuya46.8%stake fromOrient’sfounders,including chairman CK Birla,and certain public shareholders for `3,791 crore. Additionally, it will acquire 8.9% from certain public shareholders, both at `395.4 per share. This would trigger an open offer for an additional 26% stake in Orient, according to a 46.6 Shree Cement BAJAJ FINSERV ON Tuesday announced that its insurance joint venture (JV) partner Allianz SE is considering exiting their life and general insurance businesses. “Allianz has indicated to Bajaj that, given its strategic priorities, it is actively considering an exit from the life and general insurance joint ventures,” the company informed the exchanges. Allianz holds a 26% stake each in insurance arms Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance and Bajaj AllianzGeneralInsurance,while Bajaj Finserv owns 74%. Both are unlisted firms. “Discussionsareatapreliminary stage and there is no proposal before the board (Bajaj Finserv) of the company or its insurance subsidiaries in this 56.4 company statement. The deal will be funded through Ambuja’s internal accruals. Orient, which has two cement plants in the south and one in western India, will be Ambuja’s second acquisition thisyear;it hadacquiredPenna Cement in June. With the latest acquisition, Ambuja Cements’operational capacity willgoupto97.4 milliontonne per annum. Continued on Page 7 regard,”the insurersaid. The Bajaj Finserv board is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to approve the second quarter results and these developments could come up for discussion at the board meeting. Shares of Bajaj Finserv fell 2.02% on Tuesday to close at `1,723 on the BSE. Bloomberg had earlier reported that Allianz SE was in talks to scrap two Indian JVs with Bajaj Finserv in a dispute over the direction of the partnership and their inability to raisestakesintheJVat discounted prices. The report said Allianz is instead looking to buy stakes in newly established insurance firms to retain a presence in the fastgrowing Indian market. Bajaj has controlling stakes in the JVs and has been running the company with control of management, strategic decisions, operations and business strategy with professionals from the insurance industry running the two JVcompanies. Continued on Page 7 MIDCAPS LEAD MARKET MELTDOWN 81,151 -10.84 Mazagon Dock -2.64 SBI -2.91 -2.92 Tata Motors -6.99 SJVN -2.94 -7.06 L&T Finance Power Grid Top Sensex losers (%) -10.03 Supreme Inds Oct 22 (close) 80,220 Tata Steel 45,974.3 Oct 21, 2024 (close) Oct 22 (close) Top midcap losers (%) 47,164.9 2.52% 1.15% Oct 21, 2024 (close) M&M BSE Midcap Sensex -3.79 Benchmark indices fell over 1% on Tuesday to settle at two-month lows. BSE Midcap took a bigger hit and was down nearly 3%. ■ PAGE 6 -6.36 Jindal Stainless Hyundai in reverse gear as stock debuts SWARAJ BAGGONKAR & VIVEK KUMAR M Mumbai, October 22 HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA (HMIL), which launched the country’s biggest initial public offering(IPO),hadadisappointing listing on Tuesday, lending more credence to one trend: large Indian IPOs seldom do well on theirfirst day.The stock of India’s second-largest carmaker listed at a discount of around1.5%andfellnearly8% inintra-daytrading.Ittradedas low as `1,807.05,a 7.8% drop againstitsissuepriceof`1,960 before closing at `1,820.40. Though the `27,870-crore IPO was booked 2.3 times, the retail portion and non-institutional investor segments were subscribedonly50%and60%, respectively. Investors became wary of the valuation demanded by the issuer and alsosincetheissuewasfullyan offer for sale, where no pro- ROUGH START Issue size (` cr) Company Hyundai India LIC Paytm Coal India Reliance Power GIC SBI Cards Offer price (`) Listing price (`) 27,870 20,557 18,300 15,475 11,700 11,373 10,355 1,960 949 2,150 245 281 456 755 1,931 867 1,955 288 342 425 658 INSIDE OPEN TO HYBRIDS, SAYS HYUNDAI MOTOR MD ■ PAGE 4 ceeds are to come to HMIL. Respondingtoaqueryonthe poor opening,Tarun Garg,chief operating officer, HMIL, said: Listing gain (%) -1.48 -8.62 -9.07 17.45 21.73 -6.80 -12.85 “Priceofthestockwillalwaysbe determinedbytheinvestors.The responsetothesubscriptionwas overwhelming.Not only did we get it from the sovereign funds butalsofrominsurancecompanies.Thetop9-10mutualfunds haveinvestedtoo.” Continued on Page 7 CHENNAI/KOCHI