In this edition, we talk about billionaire Gautam Adani’s latest activities. We also talk about the ED’s actions against crypto exchanges, the RBI’s norms for fintech lenders, and the launch of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s Akasa Air.
Welcome to Kuvera’s weekly digest on the most critical developments related to business, finance and markets.
tl;dr Hear the article in brief instead?
I’m unstoppable
I’m a Porsche with no brakes
I’m invincible
Yea, I win every single game
I’m so powerful
Australian singer-songwriter Sia and Indian billionaire Gautam Adani have little in common. So, pardon us for borrowing Sia’s 2016 song that motivates many to deal with everyday challenges or to overcome their insecurities. But it perhaps aptly describes Adani’s relentless and rapid march towards corporate domination in India.
So, what did India’s wealthiest and the fourth-richest man in the world did this week?
The Adani Group said it will invest Rs 57,575 crore, or about $7.2 billion, in Odisha to set up two projects – a 4-million-tonne alumina refinery and a 30-million-tonne iron ore project.
These two projects add to Adani’s growing ambitions in the metals sector and come less than two months after it secured a Rs 6,000-crore loan from government-owned banks to set up a one-million-tonne copper plant in Gujarat.
Adani has been busy stitching deals outside the metals sector, too, and not just in India. In May, for instance, it invested $75 million in UAE petrochemicals major Borouge.
At home, Adani raised $750 million in debt from US buyout firm Apollo Global for its Mumbai airport unit and $2 billion in equity investment from Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company for three group companies. The group made its biggest bet in May when it struck a $10.5-billion deal to acquire Ambuja Cements, ACC from Holcim.
This hectic pace of dealmaking in 2022 comes after an equally busy 2021, when the group spent billions of dollars buying ports, power transmission projects and renewable energy assets.
Clearly, Adani is the most powerful business tycoon in India today—even ahead of Reliance boss and fellow billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
He is winning every single game. He seems unstoppable. He seems invincible. He is a Porsche—and a Ferrari, a Bugatti and a Lamborghini combined—with no brakes.
But sooner or later even the supercars apply the brakes or run out of fuel. When will the Adani juggernaut stop? Your guess is as good as ours.
The ‘smaller’ billionaires
Forgive us for talking so much about Mr Adani and ignoring the ‘lesser’ mortals. Two other billionaire-led conglomerates were in the news this week.
Billionaire Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Energy made its biggest bet yet on the fast-growing renewable energy sector by acquiring a portfolio of 1,753 MW projects from Mytrah Energy at an enterprise valuation of Rs 10,530 crore ($1.3 billion). This will grow JSW Energy’s generation capacity by 35% to 6,537 MW.
Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s financial services arm Aditya Birla Capital roped in Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in its health insurance unit. The Gulf emirate’s sovereign wealth fund will invest Rs 665 crore in Aditya Birla Health Insurance for a 9.99% stake.
Slamming the brakes
While the old-economy billionaires marched ahead, some new-age businesses came under heavy regulatory scrutiny.
Late last week, the Enforcement Directorate raided a director of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX and froze its bank balance of Rs 64.7 crore.
The anti-money laundering agency alleges that WazirX, one of India’s most well-known crypto exchanges, helped some fintech companies launder money through cryptocurrency transactions.
The ED is conducting money laundering investigation against a number of Indian NBFC companies and their fintech partners for predatory lending practices in violation of the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines. It says that various fintech companies backed by Chinese funds could not get an NBFC licence from the RBI for carrying the lending business, so piggybacked on some defunct NBFCs to operate in India.
The ED action led to an interesting turn of events and a twitter spat between WazirX founder Nischal Shetty and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao over the ownership of the Indian exchange. Shetty says Binance had acquired WazirX under a November 2019 agreement. But Zhao denied Shetty’s claims.
While the Binance-WazirX ownership issue hasn’t been resolved yet, the ED is now moving on to other crypto exchanges. Media reports say the ED is probing at least ten cryptocurrency exchanges for allegedly laundering more than Rs 1,000 crore.
Another report said that the agency has frozen bank assets worth Rs 370 crore of Vauld, a Singapore-based crypto lending platform founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs. Vauld is backed by Coinbase, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, and had halted withdrawals and deposits in early July.
Meanwhile, Coinbase itself is facing rough weather. It reported a $1.1 billion net loss for the June quarter and a 60% drop in revenue as trading volume slumps. It is also being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over its staking programs, which allow users to earn rewards for holding certain digital currencies.
After ED, RBI strikes
In tandem with the ED’s actions against crypto companies, the RBI issued guidelines for digital lending platforms, including fintech apps. The move comes after multiple complaints that fintech lending apps were charging usurious interest rates, pursuing aggressive recovery tactics, committing fraud and breaching data privacy.
The rules seek to enhance transparency and disclosures to borrowers. All digital lenders will now have to disclose upfront all the costs related to the loan, including interest rates, fees, penalties and discounts, to borrowers.
The rules also prohibit lenders from automatically increasing credit limits without the borrowers’ consent. In addition, lenders will have to disburse the loan amount directly into the borrower’s bank account and take repayments directly into their own account instead of using any third party’s pass-through account.
Airfares and Akasa
While the ED and the RBI tightened the noose on fintech and crypto companies, India’s aviation ministry has decided to lift the caps on flight ticket prices from August 31.
The government had imposed the caps on local airlines when it allowed air travel to resume in May 2020 after the initial lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
So, will airfares go up? Well, ticket prices could indeed rise given that airlines are grappling with high jet fuel prices and demand for air travel is now coming back to normal. But airlines are also likely to offer deeper discounts to fill up their flights during lean periods and maximise their revenue.
Interestingly, the decision to lift the price caps coincides with the launch of Akasa Air, the airline backed by ace stock market investor Rakesh Jhujhunwala.
Akasa’s maiden flight connected Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Over the next month, the low-cost carrier will start Bengaluru-Kochi, Bengaluru-Mumbai and Chennai-Mumbai flights as well.
Can Akasa compete with market leader IndiGo and the Tata Group, which controls AirAsia India, Vistara and Air India?
Akasa does have enough experience to take on the competition. Apart from Jhunjhunwala, it is led by co-founders Aditya Ghosh and Vinay Dube. Ghosh was earlier IndiGo’s president while Dube was CEO of Jet Airways and GoAir.
Still, the airline industry is notoriously difficult to operate in. Remember Air Deccan, Sahara, Jet and Kingfisher?
Market wrap
The benchmark indices rose about 1.8% this week, with the BSE Sensex nearing the psychologically important 60,000-level and the NSE Nifty crossing 17,700.
Among the Nifty 50 stocks, Hindalco and state-run Coal India led the gains after strong earnings reports. Financials such as Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank were up more than 4% each, as was Reliance Industries. In the broader market, JSW Energy was among the top stocks with double-digit gains.
Defensive stocks such as Tata Consumer Products, Nestle and Hindustan Unilever were among the top losers.
The rally in the secondary market has also helped resume primary market activities after a three-month gap.
The IPO of Syrma SGS Technology, an engineering and design company, opened on Friday. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of Rs 766 crore and an offer for sale worth about Rs 74 crore by existing shareholders. The IPO closes on August 18. However, apparel brand Biba’s IPO plans have hit a roadblock with SEBI keeping the issue in ‘abeyance’.
Other headlines:
- SBI Q1 net profit falls 6.7% to Rs 6,068 crore, misses Street forecast
- Paytm Q1 consolidated loss at Rs 645 crore, revenue rises 89%
- Hindalco Q1 consolidated profit climbs 48%, revenue up 40%
- Coal India Q1 net profit soars 179% to Rs 8,834 crore, revenue up 39%
- Apollo Hospitals Q1 net profit drops 35% to Rs 323.78 crore
- Aurobindo Pharma Q1 net profit falls 32% to Rs 520.5 crore, revenue up 9.4%
- Page Industries April-June net profit jumps to Rs 207 crore from Rs 10.94 crore
- Tata Motors to buy Ford’s Gujarat plant for Rs 726 crore
The week ahead:
- The RBI will release FDI inflow data for June
- The RBI will publish minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee’s meeting
- The government will release WPI inflation data for July
Until next week, happy investing!
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