ECONOMY | PAGE 2 COMPANIES | PAGE 4 CEA:DPI2.0tohelpbuild resilienceagainstshocks INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 9 Airtel shifts strategy to telecom-led new biz Microsoft, OpenAI end exclusive pact onAI KOLKATA, TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2026 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 35 NO. 151, 18 PAGES, `12 (NORTH EAST STATES `12 & ANDAMAN `20) 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 SENSEX: 77,303.63 ▲ 639.42 NIFTY: 24,092.70 ▲ 194.75 NIKKEI 225: 60,537.36 ▲ 821.18 HANG SENG: 25,925.65 ▼ 52.42 `/$: 94.20 ▲ 0.06 `/€: 110.58 ▼ 0.42 BRENT: $107.99 ▲ $2.66 GOLD: `150,672 ▲ `460 RBI to track offshore rupee trades INDIAINC’S LARGESTACQUISITION IN PHARMA Sunseals$11.75-bn dealforOrganon Year Tata Steel Corus 2007 12 Sun Pharma Organon 2026 11.75 Bharti Airtel Zain Africa 2010 Hindalco Novelis 2007 Tata Motors Iveco Group 2025 Deal Size ($ billion) 10.7 6 4.36 36 DILIP SHANGHVI, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, SUN PHARMA Sun Pharma Intra-day Apr 27 Iamhappy,excited, 7.03% (and)alsoalittlebit Open anxious.It’salarge 1,632.50 transactionthatwe Close areenteringinto 1,733.80 »INSIDE« WE’RE DEBT-AVERSE, BUT NOT RISK-AVERSE: SHANGHVI P4 ANALYSTS FLAG NEAR-TERM HURDLES P6 $14 per share, a premium of over24%toitsApril24closing price. Shares of Sun Pharma closed 7% higher on Monday, adding `27,136 crore to its market cap. The transaction will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and bank financing.Organon bore a net debt of $8.6 billion at 2025-end,compared with Sun's benign $198.4 million debt as the several difficulties, including operational challenges, but the RBI has denied those requests ■ The central bank has exempted banks from reporting contracts with notional value under $1 million concerns, adequate flexibility including staggered implementationoftherequirements andexclusionoftradesbelowa specified threshold have been provided,”it said. The RBI mandate comes despite banks pointing out operationalchallenges,includ- ing minimal visibility or control over offshore related parties'data and trading as Indian branches of foreign banks are distinct legal entities. Responding to that, the RBI said this concern is already addressed as it allows offshore related parties of banks to report covered transactions directly. Providingsomeoperational flexibility, the regulator said that banks are not required to report transactions undertaken in terms of the back-toback arrangement. It also exempts banks from reporting contracts with notional value under $1 million. The RBI has also mandated reporting such contracts undertaken by the parent bank, including the branches of the parent. Expert said the move is an attempt to redraw the balance of influence between onshore and offshore currency markets,where pricing of the rupee is often shaped outside India’s regulatory perimeter. Continued on Page 7 Most large-cap MFs trip at alpha test KUSHAN SHAH Mumbai, April 27 company has been cautious about leverage. The acquisition is at a price 1.9timesOrganon'sestimated sales in 2026 and six times its estimated Ebitda.Yet,analysts said Sun got a “cheaper” deal. “Organon wasn't able to grow due to its high debt. The company was focussing more on the debt repayment, and couldn't invest in growth opportunities. The debt issue seems addressable now post the acquisition,” said Vishal Manchanda,seniorVP(institutional research), Systematix Group. MUTUAL FUND HOUSES always talk about the virtues of long-term equity investing. However, an analysis of data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) reveal that most active largecap mutual fund schemes have struggled to generate alpha over a 10-year period. The large-cap category, one of the biggest by assets under management, currently has 34 active schemes. Of these, 23 have a track record of over 10 years as of March 2026. However, only three out of these 23 schemes have Continued on Page 16 3 4 1 . 8 TRAILING THE BENCHMARKS (%) Nippon India Large Cap Fund ICICI Prudential Large Cap Fund 10-year Regular Mode Return 10-year Direct Mode Return 10-year Benchmark Return Alpha (Regular Mode) HDFC Large Cap Fund DFC 1.9 1.92 0.74 INDIAAND NEW Zealand on Monday signed a free trade agreement within 13 months of launching negotiations, reports Mukesh Jagota. The deal will bring down duties on all Indian exports to New Zealand to zero. Target 1.12 0.02 INDIASIGNS FREE TRADE DEALWITH NEWZEALAND Acquirer ■ Banks have cited 0.86 PAGE 2 SYNERGIES OF SCALE improving transparency and enabling efficient price discovery in the foreign exchange market 12.65 ECONOMY THE RESERVE BANK of India (RBI) on Monday asked banks toreportoffshorerupee-linked derivative contracts executed by their group entities.The directive, which comes into force from July 2027 in a phased manner,signals a decisive shift in the regulator’s approach—from monitoring domestictransactionstotracking the full global footprint of rupee trades. The RBI said that the move aims to improve transparency and enable efficient price discovery in the forex market. “To address the operational ■ The move is aimed at 13.02 12.65 IN THE NEWS FE BUREAU Mumbai, April 27 14.92 14.57 13.39 Realty World Pune INDIA'S LARGEST DRUGMAKER Sun Pharmaceutical Industries said on Monday that it will acquire US-based Organon & Co, a firm as big as itself,in an all-cash deal for an enterprisevalue of $11.75 billion. The move reflects a new aggressive inorganic growth strategy by the homegrown pharma giant amid Donald Trump administration's policies to force both innovator and generic companies to shift production to the US. The transaction marks the second-largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company, and the largest in the pharma sector.Analysts said the move would strengthen Sun Pharma's global presence by entering the fast-growing China market and expanding its product portfolio to cover biosimilars and a new array of women's health products.Sun might be able to position itself as a global leaderin a decade,if all goes well,they added. The combined entity will have annual revenues of around $12.4 billion. Sun postedrevenuesof$6.1billion in FY25 with an Ebitda of $1.8 billion. Under a definitive agreement signed between the two firms, Sun will acquire all outstandingsharesofOrganonfor rules start in July BALANCING ACT 13.88 13.77 12.67 MANU KAUSHIK New Delhi, April 27 ● Newreporting Alpha t (Direct ) Mode) All data is as of March 31, 2026. Source: AMFI outperformed their benchmarks when investments were made through the regular route (via distributors). Notably, six schemes significantly underperformed, lag- 3 Kolkata ging their benchmarks by more than 2%. On an average, these large-cap schemes delivered returns of 11.59% over the past decade—lower than the 12.80% average returns of their benchmarks, namely the BSE 100 Total Return Index (TRI) and NSE 100 TRI. Continued on Page 7