OPINION, P6 COMPANIES, P4 SRINATH SRIDHARAN India must help set a global Web 3.0 policy framework INTERNATIONAL, P8 EDITORIAL LONG-STANDING FEUD REVIVED GIVING CONSUMERS MORE CHOICE Govt shouldn’t pass on the power crisis buck to the private sector by invoking Sec 11 of Electricity Act Wadia, Birla at war again over Mumbai realty project UK gets tough on Big Tech with plans for new digital watchdog NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2022 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL XLVIII NO. 57, 24 PAGES, `10.00 (PATNA & RAIPUR `10.00) 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 SENSEX: 54,835.58 ▼ 866.65 NIFTY: 16,411.25 ▼ 271.40 NIKKEI 225: 27,003.56 ▲ 185.03 HANG SENG: 20,001.96 ▼ 791.44 `/$: 76.92 ▼ 0.66 `/€: 81.31 ▼ 0.50 BRENT: $112.84 ▲ $1.94 GOLD: `51,458 ▲ `13 THE CENTRE on Friday expanded the Sagarmala programme, a maritime equivalent to Golden Quadrilateral for highways, by adding 735 projects worth `1 trillion, reports fe Bureau in New Delhi. Sri Lanka again under state of emergency SRI LANKAN President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared emergency with effect from Friday midnight, an official said, reports PTI. Special Feature RAJESH KURUP Mumbai, May 6 LARSEN & TOUBRO on Friday announced the merger of two of its information technology services subsidiaries — L&T Infotech (LI) and Mindtree. This comes three years after L&T acquired Mindtree in what was then perceived as a hostile takeover. After the merger, the combined net sales of the merged entity will be `26,194 crore, thus catapulting it to the sixth-largest position in the segment, just below Tech Mahindra. However, in terms of market cap, the merged entity will rank fifth at `1.36 trillion, beating Tech Mahindra. Thecombinedentitywillbe knownasLTIMindtreeandthe merger is expected to be completed in 10-11 months, once regulatory approvals are in TCS 1,91,754 Infosys Tech Mahindra* 42,260 Wipro 1,21,641 85,651 79,093 L&T Infotech + Mindtree * TTM Source: Capitaline 26,194 CURRENT MCAP (` trn) 12.6 6.5 2.8 TCS Infosys Source: Bloomberg 2.7 1.4 1.3 HCL Wipro L&T Infotech Tech Technologies + Mindtree Mahindra place. The merged entity will employ80,000personnel.L&T said there are no plans to merge L&T Technology Services, another subsidiary of L&T,with these firms. Once the merger is com- ADITYA KALRA New Delhi, May 6 It’s not an electric car, but it’s not a petrol car either. Call it an electric car that self-charges ■ Motobahn, P8 THE KARNATAKA HIGH COURT has put on hold the Enforcement Directorate’s decision to seize $725 million from local bank accounts of China’s Xiaomi for suspected violations of foreign exchange laws, two sources told Reuters on Friday. The ED last week seized the bank assets of Xiaomi Technology India, say- ing it had found the company illegallyremittedfundstothree foreign-based entities, includingoneXiaomigroupentity,“in theguiseofroyalty”payments. 55,250 Continued on Page 2 54,750 Continued on Page 2 Ebitda 35.1 Source: Company 27.7 % change Ebitda margins, % 14.6 15.4 80 bps The O2C conglomerate notched up net profits of `67,845 crore,up 26.2% over the previous year on the back of a 28.8% rise in Ebitda (earnings before interest,tax,depreciation and amortisation) to `1.26 trillion. A big chunk of the Ebitda Continued on Page 15 Sensex Intra-day, May 6 ■ Reliance Jio net profit rises 14% sequentially in March quarter, Page 4 ■ Hit by Covid in January, Reliance Retail posts 5% drop in profit, Page 4 54,928.29 55,000 54,500 54,250 Prev close: 55,702.23 Open `/$ 76.45 54,835.58 Close Intra-day, May 6 Prev close: 76.63 76.26 76.60 76.92 76.75 76.90 Inverted scale 77.05 Open ■ Report on Page 7 Close managers, initiates probe Top 10 holdings of Axis MF FE BUREAU Mumbai, May 6 (March 2022) Market value (` crore) AXIS ASSET MANAGEMENT Company on Friday said it has suspendedtwofundmanagers over “potential irregularities”. The fund house said that it has been conducting a suo motu investigation from February this year and hired external advisers for the same. Chief traderand fund managerViresh Joshi and assistant fundmanagerDeepakAgarwal have been replaced in seven schemes of the fund house, amid allegations of front-running and making illegal gains. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is said to be examining the matter of potential irregularities in the fund house. Bajaj Finance Avenue Supermarts TCS ICICI Bank HDFC Bank Infosys Kotak Mahindra Bank Divi's Laboratories HDFC Info Edge (India) Joshi managed five funds, namely Axis Arbitrage Fund, Axis Banking ETF, Axis Consumption ETF, Axis Nifty ETF, and Axis Technology ETF. On theotherhand,AxisConsumption ETF,Axis Quant Fund and Axis Value Fund, were managed byAgarwal,data released Power plants say scaling up capacity utilisation to hinge on lenders giving timely support & state discoms clearing dues ■ Some want ■ They also govt to bolster liquidity support to states to help them clear dues —MUKESH AMBANI, CHAIRMAN, RIL cameinfromtheoilandchemicalssegment,helpedbystrong margins on transportation fuels. The retail business did well to notch up a profit of `7,055 crore. The network comprises 15,000 stores. Coal import fiat to gencos may face financial hurdles THEUNIONPOWERministry’s diktat to imported coal-based (ICB) power plants to run at full capacity will force them to ask for fresh credit lines. These plantsarefacingseverefinancial crunch,withsomeofthemeven starved ofworking capital. A clutch of ICB units told FE thattheywelcomedthegovernment’s directive and would want to comply with it, but added that the feasibility of their units scaling up capacity utilisation would hinge on the lenders giving timely support and state-run discoms clearing a large part of their pending dues on an urgent basis. TheyalsowanttheCentreto bolster liquidity support to statestoenablethemtoclearthe dues to gencos. Besides, they said,theCentreshouldaskstaterun sector-specific lender PFCREC to issue a letter of comfort to banks to let them raiseworking capitallimits of gencos. The ICBs have a combined capacity of 17,255 megawatt (MW),orabout 8% of the country’s total installed thermal power capacity, but their plant loadfactorisanabysmal25%at present. ICB capacity of 7,500 MWis completelyshut. Industry sources said the order issued by the power ministry by using Section 11 of the ElectricityAct mayenable some units to stock up fuel and raise theirPLFsintheshorttermitself, if the Centre facilitates recovery 26.9 *before exceptional item POWER FIRMS WANT FRESH CREDIT LINES VIKAS SRIVASTAVA Mumbai, May 6 Net profit* Reliance has delivered a robust performance in FY21-22...Our O2C business has demonstrated strong recovery despite volatility in the energy markets. Sensex sinks, SEBI EXAMINING FRONT-RUNNING rupee falls Axis MF suspends two fund 55 paise pleted, shareholders of Mindtree will be issued shares of LTI at the ratio of 73 shares of LTI for every 100 shares of Mindtree. Xiaomi had denied any wrongdoing,sayingits“royalty payments and statements to the bank areall legit and truthful”. It later filed a challenge against the agency’s decision in the Karnataka HC. On Thursday, after hearing Xiaomi’s lawyers,a judge put a hold on the ED’s decision,said the two sources, who declined to be identified. Gross revenue Q4FY22 18,021 HCL Technologies RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL) on Friday became the first Indian company to cross the $100-billion turnover in a financial year. It reported consolidatedrevenuesof`7.92trillion ($104.6 billion) forFY22. Thegrowthinrevenueswas astrong47%overthatinFY21 and was driven by a broadbased improvement, and in particular,strongrefiningmarginsandhigherrealisationsfor downstream products. The RIL stock has been among the best-performing stocks on the bourses, gaining 13% in three months. The stock hit a record high of `2,819.20 on April 28. On Friday, the stock closed at `2,621.15 on the BSE. Q4FY21 14,198 NET SALES (` crore, FY22) (` crore) 33,968 Combined entity to be sixth-largest by revenue & fifth by mcap ED seizure: Xiaomi gets HC relief Honda City hybrid: Almost an electric car Report card FE BUREAU Mumbai, May 6 26,602 Investment target for Sagarmala raised by `1 trn L&T Info, Mindtree RIL revenues top $100 bn in FY22 announce merger 2,32,539 LIC’S MAIDEN public offer was subscribed 1.38 times on the third day, garnering bids for 221 million shares against 162 million shares on offer, reports Ruchit Purohit in Mumbai. Q4 NET PROFIT UP 20.2% YEAR-ON-YEAR SWAP RATIO SET AT 73:100 1,72,095 IN THE NEWS Mega LIC IPO subscribed 1.38X on Day 3 said govt should ask PFC-REC to issue letter of comfort to banks ICBs have combined capacity of about 8% of the country's total installed thermal power capacity, but their plant load factor is an abysmal 25% of all“prudent costs”of costlier fuelandensurespaymentdiscipline by state-run discoms. Other units,including those in the insolvencyarena,would still struggletocomply,theyadded. An IL&FS executive said the firm doesn’t have the funds to import coal.“If the banks issue a letter of credit to us, or the `4,200-crore receivables from Tamil Nadu discom are made fungible to be used for coal imports,wewillbeabletooperatetheplantatfullcapacity,”the source said. Continued on Page 15 New Delhi 12,146.40 9,234.16 8,790.88 7,087.00 6,304.42 5,598.36 5,444.50 4,606.86 4,433.91 Source: 4,294.51 Primemfdatabase.com byValue Research showed. Front-running is a practice of dealing in securities on advance information of an upcoming transaction that could affect its price movement. Continued on Page 2
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