BACK PAGE, P22 VERDICT, P7 INTERNATIONAL, P3 TAKING THE LEAD DELHI CM CAN’T GO TO SECRETARIAT DECISION LIKELY ON TUESDAY Cannes raises a toast to women power with a jury helmed by Greta Gerwig SC grants Kejriwal interim bail till June 1 to campaign for polls Biden set to impose tariffs on China EVs, strategic sectors NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. L NO. 60, 36 PAGES, `12.00 (PATNA & RAIPUR `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 SENSEX: 72,664.47 ▲ 260.3 NIFTY: 22,055.2 ▲ 97.7 NIKKEI 225: 38,229.11 ▲ 155.13 HANG SENG: 18,963.68 ▲ 425.87 `/$: 83.49 ▲ 0.01 `/€: 90.02 ▼ 0.40 BRENT: $84.14 ▲ $0.26 GOLD: `72,886 ▲ `1,670 Tata Motors profit triples N E W S Factory output on volume surge, tax gain INDIA’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE reserves rose for the first time in four weeks, as the RBI likely bought dollars. The stockpile rose by $3.7 billion to $641.59 billion as of May 3, RBI data showed on Friday, reports Bloomberg. ■ PAGE 2 FE S P E C I A L S Car technology: Plugging the gap between EV and ICE Maruti Suzuki says plug-in hybrid is a technology that the company can consider ■ MOTOBAHN, P9 ‘Utilise pullbacks in prices to buy gold’ Anindya Banerjee of Kotak Securities on gold price trends & SGBs ■ PERSONAL FINANCE, P9 Dec Jan Feb Mar 2024 Sectoral growth 8.1 (% chg, y-o-y) 4.9 Mining Manufacturing Electricity 8.6 Oct Nov 2023 4.1 5.2 3 0 4.9 2.5 7.5 6 Dec ‘23 Jan ‘24 Feb Mar we expect this momentum to continue going forward” said Rajani Sinha, chief economist, CareEdge Ratings . In FY24, IIP growth averaged 5.8%, higher than 5.2% in FY23. This was mainly due to a 5.5% growth in manufacturing (4.7% in FY23), as the sector accounts for 78% of the index. REPORT CARD PB BALAJI, Group CFO, Tata Motors Tata Motors (Consolidated financials) 14,089 14 17,878 Ebitda 119,213 105,016 Revenue Q4FY24 27 % chg, y-o-y Net profit Ebitda margin (%) 17,529 Q4FY23 (` cr) 5,496 9 1.2 FOREX KITTY RISES FOR FIRSTTIME IN A MONTH TO $642 BN TATA MOTORS’ CONSOLIDATED net profit for the three months to March jumped 219% year-on-year to`17,529crore, drivenbyasuperior mix, strong realisations at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and a significant deferred tax credit. ABloombergconsensusestimate had pegged the figure to come in at `6,967 crore for Q4. Consolidated revenuesgrewby14%y-o-y to`1.19 trillion, lower than the Bloomberg estimateof`1.20trillion.Therewasa deferred tax credit of `9,478 crore duringthereportingquarter,including `7,093 crore pertaining to JLR. PB Balaji,group CFO,Tata Motors said,“TheIndiabusinessisnowdebtfree and we are on track to become net automotive debt-free on a consolidated basis in FY25.The strong performance has also helped us recognise deferred tax assets.” Ebitda margin improved to 14.9% inQ4from13.3%intheyearago period.The increase was driven by JLR,whose own margins stood at 15 IIP (% chg, y-o-y) 12 11.9 5.6 CONSUMER GOODS COMPANY Adani Wilmar, best known for its Fortune brand of edible oils, is banking on its foods business as the next big growth driver, company CEO & MD, Angshu Mallick, said, reports Viveat Susan Pinto. ■ PAGE 4 INDIA’S FACTORY OUTPUT growth, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), fell to 4.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) in March from 5.6% y-o-y in February, despite a favourable base effect, data released by the statistics ministry showed on Friday. In March 2023, the growth was just 1.9% y-o-y. During March, manufacturing grew at a five-month high of 5.2% albeit on a lowbase.Electricity,too, grew at a five-month high of 8.6%, while mining grew at just 1.2%,at a five-month low. Within manufacturing, output of eight of the 23 sub-sectors contracted year-on-year, which included food products,electronic goods, and petroleum products. “The negative growth in electronic products is a concern because there has been a PLI push here,” said Madan Sabnavis,chief economist, Bank of Baroda. For the whole fiscal, within the use-based category, the upbeat performance in the infrastructure/ construction goods segment “remained supportive of the growth in industrial activity and SWARAJ BAGGONKAR Mumbai, May 10 FACTORY FILES 5.9 ADANI WILMAR BETS BIG ON FOODS BUSINESS PRIYANSH VERMA New Delhi, May 10 3.6 THE CHIEFS OF Air India and Vistara — Campbell Wilson and Vinod Kannan — will address staff on May 13 on the proposed merger of the two airlines, according to officials, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 4 growth dips to 4.9% in March 1.2 AI-VISTARA MERGER: CEOs TO ADDRESS STAFF ON MONDAY FY24 GROWTH FASTER THAN FY23 5.2 4.6 IN THE 13.3 14.9 219 Source: Tata Motors 16.4%,followedby12%atthecommercialvehicle division and 7.3% at the passengervehicle division. The company’s net automotive debt ended at `16,000 crore by the endofFY24. Itsboardhasdecidedto recommendafinaldividendof`3per ordinaryshareandaspecialdividend of `3 perordinaryshare. ForFY25,JLRhasraiseditsinvestmentspendto£3.5billionfrom£3.3 billion in FY24, which was higher thanthe£3billionguidedpreviously. 160 bps THE INDIA BUSINESS IS NOW DEBT FREE AND WE ARE ON TRACK TO BECOME NET AUTOMOTIVE DEBT-FREE ON A CONSOLIDATED BASIS IN FY25 TherewillbenochangeintheinvestmentspendatTataMotorsat`8,000 crore for the fiscal.This will go into technology development and new products,said Balaji. Tata Motors’ global wholesales duringthereportingquarterrose8% y-o-y to 377,100 units, including a growth of 16% in JLR volumes to 110,200 units. Commercial vehicle wholesale dipped 6% to 111,300 unitswhilethatofpassengervehicles grewby15% to 155,600 units. Auto major pays `500 crore royalty to parent FOLLOWING A CHANGE in the method of calculating royalty by parent Tata Sons, Tata Motors paid a royalty of `500 crore for FY24, PB Balaji, group CFO, Tata Motors, said. Instead of calculating royalty on profits, the new method allows the parent firm to Continued on Page 10 charge royalty on revenues. “The royalty payment is towards the use of the brandTata alongwiththeTCOC(TataCodeof Conduct) framework, the businessexcellenceframeworkaswell as the power we get from the brand in terms of the financing arrangement and rating upgrades,” Balaji said. “It is capped at a maximum of `500 crore on a group basis, that is the entire Tata Motors group whose revenue is `4.37 trillion.We have hit the cap given the stellar performance in FY24.” Homegrown GenAI Hanooman takes leap NOW LIVE Going live with 98 languages, platform claims to be world’s largest multilingual offering ■ Web platform and app available for Android users; iOS app coming soon ■ Available in 12 PADMINI DHRUVARAJ Bengaluru, May 10 MADE-IN-INDIA GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL intelligence (GenAI) platform Hanooman went live on Friday. Available in98 languages, 12 of which are Indian, it claims to be the world’s largest — and most affordable —multilingual GenAI platform. This is the second domestic firmunveiling a GenAI platform.In December2023,Ola cofounder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal unveiled Krutrim,a homegrown large language model (LLM)andGenAIplatformonthelinesofOpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Developed by Seetha Mahalaxmi Healthcare (SML) and 3AI Holding,Hanooman aims to reach 200 million userswithinits firstyear. In April, Hanooman had announced a 50:50 partnershipagreementwithAbuDhabi-based 3AI Holding. “Thefullyfunctionalmultilingualwebplat- ■ Also supports English, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean and 80 other languages worldwide Indian languages — Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, Odia, Punjabi, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam & Sindhi ■ Target sectors include healthcare, governance, financial services, and education form and app built in India is nowavailable for download for Android users,with the iOS app expectedsoon,”thestartupsaidinastatement. The conversational platform is accessible for free at present, but a premium subscription planwill be launched laterthisyear. Continued on Page 10 JEWELLERS SEE SALES VALUE OUTPACING LAST YEAR’S High prices fail to dent gold purchases on Akshaya Tritiya RAJESH BHAYANI Mumbai, May 10 THE HIGH PRICES of gold jewellery and coins did not keep customers awayon Friday, as they flocked to jewellery stores to make theirAkshaya Tritiya purchases. While sales remained average in the afternoonduetohightemperatures,twoof the country’s largest jewellery firms,with a wide network in India and abroad, expected a surge in numbers late in the evening and over the weekend as the muharat extends for two days.Tier 2 cities saw buying activity as well. Most jewellers expect to meet the volume demand of last year, which means sales will be higher in value than last year. Sachin Jain, regional CEO, India,World Gold Council,told FE,“To oursurprise,people have advanced their big-ticket purchases for events like weddings to take delivery on Akshaya Tritiya.Jewellers from acrossthecountry,especiallyinsouthIndia, Customers buy jewellery in Bengaluru on the occasion ofAkshayaTritiya on Friday have reported very high footfall in their stores.”Although the price of gold is 20% higher than last year’s Akshaya Tritiya,“we expect the demand in terms of quantity to be met this time aswell”,he added. PTI Initially, there were reports suggesting that customers would restrict purchases to small-ticketjewelleryweighing2to5grams. Continued on Page 10 New Delhi HDFC Bank cuts notice period from 90 to 30 days SACHIN KUMAR Mumbai, May 10 HDFC BANK,THE country’s largest private bank, has reduced the notice period foroutgoing employees by more than half. Employees leaving the organisation will now be required to serve a notice period of just 30 days against the earlier 90 days. “This change in policy aims to providemoreflexibilityforemployees while ensuring smooth transitions,” a senior official of HDFC Bank told FE. HDFC Bank employees were informed of the change in the HR policy by email on May 6, according to sources. A query sent to HDFC Bank remained unanswered till the time going to the press. Employees underprobationwill serve a notice period of 30 days. According to the sources, employees can even be relieved in less than 30 days if their request is approved by their reporting manager. HDFC Bank is the second major private lender to cut its notice period. In 2020, ICICI Bank had reduced its notice period to 30 days from90days.KotakMahindraBank has a notice period of 90 days,as do public sector banks like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda. Continued on Page 10