POLITICS | PAGE 14 COMPANIES | PAGE 4 Devendra Fadnavis to take oath as Maha CM today INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 Swiggy likely to hike Instamart delivery fee South Korean PresidentYoon faces impeachment vote FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM VOL NO. XXXVII 29, 20 PAGES, `12.00 (NORTH EAST STATES `12.00 & ANDAMAN `17.00) 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 READ TO LEAD KOLKATA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2024 SENSEX: 80,956.33 ▲ 110.58 NIFTY: 24,467.45 ▲ 10.30 NIKKEI 225: 39,276.39 ▲ 27.53 HANG SENG: 19,742.46 ▼ 3.86 `/$: 84.74 ▼ 0.04 `/€: 88.99 ▲ 0.11 BRENT: $73.92 ▲ $0.30 GOLD: `76,0310 ▼ `15 IN THE NEWS Vodafone to sell residual 3% in Indus for `2,841 crore VODAFONE GROUP WILL sell its residual 3% stake, or 79.2 million shares, in Indus Towers for around `2,841 crore as per the latter’s closing price of `358.75 on the BSE on Wednesday, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 4 Transition from land ownership to rental model: Housing secy HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS secretary Srinivas Katikithala has stressed on the need to move away from housing to habitation as well as from owned assets to sharing and rentals in a bid to provide habitation to the young mobile population, reports Manu Kaushik. ■ PAGE 2 BSE smallcap index logs longest winning streak since June SHARES OF SMALLER firms continued to outperform their larger peers, propelling the BSE Smallcap index to gain for the ninth consecutive session on Wednesday — its longest winning streak in nearly 6 months, reports Vivek Kumar M. ■ PAGE 6 EXPLAINER How NSE, BSE will have each other’s back ■ PAGE 9 BANK STOCKS RISE ON BETS OF25-50 BPS REDUCTION CRR cut hopes: Bond yields at near 3-yr low ANUPREKSHA JAIN & SACHIN KUMAR Mumbai, December 4 THE GOVERNMENT BOND yields havesoftenedtotheirlowestlevelsin nearlythreeyears on rising hopes of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cutting cash reserve ratio (CRR) on Friday to infuse liquidity into the system. On Wednesday, yields on 10-year G-Sec fell to 6.69% — the lowest since February 2022. The yieldonfive-yearG-Secalsodropped to its lowest sinceApril 2022. Since Monday, 10-year bond yields have slipped by 6 basis points (bps).Accordingtodealers,therewas a significant action in both 10-year and 15-year papers as the market believesthattherecouldbeaCRRcut to the tune of 25-50 bps.Thiswould releaseupto`1.2lakhcroreintothe system, leading to a further decline ALL EYES ON FRIDAY 8.0 6.46 6.69 7.5 7.0 6.62 6.5 1010-yr govt bond yield t 6.0 5.79 fromtimetotime—itstandsat4.5% currently.Banksdonotgetanyinterestonthisamount.Ifitiscut,thiswill be the first timein overfouryears. Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 ■ 10-year bond yields have slipped by 6 bps since Monday ■ CRR cut of up to 50 bps to release up to `1.2 lakh cr into the system ■ Calls for CRR cut have gathered (in %) Dec 04, 2024 Source: Bloomberg in shorter-duration bondyields. The CRR is the percentage of a bank’s total deposits that it is required to maintain in liquid cash with the RBI as a reserve. The CRR percentage is determined bythe RBI momentum after the Q2 GDP hitting a seven-quarter low of 5.4% Blackstone maylist $1-bn REITin 2025 RAGHAVENDRA KAMATH Mumbai, December 4 US-BASED FUND HOUSE Blackstoneanditspartners—Sattvagroup andPanchshilRealty—arelookingto raise$1billion(over`8,400crore)via aninitialpublicoffering(IPO)oftheir mega real estate investment trust (REIT) next year, said sources.“They mayfileaDRHP(draftredherringprospects)earlynextyearandcomeout with an IPOin mid-2025,” theysaid. The REIT will have a commercial propertyportfolioof50millionsqft, which will be the largest in Asia in terms of portfolio and one of the largest in theworld,sources said. They added that there will be three sponsors — Nucleus Office Parks owned by Blackstone, Sattva group of Bengaluru and Panchshil Realty of Pune. While Nucleus and Sattva will bring in 20 million sq ft and 25 million sq ft,respectively,the restwill be brought in byPanchshil. Continued on Page 7 STEVEN CHURCH December 4 THE CHIEF CONTENT officer of troubled edtech firm Byju’s and an ally of the company’s founder face financial sanctions in the US for their roles in stripping software, cash and other assets from businesses under court supervision. AUSjudgeisconsideringimposing millions of dollars in sanctions on Byju’s manager Vinay Ravindra and company ally Rajendran Vellapalath, who founded Dubai-based tech startup Voizzit Technology. At a court hearing Tuesday, US Bankruptcy Judge John T Dorsey said he will issue an “order to show cause” that would force the two tech executives to justify their actions,orbe declared in contempt of court and be required to pay financial penalties. 5-yr govt bond yield 5.5 Jan 03, 2022 Byju’s exec, business ally face US court sanctions LARGEST IN ASIA ■ Likely to file DRHP with Sebi in early 2025 for the IPO ■ To be one of the largest in the world 50 mn sq ft: REIT's commercial property portfolio ONDC may levy `1.20 on above `250 transaction THE OPEN NETWORK for Digital Commerce will soon levy a fee of `1.20 for every successful transaction above `250, reports fe Bureau. Transactions valued below `250 will not attract this fee. The network participants) have been informed of the levy, sources close to the development said. ■ PAGE 4 Super app Neu fails to fix an old problem URVI MALVANIA Mumbai, December 4 WHEN ITWAS launched in April 2022 with a lot of fanfare, Tata Neu was heralded as the next big thing from one of India’s mostcelebrated conglomerates — the Tatagroup.Evenafteritfacedinitial technical glitches,the group’s goodwill led almost everyone to bet on the super app’s success. Two-and-a-half years later,however,theenthusiasmhaswaned— substantially. The consensus seems to be that in its bid to offer a complete selling experience, Neu has not beenabletoshakeofftheoldproblemofmostsuperapps—theyare jack of all trades but master of none because today’s consumers prefermore specialised shopping sites.Thislackofadifferentiation inaclutteredandcrowdede-commercelandscapealongwithtechnical issues has hit Neu hard. Numbersbearthisout.Theapp missed its first-year revenue targetsby50%.TataDigital,theholding company, saw widening of lossesat`5,553.11croreinFY23, theyearofTataNeu’slaunch,from `2,945.01croreayearago,onthe back of a major rise in purchase stockin-tradeandotherexpenses, which analysts attribute to tech developmentandmarketing.The initial investment into the exercisewasestimatedtobe$2billion. FAILURE TO LAUNCH ■ Tata Neu was launched in April 2022 as the next big thing ■ App hit hard by technical issues, lack of differentiation in crowded e-comm space Report card ■ Tata Digital missed its first-year revenue targets by 50% ■ Losses widened to `5,553.11 cr in FY23, from `2,945.01 cr a year ago A detailed questionnaire sent to Tata Digital did not elicit any response. ProfessorDVRSeshadriofIndian School of Business (ISB) says, “While the perception within the Tata Neu launch team was that it wasimplementingablueoceanstrategy,it actually entered a quasired ocean,with many established incumbents in the allied broadspectrum apps space. The problems that unfolded for Neu may havehadtheiroriginsinthisfact.” Continued on Page 7 Kolkata