| | | Question of the Week She has degrees in medicine, business management and law and is a PhD to boot. Who is this Indian business leader currently engaged in a fierce corporate battle? | | |  | Here's a great value proposition A digital subscription to Mint premium can be yours at just ₹213 per month. Check out the convenient and affordable plans we have for you here. | | Good Morning | | The News in Summary The Adani group is looking to exit its edible oils and foods joint venture with the Singapore-based Wilmar International. Meanwhile, a battle royale is building up in financial services firm Religare, with the Burman family which is its largest shareholder accusing the company’s chairperson with fraud. Elsewhere, the Tata group may consider selling Voltas’s home appliances business, while Sony Pictures now wants to name its own person as CEO of the new entity following its planned merger with Zee. Finally, Byju’s woes are worsening, with a US court ruling in favour of its creditors in one of the cases involving the edtech. | | |  | | | | Adani Looking to Exit FMCG JV With Wilmar The Adani Group may be looking to sell its entire 43.97% stake in Adani Wilmar Ltd, which retails a range of edible oils and food products under the Fortune brand. While similar reports earlier this year were denied by Adani, talks have been initiated again with a number of multinational consumer goods companies. The group’s joint venture with Singapore-based Wilmar International has been under financial pressure lately with Q2 revenue from operations dropping 13% leading to a net loss of Rs 130.73 crore as compared to a net profit of Rs 48.76 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. An exit from Adani Wilmar will also mark a complete shift for the group from its roots in trade and bulk imports to the core infrastructure sector. However, there was some recompense for Adani with US government agency International Development Finance Corp, agreeing to provide $553 million in financing to the deepwater West Container Terminal in Colombo being jointly developed by Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. and John Keells Holdings Plc. The financing by the agency, its largest infrastructure investment in Asia and among its biggest globally, is being seen as an endorsement for the Adani Group, as well as for the controversial port project in which it holds a majority stake. | | | | Religare and Burmans Exchange Charges  The Burman family, the largest shareholder in Religare Enterprises Ltd, has alleged that Rashmi Saluja, its executive chairperson, violated insider trading laws by selling her shares in the company immediately before the announcement of Burmans' open offer on 25 September. The charge came in a 7 November letter to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), wherein four investment firms of the family flagged Saluja’s trades on 21 and 22 September, when she sold Religare shares worth Rs 34.71 crore allegedly after being made aware of the Burman’s intention to make an open offer. The charges and counter-charges are part of a furious takeover battle for the financial services firm. Earlier, the Burman family refuted the allegations of fraud and breaches made by independent directors of Religare who had written to regulators such as RBI, Sebi and the insurance watchdog IRDAI. the allegations came after the Burmans made an open offer to the company’s shareholders with the aim of taking control of the financial services company. | | | | | | | | Tata May be Looking to Sell Voltas’s Home Appliance Business The Tata Group may be considering the sale of Voltas Ltd's home appliances business, which sells products like air conditioners and water coolers due to challenges in expanding the business in a competitive market, Bloomberg reported. Discussions are in a very preliminary stage and the management has not yet reached a decision on whether to include its joint venture with Arcelik AS which sells home appliances under the brand Voltas Beko in the domestic market, as part of the deal, the report said. It is also possible that Tata may opt to retain the asset for an extended period. Voltas has, however, denied any such development, calling the report “totally incorrect and blatantly false, with no factual basis whatsoever”, in a regulatory filing. Voltas’s unitary cooling products (UCP) segments clocked year-on-year revenue growth of about 15% in Q2, but the segment witnessed just 40 basis points margin expansion in the same period. | | | | Differences Between Sony and Zee Over Who’ll Head Merged Entity A fresh stumbling block could stall the mega-merger between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) following the latter’s last-minute demand that its executive lead the merged entity instead of Punit Goenka as was laid down in the agreement between the two. Under the scheme of arrangement signed in December 2021, Goenka was to continue in his position as CEO in the merged entity for the next five years even though Sony Pictures would own 50.86% of the new company, while Zee’s promoters, the Goenka family, would be reduced to holding just 3.99%, with the balance 45.15% remaining with the public shareholders. The problem appears to be an ongoing probe by Sebi into the affairs of Goenka and his father, Subhash Chandra, in a case of alleged diversion of funds. The market regulator had banned the father-son duo from holding any leadership position in a listed company and despite relief from an appellate court, Sony views the allegations and investigation as corporate governance issues. | | | | US Court Rules in Lender’s Favour Over Byju’s Battle More pain for Byju’s with a court in Delaware ruling that Glas Trust Co, the trustee representing 37 of its lenders, was well within its rights to remove Riju Raveendran, the brother of Byju Raveendran, the edtech firm’s founder, and appoint a director of its choice on the board of the special purpose vehicle (SPV) that borrowed $1.2 billion (nearly Rs 10,000 crore today) for the company in the US. The lenders have gone to court seeking information about this loan which, they claim, the company transferred to an obscure hedge fund. The development comes at a time when the troubled online tutoring firm is in advanced talks to sell its kids' digital reading platform for roughly $400 million to Joffre Capital Ltd, in an effort to reduce its financial strain. | | |  | | | | | | As Byju’s finds itself in all kinds of controversies, here’s an HBR podcast on How Companies Can Avoid Fraud and Scandal | | | | Last Word The saga of Future Retail Ltd (FRL), once the leader of India’s retail revolution, is coming to a sad end with its resolution professional (RP) filing for liquidation after the company’s creditors, to whom it owes over Rs 19,000 crore, rejected a resolution plan submitted by sole bidder Space Mantra Pvt. Ltd. At the time, the bidder pegged its worth at Rs 550 crore, a figure close to the company’s liquidation value. The process had started in April 2022, when the public sector Bank of India initiated insolvency proceedings against FRL for non-payment of dues. The filing brings to a close one of India’s great entrepreneurial stories featuring the company’s founder Kishore Biyani. That it should happen at a time when the Indian retailing business is among the fastest growing in the world, is a real pity. | | | | Answer to the Question Dr. Rashmi Saluja, the executive chairperson of Religar who is currently battling the company’s largest shareholder the Burman family, has degrees including MBBS, MD, MBA (Finance), LLB and PhD. | | | Do you have any questions? Send in your queries to sundeepkkhanna@gmail.com Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | Written by Sundeep Khanna. Edited by Saikat Chatterjee. Produced by Shad Hasnain. 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