| | | Question of the Week Which company was the first to launch a water purifier in India? | | |  | | Good Morning | | The News in Summary Byju’s problems came to a head, as the edtech firm was admitted into insolvency by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) following an appeal by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Meanwhile, Mankind Pharma is looking for a financial partner to fund its bid for biopharmaceutical firm Bharat Serums and Vaccines (BSV) which was put up for sale by Advent International, while IT major Infosys reversed recent underperformance and gloomy industry outlook by posting healthy growth for the quarter ended June. Elsewhere, Macquarie Group, JSW Neo Energy, and Actis Llp are in the hunt to acquire renewable energy company O2 Power in a deal that has an enterprise value of about $1.5 billion. Finally, HUL sold off its water purification business Pureit in India to A. O. Smith Corp as part of its parent company’s efforts to streamline its portfolio of businesses. | | | Byju's Defaults on BCCI Sponsorship Deal, Faces Insolvency Proceedings  Troubles for edtech firm Byju's spilled over, with the The National Company Law Tribunal admitting an insolvency petition by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after the online tutor defaulted on dues worth ₹158 crore. Operational control of the firm now passes from its founder Byju Raveendran to a bankruptcy professional who will oversee the day-to-day running of the firm. The interim resolution professional, Pankaj Srivastava, will also collate information on entire dues that Byju’s owes to all its stakeholders and create a committee of creditors (CoC). Byju’s had failed to strike an out-of-court settlement with the cricket board with whom it had inked a sponsorship deal in 2019, giving it exclusive team sponsorship rights. However, its failure to meet its financial obligations after March 31, 2022, led to legal action, with BCCI on 29 September 2023 filing an application with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to initiate a corporate insolvency resolution process. The NCLT confirmed Byju's defaults, green-lighting the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). | | | | This Mint video from January this year looks at the reasons why BCCI dragged Byju’s to the NCLT and the possible consequences for the defaulting edtech firm which now finds itself facing bankruptcy proceedings: | | |  | | | | | | | | Mankind Pharma Looks for Investor to Partner in Bidding for Bharat Serums  Mankind Pharma has joined private equity firms like Bain Capital, Blackstone, Carlyle, and KKR, in evincing interest to acquire a biopharmaceutical firm Bharat Serums and Vaccines (BSV) from its current owner, Advent International, which bought a majority stake in the company in November 2019 from OrbiMed PE and Kotak PE. Advent owns 74% in BSV after buying out the remaining 26% stake from the Daftary family which set up the firm in 1971. Given the deal size, likely to be in the range of $1.5 - $1.8 billion, Mankind wants to make the bid as part of a consortium comprising one or another of the PE firms, though it isn’t clear if any of them are interested. Blackstone, for instance, has submitted two individual non-binding bids and has not expressed interest in the collaboration. Mankind, India’s fourth-largest drug manufacturer by sales, plans to raise up to ₹7,500 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) and has increased its borrowing limit to ₹12,500 crore, in anticipation of such acquisitions. | | | | Infosys Beats Peers and Street Expectations Shrugging off its lacklustre performance last year when it reported its slowest-ever dollar revenue growth of 1.9%, Infosys Ltd posted industry-leading revenue growth of 3.3% for the three months ended June over the preceding quarter. The biggest contributor was its financial services business, which saw a sequential revenue boost of $91 million, accounting for almost 61% of the company’s overall incremental revenue of $150 million. While first-quarter net profit fell 20.4% sequentially, it still beat the median estimate of 23 analysts polled by Bloomberg. Operating margin at 21.1%, was 100 basis points higher than the three months through March. Surprisingly, like peer TCS, Infosys’s cash generation from its homegrown businesses grew smartly by $46 million sequentially to $146 million. With the company reporting 34 large deal wins during the first quarter, its highest ever, its management revised its revenue growth upwards to between 3% and 4% in constant-currency terms. Expectedly, buoyant investors sent the company’s ADRs soaring on the New York Stock Exchange, while at home its shares climbed 5% in early trade the next day. | | | | O2 Power Sale Sees Early Interest from Macquarie, JSW, and Actis Macquarie Group, JSW Neo Energy, and Actis Llp are among the first set of investors to have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to acquire O2 Power, a renewable energy company co-owned by European alternative asset manager EQT and Singapore's state-owned fund Temasek. The deal is potentially worth $1.5 billion in enterprise value, making it one of the largest in the renewable energy sector. More NDAs are expected to be signed before interested investors are invited to submit non-binding offers (NBO) followed by binding offers by those who are shortlisted. O2 Power, founded by former ReNew Power executives, aims to build a 5 gigawatt (GW) renewable energy portfolio and already has 4GW capacity. The deal, among several recent ones in the space, comes as India continues to expand its renewable energy capacity, with a goal of reaching 500 GW by 2030. O2 Power is also selling 350 megawatts (MW) of solar projects separately. | | |  | | | | HUL Sells Pureit to Focus on Core Businesses As part of its efforts to focus sharply on its core businesses, Hindustan Unilever announced the sale of its water purification business Pureit in India to A. O. Smith Corp. at an enterprise value of $72 million or ₹601 crore. A. O. Smith India Water Products Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of A. O. Smith Corp, USA, had earlier signed a deal to purchase the Pureit business in south Asia from HUL parent Unilever for approximately $120 million. The India deal is a part of that agreement and marks HUL’s exit from the residential water purification sector which it entered in 2004. Despite building a 20% market share, the business which reported a turnover of ₹293 crore in FY24, constitutes less than 1% of HUL’s turnover in the same period. Clearly, it didn’t fit into HUL’s strategic portfolio of businesses which includes categories such as beauty and personal care, food and refreshment and home care products. | | | | Last Word Mukesh Ambani may have been busy over the last three months with the extravagant and extended wedding celebrations for his youngest son Anant, but that didn’t impact the company’s business with consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter growing 12% to ₹2.36 trillion, which beat expectations. Reliance Industries saw a dip in net profit due to a weaker performance in its key oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, but was boosted by the performance of its telecom business, Jio, which beat market estimates, clocking a 10.15% revenue growth from a year earlier and a 12% increase in net profit for the financial first quarter. The retail business too grew, with 331 new store openings adding to its growing network. | | | | Answer to the Question In 1984, Aquaguard became the first water purifier to be launched in India by Eureka Forbes Ltd, which was founded as a joint venture between Electrolux of Sweden and the Tata Group's Forbes and Campbell. | | | 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 James Mathew. Produced by Shad Hasnain. Send in your feedback to newsletters@livemint.com. | | | | | Download the Mint app and read premium stories | | | | | | View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Contact us You received this email because you signed up for Mint Top of the Morning or because it is included in your subscription. Copyright © HT Digital Streams. All Rights Reserved | | | | |
