Boss Man đ¸
Mega Mergers, More IPOs and Birla's Big Bet.
âď¸ Morning, December continues to remain eventful.
đ¤ Google surprised the world with an elite Quantum chip yesterdayâWillowâwhich absolutely destroys the speed of traditional computers. Donât hold your breath though, commercial applications are light years ahead.
đ The markets hit a bit of a pause yesterdayâdigesting the incredible run so far this year. Sensex was down 0.25%.
Letâs go!
1 Big Thing: RBI gets a new boss man đ
Seasoned bureaucrat and Indiaâs revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra is set to take charge as the new RBI Governor, succeeding Shaktikanta Das.
Das, a legend himself, will be credited with navigating Indiaâs economy quite well through the COVID-19 crisis. But change is long due as the future presents new challenges.
Whatâs at stake: the RBI has a tough balancing act ahead. Indiaâs growth is faltering, which is unacceptable. RBIâs interest rates need to come down so businesses can easily borrow money to expand. But bringing interest rates down is hard when inflation is as high as 6% (actually probably a lot more than that).
To that, add Trump and the western rhetoric of America first, tariffs, strong dollar etc, which adds more nuance.
Background: a 1990 batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, Malhotra holds a bachelorâs degree in computer science from IIT Kanpur and a masterâs from Princeton University.
Zoom out: Malhotra is viewed by the markets as a pro-business pick, and is expected to advocate for low taxation and potentially cutting red tape to let business flourish.
Besides, the governmentâs expectation is also pretty clearâ keep the economy buzzing while leveraging trickle-down economics to take care of everything else.
2. Metropolis expands oncology playđ
Metropolis Healthcare, India's second-largest pathology laboratory chain, will acquire Delhi-NCR-based specialized cancer diagnostics player Core Diagnostics for âš247 croreâdoubling down on the rapidly growing oncology testing market.
What matters: the acquisition, a cash and equity mix, will see Core's team of about 500 employees joining Metropolis. The deal was priced at roughly 1.6 times FY25 revenue, which isnât too bad in todayâs market environment.
Zoom out: Indiaâs massive population, with arguably not the best lifestyle habits, is witnessing an alarming rise in cancer cases. Demand for cancer testing is expected to expand at a CAGR of 17.5% from 2023 to 2028.
The deal will boost Metropolis' super-specialty test revenue from 37% to 41% and oncology test revenue from 4% to 10%. Metropolis stock was trading up 3% on the news.
3. Major updates from Venture town đ°
Entrackr reported that Pixxel, one of Indiaâs hottest space-ventures, raised $24 million in Series B funding. M&G Catalyst and Glade Brook Capital participated in the round. Pixxel will use the cash to launch 18 more commercial hyper-spectral satellites and expand its AI-driven Earth Observation platform, Aurora. Pixxel's satellites aim to provide detailed imagery for better understanding of Earthâs environment, and the data is currently sold to mining companies, energy companies, large agricultural players, and such.
YourStory covered the Series C raise of Wooden Street, which raised $43 million from Premji Invest to expand its retail presence. Wooden Street sells modular furniture through online and offline channels, and got its start in Jaipur. Capital will go towards store expansion and manufacturing improvements.
4. Walmart sees a Flipkart IPO coming đ
ET reported that Flipkart could go public within the next 12 months or so, marking the entry of Indiaâs OG internet giant into the public markets where it truly belongs
The deets: currently valued at $36 billion, the actual valuation could be much higher. The company is in the process of shifting its domicile from Singapore to India. As of last year, revenues were just over $2 billion, growing a healthy 20%+ YoY.
Context: Walmart owns 81% of Flipkart, and has invested $2B since 2018 and is betting big on the company's future.
Also, the business has a lot more juice and exciting parts:
Recently, Flipkart launched 'Minutesâ, a credible play into the quick commerce market
Its UPI payments app, Super.money, is doing quite well
Beyond commerce, theyâve also been killing it with ads, virtually poweringâs Walmartâs global retail-advertising technology
Big picture: a household name, with strong brand value, in a rapidly expanding ecommerce market with all the right bets in placeâthis is the crown jewel in Walmartâs global digital commerce portfolio.
What else are we snackinâ đż
đLenskart's vision: Lenskart plans to invest âš1,500 crore in Telangana to establish the worldâs largest eyewear manufacturing facility jobs at Fab City, aiming to create 2,100 jobs.
đ¤Birla's big bet: Aditya Birla Group is set to invest âš50,000 crore into Rajasthan, with bold plans for cement, renewables, telecom, and retail expansion.
đTurning around: Myntra reported a âš30.9 crore profit for FY24, a sharp turnaround from last year's âš782.4 crore loss.
Thatâs a wrap! Donât let the Weekday blues get to you.
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I like your articles, informative and thought provoking.