ITC's acquisitions
Waaree powers up, Hospitality IPO, and Hydrogen bets.
🗓 Morning, folks!
Indian markets were closed on Friday, but they went into the long weekend on a high.
Sensex and Nifty rose nearly 2% on Thursday, notching a fourth straight session of gains and closing at their highest levels in over three months.
💡 Spotlight: India’s auto and mobility sector saw strong activity (IPOs, M&A etc.) in Q1 2025, with 29 deals worth $1.5 billion—including investments in EV makers, battery tech, charging infra, smart logistics, and shared mobility platforms.
While total deal value dipped, the volume of deals shows investors are still bullish on India’s shift to cleaner, smarter transportation.
Anyway, easy news day today. Let’s get through it and leave you to better things. ☕
1 Big Thing: $7B Aluminium deal 🤝
UK-based Rio Tinto and India’s AMG Metals & Materials have signed an MoU to explore a low-carbon aluminium initiative in India.
The deets: Rio Tinto is the world’s second-largest mining company, producing essential materials like iron ore, aluminium, copper, and lithium. On the other hand, AMG Metals & Materials focuses on delivering advanced, sustainable metal and material solutions for industrial sectors.
This venture marks Rio Tinto’s return to India nearly a decade after its exit.
Worth noting; Aluminium is lightweight, recyclable, and highly sought-after, with global usage now at around 70 million tonnes. It’s essential for industries such as automotive and construction due to its strength and low weight.
The proposed undertaking may involve the production of up to 1 million tonnes of primary aluminium and 2 million tonnes of alumina annually. Both will run on renewable energy sources like wind and solar, backed by pumped hydro storage for reliability.
2. Waaree delivers a solid quarter⚡
Waaree Renewable Technologies, which specializes in solar and clean energy projects, posted a solid Q4, riding on India’s growing appetite for clean energy.
By the numbers: profit at ₹93.8 crore, up 83% YoY.
The company’s Engineering, Procurement, and Construction business was the star of the show, with revenue climbing 76% YoY to ₹469.72 crore.
Meanwhile, expenses also rose 75% hitting ₹356.25 crore, reflecting the scale and speed of project execution.
Zoom out: with aggressive government targets and rising corporate interest in green power, solar and wind projects are getting fast-tracked. The country aims for 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, and companies like Waaree are playing a key role in making that happen.
Stock trend: Waaree delivered multibagger returns of over 50,000% in the past five years. But it hasn’t been a smooth ride. In the last one year, the stock has corrected over 52%, coming off its highs.
April brought signs of life again as the stock gained 27%, building on a 10% rise in March, after five straight months of declines.
3. Prestige plans an IPO for its hotel business 🏨
Prestige Group is gearing up to list its hotels business via a ₹4,000 crore IPO planning to file its DRHP by next month.
The deets: Prestige Group is a Bengaluru-based real estate giant with projects spanning residential, commercial, retail, and hospitality. Its hotel arm owns and operates premium properties like the Sheraton Grand in Whitefield, JW Marriott in Devanahalli, and Conrad under the Hilton umbrella.
Big theme: amid global market volatility, especially post-Trump tariff tremors, hospitality and real estate are emerging as investor favourites.
The sector is seen as safer, consumption-driven plays. India’s travel boom, led by millennials, is further fuelling this interest.
IPO rush in hospitality: India’s hospitality sector is drawing strong investor interest, fueled by the rising wave of travel and tourism, especially among young, experience-driven Indian consumers.
The Leela (Brookfield): ₹5,000 crore IPO coming soon
Brigade Hotel Ventures: Filed IPO papers
Ventive (Blackstone, Panchshil): Raised ₹1,600 crore
Juniper Hotels (Hyatt): Raised ₹1,800 crore
Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels: ₹920 crore
SAMHI Hotels: ₹1,370 crore
While we are on IPOs,
ABB, the global technology leader in electrification and automation, is planning to spin off its robotics division, meaning it will turn the unit into a separate company and list it on the stock market by Q2 2026.
The company made $2.3 billion in revenue last year, about 7% of ABB’s total sales.
4. ITC acquires 24 Mantra🪴
ITC continues to expand its consumer portfolio through acquisitions and investments.
First up: it’s acquiring 24 Mantra Organic maker Sresta Natural Bioproducts for ₹472.5 crore. The deal gives ITC a foothold in the ₹10,000 crore organic food market.
Sresta works with 27,500 farmers, manages 1.4 lakh acres of organic farmland, and clocked ₹306 crore in sales last year. It sells over 100 products like rice, pulses, oils, and 50% of its revenue comes from exports, mainly the U.S.
Next, ITC is increasing its stake in Mother Sparsh, a premium ayurvedic baby care brand. This move strengthens its personal care portfolio.
Mother Sparsh made ₹58.7 crore in FY24.
5. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀
1. Suzlon spins another win 🌪️
Suzlon Energy secured a 100.8 MW wind energy order from Sunsure Energy.
In simple terms, that’s enough wind power to light up over 80,000 homes annually.
The deets: this project, Sunsure’s first-ever wind venture, will be set up in Jath, Maharashtra.
Suzlon will supply 48 S120 wind turbine generators, each with a 2.1 MW capacity and mounted on Hybrid Lattice Towers meaning taller, more efficient towers that catch stronger winds.
Suzlon will manage the entire execution, from installing the equipment to full commissioning.
Zoom out: this order fits right into India’s 500 GW non-fossil fuel target by 2030. The company is scaling up rapidly, helping large corporations switch to cleaner energy.
2. BHEL’s green hydrogen bet 🤝
BHEL signed a deal with BARC to use homegrown technology that helps make electrolysers, a key device used to produce green hydrogen.
The deets: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India’s premier nuclear research facility, known for developing advanced technologies in nuclear energy, and engineering.
The deal is for a new Indian-made Mixed-Matrix Membrane Diaphragm, a tech used in electrolysers to split water into hydrogen and oxygen during green hydrogen production.
Using green hydrogen made with this tech can cut as much pollution as taking over 1 million cars off the road each year, by replacing fossil fuels in heavy industries like steel and transport.
6. Story in data: Chemical connection 💊
India may be the “pharmacy of the world,” but it’s still deeply reliant on China for the raw materials.
India imported $3.6B worth of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) from China last year — 70% of its total API imports.
APIs, or Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, are the key chemicals in medicines that treat or cure health problems—they're what actually make the medicine work.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🧠 Deep trouble: Trump administration may restrict Chinese AI lab DeepSeek from buying Nvidia chips and could even bar Americans from using its AI tools.
🍽️ Mile meal: IndiGo has teamed up with Swiggy, letting BluChip loyalty members earn rewards on food orders.
💄 Nykaa expands: Nykaa has set up a new subsidiary, Nykaa Essentials, to trade in beauty, personal care, and lifestyle products from its base in Mumbai.
⚖️ Search trouble: Google faces a $6.6 billion UK lawsuit over claims it abused its search dominance to overcharge businesses for ads.
That’s a wrap! Don’t let the Monday blues get to you.
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WAAREE listed only last year, no? How 50000% returns in 5 years?