Punchin' đ
Gaming bets, Stock moves, and A new virus in town.
âď¸ Morning, folks!
Last day to throw around those âHappy New Yearâ greetingsâuse them wisely.
đ While the year started strong, itâs already giving 2020 vibes with the AI buzz and a new virus on the radar: HMPV. The first case popped up in Bengaluru yesterday.
đ Investors werenât thrilledâmarkets took a hit, with Sensex and Nifty both dropping 1.6%.
Couple of things that caught our attention.
Letâs hit it!
1 Big Thing: ITC spins off hotel business đď¸
ITC has officially demerged its hotel business, creating a standalone entity, ITC Hotels, effective January 1.
The deets: the demerger will enable ITC to refocus on its core, scalable, product-based businessesâcigarettes and FMCGâwhile shedding the capital-intensive hotel operations.
Worth noting: on January 6, ITC shares adjusted to reflect the demerger, settling at âš455.6, down about âš27.
Whatâs ahead: ITC hotels will plan to expand its portfolio, targeting over 200 hotels with more than 18,000 rooms in the next five years (up from âź140 hotels right now).
Bottomline: India's hotel industry could grow to $60 billion by 2030, growing at close to 10% each year.
2. SUVs lead the charge đ
Indiaâs car market just had a major shake-up. For the first time in 40 years, a non-Maruti Suzuki car is the best-seller.
In 2024, the Tata Punch, a sub-compact SUV, led the domestic auto market with just over 2 Lakh units sold.
What matters: Indian buyers are aggressively gravitating towards SUVs, which can be noted in SUV's making up nearly 50% of all passenger cars sold in 2024.
Second, people are also looking for feature-rich cars. This puts basic players like Maruti at a disadvantage, although that gap is closing.
Third, Tata Motors is simply killing it, with a refreshing marketing machine, a strong line up of cars and a distribution network that has been rapidly scaling.
Big picture: India sold 4.3 million passenger cars in 2024, up 4.7% YoY, which is decent growth despite concerns of a broad slowdown.
3. A quick gaming acquisition đ§ł
Nazara Technologies has acquired a 47% stake in Moonshine Technology Private Limited (MTPL) for $99 million.
The deets: MTPL is known for its flagship product, PokerBaazi, one of India's leading online poker platforms. PokerBaazi, has over 3 lakh monthly active users and generates over 85% of the company's net revenue.
Why it matters: Nazara has been on an acquisition spree lately â picking up stakes in Fusebox Games for âš228 crore and Stan Gaming for âš18 crore.
Additionally, it fully acquired Paper Boat Apps, the developer of the popular childrenâs app Kiddopia, for âš300 crore, spreading its tentacles quite broad.
Worth noting: the company aims to invest $100 million in mergers and acquisitions over the next two years to capitalize on the growing gamer base in India.
Nazaraâs stock hit a 52-week high following the news.
4. Stock that kept us interested đ
Gensol Engineering jumped this week after bagging a âš1,100 crore engineering, procurement, and construction contract for a 275MW solar project in Gujarat.
FYI, Gensol is a renewable energy company that specializes in solar EPC, battery storage systems, and green hydrogen infrastructure.
Context: The contract, awarded by a major PSU, includes engineering, procurement, construction, and three years of operations and maintenance services.
By the numbers: Gensol has a market cap of over âš2,700 crore and has executed over 770 MW of solar projects across India.
What else are we snackinâ đż
đĽ Funding crash: Indiaâs space sector funding dropped 55% in 2024, falling to $59 million from $130 million in 2023.
đ Record drop: Indian rupee dropped to a record low of 85.8 against the dollar.
đ Trudeau's exit: Justin Trudeau is set to step down as leader of Canadaâs Liberal Party ahead of this yearâs expected general election loss.
Thatâs a wrap! Donât let the Weekday blues get to you.
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I think the graph attached in this post for "Gensol Engg Ltd." is wrong, please verify it.