RIL bets on ethnic wear 💃
Earnings galore, Gari incoming, and Mumbai sees hope.
Happy Monday folks 👋 — that was a quick long-weekend! Atleast the crypto-portfolio is green with $BTC ripping through $60K. Anyways, another easy weekend with a few important things here and there… Let’s dive in!
Quick shot of espresso ☕
✅ $GARI went live — Chingari finally opened its crypto coin to quite the fanfare — pulling in India’s newest NFT-sensation to lead the launch lol. The token will be used to build an integrated reward mechanism within the short-video app, offering creators payouts for audience-building. Chingari also announced its launching an NFT marketplace that will be backed by the token. Definitely exciting to see how the experiment plays out!
✅ Bitcoin ETF is coming — Bitcoin blasted through $60K like a walk in the park on the back of news that the US SEC is all set to greenlight a Bitcoin Futures ETF. Hope is that institutional investors who have no way or understanding on how to get into crypto via secure-channels, can now get some exposure through a well regulated, exchange-traded alternative. Also, the regulators’ acceptance is viewed as a net positive for the ecosystem.
Reliance places a bet on luxury-ethnic wear 👗
What happened — Reliance Industries purchased a 40% stake in famed fashion designer Manish Malhotra’s luxury brand, MM Styles Private Ltd — to double-down on its push in the luxury ethnic segment.
MM, a couture label (which is just a fancy word for bespoke, custom design) was set up in 2005 by Manish — starting with 2 retail locations, which, thanks to its close association with Bollywood, quickly found its way into pop-culture. Currently, the brand runs 4 flagship locations across major cities, with a wide digital reach!
Flourishing opportunity — while historically the ₹1.5 lakh crore, fragmented, ethnic wear market in India, was mostly ignored by large brands that changed after brands like Biba, Aurelia, Fab India showed what could be possible.
Mega-retailers couldn’t just sit by — now all fostering ambitions of creating a Zara-like premium, fast-fashion brand from India, made for the world. Reliance is pushing hard with Avantra, and now MM. Birla purchased stakes in Sabyasachi and designer Tarun Tahiliani’s private label at the start of the year. Titan has its Taneira…
Bottomline — nothing not to like for Reliance. MM’s design machine, and appeal as a luxury brand, coupled with Reliance’s operational expertise create a formidable combination. Besides, more money and better margins in pricey clothing.
Square is launching a Bitcoin mining rig 🧐
Jack Dorsey’s payment company announced that its building a new product — a better designed, more efficient Bitcoin mining rig, built on custom silicon and created to be plugged anywhere, to be used by anyone.
Nobody asked for it, but that’s Square's way of making Bitcoin more accessible — something that the company has been extremely obsessed with lately.
Long list of BTC products — Square’s Cash App, was one of the first mainstream products to introduce Bitcoin in the west. Then the company announced a new business division exploring DeFi products recently. Then, Twitter, which is run by Jack Dorsey too BTW, launched BTC based tipping feature.
FWIW, Square does have unparalleled experience in working around fintech + hardware — the company’s iPod Shuffle sized card-processing terminals had created a new category of its own, so these new moves are being watched closely.
HDFC’s earnings paint a good picture ⚡
Markets were looking closely at India’s largest private lender to see signs of weakness but the bank reported solid growth in profit, and improvements in asset quality — kicking off earnings season on a strong note for the financial sector.
Quick look at the numbers:
Interest income of ₹17.7K crores, up 12% YoY — showing people are making loan payments on time
Profits ₹8.8K crore, up 17.6% YoY
Retail loans business grew 13% YoY, a good proxy for consumer confidence. Commercial and rural loans grew 27.6% YoY — quite strong again
Lastly, HDFC’s bad loans stood at 1.37% of the total loan book, an improvement on 0.1% (tiny, but significant and establishing a positive trend) compared to last quarter.
While we’re here, ☝️
Avenue Supermarts, the company that runs D-Marts in India, blasted a strong quarter too — growing revenues 47% YoY, and profits doubling, all reading very well for consumer recovery.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
👏 Day at a time - Mumbai reported its first day ever without a COVID death since the pandemic began in March 2020.
💭 Techland drama - Netflix’s latest comedy special with Dave Chappelle is angering LGBTQ employees. Netflix ended up firing an employee after they leaked some confidential information to the press, organized protests, and stormed executive meetings.
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
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Love your GIF selections...brightens my morning:)
Started week with good news all around-Time for Coffee Break.