Business Today 21 July 2024

“We only know how to run, we don’t know how to walk.” That’s what Swami Ramdev, the Co-founder of the Patanjali group told us in 2021 when we ran the cover story on his plans for Ruchi Soya, which he acquired for ₹4,350 crore in 2019 through the insolvency process. Ruchi’s turnover at the time was ₹16,383 crore. Cut to 2024, and Ruchi Soya, now christened Patanjali Foods Ltd (PFL), clocked a turnover of ₹31,962 crore in FY24. Moreover, primarily an edible oils company at the time, PFL today sees 30% of its turnover coming from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business. Swami Ramdev and group Co-founder Acharya Balkrishna have shown Patanjali can run. But this run hasn’t been without its hurdles, and the group has stumbled along the way.…

NOTE WHOLESALE PRICE DATA AS OF JUNE 15; SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 63% Increase (YoY) in onion prices in the past year; while potato and tomato witnessed a rise of 61% and 21%, respectively 20% Decline in onion production in 2023-24; during the same period, potato output fell 6% to 56.8 million tonnes 58% Surge in lemon prices in the past year, while banana and mango prices increased 23% during the same period 7.87% Inflation recorded in food and beverages in May 2024—which is unchanged from the previous month’s reading…

3.39% CAPITAL EXPENDITURE AS A PERCENTAGE OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) IN THE INTERIM BUDGET 2024-25, COMPARED TO 3.23% IN FY24 (REVISED ESTIMATES) AND 1.67% IN FY20 56% THE ESTIMATED WORKER POPULATION RATIO IN FY23 AGAINST 52.90% IN FY22 AND 47.3% IN FY19, INDICATING THAT EMPLOYMENT HAS AN INCREASING TREND, ACCORDING TO MoSPI ₹173.82 LAKH CRORE SIZE OF INDIAN GDP AT CONSTANT PRICES IN FY24 AGAINST ₹105.28 LAKH CRORE IN FY15; GDP AT CURRENT PRICES WAS AT ₹295.36 LAKH CRORE IN FY24 AND ₹124.68 LAKH CRORE IN FY15, AS PER THE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK SPENDING SPREE BUDGET EXPENDITURE OF THE GOVERNMENT HAS GROWN AT A CAGR OF 11% SINCE FY15 #REVISED ESTIMATES; *INTERIM BUDGET SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ASSET CREATION CAPITAL EXPENDITURE IN THE BUDGET HAS INCREASED NEARLY SIXFOLD SINCE…

INDIA’S CEMENT SECTOR has seen a lot of activity in the past couple of years. Deal flow has been unprecedented, with the latest being UltraTech Cement picking up a stake in India Cements. The Kumar Mangalam Birla-promoted UltraTech, the largest cement maker of the country with an installed capacity of close to 150 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), picked up a 23% stake in the Chennai-based India Cements—led by N. Srinivasan, who is a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)—for ₹1,900 crore. UltraTech has made it clear that this is a “non-controlling financial investment”, while it has been reported that the stake was bought from DMart Founder Radhakishan Damani and his associates. This wasn’t the only big cement company acquisition in the southern part…

AFTER A GAP of over eight months, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council met on June 22. Coming as it did after a brief hiatus brought about by the General Elections, the meeting was keenly awaited by trade and industry, which was hoping for clarity on many issues. The Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with representatives from all states—including as many as 11 new members—clearly had a busy agenda and announced as many as 52 decisions. Almost all of them were procedural and compliance-related and gave respite to industry and taxpayers by improving the ease of doing business and providing certainty on tax rates. Some of these decisions include extending the due date for input tax credit, setting monetary limits to file appeals under the GST…

HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA (HMIL), the country’s second-largest passenger carmaker, is gearing up for an initial public offering (IPO). The Gurugram-headquartered local subsidiary of Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) recently filed a draft red herring prospectus with the market regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) to dilute a part of its promoter stake. Although it has not announced any specific date for its IPO, sources indicate that HMIL, a 100% subsidiary of HMC, might make its market debut as early as 2025. As per the DRHP, the company’s plan involves an offer for sale (OFS), through which the parent HMC intends to sell 142.2 million of its shares, representing 17.5% of HMIL. The company has not disclosed the expected proceeds from the IPO. However, according to estimates by…