- Friday, April 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Saturday, September 17, 2022:
The Adani family, through Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd (“BidCo”), a special purpose vehicle, has successfully completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd., Asian News International reported. The transaction involved the acquisition of Holcim’s stake in Ambuja and ACC along with an open offer in both entities as per SEBI Regulations. The largest acquisition in India’s Infrastructure and Materials space valued at $6.5 billion (£5.6 billion). Post the transaction, Adani will hold 63.15 per cent in Ambuja Cements and 56.69 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements). The combined market capitalization of Ambuja Cements and ACC is $19 billion (£16.4 billion) as on date.
In a significant move to promote ease of doing business, the Indian ministry of road transport & highways has notified new rules to simplify and streamline the trade certificate regime under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, Asian News International reported. Due to certain anomalies in the existing rules, the applicability of the Trade Certificate was open to interpretation in many cases, leading to harassment of many business establishments. Moreover, the application for a trade certificate was required to be filed physically at the RTO which was a time-consuming process, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways said in a statement on Saturday.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) predicts the country’s current account deficit to stay within a limit that it thinks is sustainable amid softening world-wide fuel, food and fertiliser prices while portfolio flows and exports go up, Bloomberg reported. “Overall, the current account deficit is expected to be within 3% of gross domestic product,” the RBI said in its September Bulletin released Friday. “With portfolio flows returning and foreign direct investment remaining strong, this order of deficit is eminently financeable.” RBI governor Shaktikanta Das has assured the markets a number of times that the current account gap will be sustainable and the central bank can comfortably finance it.
Judith McKenna, president and CEO of Walmart International, said at Walmart’s annual retail tech event ‘Converge’ on Friday that India has a unique role to play in the global economy, thanks to its deep pool of talent, established ability to leapfrog prevailing digital technologies, and extensive expertise in manufacturing, Hindu BusinessLine reported. She said having strong local businesses is the key to Walmart’s success story and in sync with that strategy, the American multinational will enable and scale up Indian e-commerce major Flipkart and digital payment company PhonePe. She also said that Walmart is expanding its ‘Made in India’ export commitments each year and hopes to touch the $10 billion (£8.6 billion) figure in another five years.
The Adani Group on Friday emerged as the most valued business house in India with a market capitalisation of Rs 20.74 lakh crore (£225.7 billion), moving ahead of the Tata Group (Rs 20.7 lakh crore or £225 billion), the Times of India reported. The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group stood at the third position with a market cap of Rs 17.1 lakh crore (£186 billion), according to data. HDFC was at No.4 with 14.3 lakh crore (£156 billion) while the Bajaj Group was at fifth with Rs 9.2 lakh crore (£100 billion).
