India

Disney without cricket risks its streaming game

3 Mar 2022

IPL rights held by the Mouse House are up for grabs. Sony and Reliance are pumped-up contenders, and bids may hit $6 bln – well over double the 2017 price. India is the fastest-growing hub for Disney+ but minus the popular game, boss Bob Chapek can kiss subscriber gains goodbye.

India’s Russian romance will be hard to stifle

2 Mar 2022

New Delhi is under pressure to join others aligning behind Ukraine. Beyond protecting its defence-equipment supplies, however, the ties to Moscow help check China’s influence. And the energy transition even makes a case for the oil-hungry nation to deepen the relationship.

India Insight: Digital diplomacy builds bridges

21 Feb 2022

Open architecture underpinning the country’s booming fintech market is being adopted by Nepal and partly by Bhutan. Google also recommended it to the U.S. Fed. It’s a cheaper way to court allies than China’s Belt and Road projects. The soft power returns are valuable too.

India ramps up the cost of Chinese cash

16 Feb 2022

New Delhi is determined to curb Beijing’s influence in its tech sector. For local startups like Paytm and Zomato, unwinding Chinese investment is a pain. Foreigners like Singapore’s Sea may face a starker choice: cash from the People’s Republic or access to India’s growth market.

India’s crown jewel IPO deserves healthy discount

14 Feb 2022

The eagerly awaited prospectus for insurer LIC reveals underwhelming growth and profitability. Those can be improved, but its role as New Delhi’s firefighter is a big wildcard. Adviser Citi has a tricky task coordinating the price, and investors should err on the side of caution.

India’s pandemic recovery is in awkward full swing

10 Feb 2022

Cities are bustling and growth is humming along, thanks to a pragmatic approach to managing Covid-19. But bond markets’ rising impatience with the government’s debt hangover underscores a tough trudge back to normality, even for an emerging market with ample external reserves.

India’s rush to list LIC is a mistake in making

4 Feb 2022

New Delhi wants to secure proceeds from the insurer’s IPO by the end of the fiscal year. That’s less than two months away and there’s no draft prospectus yet for a company with $500 bln of assets to review. Rising risks include mispriced shares or scaring off overseas investors.

Ambani brings big guns to India’s streaming wars

28 Jan 2022

The Reliance boss is close to a tie-up with James Murdoch and Uday Shankar that will turn his TV network into a formidable rival to Disney, Sony-Zee and Amazon. It’s likely to add more ammunition to the battle for content. That will please viewers but also lead to overspending.

India Insight: Narendra Modi’s sale of the century

24 Jan 2022

The prime minister is taking a calculated risk with a record IPO of $200 bln Life Insurance Corp. It will attract millions of first-time investors and boost the country’s spending power. How, and whether, that will affect the financial system’s shock absorber is a big question.

Everyone wins in India’s telecoms debt reset

12 Jan 2022

New Delhi is set to become Vodafone Idea’s top owner via a $2.2 bln debt-for-equity swap. The deal saves India’s No. 3 operator, spares its lenders and averts a duopoly. With the government on side, raising tariffs and securing outside investment will be easier too.

Invesco walks very fine line on Sony-Zee deal

7 Jan 2022

The U.S. fund won key concessions in the $7 bln entertainment merger, but it’s also mixed up in a lawsuit over the Indian broadcaster blocking its call for a shareholder vote. Court defeat would set an ugly governance precedent. Victory, however, risks blowing up the transaction.

Reliance channels its name in 40-year bond

6 Jan 2022

It sold the longest tenure paper by an Indian firm as part of a $4 bln deal, on the back of a big successful expansion into consumer businesses. Bagging cheap funding now looks smart. But as China’s tech upheaval shows, four decades is plenty to test India’s reliance on Reliance.

Tencent’s Sea rejig keeps most people happy

4 Jan 2022

The Chinese tech behemoth is selling part of its stake in its $120 bln Singaporean peer. Sea also plans a revamp of its supervoting shares so that founder Forrest Li retains control. Li, Tencent and even Beijing can cheer. Minority investors have the least reason to be enthused.

India’s tech stock bubble is poised to deflate

28 Dec 2021

Investors will continue to afford banks and consumer firms dizzying valuations but will increasingly give their money-losing digital brethren a shorter leash. Some mix of rampant competition, slowing user growth and rising data charges will crash the party for the startup crew.

Big Quit sends world’s back office back offshore

24 Dec 2021

When the pandemic fades, and along with it the stigma of letting people go, the WFH revolution will embolden global employers to move jobs to low-cost centres again. While that should benefit India’s IT services providers, they’re ironically grappling with similar problems.

Byju’s SPAC turns into India’s $48 bln IPO problem

20 Dec 2021

New Delhi is yet to allow companies to list directly overseas, so ed-tech star Byju’s is mulling a U.S. debut via a merger. Other startups will probably get creative too. It’s similar to the regulatory grey area that China’s tech giants exploited but are now paying the price for.

Byju’s SPAC deal is straight out of the textbook

16 Dec 2021

India’s edtech startup has an offer to go public at a $48 bln valuation. SPAC sponsor Michael Klein would invest in a private placement too, adding credibility to sales forecasts. Byju’s copies Grab’s deal outline, but growing U.S. revenue could help it fare better.

Mukesh Ambani BT bid would struggle for clear line

29 Nov 2021

His Reliance would earn a so-so return buying the UK telco’s enterprise for 38 bln pounds. It’d be a distraction for his energy-to-retail conglomerate’s huge India ambitions too. He can more comfortably get a taste of a rich market by narrowing his focus to BT’s broadband unit.

Paytm battering targets raw valuation underbelly

24 Nov 2021

India’s fintech giant is worth $13 bln after a 31% post-IPO drop. That remains exuberant at 26 times sales. The company is still growing, but revenue pressure is a concern, and costs are high. Success requires official help on fees and lending. That’s far from guaranteed.

Reliance-Aramco no-deal is sign of the ESG times

22 Nov 2021

A Saudi plan from 2019 to invest $15 bln into the Indian company’s refining arm is being re-evaluated as Reliance’s green ambitions complicate matters for both sides. The impasse reflects the hectic pace of the energy transition, and the cheap capital available to fund it.