Corporate

Paytm Kuch Karo


Paytm is just not having a good time in the public markets. There's been a bunch of negative news about the company since its IPO and the stock seems to be on an unstoppable slide.

Now the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has asked the company for clarification over the sharp fall in its stock price.

The notice sent by the BSE is actually very carefully worded. They haven't mentioned "stock price falling" or anything like that, but say that the company should ensure that investors have all the latest information about it so that the interest of investors is safeguarded in light of the "significant price movements" seen in the stock. LOL.

The BSE asking for clarification is not a very common sight, and so investors are even more worried than they were earlier.

Paytm's stock has lost 75% of its value from the issue price of Rs 2,150 per share at the IPO in November 2021. The analyst at Macquarie, who was one of the few that were negative on Paytm since its IPO has further cut their price target from Rs 700 to Rs 450. Yesterday the stock closed at Rs 543.

Corporate

Corporate Catch Up


Invesco v/s Zee
The Bombay High Court has stepped into the dispute between the management of Zee Entertainment Limited and shareholders Invesco.

The Gyst of the matter is that Invesco wants to replace current CEO Punit Goenka (and some other directors) and had asked the company to hold an EGM of shareholders to vote on the matter(read the whole story here). This was back in September last year

But Zee managed to get an injunction from a court against that, and Punit Goenka has retained his CEO position ever since.

Now the Bombay HC has said that Invesco can appeal against the injunction, as their original request to hold an EGM was not illegal or unfair. Guess we shall soon find out who's going to be running Zee Entertainment.

TCS Buyback
TCS' latest buyback offer saw a huge response from investors, and shares worth almost Rs 1 lakh crores were offered by investors to the company.

The buyback started on March 9, and TCS said they would be acquiring 4 crore shares at Rs 4,500 per share. This is a little over 1% of the company's equity. And Rs 4,500 per share represents a 21% premium over the current market price. As a result, a lot more investors tendered their shares to be bought back - 22 crore shares! 

Interestingly, one of the biggest beneficiaries of this buyback could be the promoter company Tata Sons. Tata Sons has recently been in acquisition mode (Air India), and could probably use the cash they'd get by selling some of their TCS shares at a healthy premium.

Tech

What Is Happening Ola?


After the blockbuster year for Indian startups last year, those of us who were hoping for another year like that are definitely being let down.
The likes of Ola, Delhivery and OYO are all deferring their planned IPOs for this year.

Ever since tech stocks globally started taking a beating investors have become wary.

Earlier Ola was considering an IPO in the first half of this year, now it looks like they will instead go ahead with a downround as per Moneycontrol.
A downround is when a private company raises funds at a lower valuation than the last fundraise.
In Ola's case, they'd last raised funds at a $7 billion valuation. Now they are looking to get in $150-$200 million at a valuation of $5 billion.

This isn't Ola's first downround btw, they've gone through this earlier in 2017 also so we are guessing they shouldn't be too worried.

Post this round Ola apparently wants to go deeper into the loans and microinsurance space as well.

While We Are On The Subject...

Ola Electric has invested in the Israel-based battery technology startup StoreDot. 
StoreDot has been quite hyped up because of its battery technology that charges a battery from 0 to 100% in 5 minutes. Right now charging batteries takes a long time so having the wait time go down to 5 minutes would really help increase adoption.

As a part of this investment, Ola will have exclusive rights to manufacture batteries integrating StoreDot’s fast charge technology in India.
So clearly Ola is looking out for the long term with its Electric mobility play.

• Don't try this at home: a failed stunt sent this Tesla flying (literally) before crashing into two parked cars.
• Here's a video of a swarm of later bugs crawling across the outback in Australia.

Campus Ambassador Program

If you have more time ...

• Another Boeing plane crash (in China this time) has experts baffled.
• LPG prices are up by Rs 50 per cylinder, the first hike since October 2021.

Share The Gyst