Month: January 2023

Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot gets interim bail

The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim bail to arrested Videocon group founder and chairman, Venugopal Dhoot. Dhoot approached the high court after co-accused Chanda Kochhar, former managing director and chief executive officer of the ICICI bank, and her husband were granted bail.

A division bench comprising justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan heard Dhoot’s plea. Earlier, ICICI Bank’s former CEO and managing director Chanda Kochhar and her husband, Deepak Kochhar, were released from jail on Tuesday in the Videocon bank fraud case.

They were released a day after the high court held their arrest was “not in accordance with the law.” The Kochhars were arrested on December 23 last year and were sent to judicial custody six days later. The high court had asked the CBI to file by January 13 its affidavit in response to a petition filed by Dhoot seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in the case, declare his arrest as “arbitrary and illegal”, and release him on bail.

The CBI had named the Kochhars, Dhoot, Nupower Renewables (NRL), managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics and Videocon Industries as accused in the FIR

Industry Management

by Norma January 20, 2023

Coffee prices poised to climb with bean shortfall nearing

The world will face coffee shortages for an “unprecedented” third year in a row due to lower-than-expected harvest from top grower Brazil, according to coffee trader Volcafe.

Global supply will trail demand by 3.8 million bags in the next season, with robusta beans hitting a record shortfall amid surging demand for the variety used in instant coffee and as a blend in espressos, the ED&F Man division said in a January report. The shortfall comes after demand in the current season is seen as outstripping supply by 4.5 million bags, according to the firm.

“This would imply an unprecedented, third consecutive deficit,” Volcafe said in the report. “We expect the tightest period to begin from August 2023 and continue into 2024, with global stocks, especially robusta, falling to record lows.”

Volcafe’s bullish projection could drive up prices for coffee lovers. A robusta deficit of such magnitude could make even traditional brands at the supermarket more costly for consumers trying to cut expenses while dealing with stubbornly high food prices. Brazil is also expected to harvest less arabica, the bean favoured by Starbucks Corp., which could translate into higher prices at coffee chains and cafes.

Arabica futures reached a decade

Industry Sector

by Norma January 20, 2023

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings steps down as CEO as

Netflix Inc co-founder Reed Hastings said on Thursday he will step down as chief executive, handing the reins of the streaming service to longtime partner and co-CEO Ted Sarandos and the company’s chief operating officer, Greg Peters.

Shares of the company, which had fallen nearly 38% in the past year, rose 6.1% to $335.05 in after-hours trading as the streaming video pioneer also said it had picked up more subscribers than expected at the end of last year.

Netflix has been under pressure after losing customers in the first half of 2022.

Sarandos and Peters will share the title of chief executives, with Hastings serving as executive chairman. The change is effective immediately, representing the culmination of a decade of succession planning by the board. Both Peters and Sarandos were promoted in July 2020 amid a challenging time for the company.

“It was a baptism by fire, given Covid and recent challenges within our business,” Hastings said in a statement. “But they’ve both managed incredibly well … so the board and I believe it’s the right time to compete my succession.”

Hastings made his exit as Netflix said it added 7.66 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street

Industry

by Norma January 20, 2023

bureau: Govt mulls proposal to set up Dedicated Investment

The Himachal Pradesh government is contemplating a proposal to set up a Dedicated Investment and Facilitation Bureau in the state, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said. The chief minister was interacting with a delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Himachal Chapter.

This will not only help in providing all clearance and approvals in a time-bound manner but will enhance the momentum of investment in the state and play a pivotal role in making Himachal Pradesh as the most preferred investment destination for the investors, he said in a statement issued here on Thursday.

He said this bureau would provide a ‘one-stop solution’ for investors in various sectors such as industries, tourism, food processing, ayurveda, IT/Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS), power, health and education institutions.

The proposed Bureau will have vested powers for granting approvals and clearances for projects above Rs 10 crore.

The state government also plans to make essential changes in the Industrial Policy and give facilities to entrepreneurs to invest in Himachal Pradesh, Sukhu said.

He said that electric vehicles would be given added preference and urged the industrialists to invest in this sector so that we could maintain a green and clean environment.

To strengthen

Industry Accounting

by Norma January 20, 2023

‘His lies caused regular people to lose millions’: Elon Musk

In the opening statements of Musk’s securities fraud trial on Wednesday, the lawyer representing Tesla investors said that the billionaire lied about securing the funding to take the EV company private back in 2018.

Nicholas Porritt, the lawyer representing Glen Littleton and other Tesla shareholders in a class-action suit against Musk started by saying to the court on how Muk’s tweets have caused financial suffering to his clients. “We are here because Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive of Tesla, lied. His lies caused regular people like Glen Littleton to lose millions and millions of dollars,” he said.

Later, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro in his address to the jury said that Musk’s intention to take Tesla private was true but he had no ill intentions towards the shareholders. Spiro called Musk’s tweets as informal sporadic thoughts. “Mr Musk tries to do things that have never been done before. Everyone knows that,” Spiro told the jury emphasising Musk’s habit of disrupting industries for the good.

The securities fraud trial is focused on tweets made by Musk in August 2018 on Twitter, which he now owns. The tweets exhibited that Musk had lined up the financing to take Tesla private during a

Industry Analysis

by Norma January 19, 2023

Paint industry could see further downsides on demand,

The paints sector has been an underperformer with most listed majors shedding 17-25 per cent since their highs in August. Barring Akzo Nobel, which has generated positive returns in this period, paint companies have lagged the benchmarks and their peer indices that have delivered flattish returns over this period.

Despite the weak returns, brokerages believe that there are multiple near- to- medium-term worries for the sector, which could open the way for further downgrades and disappointment on the return front. These include weak December quarter earnings, muted volumes, competitive pressures as new players enter the segment, and a lack of valuation comfort.

The near-term risk for the major players remains in sales. Elara Securities expects muted volumes across segments with low, single-digit growth in decorative coatings due to early Diwali and prolonged monsoons. Its checks indicate muted demand post-Diwali and the slowdown in business. Analysts led by Amit Purohit of the brokerage, believe that industrial paints too are likely to be muted due to a dip in automobile production (2 per cent dip in Maruti Suzuki’s passenger vehicle production), led by electronics components shortage. ICICI Securities too expects volume growth to be impacted

Industry Management

by Norma January 19, 2023