| | | Question of the Week Which is the longest strike by pilots in India’s aviation history? | | |  | Here's a great value proposition A digital subscription to Mint premium can be yours at just ₹213 per month. Check out the convenient and affordable plans we have for you here. | | Good Morning | | The News in Summary Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), the country’s most valuable company, posted earnings that were in line with analysts’ expectations. Meanwhile, the Adani group reduced its debt in its listed companies enabling it to lower promoter pledges in some of them. Elsewhere, Air India pilots are up in arms against the new pay structure proposed by the Tata group, while at another airline, Go First, the Wadia group, denied reports it was looking to sell off its stake. Finally, delivery executives at the Zomato-owned Blinkit struck work in response to the company’s new payout plan. | | | | Reliance Results Hit the Right Notes Confirmation of its plans to demerge its financial services arm and list the new entity Jio Financial Services, along with a 23.7% rise in revenue and a 27.2% increase in EBIT for FY23 over FY22, were the highlights of Reliance Industries’ full year and Q4 results announcement. For the quarter, too consolidated net profit was up, driven by a robust upside in its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business which posted the highest-ever operating profit despite what chairman Mukesh Ambani called “global uncertainties and disruptions in commodity trade flows.” RIL’s oil and gas segment also delivered strong growth, while telecom was broadly in-line with expectations. The retail business, though, missed EBITDA estimates despite stable performance. The company also reported “significant progress in the implementation of its New Energy giga factories at Jamnagar, with Ambani saying, “This puts us on track to achieve our goals of transitioning to cleaner energy and enabling sustainable growth.” However, RIL informed the exchange that the company’s board withdrew the proposal to merge subsidiary Reliance New Energy Ltd (RNEL) with it, and RNEL will undertake the conglomerate’s renewable energy business. | | | | Adani Cuts Debt to Lower Promoter Pledges in Group Companies Under pressure from lenders and investors following the revelations of the Hindenburg report, the Adani group used proceeds from the $1.88 billion equity sale to GQG Partners and an additional $1 billion from promoter-group funding to pay back at least $3 billion in loans during the Jan-March quarter. While cutting the gross debt at its seven main listed firms which rose 21% to Rs 2.3 trillion ($28 billion) as of 31 March, the payback also helped the conglomerate lower promoter-group pledges in four of its nine listed group companies—Adani Enterprises Ltd, Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, and Adani Green Energy Ltd, while settling bonds with three domestic mutual funds, SBI Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund. The quarter also saw as many as 2.25 million public shareholders buying shares worth at least $3.1 billion in Adani group companies at a time when stock prices of many of them fell sharply. Also buying was insurance giant LIC which made several opportunistic purchases in this period. | | |  | | | | | | | | Pilot Problems at Air India Even as Tata Sons filed an application with anti-trust regulator the Competition Commission of India(CCI) seeking its nod for the proposed merger of Vistara into Air India, it had to face the ire of the pilots union, which expressed disappointment with its latest pay structure and employment policies. In a letter to the HR head of the company, the pilot unions of erstwhile Indian Airlines, Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association, and Air India, Indian Pilots Guild, challenged Air India’s “unfair labour practice.” and threatened that their member pilots would not sign what they called the “unilateral revised terms of employment and compensation.” In what could be interpreted as a strike threat, they warned, “Any coercive steps or victimisation by the company against our member pilots to sign these draconian terms and compensation will lead to industrial unrest”. The threatened disruption is particularly unfortunate since it comes at a time domestic air travel demand, having crossed pre-covid levels, is on an upward trajectory. | | | | Go First Not for Sale Say Wadias The Wadia Group denied reports that it was in discussions with strategic partners to potentially sell a majority stake or completely exit its budget airline, Go First. The denial doesn’t alter the fact that with half its fleet grounded, the 18-year-old ultra-low-cost carrier is struggling with high debt and its biggest annual loss in fiscal 2022. With engine maker Pratt & Whitney (P&W) unable to supply replacements allowing 29 of its grounded A320 Neos to take to the sky, Go First has been losing market share month-on-month even as the rest of the sector stages a strong comeback from the Covid-induced slowdown. The carrier has expressed confidence in receiving Rs 600 crore in the form of promoter equity and bank loan by the end of April which would ease its cash crunch. | | | | With rumours of a sale swirling around, Go Flight’s future looks somewhat uncertain. But as this 6-year-old ad for the Wadia group airline shows, in its 18-year-long journey, it has caught the imagination of Indian fliers with some catchy advertising: | | | | Blinkit Delivery Agents Strike Work Ahead of food delivery platform Zomato’s Q4 2023 earnings announcement, its grocery unit Blinkit was temporarily crippled as delivery executives servicing around 50% of the dark stores in the NCR area stopped work in protest against changes to their payout structure. The delivery executives were told they would receive a minimum of Rs 15 per delivery instead of the Rs 25 per delivery within 1 km that they were getting earlier. Most of the stores resumed operations in parts of Delhi-NCR almost five days after its striking delivery partners met the labour commissioner of Gurugram to sort out issues related to the company’s decision. Zomato, whose stock is down 35% over the past year, later said in a clarification to the exchanges that the changes to the incentive structure were made to “address the needs of delivery partners, improve customer experience and reduce cancellation/ order rejection frauds by few delivery partners in the system.” | | | | Last Word  Beneath the excitement generated by the opening of the first two Apple company-owned stores in India (as against 50 in China), there is a lesser-known story involving an aspiring partner who claimed that the tech giant copied its idea. Says Joe Kiani, the founder of a company that makes blood-oxygen measurement devices, after Apple reached out to him for a partnership, only to start hiring key people from his company after the meeting: “When Apple takes an interest in a company, it’s the kiss of death.” He is one of the dozens of executives, inventors, investors, and lawyers who recall that first came discussions about potential partnerships or integration of their technology into Apple products, followed by silence and then the launch of similar features in its products by Apple. Affirms venture capitalist Vinod Khosla who’s a board chairman and investor in one such company, that he now steers companies in which he has invested away from having any talks with Apple. Apple, however, says that it doesn’t steal technology and respects other companies’ intellectual property. | | | | Answer to the Question In 1974, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), the union of Air India pilots, struck work against cost-cutting measures when fuel prices shot up alarmingly. That strike lasted for well over 90 days and is considered the longest in India’s aviation history. | | | Do you have any questions? Send in your queries to sundeepkkhanna@gmail.com Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | Written by Sundeep Khanna. Edited by Saikat Chatterjee. Produced by Shad Hasnain. Send in your feedback to newsletters@livemint.com. | | | | | Download the Mint app and read premium stories | | | | | | View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Contact us You received this email because you signed up for Mint Top of the Morning or because it is included in your subscription. Copyright © HT Digital Streams. All Rights Reserved | | | | |
