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Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s top backer Prosus NV said it has made more than $2 billion on its Swiggy investment as it continues to highlight the value of its portfolio outside of its stake in the Chinese tech giant. Prosus and its controlling shareholder Naspers Ltd. invested $1.3 billion building a 31% stake in Swiggy ahead of its stock market debut in India on Wednesday. The food delivery firm targeted an initial public offering valuation of up to $11.3 billion.Prosus is selling down shares worth more than $500 million in the IPO and will retain 25% of Swiggy, similar to its stake in Tencent, Prosus’s President and Chief Investment Officer Ervin Tu said an interview ahead of the listing. “We expect to benefit from the upside of the business, and the tailwinds of the fast-growing Indian market in future,” Tu said, noting that Prosus has invested in several Indian companies that could list on public markets. Swiggy shares rose 13% in the company’s trading debut in Mumbai, giving it a market value of about $11.7 billion.Prosus, through Naspers, made a blockbuster investment in Tencent in 2001, when it paid $34 million for a 50% stake. Today, it owns about a quarter of the company, which has a market value of about $480 billion. The group’s investment in the Chinese tech giant has distorted Prosus’s stock price and created a gap between the value of the stake and the rest of the group’s businesses. The Prosus team has been scouring the globe, looking to replicate the investment success it’s had with Tencent. The company has made a number of big bets in e-commerce that have been paying off recently. On top of the Swiggy IPO share sale, the company sold its stake in China’s Trip.com for about $1.5 billion, Tu said. Tu said the group has “re-doubled” its efforts to deploy the company’s capital in a “very productive way,” focusing on sectors including online food, classifieds, payments and fintech. Prosus’s India head Ashutosh Sharma said that Swiggy’s $1.3 billion offering to institutional investors was heavily oversubscribed, with “eight of the top ten fund managers worldwide” buying in.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had picked John Ratcliffe, a close ally who was director of national intelligence at the end of his first term, to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Ratcliffe served as the nation's top spy from late May 2020 until Trump left office in January 2021. More recently, he was co-chair of the Center for American Security, a think tank advocating Trump positions, and advised the former Republican president on national security policy during his 2024 campaign. "I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions. He will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH," Trump said in a statement announcing the nomination. Ratcliffe, a former member of the House of Representatives, promised at his confirmation hearing to be DNI in May 2020 that he would provide "objective and timely intelligence" in the position. He also said he would closely monitor other issues like Iran's military, North Korea's nuclear weapons program and foreign interference in the U.S. election. When Ratcliffe was confirmed as DNI in 2020 by the Republican-majority Senate, all Democratic senators voted against his nomination, citing his lack of experience and partisanship. With Republicans again controlling the chamber next year, and months of experience as DNI, he is expected to be easily approved this time. CRITIC OF BIDEN MIDEAST POLICY, CHINA HAWK More recently, Ratcliffe has criticized how Democratic President Joe Biden's administration has approached the conflict in the Middle East. In an article published in June, he argued that Biden's threat to withhold weapons shipments to Israel over its military actions in Gaza had put a key ally at risk. He also argued that the administration had not been tough enough on Iran. Ratcliffe also positioned himself as a China hawk during his tenure as DNI. "The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically," Ratcliffe wrote in a December 2020 article in the Wall Street Journal. As DNI, Democrats and former intelligence officials accused him of declassifying intelligence to benefit Trump and his Republican allies. They claimed he used this information to attack political opponents, including Biden, then Trump's rival for the presidency. Ratcliffe's office denied this charge. It was the second time Trump nominated Ratcliffe for the post. He was the most junior member of the House Intelligence Committee, with just six months on the panel, when Trump first said he wanted to appoint him in July 2019. Trump quickly abandoned Ratcliffe's first nomination when members of Congress worried he was too inexperienced and too partisan. But Republicans supported Ratcliffe when Trump picked him again, saying the office of DNI was too important to be filled with only acting officials. Ratcliffe had represented a Texas congressional district since 2015 and served on the House intelligence and judiciary committees. He became known as an outspoken defender of Trump during the Democratic-led proceedings that resulted in Trump's 2019 impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Republican-led Senate later acquitted Trump, the only U.S. president to be impeached twice. Trump has had a rocky relationship with intelligence agencies, including the CIA, accusing their employees of being part of the "deep state," his term for career federal employees he accuses of pursuing their own agendas.

ET Intelligence Group: Britannia Industries, one of the last major fast-moving goods (FMCG) companies in India to announce September-quarter results, posted numbers that were below expectations. While its volumes grew by 8% year-on-year, revenue increased by 4.5% to ₹4,566 crore. The company's net profit declined by 9.6% YoY to ₹531 crore, impacted by high input costs as well as lower realisations.During the quarter, raw material costs for the company were up by 7.8% from a year ago, driven by high inflation in the cost of wheat, palm oil, cocoa and sugar. The input cost as a proportion of revenue rose to 59.8% of sales compared with 57.9% a year ago. This directly impacted profitability, as the operating profit margin dropped by 280 basis points (bps) to 15.5%.115234594According to the management, metro cities contribute 30% to the company's total FMCG business, and these have seen the maximum slowdown. This is likely to result in some short-term impact on volumes.Britannia has initiated selective price increases to pass on the input cost inflation. A price increase of 4-5% is likely to be implemented in the next two quarters. It is also identifying new levers for cost optimisation across the value chain. Besides biscuits, Britannia's other business segments of bakery (cake, rusk and wafers), dairy and international markets are growing sustainably and profitably.In India, the rural FMCG market continues to grow ahead of the urban. Britannia has increased its direct reach to 2.85 million outlets. Revenue growth in its focus states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat outperformed the rest of India. The company is redefining its distribution strategy to optimise range distribution and improve outlet servicing with pilots across 25 cities covering more than 50,000 outlets, showing encouraging results.The management commentary in the post-earnings call, however, failed to assuage the Street's disappointment over the September-quarter performance, leading to Britannia's shares closing 7.3% lower on Tuesday. The Britannia stock had become part of the Nifty50 index in 2019. In the last five years, the scrip has underperformed the benchmark Sensex, as it gained 58% in contrast to the 101% gain posted by the index.Incidentally, discretionary food consumption is a function of disposable income in the hands of the consumer. With urban middle-class incomes seeing a nominal increase, it is likely to adversely impact discretionary food consumption. Besides, the emergence of healthier options across new-age channels poses a growing threat to mainstream food companies.Companies like Britannia need to go beyond taking the conventional measures of investing in brands, increasing distribution networks, premiumising the portfolio and cost-cutting to create sustainable value for its customers and investors.

Mumbai: The waves of crypto frenzy in the global markets are lapping Indian shores.Average daily trading volumes in half a dozen major exchanges have surged 3 times in less than a week despite crippling taxes and a shadow ban by most banks. Investors who were sitting on losses for close to 18 months are suddenly in the money. Prices of some of the zombie coins, along with other cryptocurrencies, are tailing Bitcoin which touched a new high. And, more local investors are booking profits than chipping in fresh money - as is borne out by the squeeze in the premium in USDT, the stable coin that serves as a go-between when cryptocurrencies are sold to generate rupees.With Donald Trump vowing to make America the "crypto capital of the planet" - fuelling hopes that at some point the US Fed could even hold a slice of its reserves in cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, the most prized crypto, was trading close to $90,000 on Tuesday.The world market-cap of Bitcoin at $1.7 trillion is estimated to have crossed the global value of silver holdings. 115234368VOLUMES STILL BELOW '21 PEAKIn India, crypto exchanges, which are awaiting a white paper on the industry from the government, operate in a regulatory void, as the virtual digital asset (VDA) is neither considered a currency nor a security. Indeed, the average volumes in exchanges on Tuesday were still about 60% lower than the peak of 2021 which was the result of a year-long rally sparked by a March 2020 Supreme Court ruling that had set aside a 2018 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restriction on banks from dealing in VDAs and facilitating VDA transactions. With most high-street banks unwilling to entertain exchanges as clients, payment gateways shutting their doors, and the government imposing high taxes on trades and profits, trades have plummeted since 2022.MANY IN-THE-MONEY POST FED, MICRO-STRATEGYThat changed this week, thanks to Mr. Trump's professed position on cryptos. "With Trump's victory and several catalysts, including MicroStrategy's bold decision to invest up to $42 billion in Bitcoin over the next 3 years, we are clearly in a bull market. Fed's recent rate cut, following earlier reductions, has created a more favourable environment for alternative assets... The bull market is also pushing up prices of altcoins and meme-driven coins," said Sumit Gupta, co-founder of CoinDCX, one of the largest local crypto bourses.The last few days gave many small and well-heeled investors a chance to make money. With USDT (or Tether which serves as a proxy for US dollar) quoting at almost the same level as the inter-bank USD-INR, it was evident several investors were cashing out. Typically, USDT (which is not easily available) quotes at a premium of 6/7% the rupee-dollar exchange rate. But as investors sold Bitcoin-USDT pairs, USDT was sold to convert into INR cash, resulting in the vanishing premium. The last time it happened was in 2022, when panicky investors sold as the Bahamas-based exchange FTX went belly up. This week, it was the result of a profit-booking amid a stunning rally."The next milestone would be $100,000 per BTC. Institutional inflows are on the rise and the supply of Bitcoin had halved earlier this year. So on one side, demand is skyrocketing and on the other, supply is reducing. Year-to-date, Bitcoin (BTC) has seen an impressive 105.2% gain from the previous year.Its total marketcap is now $1.78 trillion, surpassing silver in overall market value,” said Balaji Srihari, business head of the leading crypto platform, CoinSwitch. BOURSES KEEP FINGERS CROSSED Unlike stocks, investors can buy a fraction of a crypto. With Bitcoin hitting a new high, there is interest also in coins like Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, Matic, and Doge. “Both institutions and retailers are driving the momentum. In the 2021 bull run, retailers entered the market a little late, but this time the wallet addresses holding 0.001 BTC have been increasing which shows strong retail presence,” said Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex.The crypto story is playing out at a point when Indian VDA exchanges are keeping their fingers crossed. Even as they put in security measures following the cyber heist at WazirX and desperately hope that the euphoria in the US might have some rub off on the Indian policy makers, they don’t rule out calls from jittery bankers, RBI officials splashing cold water, and the finance ministry losing its interest.

Mumbai: Over 12 lakh gig or freelance roles were posted during the 2024 festive season, which is 23 per cent more than last year driven by the rise of e-commerce, tech advancements, and the transition to flexible, on-demand roles post-pandemic, a report said on Tuesday. This demand is primarily driven by a booming retail environment, evolving customer expectations, increased consumer spending, the expansion of e-commerce, and the growing trend of 'just-in-time' hiring, said the report. "This festive season, over 1.2 million gig roles were posted. We're seeing more than just a spike in gig roles - it's a transformation in how people and companies are approaching work," end-to-end recruitment solutions provider Avsar founder and CEO Navneet Singh said quoting its report - 'Gig Workers Report'. The report is based on an analysis of data collected from Avsar's platform, covering key sectors such as logistics, retail, e-commerce, and customer support, with a focus on geographic demand shifts between metro and tier II cities. Tier II cities like Surat, Jaipur, and Lucknow are rapidly becoming key hubs for gig hiring, showing a strong demand, while metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi NCR, and Bengaluru still lead in overall numbers, accounting for 53 per cent of the demand, it said. The shift toward tier II cities highlights the expanding reach of the gig economy beyond traditional urban areas, added the report. According to the report to attract talent in a competitive market, companies are offering higher pay for gig roles this season. Field technicians can earn up to Rs 35,000 monthly, while customer support executives and delivery personnel earn between Rs 18,000 and Rs 28,000. This rise in pay reflects a combination of factors, including a shortage of skilled workers in high-demand roles and the need for businesses to meet rising service expectations during the festive season, making gig work more appealing for skilled professionals, it said. Logistics, retail, and customer support roles dominate this season's demand, it said. Logistics roles account for 35 per cent of all gig jobs, followed by retail and e-commerce at 28 per cent, and customer support at 15 per cent. "It's exciting to see gig work becoming a viable, long-term career path for many, with roles that also reflect growing values around sustainability. We believe the gig economy is evolving into something lasting and impactful for India's workforce," Singh added.