A consortium backed by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd and India's top engineering schools aims to launch its first ChatGPT-style service next month. The BharatGPT group developed the model named Hanooman, which will work via 11 local languages in health care, governance, financial services, and education. Reliance Jio will build customized models for specific uses.
“2023 was the year of block trades, 2024 is going to be the year of IPOs — and that momentum will most likely carry into 2025,” Debasish Purohit said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Mumbai. “2024 and 2025 as a block will be the busiest years of IPOs in our lifetime.”
Reliance Industries (RIL) becomes the first listed Indian entity to cross Rs 20 lakh crore market cap milestone. Analysts from Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Sharekhan, and Citi have provided target prices and assessments of RIL's future prospects. RIL's market value has increased by Rs 1 lakh crore in the last two weeks alone.
The proposal, as of now, is to create a step-down subsidiary of Viacom18 Media, which will absorb Star India via a stock swap, they said. Both businesses are being treated as similar-sized ones, valued at $4-5 billion each, so RIL will be paying cash for the controlling stake. Read more:
Jio Financial shares ended 14% higher on BSE on Monday following a media report stating that Jio has been in talks to buy the Paytm wallet business since November. Citing sources, the report had said as part of a larger bailout plan, Jio may offer to acquire Paytm Payments Bank.
The RBI’s unhappiness isn’t new. It stopped Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding fresh customers nearly two years ago. Last year, while imposing a fine of $650,000 on the bank, the regulator highlighted a number of violations, including failure to identify beneficial account owners and a video-based customer identification that allowed connections from IP addresses outside India.
Paytm, in an official release, stated that the news item suggesting such an acquisition is speculative, baseless, and factually incorrect. The clarification from Paytm extends to its associate company, Paytm Payments Bank Limited, as well. According to the release, the payments bank has also not engaged in any negotiations related to the speculated acquisition by Mukesh Ambani.
According to Brand Finance's 'Global-500 2024' report, Jio, the digital and telecom arm of Reliance Industries, remains the strongest Indian brand, securing the 17th position globally with a Brand Strength Index of 88.9. Jio's brand value increased by 14% to $6.1 billion, reflecting its rapid growth in the telecom industry, driven by substantial brand investment from Reliance Industries.
The D-Street analysts expect 2024 to be an eventful year for Reliance Industries as the past two years of investments move into the monetization phase. "We think investment cycles will be shorter than in the past 2 decades, with limited impact on balance sheet leverage," global brokerage Morgan Stanley said.
Sanjiv Bhasin highlights the performance of the midcap index and the earnings of companies like REC, PFC, NBCC, GAIL, IREDA, and Colgate. He expresses optimism about the Bank Nifty and the stellar performance of ICICI Bank and PSU stocks. He mentions the underperformance of HDFC and the potential impact on its stock price. He also discusses the merger cancellation of Zee Entertainment and predicts changes in its ownership. He suggests considering largecap banks like ICICI Bank and identifies potential opportunities in stocks like Dhanlaxmi Bank and Indus Tower.
Stock exchanges, money and foreign exchange markets, and Reliance Industries will be closed on Monday to mark the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The first Indian conglomerate to do so, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani is expected to attend. Paytm will also be closed in compliance with the UP government's order.
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