Omicron Who?

Will You Be My Friend?

Bharti Airtel is in talks to acquire a majority stake in Dish TV. 😎

If the deal does go through, the two companies will have nearly 50% share of India’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) market. Currently, Tata Sky is the leader with 33% market share. 🥇

Notably, the two companies previously held talks in 2019. But, the deal fell through due to differences over valuation. Fast forward to 2021, things have drastically changed for both the companies. Dish TV has been involved in a huge internal tussle with its largest shareholder, Yes Bank. The latter with over 25% stake wants to completely revamp Dish TV’s board. 🤯

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel has gone from strength to strength. Relief from the Government on AGR dues plus tariff hikes have boosted its finances. Airtel’s DTH business is also showing solid growth in subscriber count and revenue. It now has 18 million users vs 15 million in FY19.😌

Second time’s the charm? The deal still needs to overcome several odds. Airtel will need the approval from the promoters of both Dish TV and Yes Bank. The company then needs to convince shareholders to buy a 51% stake. Watch out for this space. 🔥

Lets Go Shopping

Nykaa is working aggressively on expanding its retail network. The company aims to triple its store footprint and expand its presence in 100 cities. Details over the timelines were not provided. 🏪

Nykaa had to slow down the pace of new store openings because of the pandemic. But, as business returns to normalcy the company aims to fastrack its offline growth. 📈

The $13 billion Indian cosmetics market is expected to grow 16% compounded annually over the next 5 years. A big chunk of this growth will be driven by online retails. But, it continues to be a fraction of the total market size. Why so? Despite the rapid growth of e-commerce in the last two years, most shoppers prefer to buy products offline. Physical stores, targeting Indian consumers wanting to buy touch-and-feel products, are a critical part of the business, according to the company. 💄

Easing restrictions and the wedding season are key drivers of growth in the immediate future. Let’s hope omicron doesn’t spoil the company’s plans. 🤞

Chartbusters

Shares of companies providing equity investment services were buzzing in trade. Rumors of the highly anticipated National Stock Exchange (NSE) IPO receiving regulatory approval boosted sentiment. BSE (+13.5%) hit a new all-time high. CDSL and Angel Broking rallied between 6%-7% each. 🤑 Check out their charts below:

Unicorns Here, Unicorns There, Unicorns Everywhere

Investments continued to pour into Indian startups in November.😃

Over 150 startups raised around $4.4 billion last month (vs $4.1 billion in October). In a segment wise breakdown, 34 late stage startups raised around $4 billion. And, over 90 early stage startups raised $377 million. A record seven startups including NoBroker, Upstox and Slice hit Unicorn status. 🦄

So what’s driving the investment? The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of all things digital. Many startups in the right sectors like edtech, and ecommerce have grown multi-fold. 

India’s most valuable startup Byju’s attracted a quarter of the total funding, as it pulled in $1.2 billion in November. Byju’s will use these funds to scale its operations and pursue acquisition. Like there are any more companies left to acquire. Other sectors like fintech, beauty products also attracted investments.👍

Also, big companies like Zomato have realised it’s easier to pick up stakes than to start from scratch. The company is also set to double down on its investment in Grofers. 🛒

As we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a catalyst in the tech boom. Besides that, rising smartphone penetration and cheap data prices will expand the market opportunity. The big question now is – will this trend sustain? Only time will tell. 🤔