Recent 6 months news in Business

Prudential plc, a UK-based insurer and asset manager, has announced plans to acquire a 75% stake in Bharti Life Insurance Company Ltd for an initial value of ₹3,500 crore ($389 million).

Under the transaction, the company will buy a 60% stake from Bharti Life Ventures Pvt Ltd and the remaining 15% stake from funds managed by 360 ONE Asset Management.

Google and Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, have announced a joint venture (JV) to establish an AI cloud infrastructure company. Blackstone has committed an initial equity investment of $5 billion for the venture. Benjamin Sloss has been appointed as the CEO of the newly formed company.

The USA-based Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (LMIC) has increased its stake in Liberty General Insurance (LGI) from 55.4% to 74%. LGI is a joint venture (JV) between the Liberty Mutual Group (LMG) and Enam Securities, with the latter holding the remaining 26% stake.

This expansion strengthens the presence of the company in the insurance sector of India, facilitated by the approval of 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the industry by the Government of India (GoI).

Adani Power has signed agreements to acquire a 24% stake in Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd (JPVL) and thermal assets from Jaiprakash Associates for ₹4,193.59 crore. The acquisition is part of a resolution plan approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and upheld by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

NLC India Ltd (NLCIL) has signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the France-based Electricite de France (EDF) to explore the development of nuclear power projects in India.

The collaboration focuses on the use of European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) and Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technologies. The EPR is a third-generation Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) developed by Framatome and EDF, featuring advanced safety and efficiency. It is to be noted that NLCIL aims to achieve a total power generation capacity of 20 GW by 2030.

L&T Energy Hydrocarbon Onshore, a division of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has secured a contract valued between ₹2,500 crore and ₹5,000 crore from Bharat Coal Gasification and Chemicals Ltd (BCGCL) to develop a coal-to-ammonium nitrate project in Odisha.

BCGCL is a Joint Venture (JV) between Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). The project is designed to produce 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate per day, aiming to reduce import dependence and conserve foreign exchange.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone for the Google Cloud India AI Hub in Tarluvada, Visakhapatnam. Valued at $15 billion (₹1.35 lakh crore), it is the largest single Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) project in India.

The facility will be managed by Raiden Infotech India Pvt Ltd (a subsidiary of Google) in collaboration with AdaniConneX (a Joint Venture (JV) between Adani Enterprises and EdgeConneX) and Nxtra by Airtel. The project will be completed over 5 years with a capacity of 1 gigawatt (GW), making it one of the largest AI focused data centers in India.

Sigma Advanced Systems Ltd (SIGD), an Indian aerospace and defence company, has signed a 7-year agreement with the United Kingdom (UK)-based Rolls-Royce for the manufacture and supply of high-precision, safety-critical components.

The contract is valued at ₹3,800 crore (nearly £300 million). The components will be utilized in the global aerospace programmes of Rolls-Royce.

Sahajanand Medical Technologies Ltd (SMT) has secured the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 50001:2018 Energy Management System certification. It becomes the first domestic cardiovascular manufacturing unit in India to adopt a structured international energy management system.

The certification applies to the manufacturing facilities of the company located in Surat (Gujarat) and Hyderabad (Telangana). It is to be noted that ISO 50001 is an international framework that defines requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and enhancing an Energy Management System (EnMS).

Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd (HSCL), the largest producer of speciality carbon black in India, has commissioned the first anode material production facility of the country at Mahistikry in the Hooghly district of West Bengal.

The facility has an initial operational capacity of 200 Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA). This marks the entry of HSCL into the lithium-ion battery value chain to strengthen the domestic energy storage sector.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), operating under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), has approved the formation of a Joint Venture (JV) with its subsidiaries, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) and ONGC Petro additions Ltd (OPaL).

The JV will focus on integrated petrochemicals marketing and trading. The shareholding structure of the JV consists of ONGC at 50% (₹25 crore), MRPL at 25% (₹12.5 crore), and OPaL at 25%. The proposal is subject to approval from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

Rocklink India Pvt Ltd has inaugurated the first integrated lithium-ion battery and rare earth magnet recycling facility in India at Sikandrabad, Uttar Pradesh. The plant has a processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) for lithium-ion batteries, yielding an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 tonnes of black mass. The facility also processes rare earth magnets at a rate of 60 tonnes per month (TPM) and plans to implement a rare earth chloride unit with a capacity of 1,500 TPA by 2026.

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has granted a licence to the Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC) to establish a reinsurance branch at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in Gujarat. ADNIC is the first insurance provider based in the UAE to establish a presence within this international financial hub of India.

Eveready Industries India Ltd. has commissioned a greenfield facility in the SIDCO Industrial Complex at Bari Brahmana in the Samba district of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). The unit was inaugurated by the Lieutenant Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha.

It is the first and only operational facility in India dedicated to the production of alkaline batteries. The project was developed with an investment of ₹200 crore ($21.64 million) and has an annual installed capacity of 456 million batteries.

Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) has signed a binding agreement with the Germany-based Allianz Group to form a 50:50 primary insurance Joint Venture (JV) in India.

The partnership aims to combine the digital distribution capabilities of JFSL with the global underwriting expertise of Allianz to enhance market reach. The JV will initially focus on providing general and health insurance solutions to both individual and commercial segments.

Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL), a special steel manufacturer, has been awarded the GreenPro Ecolabel Certification by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The certification is for the Rathi Powertech Thermo-Mechanically Treated (TMT) rebars produced at the manufacturing facility of the company in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. It is to be noted that the certification covers Fe 550 grade TMT rebars and serves as a Type-1 Eco label, validating environmental performance in line with international standards.

Tata Steel Ltd has signed a definitive agreement with Germany based Paul Wurth SA (SMS Group) to implement the world’s first large-scale “EASyMelt” (Electrically Assisted Syngas Smelter) technology. The technology will be established at the Jamshedpur plant in Jharkhand to significantly reduce carbon emissions during the steel manufacturing process.

The Board of JSW Steel Ltd has approved a proposal to form a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) with the South Korea-based POSCO Group to establish an integrated steel plant in Odisha. The proposed plant will have a production capacity of 6 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA).

Saffron Resources Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JSW Steel, will transition into the JV entity through a share subscription and joint venture agreement.

Razorpay has partnered with OpenAI to integrate the payment infrastructure of Razorpay into Codex, the coding platform of OpenAI. This collaboration enables developers to build and monetize AI applications using a single natural language prompt.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I) has notified the establishment of the first semiconductor fabrication plant in India as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Dholera, Gujarat.

The project is developed by Tata Semiconductor Manufacturing Pvt Ltd (TSMPL), a subsidiary of the Tata Group, with a total investment of ₹91,000 crore. The SEZ, spanning 66.166 hectares (ha), aims to strengthen the domestic semiconductor ecosystem and the national import substitution strategy.