Espresso: CRISIL's India Inc outlook, Tejas' share sale

CRISIL revises India Inc’s credit outlook

Credit rating agency CRISIL has revised India Inc’s credit quality outlook for FY 2022 to ‘positive’ from ‘cautiously optimistic’ earlier. This follows a sustained demand recovery after the blip caused by the second wave of COVID-19 infections in the first quarter of FY 2022.

It also highlighted that the credit ratio (upgrades to downgrades) in the first four months of FY2022 improved to more than 2.5 times. The ratio had touched a decadal low of 0.54 time amid the first wave in the first half of FY 2021, before recovering to 1.33 times in the second half, buoyed by a rebound in demand.

The revised outlook factors in strong economic growth—both domestic and global—and containment measures that are localised and less stringent compared to the first wave.

Tejas Networks’ large investors sell shares

Consilium Extended Opportunities Fund, a sizeable shareholder in Tejas Networks, informed stock exchanges that it has sold 3 lakh shares of Tejas in the open market on August 13. At the weighted average price of Rs 418.68 a share on August 13, the fund took in Rs 12.5 crore from the trade.

Through the trade, the fund made an upside of over 62 percent on the tranche, owing to the option to participate in the open offer from Tata Sons’ owned Panatone Finvest, which will buy shares in late September at Rs 258 a share.

Consilium still owns over 4.5 million shares, which works out to 4.82 percent of Tejas, down from 5.14 percent held before the August 13 trade.

Zomato buys minority stake in Grofers

Food-tech company Zomato has taken a 9.16 percent stake in e-commerce company Grofers India for Rs 518.2 crore.

Zomato has also invested Rs 222 crore in Grofers' B2B wholesale entity, Hands on Trades, for an 8.94 percent stake in it. Hands on Trades reported an annual turnover of Rs 2,172 crore in financial year 2020.

The Competition Commission of India has approved both the investments on August 13, Zomato informed stock exchanges.

Tata Motors unveils new electric vehicle

Tata Motors unveiled its second electric vehicle for the personal segment, Tigor EV, on Wednesday.

The first passenger vehicle in its electric portfolio is Tata Nexon EV, which was launched in January 2020. Like the Nexon EV, Tigor is powered by Ziptron technology.

“The Ziptron technology has enabled Tata Motors to dispel, to a large degree, the popular myths surrounding EVs today with respect to power, monsoon usage, reliability, suitability for long distance driving, frequency of charging, and so on," said Anand Kulkarni, Vice President, Product Line, Electric Vehicle and ALFA Architecture – Passenger Vehicle Business, Tata Motors.

MG Motor introduces mid-sized SUV

MG Motor India unveiled Astor on Wednesday, featuring an industry-first personal AI assistant and first-in-segment Autonomous Level 2 technology.

Astor is the first car to get a personal AI assistant in MG Motor's global portfolio. The company wants to harness artificial intelligence (AI) to enable services and subscriptions that can support the ‘on-demand in-car’ needs of vehicle-owners.

The Autonomous Level 2 MG Astor is powered by mid-range radars and multi-purpose cameras that can realise a series of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), the company said in a press statement. These include adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, among other systems.

Tata Steel commissions steel recycling plant

Tata Steel has commissioned its first steel recycling plant at Rohtak, Haryana, with Aarti Green Tech as its  ‘Build, Own, Operate’ partner.

With a capacity of 0.5 million tonnes per annum, the facility will gather scrap from obsolete households, construction and demolition materials, and end-of-life vehicles through its app FerroHaat, which it launched last year. This scrap will be processed through machines, and used in making steel.

The company will bring the baled and shredded ferrous scrap under two new brands, Tata FerroBaled and Tata FerroShred, both of which are high quality scrap that can be used as raw materials.

Subex wins contract in Maldives

Telecom analytics solution-provider Subex has bagged a five-year contract with Dhiraagu, a leading telecom operator in Maldives, to provide its integrated Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management (iRAFM) solution.

"Through the deployment, Dhiraagu will upgrade its systems and consolidate its standalone assurance functions to better equip themselves for the 5G era," according to a Subex press statement. Dhiraagu has half a million subscribers, and is the first telecom operator to launch 5G services in the Maldives.