BUSINESS
Billionaire Flipkart founder Binny Bansal ready to launch stealth AI startup
Binny Bansal, who co-founded online retailer Flipkart and sold it to Walmart Inc., has hired 15 experts for the venture — mostly artificial intelligence scientists — and plans to quickly add more, according to people familiar with the matter.
BUSINESS
Big tech’s growth status in doubt with weaker sales outlooks
Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. all gave investors reason to fret about growth.
BUSINESS
Morgan Stanley’s Wilson warns stock gains are bear market rally
Technical and fundamental support is missing, wrote Michael Wilson in a research note Monday.
BUSINESS
A.K. Alternative eyes $48 million New India Private Credit Fund
A.K. Securitization and Credit Opportunities Fund will provide growth capital to mid-market companies, linking debt repayment to their operating cash flows, said the fund’s chief executive officer Vikas Jain.
BUSINESS
Byju’s in talks to sell US unit Epic for $400 million to Joffre
The potential sale of Epic! Creations Inc. would help Byju’s raise funds to pay down a disputed $1.2 billion term loan, people familiar with the matter said.
WORLD
Short-selling ban sparks biggest rally in Korean stocks since 2020
The nearly eight-month ban may help appease retail investors who have complained about the impact of shorting — the selling of borrowed shares by institutional investors — ahead of elections in April, several market watchers said.
WORLD
China invests $5.4 billion in two-year-old memory chipmaker
In its latest funding round, Hefei-based Changxin Xinqiao secured 14.6 billion yuan from the state-backed China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II in late October and funding from two other investors affiliated with the local government, according to Chinese corporate data provider Tianyancha.
BUSINESS
Blackstone sees most Asia deal activity in Japan, India in 2024
“India has the highest growth; it also has the most ebullient stock market,” Joe Baratta, Blackstone’s global head of private equity, said in an interview in Tokyo. “Japan will also be very interesting as a market. The economy seems to be decoupled from what’s going on in the rest of the world.”
BUSINESS
E-commerce startup Udaan to trim costs ahead of 2025 IPO
Udaan, which competes with Reliance Industries Ltd. and Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart in helping smaller merchants source their goods, will make an operating profit within 18 months, Chief Executive Officer Vaibhav Gupta said in an interview. That’s set to happen around the same time as its initial public offering, he said.
MARKETS
Morgan Stanley says oil at $110 could prompt RBI to hike again
A $10 increase in oil prices boosts inflation by 50 basis points and contributes to a 30 basis-point widening in the current account balance, Morgan Stanley’s economists estimate.
WORLD
Emerging Asia currencies buoyed by rate hikes set to outperform
In the view of Brendan McKenna, an emerging market strategist at Wells Fargo & Co., the Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso and Thai baht are among the best bets.
WORLD
Elon Musk debuts ‘rebellious’ grok AI bot to challenge ChatGPT
Dubbed Grok, it’s the first product of Musk’s xAI company and is now in testing with a limited group of US users. Grok is being developed with data from Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, and is thus better informed on the latest developments than alternative bots with static datasets, the company’s website said.
BUSINESS
Vedanta nears deal to raise $1.25 billion via private loan
The Indian conglomerate is nearing a deal after weeks of negotiations with lenders, including Cerberus Capital Management LP, Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP, Varde Partners Inc., and Ares SSG Capital Management Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.
TRENDS
Saudi Arabia eyes stake in $30 billion worth Indian Premier League
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s advisers have sounded out Indian government officials about moving the IPL into a holding company valued at as much as $30 billion, in which Saudi Arabia would then take a significant stake
WORLD
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos announces move to Miami from Seattle
Jeff Bezos — the world’s third-wealthiest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — made the announcement Thursday via Instagram, which included video of him in his Seattle garage where he founded Amazon in 1994.
WORLD
Google and Microsoft bet on 27-year-old Stanford alum to make AI work for a billion users
Preethi, who goes by a single name, as is common in the region, is among the 70 workers hired in Agara and neighboring villages by a startup called Karya to gather text, voice and image data in India’s vernacular languages.
WORLD
World’s top sugar trader is having Deja Vu of an epic shortage
Consecutive years of deficits, weather damage in key crops and shipping bottlenecks are reminding the world’s top sugar trading company of 2010 and 2011, when prices of the sweetener hit a three-decade high.
TRENDS
Google and Microsoft bet on 27-year-old Stanford alum to make AI work for a billion users
After three days of working with Karya, Preethi earned 4,500 rupees ($54), more than four times the amount the 22-year-old high school graduate usually makes as a tailor in an entire month.
BUSINESS
Worst of Nigeria’s Naira devaluation over, Airtel Africa boss says
BUSINESS
Investcorp Capital seeks up to $403 million in UAE listing
The price range for the investment vehicle was set at 1.90 dirhams to 2.30 dirhams per share, according to a statement
TRENDS
Where to feast Diwali this year in London like never before
The food is so ingrained in British culture that in 2001 then-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook dubbed chicken tikka masala the national dish.
WORLD
Abu Dhabi weighs investment pledges worth $50 billion for India
Any new investments would follow Narendra Modi’s meetings with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed in July.
ECONOMY
CEA Nageswaran sees RBI holding fire if Fed hikes again
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday while still keeping alive the possibility of more hikes given inflation remains above its 2% target and economic growth is strong.
MARKETS
A record number of Indian firms are going public this year
India’s major equity benchmarks touched record levels earlier this year, with earnings and the economy growing despite the highest interest rates since 2018.
