India Business Hour: Jio Files Draft IPO Papers; Issue Size Likely To Be $4 Bn & More Updates

[00:00:10]Hello and welcome to India Business R.

[00:00:12]I'm Ashmed Kumar. Here are the headlines that we're tracking this evening.

[00:00:17]>> The board of geo platforms has approved the draft red herring prospectus earlier today and it will be filed with SEBI today.

[00:00:31]Reliance Geo files regulatory papers for an IPO. Issue size likely to be around $4 billion which could make it India's largest ever IPO. Fresh issue of 27 cr shares likely to result in stake dilution of nearly 3%. Jio plans to prepay loans worth 27,500 cr rupees from these proceeds.

[00:00:57]GIO evaluates a foray into satellite broadband considers a sovereign satellite constellation to bridge connectivity gaps.

[00:01:09]Reliance Intelligence enters the execution phase set to commission 120 megawatts of AI compute capacity by the end of this year. Jio also embeds AI directly into the network.

[00:01:23]Reliance Retail is building a manufacturing platform for fresh fruits and vegetables, pledges to invest 30,000 cr rupees into foods and beverages business over the next 3 years. Reliance Consumer Products doubles annual revenue and targets 1 lakh cr in sales within four years.

[00:01:48]Crude oil prices ease after US official says that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon. This comes after fresh fighting threatened the peace process. US and Iran put off the Switzerland summit which was scheduled for today.

[00:02:06]Sebi revives open market buybacks allows companies to buy their own shares from the 1st of August. also eases intraday borrowing rules for mutual funds to boost liquidity.

[00:02:21]The large street snaps a 5-day winning streak. Sensex and the nifty decline nearly a percent. IT stocks get battered after accenture trims its revenue forecast. Midcaps outperform. Despite Friday's fall, Nifty ends the week in the green.

[00:02:41]India's rainfall deficiency in June rises to 41%.

[00:02:45]Southwest monsoon stalls over Maharashtra. The rain deficit in central India rises to 67%.

[00:02:57]RBI will remain watchful about generalization of inflation in the coming months says the governor Sanjay Malotra. The minutes of the last monetary policy meeting revealed that all MPC members voted for status quo on rates citing uncertainty over crude oil prices and monsoons.

[00:03:18]Delhi High Court refuses to provide any relief to Russian messaging application Telegram rejects the company's appeal against temporary ban by the Indian government.

[00:03:32]British Prime Minister Kama likely to face a leadership contest. Former mayor of Great Manchester Andy Bernham who has promised to challenge Tama wins a key bi-election to become a Labor Party MP.

[00:03:50]Italy's Prime Minister Georgia Melanie hits back after US President Trump claimed that she begged him for a photo.

[00:03:57]Melanie calls the comments made up, asks why Trump behaves like this with allies, but treats enemies with greater indulgence. Italy's foreign minister cancels a scheduled visit to the United States.

[00:04:15]Well, the top story tonight from geo platforms dialing the street to the conglomerate exploring a new frontier in satellite constellations. Reliance 49th AGM unlocked a new trajectory for the group. Let me quickly take you through the key headlines. Number one, the ball has been set rolling on the GOIPO. The company filed its draft papers minutes after MKkesh Amani made the announcement at the AGM. As per the DRHP, fresh issue of 27 cr rupees cr shares is likely to result in stake dilution of nearly 3%.

[00:04:51]GIO is foring into satellite broadband.

[00:04:54]Speaking at the AGM, Akash Amani said that Jio is evaluating the development of a sovereign low Earth orbit satellite constellation for India to bridge connectivity gaps. The group is also accelerating its artificial intelligence buildout. They are set to commission 120 megawatts of AI compute capacity from its Jam Nagar data center by the end of this year. That's not all. Jio is also embedding generative AI capabilities directly into the network. Reliance Retail meanwhile is building a manufacturing platform for fresh fruits and vegetables. The company plans to invest 30,000 cr rupees into the food and beverages business over the next 3 years.

[00:05:51]Board of Geo Platforms has approved the draft red herring prospectus earlier today and it will be filed with SEBI today. This is a deeply emotional moment for me.

[00:06:11]In 10 years, Jio has reached an operational scale that is simply extraordinary.

[00:06:17]The Jio user base has crossed 524 million, cementing our number one position.

[00:06:28]RCPL's near-term ambition is to reach 1 lakh crores in revenue by financial year 2030. Our long-term ambition is to become one of India's largest FMCG companies with a global platform to match.

[00:06:47]There are businesses that create value and then there are missions that shape civilizations.

[00:06:54]Our new energy business is a unique combination of both. It is Reliance's most ambitious generational undertaking.

[00:07:05]I carry a dream very close to my heart.

[00:07:10]A dream shared by over 1.4 billion Indians to bring the Olympic Games to India.

[00:07:24]>> Well, Sonel Bhutra now joins us with the key highlights from the Reliance Geo IPO plans. Sonel, tell us.

[00:07:31]>> Details are out now. DRP has been filed.

[00:07:33]The 27 cr shares will be issued and it's a complete fresh equity which has been issued. Uh the stake dilution is 2.93% so close to that 3% mark. The company will be using some of its proceeds to repay debt to the tune of 27,500 cr rupes. Uh now of course there have been a lot of uh there's been a lot of anticipation for this announcement right. So there have been some of the valuation uh assessments as well. It could be anywhere between 9 to 10 lakh cr rupes. This could be one of the biggest IPO as well. But of course we'll get more details on that one. Uh but for now if we look at the uh shareholders the key stakeholders that is Reliance Industries will be holding around 66.4% stake. We have Meta at around 9.98.

[00:08:12]Google at 7.73%. Saudi Wealth Fund has 2.31%. There's KKR as well. The entire list will come up for you on the screen as well. There's TPG Capital. Ayia was a big investor as well. So 1.16% in this one. There's Silver Lake Mubadla G Singapore. All of them holding anywhere between 1 to 2.3%. Uh so much awaited IPO. It's a long DRHP. We'll go through the details as well. But for now, these are the initial details and important to track as well.

[00:08:41]>> Well, let's let's shift our focus to the big international story. Crude oil prices cool after a senior US official said that Israel and militant group Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire from tonight. The development comes days after clashes between the two neighboring countries drew Iran's eye.

[00:09:00]Remember, Hezbollah, which controls large parts of Lebanon, is backed by Thran. Earlier, the US and Iran delayed the proposed talks in Switzerland, casting doubts on the deal that was signed yesterday. The talks were meant to launch a 60-day period of negotiations to ensure a permanent end to the war. The White House did not give a reason but said that Washington is looking ahead at starting talks as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the choke hold on Straight for Hormuz appeared to ease as traffic rose slightly compared to last week. As per realtime maritime intelligence firm Kepler, 25 ships including five sanctioned vessels crossed the waterway in just the last 24 hours. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority has said that no vessel will be allowed to pass without a valid passage permit.

[00:09:50]Urasia Group President Ian Bremer has called the West Asia War the biggest failure of President Donald Trump.

[00:09:59]>> Pretty much everything that Trump has said over the last four months has come back to haunt him. uh that this war is now ending with Trump having accomplished literally zero of his stated war goals. Uh he said he was going to rescue the Iranian people.

[00:10:16]Those words have come back to haunt him.

[00:10:18]He said he was going to be able to choose the next supreme leader. Same thing. Uh said that Iran should not have any ballistic missiles. He overturned that uh in the last 24 hours. Said that they couldn't have any enriched uranium.

[00:10:31]Now that's not important. Um doesn't it's not such a big deal. is not so valuable. Uh I mean and the nuclear file itself is of course not in any way agreed to over this the support for proxies and export of terror that's not being addressed. So I mean what you've seen happen is is that the two things that happened as a consequence of Trump's decision to go after Iran which is the fighting in the region um and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz. He has now ended those two self-inflicted wounds, but but nothing has been accomplished beyond that. Literally nothing. And so this is without question uh the biggest failure that Trump has had as president um since in either of his terms, frankly. Uh and uh and it's going to be a part of his legacy going forward.

[00:11:27]Well, you can catch that entire conversation with Ian Bremer at 10 p.m.

[00:11:32]right here on CNBC TV18.

[00:11:39]Well, Russia has threatened to hit Ukraine with massive strikes in retaliation to a drone attack at an oil refinery in Moscow. The Kremlin said that steps are being taken to deal with the aftermath of what was Ukraine's biggest ever air raid on Russia's capital. Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted Russia's oil assets in a bid to cut Moscow's energy revenues.

[00:12:06]While shifting focus now to the day market action, the market closed largely in the red with Nifty ending below the 24,000 mark. Nifty IT was the top losing index today, closing 4% in the red. For the week, the market ended higher with Sensex and the Nifty posting second straight weekly gains despite Friday's fall. All indices except Nifty IT index ended higher for the week. IT stocks got battered after software giant Accentra cut its annual revenue guidance.

[00:12:41]Well, staying with the markets, the market regulator, Sebi has announced the return of buybacks. Companies have been allowed to launch buybacks from the 1st of August. A 66-day window has been provided for completion. Yash Chen is joining us now with more details. Yash, take us through the sevy decision and its implications.

[00:13:03]>> Well, this was largely on expected lines. market regulator in today's board meeting considering and approving reintroduction of uh market buyback through stock exchanges. Now the open market buyback which has been allowed allowed by market regulator SEBI will become effective from August 1st 2026.

[00:13:22]Also there are certain guardrails which have been put by SEBI you know with allowing this open market buyback through stock exchanges. First guardrail is of course that uh the buyback has to be completed within 66 days from the date of opening of buyback. Remember this earlier used to be about 3 months that has been reduced to 66 days to bring better compliance towards you know execution of the buyback. Also what Sebie has said is that about 40% of the funds utilized should be utilized which have been year which have been earmarked for the buyback and that has to happen in the first half of the period itself.

[00:14:01]So uh let's say if a company has provided for an x amount of dis or or announced an x amount of buyback 40% of that has to be used in the first half of the earmark period. uh this is again to make sure that what the company discloses and announces in the form of buyback a large part of it is followed in a limited timeline uh itself also what market regulator Sebie on another proposal has done is that it has allowed intraday borrowing by mutual funds for managing liquidity mismatches during the day so far intraday borrowings were could only be used by mutual funds towards addressing uh you know redemptions which they used to receive but now it has also been allowed for managing liquidity mismatches during the day. What all does it include? Pain and payout settlement timings within an asset class, forex settlement, payments of marktomarket of derivative position.

[00:14:54]Apart from that in the Q&A session, a very important uh you know uh remark made by the sebi chairman and this was with respect to uh shorterterm and longerterm derivative contracts. Very recently the chairman had spoken about introduction of longerterm derivative contracts on the question that would this coexist along with the shorterterm contracts. is a sebi chairman saying that market should have all kinds of products available to investors and traders right thanks a lot for that sebi there allowing that buyback window subject to safety cart rails but staying with sebi the chairman also responded to a question on the nse IPO India's largest stock exchange has filed draft papers to go public but the collocation case is yet to be resolved when asked about it savvy Chairman said that it's only a matter of time before the issue is sorted. NSE has proposed to settle this case by paying nearly 1,500 cr rupees.

[00:15:56]>> So I think quite a historic week rather I would say. So I think we will do our as per our process whatever needs to be done. IPO is there the settlement in principles are there some level some levels have already cleared in the SEBI I think HPSC has also recommended and it'll be uh you know it's a matter of time before uh this that is sorted well he was on the receiving end of a lot of questions the se chief was also asked about Rajes exports case the regulator has initiated action against the company's promoter after it Crown revenue was overstated by more than 15 lakh cr rupees. Rajes exports promoter has denied these charges. Here is Dhin Kapandi's response when asked about this case.

[00:16:49]Whatever way you write, whatever way you see, can you really prevent everything any egregious behavior not take place is not possible. So there are different checks and balances. Question is how do we improve our timings? How do we improve our capacities in order how do we improve our systems and data analytics in order to see catch you know all these and you know whenever these manipulation and other things happening possible then at least we are able to be there faster than what we have been earlier I mean right now going for and coming up on India business our Delhi high court refuses to provide vide any relief to Russian messaging app Telegram. Details in just a bit.

[00:17:44]And you can also catch all CNBC TV18's news and updates on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and Geo Hot Star. Do subscribe to CNBC TV8 Access for exclusive stories.

[00:18:10]You are watching India Business R. Now India's rainfall deficiency in June has risen to 41%. Southwest monsoon has stalled over Maharashtra and the rain deficit in central India has risen to 67%. Manisha Gupta is joining us now with more details. Manisha >> when I'm looking at the monsoons right now and every day that passes in the month of June you're looking at the deficiencies just about increasing so when you look at the 1st of June to 18th of June the monsoon in India is now 40% below normal it has been a late onset it's an early year as well but the kind of numbers that we are looking at on the weaker side the IMD and various other forecasters believe that it's going to be difficult for India to pick up these numbers therein so when I look at the various geographies herein and as you can See the biggest of deficiencies clearly coming in for the central part of India. Now this is your bread bowl as well. This is where cereals and most of the karif crops are grown. And then you have east and northeast India looking at 46% of deficiency. 20% of a decline in rainfall is what south peninsula is facing. Northwest better at just about 2% of a decline there. But when I take you through the kind of states that are looking at deficiencies is really large.

[00:19:20]So number of states that have seen deficiency anywhere between 20 to 30% are three. Six states are dealing with deficiencies between 30 to 40% and you have four states also looking at deficiencies anywhere between 40 to 50% and a state that is looking at a deficiency almost at 60%. And when you look at deficiencies almost at 50 to 60% those are called as large deficiencies and there are very many states within that this category as well you have Megalia looking at 86% of deficiency in sense of rainfall Gujarat at 79% Maharashtra 78% Jaran 70% you also have Goa Chhattisgar which are also looking at anywhere at between 60 to 68% of a deficiency there. So when you look at overall India large access number is only at just about 8%. You have excess rainfall in some places as well that's uh it constitutes to around 7% of India.

[00:20:11]Normal rainfall is at just about 18%.

[00:20:16]>> Right Manisha thanks a lot for that. Now direct tax collection from April to June has risen by 15% to over 5 lakh cr rupees on an annual basis. The rise was driven by a strong growth in both corporate as well as non-corporate tax receipts. Gross direct tax collections grew by 12 a.5% to more than six lakh cr rupes.

[00:20:39]Well, the Delhi High Court has rejected Telegram's plea challenging the government's decision to block the messaging platform in India. The court backed the cent's action saying that its reasons to block Telegram were sufficient. The court also added that the authorities had followed due procedure as prescribed under law. The center had called the app a Frankenstein adding that if it can't ensure accountability, it can't seek proportionality. The ban on the messaging app was imposed till the 22nd of June till the neat UG re-examination.

[00:21:14]Now, Phone Pay has introduced a new wallet maintenance fee of 100 rupees per quarter for users with inactive wallets.

[00:21:22]The charge will be deducted from the existing wallet balance. The company said that if the balance is lower than the fee, the entire amount will be debited. Phone pay defines a wallet as inactive if there have been no financial transactions through the wallet for one year.

[00:21:40]Now Zamato backed cult fit is expected to revive its IPO plans and file its draft red herheading prospectus within the next two week. Sources tell CNBC TV18 that cult fit is now looking to raise between 3500 and 4,000 cr rupees through this issue. The fitness chain operator had paused its listing plans amidst volatility in the new age tech IPO market.

[00:22:06]Now one year after the AirIndia crash in Ahmedabad, a fresh debate has emerged over what caused the Boeing 787 to lose thrust moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad. The preliminary report had stated that both engine fuel control switches moved from run to cut off within seconds after liftoff, cutting fuel supply to the engines. The report also noted that the aircraft's emergency ram air turbine or rat deployed during the initial climb. Now the federation of Indian pilots has written to the AIB citing Boeing 787 simulator tests and claims that in nine out of 10 simulator runs the timing of rat deployment and hydraulic power generation did not match the sequence described by investigators.

[00:22:54]Madia Mjavar is joining us now with more details. Uh Madia tell us tell us about these claims by the pilots and why they are making it one year from the crash.

[00:23:05]>> Right. You pilot unions have been calling it a system failure since the beginning when the crash happened. But now they have some technical data to support that claim. So the federation of Indian pilots as you mentioned says that nine out of 10 simulator tests replicating the crash show that rat needs around 18 seconds to start supplying hydraulic power after fuel cutff. Whereas the AIB's timings in the preliminary report show it was deployed after 5 seconds. Based on those findings, FIP argues that RAT may have deployed even before the fuel supply to the engines was interrupted. So FIP president uh CS Randhava says that the simulator tests point towards a possible electrical failure rather than fuel control switch movement as the primary cause for the crash. Uh here's what he said.

[00:23:54]The spool down time which we found in the test reports takes 12 seconds. So total is 18 seconds.

[00:24:02]Now if I go by the theory of uh AIB in which the second engine is shut down at 43 and 47 they said that the as per EFR the hydraulics have been supplied.

[00:24:21]It disputes the theory.

[00:24:24]That means it was not because of spooling down of engines. The rat had deployed because of electricals. And if rat was deployed because of the electrical problem, there would have been plethora of uh warnings on the ICAS and on the CVR.

[00:24:40]So where are those?

[00:24:43]So this definitely leads and is a pointer towards electrical failure and not any movement of the fuel switches.

[00:24:52]>> So if the final report concludes that it was actually manually done and that brought down the aircraft would you challenge it?

[00:25:01]>> We will require evidence they will have to produce the evidence and >> what kind of evidence would you need?

[00:25:09]>> The CVR.

[00:25:10]>> Okay. the full recording between the conversation between the >> everything will come in public domain then >> because there are court cases going on UK and shortly there will be court cases in US so in the court this would be required a AIB will have to produce so if they have enough evidence like I told you people earlier that in case of uh Mangalore crash or calcat crash they put the blame on the pirate Okay. And in the first case it was due to fatigue. The second case predator we accepted it.

[00:25:49]Now the aircraft involved was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. One of the world's most widely used longhaul aircraft operated by leading airlines across the globe and that is why the findings of this investigation are being closely watched not just in India but by airlines regulators and uh aviation experts worldwide. The Federation of Indian Pilots has now sought fresh simulator validation and a wider examination of the sequence of events leading up to the crash, including rat deployment, possible electrical system anomalies, and cockpit voice recordings. For now, the AIB's preliminary report remains the only official account of what happened on board AI71 uh on the 12th of June.

[00:26:29]whether the concerns raised by FIP are supported by the evidence uh will only become clear when the AIB releases its final report.

[00:26:39]>> Right, Madia, thanks a lot for that. Of course, question marks over how long that final report will take to be made public, to be finalized by the investigators. But moving ahead, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Melanie has rejected US President Donald Trump's claim that she had begged him for a photograph after the G7 summit. Italy's prime minister called Donald Trump's remarks to an Italian TV channel completely made up. She also accused Trump of showing more respect towards West's adversaries than its long-term standing allies. This comes after footage of the two leaders exchanged in an extended conversation. However, Trump later suggested that he had merely indulged her by chatting with her.

[00:27:28]Well, with that it's a wrap on this edition of India Business R. Thank you so much for watching. News and updates will continue right here on CNBC TV8.