LIC to list its shares today

Top of the Morning

In this episode, find out about Jack Ma exiting Paytm E-commerce, also find out about Byju’s looking at US acquisition for $2 bn

Business Term of the Day: Growth stocks

India’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) will list its shares on the stock exchanges on Tuesday after witnessing a good response from domestic investors in the initial share sale, which fetched Rs 20,557 crore to the government. The government had fixed the issue price of LIC shares at Rs 949 apiece for allotment to investors. LIC policyholders and retail investors have got the shares at a price of Rs 889 and Rs 904 apiece, respectively, after taking into account the discount offered.

Five years after making its biggest bet in India’s e-commerce market, Jack Ma-led Alibaba and Ant Financials have exited Paytm E-commerce Pvt. Ltd, the parent entity of Paytm Mall. Paytm E-commerce bought back the entire stake of Alibaba (28.34%) and Antfin (Netherlands) Holding (14.98%), a total of 43.32%, for ₹42 crore, according to the company’s filings. This values the company at a mere ₹100 crore, plunging from $3 billion, the valuation the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company fetched in its last fundraising that was in 2020.

SJVN: State-owned SJVN Ltd will develop another hydropower project Arun-4 worth ₹4,900 crore in Nepal. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development of the 490 MW Arun-4 hydroelectric project in Nepal has been signed in Lumbini, Nepal in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Aditya Birla Capital: The firm said it has received a whistleblower complaint with allegations made against Aditya Birla Sun Life and its employees. An independent investigation into the allegations found no merit in the complaint, the firm said.

Byju’s, an India online education startup, is in discussions to acquire a US target and likely to bid for either Chegg Inc. or 2U Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.  The Bangalore-based company has held talks with both Santa Clara, California-based Chegg and Lanham, Maryland-based 2U and the total value of a deal could be about $2 billion,

Moving on to markets

LIC’s market debut will be in focus today. Shares of the state-run insurance behemoth were trading at a discount of Rs 15-20 a piece over its issue price of Rs 949 in the grey market, hence it may see a flat to negative start. Investors will also closely monitor the wholesale price index (WPI) reading for April, that will be announced later in the day.

Business Term of the day

Growth stocks are those companies expected to grow sales and earnings at a faster rate than the market average. These stocks generally do not pay dividends. This is because the issuers of growth stocks are usually companies that want to reinvest any earnings they accrue in order to accelerate growth in the short term.