Weekly 🍵 from Page 21

Good morning! Catch up quickly on top business news this week in under 4-min, If you haven’t subscribed already join the mail list now!

In this week's edition, We cover Sun Group buying Forbes, Tata buying Bisleri, and Adani planning to raise billions and more!

 ~ Prakhar Singh, Vishal Singh and Sanjana Ratlak

1. Sun Groups to buy Forbes 🤝

Why it matters: Forbes Media is known for its magazine and lists that rank everything from billionaires to colleges. Once a family-owned media empire was sold to a Hong Kong investment firm (Integrated Whale Media) for $475 Million. Now is one step closer to cashing out, as it has been attempting for years.

• The company has been undergoing a digital transformation amid declining print revenue. Its website reaches more than 140 million people with its 49 global editions.

What happened: Following a chaotic path that resulted in a failed SPAC earlier this year, Forbes had been seeking at least $800 million in a sale, The New York Times reported earlier, citing two people familiar with the matter.

• This $800 million would be significantly higher than the $630 million valuation Forbes would have gotten in the SPAC merger with Magnum Opus Acquisition Ltd, the blank check company.

About the deal: Forbes bidding consortium includes SUN Group, a family-owned Indian media giant, and GSV Ventures, a U.S.-based investment firm, according to Reuters.

• Sun Group is a publically listed company in India that owns 48 radio stations, 2 newspapers, 5 magazines, and a cricket team worth $4.4 Billion.

• GSV Venture primarily invests in Ed-Tech companies, Some of which include Photomath, Coursera, and Masterclass.

2. Tata buys Bisleri 💧

What happened: Bisleri now has a new home at the Tata Group. According to ET, Tata Beverages has purchased the brand Bisleri from Ramesh Chauhan for ₹6,000 crore-₹7,000 crore.

• Bisleri has a 32% share of the organized packaged water market.

• Tata has a strong balance sheet to absorb the acquisition cost of ₹7,000 cr (equivalent to 9X its FY22 net profit).

Flashback: Founder Ramesh Chauhan is aiming to disinvest Bisleri International to Tata three decades after selling soft drink brands Thums Up, Gold Spot and Limca to Coca-Cola.

• Other interested parties such as Reliance Retail, Nestle, and Danone. The report stated that talks between Tata and Chauhan have been going on for the past two years.

By numbers: Bisleri has 122 operational plants and is sold through a network of 4,500 distributors and a fleet of 5,000 trucks across India and neighboring countries.

In short: Bisleri would be one of its largest acquisitions in recent years and has the potential to be a game changer for the company’s beverages segment.

3. Adani plans to raise $10 Billion 💸

What happened: Adani is in talks with GIC and Temasek, among others, to raise $10 billion via stake sale either in group firms or associated entities.

• Adani Enterprises stock has skyrocketed 26x over the last five years. The sale would help cut its mountain of debt.

D-word: The research firm, CreditSights, had red-flagged the Adani Group’s “elevated” leverage in September. The conglomerate had pushed back against the report, calling their companies’ leverage ratios “healthy.”

• The group has made acquisitions worth $13.8 billion so far this year, as per Dealogic data, its highest ever in a year.

• Six of the group's firms have a combined net debt of $20 Billion.

In short: Gautam Adani weighs raising $10 billion in equity as banks urge deleveraging, Adani’s potential move mirrors Ambani who raised more than $27 billion in 2020 from global investors.

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Quick Bites 🍪

General assembly: Asim Munir, who was ousted as intelligence chief by former PM Imran Khan, will succeed Qamar Javed Bajwa as Pakistan’s new army chief.

PM Alert: Malaysia’s longtime opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as the country’s tenth PM by King Sultan Abdullah after the general elections resulted in a hung parliament.

Stickler: Tata-administered Air India has released a 40-plus page grooming circular for cabin crew, with detailed specifications for receding hairlines, top knots, earrings, bindi sizes, and more.

Crypto Corner: Binance chief Changpeng Zhao is planning a $1 billion recovery fund to buy distressed crypto assets.

Reverse: Ford is recalling about 519,000 SUVs in the US over fire risks due to faulty fuel injectors.

🍿Recommendations

Good Show: Watch WeCrashed in AppTV (IMDb: 7.3/10) this week, The show cover Adam Neumann's journey from the rise and fall of one of the world's most valuable startups.

That's all folks for the week see you next week!