BLOCK Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Early investors in Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd, the parent company of Groww, are set to offload shares worth up to ₹4,750 crore ($498 million) through a block deal on Tuesday, according to a term sheet reviewed by Mint.The proposed transaction involves the sale of up to 268.4 million shares, representing around 4.3% of Groww’s existing total outstanding shares, through one or more on-market transactions on Indian stock exchanges.The floor price for the sale has been set at ₹177 per share, reflecting an 8.5% discount to Groww’s closing price of ₹193.52 on the National Stock Exchange on Monday.The sellers in the transaction include Peak XV Partners Investments VI-1, Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund III – U.S./India Annex Fund LP, Y Combinator's YC Holdings II LLC, Ribbit Capital V LP, Ribbit Cayman GW Holdings V Ltd, and GW-E Ribbit Opportunity V LLC.The proposed stake sale comes months after Groww’s strong stock market debut and sharp post-listing rally. The issue comprised a fresh equity issue worth ₹1,060 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 55.72 crore equity shares by existing shareholders.Shares of the company, which listed at ₹100 apiece in November last year, opened at premiums of 12-14% on the NSE and BSE.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) plans to raise its exploration and production capital expenditure by over 10% to ₹10,000 crore this fiscal year, chairman and managing director Ranjit Rath said, as the country grapples with an energy shock amid the West Asia war.The Maharatna company, which traces its origin to India’s first commercial crude oil discovery in Digboi (Assam), expects to produce about 4 million tonnes (mt) of crude oil this fiscal, compared with 3.45 mt in FY26. He added that work on the $20-billion Mozambique LNG project has resumed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is rolling out an artificial-intelligence-powered system to predict the arrival of the southwest monsoon at the sub-district level, an upgrade from the national and state-level forecasting that has kept farmers unsure about when to plant their crops.Meanwhile, IMD will make the all-important announcement about the onset of the southwest monsoon on Thursday.IMD will provide block-level monsoon onset forecasts at least 10 days in advance, covering more than 3,000 sub-districts across 16 states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. The system draws on AI-based models, extended-range prediction tools, and statistical techniques to generate probabilistic forecasts and will disseminate alerts through mobile applications, SMS, and local agricultural extension networks."The AI-enabled monsoon advance forecasting system will provide probabilistic forecasts of monsoon progression," said Jitendra Singh, minister of Earth Sciences.Singh said the system combines AI-based forecasting models, extended-range prediction systems, and statistical techniques to provide operationally useful forecasts for agricultural planning and preparedness.IMD, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) have jointly developed the systems.IMD has already forecast a below-normal monsoon this year, about 92% of the long-period average, raising concerns for the farm sector, which remains mostly rain-dependent.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—The antiabortion lobby expected to be more triumphant by now: A conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and the self-styled “most pro-life president in history” again occupies the Oval Office.But abortions are up in the years after the overturning of Roe, and the antiabortion lobby has a new locus for blame.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The first thing my grandmother did when she entered the kitchen each morning was say a quick prayer and soak a ball of tamarind. Be it sambar, rasam, kuzhambu, kootu or thogayal, tamarind extract was a must, and starting the soak early meant the tamarind extract was ready by the time cooking began. True to that lineage, tamarind features in almost every south Indian inspired recipe I have shared in this column over the years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Venture capital and growth investing firm Peak XV Partners has fully exited One MobiKwik Systems Ltd through an over ₹130-crore block deal, selling its remaining stake shortly after the fintech secured the non-banking financial services (NBFC) licence.The investor sold around 6.08 million shares, or about 7.7% of MobiKwik’s equity, at an average price of ₹214 apiece in a transaction executed at 9:15am on 28 April, according to two people aware of the matter.Buyers included private equity firm Florintree, hedge fund Viridian Asset Management, alternative investment firm Dymon Asia Capital and equity investment management firm Karma Capital, the people said.The ₹130-crore deal delivered about 3x returns for Peak XV on its investment in the company.Peak XV’s exit marks the departure of the last major PE fund from MobiKwik’s cap table. In September 2025, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) sold its 2.1% stake in a block deal, after which MobiKwik shares rallied as much as 14%.Peak XV, formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA, had been an early backer of MobiKwik and remained invested through the company’s public listing.The block sale came a day after MobiKwik announced that the Reserve Bank of India had approved its application for the NBFC licence.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Meta Platforms is preparing to have to unwind its acquisition of the artificial-intelligence startup Manus after China banned the transaction on national-security grounds Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.Meta bought Manus, a China-linked, Singapore-based startup that specializes in building AI agents, in December for $2.5 billion, and quickly moved to integrate the new technology into its systems. Any attempt to undo the acquisition would mean disentangling the two.In another complication, Manus’s investors, which include California-based venture-capital firm Benchmark, have already received their returns, people with knowledge of the matter said.Meta garners significant revenues from Chinese advertisers who target consumers outside China, despite Facebook and other Meta apps being blocked in the country.Several former Manus investors in Asia, including Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund, have planned to cooperate if Meta goes ahead to unwind the deal, some of the people said.Beijing has handed the two companies a preliminary deadline of several weeks to unwind the deal and fully restore Manus’s Chinese assets to their original state, some of the people said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Tech companies are rushing to trade their people for more chips. Some of those companies might come to regret the exchange.Microsoft and Meta Platforms are just the latest major tech companies trying to scale back their workforces in the name of artificial intelligence. Meta’s latest plans will cut about 8,000 people from its workforce.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With high interest rates, valuation gaps, and global upheavals weighing on traditional mergers and acquisitions (M&A), promoters and institutional investors are turning to the secondary market, driving block and bulk deals to a multi-year high in the January-April period despite bearish sentiment.This year, until 15 April, a total of ₹1.1 trillion changed hands in open-market trades, up 25% from ₹86,810 crore a year ago, according to data from capital markets platform Prime Database.Deven R. Choksey, founder and managing director of boutique fund DRChoksey FinServ, said that investors are using block and bulk deals to realign portfolio weights or pare long‑held positions quickly in a volatile market."What we are seeing is a clear rotation of capital.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other energy companies are speeding up their searches for new oil-and-gas prospects—far away from the perils of the war in the Middle East.Exxon recently outlined a potential plan to pump up to $24 billion into Nigeria’s deep-water oil fields, while Chevron expanded its footprint in Venezuela. BP bought stakes in oil blocks off the coast of Namibia, and TotalEnergies signed an exploration deal with Turkey.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Snap is laying off 16% of its staff. Block lopped off 40% of its workforce.

Mint, introduces a bank passbook-like system in which companies that meet targets earn credits, while those that fall short accumulate debits that attract penalties.Automakers with debits will be allowed to purchase credits from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) at fixed rates set annually from 2028 to 2032, ranging from ₹2,500 to ₹4,500 per gramme of CO₂/km.While automakers will be allowed to trade credits among themselves, as is the global norm, the option to purchase credits directly from a regulator is unprecedented.“California allows fully transparent credit trading among OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), while Europe permits pooling among manufacturers,” said Amit Bhatt, India managing director at International Council on Clean Transportation, a non-profit organization that advises regulators on environmental issues.“In contrast, BEE’s proposal represents a distinct Indian approach by introducing a regulated credit purchase mechanism, effectively creating a financial compliance pathway that is not available in either benchmark jurisdiction,” he added.Queries sent to the BEE, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Mahindra and Mahindra, and Hyundai Motor India remained unanswered.To put it simply, every automaker will have a passbook for each of the fiscal years from 2028 to 2032. A positive credit balance would indicate that the company's average annual fuel emissions are below the maximum cap.

small packs also represent one of the largest sources of plastic litter, as their size and multi-layered composition make them extremely difficult to collect and recycle.This comes against the backdrop of the government’s ban on single-use plastic and assumes significance as India generates around 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. Of this, around 40% of plastic waste is littered and remains uncollected.Sachets are used across many product categories including personal care items such as shampoo, conditioner, hair oil, face wash, body wash, pan masala, gutkha, instant coffee, spices, sauces, dairy whitener, detergent powder, dishwashing liquid and floor cleaners.Pan masala and gutkha are widely consumed across India and largely sold in small sachets (typically under 10 g).

Brent crude prices soaring in 2026.Brent began the year at approximately $61.98 per barrel and surged to around $114.57 by the end of trading on 27 March, following the outbreak of the Iran war on 28 February.This sharp rally of about 85% is a result of a massive geopolitical risk premium. The catalyst was the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which trapped nearly 20% of global oil supply.Physical strikes on refineries, skyrocketing maritime insurance, and speculative hedging have further strained the market.

Essel Propack after its merger with Swiss firm Propack in 1997. Over the next two decades, Essel Propack built a strong international footprint across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.In 2019, Blackstone invested $460 million to acquire a 75% stake in the company, and renamed it EPL.

AI do such a thing? Unfortunately, there are a number of such incidents in which AI seems to turn against its ‘owner’. And we’ve only just begun with Agentic AI. Even if you swear not to touch an AI agent, they’re being almost forced on us by being built into software that we use daily.

BPCL) signed a long-term contract to procure 12 million barrels of crude in 2026-27 from Petrobras in January this year, renewing a previous contract signed in 2025.While Brazil is largely self-sufficient in crude oil production, it has one “vulnerability”, according to Nóbrega. “One vulnerability is that we are self-sufficient in crude oil production, but we are not self-sufficient in refined oil,” he said, adding that diesel is required for a bulk of the freight transport in the country by road and rail.“India also could install refineries in Brazil because you are one of the largest countries in terms of oil refining,” he said, noting that one of India’s biggest exports to the largest country in South America is refined oils, including diesel.India has a refining capacity of 258 million tonnes per year and has helped countries such as Nigeria and Mongolia develop refineries.

₹2,055 crore (about $245 million), said the people quoted earlier, speaking on the condition of anonymity as details are not public yet.The edtech firm was valued at $3.4 billion in 2021, and upGrad had proposed a valuation of $300–400 million in November before the talks collapsed in January.upGrad’s own valuation remains unchanged at around ₹17,000 crore, though it has fallen in dollar terms from $2.2 billion in its last funding round to roughly $1.8 billion due to currency movements.This roughly translates to 0.12 Upgrad shares for every Unacademy share, the people quoted earlier said.The companies refused to share valuations when they announced the deal. UpGrad and Unacademy did not respond to Mint’s queries sent on Wednesday.The acquisition was announced earlier in March after months of on-and-off negotiations.

Singapore-based Crypto.com said last week that it was cutting 12% of its workforce. Earlier, Atlassian and Block had cited AI adoption for job losses. But what’s lacking in these pronouncements is the evidence of how, exactly, AI is replacing workers.

Global private equity investor LeapFrog Investments, which has backed InsuranceDekho and Healthify, has shelved plans to explore continuation vehicles as an exit option and will instead focus on traditional routes such as block deals, mergers and acquisitions, and public listings, the firm’s top executive told Mint.The firm is pursuing exits from its second and third funds as it deploys capital from its fourth fund and a climate-focused investment vehicle. Last week, LeapFrog led investment rounds in Shubham Housing Finance and clean energy company ReNew Energy Global Plc.“It (continuation vehicle) is not a focus area as of now for us.

India’s goods and services tax (GST) still struggles with a basic design problem: the integrity of its input tax credit (ITC) chain. The recent rate rationalization simplified slabs, but its merger of the 12% category with the 5% slab largely applies to supplies where ITC is restricted or unavailable. In such cases, the system resembles cascading turnover-style taxation and weakens the value-added tax (VAT) principle of seamless credit and tax neutrality.