CEO Financial News

Govind Gnanakumar was in diapers when Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard. Like the Meta founder, he won’t wait for a university diploma to start his business. The 19-year-old dropped out of the Georgia Institute of Technology in May to focus full time on his artificial-intelligence startup, Automorphic.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. is reeling from a $127 billion exodus over just two years. At Franklin Resources Inc., the latest member of a billionaire family to run the firm is trying to reverse a nearly uninterrupted 20-quarter losing streak. Across the Atlantic, the chief of Abrdn Plc has reached a blunt conclusion: merely managing mutual funds isn’t enough of a business any more.

Arun Misra, CEO, Hindustan Zinc, says the annual general meeting is over and there is no chance of taking that decision which was taken in the board to make it effective. So if at all it has to happen, it has to come as a fresh proposal and a fresh decision. Right now, there is no such proposal for consideration of the board. Sequentially, Hindustan Zinc revenues have seen a dip and this is primarily due to the fall in the zinc prices. How has the demand been in the zinc market both domestically as well as globally? At the end of Q1, you said you had expected the zinc prices to rise by the end of the year. Given the volatility in prices, do you still believe zinc prices are poised to go higher? Let us start with global first.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) has announced an all-stock transaction to acquire Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) in a deal valued at $53 billion or $171 per share, based on Chevron's closing price on October 20, 2023.

By Richa Naidu and David Randall

Bitcoin on Monday was trading at over $30,700 in the international market. The most popular cryptocurrency saw a spike of 58 percent in the past one year, reinvigorating a hope that was fast eroding among the crypto investors worldwide.

Australia’s second-largest funerals business, Propel Funeral Partners, has received “multiple” buyout proposals, but its board says none were compelling enough to start talks with any potential suitors.

The woman who led PwC Australia through the darkest days of its tax leaks scandal will leave in January after three decades at the big four consulting firm.

Given the current market uncertainty and the elevated valuations in certain mid-cap and small-cap pockets, investors are preferring to invest in flexi-cap funds. These funds offer the unique advantage of allowing fund managers to switch between large, mid, and small-cap stocks without limitations.

Personal loans have certainly made it easier for people to access funds in need. While they might be a much-needed lifeline during a financial crisis, borrowers must exercise due caution when it comes to managing multiple loans, especially unsecured loans.

Deep learning startup funding: Giga ML, which offers enterprises customisable large language models (LLMs), has secured $3.6 million in seed funding led by the venture capital Nexus Ventures Partners. The round also saw the contribution of startup accelerator Y Combinator and Liquid 2 Venture, 8vdx, and angel investors such as Garry Tan, the President and CEO of Y Combinator. The startup was founded by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Varun Vummadi and Esha Manideep Dinne in 2023.

Roche on Monday said it will buy Telavant, a developer of a new treatment for inflamatory bowel diseases, for an initial $7.1 billion from American biopharma company Roivant Holdings and Pfizer Inc. Under the deal, Roche will gain the right to develop, manufacture and commercialize RVT-3101, an experimental antibody, in the U.S.

employee experience (EX) is also an important element. Improving EX is a key goal for C-Suite executives, according to a report. The reasons for this focus ranged from enhanced employee satisfaction, improved productivity, more speed in business, higher retention and improved automation, said NTT’s recent 2023 Global Employee Experience Trends Report. It delved into the impact workplace trends like hybrid work and artificial intelligence (AI) have on employee experience strategies and business performance. The IT services provider’s report underscored that EX focused on technologies that can enable and empower employees and drive efficiency, including through collaboration and mobility tools.

JSW Energy and a buy on Paytm. CLSA retained an outperform rating on Kotak Mahindra Bank and Jefferies recommended a buy on ICICI Bank post Q2 results. We have collated a list of recommendations from top brokerage firms from ETNow and other sources: CLSA on JSW Energy: Sell| Target Rs 250 CLSA maintained a sell rating on JSW Steel but raised the target price to Rs 250 from Rs 234 earlier. CLSA on Paytm: Buy| Target Rs 1200 CLSA maintained a buy rating on Paytm but raised the target price to Rs 1200 from Rs 1050 earlier. GMV growth was good.

Strong rally in the broader market in the recent months has brought valuations closer to historical highs in a few pockets, but Samco Mutual Fund believes there is more steam left in this momentum. “Thinking from the perspective of a momentum or relative strength investing, we see a lot of strength in the small and mid-cap space. One should hold on to them till the party is going on, but with much more caution and tighter stops,” said Viraj Gandhi, CEO of Samco Mutual Fund. Edited excerpts: The latest AMFI data showed that the pace of inflows has slowed down in midcap and small-cap funds. Is this a sign of fatigue? The pace is still intact in the midcap funds as in September, it was the second highest in the last 12 months. Small-cap funds also saw a decent inflow of about Rs 2,700 crore.

Mohammed bin Salman took to the stage to promise that a new era was dawning for the Middle East. “The new Europe is the Middle East,” the country’s de facto ruler, commonly known as MBS, said to applause from the crowd.

Kotak Mahindra Bank: After the resignation of Uday Kotak as CEO and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, international banker Ashok Vaswani, on Saturday, was announced as the next CEO. Unlike experts' prediction of the appointment of an insider in the top leadership role, Kotak Mahindra Bank chose to bring the “Global Indian" back home as its next CEO. Ashok Vaswani holds immense experience in a wide range of fields from AI to banking.

futures and options (F&O) trading was a loss-making proposition for investors. The report revealed that 89% investors lost money through these activities, and only 11% made profits. Separately, in an interview with Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath some time ago, I learnt that there are no more than 5 lakh derivatives traders in the entire country.

Torrent Pharma, Lloyds Metals, PNB Housing Shares of Torrent Pharma, Lloyds Metals, and PNB Housing will be in focus as the companies will announce their second quarter results. ICICI Bank ICICI Bank reported a 36% growth in net profit for the quarter ended September to Rs 10,261 crore. Net interest income increased 24% to Rs 18,308 crore. Kotak Bank Kotak Bank received RBI nod to appoint Ashok Vaswani as MD & CEO for 3 years.

tax demands for close to ₹11,000 crore on dividend income repatriated from India, following a Supreme Court ruling last week. The Supreme Court said on Thursday that the lower 5% withholding tax on dividend income of companies was not available to all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries merely on the most favoured nation (MFN) basis. The apex court held that the 5% rate would be available only to companies based in countries with which India had notified a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) allowing it. In the absence of this, companies have to pay 10% tax on dividend income.

Peak XV Partners’ scale-up programme for early-stage startups, has selected 13 ventures with a focus on deeptech, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and quantum computing as part of its ninth cohort. This is the first cohort of Surge since Peak XV Partners came into existence after the split of erstwhile Sequoia Capital.