NEWSLETTER-SEPTEMBER'22

BUSINESS BUZZ

"I could never take orders from anyone"

-Gautam Adani

# Gautam Adani's brief history

Who could tell that a little boy born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on June 24, 1962, would one day become the second richest person on the planet? Well, such is the story of Gautam Adani, the chairman and founder of the Adani Group. On August 30, 2022, he briefly became the 2nd richest man in the world after Elon musk.

Adani's family ran a textile business, however, Adani was not too keen to pursue the same, dropped out of college and migrated from his birth town to build his fortune. He started as a diamond broker and became a millionaire. Nonetheless, he was compelled to return home and help his brother operate a small plastics factory.

Despite that, Adani, an entrepreneur at heart, set up his own business in 1988- Adani Enterprises, which became the flagship company of the Adani Group. In 1996, Adani founded Adani power limited- India’s largest power producer and solar power producer as a subsidiary of the Adani group.

Success Strategy

So, what is the secret behind Adani's recent boom?

• Market Capitalization

The five-time leap in the Adani Group's market capitalization over two years amplified the wealth surge of its promoter. Adani had a terrific 2021 with a nearly $12 billion spike in personal fortune. Adani surpassed Ambani on February 8, 2022, due to a stellar debut of Adani Wilmar on the stock markets. The food and oil JV increased the Adani group's market value by Rs. 34,500 crores. Adani's Net Worth is 894% more than what it was at the onset of the Pandemic.

• Russia-Ukraine War

Russia's conflict with Ukraine, on one hand, has brought misery to the ordinary man, but on the other hand, has been a bonanza for the top 2 wealthiest of India. The recent upsurge in coal, crude, and cooking oil prices has boosted revenues and share prices, further bolstering his ascent.

• The FOMO Syndrome

The investors are experiencing a kind of FOMO on Adani Stocks. Explaining the phenomenon numerically, PE Ratios show the amount of money investors would willingly pay for every Re. 1 that the company earns per share. In stark contrast to the industry average of 12.79, Adani Green's PE Ratio is 702. It is evident from the above that the Adani Group is overvalued. The investors are keen to pay exorbitant prices to merely hold an 'Adani' share.

• Selling Hope

The Adani Group's orientation to Green Energy and Infrastructure has garnered investments from leading international firms. Funding from the French Oil Company TotalEnergies and US giant Warburg Pincus aided Adani in penetrating the echelons hitherto hogged by Tech Moguls from the USA.

• Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

Adani is on a rapid expansion spree. The last few years have witnessed the coal-to-port conglomerate diversify into data centers, cement, media, and digital services. It is currently India's largest private sector port and airport operator, city gas distributor, and coal miner. His largest ever M&A was that of Holcim India's Assets- ACC and Ambuja Cement for $10.5 billion.

In May 2022, Adani Group finalized a deal with SoftBank to acquire its renewable power business for $3.5 billion. It forayed into the media sector via AMG Media Networks. Recently, Adani also procured a 29.18% interest in NDTV by acquiring a 99.99% stake in its promoter, RRPR Holding.

• Astute Tactician: Debt Driving

The Government launched several quantitative easing measures to overcome the dampening influence of the Pandemic. The Adani Group cashed in on the opportunity before them by opting for debt-driven diversification.

Key Financial Metrics (in Rs. crore) (in March 2022)

Revenue- Rs. 1,84,810

Profit- Rs. 12,956

Debt- Rs. 2,18,271

The Adani Group's rapid expansion poses an adverse impediment for its credit investors since the fresh M&As are debt-funded to a great degree. A study by Credit Suisse reveals that Adani Group's Total Owings now tally up at Rs. 2.6 trillion approximately.

The Fitch Group Unit, CreditSights, voiced its concerns over the debt-funded expansion of the Adani Group and its listed entities specifically.

Businesses of Adani Group

There are mainly three broad businesses of the Adani group that are discussed below:

1. Energy and utilities

This business of the Adani group covers the energy formation and transformation that lights up lives through wind, water, and solar energy. Adani’s solar manufacturing is India's largest integrated solar manufacturing company. The energy and utility business of Adani group includes:

• Renewable power generation

• Solar manufacturing

• Power transmission

• Gas distribution

• Thermal power generation

2. Transportation and logistics

This business of Adani Group mainly relates to transportation and logistics in that field. It involves breaking newer grounds in the areas of grain procurement, storage and logistics. Logistics mainly cover end-to-end solutions connecting India’s hinterland to the heartland. The Transportation and logistics business of Adani group includes:

• Agri-logistics

• Ports and terminals

• Logistics

• Industrial land

3. Incubation

Under the incubation business of Adani group, defense, airports, water, and data forming centers are included. It covers inherent capabilities to build a network of hyper-scale data centers and turn India’s transit gateway into world-class destinations. The incubation business of the Adani group includes:

• Defense and aerospace

• Airports

• Water

• Road metro and rail

• Data center

4. Other businesses

Other businesses of Adani Group cover the realms of food, property and finance. The other businesses of the Adani group include:

• Real estate

• Edible oil and food

• Financial services

• Housing finance

Adani Group today constitutes seven listed Adani group subsidiaries including Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports, SEZ, Adani Power, Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission, and Adani Wilmar. In addition, the Adani group now also owns two other listed companies after managing to snag Holcim’s stake in Ambuja and ACC cement. One of the real reasons for this acquisition was the logistics of the cement business. Cement manufacturers were finding it very hard to export these to other countries because of high freight charges. Unsurprisingly, the Adani group has the cards to play here with ports on their side.

Future Plans

Data centers, digital services, defence, and healthcare are just a few of the new industries that Gautam Adani has quickly entered.

As per Mr. Adani, the future of India in terms of green technology is bright, as he said in the sixth edition of the annual Bloomberg India Economic Forum on November 11, 2021. In the words of Gautam Adani himself, "The revolution in alternative energy technologies opens up the possibility that someday India can become a net green energy exporter."By 2025, the Group aims to make its ports net carbon zero by 2025. Adani also aspires to power all data centers with renewable energy by 2030. At present, it has 4,920MW of operational renewable energy generation capacity and another 5,124MW under implementation.

Adani Group will invest over $100 billion over the next ten years, with 70% going toward energy change. Another 45 GW of hybrid renewable energy will be added to Adani Group's renewable energy portfolio.

Through a strategic investment in the drone startup General Aeronautics, the corporation recently made a foray into the budding drone industry. Given that there are so few listed drone firms, this venture has the potential to be a significant driver for the rapidly growing Indian drone market.

The group revealed their new business, AdaniConnex Private Ltd., in February 2022. EdgeConnex Europe BV and Adani Enterprises have a joint venture. The new subsidiary will create, run, and manage data centers, IT systems, and cloud-based services. Riding the digital wave, it will concentrate on establishing a vast network of hyper-scale data centers, beginning with the nation's largest cities.

For its breakthrough into healthcare services through purchases of hospitals, diagnostic networks, and pharmacies, Adani Enterprises has established a new firm, Adani Health Ventures (AHVL).

In 2021, the local diagnostic market was worth $9 billion USD.

Conclusion and Opinions

''Business is all about risk-taking and managing uncertainties and turbulence'' - Gautam Adani

The story of Gautam Adani is an inspirational one for many youngsters in our nation. From moving to Mumbai at 16 to take a chance in the diamond trade and then getting back to Gujarat to help his brother run a plastics factory, to being a college dropout and setting up the flagship company of Adani enterprises to import and export commodities.

In spite of this, one can't overlook the fact that the Adani Group has also raised an enormous amount of debt from the Government as 'Financial Help'. The hefty amount, which is about Rs.1.6 lakh crore, remains a matter of concern for the Adani Group as well.

The government and authorities must oversee the actions of Gautam Adani and his company as it could be India's largest loan defaulter. If it fails to fulfil the projections, it can render a huge burden on the Indian economy. The world will now spectate as the rest of the tale of this tycoon unfolds.

STUDENT PANORAMA

INTERNSHIPS

Are you a college student? If yes, then finding it hard to get internships? Or, confused about on-campus internships or off-campus internships? Or is it worth doing the internships? Do not worry; we are here to answer all your questions. You all may know, what actually internships are, but here is our version; an internship is a brief opportunity for work experience that is provided by businesses and other organizations, typically to undergraduate students. These internships also last for one to three months. They can be either paid or unpaid.

How To Get A Good Internship?

Being a college student, many of you may definitely be anxious about getting an internship in a reputed company. So, here the question arises, how to get a good internship?

In the words of a final year student who interned with one of the biggest investment management companies across the world, you should Communicate with the seniors working there to get the essence of the company’s operations and go through the whole process of recruitment. Generally, companies have online aptitude tests which assess your logical thinking and arithmetic skills. It is easy to ace them, simply by picking up the right preparation strategies and requisite practice and dedication. After the aptitude test, the interview rounds are conducted to know the candidate‘s charisma, for them, one can prepare certain HR, Technical, CV derived, and company-specific questions.

The best way to work out an interview is to practice mock interviews beforehand with the seniors which will help you to enhance your presentation and communication skills.

On-campus opportunities are much more easily approachable than off-campus ones as they require the candidate to perform the bare minimum efforts and carry the right attitude before the recruiters. Off-campus opportunities require the candidate to come out of his comfort zone and look forward to searching for the right opportunity.

Cold Emailing

Many of you may not be familiar with cold emailing. Let us discuss, what is cold emailing? A cold email is sent to a recipient without their previous consent and is unsolicited. It may also be described as the cold-calling of email. Email marketing's a subset of cold emails, which differ from warm and transactional emails.

Though cold emailing is lucrative and you can make very good opportunities, the conversion rate or response rate is very low that is why you should make your connections in the organization first and then go for cold emailing.

A recent case supports the argument, a 23-year-old; Vatsal Nahata landed a world bank job after 600 cold emails and 80 odd calls.

Are opportunities on-campus: The only option?

You may definitely hear of on-campus internships or off-campus internships. The student population has access to opportunities on campus at all times, but there are also off-campus internship options available to you. Websites like LinkedIn, indeed, Intern Shala, and many others, offer you both kinds of internships. As well as, students can apply for internships by joining collegiate groups that offer lots of chances for them to network with businesses.

According to a senior, who interned with Mckinsey & company as an , one of the ‘big three’ management consulting firms, “there is a saying among students that off-campus internships are not safe, but these are a myth. Off-campus internships are equally value-adding opportunities where you will get to learn about how the companies work in a dynamic nature.” He further added to the statement that off-campus and on-campus internships both lie at the same pace with a life-changing experience of the corporate world.

Do Internships Help in Getting Placements?

Most of the students are in dilemma that Internships actually help in getting placements or not. So, yes, Internships are vital to your placement chances considering that they add a lot of value and skills to your resume. During the internships, freshers and students gather a lot of experience and tackle the harsh realities of the corporate world.

But it is to be noted that Internships are not at all a surety of good placements. Your actual learning and skills defines your future. The more confident, skilled, and adaptable to change you are; the more chances of better placements lie in your hands.

Is It Worth Doing Internships?

Obviously yes, Internships are like a trailer of a movie describing the corporate world that offers opportunities as well as hurdles and challenges. You may get a brief of how a corporate life actually is. It provides you with a life-changing experience with the self-confidence of standing and working with great leaders who are specialized in their field. Isn’t it a great way to showcase, sharpen and enhance your skills? Have one, you will definitely appreciate your decision.

Even if you aspire for any further studies like MBA, work experience is asked for beforehand. So, internships are one of the ways to have a great working experience.

What do you think, what percentage of college students do at least one Internship? Is it, 10% or 20% or 50%? But a big no, as per a recent report about 75% of college students graduate with at least one Internship. Over half do more than one Internship. Of those internship go-getters, about 25%-30% of students do three-four internships.

Conclusion

Hence, Internships form a small world for a college student to travel once. So, if you too want to have all the exposure of a college as well as corporate life you can definitely refer to the above discussion and make up your mind. After all, Internships do not define your future, it is you making it. Shape yourself, enhance your strengths and work on your weaknesses. The choice is always yours, whether to go for an internship or not, on-campus or off-campus, paid or unpaid.

LAST MONTH AT A GLANCE

Sri Lanka's annual inflation rate surged to more than 70% in August as it struggles with its worst economic crisis in over seven decades.

Official data also showed food prices rose by 84.6% compared to a year ago.

The South Asian nation of 22 million people was plunged into financial and political chaos this year as it faced a shortage of foreign currencies.

The country has been unable to afford key imports - including fuel, fertilizer and medicine.

Wipro fires 300 employees found moonlighting

Wipro’s executive chairman Rishad Premji said on Wednesday that the company has terminated the services of 300 employees who were found to be working for its competitors simultaneously. He was speaking at AIMA's (All India Management Association) National Management Convention in Delhi.

Premji said that he stands by his recent comments on moonlighting. He had tweeted that moonlighting by employees in the tech industry is ‘cheating’. He added that this was a complete violation of integrity in its deepest form and the employees were terminated for “act of integrity violation”.Wipro’s executive chairman Rishad Premji said on Wednesday that the company has terminated the services of 300 employees who were found to be working for its competitors simultaneously. He was speaking at AIMA's (All India Management Association) National Management Convention in Delhi.

Premji said that he stands by his recent comments on moonlighting. He had tweeted that moonlighting by employees in the tech industry is ‘cheating’. He added that this was a complete violation of integrity in its deepest form and the employees were terminated for “act of integrity violation”.

Cheetahs brought from Namibia savour their first meal in India,appear playful

SHEOPUR (MADHYA PRADESH): Siblings Freddy and Alton, two of the eight cheetahs brought from Namibia, were seen frolicking in their quarantine enclosure in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park on Monday, a day after all of them were served food for the first time since their arrival in India.

IOC gives Indian olympic Association time till December to set house in Order

India has time till December this year to avoid getting banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the national Olympic committee’s (IOA) failure to elect a new set of office-bearers.

In its communication to IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta, the global governing body of the Olympic movement refused to recognize Anil Khanna as the Indian Olympic body’s “interim/acting president”. The decision was taken during the IOC Executive Board (EB) meeting held in Lausanne on Wednesday and Thursday.

India to resume buying oil from Iran once U.S. sanctions ease

India will look to resume buying crude oil from Iran the moment U.S. sanctions are eased, helping it diversify its import basket, a senior government official said.

India stopped importing oil from Iran in mid-2019 following sanctions on the Persian Gulf nation by the Trump administration. The U.S. and other world powers are meeting in Vienna to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

"Once the sanctions are lifted, we can look to resume oil imports from Iran," the official, who did not wish to be identified, said. Indian refiners have begun preparatory work and can swiftly enter into contracts once the sanctions are lifted

CREDITS:

Shivam Saini - Newsletter Head

Kashish Soni - Newsletter Head

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