Morning Buzz: India restricts imports of laptops; Zomato makes a profit, and more

(File photo) A general view shows the aisles at Croma’s 101st electronics megastore, operated by Tata Group’s Infiniti Retail unit, in Mumbai, India. Image: Vivek Prakash/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Imports of laptops, tablets, PCs put on restricted list

India has placed laptops, tablets and PCs on the restricted list, in a move that aims to get companies that import these products from overseas to manufacture them in India. Imports will now require a valid licence and those that were contracted till August 3 have been exempted. In April-June 2023 imports in this category were up $19.7 billion, or 6.25 percent, year-on-year. Dell, Acer, Samsung and LG are some of the companies likely to be impacted.
(Economic Times, Business Standard, Financial Express)

Zomato swings to a profit

Zomato generated a Rs 2-crore profit in the first quarter of FY24. The number was achieved on account of a tax reversal; if it wasn’t for the reversal, the loss would have been Rs 15 crore. This compares to a Rs 186 crore loss in the first quarter of the last fiscal year. At the same time, operating revenue grew 71 percent to Rs 2,416 crore and gross order volume saw an increase of 14 percent to Rs 7,318 crore. Zomato said it expects all its units to turn profitable by end of FY24.
(Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Standard)

Temasek invests in M&M EV arm

Temasek has invested Rs 1,200 crore in Mahindra and Mahindra’s electric vehicle (EV) arm at a valuation of Rs 80,580 crore. This is 15 percent higher than the Rs 70,070 crore valuation fetched when British International Investment had invested. This is significant as M&M Electric is yet to launch anything significant apart from the XUV400. In contrast Tata Motors has the highest market share with several models. The company sold 6,000 units in the last calendar year.
(Economic Times, Business Standard)

Airtel ARPU jumps to Rs 200 per customer, profit flat

Airtel recorded the industry’s highest average revenue per user (ARPU) at Rs 200, even as net profit stayed flat at Rs 1,612 crore on account of 5G investment and losses in the African operations. It recorded the highest prepaid additional in users at 0.8 million and spent Rs 10,846 crore in capex. Reliance Jio recorded an ARPU of Rs 180.5 and Vodafone Idea was at Rs 135. The last time Airtel recorded an ARPU of Rs 200 was in Q1FY14.
(Economic Times)