Author
Harsh Batra
Harsh Batra
It landed in a week when Indian insurance ownership was rearranged on several fronts at once. IRDAI approved Patanjali Ayurved and the DS Group’s ₹4,500 crore purchase of Magma General Insurance from Adar Poonawalla’s Sanoti Properties, and granted a general insurance licence to ProTec General Insurance, the M Pallonji Group’s joint venture with True North. WestBridge Capital, meanwhile, started a process to exit its holding of about 40% in Star Health, pushed out by the rule barring promoters from owning stakes in two insurers at once.
Four changes of ownership in one sector in one week, and the regulator’s hand is on three of them.
And in other news this week:
- TVS Motor bought a further 4.39% of TVS Credit Services from Lucas TVS for ₹711 crore, taking its fully diluted holding in the NBFC to 85.15%.
- Aurobindo Pharma’s subsidiary Apitoria Pharma agreed to acquire 80% of A1 Biochem Group’s contract research business at an enterprise value of $17 million, of which $13.6 million goes in as cash. The deal spans entities in India and the United States and is expected to close in 90 to 120 days.
- Akums is acquiring Oriflame India’s manufacturing business for ₹56 crore through its subsidiary Pure and Cure Healthcare, picking up plants in Roorkee and Noida and moving into colour cosmetics. Completion is expected by 31 August.
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Deals Tracker
Rumour mill
- Bastian Hospitality is sounding out investors for a 20-25% minority stake to fund new formats and overseas expansion, as the Shilpa Shetty-backed group targets Rs1,000 crore of FY27 revenue.
- Offgrid Energy Labs is preparing a Series B to finance a ZincGel battery gigafactory, using its new 10 MWh UK pilot line to de-risk a multi-GWh manufacturing push in India or Britain.
Regulatory
- The RBI sold a net $6.1 billion in May to smooth oil-driven rupee volatility, easing its spot intervention from April even as its short-dollar forward book climbed to a record $106.7 billion.
- ONGC can take control of Vedanta-operated Lakshmi and Gauri fields after the Delhi High Court upheld the government’s refusal to extend the Gujarat offshore block’s production-sharing contract.
- The RBI has barred defaulters and related parties from buying back assets acquired by lenders, while imposing public-auction, valuation and seven-year disposal rules from October 1, 2026.
Job moves
- Acentra Health has put Sreedevi Hegde in charge of India, drawing on her GCC-building record to turn the operation into a larger global delivery hub for the US healthcare technology company.
- Jubilant FoodWorks is preparing a technology-leadership handover after CIO Narottam Sharma resigned for an external opportunity, with his departure set for September 18 and no successor named yet.
- Liquidnitro Games has hired former Tencent Games Global CTO Cedrick Collomb to lead its AI platform strategy, adding heavyweight technical leadership after a $19.1 million Series A.
- NITI Aayog has brought in Anurag Jain for a two-year CEO term, adding an infrastructure-heavy administrator whose résumé spans PM Gati Shakti, DPIIT and road transport.
- Bira 91 founder Ankur Jain has left the board and surrendered control under a lender settlement, clearing the way for an investor-led recapitalisation and a possible production restart within six months.
- Hines has promoted India head Amit Diwan to lead Asia Pacific and the Middle East, giving one executive oversight of two regions the real-assets manager sees as core growth engines.
IPOs
- Cube Highways Trust has opened a Rs5,000 crore all-OFS InvIT IPO, testing demand for a 27-asset road portfolio after securing roughly Rs1,688 crore from anchor investors.
- SBI Funds Management closed 6.2% above issue price after India’s largest IPO of 2026, while parent SBI ruled out further dilution beyond the listing-day stake sale for now.
- InMobi has hired JPMorgan, Jefferies, Kotak and Axis for a roughly $1 billion IPO, taking its long-delayed listing plan into execution with a reported $5-6 billion valuation target.
- Lohia Corp has set a Rs404-425 price band for its Rs1,102 crore all-OFS IPO, valuing the technical-textile machinery maker at roughly Rs4,500 crore at the top end.
- Coca-Cola has moved its Indian bottler closer to a 2027 listing by appointing JPMorgan and Citi, preparing a partial sell-down of its 60% stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings.
- NSE’s pre-IPO valuation has drawn an unusually bearish marker, with Dolat Capital assigning a Rs1,550 target—26% below the private-market price—as tighter derivatives rules threaten volumes and market share.
- Manipal Hospitals is reportedly resetting its IPO valuation to about Rs80,000 crore from an earlier $10-12 billion range, while still targeting an issue of up to Rs11,000 crore amid volatile markets.
- Caliber Mining has opened a Rs450 crore IPO at Rs402-424 a share, combining Rs400 crore of fresh capital with a small OFS to repay debt and expand its mining-services fleet.
- NLC India Renewables has hired SBI Capital, HDFC Bank, IIFL and IDBI Capital for its IPO, moving a 1.8 GW state-owned clean-energy platform closer to public markets.
- JSW Steel has approved an OFS of up to Rs811 crore in JSW One Platforms’ proposed IPO, positioning the parent as a selling shareholder while pricing and timing remain open.
- MakeMyTrip has confidentially filed to list its Indian subsidiary through an all-secondary IPO, using the planned share sale to reinforce group cash while keeping MMT India under consolidated control.
Fundraising
- Transition VC is raising a Rs1,500 crore second fund to write $2-5 million cheques into roughly 20 engineering-led energy and industrial startups, broadening into advanced manufacturing and next-generation infrastructure.
- 30 Sundays has raised $6.7 million from Bessemer and existing backers to scale an AI-native holiday platform already running at roughly Rs200 crore in annualised gross bookings across four destinations.
- Punjab & Sind Bank is lining up a QIP of up to Rs2,000 crore that could cut the government’s 94% holding by 8-9 points and move the lender toward minimum public-float rules.
- Veriqus Group has raised Rs387 crore led by Norwest to build an integrated wealth, asset-management, advisory and lending platform aimed at India’s entrepreneurs, family offices and fast-growing Tier II markets.
- Reo.Dev has raised $11.3 million led by Elevation Capital to deepen its AI-native go-to-market platform, which maps developer signals for more than 200 software companies selling to technical teams.
- Quick Clean has raised Rs133 crore led by Stakeboat to expand from 140-plus on-premise laundries toward 500, while adding AI, automation and overseas capacity for hospitality and healthcare clients.
- Aina has raised $5.5 million to commercialise a context-aware AI hardware interface, scaling a 35-person Bengaluru-San Francisco team after testing its three-key Dune keypad with early users.
- Groyyo has secured Rs90 crore in the first close of a $20 million Series B, funding AI development and a wider supplier network as it targets North America, Europe and the Middle East.
