The IPO market cannot thrive unless policy hurdles to start-ups scaling up are removed India’s primary market, after showing signs of animation for the last couple of years, seems to be sinking back into its habitual stupor. Data from Prime Database suggests that domestic public offers after managing a sharp jump in fund-raising to over ₹98,984 crore in FY18, raised just ₹36,405 crore in FY19, with the amounts further dwindling to ₹13,708 crore in the first eight months of this fiscal. With the number of offers dipping from 81 in FY18 to 20 this fiscal, over two dozen firms that had filed prospectuses with SEBI have shelved their IPO plans.

Publication: Hindu Business Line

Date: September 22,2019

Analysts have upgraded earnings growth estimates of companies after the government slashed corporate tax on Friday. Analysts expect the tax cut to help companies improve profitability. They expect some of the gains made by companies to be reinvested in their businesses, though a part of it may be passed on to consumers to boost demand. Oza expects the index to gain 9-10% from its low of 10,700 as inflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) will drive the market from hereon.

Publication: Livemint

Date: September 23, 2019

“When you go higher up the value order chain, people need to feel and see the commodities. Myntra created product returns but in our industry, we can’t do the same. Urban Ladder tired to do it but the unit economics were horrible,” Srivastava says. Anuj Srivastava is revolutionizing something altogether different. The founder of Livspace, an online home design startup that he founded with Ramakant Sharma, had earlier had stints with Myntra as VP of engineering and Livspace was the logical next step.

Publication: Inc42

Date: September 20, 2019

Online furniture retailer Pepperfry expects to report its first annual profit in the next financial year and plans to go public in 12-15 months, said its co-founder Ambareesh Murty. “We plan to file for an initial public offering in the next 12-15 months,” Murty, who is also the chief executive of the company, said in an interview on the sidelines of the opening of one of Pepperfry’s largest warehouse in Bengaluru on 20 September. “The company is on a clear path to full-year profitability by FY21, though we will get very close to being profitable by this October itself,” Murty said.

Publication: Livemint

Date: September 22, 2019

The spotlight on the controversial Angel Tax isn’t showing signs of fading anytime soon. While the government has been announcing measures from time to time to provide relief to startups, industry experts feel that the changes – on ground – are still largely incremental. Speaking at industry body Assocham’s 16th International Tax Conference on Thursday, Prerna Mehndiratta, Partner – M&A Tax, PwC India said that while the steps are in the right direction, angel tax has to be applied as an exception and not the other way.

Publication: The Economic Times

Date: September 20, 2019

E-commerce major Amazon India on Thursday opened its largest fulfilment centre (warehouse) at Ranihati near here to meet the growing demands of the region, a company official said. This is the fifth fulfilment centre (FC) in the state. It will double the storage capacity and also lead to creation of substantial job opportunities in the state. “Today we are launching the largest FC in West Bengal. FCs are similar to warehouses which keep the inventory of the sellers and uses technology and automation to process the orders,” Akhil Saxena, VP (Customer Fulfilment) of Amazon India, said.

Publication: Moneycontrol

Date: September 19, 2019