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The footage captures the accused operative describing a plan and demonstrating it using a vape pen to symbolize the intended target. View More
Indian investors are facing regulatory action for not following Foreign Exchange Management Act rules when buying foreign property. Recent enforcement actions highlight the need for careful adherence to Liberalised Remittance Scheme limits and authorized banking channels. Failure to comply can lead to attachment of Indian assets and penalties under the Black Money Act. View More
“This project is part of our continued focus to elevate the standard of urban living in one of the city’s most vibrant and well-connected neighbourhoods,” says Pavitra Shankar, Managing Director of Brigade Enterprises Limited View More
Executive learning solutions provider XED Executive Development on Friday said it has fixed a price band of USD 10-10.5 per share for the USD 12 million IPO, which will open for subscription at GIFT City on March 6. View More
Executive learning solutions provider XED Executive Development on Friday said it has fixed a price band of USD 10-10.5 per share for the USD 12 million IPO, which will open for subscription at GIFT City on March 6. This will be the first share sale at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, India's IFSC, under the regulatory framework of the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). The initial public offering (IPO) will open on March 6 and conclude on March 18. The public issue is open to eligible investors under the IFSCA framework, including Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), foreign portfolio investors, institutional investors, and other permitted overseas participants. "We are raising capital to accelerate global program expansion, deepen university partnerships, and invest in delivery capabilities across key markets," John Kallelil, Founder and Managing Director, XED, said. Live Events V Balasubramaniam, MD & CEO, NSE International Exchange (NSE IX), said "The IPO marks a significant milestone for the IFSC ecosystem. We expect this transaction to set a strong precedent for globally oriented companies evaluating GIFT City as an offshore capital-raising platform." He added that "We are in discussions with several international issuers and are witnessing growing interest in accessing global capital through this framework." XED Executive Development is a leading provider of executive education, serving senior professionals across more than 25 countries, with operations spanning India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North America. The equity shares will be listed on NSE International Exchange (NSE IX) and India International Exchange (India INX) at GIFT City, India's International Financial Services Centre, and will be traded in a dollar-denominated instrument. Global Horizon Capital Advisors (IFSC) is the sole book running lead manager, while DBS Bank and RBL Bank are the bankers, and KFin Technologies is the registrar of the issue. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
Indian vaccine developer Bharat Biotech International Ltd. is considering an initial public offering that may raise more than $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. View More
Indian vaccine developer Bharat Biotech International Ltd. is considering an initial public offering that may raise more than $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Deliberations are ongoing, and details of the deal including the size and timing may change, the people added, asking not to be identified to discuss a private matter. Bharat Biotech didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Founded in 1996, Bharat Biotech says it has delivered more than 9 billion vaccines worldwide. Its products include vaccines for Covid-19 and hepatitis B, as well as remedies for burns and diarrhea. India’s market for first-time share sales has had a slow start to 2026 after two consecutive years of record fundraising. Stocks have been pressured by slowing earnings growth, global trade uncertainty and uneven foreign inflows. Large offerings in the pipeline include those of wireless carrier Jio Platforms Ltd., National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. and property firms. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
As Indian fintech funding undergoes a structural reset, Cedar Hill Capital’s Sahil Anand argues that the era of easy capital for consumer fintech is over, with investors now prioritising revenue visibility, enterprise traction, and sustainable SaaS metrics. View More
With funding recalibrating in India's fintech landscape, investors are creating a clearer distinction between overpopulated consumer ventures and scalable enterprise technology. In this conversation with The Economic Times Digital, Sahil Anand of Cedar Hill Capital unpacks the structural reset underway, from heightened scrutiny in B2C models to a decisive pivot toward revenue-backed B2B software for banks and financial institutions. Edited excerpts: Economic Times (ET): Over the past year, we have seen a clear reset in Indian fintech funding. From your vantage point at Cedar Hill Capital, what structural shifts are you observing in investor behaviour?Sahil Anand (SA): We are seeing a couple of structural shifts in fintech investor behavior. The first, very careful investment in B2C companies with extra evaluation, as investors truly believe that B2C in the fintech landscape is quite crowded, and at least from our vantage point, we believe that there are not too many white spaces left or opportunities left. The second is, people are now starting to appreciate B2B and software much more. So, there is a new focus on Enterprise Technology and software. Companies such as Perfios and M2P among others, have proven that these companies are able to scale as long as they are able to build momentum with CTOs. ET: Consumer fintech appears to be facing funding compression, while enterprise fintech is gaining momentum. Why do you believe B2B FinTech is emerging as the stronger long-term opportunity?SA: We think that there have been many regulatory changes on the B2C side. Banks are obviously smart, and they have woken up to innovation, and they are hiring good people, and they have large distribution channels. Thus, it has become quite challenging to build a unique B2C fintech company now that either banks or other large B2Cs are not already doing. So, we think there will be very narrow, pinpointed white space left, even then you will need a lot of capital and regulatory approval to scale those companies. B2B is emerging because after the big sweep of companies like Infosys , there has not been a new wave of banking software or enterprise software companies for BFSI. That new wave has just started a couple of years ago. And we think that banks and financial services institutions have realized that they cannot operate on old-school infrastructure anymore. And so, it is therefore gaining momentum, and it's the core focus. ET: In today’s environment, early-stage capital has become far more selective. What specific metrics or signals now determine whether a Pre-Series A or Series A enterprise fintech gets funded?SA: The investors are still very open minded at the seed funding round; they are happy to back an idea or very early sight of revenue. But Pre-series A and Series A investors are now very clear that at least in this space, until they see at least a million dollars of ARR, they will find it challenging to back a company because they are all worried about the ability to navigate complex sales cycles in the financial services world. Live Events So, we think that the key metric now for Pre- Series A and Series A investors is that they gain momentum and get around a million dollars of ARR. They want to ensure that they can win contracts with banks and financial services institutions. So, if there is any doubt in any of those areas, then investors would like to stay away. ET: You emphasize “revenue-stage entry.” Why is revenue validation more critical today than product vision alone, especially in enterprise SaaS for financial services?SA: Yes, revenue-stage entry is super important to us. The basic reason being that CTOs, CIOs and Chief Digital Officers have more complex decision-making cycles and their sales cycles are complicated. While you may have a great product, you need to show that you are able to sell into banks and large financial institutions, without which you cannot really grow. Honestly, we do not see much of a difference between various product types. There can be incremental differences between quality of product A versus product B or product C. Where we see the big difference is, how good is the founder or the leadership team at winning contracts, building sales, and mastering enterprise sales. Therefore, we pick a revenue stage. ET: AI-led software is becoming central to banking transformation. Where are you seeing the strongest demand, compliance, risk, core modernization, or operational automation?SA: Well, the disruption is actually everywhere, hence it is hard to pick a vertical. We have a portfolio company in the intelligent document processing space using AI, where the use case is efficiency and compliance in terms of extracting data. Soon, we will announce an investment in an AI fraud and risk company, which adds intelligence to lenders before onboarding fraudulent borrowers. So, the mastery or the art is in picking the right vertical. Well most investors will tell you that they are staying away from horizontal AI companies that will die as soon as OpenAI has a small version upgrade. We believe that these horizontal AI companies will survive. ET: Many FinTech startups struggle to move from pilot projects to full-scale deployments with banks. What differentiates companies that successfully convert pilots into meaningful enterprise contracts?SA: What differentiates Fintechs that convert pilots into full-scale enterprise contracts is very practical, not theoretical. First is having the perfect combination of Tech talent and GTM , as only tech talent is detrimental because then there's too much inward product focus on mastering the product without the ability to actually go and knock on doors and convert. Second, is having an open mindset in all kinds of deployment on cloud, hybrid, on-prem especially for the first few customers, you need to make it as easy as possible and make it as deployment friendly as possible. And third, it is being open to some partnerships with other larger vendors. We have seen a lot of emerging companies just win contracts by going and partnering with an Infosys or a Finastra or an M2P or a Perfios, because that helps win leads with a smaller team, at least at the beginning ET: Cedar Hill Capital is built on the legacy of Cedar Consulting and IBS Intelligence. How does that deep domain expertise translate into an advantage when evaluating and supporting portfolio companies?SA: Although we are an independent fund, we do have a huge advantage. There are 3 ways in which the fund draws from the Cedar Consulting platform: Firstly, from the consulting business, they have been advising banks on technology and strategy across the region for many years now. So, this gives us a good vantage point which banks are using which software and what is outdated, and what are the problem statements and the challenges. Hence for our portfolio companies and our investment perspective the consulting access to banks is very powerful. Secondly, from the research side through IBS Intelligence, which profiles thousands of technology companies globally every year, giving us deep domain access to business models, use cases, and technology adoption trends allowing strong benchmarking against our investment strategy and portfolio companies. Finally, through our own Fintech Lab , which we have been running for the last 8-9 years, where around 65 companies have scaled their GTM using the Lab. This creates a powerful, experience-led engine that teaches us how companies actually scale, and allows portfolio companies to learn directly from the journeys, failures, and successes of those 65 companies ET: With backing from institutions such as Muthoot Finance, IIFL Capital, and KSH Investments from Abu Dhabi, how important is cross-border capital and access, particularly across the India–Middle East corridor, for enterprise FinTech founders today?SA: Yes, we do have some Middle Eastern LPs, including the Private Department of Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalid Al Nahyan, which in essence is the ruling family of Abu Dhabi. The reason this corridor is so important is because a lot of Indian technology companies scale up in the Middle East, because they have about a 100 banks and financial institutions, having the ability to pay twice as much for enterprise technology as compared to India. We see it as a very lucrative market for our portfolio companies - both for capital as well as market growth. ET: The era of “growth at all costs” seems to be behind us. What sustainable SaaS metrics, in terms of ARR growth, CAC efficiency, churn, or margins are non-negotiable for you now?SA: The concept of ‘grow at all costs’ didn’t really exist in the B2B space. They rely on small enterprise sales teams and no heavy marketing, so the concept of CAC does not really apply here. B2B is more about sales and relationship management, so the other cost levers were never really a problem for us. In fact, we have had the opposite problem, where the founders are generally quite senior and we have to be the ones to push them to hire regional heads for different geographies to expand our presence. ET: Looking ahead three to five years, do you believe India can build globally dominant enterprise FinTech software companies, and what must founders get right from Day One to achieve that?SA: Yes, India definitely has the ability to build large enterprise software companies that are heavily focused on financial services and banking, and we have seen companies grow to become 100 million in size in the last 10 years. We have already built population-scale digital infrastructure like Unified Payments Interface and India Stack, which has trained founders to think in terms of scale, compliance, and efficiency. The key is building a powerful foundation. Another key ingredient for founders to get it right is to get a few design partners and showcase that they are getting serious interest. Founders often become too inward-focused on their product, and it often gets too late to build momentum, making it harder to scale. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!
Omnitech Engineering's Rs 583 crore IPO is nearing its close with a modest grey market premium, suggesting a potential listing gain around Rs 230. The issue, comprising a fresh issue and an offer for sale, has seen cautious investor interest so far. The company, a precision engineering solutions provider, aims to use proceeds for debt repayment and expansion. View More
The Rs 583 crore Omnitech Engineering IPO is now in its third and final day of bidding. The grey market premium (GMP) is hovering about 2% above the Rs 227 issue price, suggesting a modest listing gain, with the stock likely to debut around Rs 230 if market conditions remain stable. On the second day, the IPO was subscribed 13% overall against the 1.89 crore shares available. The retail investor portion was also subscribed 13%, compared to its reserved allocation of 94.30 lakh shares. The total issue size of Rs 583 crore includes a fresh issue worth Rs 418 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of Rs 165 crore. Omnitech Engineering GMP today As of February 27, the IPO’s grey market premium (GMP) was around 2%, reflecting cautious optimism in the unofficial market. Such a premium points to the possibility of a modest listing gain, assuming overall market sentiment stays steady. At the current GMP, the stock is expected to list at approximately Rs 230 per share, marginally above the upper end of the issue price band. Live Events Also Read | Sebi introduces life cycle funds. Here is what investors need to know Omnitech Engineering subscription status On the second day of bidding, Omnitech Engineering’s IPO saw an overall subscription of 13%, indicating a measured and cautious investor response. In the retail category, the Retail Individual Investor (RII) segment saw 13% subscription against the 94.30 lakh shares earmarked for it, pointing to moderate interest from small investors. The Non-Institutional Investor (NII) segment was subscribed 11% against the 40.41 lakh shares available. The Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) portion recorded 13% subscription compared to its allotted 53.88 lakh shares. Omnitech Engineering IPO details The Omnitech Engineering IPO includes a fresh issue of 1.84 crore equity shares aggregating to Rs 418 crore, along with an offer for sale (OFS) of 0.73 crore shares worth Rs 165 crore. The public issue opened for subscription on February 25, 2026, and is scheduled to close on February 27, 2026. The basis of allotment is expected to be finalised on March 2, 2026. The company plans to list its shares on the BSE and NSE, with a tentative listing date of March 5, 2026. The price band for the IPO has been fixed at Rs 216 to Rs 227 per share. Investors can apply in lots of 66 shares, requiring a minimum investment of Rs 14,982 at the upper end of the price band. Equirus Capital Pvt Ltd is the book-running lead manager to the issue, while MUFG Intime India Pvt Ltd has been appointed as the registrar. Business profile and growth Omnitech Engineering is a manufacturing and engineering solutions company specialising in high-precision engineered components, turnkey industrial automation systems, and tailored mechanical solutions. It serves a global customer base across sectors including energy, motion control, automation, and industrial equipment, with several products used in safety-critical applications. The company operates manufacturing facilities in Gujarat and caters to both domestic and international markets. In FY25, the company reported robust financial performance, with revenue rising 92% to Rs 349.71 crore from Rs 181.95 crore in FY24. Net profit increased to Rs 43.87 crore, up from Rs 18.91 crore in the previous fiscal. EBITDA margins remained strong at 33.64% for the year. For FY25, return on capital employed (ROCE) stood at 9.19%, while pre-IPO earnings per share (EPS) was Rs 4.17. Valuation and peer comparison At the upper price band of Rs 227, the stock is valued at a post-issue P/E of roughly 50x to 53x based on FY25 earnings. The pre-IPO P/E is indicated at 54.47x. While this represents a premium valuation for a mid-cap engineering firm, it compares relatively lower than certain listed peers. As per the comparison table in the IPO note, Azad Engineering trades at a P/E of 103.30x and MTAR Technologies at 196.78x. Swastika Investmart has assigned a "Subscribe" rating to the issue. In its note, the brokerage said Omnitech is a high-growth precision engineering player with a strong client base and healthy margins, though it flagged that debt, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60x, needs monitoring. Swastika said that at the upper price band, the valuation appears reasonable relative to peers, making it suitable for growth-focused investors with a 2 to 3 year horizon looking to participate in the Make in India theme. Objects of the issue and risks The proceeds from the fresh issue will be used for debt repayment or prepayment of existing borrowings, capital expenditure for new projects at proposed facilities and expansion of an existing facility, and general corporate purposes. Key strengths include strong expertise in high-precision engineered components for safety-critical applications, a diversified global customer base across 24 countries, integrated manufacturing facilities in Gujarat, and experienced promoter-led management with nearly two decades of industry presence. However, the company faces certain risks. Revenue concentration from top customers could impact stability if any key client is lost. Manufacturing facilities are geographically concentrated in Rajkot, Gujarat. Significant borrowings increase financial and repayment obligations, and exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations may affect profitability. ( Disclaimer : Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.) .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)