MARCH 20249TOP STORIESRELIANCE POWER SETTLES DEBTS WITH ALL MAJOR BANKSReliance Power, led by Anil Ambani, has made significant strides in settling its debts to several banks, including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and DBS Bank, according to sources familiar with the matter. Last week, Reliance Power successfully settled its debts with these three banks, marking a significant step towards its goal of becoming a debt-free company by the end of the fiscal year.The settlement with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and DBS Bank saw Reliance Power repaying a portion of its debts, with the lenders recovering approximately 30-35% of their principal loans. The total debt owed to these three banks amounted to about Rs 400 crore.Additionally, Reliance Infrastructure, the parent company of Reliance Power, is actively working towards settling its dues of Rs 2,100 crore to JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Company. A standstill agreement was initially reached between Reliance Infrastructure and JC Flowers ARC, extending until March 20, 2024. However, this agreement has been recently extended to March 31, 2024, providing Reliance Infrastructure with additional time to arrange funds.In a separate development, Reliance Power raised Rs 240 crore in equity from VFSI Holdings on March 13. It is speculated that the proceeds from this equity raise were utilized to settle the dues with the aforementioned banks. VFSI Holdings is a subsidiary of Varde Partners, a global asset manager.Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure have been actively addressing their financial indebtedness. Reliance Power's total financial indebtedness stood at Rs 765 crore as of December 31, 2023, while Reliance Infrastructure's total financial indebtedness was reported to be Rs 4,233 crore for the same period.In April 2023, Reliance Power also settled loans with two other lenders, JC Flowers ARC and Canara Bank, according to exchange disclosures. These efforts underscore Reliance Group's commitment to resolving its financial obligations and achieving a debt-free status. UNILEVER SPLITS ITS ICE CREAM DIVISION AS PART OF COST CUTTING OPERATIONSUnder the leadership of CEO Hein Schumacher, Unilever is embarking on a significant restructuring effort aimed at accelerating growth. As part of this initiative, the company announced job reductions, integral to its Growth Action Plan, to achieve 800 million in cost savings over the next three years.One of the key decisions made by the Unilever Board is to streamline the company's portfolio by focusing on unmissably superior brands in highly attractive categories with complementary operating models. In line with this strategy, the Board has decided to separate its Ice Cream business to optimize future growth opportunities for both the Ice Cream division and Unilever as a whole.The company stated that various options will be explored for the separation, with a demerger leading to creating a new publicly listed company being the most likely choice. Unilever's CEO indicated they are "open to options" regarding where the ice cream unit will be listed.Unilever's Ice Cream business, which includes renowned brands such as Magnum and Ben & Jerry's, generated sales of 7.9 billion ($8.6 billion) in 2023. After separating the Ice Cream business and implementing its productivity program, Unilever anticipates achieving a "structurally higher" margin. Post-separation, the company forecasts mid-single-digit underlying sales growth and modest margin improvement.The separation of the Ice Cream business is expected to enable Unilever's management to accelerate the implementation of its Growth Action Plan, which focuses on doing fewer things but better, driving consistent and stronger topline growth, enhancing productivity and simplicity, and fostering a performance-driven culture.Moreover, Unilever highlighted that it has identified further opportunities for efficiency enhancement as part of its GAP initiative, which can now be expedited to drive greater operational effectiveness and growth.
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