Morning Buzz: L&T announces Rs10,000 cr buyback, Peak XV to mark down Byju's valuation, and more

[CAPTION]Larsen & Toubro has announced a Rs10,000 crore buyback at a maximum price of Rs3,000 per share. Image: Shailesh Andrade/ Reuters[/CAPTION]
 

Larsen & Toubro announces Rs 10,000 crore buyback

Larsen & Toubro has announced a Rs10,000 crore buyback at a maximum price of Rs3,000 per share. This represents a 17 percent premium to the current stock price. If the buyback goes through it would extinguish up to 33.3 million shares or 2.4 percent of equity share capital. The buyback would allow the company to reach its goal of achieving an 18 percent return on equity by FY26. The company also declared results. Net profit rose 46 percent to Rs2,493 crore.  
(Economic Times, Business Standard, Mint)
 

Peak XV plans markdown in Byju’s valuation

After Prosus, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia) plans to mark down Byju’s valuation due to a lack of visibility over internal controls in the company. The markdown is also on account of the inability of the company to provide audited financials. The company did not provide any details over the extent of the mark down. As a result of the Prosus markdown, Byju’s valuation had fallen from $22 billion to $5.1 billion.  
(Economic Times)
 

Retail investors hike holding in Adani companies  

Retail investors have upped their stakes in five out of 10 Adani group companies in the June quarter. NDTV and Adani Total Gas saw the biggest increases with stakes rising 4.31 percent and 2.06 percent, respectively. Adani Transmission, Adani Wilmar and ACC were the other companies that saw stakes increasing. Stakes in Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports, two of the group’s flagship companies, were down 0.24 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.
(Hindu BusinessLine)  
 

Credit card spends fall 2.4 percent in June  

Credit card spends fell to Rs1.37 lakh crore in June after hitting a high of Rs1.41 lakh crore in May. This is according to data from the Reserve Bank of India. The data showed that 64 percent of the spends were for ecommerce transactions and 36 percent were for point-of-sale swipes. Three of the top four issuers saw a decline in spends with SBI being the only one seeing an increase of 5 percent. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank saw a decline.  
(Hindu BusinessLine)