Good morning. Sun is out. Birds are chirping… chirping about the latest developments in Indian business, tech, and startups.

In this edition:

• 💊 Sanofi’s new healthcare spin-off in India

• 🪹 Nestle’s $1B bid to buy the owner of Ching’s Secret noodles

• 🎥 Netflix scales down its film-making unit

MARKETS

*Stock data as of market close. Source.

• Markets: As India's financial year comes to a close, the stock market is pulling some last-minute wins, with Sensex shooting up by a whopping 1,031 points and the Nifty soaring above the 17,300 mark. Man, 1,031 points is a lot.

PHARMA

Sanofi’s new healthcare spin-off in India

💊A new pharma player is coming to town. And that’s ‘cause French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi just announced plans to spin off its consumer healthcare business in India.

In the works. Sanofi has already kickstarted the process of demerging its India business to become a publicly traded company with the help of Bank of America.

Current ownership. Sanofi and its wholly owned subsidiary Hoechst Gmbh own around 60% of Sanofi India, with the remainder held by foreign and domestic institutional and retail investors.

Post-spin-off. After the demerger, the consumer division would be listed separately but with a similar shareholding setup.

TECH

IT firm breaks layoff trend with plans to hire 1000

🤝 There’s an IT firm still hiring? Yep. Amidst a wave of layoffs in the Indian IT industry, one company is bucking the trend — like that one student who gets As while everyone gets Fs.

Noida-based IT services firm HCLTech is looking to hire 1000 professionals in Romania nonetheless across various roles in the next 2 years.

Curve breaker. The move by HCLTech is noteworthy given the current climate in the Indian IT industry. It’s no secret that companies have been laying off employees in response to challenging business environments… and then there’s HCL, scaling in Romania.

Elsewhere… Even tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Meta all laid off a large number of employees in recent cuts. In January, Google slashed 12,000 from its staff. On the other front, Meta and Amazon laid off 21,000 and 27,000, respectively, in two separate waves.

FOOD

Nestle’s $1B bid to buy the owner of Ching’s Secret noodles

Nestle wants in on Ching’s secret

🪹 Nestle is reportedly in talks to acquire Capital Foods, the owner of Ching's Secret instant noodles in India. The deal, which is said to be worth around $1B, would give Nestle access to the fast-growing instant snack market in the country. Let’s unpack:

Ching's Secret Success. Ching's Secret has become a popular brand in India in recent years, with its instant noodles and other snacks appealing to young consumers who are looking for quick and convenient meals (i.e starving college students).

Activate peacock feathers. While conversations on a prospective purchase are ongoing, several other suitors have expressed interest in purchasing Capital Foods. Because of this, it’s not guaranteed that Nestle will be the winner of this lucrative noodle deal.

INDIA EDITION: WHAT ELSE IS ON THE BIRDWATCH

• 🛑 PhonePe hits ‘nope’ on ZestMoney acquisition. Looks like PhonePe, the digital payments giant owned by Flipkart, has hit the "cancel" button on its plans to acquire ZestMoney, a consumer lending fintech company.

• ✂️ Unacademy higher-ups take pay cuts on the chin. Unacademy's leadership team is taking the captain’s oath with an up-to 25% pay cut in the coming fiscal, as the popular online learning platform tries to navigate its current job cuts.

• 🥭 No, not the mangos! Bad news for mango lovers, as unseasonal rains and hailstorms have damaged about 20% of mango crops, leaving markets fearing a potential shortfall in supply.

FUNDING DEALS

Catch up on the Indian funding flows from the past 24hrs:

• Dunzo, the hyperlocal delivery startup that's been moving errands across India, is now in the final leg of talks with investors to secure $50M in capital and keep the wheels turning.

• Assam Tea Gardens is brewing with excitement as the government pledged Rs. 63 crore in assistance to help it reconstitute pandemic losses.

• Polytrade, an Indian DeFi startup, just raised $3.8M in seed funding as investors of the likes of Alpha Waves and Polygon Ventures flocked to join the crypto party.

WORLD

Headline Explorer

🥔 Japan won’t share chips with China. As tensions rise between Japan and China, the former has started to implement China-bound export curbs on microchips and other sensitive technology. The nation said on Friday that it will restrict exports of 23 different types of high-end chip-making machines.

👻 Google’s ‘ghost workers’ protest for better treatment. Google's ghost workers, a.k.a. the tens of thousands of content moderators who work for the tech giant but aren't considered full-time employees, are haunting the company with demands to be treated equally and given the same benefits and opportunities as their in-house counterparts.

🎥 Netflix hits brakes on movie-making machine. The streaming giant has just restructured its film group, slowing down its movie output in the process. More specifically, Netflix opted to lean out some staff and smush together two of its production units into one centralized body.

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