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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
The Essar Group may have cleared its debt and ushered in greater transparency in operations, but the promoters have a long way to go before they shed the baggage of the past.
Editor's note: The Essar Group’s performance over the last decade doesn’t make for a pretty picture. The slide in revenue is unlike any other, going from a peak of $27 billion in 2012 to $13 billion in 2019, though there was a marginal recovery to $15 billion in 2022. The personal wealth of Shashi and Ravi Ruia, the co-founders of the Mumbai-based group, has seen a similar slide. In the 2000s, they were regulars in the top 10 of the Forbes India Rich List of the country’s 100 wealthiest people. But, over the last few years, the two brothers have slipped down the ranks. They were at 67 in 2020, only to go out of the list altogether in the subsequent years. These would have rankled the brothers, who started out in 1969 with a small project in Chennai and went on to build an empire straddling steel, power, ports and refinery sectors. But it was a price they were willing to pay for a reset of the group, which despite a decent top line was bogged down by a mountain of …
The JSW Steel founder is embarking on an unprecedented expansion, betting on Japan’s JFE and Korea’s POSCO to share the load. But rivalries, debt and market risks could complicate the plan.
FY26 numbers show that Airtel is stealing a march on its larger rival on most counts and is unrelenting in its ambition, casting a cloud on Jio’s valuation.
Telecom and retail both continue with their ‘hit and miss’, while O2C delivers an unsurprisingly poor performance in Q4. This is a year RIL will be glad to see the back of.
