Shoppers Stop exits non-core business
: Shoppers Stop Ltd. (NSE: SHOPERSTOP I BSE: 532638) (the "Company" or "Shoppers Stop") announced that it has dosed the sale of a controlling stake of its 100% Subsidiary, Crossword Bookstores Limited ("Crossword Bookstores") to M/s. Dinesh Gupta, Aakash Gupta and Family (Owners of Agarwal Business House) (ABH), Pune, pursuant to the share purchase agreement between Shoppers Stop and ABH (the "Agreement") signed on August 31, 2021. The business of Crossword Bookstores Is valued at Rs.41.6 Crs. Under the agreement, ABH will take over all the assets and brand. Any liabilities will be adjusted for arriving at the final consideration.
The sale of the Crossword Bookstores Is consistent with the company's strategic plans, which Is to focus on its core business and expand its strategic pillars viz, First Citizen, Private Labels, Beauty and most importantly, its Omnichannel business, which has grown more than 3 times in the last one year.
At the Board Meeting of the Company held on August 311 2021, the Board has approved the transaction. Subject to receipt of necessary consents, Shoppers Stop shall divest 51% stake (expected to be completed within 15 days) and another 39% in the next 12 months.
Commenting on the sale, Venu Nair, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company said, "We are pleased to continue the business transformation we set out to accomplish from last March and selling the books' business Is an important part of that strategy. This represents another step in our progress to elevate Shoppers Stop to a customer focused, Omnichannel retailer, to enable us to deliver on the promises we make to our customers and shareholders. Most importantly, we are selling Crossword Bookstores to our franchisee ABH, who has been in this business for more than two decades and are extremely passionate about the book business. We are extremely confident ABH will grow the book business and take it to the next level. I am very thrilled about this deal, as It is a win-win for both Shoppers Stop and ABH.
Aakash Gupta on behalf of the acquiring family said "We are very excited on the beginning of a new journey for this iconic brand. Crossword 2.0 is about focusing on readers and improving the overall customer experience. We are planning to infuse a significant amount for renovation, expansion, and the new Omni Journey.
Wipro and HERE partner to provide location-based services and analytics for customers globally
Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, and HERE Technologies, the location data and technology platform, today announced that they are partnering to offer location-based services, to customers from Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics, Telecom and Automotive industry verticals.
As part of this announcement, Wipro and HERE will be jointly developing solutions in the areas of asset tracking, logistics, supply chain, smart-metering and analytics, field workforce management, and private mapping-as-a-service for indoor and outdoor real-time asset tracking.
An Internet of Things (IoT) based smart metering solution being developed by both companies, will provide better information to customers on energy consumption and asset management. The HERE mapping-as-a-service solution enables enterprises to build private maps in the field and manage their autonomous vehicles more efficiently, by providing information to their drivers on routing time, speed, fuel consumption and hazardous conditions. HERE Tracking will help Wipro’s customers monitor and track assets, field engineers and supply chain on a real-time basis both indoor and outdoor, as well as provide analytics to build operational efficiencies.
Sarat Chand, Regional Head & Managing Director - Benelux, Wipro Limited said, “We are happy to be partnering with HERE Technologies to co-develop customized solutions, for customers who require location as a key component of their services. We are excited about the future of this partnership and the potential it offers in the journey towards an autonomous world.”
Jason Jameson, SVP & General Manager, APAC, HERE Technologies said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Wipro to provide location-based services for their customers on a global level. Combined with Wipro’s solutions, HERE location technology will open up further opportunities across different industries, providing customers with more relevant and customized solutions, leading to world-class user experiences.”
TCS Named a Leader in Application Modernization and Migration Services by Independent Research Firm
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, has been recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Application Modernization and Migration Services, Q3 2021
According to the report, “TCS uses organic development to power its broad modernization services… TCS’ preference for organic development is a differentiating stance amid competitors that tend to make frequent acquisitions.” It went on to say that “The firm leverages its MasterCraft™ development technologies and Intelligent Cloud Migration Continuum (iCMC™) for aspects of digital transformation and app modernization.” The report noted, “TCS’ reputation for solid delivery makes the company a good fit for large enterprise clients with a broad range of requirements across new and legacy technologies.”
“TCS’ cloud and next-gen technology powered application modernization and migration capabilities are helping customers drive their multi-horizon, purpose-led and ecosystem-driven growth and transformation journeys,” said Krishnan Ramanujam, Business Group Head, Business & Technology Services, TCS. “We believe this recognition as a Leader from an independent third-party research firm is a reflection of our contextual knowledge, industry-acclaimed thought leadership, innovation and a unique portfolio of transformative industry, domain and service accelerators that help our clients enhance customer experience, business outcomes and competitive differentiation.”
TCS' Application Transformation Services consist of two primary streams:
• Consulting Services: TCS carries out cloud and digital maturity assessments to identify gaps and
derive an actionable modernization roadmap. It also conducts strategy and visioning workshops
to establish the target operating model that covers reference architecture design, evaluation for
microservices and design thinking for UX, to support a balanced ‘modernize-while-you-migrate’
approach.
• Application Portfolio Transformation: TCS helps customers decide whether to retain, retire,
replace, or rebuild their legacy applications and subsequently whether to rehost, refactor, or replatform while migrating to the cloud. The new applications are built harnessing digital
technologies such as advanced data analytics, AI and ML, AR & VR, etc. Further, business
processes are analyzed to identify harmonization opportunities, which are then crafted as a
bouquet of microservices, APIs and a modern UX.
TCS has invested in setting up dedicated strategic cloud units that provide a full complement of end-toend services around each of the major hyperscale clouds. TCS’ change management advisory offerings facilitate full participation by all stakeholders in the transformation journey, reducing project risks and delivering superior outcomes.
A key differentiator is TCS' comprehensive portfolio of intellectual property, tools, and products. TCS MasterCraft™ TransformPlus, an intelligent automation product, significantly accelerates end-to-end application modernization and supports a wide range of legacy and modern programming languages. TCS has used TransformPlus to analyze more than 1 billion lines of legacy code, extract business rules and document them for business reference and decision-making.
The Cloud Innovation Garage leverages IoT, AI, ML and advanced analytics and cloud as well as TCS' domain knowledge to drive innovation. Other accelerators include HyperBreeze Container Service Offering, Jile™, iCMC™, Modernization Propeller, TCS DATOM, TCS DAEzMO, TCS Decision Fabric™ and ZippedAgile.
“Our Multi-Horizon Transformation to Purpose-led Growth thought leadership framework, underpinned by a rich portfolio of application modernization and migration assets and capabilities are critical value differentiatorsfor our customers’ transformations and a key driver of our market success,” added Krishnan Ramanujam.
Mastek partners with fulfillmenttools to deliver modern omnichannel fulfillment solutions to customers worldwide
Mastek is partnering with fulfillmenttools to enable D2X (Direct to Stakeholder) transformation for their joint clients. This partnership will enable their clients to deliver excellent customer experience through a unified D2X process integrating commerce with fulfilment.
fulfillmenttools offers an integrated end-to-end platform solution for efficient omnichannel fulfillment. The suite spans three modules: a distributed order management system (DOMS), in-store fulfilment, and shipping integration – perfectly suited for the retail fulfilment processes of the future. All modules are provided from a single source, offering seamless connection and flexibility to adapt to any retailer’s requirements.
“A superior Direct to stakeholder experience requires an omni-channel front office integrated into the middle office thereby enabling real time stock visibility and distributed fulfilment. fulfillmenttools is a next generation platform in this space and we are excited to partner with them to enable our clients deliver a best in class experience for their clients.” said Raman Sapra, President, Mastek Americas.
According to Linda Kuhr, Managing Director and Co-founder at fulfillmenttools, "We are very excited to welcome Mastek to our growing network of international partners. We truly believe that together we can enable our clients to take their fulfillment to the next level by integrating a retailers store network with their digital commerce activities and thus delivering a superior omni-channel experience to end customers."
L&T concludes the divestment of 99 MW Hydro Power Plant with Renew Power
L&T concluded the divestment of its 100% stake in the 3 x 33 MW (99 MW) hydroelectric power plant at Singoli-Bhatwari in Uttarakhand. As per the terms, the EPC Projects, Hi-Tech Manufacturing and Services conglomerate received a consideration of 1,001.50 crores as divestment proceeds from Renew Power on August 30th 2021.
This deal is in line with the company's strategy to pursue the divestment path for all non-core assets in its portfolio.
Mr. D K Sen, Whole-time Director Et Sr. Executive Vice President (Development Projects), LEtT, said, "We have already identified our non-core assets in Nabha Power, a 2x700 MW supercritical thermal power plant at Rajpura, Punjab, LEtT Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd (LEtT IDPL), our subsidiary primarily engaged in road projects and power transmission lines and Hyderabad Metro, the largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project in the Metro rail sector for divestment. We will work out the divestment process of all these assets over a period of time."