Namaste, Sat Sri Akaal, and Salaam. 🫡

Happy morning, folks. 🙏

Today we’re diving into -
- Qatar’s $100 billion Reliance Retail bet,
- UrbanCompany’s trajectory toward profits,
- And, Indian space stocks’ Chandrayaan-powered boost.

Our read time today is 4 minutes and 46 seconds - faster than you can indulge in a plate of gravy-waali soya chaap. 🔥

Let's dive in. 👇

Market Vibe Check

Qatar places a $100-billion-bet on Ambani. 💸

TLDR -
- QIA invested $1 billion for a 0.99% stake in Reliance Retail.
- E-commerce unit is at $8bn a year and growing FAST.
- Arab/GCC investors are loving their India returns.

Mumbai’s Motabhai 🤝 Qatar’s sheikhs

Reliance Retail (RR) just grabbed ~$1 billion from Qatar Investment Authority against a 0.99% stake - valuing the business at $100 billion flat.

Their previous fundraise was done at a $63 billion price tag, which makes this a ~50% increase in ‘value’.

RR is India’s most profitable retail business and has 19,000+ physical locations along with tons more online real estate.

Brick-and-mortar stores have been their lifeblood, but the e-commerce units are starting to look more exciting.

E-com alone clocked almost $8b in top-line sales this year, growing at 30-40% a year while the entire business did $32b.

The bottom-line - tons of Middle-Eastern money is gonna start flowing toward India.

Solid stuff. 💰

Urban Company makes a leap toward profitability. 🦘

TLDR -
- Urban Company cut losses by 40% to $38mn.
- Revenue growth also slowed from 75%/year to 40%/year.
- Repeat rates are still high - 8 in 10 customers come back.

The “Uber for haircuts” company is cutting back on VC-sponsored trims and pushing for more sustainable growth.

Urban Company pared their pre-tax losses by 40% from $70mn to $38mn.

At the same time, they kept their repeat rates high at 77% - which is almost unheard of in the consumer services segment.

Another promising thing - their India business (90% of revenue) broke even while their overseas units are all making losses.

Revenue growth did slow from 75% to 40%, but it’s just going up at a slower rate.

Solid results for an under-pressure startup.

Indian space startups rally because of Chandrayaan chaska. 🚀

Sometimes you don’t have to be the smartest investor.

13 companies that supply tech for -
- electric components
- metal gears for rockets
- satellite navigation & landing support

Have all added $2.5bn+ in market value and soared almost 30-50% due to Chandrayaan euphoria.

Definitely not investment advice. 😂

In other news… ☕

Wagner chief gets in a plane crash (BBG)

USA home sales accelerate to a 18-month high (FT)

Sony drops a modern PSP (TC)

European macro conditions start deteriorating further (CNBC)

Chandrayaan touches down (u already knew this)

And that’s the tea the chai for today.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoyed it. Have a mauj-masti filled day ahead.

Lots of ❤️,

Team Cutting Chai 3