MAM
BBC World to air vignettes on Asia Pacific
BBC World, BBC’s commercially funded 24-hour international news and information channel, has launched a series of eight 60-second vignettes called Asia Pacific Guides, which features key destinations in Asia.
The vignettes, sponsored by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata), will be shown in between programmes on the channel, for the next eight weeks.
Each vignette will give viewers a brief insight into what to see and do at a certain destination. The campaign will air exclusively on the channel’s Asia Pacific and Europe feeds, reaching 119 million households, a company release states.
Pata is a recoginsed authority on Asia Pacific travel and tourism, which provides leadership to the collective efforts of nearly 100 government, state and city tourism bodies, over 55 airlines and cruise lines and various travel industry companies.
BBC World has used footage sourced from the National Tourism Organisations of Australia, India, Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan to create this series.
Pata will sponsor the series as a part of its Project Phoenix, a global consumer communications campaign to reinvigorate travel and tourism in the region. The industry has seen a downfall following the Sars epidemics, the terrorist attacks in Bali and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Recently, the international labour organisation had stated that about 6.5 million jobs were lost in the global travel industry in 2001-’02 and at least five million retrenchments are anticipated in the next one year, unless the consumer confidence in the industry is restored.
The release quotes Pata president and chief executive officer Peter de Jong, as saying,”The highly motivational BBC World vignettes will play an important role in rebuilding consumer and business confidence in travel to and within the region.”
He said Pata’s new website, www.TravelWithPATA.com gives details about travel to Asia.
BBC World’s account director (North Asia) Simone Page says, “This is very exciting for us, proving yet again the power of pan-regional TV as a platform for communicating messages globally. We are happy to be a part of Pata’s communication drive.”
Brands
Flipkart completes reverse flip to India ahead of IPO
Walmart-owned e-commerce giant shifts domicile from Singapore to Bengaluru
MUMBAI: Flipkart has completed its restructuring to move its parent company from Singapore back to India, marking a key milestone as the Walmart-owned marketplace prepares for a potential initial public offering on Indian stock exchanges, ET reported, citing people aware of the matter.
The move, often referred to as a “reverse flip”, relocates the company’s legal home to India and aligns its corporate structure more closely with its largest market. It also clears an important regulatory step for Flipkart as it explores listing plans.
As part of the restructuring, several Singapore-based entities have been merged into Flipkart Internet Private Limited, which will now serve as the main holding company for the entire group.
The consolidation brings a number of major businesses directly under the Indian parent company. These include fashion platform Myntra, logistics arm Ekart, travel booking platform Cleartrip, healthcare marketplace Flipkart Health, and fintech venture Super.money.
Under the new structure, global investors including Walmart, Microsoft, SoftBank, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will hold their stakes directly in the Indian entity rather than through an overseas holding company.
The redomiciliation required approval from the Indian government because Chinese technology company Tencent owns around a 5 to 6 per cent stake in Flipkart. Under Press Note 3, investments from countries sharing a land border with India require prior government clearance.
Flipkart had already secured approval from the National Company Law Tribunal in December. With the latest clearance from the central government, the company has now obtained all the regulatory approvals needed to complete the relocation, ET reported earlier.
Flipkart had originally shifted its holding structure to Singapore in 2011 to tap global capital more easily. However, as India’s capital markets have matured, several start-ups have begun returning their domiciles to the country ahead of public listings. Companies such as Razorpay, Groww, and Meesho have taken similar steps.
The company is now expected to move ahead with its IPO preparations and has begun early discussions with merchant bankers. According to people familiar with the matter, Flipkart could file its draft prospectus later this year, setting the stage for what may become one of the most closely watched listings in India’s e-commerce sector.
Flipkart has been majority-owned by Walmart since 2018, when the US retail giant acquired a 77 per cent stake in the company for $16 billion in one of the largest e-commerce deals globally.
