MAM
AAAI announces contest to redesign its logo
Mumbai: The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) on Tuesday announced a contest to redesign its logo to reflect the future of advertising and recast the descriptor ‘Advertising Agencies Association of India’ so as to showcase the evolving larger world of marketing communications. The contest is open to all creative individuals and advertising agencies.
The association also emphasised that the acronym AAAI (the three As of I) has a rich legacy and a fabulous brand recall which it does not want to tamper with.
AAAI also announced that the winner of the contest will be given a cash prize of Rs one lakh along with an all-expenses-paid trip for a team of two to attend Goafest 2022, which is scheduled between 5-7 May in Goa.
FCB Group India Group chairman and chairman of this contest Rohit Ohri said, ‘The advertising industry is facing its biggest transformation ever. The key question is not whether advertising will change, but how radically it will do so. It is high time that the AAAI identity changes to reflect this new direction being taken by the industry.”
“The present AAAI logo was designed in 2005, since then advertising has undergone a sea change and it is high time that we allow the next generation to take AAAI’s identity into the future,” AAAI president Anupriya Acharya said. “Keeping this in view, it was felt that AAAI should also forge a new identity which would reflect the current and future direction that the industry is taking.”
The last date for receiving entries of the designs is 15 April, said the statement.
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.
