MAM
Binance Smart Chain rebrands to BNB Chain
Mumbai: Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the community-driven, open-sourced and decentralised blockchain ecosystem has announced its rebranding to BNB chain. This move is to spotlight its connection with the BNB token, the decentralised evolution of the BNB ecosystem, and showcase how BNB has transcended Binance in terms of its use cases, said the statement.
With this name change, the brand aims to have more advancements to benefit users, projects and developers connected to the BNB Chain community.
BNB, which stands for ‘Build and Build’ (formerly called Binance Coin), is the blockchain gas token that ‘fuels’ transactions on BNB Chain. BNB also acts as a governance token, as it is necessary to participate in BNB Chain’s decentralised on-chain governance.
BNB Chain is comprised of BNB Beacon Chain (previously Binance Chain) and BNB Smart Chain (BSC) (Previously Binance Smart Chain).
“BNB Chain will embrace large-scale applications, including GameFi, SocialFi and the Metaverse,” said BNB Chain ecosystem coordinator Samy Karim. “In particular, scaling from one chain to multi-chain, improving scaling solutions and expanding the validator set of BSC from 21 to 41 (with 20 validators functioning as candidate block producers).”
Through MetaFi, the BNB Chain community will aim to build the infrastructure that powers the world’s parallel virtual ecosystem. (‘Meta’ for metadata, and ‘Fi’ for DeFi), is a concept that provides advanced and sophisticated DeFi infrastructure to all the different types of projects such as metaverse, GameFi, SocialFi, Web3, and NFTs and puts them under one umbrella – MetaFi.
MetaFi is a future all-encompassing ecosystem that promises to deliver a paradigm shift that will enable seamless interoperability between different projects and blockchains, according to the brand. The combination of these different blockchain projects enables a full-fledged parallel ecosystem serving users from around the globe.
Through the concept of MetaFi, BNB Chain aims to build the infrastructure to bring the parallel virtual ecosystem to life, it further said.
Brands
Devyani International Ltd plans three-subsidiary merger to streamline operations
QSR operator moves to streamline structure and unlock operational synergies
Devyani International is tightening its corporate kitchen. The quick-service restaurant operator has approved a scheme to merge three subsidiaries—Sky Gate Hospitality, Blackvelvet Hospitality and Say Chefs Eatery—into the parent company in a bid to simplify its structure and sharpen operational efficiency.
The decision was cleared at a board meeting on March 10 and disclosed in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges. The merger will take effect from April 1, 2025, subject to statutory approvals.
All three transferor companies are direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries, meaning no fresh shares will be issued and the shareholding pattern of Devyani International will remain unchanged once the scheme is completed.
The subsidiaries together operate more than 100 outlets—including dine-in restaurants and cloud kitchens, spread across over 40 cities such as Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru.
Devyani International, the largest franchisee of Yum Brands in India, said the consolidation is aimed at generating operational synergies, optimising resource utilisation and reducing layers within the corporate structure.
Financially, the move brings together businesses of varying scale. As of March 31, 2025, Devyani International reported a net worth of Rs 10,381.02 million and turnover of Rs 33,493.33 million. Sky Gate Hospitality posted a net worth of Rs 761.14 million with turnover of Rs 2,657.57 million, while Blackvelvet Hospitality and Say Chefs Eatery reported smaller operations and negative net worth.
The merger will consolidate these operations under a single corporate umbrella as the company sharpens its focus on scale and efficiency.
Devyani International currently runs more than 2,000 outlets across over 280 cities in India, Nigeria, Nepal and Thailand. Its portfolio includes franchise rights for brands such as Pizza Hut, KFC, Costa Coffee, Tea Live, New York Fries and Sanook Kitchen, alongside its own food brands.
With the paperwork underway and approvals pending, Devyani is essentially clearing the corporate clutter—turning three subsidiaries into one tighter, leaner operation. In the QSR world, even the back office needs a spring clean.
