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Singapore’s Temasek bags a tasty morsel of Indian snack giant Haldiram’s
MUMBAI: Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek has finally taken a bite out of India’s snack market, snapping up a 10 per cent slice of Haldiram’s for a whopping $ one billion.
The deal, which values the bhujia behemoth at an eye-watering $10 billion, comes after months of negotiations and sees Temasek trumping several heavyweight rivals who baulked at the hefty price tag.
American private equity titan Blackstone pulled out of the race just over a week ago, finding the valuation too hard to swallow after seven months of talks. Other potential suitors, including Bain Capital, General Atlantic, and even Tata Consumer Products, had previously walked away from the table.
Haldiram’s journey from a tiny shop in Bikaner, Rajasthan in 1937 to commanding nearly 13 per cent of India’s $6.2 billion (almost Rs 60,000 crore) savoury snacks market has been nothing short of remarkable.
The company’s most popular offering, “bhujia” – a crispy fried snack made with flour, herbs and spices – sells for as little as Rs 10 in corner shops across the country and has helped turn the family-run business into a global operation spanning 100 countries.
Haldiram Snacks Foods posted a tidy profit of Rs 1,400 crore in FY24 on revenues of Rs 12,800 crore, excluding its Rs 1,800 crore restaurant business, which wasn’t part of the Temasek deal.
Not content with just one slice of the pie, the Agarwal family that controls Haldiram’s is reportedly looking to offload another five per cent stake for around $500 million as part of a pre-IPO placement.
Industry insiders suggest the family had initially sought an even higher valuation, but recent wobbles in the Indian stock market and lacklustre quarterly results from food companies forced a reality check.
The deal represents a significant expansion of Temasek’s Indian portfolio, which already includes stakes in Manipal Hospitals and KFC and Pizza Hut operator Devyani International.
For Haldiram’s, which has diversified into ready-to-eat foods, beverages, chocolates and retail supermarkets, the cash injection could fuel further expansion in a market predicted to more than double to Rs 95,521.8 crore by 2032. That’s a scorchingly hot pace.
Hot indeed – and with traditional Indian snacks now accounting for over half of all salty snack sales in the country, it seems the crunch is only just beginning.
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Samsung India mobile chief quits after 18 years
Raju Antony Pullan’s exit leaves a gaping hole at the top as Chinese rivals tighten their grip
GURGAON: Raju Antony Pullan has had enough. The senior vice-president and head of Samsung India’s mobile phone business has put in his papers after 18 years at the Korean giant, a tenure long enough to have watched the company stride to the top of India’s smartphone market and then stumble, badly, as Chinese upstarts muscled in.
Pullan, who ran sales, marketing and every last function of the smartphone business, tendered his resignation on Thursday and is currently serving out his notice period. Samsung has not named a successor. It has a second line of leadership waiting in the wings, Aditya Babbar and Hiren Rathod among them, but no decision has been made on who steps up.
The timing is awkward. Samsung has been haemorrhaging market share to Chinese brands and now clings to a top-two position only in the premium segment, where it scraps it out with Apple. Losing the man who stewarded the mobile business through its best and worst years hardly helps steady the ship.
A company that once owned India’s smartphone market is now fighting to stay relevant in it. Pullan’s departure is less a footnote than a flashing red light.
