Zee Entertainment Enterprises reported a 48% year-on-year decline in profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 74.3 crore in the first quarter of FY27, compared with Rs 143.7 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. The company said advertising revenue was impacted by the Middle East crisis, while the impact was partially offset by FIFA World Cup performance.

Revenue from operations increased 5% year-on-year to Rs 1,907.3 crore in Q1 FY27, compared with Rs 1,824.8 crore in Q1 FY26, according to the company’s exchange filing.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined 65% year-on-year to Rs 78.9 crore from Rs 228 crore in the year-ago quarter. The EBITDA margin stood at 4.1%, compared with 12.5% in Q1 FY26.

Zee Entertainment said domestic advertising revenue was impacted by the Middle East crisis and cricket during the quarter, with overall revenue down 11% year-on-year.
Advertising revenue witnessed a recovery in June following the acquisition of FIFA digital and broadcasting rights, the company said.

Subscription revenue was driven by higher linear subscription pricing and growth in digital subscribers, along with higher average revenue per user (ARPU).
The company reported international advertising revenue of Rs 46 crore, subscription revenue of Rs 103.5 crore and Other Sales & Services revenue of Rs 15.5 crore in Q1 FY27.The company said growth in its studios business was driven by other-language movies, including “Tumbbad Chi Manjula” and “Rakaasa.”

On the operating cost front, programming expenses increased on account of FIFA 2026 and expanded content offerings across platforms.

Zee Entertainment also continued to selectively invest in growth initiatives, including KidZ, Bullet and Live.

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Independent director re-appointments

Zee Entertainment announced the re-appointment of four independent directors for a second term of five years, subject to approval by shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting.

Deepu Bansal has been re-appointed as an Independent Director for a second term of five years from October 13, 2026, to October 12, 2031, both days inclusive.

Uttam Prakash Agarwal has been re-appointed as an Independent Director for a second term of five years from December 17, 2026, to December 16, 2031, upon the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

Venkata Ramana Murthy Pinisetti has also been re-appointed as an Independent Director for a second term of five years from December 17, 2026, to December 16, 2031, upon the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

Shishir Babubhai Desai has also been re-appointed as an Independent Director for a second term of five years from December 17, 2026, to December 16, 2031, upon the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

All the re-appointments are subject to approval by the shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Markets regulator Sebi on Monday proposed increasing the maximum number of ISINs, the unique identification numbers for securities, that can mature in a financial year for privately placed debt securities to 17 from the existing 14, in a move aimed at easing liquidity and refinancing pressures for NBFCs and large corporates.

Under the proposal, the maximum number of ISINs maturing in a financial year would comprise up to 12 ISINs for plain-vanilla debt securities, against nine currently, and up to five ISINs for structured debt securities, market-linked debt securities, Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs), Zero Coupon Bonds (ZCBs) and Debt Capital instruments (Tier-II bonds), the Securities and Exchange Board of India said in its consultation paper.

The existing framework allows a maximum of 14 ISINs maturing in a financial year – nine for plain-vanilla debt and five for structured and market-linked debt securities. In addition, six ISINs are available for capital-gains tax debt securities issued by authorised issuers under Section 54EC of the Income Tax Act.

An ISIN, or International Securities Identification Number, is a unique 12-character code used to identify securities such as shares, bonds, warrants and commercial papers.
The proposal follows representations from market participants and other stakeholders seeking a review of the existing ISIN limits.

They have pointed out that the current limits may affect the funding requirements of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), as bunching of liabilities could make liquidity management more difficult and increase refinancing risks, impacting asset-liability management.
The issue is also relevant for large corporates. Under Sebi’s framework for fund raising by large corporates, entities rated AA or higher and having outstanding long-term borrowings of Rs 1,000 crore or more are required to raise at least 25 per cent of their qualified borrowings through debt securities.Sebi said the existing restriction on the number of ISINs may impede such entities in meeting the regulatory requirement.

To provide flexibility to large issuers, Sebi proposed that once the total outstanding amount across the 12 ISINs maturing in a financial year reaches Rs 15,000 crore, one additional ISIN may be permitted. Thereafter, one additional ISIN may be permitted for every further Rs 3,000 crore of outstanding amount maturing in that financial year.

Sebi has also proposed excluding ISINs pertaining to Government of India-serviced/Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) bonds from the prescribed ISIN limits.

It has further proposed that ISINs pertaining to ESG debt securities may not be counted towards the maximum number permitted to mature in a financial year, with the objective of encouraging ESG debt issuance.

Also, Sebi suggested removing the requirement for an issuer proposing to list its non-convertible debt securities to mandatorily list all outstanding unlisted NCDs issued on or after January 1, 2024.

The move is aimed at encouraging debt listing by allowing issuers to decide whether to list their earlier outstanding debt issues, which may involve high costs and operational challenges.

However, the requirement to list all subsequent debt securities issuances after the first listing would continue to apply.

Sebi noted that the share of listed debt in total debt issuance declined to 76.55 per cent as of June 30, 2026, from 80.81 per cent as of September 30, 2023, when the mandatory listing requirement was introduced. ​

It said the mandatory requirement to list past issues may be one possible reason for the decline.

Sebi has sought public comments on the proposals by August 31.

PARIS — Riders of privately owned electric scooters in Paris are now required to wear an approved helmet and high-visibility gear on public roads, under new safety rules that took effect Friday following a sharp rise in fatal and serious accidents involving the devices.

The rules, announced by police, apply not only to e-scooters but to a broader category of devices French authorities classify as motorized personal mobility devices, including electric unicycles, Segways and hoverboards. Riders caught without an approved helmet face a fine of €135, or roughly $155, while those who fail to wear a high-visibility vest or other approved reflective gear face a smaller penalty of €35, or about $40.

The measures took effect Friday across Paris and its inner suburbs, including the departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne, extending a patchwork of similar rules already in place in parts of the country. Helmets and high-visibility gear had previously been mandatory in several other French regions, including Seine-et-Marne, Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse, but had only been strongly recommended, rather than legally required, in the capital before this week.

Police said the new requirements were introduced in response to a marked increase in serious and fatal accidents involving the devices in recent years. According to figures cited by police from France’s national road safety watchdog, 79 people were killed in e-scooter-related accidents nationwide last year, up sharply from 45 the year before. In Paris specifically, roughly 1,100 people were injured in accidents involving the devices last year, a 33% increase compared with the previous year. Authorities said a significant proportion of the accidents resulted in serious or fatal head injuries, a pattern officials pointed to directly in justifying the new helmet requirement.

The tightened rules add to an already substantial set of restrictions Paris has placed on electric scooter use in recent years. Riders must be at least 14 years old to operate the devices, carrying a passenger is prohibited, and speeds are capped at 25 kilometers per hour, or about 15.5 miles per hour. Riders are also required to carry insurance and are barred from riding on sidewalks except in designated areas.

Notably, the new rules do not appear to extend to standard pedal-assist electric bicycles, which are regulated separately under French bicycle law rather than the framework governing motorized personal mobility devices. That distinction means the mandatory helmet and high-visibility requirements apply specifically to scooters, hoverboards, unicycles and similar devices, rather than to the broader category of e-bikes increasingly used for commuting across the city.

Friday’s rule change follows one of the most significant shifts in Paris’s approach to micromobility in recent years: the city’s 2023 ban on shared, rental e-scooters. That decision came after a citywide public consultation in which roughly 89% to 90% of participating voters backed removing rental scooters from city streets, though turnout for the vote was notably low, drawing criticism from some officials and scooter operators at the time over how representative the result truly was. Despite the ban on shared devices, privately owned e-scooters have remained legal and widely used across the city, a distinction that has kept the devices a visible and, at times, contentious presence on Parisian streets even after rental operators were pushed out.

Paris’s move to restrict shared e-scooters in 2023 was itself driven by long-running complaints about their unregulated deployment, including scooters left obstructing sidewalks and concerns about reckless riding. Before the citywide ban, Paris had already taken incremental steps to rein in the shared scooter market, cutting the number of authorized rental operators from a larger field down to three companies in 2020 and capping their speeds at 20 kilometers per hour under a three-year operating contract that ultimately expired without renewal.

Paris is not alone among major European capitals in tightening restrictions on e-scooters in recent years. Madrid banned shared rental scooters in 2024, and Brussels has announced plans to follow suit. The broader trend reflects growing concern among European city governments over the safety risks posed by micromobility devices, even as demand for lightweight, low-emission transportation options has continued to grow in dense urban centers.

The new Paris rules have drawn a mixed reaction from commentators covering the change, with some noting that while the helmet requirement addresses a clear safety gap, the accompanying high-visibility vest mandate has been interpreted by some as an implicit acknowledgment that collisions with cars, rather than scooters themselves, remain a central driver of serious injuries. Critics of that framing have argued that requiring riders to make themselves more visible to drivers shifts responsibility onto scooter users rather than addressing driver behavior directly, though authorities have not publicly characterized the new rules in those terms.

For now, compliance with the new helmet and high-visibility requirements falls squarely on riders, with police empowered to issue fines on the spot for violations spotted on public roads. Enforcement details, including how consistently the rules will be applied across the newly covered suburbs, have not been fully outlined by authorities.

The rule change comes amid a broader, longer-running debate in France and across Europe over how to balance the environmental and mobility benefits of electric scooters against the safety risks associated with their growing popularity. With e-scooter-related deaths and injuries continuing to climb in France despite years of incremental restrictions, Friday’s mandatory helmet and high-visibility rules represent one of the most direct interventions yet by Paris authorities aimed at reducing the toll of accidents involving the devices, even as questions remain about how effectively the new penalties will be enforced across the city’s dense network of streets.

Wakefield Council has set out a roadmap to attract business investment, create skilled jobs and develop the skills needed to support the district’s future economy, with ambitions to become a leading destination for businesses in the north of England

Wakefield Council has unveiled an ambitious new economic growth strategy which seeks to establish the district as “the best place to do business in the north of England.” The local authority’s leadership has outlined a roadmap to draw in investment, generate employment and assist residents in acquiring the skills required to underpin Wakefield’s future economy.

Over 130 business leaders and residents gathered at an event at Wakefield Exchange (WX) to hear Karl Johnson, leader of the Reform UK-led council, present proposals to deliver more high-quality employment for local residents and prospects for enterprises.

He said: “For too long we have had a lack of ambition and not capitalised on the amazing strengths that our district has. It’s time to change that – it ends today.

“We are setting out an aspirational Wakefield as the best place to do business in the north of England. I want the message to go out today that Wakefield is open for business.”

The strategy outlines priorities for fostering growth and investment, with an emphasis on advanced manufacturing, logistics, and creative sectors. It has been formulated drawing on recommendations supplied by the Wakefield Futures Commission, which was established under the previous Labour administration in December 2024 following figures which showed the proportion of district residents holding qualifications above A-level standard falls considerably short of the national average.

Wakefield is England’s largest city lacking a university and confronts “significant challenges in developing and retaining higher-level skills among its residents”, according to a report published last year.

Central to the commission’s recommendations was the establishment of an employer-led civic hub, to be known as the Wakefield Futures Centre. The proposed new centre would direct skills investment towards the district’s fastest-growing business sectors.

Unlike many traditional university courses, higher-level skills training would be co-designed alongside employers. The training would also be concise, cost-effective and adaptable to accommodate learners’ needs, making it more straightforward for people to enhance their prospects through new qualifications and better-paid employment. The commission estimates that bridging Wakefield’s productivity gap could unlock more than £533m a year for people within the local economy.

Coun Johnson added: “We face an economic challenge on quite a few fronts. Wakefield doesn’t attract national and international investment at the moment and we also face a productivity challenge.

“We need 12,000 more people working in knowledge-intensive business to bring us in line with the wider West Yorkshire region. These jobs need highly skilled employees to create value and drive growth, and they will play a crucial role in driving innovation that will turbo charge our local economy.”

Tony Reeves, the council’s chief executive, said: “Wakefield is full of great businesses and we are brilliantly located. There are all sort of opportunities here but, if we were really honest with ourselves, we haven’t joined those things up sufficiently to really optimise the potential that the district has.

“If I had to sum up in a sentence what this plan is about, it’s about being bold, it’s about being ambitious and being prepared to take some risks to unlock the full potential of our district.”

Professor Sir Chris Husbands, who chaired the commission, said “Wakefield has real assets, real ambition among residents, and a track record of weathering de-industrialisation better than many similar places. To close the gap between skills supply and the future economy, something new is needed.

“That’s why we recommended the Wakefield Futures Centre – a broker between employers and training providers. Working with employers to stimulate demand for higher-level skills and with training providers to change the skills supply.”

Some customers might notice low pressure for a short time as the flow returns to normal, it added.

A spokesperson for the resort said: “We are currently experiencing operational disruption due to a burst water main that is affecting the local area.

“As a result, the attraction is closed today while our teams work closely with Thames Water and local partners to restore normal operations as quickly and safely as possible.”

Guests with tickets for Monday 10 August will have them revalidated for a future date, the resort said. Those unable to return on another day have been told to contact its help centre for a refund.

The closure falls in the middle of the school summer holidays, one of the busiest periods for UK theme parks. The resort, in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, is owned by Merlin Entertainments.

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Adani Group’s record infrastructure spending is spilling over into Dalal Street, driving larger order books and sharp stock gains for a group of contractors, manufacturers and power technology suppliers tied to the ports-to-power conglomerate’s expansion.

Shares of Hitachi Energy India have climbed 197% over two years, while Cemindia Projects and GE Vernova T&D India have gained 152% and 147%, respectively. BHEL has advanced 79% in one year and PSP Projects is up 39%, reflecting growing investor interest in companies positioned to capture orders from Adani’s record capital expenditure pipeline.

Adanis have deployed ₹1.53 lakh crore in capital expenditure in the year ended March, the highest annual outlay by an Indian corporate, with about 80% of the spending routed through vendors. That figure excludes real estate and other privately held businesses.

The group is targeting capital expenditure of about ₹2.1 lakh crore in the current financial year and has mapped out investments of nearly $125 billion across its businesses over five years, according to people aware of the matter.

Also Read |The great Adani trade is back with Rs 1.4 lakh crore bang! Why Adani Enterprises is Nifty’s hottest stock now

Adani’s strategy is also changing the relationship between a project owner and its suppliers. The group’s CFO Jugeshinder ‘Robbie’ Singh told analysts at a closed-door meeting recently that rising capital expenditure would require greater reliance on outside companies for large scale deployment.
The conglomerate no longer views these companies merely as vendors, but as “strategic partners,” according to the CFO. Adani intends to support them in becoming “world-class enterprises,” with the objective of building hundreds of partners capable of scaling into large businesses over the next few years.The model connects Adani’s access to capital and project pipeline with the engineering, manufacturing and technological capabilities of specialist companies. For investors, that is creating a new set of listed proxies for the conglomerate’s infrastructure buildout.

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Listed proxies for Adani’s $125 billion capex boom

The transformation is most visible at PSP Projects. Adani bought a 34.41% stake in the construction company to support its large-scale building plans. Within a year, PSP’s order book jumped 85% to ₹13,447 crore in FY26 from ₹7,266 crore in FY25.

Adani-linked projects represented 67% of PSP’s order book, or about ₹9,009 crore, compared with ₹1,817 crore a year earlier. New orders more than tripled to ₹10,925 crore from ₹3,506 crore, while revenue rose 25% to ₹3,149 crore.

The surge in orders, however, has yet to translate into a comparable improvement in profitability. PSP’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased only marginally to ₹180 crore from ₹178 crore. Its return on capital employed fell to 7% from 10% a year earlier and 24% in FY23.

Its working capital cycle also stretched to 96 days from 65 days in FY25 and 41 days in FY23. The divergence between order growth and returns shows that the investment case will depend not only on winning Adani projects, but also on executing them without tying up excessive capital.

PSP’s addressable opportunity could nevertheless widen. Its capabilities are concentrated in residential, institutional and commercial construction, while Adani’s real estate pipeline includes the Dharavi redevelopment, Motilal Nagar and assets acquired through Jaiprakash Associates.

Cemindia Projects presents a different picture. Renew Exim, an Adani promoter entity, acquired a controlling 67.46% stake in the former ITD Cementation, adding its expertise across ports, airports, tunnels, metro systems, roads and industrial structures to the group’s ecosystem.

Cemindia’s order book increased 34% to ₹24,545 crore in FY26 from ₹18,300 crore a year earlier, while new orders more than doubled to ₹14,821 crore. Revenue rose to ₹10,061 crore from ₹9,097 crore and Ebitda climbed 30% to ₹1,199 crore.

Its return on capital employed improved to 34% from 28% in FY25 and about 19% in FY23, indicating that the expansion has been accompanied by stronger capital efficiency. CARE Ratings projected that Adani Group projects could rise to nearly 50% of Cemindia’s portfolio over the medium term from about 14%.

Adani’s ability to raise project capital is also creating opportunities for power equipment and grid technology companies.

Adani Energy Solutions raised ₹8,373 crore through a qualified institutional placement in FY25. It subsequently secured Japanese bank green financing reportedly worth $750 million for the Bhadla-Fatehpur high voltage direct current corridor and raised another $500 million through Apollo-backed senior secured notes.

The company’s board approved a further institutional fundraising of as much as ₹10,000 crore for FY27, of which ₹3,500 crore was raised through a QIP in July 2026. That financing provides suppliers with greater certainty when they commit engineering resources, manufacturing capacity and working capital to major projects.

The 6,000 MW Bhadla-Fatehpur corridor shows how such projects can feed directly into listed companies. The project combines Hitachi Energy India’s HVDC technology with BHEL’s domestic equipment manufacturing capabilities.

Hitachi Energy India received ₹18,457 crore of new orders in FY26, with roughly half estimated to have come from Adani Energy Solutions. Its total order book rose to ₹29,555 crore from ₹19,246 crore a year earlier and just ₹7,071 crore in FY23.

The company’s revenue increased 28% to ₹8,148 crore in FY26, while Ebitda more than doubled to ₹1,253 crore. The Bhadla-Fatehpur contract was a major contributor to the order inflow.

BHEL is another beneficiary. Its revenue from Adani Group reached about ₹6,673 crore, equivalent to nearly one-fifth of its FY26 sales. The state-owned manufacturer’s overall order book expanded to ₹2.39 lakh crore from ₹1.96 lakh crore in FY25, while Ebitda rose 83% to ₹3,189 crore.

The potential pipeline could grow as Adani Power advances a capital expenditure program of more than ₹2 lakh crore to expand generation capacity to as much as 45 GW by FY32. The buildout can create demand for boilers, turbines, generators and emission control systems, though future orders will depend on project awards and competitive procurement.

The ecosystem extends beyond companies in which Adani has acquired stakes. GE Vernova T&D India received Adani Energy Solutions’ Khavda-South Olpad VSC-HVDC order and recorded ₹14,776 crore of order inflow in FY26. Brokerages estimate that AESL-linked contracts accounted for about ₹8,000 crore to ₹10,000 crore.

Adani’s approach has similarities with Apple’s extended enterprise model, in which the company retains control over product design, technology and customer experience while specialist suppliers provide manufacturing capabilities. The suppliers, in turn, gain investment, technology and access to a larger opportunity set.

For Adani, the model offers a way to execute an unprecedented capital program without building every capability internally. For its partners, it provides access to funded projects and the possibility of scaling revenue, technical capabilities and balance sheets.

The benefits are not without risk. Rising dependence on a single customer can create concentration, while bigger order books do not automatically guarantee stronger cash flows or returns. PSP’s falling return on capital and longer working capital cycle demonstrate the execution challenges that can accompany rapid expansion.

Still, Adani’s ₹2.1 lakh crore annual spending plan is already reshaping revenue pipelines across construction, heavy engineering and power technology. If the group and its partners can convert those orders into cash and earnings, its $125 billion capex boom could continue producing winners well beyond Adani’s own listed companies.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

A consortium including billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has advanced its talks to buy about a 30% stake in Liverpool, BBC Sport has been told.

The group is led by British-Indian millionaire businessman Amit Bhatia and also includes Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) confirmed last month that the group had “expressed interest in making a strategic minority investment in Liverpool Football Club”.

Bhatia is the son-in-law of Indian billionaire businessman Lakshmi Mittal and had been a director and co-owner of Queens Park Rangers for 18 years before relinquishing his stake in the club last month.

American businessman Bezos, founder of e-commerce giant Amazon, is the fourth-richest person in the world.

According to Forbes, the 62-year-old has an estimated net worth of $256bn (£192bn).

FSG, who bought Liverpool in a £300m deal in 2010, previously sold a minority stake in the Anfield side to global sports investment firm Dynasty Equity.