Coal India reported a steady March quarter performance, with consolidated profit after tax rising 12% YoY to Rs 10,908 crore, while revenue from operations increased 6% to Rs 46,490 crore, supported by improved realizations and higher other income.

Further, the Board has declared final dividend for FY26 at Rs 5.25 per share. Payment of final dividend for FY26 will be made subject to approval of shareholders in the ensuing AGM.

Profit before tax for the quarter stood at Rs 14,627 crore, also up 12% from Rs 13,070 crore a year ago, reflecting stable operating performance despite cost pressures. Total income rose 8% to Rs 51,618 crore during the quarter.

The company’s EBITDA grew 12% to Rs 17,917 crore, with margins expanding to 39% from 36% in the year-ago period, indicating improved operating leverage.

Revenue growth was driven largely by higher realizations, even as overall sales volumes remained largely flat. Average realization per tonne increased 6% year-on-year to Rs 2,290, while total sales volume declined marginally by about 1% to 198.83 million tonnes.

On the operational side, coal production for the quarter rose slightly to 239 million tonnes compared to 238 million tonnes last year, while offtake declined 2% to 199 million tonnes, reflecting softer dispatches. Overburden removal remained largely flat at 577 million cubic metres.
Expenses increased 6% to Rs 37,107 crore during the quarter, driven by a sharp rise in other expenses and finance costs. Other expenses surged 18% YoY due to higher levies, particularly the increase in Jharkhand mineral-bearing land cess, while finance costs jumped 42%, indicating higher borrowing and cost of funds.Segment-wise, performance remained mixed across subsidiaries. Key profit contributors such as Northern Coalfields (NCL) and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) delivered strong growth, while Western Coalfields (WCL) and Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL) saw a decline in profitability, highlighting regional variability in operations.

For the full year FY26, Coal India reported a 12% decline in profit after tax to Rs 31,071 crore, even as revenue from operations remained broadly flat at Rs 1.68 lakh crore. The decline in annual profitability was attributed to higher expenses, including a one-time provision related to executive pay revision and increased statutory levies.

Former Apple CEO John Sculley identified OpenAI as the largest competitive threat facing Apple in years, marking a potential shift after decades of dominance by the iPhone maker in the technology industry.

“This is the biggest thing I think that’s happened since Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs 15 years ago,” he told “The Claman Countdown” Monday.

Sculley’s comments come one week after it was announced that Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple’s CEO and will become its executive chairman, and as both Apple and OpenAI are reportedly exploring the development of similar next-generation AI products.

Apple is reportedly set to launch a wearable AI pin, Sculley said, while former Apple designer Jony Ive, credited for helping transform the company’s product vision, is partnering up with OpenAI to create its own AI-powered hardware.

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“It’s one that may have a camera in it. It won’t have a screen. And it’s going to be able to have what’s called ambient awareness, meaning it’s always on, it’s listening, and you get it through an ear pod,” he explained. “And that would be an entirely new user experience for people in the Apple ecosystem.”

Sculley said each company’s interpretation of the device will be different, but warned the competition poses a threat to Apple’s longstanding tech dominance.

He signaled that consumer loyalty may vary, as buyers will gravitate toward their preferred product, rather than defaulting to Apple’s ecosystem.

“I expect that they’re going to be taking very different ways of interpreting it in terms of a product,” the former Apple CEO said.

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“Some are going to become loyal to one version and some are gonna become loyal to another.”

The emergence of OpenAI as a dominant force in the tech world is part of what Sculley described as a “weather system” that is constantly shifting the industry.

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Sculley affirmed that amid the AI storm, Apple’s leadership remains strong, even amid concerns surrounding Cook’s transition.

“Tim Cook did a spectacular job as CEO,” Sculley told FOX Business. “And the incoming CEO, John Ternus, looks incredibly qualified to be the next leader. So, from that standpoint, Apple’s in a very good position.”

Sculley went on to share advice for Apple as it rings in its 50th year in operation and as the race for AI dominance only intensifies.

“Stay true to the values Apple has been so successful at: beautiful products, no compromises,” he said.

A group of budget airlines is reportedly seeking financial assistance from the federal government that could convert to an equity stake in the air carriers.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the group of budget airlines, including Frontier and Avelo, is seeking $2.5 billion in federal assistance through stock warrants that could convert into equity stakes in the airlines, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some of the Journal’s sources told the outlet that the group’s $2.5 billion figure was derived from an estimate of how much they expect to spend on jet fuel this year compared with earlier forecasts, with the estimate assuming jet fuel prices will remain above an average of $4 a gallon for the rest of the year.

Conversations about a possible relief package for budget airlines are reportedly expected to continue in the coming days, according to the Journal’s report. The news follows a reported meeting between the leaders of several budget carriers with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration chief Bryan Bedford last week.

“As the smallest and newest airline in the country, Avelo competes against significantly larger airlines who have unprecedented market dominance,” Avelo Airlines said in a statement to FOX Business. “Our focus on unserved and underserved airports gives millions of U.S. consumers low fare nonstop air service options they otherwise would not have. We have no specific comment on the report, but we emphatically agree that a healthy airline industry with strong competition is important to the U.S. economy, especially during this period of high fuel prices.”

FOX Business reached out to Frontier Airlines for comment.

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Rising jet fuel prices amid the war in Iran have strained the outlooks for air carriers, who face higher costs than anticipated. 

Some air carriers, including larger rivals like United and American, have responded by raising fares and checked baggage fees on consumers.

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Last week, leading budget carriers requested that Congress pass a bill to suspend the 7.5% federal excise tax on airline tickets and the $5.30 per segment tax, which the Association of Value Airlines estimated would offset about one-third of the increased fuel costs. 

The group represents Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Air, Sun Country and Avelo.

The budget airlines’ pursuit of federal aid comes as the Trump administration is weighing a separate proposal to provide relief for Spirit Airlines in the form of a $500 million loan that would give the federal government the ability to convert warrants into equity stakes in the airlines.

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The deal would see the federal government receive warrants equal to about 90% of Spirit’s equity in exchange for the funding.

Rising jet fuel costs have complicated Spirit’s plan to exit bankruptcy this summer, after the budget carrier entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for the second time last year.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Treasury Department received warrants in major airlines after a roughly $54 billion support package to prevent mass layoffs during the pandemic. 

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The federal government ultimately opted against exercising the warrants it acquired and instead sold them in actions that yielded over $550 million.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More than 300 pubs, bars and restaurants have served their last pint and plated their last cover since the start of the year, as Britain’s licensed trade groans under the combined weight of higher wage bills, stubborn energy costs and customers who are quietly drinking and dining at home.

Fresh analysis from CGA by NIQ, the market research group, shows the number of licensed premises across the UK slipped to 98,609 by the end of March, a net loss of 305 venues since December, or rather more than three closures every single day. Coming on top of the 382 sites lost between September and December, the figures mean the country has shed 0.7 per cent of its licensed estate in just six months.

It is a slow-motion contraction that is now accelerating. Casual dining has been hit hardest, with the number of restaurants in that bracket falling by 0.9 per cent in the first quarter alone. Bars, nightclubs, traditional pubs and social clubs have also gone to the wall as households defer the small discretionary treats, a Friday curry, a midweek pint, a birthday dinner, that have long propped up neighbourhood operators.

Behind the headline numbers sits a familiar but increasingly toxic mix of cost pressures. April’s rise in employers’ national insurance contributions, the upward ratchet on business rates and persistently elevated food prices have eaten into already wafer-thin margins. Energy bills, which many operators had hoped would ease this year, have instead been pushed higher by the war in the Gulf, with wholesale gas and fuel prices feeding through to suppliers and threatening another round of menu price rises that publicans are reluctant to pass on to bruised customers.

Karl Chessell, director of hospitality operators and food at NIQ, said confidence among both businesses and consumers remained stubbornly low and warned that “geopolitical crises are likely to cause more damage in the months ahead”. While many operators had “shown remarkable resilience”, he said, “thousands are now nearing breaking point”.

“Soaring costs have taken a heavy toll on hospitality in the first quarter,” Chessell added. “Without targeted support, more closures can be expected over the rest of 2026.”

The trade is now lobbying ministers in earnest for a sector-specific package, a permanent reduction in business rates for hospitality, a lower rate of VAT on food and drink in line with much of continental Europe, and a softening of the national insurance changes for smaller employers. Operators argue that the alternative is the slow hollowing-out of the British high street, with independents and chains alike disappearing from market towns and city centres at a rate not seen since the depths of the pandemic.

For now, the maths is brutally simple. Wages, energy and tax are all rising; footfall and spend per head are not. Until that equation shifts, through policy, peace or a meaningful rebound in consumer confidence, the country’s pubs, bars and restaurants will keep going dark, three a day, one local at a time.

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Elixirr International plc (ELXXF) Q4 2025 Earnings Call April 21, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

Company Participants

Stephen Newton – Founder, CEO & Director
Nicholas Willott – CFO, Partner, Finance Director, Company Secretary & Director
Emiko Smith – Partner
Graham Busby – Co-Founder, Partner, Deputy CEO & Director

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Presentation

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to the Elixirr International plc Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I’d like to submit the following poll.

I’d now like to hand you over to Stephen Newton, CEO. Good afternoon.

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Stephen Newton
Founder, CEO & Director

For those of you who have not met me, I’m Steve Newton, Founder and CEO, co-founded it with Graham. And Nick is our CFO; and Em is our Investor Relations lead.

So you’ll hear from all 4 of us in this presentation. But let’s start off with where we are as a business and how we feel about it. I was reflecting over the weekend on the 17 years that we’ve been building this company. And I actually can’t believe we — I almost feel like we’ve been founded for this moment. If I think back to the dot-com time, there was this whole story about the high street was dead and there were so many technology was going to change the way business had operated and there’ll be so many different people being out of business. Yes, retail stuff suffered but it’s had to adjust itself and use different channels and different levers. And people are saying this about AI to consultancies. And to be honest, it creates a massive opportunity for us. Just like the digital revolution is still ongoing. We’re still helping clients to use the Internet technologies to be able to access their client bases and increase their revenue.

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And AI is going to be that 30-year