ET Intelligence Group: Symbiotec Pharmalab plans to raise ₹150 crore through a fresh issue to repay debt and ₹1,607 crore through an offer for sale. The promoter group’s stake will fall to 33.3% after the IPO from 36.4%. The company is engaged in the development and manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), nutritional ingredients, and specialty products.Over two-third of the revenue comes from international markets with Europe contributing nearly 30%. Top five products contribute nearly 63% to revenue, signalling product concentration. The valuation is attractive compared with peers. Given these factors and market leadership in some of the products, investors with high-risk appetite may apply for the long-term.

Business

Incorporated in 2002, Symbiotec Pharmalab has a global leadership position in corticosteroid and steroidal-hormone APIs in volume terms in FY26, with a global volume market share of 38.2% in corticosteroid and 23.8% in steroidal-hormone APIs According to Frost & Sullivan. It was the only company to have a presence across the top 10 corticosteroid and steroidal-hormone APIs in FY26. The company has a backward-integrated platform with approvals from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), European Union Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP), Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korea and other global organisations. APIs continue to be the primary revenue driver, contributing more than 96% to total revenue in FY26, while newer initiatives such as complex injectables and contract manufacturing (CDMO) offerings make up the balance. As of FY26, the company operated two API manufacturing facilities and commissioned two additional plants, expanding fermentation capacity to 700 KL and adding complex injectables capacity of 20 million vials annually.

Financials

Between FY24 and FY26, revenue from operations grew 10.2% annually to ₹869.1 crore, operating profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 14.5% to ₹232 crore and net profit rose 4.8% to 109.9 crore. While EBITDA margin expanded to 26.6% in FY26 from 24.5% in FY24, operating cash flow remained volatile, rising to ₹174.6 crore in FY26 from ₹47.3 crore in FY25, compared with ₹187.5 crore in FY24. It reflects heavy capital expenditure and fluctuations in working capital, particularly inventory and trade payables.Read more: Pride Hotels steps up expansion, plans Rs 1,000-cr IPO by December

Valuation

Symbiotec lacks an exact listed peer due to a niche in steroidal hormones and advanced drug-device formulation. Considering the post-IPO equity and net profit for FY26, the company demands a price-earnings (P/E) multiple of up to 58. For other API or biotechnology manufacturers such as Concord Biotech, Divi’s Laboratories, Cohance Lifesciences and Laurus Labs, the P/E range is between 63 and 110.

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KOLKATA: The West Bengal government is preparing a comprehensive industrial promotion policy that blends budgetary outlays with off-balance-sheet incentive mechanisms, finance minister Swapan Dasgupta said.The government is exploring off-balance sheet incentives like soft loans to keep the weightage on budget-dependent industrial promotion lower, the finance minister said. Concession on power tariff is also being explored. On the budgetary side, a combination of capital subsidies and tax reimbursements are also being considered even as the state’s Rs 8 lakh crore outstanding debt keeps its finances on strain.

Mumbai: India’s capital markets regulator has rejected settlement applications by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that held significant stakes in listed Adani Group companies, people familiar with the matter said. This was because the FPIs’ terms failed to align with those proposed by Sebi, they said.

The regulator communicated its decision to the FPIs’ representatives last week, the people said, reviving a case that dates back to October 2020, when Sebi’s surveillance systems first flagged the unusual concentration of their holdings. Sebi’s investigation had flagged 13 FPIs. They subsequently sought to settle the case.

“The terms were not in line with the settlement terms suggested by Sebi. Therefore, Sebi rejected the application,” the regulator said in its communication to the FPIs. “This recommendation (rejection of the application) of HPAC (high-powered advisory committee on settlement orders) was accepted by the panel of whole-time members in terms of regulation 15(1) of the Settlement Regulations, 2018.”

ET has reviewed the letter’s copy.

Read more: Sebi proposes tighter curbs on promotional claims by online bond platforms

At the centre of the standoff, according to one of the people, was the reluctance of some FPIs to fully disclose information Sebi considered essential to any settlement. “You have to come clean if you want to settle a case. Some FPIs were unwilling to provide certain details to Sebi, which was a precondition for settlement,” the person said. “Entities must first agree to the non-monetary terms.”

Breach of Securities Law
Another person said some FPIs, at a joint meeting with Sebi, were unwilling to ‘disgorge’ the amount sought by the regulator, which ran into hundreds of crores.

Settlement is a well-trodden route for entities facing securities law violations in India, one that lets them resolve disputes without admitting or denying wrongdoing. An applicant proposes terms to Sebi, which reviews the application and counters with its own, typically a monetary settlement amount, and sometimes non-monetary conditions such as trading bans. The two sides negotiate, and the final proposal goes to Sebi’s high-powered advisory committee, led by a former high court judge, for approval or rejection.

The 13 FPIs are Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund, MGC Fund, Asia Investment Corporation (Mauritius), APMS Investment Fund, Elara India Opportunities Fund, Vespera Fund, LTS Investment Fund, Emerging India Focus Funds, EM Resurgent Fund, Polus Global Fund, New Leaina Investments and Opal Investments.

The funds filed multiple settlement applications in April 2024 after Sebi issued show-cause notices to them under two separate tracks – one questioning why their FPI registrations should not be cancelled, and the other seeking to fine them for breaches of securities law. It could not be ascertained which applications were turned down.

The regulator’s original concern was whether these FPIs were genuine public shareholders, or fronts for the Adani Group’s own promoters.

The probe gained global attention after a January 2023 report by Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of round-tripping and market manipulation, triggering a sharp sell-off in its stocks. The conglomerate denied the allegations.

In its submissions to the Supreme Court in August 2023, amid multiple public interest litigations seeking a probe into the Hindenburg claims, Sebi disclosed that it had reviewed trading in seven Adani stocks – Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports & SEZ, Adani Green Energy, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Power, Adani Total Gas and Adani Wilmar – between March 2020 and December 2022, examining price-volume manipulation and breaches of minimum public shareholding, FPI investment limit and offshore derivative instrument norms.

The regulator identified 42 contributories to the FPIs’ assets under management. But it hit a wall trying to trace their ultimate beneficial owners, hampered by a lack of cooperation from its foreign counterparts.

When the Supreme Court disposed of the PILs in January 2024, it directed Sebi to bring its investigations to a “logical conclusion in accordance with law.”

With Sebi rejecting the settlement applications, the regulator will now continue legal proceedings against the FPIs.

Sebi, Adani Group and the FPIs did not respond to emailed queries.

Second Chance

The door may not stay shut for long. Sebi is planning to revise its settlement rules in a way that could give rejected applicants, including, potentially, these FPIs, another shot at resolving their cases.

Currently, an entity that has had its settlement application rejected cannot reapply at any stage of proceedings, including during an appeal. Under the proposed changes, applicants would be allowed to return to the settlement table if circumstances have changed and the grounds for the original rejection no longer apply. The price of a second chance: an additional 20% on top of the settlement amount.

Growing up in Manchester, Mia Tanswell didn’t give her accent much thought – until her first week at university in Loughborough.

“I knew people were going to notice that I was northern and that I didn’t speak the ‘Queen’s English’,” the 22-year-old says.

“Definitely in seminars I would sometimes feel like my accent would sound a bit less intellectual than other people, especially if I was the only northern student in the classroom.”

She’s not alone. Fresh polling seen by the BBC suggests many workers still see so-called “accent bias” as a problem.

The survey found one in 10 people in Britain feel anxious or self-conscious about their accent in high stakes professional settings such as speaking up in a business meeting.

The research, conducted by the organisation More in Common of more than 3,300 adults across England, Scotland and Wales, found accent-related anxiety in work settings like these was highest among Geordies – from the region around Newcastle – and those with an east London – or Cockney – accent (at 19%), followed by people with a Welsh accent (at 18%).

Around 5% of respondents believed their accent had cost them a promotion, pay rise or senior role. “Brummies” – people from Birmingham – were the most likely to feel this, at 13%.

Respondents with a West Country accent reported the highest rate of having their accent mocked or criticised by colleagues, at 15%, followed by 13% of those with a Geordie accent.

The poll was commissioned by Common Ground, an organisation which aims to promote social cohesion. Its founder, Lara Newman, has worked in construction, property and the built environment industry for more than 30 years, and says she changed her own accent to get ahead in the workplace.

“I am incredibly realistic about what would have happened had I gone to university or gone into the workplace with a strong west country accent,” she says. “I felt like that was going to be an issue for me.”

Common Ground aims to support people from disadvantaged backgrounds into work but she says one of the layers creating a barrier to them is accent.

“I think there is a problem in the sense that [an accent] implies a level of education or otherwise. It implies class,” she says.