A spokesman for the Co-op told the BBC: “Our culture, as a co-operative, ensured decision-making throughout has listened to views from leaders and colleagues across our food and wider business, whilst simultaneously acknowledging when a wide range of views are expressed, not everybody will always agree with the final decisions and actions taken.”

Investor focus is likely to be on NaBFID’s planned ₹4,000 crore 10-year bond sale, which comes at a time when the benchmark 10-year benchmark government security is trading at 6.75%. Market participants expect the NaBFID paper to be priced at a spread of roughly 100 basis points over the sovereign yield.

One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.

“Pricing of these bonds is complicated because the 10 year g-sec yield is also quite high. I expect NaBFID to get rates below the state bond rate,” said Venkatakrishnan Srinivasan, managing partner at Rockfort Fincap, a debt advisory firm. “HUDCO, for a three-year tenure, should get a rate of around 7.75%-8%.”

Agencies

“These attractive rates are available only for highly rated or public sector companies. But as bank loans are also providing competitive rates, issuers tapping the bond market have become more stringent on market borrowings,” Srinivasan said. Corporates raised ₹26,752 crores in January this year, versus ₹29,798 crores in December 2025, BSE data showed.

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On the other hand, wholesale loans by banks climbed, with State Bank of India (SBI) seeing a 3.4% year-on-year rise in its ₹13.33 lakh crore corporate loan book for the quarter ended December.
HDFC Bank posted a 10.3% growth in its ₹7.7 lakh crore corporate loan book and ICICI Bank’s domestic corporate portfolio of about ₹3 lakh crore grew 5.6% year-on-year.

Investment bankers said they are already seeing a clear uptick in enquiries for initial public offerings (IPOs) from European industrial companies, particularly in auto components, speciality chemicals and clean energy, especially after the trade deal. More notably, the vibrant domestic fund-raising market – where multinational companies have been able to sell shares at eye-popping valuations in the last two years – is also encouraging them to explore domestic listings.

According to bankers, German auto components firm MAHLE GmbH and Swedish gaming company Modern Times Group, through its Indian mobile gaming subsidiary PlaySimple are preparing to file draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs) with the market regulator for proposed IPOs soon. Danish brewer Carlsberg is also contemplating an IPO. Emails sent to the companies remained unanswered.

Agencies

Auto parts, specialty chem & clean energy cos among those keen to unlock value

This week, Italian giant Bonfiglioli Transmissions filed a DRHP for a ₹2,000 crore IPO. Last year, German Green Steel & Power received Sebi nod to go ahead with the IPO and will be launching its IPO soon. SAEL Industries, an Indian renewable energy firm backed by Norwegian state-run fund Norfund, filed papers in November 2025 for an ₹4,575 crore IPO.
“The emerging interest from European industrial, auto-component and clean-energy firms signals a deeper level of confidence in India’s regulatory architecture, disclosure standards and institutional investor base,” said Bhavesh Shah, managing director and head – Investment Banking, Equirus Capital. “It is the growing base of the domestic institutional investors that is triggering this trend.”

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Shah said if the momentum in the IPO market sustains, India could evolve into a preferred regional hub for multinational listings.
Several mandates are believed to be at the pre-filing stage, with listings expected over the next 12 to 18 months. The pipeline, according to bankers, spans sectors from precision engineering and renewable energy equipment to consumer-facing brands with deep European heritage. “The conclusion of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, has turned India’s capital markets into a strategic expansion route for European multinationals specifically for European automakers,” said Neha Agarwal, MD and head, Equity Capital Markets, JM Financial Institutional Securities.

“Following the successful listings of Orkla India and Carraro India, we are seeing a structural shift where European parents no longer view India just as a manufacturing hub, but as a primary destination to unlock equity value,” according to Agarwal.

“With firms like Bonfiglioli now in the pipeline, the FTA acts as the ultimate ‘confidence bridge’, allowing European giants to tap into India’s high-valuation premiums and capital to fund their global green ambitions.”

Not all are convinced the floodgates’re about to open. Dev Chandrasekhar, partner at Mumbai-based valuations and branding advisory firm Transcendum, expects listings by European firms in India to be “selective and opportunistic rather than a stampede”. “For European companies seeking to de-risk supply chains away from China while accessing a $4 trillion economy, an Indian listing may no longer be optional, but it may be inevitable… let’s not get ahead of ourselves because the EU-India deal is still being negotiated.”

Also, many European firms may be sceptical of listing here “European companies are notoriously cautious about the governance dilution that comes with a public listing in an emerging market,” said Chandrasekhar. “The regulatory environment has improved, but Sebi’s disclosure norms, related-party transaction scrutiny and promoter lock-in requirements can be uncomfortable for European sponsors used to lighter-touch regimes.”

At present, Sebi rules mandate CRAs to have a minimum net worth of ₹25 crore, and to undertake credit ratings of only listed or proposed to be listed securities, or rating of financial instruments under the guidelines of a regulator as specified by Sebi.

Sebi has received representation from the industry on permitting rating agencies to undertake rating of financial products under the purview of other financial sector regulators (FSR), even where no rating related guidelines may have been issued by the relevant FSR.

These include the rating of unlisted securities.

“It has also been represented that since rating of said products/entities is adjacent to the current business of credit rating agencies, permitting the same may lead to significant synergies, while also addressing a gap in the industry,” Sebi had said earlier in its discussion paper.

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Disney subsidiary Twentieth Century Studios, which produced the film, said it was rated 12A, and the advertisement had been designed with that in mind. The company argued the brief and stylised nature of the scene meant the alien character or other imagery used would be unlikely to cause harm or offence.

FTSE 100 drugs giant reports pre-tax profits of $12.4bn for 2025, driven by cancer drug sales

Pharmaceutical heavyweight AstraZeneca has recorded a 40% leap in annual profits and forecasted continued earnings growth over the coming year, banking on robust demand for its cancer medicines.

The FTSE 100 company posted pre-tax profits of 12.4 billion US dollars (£9.06 billion) for 2025, climbing from 8.69 billion dollars (£6.35 billion) in 2024, propelled by a 49% surge in the fourth quarter on a constant currency basis.

Operating profits rose 36% on a constant currency basis to 13.74 billion dollars (£10.04 billion), whilst revenues increased 8% with currency fluctuations excluded, reaching 58.74 billion dollars (£42.93 billion).

The company indicated that revenues are projected to climb by a “mid-to-high single-digit percentage” in 2026, whilst underlying earnings per share are anticipated to grow by a low double-digit percentage.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group is wagering on sustained strong appetite for its oncology treatments, whilst simultaneously expanding further into the US and Chinese markets and investing in increasingly sought-after weight-loss therapies.

These strategic moves are intended to help cushion the blow from losing patent protection on Farxiga, its blockbuster diabetes medication.

Farxiga’s sales growth registered a modest 2% on a constant currency basis during the fourth quarter.

Chief executive Pascal Soriot reaffirmed targets of achieving 80 billion dollars (£58.47 billion) in annual sales by 2030 through new medicines and strategic investments, with the company poised to announce results from as many as 20 advanced clinical trials this year. He stated that the “momentum across our company is continuing in 2026”.

“We have more than 100 Phase 3 studies ongoing, including a substantial and growing number of trials of our transformative technologies which have the potential to revolutionise outcomes for patients and drive our growth well beyond 2030,” Mr Soriot added.

Recently, the group announced an £13.52 billion ($18.5 billion) partnership with China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical Group to accelerate the development of experimental weight loss and diabetes drugs.

This move allows AstraZeneca to increase its investment in the rapidly expanding market for weight loss and diabetes drugs, previously dominated by blockbuster brands Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy.

The annual results were released after AstraZeneca began trading shares on the NYSE earlier this month, while maintaining its listings on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stockholm.

AstraZeneca, which has key UK bases in Macclesfield and Cambridge, generates nearly half of its revenues in the US and aims to further expand in the world’s largest drugs market.

Last July, the company announced plans for around £36.55 billion ($50 billion) investment in the company by 2030, while several joint ventures in China are targeting the world’s second largest economy.

Shares in AstraZeneca rose 1% in Tuesday morning trading, with the stock having increased 28% over the past six months.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, commented: “The numbers this morning continue to show how AstraZeneca seems to have its house in order when it comes to its drug pipeline.”

He further added: “The outlook and recent performance more than justifies the recent surge in the share price which has finally seen it break higher after years of sideways trading.”

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