SVB CRISIS

SVB was founded in 1983 and was the 16th largest U.S. bank before its collapse. They
specialized in financing and banking for venture capital-backed startup companies -- mostly
technology companies. Venture capital firms did business there as well as several tech
executives.

Based in Silicon Valley, SVB had assets totaling $209 billion at the end of 2022, according to
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

SVB provided financing for about half of all U.S. venture-backed technology and healthcare
companies. SVB was a preferred bank for the tech sector because they supported startup
companies that not all banks would accept due to higher risks.

The pandemic in 2020 was a hot market for tech companies as consumers spent big money on
digital services and electronics. Tech companies had a large influx of cash, and SVB's
services were needed during this time to hold their cash for business expenses, such as
payroll. The bank invested much of these deposits as banks typically do.

Silicon Valley Bank saw massive growth between 2019 and 2022, which resulted in it
having a significant amount of deposits and assets. While a small amount of those deposits
were held in cash, most of the excess was used to buy Treasury bonds and other long-term
debts. These assets tend to have relatively low returns but also relatively low risk.

But as the Federal Reserve increased interest rates in response to high inflation, Silicon
Valley Bank’s bonds became riskier investments. Because investors could buy bonds at
higher interest rates, Silicon Valley Bank’s bonds declined in value.

As this was happening, some of Silicon Valley Bank’s customers—many of whom are in the
technology industry—hit financial troubles, and many began to withdraw funds from their
accounts. 

To accommodate these large withdrawals, Silicon Valley Bank decided to sell some of its
investments, but those sales came at a loss. SVB lost $1.8 billion, and that marked the
beginning of the end for the bank.

 March 8: Silicon Valley Bank announced its $1.8 billion loss on its bond portfolio,
along with plans to sell both common and preferred stock to raise $2.25 billion.7 In
the aftermath of this announcement, Moody's downgraded Silicon Valley Bank’s
long-term local currency bank deposit and issuer ratings.
  March 9: The stock for Silicon Valley Bank’s holding company, SVB Financial
Group, crashed at the market opening. Other major banks also saw their stock prices
take a hit. Additionally, more SVB customers began withdrawing their money, for a
total attempted withdrawals of $42 billion.

 March 10: Trading was halted for SVB Financial Group stock. Before the bank
could open for the day, federal regulators announced they would take it over. After
regulators were unable to find a buyer for the bank, deposits were moved to a bridge
bank created and operated by the FDIC, with a promise that insured deposits would
be available by Monday, March 13.

 March 12: Federal regulators announce emergency measures in response to the

Silicon Valley Bank failure, allowing customers to recover all funds, including those
that were uninsured.

 March 17: Silicon Valley Bank's parent company, SVB Financial Group, filed for
bankruptcy.

 March 26: First Citizens Bank bought all of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank except for
$90 billion of securities and other assets that remained in FDIC receivership.

Nykaa Falling prices

Earlier Rising interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and record inflation numbers have spooked
equity markets. Stocks across the globe, have corrected sharply. New age tech
companies have been hammered a lot more than other stocks. These are the same set of
stocks that soared high when the market was in an upbeat mood.

Last year, the wave of tech IPOs latched on to one trend - Platform as a Service (PAAS).
Nykaa, Zomato or Paytm, platform businesses, despite losses, saw huge interest from
investors because of size of the opportunity.

These stocks were already trading at crazy valuations, long due for a correction. What kept
them buoyant was all the optimism around them Investors gradually started to lose faith in
India's new-generation tech firms and the listed start-ups crashed on the bourses.

Nykaa was no exception. The stock continues to fall, hitting new lows every passing day.
Slew of C-level executive's exits: One of the major reasons why the Nykaa share price has
come under pressure of late has been due to the number of high-level exits. Notably, the
departure of top executives started with the resignation of CFO Arvind Agarwal in
November 2022.
Now, the sudden exit of five executives has jolted the investor's confidence in the Nykaa
share price.

The exits consisted of Manoj Gandhi, the Chief Commercial Operations Officer, Gopal
Asthana, the Chief Business Officer of the Fashion division, Vikas Gupta, the Chief
Executive Officer of Wholesale Business, Shuchi Pandya,  a Vice President of Nykaa
Fashion division's Owned Brands business and Lalit Pruthi, a Vice President of Nykaa
Fashion division's Owned Brands business.

Weak Results: The Nykaa share price has also encountered weakness due to its poor results
for the Oct-Dec 22 period. Although sales witnessed a yearly rise of 33% to Rs 1,463 crores,
net profits dipped a whopping 71% on-year to Rs 8.5 crores. 

Liquidation by Pre-IPO Investors: Notably, the share price had been already under-
pressure on the back of selling by early investors. The lock-in for pre-IPO investors got over
on 9th November, leading to exits by many such investors. Early investors like Lighthouse
India Fund-III, Segantii India Mauritius, private equity firm TPG, and NRI investor Mala
Gopal Gaonkar had sold shares worth more than a thousand crores.

Issue of Bonus Shares: Nykaa declared the issuance of bonus shares in November last year,
a move to retain investors and prevent them from selling shares in the company. Such a move
by the company wrecked investors' confidence in the stock and it has been on a downward
trend ever since.

Business Model for Nykaa

Inventory Based (Beauty, personal care and apparel)

Market place model

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Delivery and shipping

Credit Suisse
Despite its long history, Credit Suisse was plagued by a series of scandals, management
shifts, and significant losses in recent years.
In February 2020, Credit Suisse’s then-CEO, Tidjane Thiam, resigned after a 2019 spying
scandal. Credit Suisse’s wealth management boss, Iqbal Khan, left for UBS and was
subsequently surveilled by private contractors in an effort to determine whether he poached
clients.

In 2021, amid the pandemic, the collapse of the U.S. family investment fund Archegos
Capital and British finance firm Greensill Capital triggered a pretax loss of close to $1 billion
for Credit Suisse. Following the collapse of Archegos, Credit Suisse’s investment bank CEO
and chief risk and compliance officer left the company. An independent investigation of
Credit Suisse’s role in the Archegos scandal found that the bank had failed to “effectively
manage risk,” but suggested that no fraudulent or illegal conduct occurred.

Months later, in January 2022, Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio resigned from the bank’s
board after about nine months in the position over a scandal related to his breaching of Swiss
and British COVID-19 quarantine protocols.

By late summer 2022, new CEO Ulrich Koerner unveiled a strategic review that was
hindered by an unsubstantiated rumor that Credit Suisse was facing an impending failure.
This prompted clients to pull 110 billion CHF (about $119 billion) of funds in the final
quarter of 2022.

Facing a stock that shed about three-quarters of its value in a year, Credit Suisse announced
plans in early 2023 to borrow up to $54 billion to shore up liquidity and boost investor
confidence. However, by mid-March, the bank’s top backer, Saudi National Bank, said it
would not give more money to Credit Suisse as a result of regulatory barriers.

One of the final developments prior to UBS’ purchase of Credit Suisse was the collapse of
U.S. banks Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in early March 2023. They prompted the
U.S. government to make sweeping promises to depositors that money would be available but
nevertheless sent fear throughout the global banking system.

Coke and Thrive

Beverage major Coca-Cola India has acquired a 15% stake in Hashtag Loyalty that operates
Thrive—a food-tech company that offers online ordering system for restaurants.

Thrive says that restaurants face problems in this online ordering ecosystem, including high
commission rates charge by delivery aggregators lack of control over customer data and
difficulty in competing with larger established players in the market.

Thrive started to provide restaurants with a modern ordering solution where customers can
place orders directly with microsites instead of the aggregator platform. It helps build
microsites for individual restaurants, multi-outlets, and even larger F&B corporations, from
which customers can place their orders directly, instead of opting for an aggregator platform
The differentiating factors is that thrive will only charge 3% in comparison to 25-30%
charged by aggregators like swiggy and zomato.

This collaboration between Thrive and Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd. will ensure an improved
experience for consumers as they can order beverages of their choice along with their
favourite meal from Thrive’s partner restaurants. This presents a great opportunity for both
Thrive and Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd. given the online food delivery market's projected rapid
growth and contribution to the total food services industry. With this partnership, Thrive will
be able to accelerate its restaurant reach and acquire consumers through various Coca-Cola
India assets.

Online food delivery in India is expected to grow rapidly at ~35% to ~$18B GMV and
contribute ~18% of total food services by FY25, led by growth in users from 20mn to 60mn.
Coca-Cola India’s investment in Thrive allows them to access business opportunities and
improve consumption on the digital front.

ESG And Titans Go Green Initiative

What does ESG mean?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, which are the three main factors
used to evaluate the sustainability and societal impact of a company or investment. ESG
criteria are used by investors, stakeholders, and regulatory bodies to assess how a company
manages its environmental and social risks, and how it is governed.
Environmental factors relate to a company's impact on the environment, such as its carbon
emissions, waste management, and resource usage. Social factors refer to the company's
impact on society, including its labor practices, human rights record, community engagement,
and diversity and inclusion policies. Governance factors relate to how the company is
managed and governed, including its leadership structure, executive pay, board composition,
and transparency in reporting.
Investors and stakeholders are increasingly interested in ESG factors, as they believe that
companies with strong ESG practices are more likely to generate long-term value and
outperform their peers. In addition, companies with strong ESG practices are viewed as more
resilient and better able to manage risks and opportunities in an ever-changing business
environment.
 Titan targets to plan more than 1lakh trees across the entire country. The initiative will
follow a route from panthnagar to Delhi to Gujarat to Mumbai to Hyderabad and the way
down till Bangalore.This entire event will be stiched together by a relay run of marathoners
who will begin the 1st segment from panthnagar doing two marathons every day and ending
in Bangalore after almost 40 odd days.

Under the 'Go Green' umbrella initiative, Titan Company will be running a series of
plantation drives, which will encourage employees and their families to plant trees in
partnership with the NGO, 'BiotaSoil Foundation', Tata Motors and Tata Power.

Titan Company is highly committed to environment sustainability and has always made
consistent effort towards making green living, a way of living. Titan has also extended this
commitment to anyone from public to plant a tree and nurture its growth and thereby
contribute to Titan's sustained initiative. Titan urges volunteers to be a part of Titan's 'Go
Green' journey in three simple ways:

#1 Be a part of the tree plantation drive

#2 Sponsor one or more trees

#3 Take a pledge and make small significant changes

1. WPI: The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is a measure of the average change in the prices of
goods traded in wholesale markets. It reflects the price movement of goods at the producer or
wholesale level. WPI is calculated by taking the weighted average of the prices of a basket of
goods at the wholesale level. WPI is commonly used as an indicator of inflation in the
economy. (2.32%)

2. CPI: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in the prices of
goods and services purchased by consumers. CPI reflects the price movement of goods and
services at the retail level. It is calculated by taking the weighted average of the prices of a
basket of goods and services purchased by consumers. CPI is commonly used as a measure of
inflation that affects households and individuals. (6.44%).

FDIC and Silicon valley bank

FDIC stands for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It is a United States government
corporation created in 1933 as a response to the widespread bank failures during the Great
Depression. The FDIC provides deposit insurance to protect depositors in case their bank
fails.

FDIC insurance covers deposit accounts up to $250,000 per depositor per insured bank. This
means that if a bank were to fail, the FDIC would insure the depositor's funds up to $250,000,
so the depositor would not lose their money. The FDIC also regulates and supervises many
banks in the United States to ensure that they operate in a safe and sound manner.

The FDIC is an independent agency of the federal government and is funded by premiums
paid by member banks. Its mission is to maintain stability and public confidence in the
nation's financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial
institutions for safety and soundness, and providing consumer protection.

Journey of Oil

Crude journey
The journey of crude oil from before COVID-19 until February 2023 has been marked by
significant changes in global demand, supply, and pricing dynamics. Here is a summary of
some of the key developments:
Before COVID-19:
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, crude oil prices had been relatively stable, hovering around
$60 to $70 per barrel for Brent crude. The global demand for oil was steadily increasing,
driven by economic growth in developing countries and the expanding use of oil in
transportation, manufacturing, and other sectors.
COVID-19 Pandemic:
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the global oil market, as lockdowns,
travel restrictions, and a general slowdown in economic activity led to a sharp decline in oil
demand. The price of oil plummeted in March 2020, with Brent crude falling to below $20
per barrel at one point. This was due to a combination of oversupply and weak demand.
OPEC+ Production Cuts:
To stabilize oil prices, the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries agreed to production cuts
in April 2020. The cuts helped to reduce the global oversupply of oil and support prices, but
they were not enough to prevent a global glut of oil.
Vaccine Rollouts and Demand Recovery:
With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, global economic activity began to pick up again in
2021, and demand for oil started to recover. However, demand remained below pre-pandemic
levels, and the supply of oil remained high, leading to continued volatility in oil prices.
Supply Disruptions:
In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global oil market has also been affected by
supply disruptions in recent years. These disruptions have included hurricanes, geopolitical
tensions, and supply chain disruptions. The most significant disruption has been the ongoing
conflict in Syria, which has disrupted the flow of oil from the Middle East.