Best Business Connect

The connective reporting between three things most titles keep apart: what a brand is worth, who is running it, and what the research says about both.

A company is not its results alone, nor its leader alone. The coverage here follows the line between them, which is where most of the decisions actually get made.

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On WCRC Leaders

Jio Platforms IPO closes 22.19x as institutions bid 70.55 times over

Jio Platforms IPO closes 22.19x as institutions bid 70.55 times over

Jio Platforms' ₹30,213 crore fresh issue closed on 23 October with bids for 438 crore shares against 19.75 crore on offer. The demand came overwhelmingly from institutions; retail investors were far more measured.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

UAE and Singapore move to CEPA talks on $6.5bn of trade, up 25%

UAE and Singapore move to CEPA talks on $6.5bn of trade, up 25%

The UAE and Singapore have agreed to negotiate a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, add an energy taskforce with ADNOC and welcome Temasek to Abu Dhabi. The Gulf-Asia corridor is moving from goodwill to legal text.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

HPCL earns ₹3,625 crore as $116 crude tests India's oil bill

HPCL earns ₹3,625 crore as $116 crude tests India's oil bill

Hindustan Petroleum is back in profit after a ₹12,265 crore loss in the June quarter, but its numbers show exactly where the Gulf crisis lands in India: fat refining margins, capped pump prices and a growing LPG bill that someone will have to pay.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Swiggy's ₹895 crore Instamart loss: the price of catching Blinkit

Swiggy's ₹895 crore Instamart loss: the price of catching Blinkit

Swiggy's food business posted its best margins yet in the September quarter, and its quick-commerce arm absorbed all of it and more. The results set out, in Swiggy's own numbers, how far Instamart still has to travel.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

DIP Holding IPO: the UAE's first 2026 listing bets on AED 700m dividends

DIP Holding IPO: the UAE's first 2026 listing bets on AED 700m dividends

Dubai Investments is selling a fifth of the company that owns Dubai Investments Park, in what it calls the UAE's first IPO of 2026. The pitch is income, not growth, and it arrives while the Gulf economy is still shrinking from the regional war.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Rubio in Mumbai: India-US trade deal is "very, very close"

Rubio in Mumbai: India-US trade deal is "very, very close"

Marco Rubio's India itinerary named Mumbai and Jamnagar, not New Delhi. He met India's foreign minister with the UAE at the table and said a trade deal is near. Exporters now need to know what tariff they will face, and when.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

India-New Zealand FTA is live: 100% duty-free access, dairy kept out

India-New Zealand FTA is live: 100% duty-free access, dairy kept out

India's trade agreement with New Zealand took effect on 20 October 2026, giving every Indian export duty-free entry and opening a talent corridor for students and skilled workers. India paid for it without opening its dairy market, and that bargain now sets the template for its talks with the Gulf and the United States.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Jio Platforms IPO: Gulf funds hold 5.32% and are not selling

Jio Platforms IPO: Gulf funds hold 5.32% and are not selling

Jio Platforms took anchor bids on Monday, a day before a market holiday and two days before its ₹30,213 crore public issue opens. Three Gulf sovereign funds are already on its register. Here is what the anchor book can and cannot tell boards planning their own listings.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

UltraTech's Ultravolt: why a cement giant is selling wires to homeowners

UltraTech Cement grew profit by a fifth in a monsoon quarter, but the more telling line in its 19 October results was a new consumer brand. With Ultravolt, India's largest cement maker is asking homeowners and electricians to trust it with the wiring inside their walls, in a market Polycab and Havells have spent decades building.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

FII10 slips to 2027: what Riyadh's delay means for CEOs and boards

FII10 slips to 2027: what Riyadh's delay means for CEOs and boards

Saudi Arabia's flagship investor summit will not meet next week. After a run of deadly strikes on Riyadh's main airport, the "Davos in the Desert" has moved to 2027, and the question for leaders is no longer whether to fly in, but how to keep deals moving without the room.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Hindustan Zinc's $671m quarter: silver, a weak rupee and rare earths

Hindustan Zinc's $671m quarter: silver, a weak rupee and rare earths

Hindustan Zinc has reported the most profitable quarter in its history in Amarendu Prakash's first full quarter as chief executive. The harder question for the Vedanta subsidiary is what it does with the cash, and whether a new rare earth block in Karnataka can become a second business.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

$133bn: what India's rupee defence is costing its biggest banks

$133bn: what India's rupee defence is costing its biggest banks

The Reserve Bank's dollar swap window pulled in $132.98bn of non-resident foreign currency deposits in under three months. The money flattered bank balance sheets in the September quarter, and the bill is now showing up in margins.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Bajaj Finance lines up ₹17,500 crore as AI agents take on service

Bajaj Finance lines up ₹17,500 crore as AI agents take on service

Bajaj Finance grew quarterly profit 29% and is lining up ₹17,500 crore of fresh equity just as the RBI starts tightening. Its bigger signal to boards is operational: AI bots now serve three in four of its self-service customers.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Anchor investors in Indian IPOs: why the 60% book sets the tone

Anchor investors in Indian IPOs: why the 60% book sets the tone

Before an Indian IPO opens, a few large institutions commit first and in public. What SEBI's rules allow, what the market reads into them, and where boards go wrong.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Noel Tata wants Tata Trusts to build institutions, not just fund them

Noel Tata wants Tata Trusts to build institutions, not just fund them

Tata Trusts disbursed ₹1,556.31 crore in 2025-26, about 72% more than a year earlier, and its chairman says the next phase is about owning outcomes: a planned network of forty to fifty not-for-profit general hospitals and new places of learning.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Vedanta doubles Gamsberg, and Ramaphosa now wants a zinc smelter

Vedanta doubles Gamsberg, and Ramaphosa now wants a zinc smelter

President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the second phase of Vedanta's Gamsberg zinc mine on 16 October. The roughly $600m expansion doubles ore capacity at a remote Northern Cape pit, and puts a refinery decision on the table.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

135 attacks since February: what Gulf and Indian boards must price in

135 attacks since February: what Gulf and Indian boards must price in

Shipping attacks in Gulf waters reached 12 in a single week, and operations at Riyadh's main airport were suspended after repeated strikes. For companies in India and the Gulf, war risk is no longer an event to wait out. It is an operating cost to be budgeted.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

DP World hands Asia Pacific to its CFO, Jason Varsamidis

DP World hands Asia Pacific to its CFO, Jason Varsamidis

DP World has promoted the finance chief of its Asia Pacific business to run it. The timing matters: the group's home port is handling far fewer boxes, and Asia is where its growth now comes from.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

HDFC Bank Q2: deposits finally outrun loans, but profit rises just 4.7%

HDFC Bank Q2: deposits finally outrun loans, but profit rises just 4.7%

HDFC Bank has done the hard part of its post-merger repair: deposits are now growing faster than loans. The price is showing up in profit, and it is the inheritance Anup Bagchi takes on when he becomes chief executive on 27 October.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Jio Platforms' ₹30,213 crore IPO: why no one is selling

Jio Platforms' ₹30,213 crore IPO: why no one is selling

India's largest public offer is built entirely of new shares. No existing investor is cashing out, and that choice tells boards more about Reliance's plans for Jio than the price band does.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Mohit Joshi's Tech Mahindra: 14.8% margin, one step short of 15%

Mohit Joshi's Tech Mahindra: 14.8% margin, one step short of 15%

Ten quarters after taking charge, Tech Mahindra's chief executive has doubled the company's operating margin and kept deal wins above $1bn for a year. The final test of his FY27 promise comes in the next two quarters.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

IMF sees 3.4% world growth in 2027: what boards should plan for

IMF sees 3.4% world growth in 2027: what boards should plan for

The IMF's October 2026 World Economic Outlook describes a world economy that is still growing but leaning on shrinking buffers. For leaders in India, the Gulf and Asia, the forecast for 2027 depends on one shipping lane, one technology cycle and the bond market.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

Fairfax wins IDBI Bank: inside India's Rs 52,878 crore bank sale

Fairfax wins IDBI Bank: inside India's Rs 52,878 crore bank sale

India has chosen Prem Watsa's Fairfax to take control of IDBI Bank at Rs 81 a share. It is the first time the state has handed a bank of this size to a private, foreign-owned buyer, and it reopens a privatisation agenda many had written off.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

ManpowerGroup hands its top job to Becky Frankiewicz as AI reshapes work

ManpowerGroup hands its top job to Becky Frankiewicz as AI reshapes work

One of the world's largest staffing companies has named its strategy chief as its next chief executive, with Jonas Prising staying on as Executive Chair. The choice tells boards a good deal about what the talent business now values in a leader.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial Desk

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