THIS AFTERNOON: India-Oman trade pact takes effect

Good morning, everyone, and welcome back. We hope you all had a restful and well-deserved Eid Al Adha break.

Leading our issue today: The Indian government is planning a USD 1 bn sale of its 2% stake in a major financial institution. This move comes amid a foreign investor sell-off and will serve as a key test of whether large public-sector brands can still attract Gulf investors despite current bearish market sentiment.

On the energy front, Indian consumers are facing a series of price hikes for gas and retail fuels as state-run refiners continue passing through rising costs.

Earning well is not the same as investing well — and for most mid-level executives and entrepreneurs, the gap between the two is wider than they’d like to admit. The financial landscape has shifted. Regional markets are opening up, AI is rewriting how portfolios get managed, and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are entering the conversation.

And the questions that used to feel straightforward — buy or rent, fund the startup or play it safe, finance the car now or wait it out — are harder to answer than ever.

In Issue 2 of EnterpriseAM Money Matters, we get into the decisions that don’t have easy answers, because at this stage, playing it safe is the riskiest move you can make.

Tap or click here to subscribe to the Egypt edition, delivered to your inbox Wednesday, June 3.

India-Oman CEPA kicks off

India-Oman trade pact comes into fruition: Tariff concessions under the India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) have been operationalized and take effect today, PTI reports. Inked last December, the pact is now arriving in the middle of a war that has made Omani supply routes less disrupted than they were when the CEPA was first negotiated.

Duty cuts cover most Omani imports: Under the pact, India will offer duty concessions on 77.7% of its tariff lines, covering 12.5k product categories and accounting for 94.8% of imports from Oman by value. Importers seeking preferential treatment will need to prove that goods qualify as Omani-origin products under the agreement’s rules of origin.

Why it matters: For products considered sensitive to India, tariff liberalization will be undertaken through tariff-rate quotas rather than full duty elimination. These include key Omani export categories such as dates, marble, and petrochemical products. The kick-off comes as New Delhi and Muscat bolster economic ties across energy, logistics, and manufacturing, with both sides positioning the India-Oman corridor as a trade node across the Arabian Sea.

Second Adnoc tanker en route to India

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc)-chartered liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo is traversing toward India after crossing the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reports, citing ship-tracking data.

The Umm Al Ashtan appears to have loaded at Adnoc’s Das Island export plant while its public signal was off, before crossing through the waterway. The tanker is currently sailing in international waters toward India’s Dabhol port in Maharashtra, which houses an LNG re-gasification facility, according to Marine Traffic.

This will be Adnoc’s second LNG tanker delivered to India since the war broke out. Last week, Adnoc-operated LNG tanker Al Hamra was the first Gulf LNG shipment to cross the waterway bound for India since the war began. The vessel unloaded at Dahej Port in Gujarat.

Why it matters: The transit adds to a small batch of recent energy shipments through Hormuz — including at least two non-Iranian oil supertankers that exited the Gulf. However, LNG flows remain far below normal. Before the war, around three LNG tankers transited the strait each day, mostly carrying Qatari cargoes.

Zepto gears up for USD 1 bn listing

Quick-commerce startup Zepto is preparing to publicly file for an IPO in the first half of June, with the share sale expected to raise up to USD 1 bn (INR 95.8 bn), Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. The 10-minute delivery platform is likely to kick off investor roadshows later next month and could launch the listing as early as July.

The offering: The listing is expected to include fresh shares and secondary sales by existing investors, with part of the proceeds earmarked for expansion. The platform recently secured regulatory clearance from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, following a confidential filing last December.

Why it matters: Indian public markets have cooled considerably this year, yielding just USD 3.5 bn in first-time share sales as investors digest the economic fallout from the Iran war. Zepto’s listing could become only the second IPO in India this year to cross the USD 1 bn mark, after the planned flotation by SBI Funds Management.

Kent delays IPO

Indian water purifier maker Kent RO Systems has pushed back its IPO by at least a year, as the war in the Middle East weakens investor sentiment and makes public-market timing harder for India-based companies, Reuters reports. Chairman and Managing Director Mahesh Gupta told the newswire that volatile markets, worsened by the Iran war, make this an unsuitable time to list, though Kent could revisit the plan once conditions stabilize. The company received regulatory clearance last June for an offer-for-sale by existing shareholders.

Manufacturing holds up

India’s manufacturing sector strengthened in May despite cost pressures from the Middle East conflict, according to the S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (pdf). The manufacturing PMI rose to 55 in May from 54.7 in April, above the preliminary estimate of 54.3, marking the strongest improvement in factory conditions in three months. A reading above 50 signals expansion, while anything below that indicates contraction.

“India’s final manufacturing PMI points to another month of possible precautionary stockpiling as the Middle East conflict remains unresolved,” HSBC Chief India Economist Pranjul Bhandari said.

Domestic engine is running hard: New orders and output grew at their fastest pace since February, led by strong demand, infrastructure projects, and new business gains. The domestic market drove most of the improvement, while export orders grew at a softer pace despite gains in Asia, Europe, Kenya, Nigeria, and the Middle East.

Why it matters: The PMI shows India’s manufacturing sector is still expanding, but manufacturers are absorbing higher energy, fuel, material, and transportation costs linked to the Middle East war. Input prices rose at the second-fastest pace since April 2022, while output price inflation slowed more sharply, pointing to margin pressure.

Data point

INR 1.9 tn (USD 21.2 bn) — That is India’s gross indirect tax collection in May, up 3.2% y-o-y, according to government data. The increase was supported by stronger economic activity, with taxable supplies of goods rising 26.9% and services 22.2%.

The big story abroad

The US-Iran diplomatic stalemate persists, despite both sides spending the weekend exchanging revisions to a draft pact that would keep a ceasefire in place. Regime-affiliated Iranian media has indicated that Washington and Tehran may wind up scrapping the potential resolution and that no definite result has been reached.

Meanwhile, on Wall Street: US investors seem unconvinced that an AI bubble is about to burst, wagering heavily on AI-related equities they believe still have untapped potential. The optimism is fueled by expected AI advances and big-ticket pledges on chips and data centers — investments expected to boost tech companies’ bottom lines.

And in business news: Berkshire Hathaway has made a USD 6.8 bn housing play, agreeing to acquire US homebuilder Taylor Morrison, marking the first multi-USD-bn acquisition under the helm of newly minted CEO Greg Abel. The move deepens the firm’s housing portfolio and puts it on its way to “unify [its] site-built homebuilding operations into a combined platform,” Abel said.

And in the tech world: Dell has premiered the XPS 13, its new low-cost offering whose prices start at USD 699. It is expected to butt heads with Apple’s MacBook Neo, another laptop marketed for its affordability.

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