ITC Limited

yeah

and I did and I think that was a dream come true to be to be able to go to ITC and eventually be in that kitchen they never taught you they just don't teach people the young kids and I think I have that complaint to those chefs that when they have young talent landing in the kitchen I think the culture is such that

and

There's pros and cons.

You just be there and maybe grind ginger and garlic and make a few more things.

You know,

I was talking to a chef two weeks ago in Jaipur who was there with the ITC and it's exact same conversation.

It was like got his stripes, but it was insanely intense.

I saw.

District manager, ITC limited.

I kept

it.

He called me to his room.

Okay, how do you do your events? What happens? He was asking me a lot of questions.

I thought, is he a press guy? What is ITC? I didn't know that at that time.

So then they said, Look, we need to have people like you to do it for ourselves, for us.

Canadian industry groups, including COFI, responded to the federal budget and other policy developments.

Valmet continued activity with technology supply announcements, including an HTCTMP line order linked to ITC in India in broader recent coverage.

Overall theme for the week.

Pulp producers, led by Susano, pushed price increases in key Western markets, while European Graphic Paper Consolidation, UPM SAPI, advanced through regulatory remedies.

Let me show you what that gap actually looks like.

Take the example of a company we know as ITC.

Now, if I ask you what ITC does, you'll get it right.

It sells cigarettes and it has a pretty large FMCG business where it sells biscuits and noodles and atta and soaps and a whole shelf of other stuff.

Now, most of you could probably name four or five ITC products off the top of your head right now.

So that's not really where people go wrong.

Everyone basically knows what ITC sells.

Where it gets interesting is the next question, which almost nobody actually stops to ask.

Let's see what happens in actual exits.

So in March 2024, British American Tobacco sold 3.5% of ITC in a single block deal worth approximately Rs 17,500 crore.

That was FDI walking out the door since BAT still owns about a quarter of ITC.

Portfolio investors, though, make hundreds of small sales to pull money out.

Now that being said, while the 10% line tells you who owns what, it doesn't tell you what the money does.

So, I mean, it's in the public domain already.

We have a collaboration with ITC, which is one of India's biggest, it's a big conglomerate, but is also very big in packaging.

And they see value in what we're doing as we do with them.

So that's one route that we're looking at.

A temporary swimming ban was issued for part of the Blilock Reservoir.

The Indian paper and paper boards industry benefits from structural demand drivers, packaging growth, plastic bans, education, rising per capita consumption, even as it faces cost pressures, wood, pulp energy, and import competition.

Seshasei Paper and Boards reported lower net profit for FY 2025-26 due to steeper-than-expected drops in average realizations, domestic and export.

Revenue from operations was 1,710 crore versus 1,754 crore prior year.

FastMarkets continues work on a major North American pulp price benchmark reset scheduled for 2027.

India.

Demand growth for the Indian paper industry is projected at roughly 5-7% in FY26, supported by packaging, e-commerce, FMCG, education, and plastic substitution, though overall growth has moderated from prior higher rates.

Imports, especially from China, up sharply over recent years, and cost pressures remain challenges.

Two, Reliance Consumer Products has launched its ready-to-drink dairy brand, Joyland, starting with flavored milk priced rupees 20 in Tamil Nadu.

The rollout places Reliance in direct competition with established mass-market dairy and FMCG brands, including Amul, Mother Dairy, ITC, and Cavin's.

Three, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has requested state governments to waive stamp duties on national highway projects.

The central ministry argues that varying state levies create compliance burdens, contractual ambiguity, and potential project delays.

And some analyst firms have said that they expect operating margins at the ten major consumer staples firms to shrink forty-five basis points from a year earlier, despite a revenue growth of about thirteen percent, driven by an eight percent rise in volumes and price increases of five to six percent, a Reuters report added, also saying that Kotak Institutional Equities has forecast a steeper a hundred and fifty basis point margin decline across its coverage.

Jefferies expects a forty-five basis point drop for staples firms excluding ITC and Varun Beverages.

So the Nifty FMCG index has fallen almost nineteen percent this year, which makes it the second worst performing sectoral index after Nifty IT, while the benchmark Nifty fifty has fallen about thirteen percent.

Macro news.