| |AUGUST 20239TECH MINTPrice Waterhouse Chartered Accountants LLP (PwC) has formally resigned from serving as the statutory auditors of One97 Communications Limited's wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Payments Services Limited (PPSL), and S.R. Batliboi (SRB) & Associates has been named as the new auditor.The company noted in the regulatory filing that both decisions take effect on August 7, 2023.SR Batliboi & Associates LLP (SRB), an EY network business that was appointed as One 97's auditor for a period of five years in April, will now also audit PPSL.The Board of Directors of PPSL has acknowledged their resignation and expressed gratitude for M/s Price Waterhouse Chartered Accountants LLP for their work, according to the corporate filing.Price Waterhouse CA stated in a letter from the auditor that One 97 filed with the exchanges that Paytm tendered the resignation since it wanted its audit practices to be in line with those of the controlling company (One 97).After PwC's five-year time as the company's statutory auditor expired, SRB would be the new auditors, the company had told the exchanges in March. In addition, it gave its brief report on the company's financial performance for the three months ended June 30, 2023.In a regulatory filing, One 97 said that Ant Financial Services had decreased its ownership of the business by 10.3 percent.After a term of five years, it is advised for a listed company to rotate auditors, according to Section 139 (2) of the Companies Act, 2013.One97 Communications informed the stock exchanges earlier in the day that its founder, managing director, and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, will buy a 10.3 percent share in the business from Antfin (Netherlands).Sharma's ownership of Paytm will rise to 19.42 percent following this deal, while Antfin's ownership will fall to 13.5 percent. $ 62.8 crore is the projected total deal value. According to reports, Kinetic Engineering, which has shifted from two-wheeler manufacturing to auto components with a focus on electric vehicles, is reorganizing EV arms under Kinetic Watts & Volts to provide integrated solutions offering key components like motors, controllers and batteries.Kinetic Watts & Volts was formed in September 2022 as a subsidiary of Kinetic Engineering to focus on anything electric to ensure a sustainable future for EVs as there is a lot of adoption.The new firm is 92 percent owned by the Aurangabad-based parent firm and the rest eight percent is held by the Firodia family. The company is also open to divest around 25 percent of the equity to a strategic/financial partner."We formed Kinetic Watts & Volts with a vision to provide integrated solutions offering the key three components of motors, controllers and batteries from one source to potential EV customers, be they small players or bigger ones. The objective is to ensure that our future customers need not worry about sourcing these key parts from a slew of standalone suppliers but focus on sales and marketing of their vehicles and we'll do all the manufacturing," says Kinetic Engineering managing director Ajinkya Firodia.Firodia says, "Our existing EV business under KEL and Kinetic Communications that makes electronic components for electric two- and three-wheelers will get merged into the new company."KEL has already been making gearbox and axles for three-wheelers and chassis for two-wheelers and three-wheelers (both traditional and EVs) and the new company can offer a more focused delivery now."We are already making the gearboxes and chassis for EVs which are being imported from China now. So, we need to just approach or somehow get these customers to approach us and start delivering because there are today 700 players of two-wheeler EV makers. That means the market is so huge, adds Firodia. PWC RESIGNS SERVING AS THE STATUTORY AUDITORS OF PAYTMKINETIC ENGINEERING REORGANIZES EV ARMS UNDER KINETIC WATTS & VOLTS
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