By krsna Khandelwal – A veteran market analyst
Friends
In the week gone by Mr. Mallya added Whyte and Mackey (Glasgow based scotch giant) to UB group at a cost of $1.18 b. He was presented a bottle of 65 year old Dalmore Single Malt by Whyte and Mackey (cost about Rs 40 lacs) on the occasion of inking the deal. The buy out would make UB group the second largest liquor maker with 74.5 million cases produced in a year. This is yet another feather in the cap of Indian businessmen. There has to some underlying weakness in the western economies that is letting Indians grab companies after companies. In my opinion, the weakness is that there is dearth of people who can be handed the reins of the companies.
The supreme court has issued notices to central and the state govts asking why the laws enabling them to acquire land not be cancelled as a big land grabbing exercise is going on at the instance of big corporates. If you recall a similar view was presented to you much earlier on these columns. Some thing has to be done about it, even if some quarters call it judicial activism.
The public sector companies like ONGC, IOC, BHEL and SAIL etc. are sitting on huge cash and may be allowed to invest in MF units. There have been unit related scams through Mutual Fund route in the past and necessary safe guards should be put in place too.
Bajaj Auto announced scheme for splitting company in to three. The shareholders will have share in each of these companies in 1:1 ratio. Auto and finance business will be transferred to new companies and will be controlled by Rajiv and Sanjiv Bajaj respectively. There will be a third company, a holding company under Mr. Rahul Bajaj and will have a lot of cash with it. Mr. Rahul Bajaj and his four brothers have yet to settle the partition issues finally while this has propped up. The complication may have the background that some axe somewhere is ready to be grounded. Mr. Rahul Bajaj is a complex personality with a love for cash otherwise why endless opportunities would have been missed inspite of cash resource and the family’s size by the gentlemen at the helm. There were possibilities in diversification or even related diversification but he missed them all. Once satisfied a Marwari loses initiative albeit his satisfaction level comes mostly at a late stage. Mr. Rahul has only been satisfied much too early.
Bajaj Auto share shed 10% value on 17th May 07 after the above announcement. A look at Bajaj Auto’s consolidated Balance Sheet reveals that it has Rs1003 crs invested in auto business, Rs512 r invested in insurance business and further it has Rs6239 crs in investments. The investments have yielded Rs384 crs in profits (6.15% per annum). Now see how much benefited were the Bajajs with investments in earst while UTI, demise of which has been a real dampener for them. They, however, were smart enough to be out of UTI investment just a day before the UTI woes were made public.
In contrast to uncle Rahul, his nephew Kushagra stands far taller than most Bajajs. He has catapulted the Bajaj Hindustan, the sugar company in Bajaj Group, to the top in every way. Do you also think that Mr. Rahul’s aggressive public postures are to conceal the meek heart, the risk adverse attitude?
The Sensex added 1844 points since 30 Mar 2007 (14.80%) when RBI had hiked the interest rates. The FIIs have yielded more in dollar term due to appreciation of rupee. Foreign inflow has been $14.7 b over last two years, while for preceding five years it was just $3 b. The retreat of money may leave a bloody trail back here and this has to keep in mind.
Birlas have named their retail chain as ‘MORE’. They would go in to it alone and invest Rs 8000 crs to Rs 9000 crs. With Tatas, Ambanis, Mittal of Bharati Group and some smaller people, this sector will see fierce fighting. Given the temperament of the retail buyers in India, the margins have to be very less and unless the funding cost is calculated at the international level of interest, the returns would seem very poor. There is one thing that has glued the big people to this sector is the investment going in to prime property also .The doors have been shut for the middle level entrants. This is some very interesting too, from a disorganised nature of retailing so far, it is going to be the world class, even latest in the world class. I hope to see the value of retail spending by Indian consumer going up by 10%on average. This is some thing good to happen. As a rupee saved is more than a rupee earned.
Hari Om
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