meek-investor

Ok ; don’t sigh at the completely unimaginative title – after Zaijian Zhongguo, it's inevitable that it has to be Namaste Hindustan. The title means Hello India, in Hindi. Just as leaving a place is a cauldron of emotions, arriving at another, is equally so. Even if, and probably especially if, it's your home. Things are familiar. You know people. And yet it is an unsettling feeling. Things have changed. Some of your favourite places are gone. Some of the people you know have moved on. You are suddenly an outsider coming in, rather than an insider giving a knowing smile at the new arrivals. As always, in such moves, it’s the small things that catch the eye. In the first few days back in Bangalore, these are what have really struck me Top of the list has to be reading a newspaper with the morning cuppa. A real newspaper. I almost lovingly caressed it on the first day ! I am in the camp which is firmly of the opinion that “The Hindu” (a longstanding newspaper in India) with fi

Goodbye China, goes the title of this post. For this will be my last post from China as I wind up here and head back to India. For nearly three years, Guangzhou has been my home and you’ll perhaps forgive me for a misty eyed long farewell post. One of the first things that struck me when I decided to come here was how little, we in India, know about China. We study a lot about European history and culture, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Incas and Aztecs of South America, everything about the US. But we know very little about China – most Indians can’t even name a city after Beijing and Shanghai, let alone know about China’s rich history. The reverse is equally true – very few Chinese know anything about India at all. I came to China as a newbie, quite ignorant of this country. I leave China, equally ignorant, but perhaps with a greater understanding of my ignorance. China is a complex, fascinating country rich in culture, diversity, history and tradition. It is changing at such a rapid rat

China’s bosses sometimes find it difficult to understand the world; especially as seen through their own lenses, which are admittedly very thick. What can you make out of the following news report – “The western rating agencies are politicised and highly ideological and they do not adhere to objective standards,” Guan Jianzhong, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating, told the Financial Times in an interview . “China is the biggest creditor nation in the world and with the rise and national rejuvenation of China we should have our say in how the credit risks of states are judged.” China likes to develop everything by itself. It doesn’t like Google; it has Baidu instead. Doesn’t like Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, …….., I can go on and on. Every one of them has a local equivalent. It’s not just in IT. Take Credit rating. It wants its own credit rating agency. Enter Dagong Global Credit Rating. It has about a quarter of China’s own fledgling credit rating market, and of course zilch of th

What on earth is happening at Johnson & Johnson ?? It is one of the world’s foremost and respected companies. For 120 years it has commanded trust from consumers, employees, governments, investors – virtually everybody. It is a regular in the Top 5 of the World’s most admired companies – this year it is 4th. Consumers know it largely for its baby products – every mother trusts Johnson’s baby powder, or lotion or bath or whatever. If you are sick, you pop in a Tylenol; if your child is coughing you give her Benadryl. It is also a name totally trusted in hospitals – it produces a variety of medical equipments and supplies. Investors love J&J for the steady performance, and therefore the returns, it produces. It is one of the four companies left in the world which has a AAA rating. If there has to be one company that typifies all that’s good about the corporate world, it would be hard to find a better candidate than Johnson & Johnson. And yet, I read with an increasing se

Why , Oh Why, do they come back ? Don’t look back. Don’t ever look back. Please. You are an all time great. You have millions of adoring fans. You have made enough money. Yes, I know that the road forward seems only downhill and the wonders of the lands you have just passed is fatally alluring. But bite your tongue. Thrust your chin forward. Go forward. And don’t look back. This could be true for any one of us, that is if you slightly discount the millions of fans and the enough money bit. But it is so so true for sportsmen. Its really tough not to look back – but alas, many succumb to the temptation. Look at Michael Schumacher. Why did he do this. He had achieved all that there was to be achieved. And yet he comes back. To be scrapping with teammate Nico Rosberg for 10th place, and losing. Remember the days when the mere presence of Schumi on the track would be enough to strike terror in the hearts of opponents. Michael Jordan was a case who both proved and disproved the theory. When

If you are an Indian, by now you would have seen the new symbol designed for the Indian rupee. Given the close attentions of my beloved net nanny, I cannot reproduce it , but if you really wish to see it, you can do so here . This is a small matter, but is so typical and representative of India. Symbolism and pride is wildly disproportionate to reality. Currencies such as the US dollar, the Euro, the Yen, the Pound Sterling, all have their unique symbols. India aspires to be in that league. But the fact is that you don’t join the league by having a symbol; you join that league by having a currency (and by implication, an economy) that is worthy of being there. With all due respect to the country, and I am an illogically patriotic Indian, the rupee is a basket case. Because, the underlying economy is far from strong. The rupee is still subject to stringent controls, especially on the capital account, and rightly so. The market is this currency is minuscule. Nobody, other than an Indi

Hold your breath, all ye men and women – there are now only four companies in the world which are AAA rated – ADP, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and ExxonMobil. That’s it. Why are there so few in this exalted list ? Before I go further, this is not a “technical” blog. Technically I should be saying companies whose bonds are rated AAA . Short term or long term ? Moody’s or S&P or Fitch ? Is Moody’s rating not Aaa ? Let it go. It doesn’t matter. The point is not to be technically correct. A AAA rating (in whatever form) acknowledges that the company’s bonds (not shares) have the highest degree of safety . Wouldn’t it be something every company would die for ? Obviously not. Only four companies are there. Why so few ? The recent financial crisis has taken its toll. Quite a few have dropped off the list in the last couple of years. Notably GE, a long time star of that list. Understandable. But this doesn’t explain the paltry list fully. Some companies deliberately get off the li

This zone has been tag free for some time now, achieved by skillful deflecting of the multitude of girlie tags that swish around in the blogosphere. But when cornered by two begums, here and here , and one gils , this MCP could not resist nibbling at this loose grenade that has been lobbing about. The tag is supposedly about gender stereotypes and you are cursed with wearing pink pants for 12 years (?) if you drop the tag. Since my entire wardrobe consists of shades of white above the hip and shades of black below, this is a rather dire threat; especially as the aforesaid gils has been known to be partial to, shall we say rather colourful combinations of green and red. So, as is my wont, I am twisting this tag to a company. It is well known that companies are an extreme version of the male chauvinist pig. Idle Sunday speculation on the feminine traits hidden in the closet might be a fruitful line of enquiry. So here goes. - Friday dressing. As is well known, obsession with what you ar

One of the fields in which the forces of capitalism and those of altruism come head to head is the unlikely field of microfinance. Microfinance as a concept was pioneered by the Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus in Bangladesh; it involves lending very small amounts to the poor, often as little as $50, for a very small business activity. The poor are untouched by the banking and credit system and microfinance stepped in to fill the breach. It has done wonders in terms of poverty alleviation, in Bangladesh and in a few other countries where it has achieved scale. But should microfinance be a charity or a commercial enterprise ? Both models exist. Grameen Bank, Mohammed Yunus’s organization is more at the charity end of the spectrum than at the commercial end. But take the case of SKS Microfinance, India’s premier microfinance entity. It’s run as a commercial enterprise and ahs achieved considerable success. Such an approach has brought benefits undoubtedly. SKS has brought in terrific proce

Since the emergence of cable and satellite television services there has been struggles among platforms to increase their attractiveness to audiences and to draw market share from terrestrial television in developed nations. These struggles have had affected content producers, broadcasters, platform operators and regulators attempting to fashion socially optimal broadcasting systems. In the first competitive struggles between terrestrial broadcasters and cable operators, broadcasters controlled the highest quality contemporary programming and cable operators primarily competed by offering a wider variety of channels and providing premium movie channels. In many locations broadcasters actively sought regulatory policies to keep their channels from appearing on cable in order to reduce its attractiveness as a competitor. As cable matured and satellite services emerged, the nature of the struggle shifted as greater subscription and advertising revenues allowed cable networks to offer high

In the rarified world of Private Equity, the firm of Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts occupies a special place. KKR, as the firm is called, achieved legendary status very early on in its life. The firm came into existence in 1976, but its real fame and notoriety came in 1988, when it orchestrated the largest leveraged buyout of that time, the hostile acquisition of RJR Nabisco. The RJR Nabisco transaction was a definitive moment in business history. It was so huge that at that time it was by far the largest M&A transaction that was ever done – a position that it occupied for more than a decade. Adjusted for inflation, it is still the largest leveraged buyout ever. The story has been immortalized in the best selling book, Barbarians at the Gate . The book reads like a thriller - you can buy it here or here ; it’s a classic must read book. The madness of 1988 was covered in my post here , sometime ago. From that day on, KKR has come to epitomize all the public perceptions of private e

“ The Gift of the Magi ” , O Henry’s beautiful short story, is perhaps something you read in school. It’s the story of Jim and Della, a young couple, who were broke. One Christmas they wanted to give each other something special. Well, I won't tell you the story if you haven't read it before. Read the story via the link - even now it can bring a lump to the throat. A moving story, that made a deep impression on every child. The art of giving is a very difficult art. We are faced with this dilemma every day – what do we give – for a friend, or a spouse or a parent, or whoever. As we all know, its not the price that counts, its not the beauty of the object that counts. It’s the thought. But what CAN be the thought ? What is the most appropriate thing to give ? Very often its very cultural. Take wedding gifts. In China, its easy. You give money in a red envelope. Preferable an amount which has a 8 in it (the number 8 is considered auspicious – that’s why the Beijing Olympics start

Consultants are renowned for being expensive and useless. Every company has horror stories of incredibly expensive consulting which has proved to be utterly worthless. That doesn’t stop companies from continuing to splurge untold millions on consultants though. The consulting industry is alive , well and thriving. But this is a story of a consultant who delivered a zillion times more value than what he was paid. In 1982, a management consultant was employed by a group of banks to advise them on the sale of Switzerland’s last watchmaking giant, which they had bailed out earlier. This was the early 80s, when Japan was sweeping the world. It looked like the famous Swiss watch industry was on its last death throes and that the centre of the industry must inevitably shift eastwards to Asia. Switzerland with its high costs and outdated notions of making mechanical watches by hand and charging the moon for them looked obsolete. The consultant who walked in was Nicolas Hayek. But instead of se