A load of crap from an idle brain » dutch

España son los campeones

Liju Philip — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:16:14 +0000

I hope i got the title correct. Spain are the Champions. Blame Google translator if its wrong

The once in 4 years extravaganza comes to an end and Spain get the bragging rights for the next 4 years. The 2008 Euro Champions and now the World Champs, Spain deserve all the praise and respect.

Didnt bother to wake up at 2:30 in the morning to watch the match. I do love the sport, but not as crazy to wake up at unearthly hours to watch the sport. Though i had woken up at more or less the same timings last World cup to watch Italy – France battle it out.

In these times of Financial crisis (with Spain being one of the worst affected countries in Europe), this win will come as a soothing balm for the Spanish people.

Viva Espana.

PS: Thank God, this was not the IPL finals and thank God there was no Lalit Modi. Imagine him droning on and on being the best thing since sliced bread and all the hard work he did to ensure the tournament’s success. Class is surely not something to be associated with either Modi or IPL.

Above pictures courtesy: FIFA

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After all the favourites have gone home

Liju Philip — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:41:02 +0000

The South American giants, Argentina & Brazil have joined their counterparts from Europe (England, France, Italy) in being knocked out of the world cup. The only surprise in the line up happens to be Uruguay. The perennial underachievers, Spain and Netherlands are also into the semis. The only consistent team to appear in the semis are the Germans. But at the beginning of the tournament, they weren’t the favored team. The young German team has belied all expectations by battering the favourites Argentina 4-0.

So, this is how the semi final line up stacks up.

Uruguay vs Netherlands on 6th July 2010

Germany vs Spain on 7th July 2010

My money is on a Germany-Uruguay final. But then, have the Germans peaked a bit too early? Spain might be looking at making it a grand double after winning the Euro-2008. The Dutch with all their egos and infighting are capable of making it to the final too.

Pictures courtesy: FIFA

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Reliance planning a takeover of LyondellBasell?

Liju Philip — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:48:52 +0000

With signs of green shoots showing in economies worldwide, India Inc’s appetite for overseas acquisitions got a fresh lease of life with Reliance Industries’ estimated $10-12 billion offer for a controlling interest in bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries.

The deal by India’s largest private sector company controlled by Mukesh Ambani, if closed, will make it one of the largest petrochemical outfits in the world. It will also be the second largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company, after Tata Steel bought Corus for $13 billion in 2007.

RIL has enough money power to make the deal happen. It has $4 billion in cash and $8 billion in treasury stocks, besides a favourable 0.35:1 debt-equity ratio. It also raised $660 million through treasury stocks sale recently.

In the year to October, Indian comanies acquired overseas assets worth $586 million, a sharp fall from the $13.06 billion in the same period a year ago, according to data from Grant Thornton Deal Tracker.

HSBC believes outbound activity will bounce back. About 70 per cent of HSBC’s pipeline is outbound transactions, which has remained the same as the previous year’s.

Tarun Kataria, managing director and head of corporate, investment banking and markets at HSBC, says India is sitting on the cusp of rapidly growing cross-border M&A activity.

“Indian firms are now well capitalised, are trading at circa 20x multiples, offshore markets are trading at a discount to India and financing is more readily available to Indian corporates than to competing offshore acquirers.”

Rest of the news here