A load of crap from an idle brain

We are already 6 days into the new year.  I dont see much changes happening around and wonder why people blew up so much money boozing, eating, partying away and on firecrackers to bring in the new year.  The first day of the new year was the same.  The sun rose in the east, it felt like just another day. Anyway, if you ask an economist, they will say that its all these foolish spending that fuels the economy.

Generally, when asked for resolutions, i always maintain that “my resolution for this year is to have no resolutions“.  But then i make my secret list every year and work on them.  At the end of the year, i do an analysis to see if things went according to plan or not.  I hardly manage to accomplish around 20-30% of my targets every year and i realise that its a pathetic performance.

This year’s targets are also ambitious (as always).  Not sure if i can make any significant dent in it, but lets see.

Reading a lot is one of the priority this year and am simultaneously reading 2 books, not to mention magazines and other work relate books that i read.

Hope to be much more regular in blogging this year.  Hope the stock markets remain depressed all through the year and give me option to buy lots of good stock at cheaper prices.  Since my investments are for the longer term, i dont mind a few more years of depression / recession.

Its only when there is blood on the streets that you manage to find the best companies to buy.

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The world’s fastest growing telecom market, India is getting too hot and competitive for the biggest player Bharti Airtel to handle.  After its aborted attempt to buy South Africa’s MTN which fell through due to regulatory issues, Bharti is now looking in the neighbourhood for an acquisition.

In a shift of strategy, Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator, is close to acquiring a 70% stake in Bangladesh’s fourth largest mobile operator, Warid Telecom, for close to $900 million.

The deal, likely to be sealed mid-January, comes three months after Bharti failed to secure a deal with South Africa’s MTN to become the world’s fourth largest mobile firm by subscribers.

Post-deal, management control of Warid Telecom would pass on to Bharti and Bangladeshi media reports say Bharti has submitted an investment plan of $300 million.

Bharti’s costly acquisition plan is an indication of how the stakes have risen in the telecom sector in the sub-continent; the offer is almost three times the $350 million DoCoMo paid in 2008 to buy a 30% stake in Aktel or TM International, the third ranked operator in Bangladesh.

Rest of the article here

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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

New entrants in the market, a vicious price war, plunging stock prices of telecom companies, and now the Indian telecom subscribers have touched 500 million. We are indeed living in interesting times.

Amidst the raging tariff war leading to telecom stocks getting hammered on the bourses, the country s total subscriber base crossed the 500-million mark in September, 15 month ahead of the targeted schedule of December, 2010.

According to figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday total telecom subscribers in the country increased to 509.03 million at the end of September from 494.07 million in August, registering a growth rate of 3.03%. With this tele-density has increased to 43.50% with wireless tele-density at 40.31. India is the second-biggest market for wireless services, lagging only China which has more than 600 million users, and is the fastest-growing market in the world.

Mobile opearators led by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Tata Teleservices have been wooing the customers with innovative tariff packages in a market where call rates are already ruling at the rock bottom and is the main driver of the growth. New tariff plans such as per-second billing introduced by most of the operators are likely to see huge subscriber addition in the coming months.

News source: Yahoo

Pictures source: Vivek Mishra & IANS

For a country that has always looked at Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) with suspiction and has resisted the entry of foreign money, the $100 billion mark that India has hit is not a mean achievement.

India has crossed the $100 billion milestone in FDI through equity since 2000 up to July this year testifying the country’s increasing profile as a safe and sound investment destination in the midst of the global financial crisis.

As much as 44% of the money came through the Mauritius route, apparently because the investors wanted to take advantage of India’s double taxation avoidance treaty with the island nation. The cumulative FDI inflows since 2000 and up to July 2009 amounted to $100.33 billion. The inflows in the first four months of the current financial year was $10.5 billion, according to data compiled by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. The other big investors included Singapore, the US, UK and the Netherlands.

Commenting on the $100 billion milestone, economists said India is being perceived as a safe and dynamic destination for global investors. “This is a reflection that India is being taken as a safe and dynamic destination for investment as the economy is growing at 6%. The investors also want to diversify their portfolio from China by investing here,” Rajiv Kumar, CEO and director of Icrier said. The FDI would further improve if the economic recovery continues.

“We did not receive much FDI initially…since 2008 we have started receiving good numbers…there are signs of economic recovery in a few countries and I think inflows will improve with the economic recovery,” Crisil principal economist D K Joshi said.

Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra said FDI not only brings money but also new technology and managerial capabilities. “FDI’s main impact comes from new technology, new managerial capabilities, new benchmarks in corporate functioning,” Mitra said.

Above news source: TimesofIndia

Picture source: The Hindu

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The self appointed leader of the Hindu community in the US, Rajan Zed is on an advising spree for the past few months.  From advising Mischa Barton about sitar player gurujis to protesting about Playboy’s investments into India to rubbishing Vanity Fair on their list of best dressed celebrities to advising Claudia Ciesla to seriously explore Hinduism.

If indeed he is worried about westernization of the Indian society, why does he hang around in the US in the first place? Wonder if Rajan Zed has ever heard this quote

“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubts about it.”

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Continuing from the previous post about the equity portfolio, this is the mutual funds portfolio. Over a period of time, Franklin Templeton Prima fund went from being a 5 star to a 2 star fund.  It has underperformed the peers in the market, but compared to the S&P CNX Nifty over a period of time, it has always shown better results.

Reliance Growth has been one of the best funds ever if you want a pure diversified equity player.   HDFC prudence is a good balanced fund.  It invests a good chunk of the money in debt as well as keeps a bit of the money aside as cash.  So, even thought it might not give you stupendous returns like a pure equity fund can, this one gives stability to your portfolio.

PS: This post has been tagged in the Investments page.

All above information taken from: Valueresearchonline

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I have always wanted to have a new page for my investments and its tracking.  So, this was long pending wish, fulfilled.  I have added another page to the site called “Investments“.

Have tried to put up a pictorial representation of the logos of all companies invested.  Have a few things in mind which i want to work on.  As of now, its all fuzzy.  As things clear up, you will see more information on companies, investments, economy, movement of stocks and stuff on that page.

Since my biggest hobby Movies , already has its own dedicated page, it was time my second biggest interest, Investments also had its own page.

More as time goes by.

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