I hail from a family involved in the business of real estate and i have almost always had a bad taste for this business as I thought it was a business that represented the epitome of greed and irresponsibleness of our society. I was once in Singapore with the management of a company called Far…
Read MoreThomas Cook India – Fairfax ups equity stake and other updates
Thomas Cook allotted 1.827cr equity shares in lieu of 18.27 lakh preference shares to its promoters taking the promoters equity stake in the company from 72.9% to 74.7%. The total shares outstanding in the company today are 27.27 cr of Re1 each. http://www.bseindia.com/corporates/ann.aspx?scrip=500413%20&dur=A Stepping out of the preference cover to take on risks and rewards…
Read MoreZen Technologies – Practice Makes Perfect
“PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT” This is a quotation that almost everyone will agree with. When you are defending the country, the importance of this is almost unchallengeable. Zen Technologies makes SIMULATORS, for the Armed Forces, Air Force as well as the Police. They started of with simple driving simulators and today make a huge range of…
Read MoreCareer point – Now an Automobile Dealer ##@@#!#%^ !
Consolidated Results Q3 results in Cr Informal Education Formal Education Total (excluding auto division) CapEx 174 159 335 Revenue 19.55 (2.93) 16.62 Results 4.64 0.83 5.47 Finance apportioned based on CapEx (0.64) (0.60) (1.20) Expenses Unallocated apportioned (0.65) (0.61) (1.26) PBT 3.35 (0.38) 2.97 The management expects the company to cross a revenue of 70…
Read MorePiramal Enterprises – Q3 Note
Q3 in cr Pharma and Manufacturing Financial Services Information Management Unallocated Total Capital Employed 3221 9202 4293 (4607) 12110 Revenue 802 219 377 1398 Profits as reported -5 162 132 47 346 Profits without exceptional -5-2+34-18=9 162 132 47 350 Finance Cost -95 PBT 241 The Pharma and Manufacturing business has finally turned cash positive,…
Read MoreThomas Cook is cooking up a magic potion.
Thomas Cook has been time and again dissected and written about by Prof. Sanjay Bakshi. I can dare to say, his reports are probably the most convincing reports ever. His style of story like writing is rare and extremely enjoyable to read. Whether one agrees with him or not, his reports are deeply satisfying and…
Read MoreCareer Point- An Education PE Fund ?
Ajay Relan refers to Career Point as a “fallen angel” and he expects this angle to fly again in the near future. He loves it as it is service based, has a brand name, is a B2C business, operates in a recession free industry, generates massive cash flows, can scale without significant capital investments and…
Read MoreIs MPS being smart or stupid ?
Today was a particularly exciting day for MPS as they announced their Q3 results along with a second interim dividend of Rs 10 per share. They also passed an enabling resolution to issue securities for QIP upto 150 crores, The market, keeping in line with its eccentric reputation lived up to it by dropping the…
Read More8,000 cities to govern – Irena Vittal
Urbanization is on the official agenda in Delhi: build 100 smart cities, and now, revive 500 existing cities. This priority is long overdue: one in three Indians lives in a city. Indeed, experts believe the real number is a higher 52%, if one relaxes India’s tough three-part definition of urban. Clearly, while policy ignored cities…
Read More
100 to 1 by Thomas Phelps, in 95 points.
Those of us who ask little of life, get little. Those who ask much, get much, but those who ask for too much get nothing. If you don’t buy what has to be sold, you never really need to sell anything. The top 4 criteria It must be small. ( Sheer size mitigates growth…
Read MoreAll About Moats – Pat Dorsey
MPS – not even halfway through the marathon
I ran the following stock screen just for fun : M.Cap > 1000cr, PE<25, D/E<0.5, 3 year ROE>30%,ROE>40% and ROA>30%, and here is what i found : Suven Life Sciences, eClerx, Blamer Lawrie, MPS, TCS and Accelya Kale. What i ran were basically the current ratios of a company i greatly admire – MPS, and…
Read More
Re-Imagining India
Everyone wants to make a buck, and rightfully so. However, when you want to make that in India, on India’s prospects, it is imperative that you understand where India is today and where it will be in the near future and even more importantly, what factors will drive that change. Below are excerpts from the…
Read MoreDHANDHO – Investment Primer
Of all the books that i have read and re-read Dhandho is probably the best for a primer on investing. It goes beyond the numbers and hits at basic investing logic. With time these principals will be fine tuned and complicated 🙂 but just sticking to this too will yield you enormous confidence in your…
Read MoreMPS – Raising the bar – Yet Again
This is a follow up to my previous posts – http://biginvestorblog.com/?s=MPS MPS has been growing from strength to strength for the last 2 years. I got in on the stock at about 115 a share and the company has not disappointed since then. The company aside, I’ve really begun to admire Nishith Arora. He states his…
Read MoreGodrej Properties – Disruption with Trust
When you say real estate, the first thing that comes into mind is black money and if you are worldly wise, the word “cheat” will be a close second. However, say “Godrej Properties” and a picture of a well made township flashes through your mind.The other two culprits are not even close. This is pretty…
Read MoreAstra Microwave – Q1 updates and AGM comments
Hyderabadi AGMs are a mix of company procedures and weddings. Every AGM is accompanied by a grand lunch and a return gift if you may 🙂 Sometimes i wonder if it would be better to hold the meetings after the AGM’s so that all the “speech givers” can return home and leave the meeting to…
Read MorePiramal Enterprises – 2014 AGM update
When i walked into the PEL AGM it seemed like an ultra simple affair without much hoo-hah, until i looked at the Board. The best of the best were patiently sitting there. Ajay, Swati and Nandini Piramal, Keki Dadiseth, N.Vaghul, and Ramadorai amongst others i couldn’t recognise. Partly intimidating, but mostly gratifying. Despite the big…
Read MoreRS Software – FY 14, AGM and Q1 2015 – Comments
RS has had a great run ending the year of 2014 with an diluted EPS of 42.85. While this is fantastic news, we will have to see if the story of the future is still as fantastic as it was last year. The payments industry worldwide is controlled by Visa and Mastercard with over 88%…
Read MoreCCL Products – Problems of Plenty
They say that people can be divided into four categories, employees, professionals, businessmen and investors. Each of the above have unique traits and people in each of these categories have very different lives and mindsets. CCL’s ex MD is a thoroughbred businessman and an entrepreneur. His lifespan covered starting of the business, growing and…
Read MoreRS Software – Cash in on Digital Payments
Read their annual report – It is crazy rs_software_ar_2012-13_2 CMP – 243 MCAP – 309 cr 52w high/low – 250/120 No of shares – 1.28 cr ( further issue on cards ) Promoter holding – 38.5% un-pledged Fundoo Investors – Dolly Khanna 3.29% Story: Back end payment processing for Visa Big on digital currency…
Read MoreNBCC – FY 14 – Results Discussion
Please read the annual results here : NBCC FY 14 Results With 81% revenue from PMC and 16% from Real Estate business, NBCC wrapped up the year with a consolidated sale of about 4,098cr. When you look at the margins, they are quite healthy and going by the MD, Mr.Mittal, they will get better. PAT…
Read MoreMPS Ltd – FY 2014 Results Discussion
Initiation Call http://biginvestorblog.com/2014/01/07/mps-initiation-dec-2012/ Q3 results discussion http://biginvestorblog.com/category/stock-ideas/mps-ltd-stock-ideas/ Nishith Arora has systematically turned around the business with ease and panache. He has framed rules of keeping employee expense under 40% of sales, done away with expensive locations, kept only Dehradun as the only option of expansion, concentrated on increasing services in the geographies he is already…
Read MoreNBCC LTD – Govt play in Real Estate
“Modi wants to build a 100 new cities in India.” “Modi wants to focus heavily on the North East.” “Modi wants every Indian citizen to have a house by 2020.( Low cost housing)” “Modi wants to look at reducing Tax Terrorism and look at other areas to fund growth of the country.”…
Read MoreAstra Microwave Products Ltd – Counting Stars
Astra Microwave has been around for a while now and has garnered respect and patronage from various Defence, Space and Telecommunication outfits in India. The company has invested a lot of time and energy between 2008-2012 developing various products and is miles ahead of the competition in a host of products. After concentrating majorly on…
Read More
All About Moats -by Pat Dorsey – Book Summary
Summary of Pat Dorsey’s book, ” THE LITTLE BOOK THAT BUILDS WEALTH”. The knockout formula for finding great investments. Pat Dorsey’s little book THAT BUILDS WEALTH THE GAME PLAN: IDENTIFY businesses capable of generating above average returns over many years. WAIT until they begin to trade at OR below their intrinsic value. HOLD…
Read MorePiramal Enterprises FY2014 – The Genius Partly Revealed
While the Media has been focusing merely on Piramal’s cash pile, and have rather been supremely obsessive about it, Ajay Piramal has had most of his investments show green shoots already. From approval of 2 drugs by the USFDA and the EU and IndiaREIT growing to manage over 7,500cr the media has missed a lot…
Read MorePiramal Enterprises – FDA Approves Florbetaben
Piramal Imaging ( Subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises) has made two major acquisitions, BST CarGel for 30cr in 2011 from BioSynTech and a molecular imaging Portfolio from Bayer in 2012 for an undisclosed amount. CarGel received approval in the EU in 2012 and is still awaiting approval from the FDA. For an acquisition price of 30cr…
Read MoreHeritage Foods – Ready for milking
Heritage operates in 3 business segments: 1. Dairy and Vaule added Products 2. Retail Super markets 3. Agri Products and Bakery IN CR DAIRY RETAIL AGRI AND BAKERY 9M2014 12M2013 9M2014 12M2013 9M2014 12M2013 Revenue 994 1268 278 326 53 44 EBIT 80 109 -16.8 -21.94 -0.94 -3.8 EBIT Margin 8% 8.5% -6% -6.7% -1.7%…
Read MoreMPS Q3 FY14 – Lessons in Marginal Costing
Very often reputed companies get so burdened with their own ego and comfort zones that they begin to choke their margins unknowingly and if not rescued in time, die ! Some however meet people like Nishith Arora who not only bring these companies back to life, but make them super healthy. MPS has had…
Read More