Friday, June 27, 2008

How FMCG firms can Grow During High Inflation

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), are products that are sold quickly at relatively low cost. Though the absolute profit made on FMCG products is relatively small, they generally sell in large quantities, so the cumulative profit on such products can be large. Examples of FMCG generally include a wide range of frequently purchased consumer products such as toiletries, soap, cosmetics, teeth cleaning products, shaving products and detergents, as well as other non-durables such as glassware, light bulbs, batteries, paper products and plastic goods. FMCG also include pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, packaged food products and drinks. When inflation rises, prices of packaged consumer goods also rise.
Strategy for Large Industries:-
By large industry here it means having a large customer base and are widely spread throughout the nation. Like Bharti having a Mobile customer base of nearly 66.83 million subscribers.

When the consumers are in large number even a small margin will still yield to high profits. Hence instead of increasing the price of commodity in same proportion the industries can absorb a large portion of the cost escalation and passing down a small part of input cost rise to the consumer. For instance, vegetable oil prices have shot up by nearly 40% in the last one year, but Wipro Consumer Care has taken a price mark-up of just about 14%, that too in two phases. The rest of the raw material cost escalation has been absorbed by the company. Take another example. Parle Agro has managed to maintain the price of the oldest SKU (stock keeping unit), ie 200 ml, of Frooti and Appy, which has been selling at a maximum retail price of Rs 10 for almost 10 years.

By doing so the large corporates poses a stiff competition for other such industries, which in turn helps the consumer and the economy as well.

A certain amount of inflation can be absorbed as long as the market growth rate continues to be in double digits. The same may not be true if growth rate slows down. Companies too believe, that because of growing market the business that a company can generate in the next 1-2 years is more than what one could have generated over the last 5-10 years.

Strategy for Small Scale Industries:-

Here I am talking about Industries whose customer base in limited to a particular region. There customer base is limited. Its hard to survive for such industries when Inflation is high and there is neck to neck competition in market.

When prices of almost everything are going up, be it property, talent, transportation or even raw material. There are only two options before a small organization. Option one, to bear losses till the market stabilizes again and option two, to increase volumes to be able to absorb rising costs.

In first case industries starts cutting down on production to minimize losses. Which further throw the SSI out of the market.
For second case to be implemented government support plays an essential role. Govt. can impose more taxes on large industries or they can provide machinery and required technology in relatively cheaper rates. Or other such policies.

I had given a good amount of thought how small industries will survive in such a scenario, but was not able to come up with a strong idea. What I strongly feel SSI can survive with, supporting government policies and by the far sighted vision of the entrepreneur. One should give deep thought and an insight before starting a SSI, making the industry to be strong enough to survive any such fluctuation.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

India Battling with Rising Fuel Prices

Dear reader although this topic require deep insight and intensive study of different policies of government and their impact, which I was not able to do due to lack of time. The will article serve as a basic block for further understanding of the issue. The information provided below is collected from various sources.

The Indian Government raised petrol prices by 11 per cent to stem losses, running at an estimated $137 million a day, suffered by the country's state-owned petrol companies. The price of diesel was increased by 9per cent and cooking gas 17 per cent.

Interestingly the move shows a mixed response Economists as few says that the move was much needed and necessary for economy. How is it so, is discussed in subsequent paragraphs. Other says that the move could derail economic growth in the region, stoke inflation and influence Indian elections.

Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, said the move was inevitable: “Our oil companies cannot go on incurring losses. They will have no money to import crude oil from abroad.”

The oil companies of India have reported Rs 77,000 crores under realisation due to subsidy on oil of which Rs 33,500 crores were taken by the government in the form of oil bonds and the rest amount of Rs 43,500 crores was taken as loss in the balance sheet of PSU oil companies. Had the oil companies being owned by private sectors, either that would have closed down or people would have been purchasing the oil at cost more than three times the present level. It has already happened when Reliance was not able to sell the petrol and diesel at the price equal to PSU companies, it closed several of its retail outlets of petroleum products in the country.

There is popular support for policies to minimize fuel prices by subsidies or reduced taxes. But price-minimization policies are likely to harm consumers and the economy overall by increasing total fuel consumption and vehicle travel, and associated costs such as traffic and parking congestion, infrastructure costs, traffic crashes, import costs and pollution emissions. Fuel price reductions are an inappropriate way to provide more affordable mobility for low-income households, other strategies can help them more while also increasing transport system efficiency.

Subsidy In India

The Indian government provide subsidy to control oil prices in the country. The subsidy is massive - hidden by a disingenuous device called oil bonds. Here are some rock solid facts. IOC, HPCL and BPCL are currently losing $137 million a day (i.e., Rs 582 crore per day at Rs 42.50 = $1). They lose Rs 16.34 for each litre of petrol, and Rs 23.49 for each litre of diesel sold in Delhi.

Union Finance ministry has allowed the oil companies to issue oil bonds to meet losses. But according to the officials of ministry, before issuing oil bonds there is need to increase domestic prices of crude oil but this is not the condition before issuing the bonds.

It is a well-known fact that to neutralise subsidy burden on the oil importing companies, government is issuing the oil bonds, which the PSU banks and LIC are forced to subscribe. If yields on these bonds go down, banks succumb to losses, which they try to recover by increasing price of its services as well as increasing interest rate.

Fuel Prices in few of the other countries(as on 3rd June 08)
Turkey: Rs 113.30 per litre
Norway (Oslo): Rs 112 per litre
United Kingdom: Rs 95.50 per litre
Hong Kong: Rs 84.10 per litre
Brazil (Sao Paolo): Rs 66 per litre
Canada: Rs 57 per litre
Pakistan: Rs 44.80 per litre
The United States: Rs 44.25 per litre
Russia (Moscow): Rs 42.275 per litre
China: Rs 31.30 per litre
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur): Rs 25.40 per litre
United Arab Emirates: Rs 15.65 per litre
Saudi Arabia (Riyadh): Rs 5 per litre
Venezuela (Caracas): Rs 2.12 per litre

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

TATA Acquires JLR – Preparing Itself for Economic Challenges

Tata Motors today acquired the Jaguar Land Rover businesses from Ford Motor Company for a net consideration of US $2.3 billion, as announced on March 26, in an all-cash transaction. As part of the transaction, Ford will continue to supply Jaguar Land Rover for differing periods with powertrains, stampings and other vehicle components, in addition to a variety of technologies, such as environmental and platform technologies. Ford also has committed to provide engineering support, including research and development, plus information technology, accounting and other services.

It is been predicted that the automobile industry including Tata Motors is expected to face challenging times ahead due to unprecedented increase in input prices and continuing adverse economic situation in India and globally. Today on 2nd June, Tata Motors announced an increase in the prices of its passenger vehicles from 1 to 3%, because of increasing prices of inputs.

TATA is preparing itself for the tough time ahead. This year the Company marked with two path breaking events - the unveiling of the Tata Nano - the world’s least expensive car and the signing of the definitive agreement with Ford Motor Company for purchase of the Jaguar and Land Rover businesses.

Making itself ready for the future challenges, Tata Motors’ come up with a new plant at Pant Nagar (in Uttarakhand) for Ace and Magic range of vehicles during 2007-08, construction activity is on at Singur (in West Bengal) for the Tata Nano and at Dharwad (in Karnataka) for buses to be manufactured by the Company’s joint venture, Tata Marcopolo Motors Limited. The existing plants at Pune, Jamshedpur and Lucknow are undergoing expansion and modernization. Also TATA plans to launch a number of new products towards the end of the year, in both the ranges - passenger vehicles as well as Commercial vehicles.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Financial Jargons-II

FDI: Foreign Direct Investment is route through which a company can invest in another country. The investment is in form of Industries. This type of investment is usually for long tenure.FDI may be good or bad for some sectors. But usually it’s good if done in a controlled manner.e.g: Power Sector in India enjoys 100% FDI, while telecom sector enjoys 76% FDI.

FII: Foreign Institutional Investors are those investors who invest in foreign market through stock exchanges which issues P-notes (Participatory Notes).These investment can be for short or long period. But usually this type of investment is found in emerging market viz. India, china etc. FIIs are responsible for driving the stock markets upwards or downwards to a great extend.

FCCBs: Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds is the instrument for raising capital by a company from outside the country. The FCCB is debt instrument with no voting rights. But coupon is payed at the fixed date.

ECB: External Commercial Borrowings is the window through which corporates meets their debt requirement for their expansions. The route is generally used when there is liquidity crunch in the domestic market or the debt is cheap in the foreign market.
The extend of ECB borrowings is fixed by R.B.I from time to time to control the flow of money in the economy.

ADR: American depository receipts are other way to raise funds from abroad markets. But these are traded in the American foreign exchanges. And usually 1 ADR =10 shares.
If an Individual/Institution wants to sell it they can sell it in the exchange and get the required value of funds.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Investment Strategy


Three golden rules of Investment
  1. 1. Start investing Early
  2. 2. Invest Regularly
  3. 3. Invest for long terms, not for short terms.

The basic idea why one should invest is simple. You are earning but your money is idle and earning nothing it should also earn.
One can invest in different types of instruments viz.

  • Shares
  • Mutual fund
  • Govt. Bonds
  • SIP(Systematic investment plans)
  • Debentures
  • Insurance
  • Fixed Deposits

The investment is driven by the risk appetite an investor has. The more risk you take the higher returns you get as shown in the above graph.

For novice investors Mutual fund and SIP is the best investment plans. To manage your portfolio contact your portfolio manager now. Also diversify your portfolio in different investments such as gold, Mutual fund, Equities and debt instruments.

Example
Consider a person ‘A’ who does not invest and maintains high cash or invests in low return instruments such as LIC.
Then returns after 10 yrs for A is let P=10,000 r=8%
A=10000[1.08^10+1.08^9+…..+1.08^1] = Rs156500 (Approx)
If another person ‘B’ invest in high returns instruments then one can expect returns upto 40% we take r=20%
A=Rs311500 (As per above calculations)
Hence we can see that B is twice as rich as A just due to his timely judgment.
Every one knows the power of compounding but are unware of it.So awake and start investing judiciously!!

Increase in Rubber Prices

Rubber prices hit an all-time high of Rs 13,500 per quintal at Kottayam spot market in Kerala following a rise in crude oil prices and firm global market. Production in 2007-08 fell to 825,000 tonnes from 853,000 tonnes in the previous year, chiefly because of heavy rains in Kerala, a key rubber producing state, and a viral fever that kept tappers away from work for more than a month.

Production of rubber in India
Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu
Districts of Kerala (Contributin 90% of total production).
Coastal regions of Karnataka
Goa
Andhra Pradesh
Orissa
Some areas of Maharashtra
Northeastern states (mainly Tripura)
Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Use of Rubber
The use of rubber is widespread, ranging from household to industrial products, entering the production stream at the intermediate stage or as final products. Tires and tubes are the largest consumers of rubber. accounting for around 56% total consumption in 2005. The remaining 44% are taken up by the general rubber goods (GRG) sector, which includes all products except tires and tubes.
Other significant uses of rubber are door and window profiles, hoses, belts, matting, flooring and dampeners. Gloves (medical, household and industrial) are also large consumers of rubber and toy balloons. Significant tonnage of rubber is used as adhesives in many manufacturing industries and products, although the two most noticeable are the paper and the carpet industry. Rubber is also commonly used to make rubber bands and pencil erasers.
Additionally, rubber produced as a fiber sometimes called elastic, has significant value for use in the textile industry.

Impact on Rubber Industry
The continued rise in the prices of natural rubber in the current financial year has set the Rs 19,000-crore tyre industry behind by almost Rs 1,000 crore. Combine this with tyre manufacturers' inability to pass on the increased cost to the consumers in view of the increased competition and it's double whammy for the tyre industry. According to Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) the natural rubber (RSS-4) price that ruled at Rs 103 a kg at the beginning of the new financial year is currently hovering around Rs 120 a kg. This means a rise of Re 1 a kg every second day.
Figures released by the Rubber Board show tyre industry's consumption of natural rubber at 4.91 lakh MT. Back of the envelope calculation will show that every one rupee increase in natural rubber cost is adding an incremental cost of Rs 49 crore on the industry.
Natural rubber itself accounts for 42 per cent cost of raw material cost of the industry. The other raw materials are crude and steel based and both are facing inflationary pressures adding to the agony of the tyre industry.

Future Trend for Rubber Prices
The price of rubber is likely to increase further due to the shortage of the commodity and the upwrd trend in the price at international market, according to traders. The shortage in production was due to unfavourable climatic conditions and the unseasonal rains for the past couple of months.The fall in production was to the extent of 60% on an average and there is substantial loss in tapping days due to rain, traders said.
If India plans to increase its rubber production in its costal areas, than the economic status of farmers is for sure going to improve

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Reliance Globalcomm Advances In Global Market

About Reliance Globalcomm
Reliance Globalcomm is a 100% subsidiary of Reliance Communications. Recent advances of Reliance Globalcomm like acquiring U.K. based VANCO Group and with talks going with MTN Group clearly indicates the Anil Ambani’s vision of creating a global customer base in telecommunication market. With the advancement in Communication domain and coming up of new Wireless technologies, going global is a much needed step for survival in this competitive market. Lets take an overview on recent activities of Reliance Communications.


Reliance Globalcom acquires U.K. based Global Managed Network Services provider VANCO Group Limited

May 26th 2008: Reliance Globalcom Limited, subsidiary of India’s largest integrated telecom Service provider Reliance Communications, today announced signing of an agreement to acquire the London headquartered pioneering Global Managed Network Services, VANCO Group Limited through one of its wholly-owned subsidiary. The acquisition of VANCO would add $365 Million (Rs. 1,550 crore) to the annual revenue of Reliance Globalcom through secure Long-term contracts with largest enterprise customers.

VANCO is recognised by Gartner to be amongst world’s top 5 Managed Global Network players with over 220 MNC customers. Its blue chip customer base includes AVIS, British Airways, Siemens, Virgin Megastores. VANCO increases the Reliance Globalcom’s tally of enterprise customers to over 1,400. VANCO has been rated as Worlds “Best Network Service Provider” for three years in a row since 2005. VANCO Managed Network services are currently available in over 40,000 locations across 163 countries.

Reliance Communications and MTN GROUP to enter into exclusive negotiations

27th May : Reliance Communications and MTN Group, a leading emerging market telecom operator, have agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations for a period of up to 45 days with respect to a potential combination of their businesses.

Reliance Communications and Alcatel - Lucent forms Joint Venture

Mumbai, May 12th 2008 - Reliance Communications and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced forming a global joint venture. Combining the unique strengths of Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance Communications, the Joint Venture Company would foray in the fast growing $ 16 Bn (Rs. 64,000 Crore) Managed Network Services Industry and will cater to telecom operators, both CDMA and GSM, across the globe.

Reliance Communications forays in International Mobile market with GSM License in Uganda

21 February 2008: Reliance Communications Limited today announced acquisition of Uganda based Anupam Global Soft (U) Ltd, a company holding Public Infrastructure Provider License (PIPL) and Public Service Provider License (PSPL) issued by Uganda Communications Commission. The acquisition, made through a subsidiary of Reliance Communications Limited, marks the first step in the Company’s plans in the International Mobile market.


Reliance acquired eWave World, a 4G operator focused on emerging markets across Asia, Latin America, Western Europe and Africa. Last year

Reliance Globalcom had acquired a world leading US based Ethernet Service provider, Yipes Holding Inc. for $ 300 Mn (Rs. 1200 cr) in 2007.