Private Banking in India has become one of the fastest growing businesses in the country with a rising wave of millionaires forming an attractive target segment for MNC banks looking for growth.Top Indian Banks have given spectacular returns driven by India’s 8% GDP growth and increasing financial penetration.Note Private Banking or Wealth Management business involves providing taxation,wealth managment,investment,insurance and other financial products under one umbrella to wealthy customers.The private banking customers recieve privileged services from the banks who provide a one stop contact person in the shape of a “relationship manager”.Compare this to normal banking customers who face namelss contact centre operators with little knowledge.Most of the foreign banks in India like Barclays,Standard Chartered,Citibank which have a big presence in India have been hiring aggressively and targeting wealthy customers through a big marketing spend.However the services being given leave a lot to be desired.”Trust” is the biggest quality in a banking relationship as a customer trusts his life savings and in this quality these banks have failed miserably.

Note Big Oil and Gas has been slowly been retrenching form the solar energy industry despite initial leadership.Shell which was one of the biggest solar players has become almost non-existent while BP has shut down a number of solar factories outsourcing production to China.Other Oil and Gas companies like Exxon,Valero,Chevron and others have concentrated their energies on related green sectors like algae based biofuels rather than on solar and wind energy.So the move by Total comes as a surprise as it acquires one of the top 15 solar panel companies in the world.Sunpower is being acquired at a cheap price considering its world beating solar cell technology and its massive systems business which has gigawatts of solar projects under development.Note Sunpower makes the highest efficiency solar panels on a commercial scale and recently tied up with AUO.It is the 2nd biggest solar plant installer in the US and has a massive presence in the commercial and government sector.Total said it looked at over 200 companies before buying Sunpower.Note M&A has been strong in the Solar Thermal Industry and has now started picking up in the Solar PV Industry as well.With solar company valuations at a historic low,it makes sense for the larger chemical and energy companies to pick up good companies on the cheap.