Real Estate
July 25, 2013
India imports billions of dollars of goods and services despite having the resources and manpower to manufacture the goods/services at lower costs on its shores. India’s […]
June 26, 2013
Real Estate crash in India Estate prices have kept moving upwards relentlessly even as other asset classes have languished. Corporate mis-governance and corruption has driven investors […]
May 20, 2013
External Commercial Borrowing/ ECB External Commercial Borrowing or ECB is an instrument used in India to help corporates access foreign money. ECBs include loans, buyer/supplier credit, special […]
April 8, 2013
Mike Parker rightly said, “When you don’t invest in infrastructure, you are going to pay sooner or later.” Indian government after realizing the need of development […]
March 22, 2013
In today’s random and dynamic world, investment is regarded as one of the key methods of saving one’s life. People invest in financial instruments so as […]
February 11, 2013
During the 1st version of quantitative easing, the US Federal reserve bought around $1.45 trillion of mortgage-backed securities and other agency debt. This entire activity took […]
January 10, 2013
Role of Real Estate in the Indian Economy The Indian economy which is one of the most sought after emerging economies of the current century saw […]
January 4, 2013
The Indian Finance Ministry has recently asked the Central Bank of India, the Reserve Bank to consider giving infrastructure status to the housing sector. The ministry has also asked […]
December 20, 2012
India a loser Post Crisis Currently the world economy is in the phase of recovery from past crisis. Let us look at the prospects of the […]
October 19, 2012
Corruption has become quite endemic in India over the last decade or so and it is universally recognized that the present regime in India is the […]
October 12, 2012
China China has been hurting tremendously from a global slowdown with its powerful export industries choking under the weak demand. While we had predicted that China […]
September 22, 2012
Indian Real Estate India has for long lacked an agency to control the monopolistic and predatory practices of Indian companies. The old MTRP Act had become quite […]
September 18, 2012
Quantitative Easing by USA The US Federal Bank announced to unlimited Quantitative Easing at the rate of $40 billion a month, surprising the market which at […]
August 28, 2012
Chinese Economy China is one of the biggest mysteries for investors and economists with most data emanating from China rated suspect even by the Chinese leaders […]
August 19, 2012
GMR in Spotlight Now GMR is one of India’s largest infrastructure/construction companies with presence in roads, power, airports, construction etc. Like other infra majors the company […]
June 25, 2012
I have always said that investing in Indian mutual funds is a dumb idea given the lack of regulation , under performance, high fees and front […]
June 22, 2012
However India's biggest capital good equipment company BHEL owned by the government is plannning a $500 million investment to build a solar cell factory in at Sakoli which is part Union heavy industries minister Praful Patel's constituency Bhandara.Talk about how dumb you can get. BHEL hardly has too much expertise in the solar panel industry and with solar cells in massive oversupply,it is almost sure to lose money. However that is how things work with Indian government companies where investment is made at the whims of ministers rather than rationality and business sense.BHEL is currently trading at one of the lowest valuations in its 10 year history and its not a big wonder why. The company has benefited in the past as did other machinery and engineering companies from an infrastructure invesment boom. However those glory days are over for the company as it faces competition from the Chinese companies and decreasing orders flow. Praful Patel the minister has already spent a few years in the airline ministry presiding over the conversion of the state owned carrier Air India ino a basket case. Now its the turn of BHEL to be turned into a basket case as well.
May 24, 2012
India has for long lacked an agency to control the monopolistic and predatory practices of Indian companies . The old MTRP Act had become quite toothless after […]
February 14, 2012
Solarcity which is the largest US Solar Installer has got sued by Sunpower for stealing trade secrets. Note Sunpower which was recently bought by French Oil Giant Total is facing tough times. Sunpower which makes the most efficient solar panels in the world is facing tough competition from super cheap Chinese solar panels. In fact according to Total CEO the company would have been already bankrupt with Total support. Beside making solar panels, Sunpower is also one of the biggest solar integrators and developers. The company has been in the business of installing solar panels after it acquired solar system installer Powerlight.
January 31, 2012
India's Real Estate Companies have seen a very tough 3-4 years with interest rates climbing, investors running away from shoddy accounting and the global macro scene being quite bad. One needs only to look at the stock price chart to see times have been very bad. Besides some of these companies have come under court scanner for their practises with Unitech CEO spending some months in jail for a telecom scam. However property prices have not come down as India's real estate bubble seems immune from crises in the West and in India . Prices have more or less remained stable while other assets have seen a major carnage at one point or the other.
January 18, 2012
More Hedge Fund Employees were arrested by the FBI on Insider Trading Charges . Note Raj Rajaratnam the high profile hedge fund manager of the technology hedge fund is already cooling his heels in jail after being convicted of insider trading by paying money to company and insiders for illegal information. A number of low rung employees have also been jailed for lesser terms. His friend Rajat Gupta who was a former Mckinsey chairman is also facing charges which may result in conviction for passing confidential information to Rajaratnam.
January 14, 2012
The Indian Solar Power has been one bright spot in the gloomy infrastructure and engineering sectors in 2011. With share prices crashing with growing corruption, land acquisition and financing problems, Solar Energy has surged in India thanks to government support and subsidies . While a number of Green Technology companies have started up to capitalize on the growing renewable energy trend, the established constuction companies in India have not been far behind . While utilities like Tata Power, Adani, Reliance Power, NTPC have already built or are setting up power plants based on solar panels , L&T has become a major solar EPC players . L&T is now raising debt with a $100 million issue to fund its solar expansion plans .
January 11, 2012
Green Jobs in India is going to grow at a high double digit rate driven by the Real Estate and Construction Industry. The hiring will be done by Real Estate Companies in India looking for Energy Efficiency and Green Building professionals. Note the Green Industry globally has had a torrid 2011 with most of the major sectors like wind, solar, biofuels and lighting facing oversupply amidst slowing demand due to global macro problems. However the Green Industry has a great fturue driven by secular drivers like
January 9, 2012
Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) Prices in New Jersey have been falling at a sharp rate from a high of $600 to $225 as high returns from falling solar panel prices and other tax breaks.This has led to a massive growth in solar installations in the state making it the 2nd largest state by solar capacity.New Jersey installations have crossed 500 MW and made it a huge green job driver in the state.However this boom has made the market driven SREC prices fall quite sharply.Though not falling as sharply as Pennsylvania where SREC prices have become a joke ,they are still low and falling.
January 9, 2012
Note blatant pump and dump IPO's have made the Indian market a heaven for stock market operators.Despite this going on for years,only recently SEBI has taken some steps against the manipulartion of the primary market.Now SEBI has taken some steps in the Insider Trading case as well by fining executives of JP Associates and Ranbaxy both of which are constituents of the Indian main stock market index. However a mere fine will not do to deter insider traders.A big jail term for a insider trader will make white collar criminals think more in indulging in criminal activity rather than small fines .
January 6, 2012
US Solar Projects including the 1000 MW Blythe Solar Project is now available for solar developers,installers at fire sale prices.The Insolvency Administrator is looking to sell parts and the whole of the solar project business of Solar Millennium and its US subsidiary Solar Trust of America.Note before filing of bankruptcy,the solar project developer had around 2000 MW of solar projects in the pipeline.
January 2, 2012
The Chinese solar panel producers too are facing tough times with many companies running at low utilizations and almost everybody running losses.Some companies with huge debt burdens like LDK are running because of government largesse as they are effectively insolvent for all purposes.Expect more bankrutpcies in the coming year .It will take a very foolish or a very brave company to expand solar capacity this year.
Only USA Solar Installers are having a good time with below cost solar panels availabe increasing the returns and leading to massive increased.It looks like 2012 will be a good year for US solar installers who are expanding rapidly to take advantage of the falling solar module prices.Even Buffett is going all into solar development space acquiring billion dollar project in a classical case of vulture investing.
December 7, 2011
Investing Money in India right now is a very confusing matter given the large number of choices and the lack of attractiveness of different assets due to different reasons.There are hundreds of voices seemingly intelligent but who are selling their own books.If you turn on the finance new channels they will keep saying buy stocks for the long term as if a normal investor can make money by buying stocks for the short term.Gold proponents will say that it has been a great investment over the last several years and with the US,European systemic shocks it will remain so.However the rapid uptrend in gold prices has made it a somewhat risky investment.Investing in Gold is also not easy given the wide array of choices like Gold ETFs,physical or futures.So lets see each asset class with its pros and cons
October 7, 2011
In the past ten years, cement consumption in India grew by approximately 7.5% per year. The building industry developed very dynamically, driven by the strong growth of population and the quick expansion of infrastructure. In 2005, India was after China the second largest cement consumer with around 135 million tonnes.
July 10, 2011
Mutual Fund Companies have seen a steady growth driven by the growing financial assets being generated by the fast growing Indian economy.But the Mutual Fund Industry like other sectors such as Real Estate and Telecom too has come under the spotlight for some illegal activity.While you can't call the industry corrupt because of some fraudulent activities it does raise questions on the industry ethics.Top Mutual Funds in the country like HDFC and L&T have been fined by the stock market regulator SEBI for front running.For those who don't understand what the term means,front running is an illegal activity whereby a fund manager or fund official makes personal gains by making trades on his account before doing a trade for the fund.This causes losses for the fund investor and is akin to stealing.However like other corrupt practices in the stock market industry,SEBI lets them go with small fines which don't deter more such frauds.It is also not unknown that some fund managers connive with company promoters and market operators to rig and do circular trading.Not only is this a problem,another massive problem with the industry is its underperformance as compared to the benchmarks.While earlier mutual funds were known to outperform the benchmarks like the Nifty,a recent Crisil study has dispelled this myth.Given these disadvantages of mutual fund ,it is time to invest in Indian ETFs though not a lot of variety exists in the Indian stock market yet.